Hey guy's, it's been a while since I've posted a blog, so I'm going to let a few things off my chest. lol
First up is my concern for the money hungry in the gaming industry today. Obviously it's always been about making a few quid, but as the gaming industry has rocketed into the mainstream as one of the most popular forms of entertainment today, more hungry suited snakes get involved.
When gaming was just a lil' speckle of a thing, you'd shell out the £50 for a game, and that was the end of it. Hell, you were lucky if you could get a t-shirt of your favourite game. Now as the big machine has gotten bigger, more and more money seems to be extorted out of the people playing these games.
Today's formula of gaming seems to be, pay £40 for a game -£45 in some cases, for the greedy company's that know it'll sell for that regardless- play the game, then shell out £7 or however much it is for the DLC. And it might not even be just one DLC, you could end up having DLC's for the game, costing you £61. Not only that -and this is the main reason I'm on about this- but you get the not so 'Special Edition' of a game.
And this is my problem: where is the line drawn for marketing of this sort? When a special edition of a game was released, it would be £5 at most, and included a bonus disc, or just something nice to accompany the game. These day's they offer poorly build resin statues and a host of other crap that you wouldn't want.
Max Payne 3 has now been given the pre-order treatment, and are advertising the 'Special Edition' of the game. "Ahh, I'll check how much", I thought, clicking the link to GAME, then shrieking in horror at the £99.99 price tag hanging off it. A ton! Some poor sap will shell out a ton for a game and a pile of cheaply made crap to accompany it. Sure, if Joe Blog wants to buy it, that's his prerogative. But what I'm getting at, is the damage it's doing to the games themselves.
Alot of games these day's, if you don't buy the SE of the game, you end up missing out on alot of content -by all rights- you should have had with the standard edition, that you paid £40 for. And it's getting worse. Just the last 4 years, I count it be approx really kicking off, money making schemes on games has gone right up to 6th gear. Starting off with just two versions: standard and steel tin ver. Move to 2010 and you have games that have up to 4 editions! That can be up to the whopping sum of £150-£200. Each edition giving you more and more crap, but also giving you stuff for the actual game -which I think is wrong.
The point I'm making is that it's fine to have these extra edition's, but it's another thing to have stuff that should be with the regular edition excluded from it. You pay for the game, you should expect to have the whole thing. As it used to be 15 year ago. Obviously, games are becoming increasingly expensive to make and it's fair game for them to bring out little extras to help bring in a profit from all they've put in. But when it's effecting the game itself, you have to wonder where the line is drawn?
On a less cynical and ranting topic, I'm going to list 5 games I think deserve a look in for GOTY.
5.) Deus Ex: Supurb action/RPG, with some of the best atmosphere I've seen in a game to date.
http://uk.gamespot.com/deus-ex-human-revolution/user-reviews/773658/platform/ps3
4.) L.A Noire: Another supurb effort from Rockstar, that take a different route on sandbox games. Some amazing facial recognition technology make for scary realistic graphics.
http://uk.gamespot.com/l-a-noire/user-reviews/765663/platform/ps3
3.) Dark Souls: IMO this is GOTY. Dark, bold, hard and very fun to play. Not for everyone but a very addictive experience.
http://uk.gamespot.com/dark-souls/user-reviews/778281/platform/ps3
2.) Shadows of the Damned: When three of gaming's most ambitious and original game creators, only epic things can happen; and they have, in the form of this brilliantly funny, action/horror game.
http://uk.gamespot.com/shadows-of-the-damned/user-reviews/768634/platform/ps3
1.) Yakuza 4: Moving on in the Yakuza timeline after the brilliant third installment. Giving you the chance to play as 4 very different playable characters.
http://uk.gamespot.com/yakuza-4/user-reviews/759388/platform/ps3
On that note, I hope you all have a cracking Christmas. Love you all (especially you! ;) ). :) xxxxx