… in one package, that’s Sim City 5. To wit:
– Overpromise
– Underdeliver (bordering on flat out fraud)
– We still buy a lacking product
It should be put in a time capsule and buried for the benefit of future historians. Sure, a mix of these three issues are common in most games, but SC5 is pretty much close to the ideal. Or as close as we got in years.
(Edit: changed the 4 to a 5, because apparently I can’t tell the difference. Numbers are hard!)
It is EA. No surprises there. They just want to lock people into their shitty Origin service.
@Mekhios – So it’s ok for Valve to lock people into their service with Steam but not other publishers like EA or Ubisoft? I don’t get why people are so willing to defend on product or service over another with such zeal to the point of hypocrisy.
Do I like having more than one client to launch a game from – not really. People complain about Origin all the time, yet I’ve had no issue with it what so ever. I’m sure there are those who have had “real” technical issues cause that does happen, but I bet most are just too closed minded and complain for no good reason.
Before you get your knickers in a knot I will clarify. The Origin service is a poorly designed service. It does not have the features or flexibility of the Steam service. EA has had ample time to improve it yet it is basically nothing more than a game launcher and it doesn’t even do that very well.
Even the Desura service works better than Origin and the Desura folks have far less funding and resources available to them than EA has. As we all know EA are a bunch of money grabbing bastards and that is why they left the Steam service. So now they release exclusively on Origin.
Times are changing though and EA has finally opened up Origin to other publishers.
Disclaimer : I have not bought Battlefield 3 nor SimCity because of Origin.
“EA are a bunch of money grabbing bastards” => Like all companies in the world ! The difference between Valve and EA, is that Valve think that Notoriety and Image as a good publisher is important for their sales.
“They just want to lock people into their shitty Origin service.” True, but it is the only way to launch a successful service ! Valve have done the same with HalfLife2, TF2, CSsource, and Portal – and now with Deus EX:HR and Dishonored when you buy the Box.
After years of gaming, we have sucessfully import the Console War to our computer ! In the next few years, there will be a war on distributor exclusivity to force us to to choose (or install multiple) game providers. The one(s) who will win will have a lot of money, other will be crushed.
What’s the other 25%, out of curiosity?
How hermetic the industry is when it comes to careers.
You mean Sim City 5, right? SC4 came out like 10 years go (and is a better game comparatively).
Edited. Thank you. You know I can’t count. ;)
…in pretty much every department other than graphics & sounds (and even the graphics might be better, depending on your stylistic preferences).
The Network Addon Mod makes SC4 even better (especially given how lobotomized SC5’s traffic simulation is).
http://www.moddb.com/mods/network-addon-mod
“EA are a bunch of money grabbing bastards†=> Like all companies in the world ! The difference between Valve and EA, is that Valve think that Notoriety and Image as a good publisher is important for their sales.
That’s because your a stupid animal with less sense than a dog.
There are real lines that real people running real businesses won’t cross. These lines vary considerably from business to business.
I’ve had people give me small parts or advice without charging.
I’ve had people demand $50 an hour with no time cap to “diagnose” a problem that takes 15 minutes to diagnose after I have already told them what the problem is. I know, blah blah blah it’s right. Well, it’s considerably less good than what the people above did.
We have companies, like many car companies, who deliberately make certain parts very breakable so they can charge for them. And they deliberately over-charge.
Then we have companies like Exxon who wipe out whole fishing towns in Alaska and refuse to pay for damages that are both clearly their fault(Valdez) measurable(I fished x last year and now I can’t fish cause your tanker poisoned the water!) by deliberately tying it up in court for years and years and refusing to pay a dime. The mayor of the town committed suicide after one of the dancing Federal Judges busted a particularly clever move.
And I have had people tell me, after I say “I want service X for problem y” that “X probably won’t help Y, you should do Z(for which they don’t get money)”.
It’s surprising the author has failed to observe this in his life.