“To be or not to be, is the question” he said that Hamlet once upon a time but unfortunately he wasn’t talking about video games. However, Majsan does and I’m not going to rhyme about it. I like quality games, really fat killer games with a lot of money behind them, a whole army of the best game developers behind the levers and smart publishers who understand the thing about giving their tinkerers in the video game workshop the time they need to make the game the best possible and above all ready in time for the release. So we’re not talking about some bug-festing half-measures that are only there to make money, where the companies don’t care in the least about their customers. But of course even promised quality can turn into quantity if the points I listed earlier are not followed even if a fat wallet finances the project.
Unfortunately, we have seen it all too often. Who can forget one of 2020’s most recommended games before release, Cyberpunk 2077? We here at the editorial office, for example, had it on our “Hottest 2020 list” in a nice second place and used big words where we sat and longed and we were not alone. This was a game that had great developers behind it, a huge budget to play with and that released incredible trailers that made the entire gaming world hold its breath and just slowly count the days until the adventure would be in our possession. And what did we get right away at the premiere? Well, a broken, glitchy, unfinished, flat and unstable game from the moment we put the disc in our consoles and it only got up to a measly five in rating. The fact that they have fixed parts of it today and that it would now generate a higher rating does not belong here, they were careless and lost themselves and many will only remember the first few hours they played. But that’s not the only glitch party we’ve been invited to. Who can forget Battlefield 2042 and Call of Duty:Warzone 2.0? No Mans Sky, Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Aliens: Colonial Marines which were all released in sim condition at launch can only be described as buggy gltch parties? At the same time I can of course understand the publishers, there is a lot of money at stake, winning a market and also the importance of which time of the year brings the best sales.
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Players scream and hate online when games are delayed, but at the same time, they should be grateful that they have a finished adventure in their hands instead. Otherwise, it’s like buying a car with only half the bodywork finished, of course it’s a car but you can neither sit in it nor drive it, which means that it loses its entire function. And frankly, publishers and developers should care more about their customers than they often do. Because just like all sellers, after all, you want the customer to buy from you again and nobody goes back to the place that sold a broken item at full price, right? But at the same time, we players are ridiculously stupid who buy the crap over and over again, which results in them not having to improve because the clover still falls in. The last time I did it was when Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition was released. Even though I read and heard what a grease it was, Majsan had to have it and thus I helped grease their fat wallets on a lazy and sloppy job. And it’s all rooted in the fact that we don’t really believe that something we may have once loved can turn out bad. At least for me it was like that with GTA, the developers Rockstar have sort of been the game company that I have never been disappointed with. They have always met my expectations and more and have always been careful with their product name for better or for worse. But my trust has gotten a thorn now forever, now I must always listen to what others say even if I might not do what they say.
But I will listen anyway. Because even though I always think I know best, you and I both know that’s not the case. Or yes, not always anyway. And if we as consumers had slammed our fist on the table and refused to buy their broken crap, maybe we would have succeeded in reversing this, which seems to have become a trend, that the game developers actually have the guts to sell us broken products. And it seems that we gamers are quite patient customers. Who would buy a TV that doesn’t work properly and not return it? But we gamers sit there with our rough buggy game and try to play our way despite the most basic thing in the game just fucking with us. We can wait for weeks, for months and tragically for years for game developers to read our tears that we spill on various forums about how their broken games keep us from progressing and hope they finally get off the wagon and fix the problems. What other consumer had done just that? Sit back and think it will work out? No. Not a single bastard. So that’s why I tend to stick with the good studios, the ones that consistently deliver quality.
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Those who are still proud of their name and don’t want it tarnished. But are they still there? Or is it just a quick race for money? The green greedy monster that constantly shows its ugly snout? Because games are not cheap these days, they cost the shirt for us players and also the consoles we play on and the controllers we play with. Then I can marvel at what an incredible pile of crap is actually produced, where really bad games get their sequels time and time again. And then there are games that sell well that never get a chance for a sequel. The math just doesn’t add up for me. Days Gone is a good example. Personally, I thought the game was really good and thoroughly enjoyed cruising around as Deacon St. John on his Harley with a horde of undead biting his ass. But Sony put an end to a two even when the demand was there. There is even an online petition with several hundred thousand voices calling for a sequel. But the odds of that are ridiculously small, unfortunately.
But hope is the last thing to give up yet right? The downside to only chasing the quality games is that they are few and far between and the wait between games is long. And the dozens of games released don’t appeal to me in the least, nor do indie games so many old games get to revisit the console instead. Why play a bad game when you can play something you know is really good? So right now it is The Last of Us 2 that is being played in Majsan’s Residence. The TV series has rekindled my appetite and now it’s clickers, revenge and bloodlust that apply to me. Why is my backlog just growing? Nah, here we play the safe card, who wants to waste their life on games that suck apple juice?
What game have you been terribly disappointed with that didn’t live up to its promise at release?
