All the new games SUCK because they force you to be part of a "community"

[Overmind One]

I sure wish I was within the period where I could return my Starcraft II game. I love the game, I love all the new stuff and how the game looks, but I hate the FORCED participation in Battle.net and I resent the fact that LAN play now requires the WAN connection to Battle.net to play. And the last patch made it so people cant even play offline without being "authorized" first by Battle.net.

What is the point of this? Its because these game companies want to monitor your usage of the game, how long you play, your strategies, etc. Oh, and lets not forget the sudden upsurge in spam and begging advertisers asking you to buy other similar games.

This actually started for me when I bought Grand Theft Auto 4. The game is now so bloated and code heavy with game physics and over the top graphics that simply playing it requires a quad core machine with at least 3gb of RAM and a high end graphics card with 1gb of memory. It installed the "Rockstar Social Club" on my computer (and is required to play the game), which is a stand alone program which does not close when you turn the game off. It continues to run, monitoring web traffic and other statistics. And also (of course), the sudden appearance of yet MORE spam into the email associated with your game.

WTF is going on here!!!

Why all of a sudden do TPTB in advertising for games think that we want to use our Facebook accounts with a game, or give them a cellphone number to recieve "text alerts about (x) game direct to my cellphone"? Advertisers are suffering along with the producers of goods and services in these hard times. Do they really think people will react kindly to be harassed via unsolicited email and/or unwanted text-based advertising sent to their cellphones?

:mad: :beckettd:

This is why I hate Facebook, Microsoft, Roxio and AOL. Same forced participation, same lame networking ploy which thinks people want to be alerted by cellphone of new products they are offering. Cell phone alerts? Google is starting to go down this path too. Why do they want me to connect my YouTube accounts? This is a rant to be sure...I have derailed my own post Im so mad.

The bottom line is, the direction of the newest PC games is to use them as advertising vehicles. Now, the consoles are internet appliances, and eventually they will REQUIRE a connection to the internet just to function. Whats next, online retina verification and scan of index finger?

Dont buy Starcraft II...fire up that last Beta and have fun playing the game! Grand Theft Auto San Andreas is the last playable GTA game, and the last one worth owning. Because of this trend, I wont be buying any new PC games just by the slick covers or packaging notes. I will now WAIT to read online reviews. But when you have gameplay and graphics like this:

[video=youtube;V-QXtpcsRB4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-QXtpcsRB4&feature=fvsr

*sigh*

I just have to brush off my Grey Hat and "adjust" the game parameters to my liking :daniel_new_anime005. Starcraft II is being marketed like World of Warcraft now, which is bad news, since the WoW gamers are not the same crowd as those for a game like Halo, Starcraft or Mass Effect. MMORPG games are NOT necessarily the "wave of the future". MANY gamers prefer to play against AI rather than to be connected to the internet to stumble through some lame server list and connect with other players with tons of lag and the possibility of a dropped connection halfway through the game.

Well...I feel better now. I suppose I have to go and search for that Starcraft II CD which got flung like a frisbee in the general direction of the clothes hamper

 

[ParagonPie]

It is annoying that you have to 'log in' to play single player these days, I mean loaded up Mass Effect 2, had an internet connection problem couldn't connect to EA account, can't play the game. They use it or allegedly use it to stop people from pirating the game, however it is having the same effect as DRM, hackers and pirates will always, always find a way to break the code or whatever counter measures they put in place, point being all you are doing is pissing off the people who legitimately purchase the game. Also all what it does now days is log your achievements, 99% of which are completely useless anyhow and aren't actually achievements but compulsory (how many achievements are there that are, complete the campaign?). The other problem is online recorded statistics, now again, back in the day when I played Battlefield 2 or 2142, there were two types of servers, ranked and non ranked, now days everything is ranked and it just increases the amount of rage quits because people worry about their KPD rates.

I'm a dyed in the wool PC gamer also but I've noticed the trend particularly Microsoft want it to become more like XBOX Live, up to the point where you will have to start paying for continued services.

 

[Gatefan1976]

Have you noticed......

That if you go into a "computer games shop" that the PC section is the smallest in it? IMHO, it's due to this enforced online registration and such that really pisses people off. I love PC games, but the shithouse requirements, be they system or net connection really piss me off.

Sad now

 

[Overmind One]

Its bad for the industry.

It is annoying that you have to 'log in' to play single player these days, I mean loaded up Mass Effect 2, had an internet connection problem couldn't connect to EA account, can't play the game. They use it or allegedly use it to stop people from pirating the game, however it is having the same effect as DRM, hackers and pirates will always, always find a way to break the code or whatever counter measures they put in place, point being all you are doing is pissing off the people who legitimately purchase the game. Also all what it does now days is log your achievements, 99% of which are completely useless anyhow and aren't actually achievements but compulsory (how many achievements are there that are, complete the campaign?). The other problem is online recorded statistics, now again, back in the day when I played Battlefield 2 or 2142, there were two types of servers, ranked and non ranked, now days everything is ranked and it just increases the amount of rage quits because people worry about their KPD rates.

I'm a dyed in the wool PC gamer also but I've noticed the trend particularly Microsoft want it to become more like XBOX Live, up to the point where you will have to start paying for continued services.

Some grey hackers actually are running emulators like the Xbox emulator Xeon, or the ubiquitous PS2 emulator PCSX2 on their PCs instead of buying the consoles at all. Real games, only you stick them in your computer instead of the console. They work very well. But if the game requires an internet connection on its console, it will also require it when you run it using your emulator. . I have a PS2, but no Xbox, and I have found that consoles are nowhere NEAR what is available for PCs, but they are catching up. The console makes no sense to me since the PC is a superior platform for gaming and always has been.

I will not buy games which force you to pay a fee to play them, and give you no option. WoW became ridiculous. I remember decades ago, a video game appeared in the arcades called Gauntlet which demanded copius numbers of quarters just to keep your hard earned fantasy character alive. The original concept of WoW to be sure. Im not having it...I will just continue to "modify" my purchased games so I can play them the way I want. I paid $60.00 for Starcraft II...but I have to still get Blizzard to "authorize" offline play? Sheez.

 

[Overmind One]

YES I have noticed.

That if you go into a "computer games shop" that the PC section is the smallest in it? IMHO, it's due to this enforced online registration and such that really pisses people off. I love PC games, but the shithouse requirements, be they system or net connection really piss me off.

Sad now

I have definitely noticed that. At GameStop where I buy my games, the PC gamins section is the smallest area when it used to be second only behind Playstation games. But I also noticed that there are some awesomely cool interfaces (controllers and even 3D gaming shades) for PC which are not available for any console. But this forced internet connection thing is going to kill some companies.

I think Rockstar is dying because of all they invested in GTA 4. The game is nowhere near as successful as any of the previously released Grand Theft Auto games. The Auto Racing genre of games was ruined by this as well. Even Stargate Worlds was a victim.

 

[ParagonPie]

I will not buy games which force you to pay a fee to play them, and give you no option. WoW became ridiculous. I remember decades ago, a video game appeared in the arcades called Gauntlet which demanded copius numbers of quarters just to keep your hard earned fantasy character alive. The original concept of WoW to be sure. Im not having it...I will just continue to "modify" my purchased games so I can play them the way I want. I paid $60.00 for Starcraft II...but I have to still get Blizzard to "authorize" offline play? Sheez.

Continue paying to play is nothing new, well in the MMO genre I should say, been around for about a decade and a half now.

Like I said the reason why they have online authorization to play offline is because to stop people from hacking the game, however just like DRM it has backfired as you yourself have been forced to mod the game to play it. Personally I hate it also, even with systems like Valve's (a company which I have lost a fair amount of respect for) Steam and everything being tied into that system so if steam goes down people can be kicked off the server they are currently playing on for not having an authorized Steam ID.

To be honest Microsoft don't want you on the PC anymore, they want you on the console where they can regulate the content to their desires and charge you whatever amount they see fit.

 

[Overmind One]

That has been the case for many years, you are right.

Continue paying to play is nothing new, well in the MMO genre I should say, been around for about a decade and a half now.

Like I said the reason why they have online authorization to play offline is because to stop people from hacking the game, however just like DRM it has backfired as you yourself have been forced to mod the game to play it. Personally I hate it also, even with systems like Valve's (a company which I have lost a fair amount of respect for) Steam and everything being tied into that system so if steam goes down people can be kicked off the server they are currently playing on for not having an authorized Steam ID.

To be honest Microsoft don't want you on the PC anymore, they want you on the console where they can regulate the content to their desires and charge you whatever amount they see fit.

Yeah, this has been around for many years, but it has always been an option to go online to access certain elements of PC games, like multiplayer. But going online was ONLY to play multiplayer, and it did not need an online portal full of ads, or for you to give them your email address so they can fill your mailbox with garbage. :mad:. I have been able to "modify" my games easily up until recently where the full game is actually not even on your machine anymore. The connection to the internet must be either emulated or rendered unnecessary, and its not that easy to do anymore. Damn! Just as I had mastered the no-cd hack!

BTW, I own all the games I play.

 

[Overmind One]

Well, the Battle.net servers are stable.

I have the same problem with Command and Conquer Tiberium Twilight. I can only play with a stable internet connection. Any time the connection drops out I have to go back to the start of the mission and start again even if I am playing the campaigns. It really is a pain in the ass. So much so that I have not been playing it much recently.

To be honest, the Battle.net servers are very stable, and I have not experienced being dropped from them before. But sometimes Im using my bandwidth for netbackup and I cant afford to allow a game to hog it up. Thats also when I tend to play games...when I am forced to be on the computer for a longish time doing something boring like a server migration or a netbackup or software installations. So, using my internet connection isnt always what I want to do.

Starcraft II is an EXCELLENT game to play against the also excellent AI. Even if you use cheats, if you play against 7 AI players, its still challenging and you can still lose. The Beta version of the game is identical in gameplay to the full game, AND it can still be played offline without any need for Battle.net so I have been playing that instead.

We pay to play the game, and they do not pay for our internet. So, wtf?

 

[Red Mage]

I have one PC game that required internet verification to play single player. It was severely annoying because if I had decided to take my laptop someplace, I was not able to play the game unless they had public wifi connection. It's becoming too much of a trend with PC gaming .That's why I partly perfer playing console games besides the handful genre of games that inherently better with a mouse and keyboard like RTS and point-and-click adventures. The last pc game I bought was probably Civ 4 Complete.

Sometimes I think Nintendo's backwards attitude towards online gaming is a actually a blessing in disguise. I would be surprised if I ever saw a Nintendo published game that required a user to log in to merely play single player mode since the company tries so hard to idiot proof everything about their games and consoles. Although some console games are now requiring DRM as well I mainly play handhelds and Nintendo's own games so I'm not really effected by it.

However, what if I lived in the middle of nowhere where dial up was the only internet option? XBox Live to my knowledge does not support dial up. That's the problem. That's cutting out a portion of the gaming population from playing their SINGLE player games all because of piracy paranoia.

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

Yes, even in Unreal Tournament 3 they tied it up with gamespy and you need to have gamespy acount to play online, not offline though, but you know when gamespy goes down the game is dead.
Not so in the older games, because anyone can set up their own master server and go with it. Unreal 2 XMP master server was shut down just few months after game release because Atari decided to close down Legend entertainment. But the community stood up and made their own master servers, some configuration was needed to make the servers be viewable, or later community edition was made including this config fix....but well not many people knew...and the game became rather dead anyway, but still can be played.

The only way to play UT3 after gamespy is dead would be to make a crack or community patch for the game, which would seem dubious at best.

 

[Overmind One]

That reminds me of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas

Yes, even in Unreal Tournament 3 they tied it up with gamespy and you need to have gamespy acount to play online, not offline though, but you know when gamespy goes down the game is dead.
Not so in the older games, because anyone can set up their own master server and go with it. Unreal 2 XMP master server was shut down just few months after game release because Atari decided to close down Legend entertainment. But the community stood up and made their own master servers, some configuration was needed to make the servers be viewable, or later community edition was made including this config fix....but well not many people knew...and the game became rather dead anyway, but still can be played.

The only way to play UT3 after gamespy is dead would be to make a crack or community patch for the game, which would seem dubious at best.

Yes, that is what sorta happened with GTA: San Andreas. Rockstar Games never created multiplayer, no a group of geeks created a multiplayer addon and now there is the Open Source Multi Theft Auto which is awesome and allows multiplayer over the internet without involving Rockstar at all. I love it! Compared to GTA4 and its asinine Rockstar Social Club, it rocks.

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

Yeah I guess, although with Unreal2 there was originally meant to be multiplayer and the game larger and less linear, but Atari forced legend to cut down that content, first to not compete with UT2003, then to have the game fit on two CDs only, although both games would be a lot different in MP anyway.

So basically Legend made a free multiplayer addon and then got closed down.

 

[Pariah]

It is annoying that you have to 'log in' to play single player these days, I mean loaded up Mass Effect 2, had an internet connection problem couldn't connect to EA account, can't play the game.

Are you playing with Steam/PC? I completed both Mass Effect 1 and 2 without having to do anything but log into my gamertag on the XBOX.

 

[tetrion]

Please don't laugh, but I'm a single player only type of gamer. I despise online gaming, and because of Oz's notoriously bad and pricey net connections (ridiculously low monthly caps), I never really got into it. Plus, I prefer a storyline to follow, and find repeating the same game map over and over bores me senseless. Plus, getting my butt handed to me by 12 y/o repeatedly just isn't fun.

I also find the absolute glut of FPS, and lack of other genres pisses me off. I'm a space shooter from the early Elite / WC days and having maybe one mediocre MMO space shooter a year that comes out, just isn't right. The last game I played had a total of 5 hours of playability, as they focused on the MP part than SP. So yeah, most new games suck as they force you to be online to play.

Anyway enough of my 'old guy' rambling...

 

[Overmind One]

I agree!

Please don't laugh, but I'm a single player only type of gamer. I despise online gaming, and because of Oz's notoriously bad and pricey net connections (ridiculously low monthly caps), I never really got into it. Plus, I prefer a storyline to follow, and find repeating the same game map over and over bores me senseless. Plus, getting my butt handed to me by 12 y/o repeatedly just isn't fun.

I also find the absolute glut of FPS, and lack of other genres pisses me off. I'm a space shooter from the early Elite / WC days and having maybe one mediocre MMO space shooter a year that comes out, just isn't right. The last game I played had a total of 5 hours of playability, as they focused on the MP part than SP. So yeah, most new games suck as they force you to be online to play.

Anyway enough of my 'old guy' rambling...

I agree! I enjoy playing against the game AI better than online, especially when I can add up to 8 AIO players and have extra hard difficulty. The AI in most RTS games is excellent these days. What I dont like is the required internet connection, even when Im playing single player. WTF? Before, you could be completely offline and play. Starcraft (original) is an awesome game to play laptop to laptop over an ad-hoc wireless connection. I burned out on FPS games after Quake II. Quake 3 Arena was crazy and no longer felt like Quake to me. But Grand Theft Auto San Andreas makes a GREAT multiplayer game!

BTW: Im probably older than you!

 

[Gatefan1976]

As I was discussing with OM1

Dawn of war 2 is good if you like RTS. Yes you need net access, but it lets you play "offline" as well. If you like more "squad based" RTS's with actual character development (via skill tree) and upgrade-able Equipment in a futuristic environment, it is really cool. (It uses the "steam" engine as well) You can also two team multiplay, have "random missions", and a up to 3 player "single character" co-op deathmatch against hordes of enemies!:beckettu:

Very cool game.

 

[ParagonPie]

I agree! I enjoy playing against the game AI better than online, especially when I can add up to 8 AIO players and have extra hard difficulty. The AI in most RTS games is excellent these days. What I dont like is the required internet connection, even when Im playing single player. WTF? Before, you could be completely offline and play. Starcraft (original) is an awesome game to play laptop to laptop over an ad-hoc wireless connection. I burned out on FPS games after Quake II. Quake 3 Arena was crazy and no longer felt like Quake to me. But Grand Theft Auto San Andreas makes a GREAT multiplayer game!

BTW: Im probably older than you!

Well I warned you about the internet connection required to play single player hehe

. I can never get over that, does my head in truly. Like I tried to play Dawn of War 2 a while back, you need steam and a windows live account to which to set up an xbox live account. I'm on the PC why do I need an xbox live account? Oh right for some gamer score points and achievements which really aren't fucking achievements more like compulsory to the mission I've just done.

Anyways, my best online play was actually through Operation Flashpoint (resistance expansion) online Cooperative, it was awesome, imagine 45 players armed with Modern US/Nato military equipment against 450 AI with Soviet era tanks, aircraft etc, and then trying to complete objectives. OP:R was the kind of game were if you stood in the open some sniper from 600 metres away would take you out, best of all I was actually a really good sniper in that game pinging moving targets at like 800 metres with an M21 DMR .

 

[tetrion]

Cheers OM1, at least I don't feel like such an anti-social grumpy old man now... No offense! The only FPS I'll get into are the Star Wars themed ones, I tend to find the others are quite derivative and banal.

 

[stargate1990]

I am also a fan of single player more than multiplayer, i don't mind co op or multiplayer as a choice but to me there's nothing better than a good story in a game, i don't buy PC games that much anymore with all that verification BS.

 

[theOldOne]

The PC platform is dying a slow death

It's all about hack'n'slash, in the case of RPG's and the PC gets ignored as well(I'm looking at you, Fable 2) and most PC games suffer from terrible graphics due to being ported from their console conterparts.

Sorry for the rant, just needed to get it out of my system...