VGCollect Forum
General and Gaming => General => Topic started by: soera on May 23, 2016, 01:43:52 pm
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I was scrolling around through some sites and I always end up on Gamestop's site to see if any new releases are announced. Then I saw a game that was released 3 weeks ago already marked down $20 (Battleborn). Why the fuck did I pre-order this game if I could have just waited a couple of weeks to save $20? I wish I hadnt opened it. The return policy is 1 month on unopened items. I could just return it and rebuy it.
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I don't think its going to be a new trend I just think that a lot of people who bought it weren't expecting it to be a MOBA and returned it OR it could have been that the open beta was more or less the entire game and was out for quite a while before the game actually released.
just a note on the first one. personally I would never spend over $30 for a brand new moba because I know they are going to have micro transactions out the wazoo, and I will be playing the exact same maps and doing the exact same thing for too long.
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We were in Meijer the other night and stopped by their electronics department. I was rather surprised to see Battleborn, Quantum Break, and a couple of other recent releases on sale at $15-20 off already. Seems to me like they'd make more money if they didn't try to maintain the $60 price point. I realize back in the day that 16-bit games could retail for $60-70 but I think the industry is the healthiest when premier new releases come out at the $50 price point. :P
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I don't see it being a major trend for all new releases.
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I've always viewed these price-drops and "flash sales" as a sign that the game(s) are not selling as well as expected, especially within the first month of release. You don't see the newest Mario or Zelda or Halo having a big sale right after launch. At best, you see GameStop or similar stores offering bonus trade-in credit toward the purchase of said game. For example, GameStop has been running a bonus 50% trade-in credit toward the purchase of Doom. Battleborn was riding the hype from Borderlands. Unfortunately, it's a MOBA with micro-transactions as pointed out by rayne.
I'm currently at the point where paying full price for a game isn't economically feasible with medical bills, expenses , saving money for Christmas, etc. I took advantage of that 50% bonus trade-in credit at GameStop for Doom and ended up spending $4 and change to get it.
Aside from being in a position where I don't have the spending cash like I used to for games at the moment, I really don't like the direction gaming is headed. Even games that have a strong single-player component these days require online updates and sometimes just a connection to even be able to play the game. Collecting for the current generation seems redundant to me now because these new games all have a limited shelf-life. Once EA, Activision, etc. shut down online support a great majority of today's titles will cease to function. I'm not really cool with that. Then you have these near-immediate price drops where stores are slashing up to 40% off a brand-new title within a few weeks and I end up feeling just like Soera does in this instance: Screwed over.
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Damn, guess this means we'll never see an XBox One port.
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With the fervor of Overwatch, I figured they think it'll be even more difficult to sell Battleborn now...
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just a note on the first one. personally I would never spend over $30 for a brand new moba because I know they are going to have micro transactions out the wazoo, and I will be playing the exact same maps and doing the exact same thing for too long.
To be fair to Battleborn, while it'll have new characters to purchase down the road, when you buy the game, you get access to all available characters and there are 25 of them. I very much prefer that along with Overwatch, compared to what Heroes of the Storm and other regular MOBA's do with free characters and having to pay money or grind the game for a long time to buy characters and the costs are way more than a normal game.
And basically Battleborn just released at the wrong time. If it released two months ago or two months later, it might've been okay. I think it was doing okay critically, but most people are buying Overwatch, like me. I don't think this is a trend normally as I rarely see games drop so quickly, even with ones that I know aren't doing well.
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just a note on the first one. personally I would never spend over $30 for a brand new moba because I know they are going to have micro transactions out the wazoo, and I will be playing the exact same maps and doing the exact same thing for too long.
To be fair to Battleborn, while it'll have new characters to purchase down the road, when you buy the game, you get access to all available characters and there are 25 of them. I very much prefer that along with Overwatch, compared to what Heroes of the Storm and other regular MOBA's do with free characters and having to pay money or grind the game for a long time to buy characters and the costs are way more than a normal game.
And basically Battleborn just released at the wrong time. If it released two months ago or two months later, it might've been okay. I think it was doing okay critically, but most people are buying Overwatch, like me. I don't think this is a trend normally as I rarely see games drop so quickly, even with ones that I know aren't doing well.
Maybe it's just me, but these multiplayer-centric games don't interest me all that much. I grow tired of doing the same thing over and over again. Battlefront was fun for a bit, probably helped along by my love of Star Wars. But it got stale. How many times can you play deathmatch or some variation before it gets old? Same for Call of Duty, etc. I prefer my games to have a story or at least a goal besides having the most "frags" or whatever. I've also never had any interest in playing a "MOBA" like League of Legends, etc.
Again, it all goes back to the shift of gaming to primarily online. When the next big thing comes along, users of whatever the "hot" game is right now dries up. Or worse, the year after you get a game, the developers/publishers release the sequel and squash the existing title. Looking at you NBA2K-whatever.
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just a note on the first one. personally I would never spend over $30 for a brand new moba because I know they are going to have micro transactions out the wazoo, and I will be playing the exact same maps and doing the exact same thing for too long.
To be fair to Battleborn, while it'll have new characters to purchase down the road, when you buy the game, you get access to all available characters and there are 25 of them. I very much prefer that along with Overwatch, compared to what Heroes of the Storm and other regular MOBA's do with free characters and having to pay money or grind the game for a long time to buy characters and the costs are way more than a normal game.
And basically Battleborn just released at the wrong time. If it released two months ago or two months later, it might've been okay. I think it was doing okay critically, but most people are buying Overwatch, like me. I don't think this is a trend normally as I rarely see games drop so quickly, even with ones that I know aren't doing well.
Maybe it's just me, but these multiplayer-centric games don't interest me all that much. I grow tired of doing the same thing over and over again. Battlefront was fun for a bit, probably helped along by my love of Star Wars. But it got stale. How many times can you play deathmatch or some variation before it gets old? Same for Call of Duty, etc. I prefer my games to have a story or at least a goal besides having the most "frags" or whatever. I've also never had any interest in playing a "MOBA" like League of Legends, etc.
Again, it all goes back to the shift of gaming to primarily online. When the next big thing comes along, users of whatever the "hot" game is right now dries up. Or worse, the year after you get a game, the developers/publishers release the sequel and squash the existing title. Looking at you NBA2K-whatever.
Depends on the game. I am Battlefield player, but basically ever two years there's a new one to play and I never play the previous one again generally, but I've put 100's of hours into that game. I'm getting more than enough time out of it to be worth the price.
On the other hand, I put nearly 700 hours into Team Fortress 2 over the years and I think that's how Overwatch is gonna turn out. It's a platform that they'll update for years since they don't need to release a new one every year or two. Overwatch is handling it better though with free characters and maps and the only thing you can buy are cosmetics.
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Considering how quickly the price of most next games drop after release, I rarily buy games grand new when they first come out for this exact reason. Sure, it's fun to be part of the initial hype when the game first launches, but I'd rather save $20 to $45 and just play it a few months down the road.
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What's the point of pre-ordering anyway it's not like it's going sold out the same day it hits stores that you couldn't walk in and buy it. There's always trickery when pre-ordering games these days.
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What's the point of pre-ordering anyway it's not like it's going sold out the same day it hits stores that you couldn't walk in and buy it. There's always trickery when pre-ordering games these days.
Depends on the game, of course. Some items yes, they send plenty, other items will only get sent to the store if people preorder, and they might only send enough to cover the early preorders (not the ones that came the day before launch).
Even with bigger titles, a store might have enough to cover preorders and some copies at launch, but if you want to guarantee that you have a copy, whether you come in at midnight or 2 days later, a preorder might hurt less than driving around to several shops to track down a copy.
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Unless its a limited release there is no point in pre-ordering.
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Unless its a limited release there is no point in pre-ordering.
If you want the bonuses; or, in the case of Amazon Prime, you get a discount for preordering.
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Unless its a limited release there is no point in pre-ordering.
Agreed. I think it's an anxiety thing that retailers build-up making us think we might not get a copy if we don't preorder. Retailers like GameStop push that idea as well. Reality? When you go to the store, even for a huge game like Call of Duty (just an example) there are dozens or hundreds of copies for the taking. Walmart hardly ever runs short.
The only time I preorder anything now is usually through Amazon. It's just for convenience sake because they don't even bill you until the item ships and I don't have to think about it.
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I pre-order games all the time. I don't see any issue with it, but my esoteric tastes probably makes it a necessity. For instance, when Growlanser for the PSP was released, my pre-order was the only copy available at the store.
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I pre-order games all the time. I don't see any issue with it, but my esoteric tastes probably makes it a necessity. For instance, when Growlanser for the PSP was released, my pre-order was the only copy available at the store.
Esoteric is an understatement
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Pre-ordering for video games doesn't seem to make sense. Maybe it is because games these days are often incomplete at their launch day, or if complete are buggy mess or multiplayer doesn't work. The only thing I've pre-ordered were toys, but that is more to garauntee I could get the item. As some toys sell out fast and balloon on the secondary market.
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What's the point of pre-ordering anyway it's not like it's going sold out the same day it hits stores that you couldn't walk in and buy it. There's always trickery when pre-ordering games these days.
The point of preordering is sort of like the same concept as the stock market it allows the game to get the funding to complete it if it wasn't already fully funded, allows the company to guage the interest in that particular gameplay/title, increases the chances of a sequel/game with the same sort of gameplay, etc.
sort of the way the market is being flooded with games that are online only with little or no storyline. EVERYBODY buys titles like COD, Battlefield, etc. everyone puts their money where their mouth is. so every developer starts trying to cash in on the trend.
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I know we're getting off-topic from the OP, but I don't have any issues with pre-ordering personally. I understand that people don't want to part with their money, no matter the cost, before they can get the item in their hand. I kinda think of it as a reservation at a restaurant. Sometimes, you realize there was no need as there are plenty of tables when you get there. Other times, the restaurant is smaller than you thought or a lot busier than expected so the reservation was warranted.
With GameStop at least, there's no obligation to buy the final product, either, and you don't lose the deposit - it's just a credit that ends up on your account for later.
The thing I'm more annoyed by is if people complain (on release date) about a store not having a game they've been wanting since it was announced but they never bothered to preorder it. With the cost of limited floor space, it's unrealistic to expect a brick-and-mortar store to have plentiful numbers of every game, big and small. That, and some stores need to purchase that quantity from the publishers, so if there's any risk of it not selling (which can be seen from lack of preorders), they pick up very little of it or none at all.
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Pre-ordering for video games doesn't seem to make sense. Maybe it is because games these days are often incomplete at their launch day, or if complete are buggy mess or multiplayer doesn't work. The only thing I've pre-ordered were toys, but that is more to garauntee I could get the item. As some toys sell out fast and balloon on the secondary market.
Yeah....toys. I've been collecting the Star Wars Elite Series figures which are Disney Store exclusives. I pretty much set my alarm for 2:00AM when the website refreshes to snag the new ones I need. Otherwise, I have to drive 100 miles to the closest Disney Store after I get off work or call out for the day. If I get there first thing in the morning when they open, no problem. If I wait until after work, they figures are always gone.
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I know we're getting off-topic from the OP, but I don't have any issues with pre-ordering personally. I understand that people don't want to part with their money, no matter the cost, before they can get the item in their hand. I kinda think of it as a reservation at a restaurant. Sometimes, you realize there was no need as there are plenty of tables when you get there. Other times, the restaurant is smaller than you thought or a lot busier than expected so the reservation was warranted.
With GameStop at least, there's no obligation to buy the final product, either, and you don't lose the deposit - it's just a credit that ends up on your account for later.
The thing I'm more annoyed by is if people complain (on release date) about a store not having a game they've been wanting since it was announced but they never bothered to preorder it. With the cost of limited floor space, it's unrealistic to expect a brick-and-mortar store to have plentiful numbers of every game, big and small. That, and some stores need to purchase that quantity from the publishers, so if there's any risk of it not selling (which can be seen from lack of preorders), they pick up very little of it or none at all.
There are certain times when a preorder makes sense to me. If it's a limited game or a game in a niche genre like Kash tends to pick up, then sure-a preorder guarantees you will get that game. If the "day one" edition is something actually different like a steelbook case, then it makes sense. If it's just a vanilla release and your preorder snags you a pretty purple gun painjob...forget it. I don't care. I usually just sell those codes on eBay anyway.
Where I once preordered every game so I could have it paid off before it releases, developers and publishers are pushing review embargos on games and many times it's a situation like Aliens Colonial Marines. The game is shit and they don't want you to know it's shit until it's too late and you already bought and found out for yourself. I really wanted Doom day one, but I was patient and saw that it was actually worth getting.
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That's an extreme example but I have found in thee last 2/3 years that game prices drop far more quickly.
I've tried to scale back my pre-orders somewhat because of it. So many times I'd buy a game, not get a chance to play it and find it half price two months later.
Now I try to keep my pre-orders to just things I can't wait to play or games which I feel won't drop in price anytime soon, or that might be limited in their release even.
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Where I once preordered every game so I could have it paid off before it releases, developers and publishers are pushing review embargos on games and many times it's a situation like Aliens Colonial Marines. The game is shit and they don't want you to know it's shit until it's too late and you already bought and found out for yourself. I really wanted Doom day one, but I was patient and saw that it was actually worth getting.
I was concerned about Doom since they didn't have advance copies or anything for people to review... but it turned out that the game was actually all right! Not sure why companies make those decisions when they do.
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Where I once preordered every game so I could have it paid off before it releases, developers and publishers are pushing review embargos on games and many times it's a situation like Aliens Colonial Marines. The game is shit and they don't want you to know it's shit until it's too late and you already bought and found out for yourself. I really wanted Doom day one, but I was patient and saw that it was actually worth getting.
I was concerned about Doom since they didn't have advance copies or anything for people to review... but it turned out that the game was actually all right! Not sure why companies make those decisions when they do.
With strong online components or even a game that is online-only, I get that you don't want your game judged on sparsely-populated servers or whatever. But the single player should have been available for early reviews/impressions. And when it comes to online games, there still really isn't an excuse. They could set up a private server for reviewers to utilize which would give them enough people to play with to see how the online holds up. Obviously they couldn't test for how well the servers handle heavy loads of users, but it would be better than nothing or making gamers suspicious that the devs/publishers are trying to hide reviews of a shoddy product.
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I was scrolling around through some sites and I always end up on Gamestop's site to see if any new releases are announced. Then I saw a game that was released 3 weeks ago already marked down $20 (Battleborn). Why the fuck did I pre-order this game if I could have just waited a couple of weeks to save $20? I wish I opened it. The return policy is 1 month on unopened items. I could just return it and rebuy it.
Phew, glad I dodged that bullet and skipped this game. It was on my list to buy since it was first officially announced but something told me to wait it out a little for feedback.
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Where I once preordered every game so I could have it paid off before it releases, developers and publishers are pushing review embargos on games and many times it's a situation like Aliens Colonial Marines. The game is shit and they don't want you to know it's shit until it's too late and you already bought and found out for yourself. I really wanted Doom day one, but I was patient and saw that it was actually worth getting.
I have this old world solution to this new world problem. play the game as soon as you get home and if you are incapable of havng fun in it because of too many glitches, hard locking the game through general play, no servers to play the online, return the game to where you bought it.
I had to do this with that utter disaster that was tony hawk pro skater 5 and I got all my money back, not just the trade in that GS wanted to give me. If the store tells you they can take it back call them out and say that they can literally send the game back the publisher for a full refund to themselves so they wont loose any money.
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Where I once preordered every game so I could have it paid off before it releases, developers and publishers are pushing review embargos on games and many times it's a situation like Aliens Colonial Marines. The game is shit and they don't want you to know it's shit until it's too late and you already bought and found out for yourself. I really wanted Doom day one, but I was patient and saw that it was actually worth getting.
I have this old world solution to this new world problem. play the game as soon as you get home and if you are incapable of havng fun in it because of too many glitches, hard locking the game through general play, no servers to play the online, return the game to where you bought it.
I had to do this with that utter disaster that was tony hawk pro skater 5 and I got all my money back, not just the trade in that GS wanted to give me. If the store tells you they can take it back call them out and say that they can literally send the game back the publisher for a full refund to themselves so they wont loose any money.
You could of just waited for a review. Most games today are not even worth buying day one anyway.
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Where I once preordered every game so I could have it paid off before it releases, developers and publishers are pushing review embargos on games and many times it's a situation like Aliens Colonial Marines. The game is shit and they don't want you to know it's shit until it's too late and you already bought and found out for yourself. I really wanted Doom day one, but I was patient and saw that it was actually worth getting.
I have this old world solution to this new world problem. play the game as soon as you get home and if you are incapable of havng fun in it because of too many glitches, hard locking the game through general play, no servers to play the online, return the game to where you bought it.
I had to do this with that utter disaster that was tony hawk pro skater 5 and I got all my money back, not just the trade in that GS wanted to give me. If the store tells you they can take it back call them out and say that they can literally send the game back the publisher for a full refund to themselves so they wont loose any money.
You could of just waited for a review. Most games today are not even worth buying day one anyway.
I try not to read reviews for games. I look at promotional material and see if it looks good that way. I have fallen into the trap of reading reviews from people who were way to overly hyped and reviewed a great game poorly or a poor game overly blown. I also ignore promotional material that says not actual gameplay.
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You could of just waited for a review. Most games today are not even worth buying day one anyway.
I can't speak for others, but I never read (much less trust) "professional" reviews. I put more weight into word of mouth from close friends and other gamers. Also, I know my taste in games and a "professional" reviewer's attempt at humor and biting wit isn't going to persuade or dissuade me from picking something up.
Also (again), I think that if there's a game you want to play then it's absolutely worth picking up on day one.
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As was pointed out to me recently: Reviewers have a different outlook than the rest of us, too. Their job is to constantly play video games day-in and day-out. So they're gonna notice stuff that the rest of us might overlook. They're going to notice the same cliches a lot sooner than the rest of us might. So something that might seem like an important moment in the game to us, the critics may think, "Been there, done that, boring."
So I don't listen to professional reviewers, either. I usually look at fan reviews on Metacritic or Amazon and gauge their responses.
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I usually browse critic reviews, just to get the overall picture on something. If most critics are trashing a game, good chance it's not a very good game. If they are all praising something, I then want to a little extra work into whether it would be as good to me. Then from there, I listen to a few youtubers I have on twitter or through their videos that I like, that I take into consideration. Fan reviews I avoid because it's hard to gauge things too well with a bunch of randoms talking about it. Some are just all to eager to trash something because of one little aspect. I'll browse some once in awhile, but its usually all over the place
If you just spread out reviews and impressions from multiple people, it's usually easy enough to figure out if something is what you like. I usually know if I'm gonna like a game by the time I get it. It's not super often that I find a dud. I think the only one I've had so far recently was Xenoblade Chronicles X.
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I usually browse critic reviews, just to get the overall picture on something. If most critics are trashing a game, good chance it's not a very good game. If they are all praising something, I then want to a little extra work into whether it would be as good to me. Then from there, I listen to a few youtubers I have on twitter or through their videos that I like, that I take into consideration. Fan reviews I avoid because it's hard to gauge things too well with a bunch of randoms talking about it. Some are just all to eager to trash something because of one little aspect. I'll browse some once in awhile, but its usually all over the place
If you just spread out reviews and impressions from multiple people, it's usually easy enough to figure out if something is what you like. I usually know if I'm gonna like a game by the time I get it. It's not super often that I find a dud. I think the only one I've had so far recently was Xenoblade Chronicles X.
You thought Xenoblade was shit?
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I usually browse critic reviews, just to get the overall picture on something. If most critics are trashing a game, good chance it's not a very good game. If they are all praising something, I then want to a little extra work into whether it would be as good to me. Then from there, I listen to a few youtubers I have on twitter or through their videos that I like, that I take into consideration. Fan reviews I avoid because it's hard to gauge things too well with a bunch of randoms talking about it. Some are just all to eager to trash something because of one little aspect. I'll browse some once in awhile, but its usually all over the place
If you just spread out reviews and impressions from multiple people, it's usually easy enough to figure out if something is what you like. I usually know if I'm gonna like a game by the time I get it. It's not super often that I find a dud. I think the only one I've had so far recently was Xenoblade Chronicles X.
You thought Xenoblade was shit?
I thought it was a dud, not shit. I liked the setting, I liked when cutscenes happened (which was not often enough), the story was interesting, but my god is it a boring game. All the combat, gear, and missions give you so much to unlock, level, or customize yourself with, but after awhile, the combat just turns into sort of a mindless slog and all those dozens of abilities and classes you can get feel kinda pointless and I just don't see much need for it all. Then you get a Skell which is like a 10 or 20 level boost, and seemingly makes anything you did before pointless, because why go on foot any longer? There's other stuff too, but generally after 40 hours of playing and still having like 4 or 5 chapters left in the games story, and it once again stopped progress to force me to do side stuff and grind for the next how ever many hours, I had no real interest in continuing on. Just felt like a game that had too much to do and not a whole lot of real depth to it.
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I didn't like Xenoblade Chronicles X (never played the original). It just felt like there was too much going on to keep track of, and I felt overwhelmed by it all.
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I usually browse critic reviews, just to get the overall picture on something. If most critics are trashing a game, good chance it's not a very good game. If they are all praising something, I then want to a little extra work into whether it would be as good to me. Then from there, I listen to a few youtubers I have on twitter or through their videos that I like, that I take into consideration. Fan reviews I avoid because it's hard to gauge things too well with a bunch of randoms talking about it. Some are just all to eager to trash something because of one little aspect. I'll browse some once in awhile, but its usually all over the place
If you just spread out reviews and impressions from multiple people, it's usually easy enough to figure out if something is what you like. I usually know if I'm gonna like a game by the time I get it. It's not super often that I find a dud. I think the only one I've had so far recently was Xenoblade Chronicles X.
You thought Xenoblade was shit?
I thought it was a dud, not shit. I liked the setting, I liked when cutscenes happened (which was not often enough), the story was interesting, but my god is it a boring game. All the combat, gear, and missions give you so much to unlock, level, or customize yourself with, but after awhile, the combat just turns into sort of a mindless slog and all those dozens of abilities and classes you can get feel kinda pointless and I just don't see much need for it all. Then you get a Skell which is like a 10 or 20 level boost, and seemingly makes anything you did before pointless, because why go on foot any longer? There's other stuff too, but generally after 40 hours of playing and still having like 4 or 5 chapters left in the games story, and it once again stopped progress to force me to do side stuff and grind for the next how ever many hours, I had no real interest in continuing on. Just felt like a game that had too much to do and not a whole lot of real depth to it.
Thanks for the detailed response, I won't buy it then.
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Thanks for the detailed response, I won't buy it then.
There are people that liked it, I know a few locally, but I was burnt out on the grinding and the constant progress stopping and I don't think there's much real depth to it. You look at it and go "Man, there's a lot here!", but after a bit, you just don't care about how much is there and wish there was less and better handled. If they took the game, cut kinda everything in half, including the world, and removed a few things, while putting a better emphasis on the story, characters, and progression, it could've been a much more solid experience than this wannabe MMO it was trying to be.
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You could of just waited for a review. Most games today are not even worth buying day one anyway.
I can't speak for others, but I never read (much less trust) "professional" reviews. I put more weight into word of mouth from close friends and other gamers. Also, I know my taste in games and a "professional" reviewer's attempt at humor and biting wit isn't going to persuade or dissuade me from picking something up.
Also (again), I think that if there's a game you want to play then it's absolutely worth picking up on day one.
as someone else who plays niche games, tho, i mean, critics are extremely hard on niche jrpg type titles. they trash all kinds of games i fucking love. i remember tales of the abyss got a 6/10 in game informer... it's in my top 10 of all time tho.
pokemon mystery dungeon got a 3/10. i enjoyed that a lot when i had it. i need to rebuy it.
so there's a general distrust of professional reviewers in the niche community. if you prefer AAA titles, not niche ones, then yes, there is far more stock to be placed in a professional review. they aren't as harsh on AAA titles unless those titles really are absolute dogshit.
re: preorder discussion, you guys must not play a lot of niche games because once you get in that dog-eat-dog world, finding the games months after the release is hard as dicks. esp if you prefer brick-and-mortar stores, so you can check out the case and contents before you buy for imperfections... it gets really hard. and gamestop has a horrible tendency to have a game wiped out of their system and reappear much later (devil survivor overclocked, for a long, LONG time, was NOT in their system... it suddenly reappeared tho and now i see it everywhere).
if it's a game like sorcery saga: curse of the curry god... good fucking luck. haven't seen that game in a gamestop since the day it came out. i regret not preordering. same for mind=0. looking them up, two gamestops near me have these games. they are both 11 miles from me... in opposite directions.
gonna go up and preorder 7th dragon code iii tomorrow in fact lmao. because i want that little art book. also, i imagine it's another 'disappeared to the void' game.
anyway, on topic, as for prices dropping fast, if a game is not a vvvv niche jrpg/vis novel, i never buy at full price. it's also why my wii u has like... no games. if the prices don't drop, i probably don't bother. i'll get them when they're being phased out of gamestop and the prices drop to the bottom of the sea. i regret like fuck not grabbing both baiten kaitos titles at gamestop when GCN was phased out. they were $5 a piece. beating the fuck out of myself everyday for it.
but vvv niche titles are worth preordering even if you don't want to play them that very day... chances are, when you want to, you'll be shit outta luck finding them (HDN re;birth 2, for example, i had to drive out 30 miles for. worth it, but still)
it is really hard, tho, because online-only games... the community either
a) will leave you the fuck behind if you jump in late
or
b) will be dead by the time the price drops [which is why it drops]
so it's really hard to gauge how online-only type games will do. unless it's... splatoon, which ofc was going to keep a thriving online, as one of very, very few online titles on the wii u that's worth half a shit. or CoD, which, again, keeps its communities for ages, guaranteed. the sad fact is, tho, is a lot of online-only games are designed to try to force you to play from day 1, they're designed to leave newbies in the dust, to encourage a fuckload of day-1/week-1 sales. because if you buy a game with tiers and upgrades as an integral part of the game three months post-release... well, you're fucking behind from the get-go and it's a lot of grinding and general bullshit to catch back up.
thus why a game like bloodborn, releasing at a bad time, in an flooded genre like MOBA is right now, has seen a fuckload of returns and a price drop...
and also, realistically, one can only play one online game at a time. you have to be pretty dedicated. online games (esp MOBAs) are perfect for those who only pick up a game a month or one every three months. and what game is successful depends on hype and marketing.
edit: shit, i didn't realise i had accidentally clicked page 2.
i'm really sorry for the thread resurrection, gomen gomen.
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When I am interested in a game, prior to making a buying decision on it, I will look for someone actually playing it. Pro reviews have little value to me, as they are just like a gameplay trailer. I will look on Youtube for some small channel who is doing a review for a game. I don't particularly watch the video footage itself either. I look for the things that I know that I don't like. I pay attention to how the camera is behaving, and how it looks like the controls are reponding. Is the person trying to do something and it isn't working properly? And I listen for specifics such as their reactions to certain things. Camera, controls, if the game freezes, slows down or crashes, any other type of gameplay issues like that. If entirely possible, I will look on Twitch for someone playing the game live. How do they like it. There you are more likely to see actual gameplay compared to a video review. And most importantly, you can ask the player in real time some questions about it.
This is really the best time to be able to find out if you will like a game before you buy it.
And it doesn't really matter if I was really looking forward to a game or a game's concept. There are so many other games to play, its not like you will end up being stuck with nothing to do.