Epic fails of PC gaming

[Bonecrusher]

This is my view and thoughts about the PC game industry. You may not agree on or have other suggestions, please write them too.

- Daikatana:
There are some games that hyped a lot before released, but quickly sent into Abyss and then forgotten (compared to other games of that era). Some of those games can be counted as Doom 3, Hellgate: London or Spore. But in Daikatana case, it is not just failed on the released game, but also failed on the development stage. Before release John Romero suggested that he would do the best FPS ever, but at the end we got a broken game.

- Duke Nukem Forever:
There are lots of game that had promising gameplay, amazing graphics but some reason cancelled or became vaporware. The Crossing, Black Mesa Source, Warcraft Adventures, Starcraft: Ghost, Dungeon Keeper 3, Project Offset. What happened to them? Nothing, they were all very interesting games and could be completed, but not released. Duke Nukem Forever is the most famous among them. 3DRealms could do 3-4 DN games all these years, but they didn't even finish one game. At the end, we are waiting for Gearbox's DNF, I hope it will be completed soon and will better than Borderlands. Conclusion: "When It's Done" is not a good software engineering strategy...

- Half-Life 2 Episodes:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Valve brought the episodic content to the gaming first. They argued episodic content will accelerate the durations of expansion packs. Short episodes mean short development, win-win for both the gamers and the game developers. Yeah, it seems like that - for example, Telltale Games implemented the system successfully. However, Valve failed big time, in episodic content. Let's look, first Half-Life released on 1998, and the expansion Opposing Force released on exactly one year later - 1999. This means for an expansion pack, 1 year can be enough. After Half-Life 2, Valve announced the Aftermath expansion. We were thrilled and expected the expansion to be released between 1 and 2 years. But what happened? The expansion splitted into episodes, and we are still waiting for the third episode after 6 years.

Valve seems to have missed the whole point of episodic games, which is more games, at lower prices, released more frequently. And while they seem to have one and two down, they continue to struggle with three.
-Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw

- DLC:
Game companies develop free small patches or purchasable large expansion packs. This is like a tradition for the industry. They do this both to serve their customers and to keep the attention/fame on their games. Some companies (like Blizzard) still use this formula (e.g. Diablo II, Warcraft III, World Of Warcraft). But this formula is not enough for some companies. Their greed and lust for money, caused them to create a new formula. Contents which are not free like patches but not large enough to be even quarter of an expansion pack, turned into things which called "DLC". They are simple maps, skins or weapons for the game. They are small enough to be implemented as patches, but developers don't prefer so. They are being sold seperated from the game, similar to the item shops of Free2Play games - the difference: DLCs are made for non-free2play games. More weird part is, combination of all DLCs for a game, can be more expensive than the game's price. Yeah, very rewarding for the greedy developers, but encountered with the protests of the gamers.

 

[Danceofmasks]

DLC isn't an epic fail.
It's annoying, to be sure ... however, seeing as they make silly amounts of money, it means people are buying them.

A rule of capitalism = something is worth what people are willing to pay for it.

Of course, it may also mean people won't respect you much ... like .. err .. banks, but until people stop buying this stuff, it's going to keep on going on.

 

[Lord Kloo]

Yeah these are sure problems that annoy me, super-expensive COD DLCs were just clear rip-offs.. but most of your problems translate onto the console markets as well, they are not purely PC gaming fails, true they originated with the PC many moons ago...

+ there are many benefits to PC gaming like free mods and maps for most games with workable engines, like COD4 or WaW, these can't be found on consoles.. this means PC gamers don't have to solely rely on the producers to pump out more material for the games we play...

 

[Zenode]

The only REAL thing that annoys me about PC gaming is CRASHES, GODDAMN CRASHING, it is seriously the bane of my PC gaming compared to consoles.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Yeah these are sure problems that annoy me, super-expensive COD DLCs were just clear rip-offs.. but most of your problems translate onto the console markets as well, they are not purely PC gaming fails, true they originated with the PC many moons ago...

+ there are many benefits to PC gaming like free mods and maps for most games with workable engines, like COD4 or WaW, these can't be found on consoles.. this means PC gamers don't have to solely rely on the producers to pump out more material for the games we play...

There is a very good reason competitive FPS (you know, those tournament things with lots of prizemoney) tends to be FREE PC games.

Such as Quake Live and Sudden Attack.

 

[Antari]

Its called DLC now. But not so long ago. Software didn't used to have a patching system. Forcing the companies to actually test software. Unlike today. DLC is just an extension of this system of laziness. The customer is forced to take all the risk in the entire industry. Yes its Epic Fail. But the customers who ate it up and asked for more. They are far more of an Epic Fail.

 

[Pandalisk]

The only problem i have ever had with PC gaming is playing them online, some work great with no intervention. Others wont and because i lack the know-how to correct it makes me somewhat bitter.

 

[Zipa]

Console to PC ports, especially the ones that still say to press the console buttons and not kb/mouse buttons. They are always terrible.

 

[MulticolorCharizard]

Console to PC ports are just terrible.

True, but most of the RPGs and FPS games on console and PC were developed for the PC and then ported.

Also a lot of console ports to PC are potentially far better provided you have a USB gamepad and a good rig (See Assasins Creed series and CERTAINLY Mass Effect).

 

[Danceofmasks]

Console to PC ports, especially the ones that still say to press the console buttons and not kb/mouse buttons. They are always terrible.

They are annoying, I guess .. but taking Devil May Cry 4 as an example, you can't even play it without a controller.
It supports DX10 graphics, and will likely load faster on PC, but it's like why even bother?

But still, it's a decent game.

Saints Row 2, in contrast, is one of the most horrible ports ever.
It's like they just added an extra layer of code for PC ... resulting in horrible framerates even on a 1337 PC.
That, and the driving physics pretty much requires an analog stick, 'cos they just defined a keyboard keypress as turning the maximum possible amount.

 

[Zipa]

I was going to say the force unleashed series to but they are generally bad whatever platform you play them on.

 

[Gaz6231]

Let's look, first Half-Life released on 1998, and the expansion Opposing Force released on exactly one year later - 1999. This means for an expansion pack, 1 year can be enough

Sure, if you have a low-maintenance engine and an entirely separate developer to make it for you.

Honestly, when will people stop bitching about Valve and get on with their lives.

 

[Zipa]

Console to PC ports, especially the ones that still say to press the console buttons and not kb/mouse buttons. They are always terrible.

They are annoying, I guess .. but taking Devil May Cry 4 as an example, you can't even play it without a controller.
It supports DX10 graphics, and will likely load faster on PC, but it's like why even bother?

But still, it's a decent game.

Saints Row 2, in contrast, is one of the most horrible ports ever.
It's like they just added an extra layer of code for PC ... resulting in horrible framerates even on a 1337 PC.
That, and the driving physics pretty much requires an analog stick, 'cos they just defined a keyboard keypress as turning the maximum possible amount.

The one that recently annoyed me was just cause 2 , bought it in the steam sale. I had to reconfigure the controls myself from the press the console controller buttons to stop myself falling to my death over and over in the first mission. Very annoying.

 

[Zipa]

Console to PC ports are just terrible.

True, but most of the RPGs and FPS games on console and PC were developed for the PC and then ported.

Also a lot of console ports to PC are potentially far better provided you have a USB gamepad and a good rig (See Assasins Creed series and CERTAINLY Mass Effect).

A lot? Hell no.

The vast, vast majority of FPS games that appear on the PC are ports. Call of Duty Black Ops being the most recent and disastrous example.

Black Ops was one hell of a screw up on the devs part, it launched without multi core processor support, it assumed that everyone had only a single processor regardless of what they really had. Plus it set the graphics to maximum and AA to like 8X which caused a lot of people problems.

Its like they just didnt test the damn game on PC at all.

 

[MulticolorCharizard]

Console to PC ports are just terrible.

True, but most of the RPGs and FPS games on console and PC were developed for the PC and then ported.

Also a lot of console ports to PC are potentially far better provided you have a USB gamepad and a good rig (See Assasins Creed series and CERTAINLY Mass Effect).

Most? Hell no.

The vast, vast majority of FPS games that appear on the PC are ports. Call of Duty Black Ops being the most recent and disastrous example.

(Edited for miss-wording. Sorry.)

Ports and multiplats are different things, Multiplats are developed simoultaneuosly for both consoles and PC's, ports ae when existant games are brought over to new consoles after they've been made.

While the PC Black Ops was something of a failure, if come to expect it because (To fuck about with a quote) Treyarch do PC's like washing machines do potato salad.

Consider the Modern Warfare games, when the IW engine is handled with care, it can far outshine consoles on the PC, the same goes with Gamebryo and the IdTech engines.

 

[Jobbie]

I could give a ton of examples of console epic fails, however I will refrain from doing so.

Bonecrusherr, those are all great examples of titles that have been announced but have all gone the way of the dodo. Fortunately for me, the only title I really care about is half life. Everything else can be flushed down the toilet of crappy ideas.

DLC is a disease that has infected the masses of idiots who pony up the cash. Any game that announces DLC the same day of launch, I pretty much ignore. I remember the days of free developer maps and mini expansions included with the original price of the game. Not to mention the many mods that came from the open source community. This is still alive and well in the HL community...which is a reason why I support developers like valve so much.

Anyway, it's sad to say that my PS3 has become nothing more than a Blue Ray player at my house. The games I have collect dust, now that I have built my new system. Hey, at least I can watch Avatar in 3D.