I can't trust pre-orders anymore

[LadyMint]

When I really want a game, I'll pre-order it. Granted, I've been disappointed by that before, but that's one of the less risky parts of life, isn't it? All the advertising and hype before a game is released is designed to make you really want something, but you can resist it. Should you decide to go for it anyway, then it's just the risk you take.

The main thing that gets me to pre-order is when they have some sort of exclusive incentive tied to something. Without that, I take my time purchasing.

 

[honestdiscussioner]

A long time ago I pre-ordered Left 4 Dead 2, and upon playing it found it to be generally disappointing. I wish I'd waited until it was much cheaper to buy it. The same with New Vegas and Duke Nukem Forever. I've had very little pre-order success, the Orange Box being the only real joy I've had in pre-purchasing. Everything else I have, I've waited for reviews on. I thought New Vegas was going to be an improvement on the epic Fallout 3, but no.

I only pre-order things I'm really excited about. Yes, sometimes you get something that sucks so much and\or was not worth $60 ::stares at Force Unleashed II with deadly hatred:: and you feel like you got suckered, but then there are the good times, like when you pre-order an awesome game that you get to beta-test for pre-ordering ::gazes lovingly at Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood:: and you are thankful you chose to pre-order it. There are also games you want to get to immediately and simply can't afford to go a day longer without cracking it open ::sighs longingly at Starcraft II::.

My point is, don't let a few bad experiences ruin it for you. Just do it with more discretion.

You shouldn't have pre-ordered New Vegas simply because we all knew it would be buggy at first. I'm playing it now on PC and having almost no problems. I'm nearing level 30 and the game has crashed on me about 3 or 4 times, but that's it. You should try it again on PC.

 

[Dragunai]

I only preorder games I have a vague hope for. Black ops when it 1st came out was an awesome game. Now it sucks because the community sucks.

Haven't really preordered other games. Only exception being Dead island (as that has my hopes seriously up) and Skyrim as Oblivion was something to hug and skyrim is a ramped up version.

Might also Preorder Space Marine for the bonus dlc.

 

[MetaKnight19]

I haven't pre-ordered anything for a while, but when I go into my local GAME shop the staff (who sort of know me) ask me:

'Did you know *insert game* was out today?'
'I completely forgot that came out today, was there anything good as a pre-order bonus?'
'Well look, seeing as its you I'll take £5 off the price and give you the bonus as well.'
*Hands over money*

Spoiler: This is the last game I pre-ordered, don't judge me...

 

[Scizophrenic Llama]

I haven't pre-ordered anything for a while, but when I go into my local GAME shop the staff (who sort of know me) ask me:

'Did you know *insert game* was out today?'
'I completely forgot that came out today, was there anything good as a pre-order bonus?'
'Well look, seeing as its you I'll take £5 off the price and give you the bonus as well.'
*Hands over money*

I do this with the local GameStop quite a bit, half the time now I can just show up on launch day and they'll give me any pre-order codes with the games, or the special pre-order edition if they have more in stock than the pre-orders that their store received.

 

[Antari]

I love Steam pre-orders.

You can read all the reviews you want, and then pre-order it 5 minutes before it unlocks - normally with a bonus and a slight price cut.

Win/win.

Not really, lets say you pre-order a month or so before hand. And Pre-load the game. The time it takes Steam to unlock the files usually takes longer than to have just downloaded them unlocked after the pre-order stage. As well with the near constant sales on Steam its literally a point of wait a month or two and it'll be on sale for half price. I don't pre-order, if anything because of the principle of. You don't get paid until the job is DONE!

Err... no it doesn't. It takes like 5 minutes for the files to unlock once the game itself unlocks on Steam. Aside from that, you're not actually replying to anything I said. I said you can "pre-order" 5 minutes before the game unlocks and still get your price cut and have read the reviews, so there's no need for it to be a gamble.

And the job is done, game's go gold about a month before they're released.

Depends on the game size I guess. You'd have been as pissed off as me when Shogun 2 took roughly 2 hours to unlock even though I'd downloaded all the files a week before hand. At best your getting a minor discount .. which is nothing to the half price discount that Steam usually throws on a month or two after release. There's no point to pre-purchasing. As well with all the DLC these days, your better off to wait for a cheap gold edition.

And added DLC means the job isn't done. Patching mean the job isn't done. I don't know too many games that don't have either these days. Two parts of gaming that would barely need to be used if the job was EVER done. Just because they shove it in a box doesn't mean its finished and working.

If you downloaded a small indie title ya I could see the Unlock not taking too long. But on a 19 gig game like Shogun 2 the decryption process completely defeats the purpose of pre-order/pre-loading. Game companies screw over the day 1 or pre-order buyer.

 

[Sansha]

You shouldn't have pre-ordered New Vegas simply because we all knew it would be buggy at first. I'm playing it now on PC and having almost no problems. I'm nearing level 30 and the game has crashed on me about 3 or 4 times, but that's it. You should try it again on PC.

It's not the bugs.

The story is hilarious, the game world is tiny compared to Fallout 3, the characters aside from the companions are completely unlikeable, the DLC's are shit and I just saw it as a big downgrade from Fallout 3.

The only thing I liked about it over Fo3 was that each companion has their own quest relating to their backstories. Each one being unique and interesting, especially Cass, Boone and Raul's ones.
I did enjoy taking Arcane's head off for being Enclave, though, fuck them.

 

[baddude1337]

I do like to play a demo or see what others have said before I decided to buy a game, especially a new IP or from a certain developer. Dead Island is a great example as it's by Techland, who created the Call of Juarez series which I find to be absolute crap and is also a new IP.

 

[Issurru]

Last time I pre-ordered from anything other than Steam, the company went bankrupt and didn't give me my money back. So when they were closing down and selling all their stuff I had to get almost 200 dollars worth of games I didn't really want