styder.net

Update: In going through the million or so spam comments I get on a daily basis I deleted a bunch of legitimate comments from early articles (thanks wordpress!). For now, comments are disabled.

—

I had to go through my backlog of comments awaiting moderation. I had somewhere near 300 of them waiting and not a single legit one found. If you recently posted a legitimate comment and it got spammed for whatever reason, post it again or let me know via the contact page.

Thanks,

Management

Welcome back, everybody!

Due to an unavoidable system crash, I’ve been out of the loop for a while. Having no computer gave me a lot of time to play console games I hadn’t looked at in a bit. Allow me to just quickly go over those

Star Wars: The Force Unleased - There is no way any living person played this game and then sat back in his chair, rubbed his hands together and said “Yup, this is it. This is ready to go.” I played the game in 2 sessions of about 50% of the game each time. Each playthrough I had to restart no less than 5 times due to stupid game-breaking bugs. Stuck in the environment, freezing, or critical triggers in the level not working were just some of the things I encountered. Skip this game.

X-men Origins: Wolverine - Biggest surprise yet. I thought this game would be decent at best. How wrong I was. One of the most fun games I’ve played. I pretty much burned through it in one whole day because I couldn’t put it down. Never stop feeling like you ARE Wolverine, and by far the most powerful guy in the room, but enough challenge to keep from getting bored. The customization and upgrade elements were a nice way to give it a little more depth too. Seek this game out.

Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena - The first 75% or so of the game is stellar, and the end isn’t bad, just bland once you get a weapon that makes the game into insta-gib Unreal Tournament. The updated Escape from Butcher Bay included is nothing to scoff at either. Thumbs up overall.

Ninja Blade - Did you ever play Ninja Gaiden and think, “Man, I wish there were more Quick Time Events so I could press one button and kill everything”? If so, this is the game for you! Also, get sterilized because your stupidity needs to be burned from the gene pool. The game is a series of QTE events with some minor platforming/monster killing in between. You can upgrade your weapons but I didn’t really notice much of a difference between un-upgraded and MAX upgraded. The only thing saving this game from being completely forgettable are the extremely over the top cutscenes. No spoilers, but at one point you ride a motorcycle along the top of a bus (while you and the bus are falling through the air) and launch the motorcycle at a giant worm and then explode the gas tank with a shuriken. (It’s on YouTube for the curious!) Rent it maybe.

Street Fighter 4 - What can I say about Street Fighter 4? If you liked any other Street Fighter game you need to play it. This game has brought the fighting genre back into the spotlight. Some are reluctant to move from SF2 to SF4, but honestly, once you get used to the subtle timing changes its not that different. Must play if you like fighting games at all.

Resident Evil 5 -All I remember about RE5 was it was a “good game overall”. I can remember more about Resident Evil 2 than I can about 5 and I haven’t played RE2 since it was on PSX. The characters are forgettable, and the story is really bland which is odd because RE plots are usually really over the top. The inventory was a pain, even more so than other games. The friendly AI (I played it single player) was horrible and I hated that you were forced to play basically 1 player co-op if you didn’t have a 2nd player. The fact that there’s some pay-for DLC that is totally already on the disk is complete bullshit. Play if you’re a fan of the Resident Evil series.

Fallout 3: The Pitt (DLC) - Regret. This is what I felt after beating this DLC. It’s short, you can’t have beaten the game if you want to play it, it really adds nothing of value (at least I got unbreakable armor in Operation: Anchorage). Unless youre a crazy FO3 fan, or a completionist, this DLC isn’t really worth the MS points.

Fallout 3: Broken Steel (DLC) - YES. Yes Yes Yes. THIS is how you do DLC. Takes place after the events of the main game, uses your character from the main game, relates to the main story and isn’t some bullshit side story. Some unique named weapons and armour, unique locations and NPCs. Overall I found this DLC great. The length was just right for the price, as well. Some have complained that it sort of ruins the finalized ending of the original plot. I can see that, but honestly this is what a lot of people asked for. My only complaint is at the end of the DLC there is no solid ending. I understand that one of the complaints of the original ending was you couldn’t keep exploring the world after you were done, but they could have handled it better than the “yayy we win… ok cya” ending we got in Broken Steel. If you want more FO3 and you’ve beaten the main plot, get Broken Steel.

That’s it for now. I’m hoping to play some more PC games now that I’m back up and running. Keep an eye on the twitter for more.

Recently, I bought the new Xbox 360 exclusive DLC for Grand Theft Auto 4 (Xbox 360, PS3) called The Lost and Damned (Xbox 360). I haven’t gotten very far in it, but so far I’m impressed. Right off the bat it throws you into an established character. What I mean by that is, in vanilla GTA4, you start as Nico Bellic who is fresh off the boat in a new city. Lost and Damned lead character, Johnny, is the Vice President of the biker gang “The Lost”. He’s got friends, a hideout, and a nice little gig he’s built while the President has been out of commission.

The story starts with the President coming back and immediately locking horns with Johnny over leadership, and the direction of the Lost. I won’t go too deep into the plot because as I said, I’m not that far in it. So far, the writing is top notch, possibly better than GTA4’s. The characters are well fleshed out, and the world is as vibrant as ever. You really get a different perspective of Liberty City through Johnny’s eyes.

Motorcycle based driving is the center of this expansion, and unfortunately has been my weakest link so far. I’ve never liked the motocycle physics in any GTA game. They’re fun to do tricks with, drive real fast, but you hit a small curb at decent speed and you launch into the stratosphere. Staying in formation with your gang is cool, but tough at times, and you continue to have to check the minimap every 3 seconds or risk missing turns. I’m excited to see the story unfold but have a feeling the motocycle based missions may become a roadblock.

Other than that, I’ve been playing a lot of Star Ocean: The Last Hope (Xbox 360). It’s a Japanese RPG by Square-Enix (the makers of Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior). A lot of people have been waiting for this game, as evidenced by the release causing an XBOX360 sales explosion in Japan, where Microsoft’s console normally receives tepid reactions at best.

It follows the adventures of Edge Maverick, a bright young boy who, after World War 3 renders our Earth’s surface uninhabitable, joins a government run team to go into space to look for inhabitable planets to replace our dying home.

The game itself starts very slowly. Besides a short virtual battle room tutorial, you are thrust right into the game. There is little hand holding in this game, sometimes leading to confusion about what to do next. The first few hours are a frustrating time of trial and error and getting the hang of the battle system.

Gone are the random battles like Final Fantasy. Enemies are on the wold map and running into them opens a seperate combat scene. While not every enemy is entirely avoidable, you can dodge many which is good if you like to explore (or return to previously explored areas, which you need to do if you want some items and chests).  Combat is real time, like previous Star Ocean games, which was a blessing for me as I am currently burned out on turn based combat after many many hours with Persona 4 recently. You control one of up to 4 characters at a time, with the ability to switch between them at will. Most of the characters are either Melee damage, Ranged damage, or Caster/Healer types, though there is some overlap. The variations allow a good degreen of flexibility when deciding who to bring into battle.

The only problem I’ve had with the game so far is the lack of a hook right at the beginning to draw you in. As I said before, after the first segment of the game, the characters are interesting, the plot becomes engaging, and you really want to see what happens next. Getting to that point, however, will take a certain amount of willpower putting up with the slowness of the beginning.

Downloadable Content (DLC) is the newest cash-cow for next gen systems now that hard-drive space is a standard feature. Gone are the days of going to a store months after your game was out and getting a full fledged expansion with a box and everything. Now are the days of microtransactions; small bits of extra content for a small fee. Companies don’t pay shipping costs, box art, etc, so it’s all profit aside from development cost and bandwidth.

The majority of DLC available now is in game items, weapons, or armor with varying levels of usefulness ranging from aesthetic to necessary. More and more there are actual game content add-ons. Purchasing and download extra content for the games you love seems great, in theory. No need to get off your butt and go to a store. No need to commit to a full fledged expansion, you can pick and choose what content you want. However, in practice, the game companies have gotten it wrong through either incompetence or greed.

Early DLC was horrible. It’s almost forgivable because there wasn’t really a lot to compare it to. Who knew there would be such pushback because who knew a purely cosmetic piece of content in a single player game wasn’t worth 10 dollars. It has gotten better since then with companies learning from their mistakes.

I mentioned greed earlier as one of the reasons some companies messed up DLC, and while the Oblivion example I used earlier was pretty dumb, I don’t think it was done specifically out of malice. Some companies, however, are now known for holding already created content from the release of the game specifically to sell it as DLC. In some extreme cases, this content is on the game disc already and is simply “unlocked” when the user buys the DLC. Soul Calibur 4 has been the worst perpetrator of this in recent memory. Almost 100% of the DLC for SC4 (extra costumes, levels, music and the Darth Vader character) are already on the disc and the non-existent download just makes them accessible.

Mass Effect released an entire new chapter as DLC, which almost got it right. The content was the right length for the price (45-60mins of content for ~$5), it was fun enough, but they released it months and months after everyone had beaten and forgotten about Mass Effect (I had personally beaten it 5 times already). So you’d think, perfect, more Mass Effect! No, because the content took place in the middle of the game rather than continue the story, so if you’d already beaten the game you had to start over and slog through the lengthy beginning mission before even being able to see your newly purchased DLC. Also, the new mission was entirely side story and could have been easily skipped had it been in the original campaign (non-plot entirely).

Fable 2 did it pretty good recently. Their new DLC “Knothole Island” takes place whenever you want it to. Unfortunately this means it’s really not tied to the main plot at all, but it is a fun little diversion. I’d argue that in comparison with the Mass Effect DLC the content falls short of the price. It’s $10 for 3 new missions (somewhere in the realm of 15 minutes to beat) and an assortment of vanity items which mean nothing in a single player game (there is some co-op multiplayer but it is so stripped down your partner likely can’t see what you look like).

The best I’ve seen so far was the Samurai Warriors 2: Extreme legends expansion. The DLC is just the entire expansion, downloadable, for the same price as in a store and the Xbox 360 even skipped a retail box release and went purely digital distrobution. More companies should do this.

In the long run, as we see companies figure out what works and what doesn’t work with DLC, I think it could really become something great. Right now, it’s pretty much buyer beware with no demos or screenshots. Have fun spending your money blind.

One of the great things about gaming is when you come across an awesome game that wasn’t exactly a “Triple A” title. No huge hype, no fanfare, maybe even mediocre reviews, but for some reason it really grabs you and you’re glad you gave it a chance.

I recently had this experience with Spiderman: Web of Shadows (Xbox360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PSP, DS). Oddly enough, this isn’t the first Spiderman game to surprise me. Way back in 2000, Spiderman for the Playstation came out with a bit of anticipation from me, as well as the gaming community at large. It turned out to be pretty bad, in retrospect, so imagine my surprise when I gave a shot to it’s follow-up Spiderman 2 for PS2 and it rocked! Then Spiderman 3 came out and was pretty meh, so I guess the suck skips a generation.

The Story is mainly about the alien Symbiote (the black goo from Spiderman 3) transferring from Venom to Spiderman during a fight. This makes Venom angry and to get back at him he starts turning people, other heroes and villains into brainwashed Symbiote versions of themselves who are out to destroy Spidey and all of New York (and then maybe the world).

Spiderman: Web of Shadows jumps on the moral decisions bandwagon that is pretty popular these days. The game starts off with Spidey getting infected by the all too familiar alien symbiote black suit. This presents itself in 2 ways. First, you can switch to the black or red suit at any time by pressing a button and both suits have their own move sets which you upgrade separately. Second, is the light side/dark side (or in this case Red points and Black points) system as seen in games like KOTOR.

Red Suit Spiderman is the typical straight out of the comics good guy with mostly melee combat moves. However, everyone hates Black Suit Spiderman, as he can throw cars (and the people inside them) and  has ranged tentacle attacks that emanate from the Symbiote suit itself.  Switching between the two is an easy one-click thing so you don’t really have to choose to go one way or the other as you spend points leveling skills.

The best part is the game is just fun all over. The city is huge and swinging through by webbing skyscrapers is awesome. There are somewhere around 500 little hidden Spider symbols around the city that “level you up” similar to the Agility Orbs from Crackdown. Fighting got a bit on the repetitive side but the choice between melee/tentacles or the grapple system that uses your webs to grab opponents (or a mixture of both) kept it pretty fresh. The game is a decent length, but not long by any means.

My only real problem in this game was the voice acting. It’s terrible. Spidey’s snarky one-liners and insults are made intolerable when coming from someone who sounds like the stereotypical tape-on-glasses nerd who ranges from no emotion to OVERLY EXCITED FOR NO REASON. Everyone besides Spidey himself seemed forgettable, which compared to him is a blessing.

While this is not a game I would normally give a second glance to, I’m really glad I did. At very least its worth a rent/gamefly. Try it out!

I did it! As of Tuesday I have a level 80 character (Shaman) in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (PC). I took it easy, hitting the level cap a few days behind the main force of my guild. Honestly, had I powered through the content I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much as I did. Lich King puts some interesting new design ideas in play that I have to give Blizzard a lot of credit for. Most of the new ways they decided to change the experience were really good, with only a few minor dips.

First off, there are two starting zones upon entering Northrend. You can choose Howling Fjords or the Borean Tundra. I ended up doing Fjords and then going to Borean Tundra directly after just to experience the content but honestly you could probably pick one and follow the progression all the way to 80 and never go to the other one. While this is good for variety it makes the progression a little funky. If you only had one character to take to 80, you might never see a good 2-3 zones if you didn’t actively seek them out. There are no Fjords quests that send you to the Tundra and Tundra doesnt send you to Fjords (as far as I found). It wouldn’t be the biggest deal except that a lot of the quest lines continue from zone to zone and are sequence broken if you try to do both.

The overarching story is amazing, however, even going so far as to give you a big cutscene midway through that exposes a betrayal from inside the Horde (im sure Alliance have something similar) which you have to deal with along side some of the Horde heroes. Blizzard also said that they want players to feel the Lich King’s presence throughout the whole leveling process, like he’s actively effecting the world. While it’s true you do see him at the end of a few quest lines, and his influence is definately felt, it seems like he is easily beaten again and again, often sulking off with a “this isn’t over” or foolishly sparing your life when he could easily eliminate you and be done with the whole thing. While I understand they couldn’t do that conceptually, it makes the Lich King feel more like the Bitch King, unthreatening and ultimately unsatisfying to beat down because he always seemed like a powerful bumbling idiot.

In my opinion, the coolest new feature is the way zones actually change as you complete quests. For example, one of the last zones I levelled in before hitting 80, Icecrown, starts with only a small Horde outpost and a flight point on the edge of a Scourge infested battleground. As you complete quests you gain footholds and new bases with new quests and NPCs you helped along the way. The feeling of progession into the zone makes it feel a lot more like a concentrated effort than an on-rails disneyland ride of “kill mobs, kill named guy, move to next quest giver” that was the norm previously. My only gripe with this is it makes questing with people who haven’t gotten as far as you a bit tough because they might literally see something different in a zone than you do depending on their progress.

The new skills, talents and gear all seemed a little bit underwhelming coming off the heals of Burning Crusade. Gone are the days of replacing the highest level raiding gear from previous times with the first quest greens. My Shaman still hasn’t replaced his tier 5 pants, either of his badge loot weapons or really anything above Kara level. While I’m sure once I start running Heroics and buying whatever rep rewards may be in store more things will be replaced again and again, it was a bit harrowing to disenchant or vendor ever quest reward from 70 to 80.

Overall, though, Lich King is the best content to date. Blizzard is really figuring out how to do some neat things and I’m super excited to see the post level cap content.

Let’s get right to it:

Wrath of the Lich King (PC) is upon us. I’m going to hold off on a full write-up of it until I’ve seen more. As of this writing my main character is level 74 and it’s awesome just to have stuff to do and new things to see. The main thing that has struck me as weird is that I have replaced very little of my gear so far; a striking change from Burning Crusade where I was replacing the best pre-expansion gear with random green drops.

A little late to the party, I finally got around to getting Mega Man 9 (XBLA, PSN, Wii VC). True old school 8-bit gaming with everyone’s favorite little blue robot. I think it both benefits and suffers from being intentionally designed as an old school title.

From the intro movie to the stage select screen, a wave of nostalgia will wash over you with every beep and boop of the theme music. They decided to keep a lot of the old music, as well as new stage music for all the robot masters. They even included sprite flicker (which you can turn off in the options) to give it that NES feel. Mega Man 9 goes all the way back to the originals, featuring no chargeable mega buster or slide moves; just jump and shoot. While at first the lack of the special moves from some of the later games feels limiting, it’s all for the best as you get back to the core of the Mega Man games.

There seems to be some disconnect, however, with how this one stacks up against the old games. There’s something there that just isn’t the same. Whether we were just looking back at the series through rose colored glasses, or new console controllers not being as responsive as the old NES rectangle, it seems like something is holding this game back. The level design, while faithful to the originals, feels much more reliant on ‘gotcha’ insta-death and memorization that requires dying over and over until you get it right. The old Mega Man games had instances of both of these, of course, but it seems Mega Man 9 relies on these a bit too much.

Any frustrations you have with the game will quickly be brushed aside as you kill your first robot master and take his weapon for your own. It’s refreshing that a game released in 2008 can give you the feeling that no matter which next gen system you play this on, you can feel like you’re looking at your old TV hooked up to the big ol’ gray box.

Well, it has officially arrived: the holiday glut. Don’t mind that sound in your pants, that’s just your poor wallet sobbing like a little girl. It’s late, so I’m going to quickly give some impressions on the new games I bought over the last week or so.

Fable 2 (XBOX360): A very fun and graphically stylized game whose greatness is only marred by some of the stupidest bugs I’ve ever seen in a finished retail product. I’m not even talking about the game breaking bugs that Lionhead Studios are fixing; I’m talking about the weird ass glitch type bugs that ruin the experience but will never be patched.

For example, if you are a mean sumbitch in game you are given assassination missions. Find a target and kill them by any means necessary. Similarly, if you are evil the Temple of Shadows in game will recruit you to, among other things, bring people down to the circle of sacrifice and spin a wheel to decide how they die. However, half of the wheels options don’t actually KILL the victim. Things like Gender Switch, Petrification, Turned to Chicken, and others like them don’t take the targets life. Also, In the case of Petrification and Turned to Chicken you CANNOT kill the target afterwards. You would think this would be a show stopping bug because you cant fail an assassination mission, it just goes on until you kill the target, but instead of making a fail scenario, the game gets around it by spawning a second version of the target in the Temple of Shadows, often times right next to their “other self” as a chicken or a statue or whatever. Less jarring but still weird is how your in-game spouse (if you decide to get married) randomly shows up with no explanation, in a town that is cut off from the rest of the world.

It’s things like these that keep this game from getting a 10/10 because other than some random weirdness it’s a great game that I would highly recommend.

Fallout 3 (XBOX360, PS3, PC) : Fallout fans have been waiting 10 years for this sequel, was it worth the wait? It is so far. I’ve only played a few hours into the game (I started over a few times, trying to get new character builds to work) but so far I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve seen.

A lot of it feels like Oblivion with guns, but that’s not always a bad thing. The AI and NPC pathing are a bit wonky but most games these days are the same in that regard. It’s definitely managed to capture the Fallout sense of there being many approaches to the same situations. You’re not going to be able to make it through without combat, but if you were so inclined you could definitely minimize combat with smooth talking or stealth. Conversely, you can run through guns blazing and ask questions (or not) later.

This game is a definite buy if you liked either of the old Fallout games, or Oblivion.

Dead Space (XBOX360, PS3, PC): The setting of Doom3 meets the plot/freakiness of System Shock 2 meets the over the shoulder camera and control style of Resident Evil 4. Very creepy game without being over the top “I can’t play this any more!” scary. It has great graphics, a good plot with some comic book/anime movie back story for fans of a really fleshed out story, and a load of cool weapons.

As with most “survival horror” type games, limited inventory leads to scrounging for ammo and never feeling safe. It’s a good mix of action, some light puzzles, and plot/character development. The game is unique in that the weapons aren’t over the top military guns, they’re mostly mining equipment co-opted for a deadlier purpose. There are also Zero-G elements that range from fun to annoying but overall are a cool feature.

The only thing I can really complain about in this game is the “boss fights”. For the most part they are just a gimmicky, slightly harder than normal monster which then gets weaker and shows up as regular enemy in the next stages.

Definitely check this game out if you like any of the games I mentioned at the beginning of this summary.

As a follow-up to an older article, I finally got around to playing Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. I won’t go in to it too far, but I will say that the lack of length won’t be a problem because I’ll be too frustrated with the horrible controls and circa-1990 style checkpoint system that has me doing the same stages over and over regardless of where in the level you glitch and fall off a cliff to your death, to beat the game.

As always, Xmas is right around the corner and with it are a billion game foisted onto the market for unsuspecting parents to buy for their kids. This year seems to be a year of sequels, but I think that’s more an industry wide trend, rather than a sign of the times. Currently I’m pounding away on Warriors Orochi 2, and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning while awaiting the onslaught.

Warriors Orochi 2 (PS2, PS3, Xbox 360) is the latest from the makers of Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors. If Dynasty Warriors is the heroes of the Three Kingdoms era of China, and Samurai Warriors is the greatest warriors of ancient Japan, the Orochi series is likened to a “what-if” spin-off where a demon (Orochi) comes to Earth to challenge all of the greatest warriors to see if any can take him down, effectively bridging the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors gap and having everyone’s favorite characters in one game. If you’ve never played a Warriors game (be it Samurai, Dynasty or Orochi) I’d recommend any of the newest in any of the series’. They’re all a lot of fun. You pick A hero (three heroes in the case of Orochi) from a large cast and go through one of 3-5 story lines. Along the way you wade through TONS of enemies while completing objectives and dueling enemy generals. Each Warriors franchise has its own unique systems when it comes to leveling up, customizing weapons and skills, and equipping your character.

Another good part about all the recent games (in any of the series’) is that they are multiplayer (even on LIVE in the case of the 360 version). Nothing better than having a friend join you as you swath through a horde of enemy soldiers.

I talked a bit about Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (PC) last post. The game has continued to hold my interest without becoming a life overtaking force similar to other MMOs. It’s fun to pop in, see if anyone in my guild are doing scenarios (instanced battle grounds with objectives from scoring kills to capture the flag), or if the other faction has taken world objectives (castle keeps that are in constant flux of ownership by both different factions and different guilds). A few things it does better than other MMOs is giving experience towards leveling up from fighting in both the scenarios and world RvR (realm versus realm). Things it does worse are pacing and number of bugs. Pacing is bad because there are only 40 levels, so it takes a really long time to level from one to the next. Towards the middle levels (20+) it seems to slow to a crawl and a lot of players stagnate and roll alts around then. A number of bugs are expected of a new MMO, but between crashes to desktop, poor performance between client side vs server side lag, and other things, its hard to play for long periods of time without getting frustrated.

I think, given time, this game will be great. Right now, however, it’s hamstrung by bugs and balance issues, keeping solidly in the realm of “good, not great”. The silver lining is the EA/Mythic has been pretty quick about patching the biggest things, so hopefully that trend will continue.

Those are the games I reccomend currently. Check back soon for the big games hitting in the next few months such as Fable 2, Fallout 3 and Persona 4. Attack of the sequels comin’ at ya!

The pre-holiday lull has given rise to two new trends for me. Firstly, I’m playing more PC games. Secondly, I’m getting fucked by more PC games. Let me explain:

There’s something to be said for console gaming. No minimum system requirements, no hardware meltdowns (RROD not withstanding). Just plop in the disc and off you go. Even more so with unified online services like XBox Live. See what your friends are playing, send messages, etc. However, PC games seem to have one thing that console games haven’t nailed down just yet: staying power.

Downloadable Content (DLC) for console games is a step in the right direction toward extending a game’s life, but it’s nowhere near the average PC game. Between mods, expansions, patches and other content (most times free), it seems theres much more of a reason to keep playing PC games, or go back to old ones you’d finished. There are also far more MMOs for PC which, for better or worse, are time consuming as all hell.

My second trend comes at the hand of the companies that make the PC games. For whatever reason they feel like they can treat customers like crap and we’ll buy their stuff anyways. True, the majority of forum whining when a company treats us like dirt is just lip service. Most time the basement dwellers will just roll over and take it after spewing their vitriol all over any message board that will listen, but they are just the vocal minority. The rest of us keep taking punches, and silently slowing/stopping our purchases of PC games.

Two recent acts spring to mind for an example of this behavior. First, The Witcher: Enhanced Edition, which I’ve talked about before. They re-released the updated game to stores, but delayed the downloadable patch for those who already owned the game by a week if I remember correctly. This may seem like a small gripe, but it just shows the companies true priorities. Have to make sure the game is out for people to plunk down money, but the early adopters who got the abortion of a game when it came out have to sit on their thumbs for a week, or go buy it again. Who cares, right? We already have their money.

More recently, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning rubbed would-be fans the wrong way. In terms of MMO launches it was very smooth. No server drops, not too bad performance, only a handful of bugs that were all expected. However everything not related to the actual gameplay was subpar. First, they released the game to be bought in stores a day before people could actually play the game. This was because if you pre-ordered the game, you were able to get a code to play the game 2 days early (more if you bought the Collector’s Edition). However, like all things of that nature, Gamestop, EB and Best Buy were all out of codes shortly after they announced the pre-order bonus. Many MANY people pre-ordered to get the code and then canceled their pre-orders so they could play extra time for free.

“Now wait.” You’re saying, “That’s not the company’s fault! The people who tried to shurk the system messed it up for the rest of the honest people.” Yup, you’re right. However EA Mythic’s reaction to the problem ended up screwing more paying customers than just letting some scammers play for a few days. They decided that even if you were in early access, you needed to enter a key at 12am EST, day 1 when the servers went live. No grace period, no nothing. This was in an effort to get the “freeloaders” off the servers to make room for paying customers. Which would have been great if many retailers such as Amazon.com and EA’s own Online Store got back ordered and weren’t sending the game out for weeks (as of this writing some members of the Something Awful Forums still don’t have their copies). They eventually extended the grace period by a few days, but the damage had already been done.

These are just two examples of the shoddy way PC gaming companies treat the customers who keep them in business, and I didn’t even touch on the Spore DRM debacle. Every year people declare PC gaming dead, and every year they are proven wrong. PC gaming is still alive and well, but it’s getting harder and harder to keep supporting it. I feel like a battered wife coming back time and time again because “He can change!”.