PC game commandments

[bawkbawkboo1]

I know for a fact that Games For Windows Live is the reason that Bioshock 2 crashed on my computer three times, including one time when it crashed in the process of saving my game.... It didn't happen after the GFWL patch came out. When GFWL updates either itself or a game, it fires up every core of your CPU to 100% for the duration of the download/extract process. That's totally unnecessary and is the result of terrible, terrible coding. Additionally it utilizes the CPU during normal gameplay significantly more than Steam, meaning that your games have less CPU time available. The GFWL out-of-game window is un-risizable and generally irritating. If you have a computer without GFWL and install a game needing it, it will fetch the v3.0 of GFWL, have you sign in, and then prompt to update afterwards.

 

[bawkbawkboo1]

quote="strum4h" post="9.233572.8246395"]

clip

If you delete the movies from your borderlands folder they actually do not show. 30 seconds faster opening up the game.

How do you do this? TELL ME!!!!!

OT:
Thou must have mouse control. (Whether it be FPS', TPS' or others.)

WASD with Mouse are the movement controls for an FPS by LAW. Change this and you will be punished.[/quote]

You want this:
http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=85874

download it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?2w5gmdqjihj

Remember to make sure that .NET framework is enabled. To check, go to Control Panel, Programs, Add/Remove Windows Components, and look for .NET Framework 3.5.whatever and check it.

 

[Jaythulhu]

Thou shalt ensure your product is actually optimised for running on current gen pc hardware and that this is not just lies printed on the packaging, and that it doth not crash to the desktop unexpectedly and for no reason, nor sayeth one thing and provide another (Fallout 3, I'm looking at you).

 

[10zack986]

As for DRM, it's hilarious looking at Metacritic reviews of Ubisoft games. The regular reviews are good, the user reviews are ALWAYS in the red.

 

[KaosuHamoni]

Thou shalt not try to pawn off DLC on people for £10 a piece, when the content should have been in the game in the first place

 

[Jaded Scribe]

1. Thou shalt alt-tab gracefully

Many "modern" PC games fail horribly at this.

2. Thou shalt create an interface that is designed for 18 inches and a keyboard and mouse, rather than copy your 10 foot, gamepad based console interface.

Fallout 3, Borderlands, Mass Effect 2. The keyboard has 110 ish buttons, the mouse has at least 3. Let players assign different buttons to open, pick up, jump, run, slide, duck etc.

Let me switch weapons with a single button without opening up a scroll menu, and ffs let me carry more than 2 weapons, the HALO stupidity needs to die except maybe in games trying for realism.

3. (general gaming, not pc specific) Thou shalt allow saving and pausing at any time, save points are a relic of a bygone era.

4. (general gaming, not pc specific) All "intro" screens shall be skippable with a single button, and ideally automatically skippable with a configuration file setting.

I don't care if the game was designed for Nvidia or who made your 3D engine. I don't need 30 second animated advertisements for the developer, and the publisher, and the distributor every time I start up the game. I want to go to the menu to play the damn game. Borderlands is particularly bad about this one.

I'm sure others can think of other commandments to add to this list.

I disagree with #3.

Anymore, savepoints aren't about making the programming easier, or trying to save space. They are a tool the game designers use to control the player's flow through the game. If they felt the game flowed best with allowing saving at-will, they would have put it in. If they felt the flow was best served by making the player play through a certain chapter of the game all at once, they program it that way.

It is a very conscious design choice, not just an arbitrary decision.

 

[bawkbawkboo1]

Thou Shalt not have unreasonable storage requirements. There is no sane reason why The Force Unleashed should take twenty-five (25) fucking gigabytes in Steam local files. Look, I understand why, say, Microsoft Flight Simulator X takes a lot of space (realistic terrain textures), but for a game that doesn't take that much time that doesn't even take that long to play through (like TFU)it's just inexcusable.

 

[Jaythulhu]

Thou shalt not try to pawn off DLC on people for £10 a piece, when the content should have been in the game in the first place

Quoted for truth. That kind of stuff used to be given to us free as part of a bug-fixing patch as if to say "sorry our game was broken, here's what we did to make up for it", if it wasn't already included in the game.

 

[loc978]

Thou shalt include peer-to-peer LAN support with thine multiplayer game.

 

[willsham45]

Though shall not include anti piracy software that hinders the user from playing his or her game.

Though shall not be punished for having bad internet connection.
Though shall not be punished for having multiple disk drives
Though shall not be punished for having particular software that can be used for piracy (some people need to use it for other things).

Though shall allow copies of games to be installed on many computers at 1 time for local multi-player.

 

[MrDarkling]

Thou Shalt Not Use Games For Windows Live under any conditions, as it is an abomination unto all that is Holy.

EDIT: Google Autocomplete knows it's true:

This one is pretty important.
When I start up a game and see that "Games for Windows live" tab appear; I die a little inside :I

 

[dawdarsd]

Thou shalt make your game easily moddable.

thou shalt make a game where mods are installed easily

 

[monkey_man]

thou shalt not swear at others, whilst thou areth losing

 

[TheScottishFella]

Thou shalt continue to release games compatible for older OS's such as XP.

I disagree with that one. Microsoft is such an ass for taking money, why should people who stayed in the safe not get games compatible for their systems.

 

[Jodah]

Thou shalt fix most bugs before thou releaseth thy game not wait until the first patch. (I say most because its nearly impossible to find them all.)