Forum > Blogs > This is the End
This is the End
avatar
Country: AU
Comments: 18997
News Posts: 9025
Joined: 2008-08-18
 
Wed, 17 Nov 2021 06:54:18
+2

This is the end, the beautiful end my friend of AAA games for AAAspro.  I can no longer be the gamer I want to be. I have not been able to play Call of Duty for three years now due to the large downloads. Bethesda is on my banned list, and their first person shooters and RPG's have been an important part of my gaming life.  But Doom 2 (2020) was a complete cluster when it came to actually trying to play the game.

A couple of days ago I bought Rage 2 from Amazon, because I like games that didn't quite make it into the cool kids bus.  As reflected in the forums, I then realized it's a Bethesda game, so the physical copy I just bought, which used to mean I owned the game and could play it off the disc, but now means I essentially bought the right to download the game, and then patch it.  This is not an optional patch, nor is it small, it's 27 gigabytes and the game will not start without it.  Forget the fact that I'll never use it's online features.  If I just wanted to play it on my console (which I think I still own, I have not read the EULA updates from Microsoft) and enjoy the game with the launch glitches or other foibles I can't.

In no other medium would this be acceptable. Imagine buying a Blu Ray disc and it not allowing you watch it until it patched.  If not for the demise of physical media, I'm sure we would get to that point the other day.

My daughter was holding a wooden block the other day as if it were a Gameboy.  I asked her waht she was doing, she said she was playing a "bideo game" which prompted me to ask, "Which one?" She replied, "Rocket League, but it's still uptaking (updating)". I hope they figure it out by the time she wants to be a gamer, because for me right now, other than indy games and games from Japan (which somehow amazingly can be made well enough the first time that they don;t need constant updates) are my only choice.

avatar
Country: US
Comments: 16607
News Posts: 2684
Joined: 2008-06-21
 
Wed, 17 Nov 2021 11:39:11
+1
As long as most gamers are willing to buy incomplete games, it will never change, sadly. The gaming industry has conditioned us that 27GB day one patches is normal and physical media isn't game ownership. It's depressing.

The only modern game company I still buy physical media for is Nintendo. And I'm not sure how long they will hold out.

The VG Press

avatar
Country: US
Comments: 17602
News Posts: 762
Joined: 2009-02-25
 
Wed, 17 Nov 2021 12:57:31
+1
Yeah it is one of the most negative aspects of our little hobby. I've already seen the disappointment a child faces when they get a new game for Christmas and they have to wait a couple hours to download a patch before they can play it. Waiting days or weeks? Dear God, now it seems nothing less than cruel.

Another side effect of this is the cost of game storage now. A 500 GB hard drive wouldn't hold a quarter of my PS4 collection. One of these days I'm going to have to drop zone money for a new hard drive to ensure that I'll have access to these games for at least a few years.
avatar
Country: AU
Comments: 18997
News Posts: 9025
Joined: 2008-08-18
 
Thu, 18 Nov 2021 07:25:51
0

Thanks for your comments guys.  Just to give Bethesda a fair trial I turned off my internet and put the disc in.  It got further, sure to a menu that snidely pointed out that I was offline, and how "alone" I would be and how "left out" I would be while my friends touted all the fun they were having online.

And guess what. All the buttons to advance were disabled. No way to play the game.

What a bunch of assholes.

avatar
Country: AU
Comments: 18997
News Posts: 9025
Joined: 2008-08-18
 
Thu, 18 Nov 2021 07:26:46
0
Ravenprose said:
As long as most gamers are willing to buy incomplete games, it will never change, sadly. The gaming industry has conditioned us that 27GB day one patches is normal and physical media isn't game ownership. It's depressing.


The only modern game company I still buy physical media for is Nintendo. And I'm not sure how long they will hold out.

In this, and many other regards the switch has been primo. Long live the switch!

avatar
Country: BE
Comments: 7979
News Posts: 583
Joined: 2013-06-11
 
Thu, 18 Nov 2021 13:26:34
+1
aspro said:

Thanks for your comments guys.  Just to give Bethesda a fair trial I turned off my internet and put the disc in.  It got further, sure to a menu that snidely pointed out that I was offline, and how "alone" I would be and how "left out" I would be while my friends touted all the fun they were having online.

And guess what. All the buttons to advance were disabled. No way to play the game.

What a bunch of assholes.

That's incredible.  Does it clearly say on the box that there is a mandatory download?

aspro said:

In this, and many other regards the switch has been primo. Long live the switch!

And long it will live.  Nintendo spoke out last week about how they expect the Switch to live on for many more years to come.

avatar
Country: US
Comments: 16607
News Posts: 2684
Joined: 2008-06-21
 
Thu, 18 Nov 2021 16:14:13
+1

I'm tempted to see how many of my physical PS4 games will run with a disk install-only. John with Digital Foundry made a statement recently in one of their QA videos that most modern games are still fully playable solely from a disk install but I was skeptical; even more so now with Aspro's experiance.

in the 360/PS3 days, I would often wait for the GOTY edition to have a more complete disk copy. Those don't seem as common anymore.

Edited: Thu, 18 Nov 2021 16:30:30

The VG Press

avatar
Country: AU
Comments: 18997
News Posts: 9025
Joined: 2008-08-18
 
Fri, 19 Nov 2021 08:14:42
0
SupremeAC said:
aspro said:

Thanks for your comments guys.  Just to give Bethesda a fair trial I turned off my internet and put the disc in.  It got further, sure to a menu that snidely pointed out that I was offline, and how "alone" I would be and how "left out" I would be while my friends touted all the fun they were having online.

And guess what. All the buttons to advance were disabled. No way to play the game.

What a bunch of assholes.

That's incredible.  Does it clearly say on the box that there is a mandatory download?

Of course not. And that's why, if I could bother I think the consumer rights agency of our government down here would throw the book at these guys.  Our consumer rights agency is kick-ass, they've been bugging the hell out of Steam and other game companies for years.

https://gameunder.net/gameunderhome/2017/1/3/valve-fined-3-million-for-breaching-australian-consumer-laws?rq=accc

avatar
Country: AU
Comments: 18997
News Posts: 9025
Joined: 2008-08-18
 
Fri, 19 Nov 2021 08:20:39
0
Ravenprose said:

I'm tempted to see how many of my physical PS4 games will run with a disk install-only. John with Digital Foundry made a statement recently in one of their QA videos that most modern games are still fully playable solely from a disk install but I was skeptical; even more so now with Aspro's experiance.

in the 360/PS3 days, I would often wait for the GOTY edition to have a more complete disk copy. Those don't seem as common anymore.

I was amazed the other day when I put in a copy of Homefront for PS3 and there was no update!  It was also amazing how fast one got to the actual game compared to these days.  We've gone backwards, guys.  Hell, I'm not saying we need to get to the SNES cartridge time-to-game, hell, I'd settle for PS2 and PS3 era standards.  But these days the thing that puts me off console gaming is the ramp-up time and the high likelihood that I'll have to install an update in the 20-30 minute window I have to game.

I have to say, another area in which the Switch is superior.  From the time you click on a game to when you are playing is responsive on a level of PS2 era games.

avatar
Country: BE
Comments: 7979
News Posts: 583
Joined: 2013-06-11
 
Fri, 19 Nov 2021 14:51:01
+1
aspro said:

Of course not. And that's why, if I could bother I think the consumer rights agency of our government down here would throw the book at these guys.  Our consumer rights agency is kick-ass, they've been bugging the hell out of Steam and other game companies for years.

https://gameunder.net/gameunderhome/2017/1/3/valve-fined-3-million-for-breaching-australian-consumer-laws?rq=accc

I think Switch games have it on the box if there's a mandatory download.  I seem to recall some basketball game even mentionning it on the front of the box.

aspro said:

I was amazed the other day when I put in a copy of Homefront for PS3 and there was no update!  It was also amazing how fast one got to the actual game compared to these days.  We've gone backwards, guys.  Hell, I'm not saying we need to get to the SNES cartridge time-to-game, hell, I'd settle for PS2 and PS3 era standards.  But these days the thing that puts me off console gaming is the ramp-up time and the high likelihood that I'll have to install an update in the 20-30 minute window I have to game.

I have to say, another area in which the Switch is superior.  From the time you click on a game to when you are playing is responsive on a level of PS2 era games.

I'm the same.  I have some Xbone games I'd like to play, but by the time they've booted up and loaded, my enthousiasm has faded.  I only put up with BL3 because we're playing it co-op over the internet.

avatar
Country: CA
Comments: 13980
News Posts: 0
Joined: 2008-07-01
 
Mon, 22 Nov 2021 04:51:22
+1

Yeah it really sucks with a lot of these games these days needing these huge patches.

1176413.png

avatar
Country: CA
Comments: 31718
News Posts: 1717
Joined: 2008-06-22
 
Wed, 01 Dec 2021 19:14:26
I am complicit in supporting all these practices despite not liking them so I can’t say shit. Sadly it’s just the way the industry is heading. Yesterday I got Returnal and I threw in the disc knowing it would take like 20 minutes before it would install and update, so I made and ate dinner in the meantime. I know to adjust now.
660896.png
avatar
Country: GB
Comments: 47998
News Posts: 59775
Joined: 2008-06-21
 
Sat, 18 Dec 2021 21:12:55
I couldn't play gta v without an update. And thank god the 360 servers still had it available.

What happens in the future when your old system goes down and you buy a replacement. But you can't then download a required update to play a game?

Tbh I can only buy and play switch games cause even the biggest downloads are usually under 9gb.

If every game was 20gb plus, it wouldn't be feasible to go digital without deleting half your stuff.

avatar
Country: US
Comments: 6467
News Posts: 413
Joined: 2008-06-21
 
Mon, 27 Dec 2021 18:03:15
There are an array of sad Christmas stories of kids getting games or consoles, then not being able to play them for the next 3 days as they wait for downloads to finish.

---

Tell me to get back to rewriting this site so it's not horrible on mobile
avatar
Country: US
Comments: 16607
News Posts: 2684
Joined: 2008-06-21
 
Mon, 27 Dec 2021 18:27:18
+1
Kinda rminds me of when my dad bought me an Atari 2600 for my 9th birthday on our way out of town for a few days. He thought he could hook it up the hotel's TV but no. All I could do was look at the box and hold the joysticks until we returned home. Pure hell.

The VG Press

Log in or Register for free to comment
Recently Spotted:
*crickets*
Login @ The VG Press
Username:
Password:
Remember me?