PCGP Episode #196: Not For You
Name your gooey price and wave goodbye to the naysayers. Cryptic words unless you listen to this fair podcast and learn about World of Goo’s sale and the L4D2 boycott. While you are at it hear discussion of Zuma, tardy demos, Dawn of War 2 add-ons and much more.
October 15th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Left 4 Dead 1.5 :yawn:
Any episode 200 cast members penciled in yet?
October 15th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
I think it will be fantastic.
October 15th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
OHHHHHHHHH MYYYYYYYYY GOOOOOOOOOOOD
YOU BETTER NOT BE SHITTIN’ ME, DECKER.
October 15th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
LADIES LIFT YOUR SHIRTS! *guitar solo*
October 15th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
I think pirating a game because you’ve already payed for it and selling an infinitely reproducible product are totally different things. I have pirated stuff in the past, but I would never sell any of my games. Developers don’t get anything for that.
October 15th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Logan:
Not all games are point and click. What about Street Fighter 4 and other fighting games?
October 16th, 2009 at 12:14 am
You guys totally neglected to mention the whole Social Network that Bioware has created around Dragon Age and subsequent Bioware games. The site is a cross between Facebook and Sourceforge. It will bring together the community and modders. You also didn’t mention the ring you get for uploading your character to the site or the extensive game and toolset wikis. The thing is awesome and totally addictive.
October 16th, 2009 at 7:41 am
Fallout 3 GotY is currently $43.99 at Amazon, which means I can basically buy all of the DLC without having to deal with the Games for Windows marketplace, then just install it all in one big lump after the Windows 7 upgrade next week. Score!
October 16th, 2009 at 8:28 am
On the demo development bit, totally right on the mark. PC Gamer Editor = Pro Game Journalist!
You guys put most of the other gaming news writers to shame!
October 16th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Thanks for the heads up on World of Goo for “how much you want to pay for it” I bought it on the wii some time ago, and I loved it, so I naturally didn’t pay as much as I would have for another PC copy, but don’t worry, @D boy got what they deserved for that great game!
October 16th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
I picked up world of Goo a few months ago and as someone who isn’t famous nor has a video game critic reputation, I can totally recommend this game if you haven’t played it. If this recommendation isn’t good enough for you, then nothing will be!
But seriously, world of goo is excellent - very laid back, lovely art style, great puzzles.
October 16th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
I just got the DAO character creator and I think that the models in that game are quite possibly the most realistic I’ve seen in a game yet. I was trying to think what had better ones and the only game I could think of was Crysis and theirs were ruined by the horrible facial animations (which I think Crytek said were done with them saying the lines into a webcam).
Not to go on about how awesome DAO is going to be, but I was intrigued by the skill system, which appeared to have skills which you unlocked by increasing your attributes. I thought this seemed like a cool idea, because in games like that I usually just auto-level my attributes and focus on feat, etc.
October 16th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Is PC Gamer going to start up a Bioware Social Network group?
October 16th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
I buy all my games on Steam even if they cost more because I like to keep all my games in one place. I’ll stick with Steam because I don’t like having to go to different services to download the game and then forget where I bought it in the future. Also Steam is great because Valve will always innovate and put features on it developers will use in the future. I mean Theres the great Steam server browser which is way better than the GFWL one and theres the Steam achievements and community pages and everything else they’ll add into the future. I also like how installs are a click of a button.
I just hope developers ditch the horrible GFWL or Microsoft get their act together with GFWL. For one thing I hate seeing bars showing my ping it’s like the green bar could be 1 - 100 and thats not a good indication of my ping. BRING BACK PING NUMBERS FFS!!! I hate all the matchmaking crap when all I want is a good server browser like Steam has.
Frigging try to play a multiplayer game through all the menus of GTA 4 and everyother game that uses GFWL it’s horrible.
October 16th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Ati cards are always just as good and if not more powerful than the Nvidia cards of the same price. The problem with Ati is when their cards come out they don’t have proper drivers for them so their performance suffers and shows bad on benchmarks. However after a couple drivers then they’re kicking arse. I mean when I saw the benchmarks of my 3870X2 they were horrible but I’m getting double the performance outta the reviews. I mean my 3870X2 can max out Crysis with 40FPS on 1080p and I can max out GTA 4. Yet reviews say I wouldn’t even be able to handle the games like lol.
The great thing about ATI now though is they offer better performance for your money than Nvidia. I really like how I can buy a 5870 for peanuts and know I’m getting a powerful card. Where with Nvidia you’d be paying more.
October 17th, 2009 at 10:07 am
I think that that is why some people stay with Nvidia, but the thing is, sometimes ATI makes a misstep, for example, in my laptop I have an ATI radion Mobility 4670 (1gb) and I’m wondering, where’s the power? this is running terrible! I know I should be able to at least get better performance than my desktop’s Nvidia 8600 (512 mb) I know laptops aren’t the best performers, but I can barely crack 30fps on a system that, for all intents and purposes (ram and proc included) should have twice the power of my desktop (which would easily run the same game at 40-50 fps) I don’t know if it’s the mobility cards themselves or if it’s the drivers, but I am not a happy camper with this ATI card.
besides, I’ve never ever had a problem with Nvidia cards. I bought the 8600 to run BioShock and it worked flawlessly, install was a cakewalk (sweep the old ati drivers, shut it down, install the Nvidia card, install new drivers, reboot) and I had 100% stability on that card. It was totally worth the money.
October 17th, 2009 at 11:47 am
Kotaku: FourZeroTwo: Modern Warfare 2 is Not Delayed on PC
From Robert Bowling’s Twitter, good news for PC gamers - “No delay on PC for Modern Warfare 2,” says the Infinity Ward community manager, debunking earlier rumors that it was on hold for two weeks past its original drop date.
Furthermore: “You’ll also have Prestige Mode in PC as well as lots of Steam support,” Bowling writes. No word yet on minimum PC specifications, but “hopefully” they will come soon, he adds.
http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/liNusva7NVc/fourzerotwo-modern-warfare-2-is-not-delayed-on-pc
October 17th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Apparently COD MW2 will have no dedicated server or mod support.
If this is true then it’s just another step towards the consoles dumbing down gaming. Another franchise that started on the PC and then being ruined by consoles….
I just hope it turns out to be wrong and IW address it.
October 17th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
For the person having problems with their ATI laptop. Well it depends what game it is and what resolution you’re running in. It depends on the rest of your system and you’re OS and lots of other factors.
You can always download…
http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool.php
The Mobility modder and download normal Ati Drivers and it mods them for the mobility cards. It’s what I do and never had a problem with my Laptop that has an Ati card. The Mobility drivers are useless so better to just use desktop drivers and use the modder tool.
October 17th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
@Just BE
It’s not the “consoles dumbing down the PC” , it’s Infinity Ward.
Fewer and fewer Developers are PC exclusive or PC lead for their games, and now we’re paying the ultimate price. No mods and Dedis is a major letdown. Bottom line, IW wants a way to charge for DLC in a very structured way. I don’t mind STEAM integration, but this IWnet program is what’s ridding the PC from what makes it so great in the first place.
-1000 to IW
October 17th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
I just played the Wolfenstein demo. It’s not changing my mind, even at the current GoGamer sale price of $25.
For what it’s worth, nostalgia is not a factor here — this was my first Wolfenstein experience. I agree with what’s been said about the guns in that they have an amazing feel and sound. But everything else felt bland. Enemies, level design, etc. I found myself very bored within five minutes and eventually quit the demo before playing all the way through.
If this demo was released when the game went gold or even on ship day I might have another opinion. Beyond Ghostbusters, summer gaming was nothing but a MMO for me. I could have seen myself buying the game at that point, but now that we’re in a-list season (which looks like it’ll be a few months longer this year) I’m not going to bother.
The late demo and two months of reading mediocre “it’s decent, but you’ve done it before” reviews killed the game for me.
October 18th, 2009 at 3:09 am
Well this means COD MW2 sucks and I hope noone on PC buys it. If you do buy it then you’re just supporting this and should feck off to consoles.
October 18th, 2009 at 9:49 am
@Just Be I think that’ll send the wrong message. Less PC sales means less resources dedicated to the platform next time around.
October 18th, 2009 at 10:32 am
No it would send them the message that the game sucks and we don’t want their shit on out Platform. COD 4 didn’t do any of this crap and sold well so tbh low sales on this game would point at the changes.
No dedicated servers :\ What a fucking joke.
Infact if you buy it you wanted the Nazis to win lol.
October 18th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Here’s the petition for what it’s worth, get everyone on there to sign it, already over 25,000 sigs in less than 24 hours…and the L4D2 horse’s asses thought they had numbers, let’s get this f’er over a million. IW doesn’t care about the PC, but maybe Activision will when they start worrying about lost sales:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?dedis4mw
October 18th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
I agree with WebScud and to be totally honest, I never played COD4 for the mod support. No dedicated servers isn’t so great but I don’t do much multiplayer gaming so not much of an issue.
Might sign petition.
October 19th, 2009 at 12:40 am
Hitler weighs in on the lack of dedicated server support in MW2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FKty5Kpf4w
October 19th, 2009 at 10:01 am
About the CoDMW2 News:
Well, imo, a matchmaking system will not effect casual gamers in the slightest. In fact, it probably makes it easier as those people have less clicks to get straight to the game. When I bought L4D, my guild did not take the game up, so I was essentially a casual L4D player. I actually didn’t mind the matching making process. I start up the game, and I am just a click away from joining a game and plugging away. Considering the casual buyers make up the bulk of the sales, this seems like a pure business decision to me.
However, I view this as a slap to gaming communities in general, and especially competitive gaming. Furthermore, I view this as a step backwards in terms of gamers having ownership and control over games they buy, and publishers exerting more control over how the customers play their game. With CoD4/WaW my guild has dedicated servers that we have control over. We tweaked the settings the way we felt best. Sure, not all the pubbers liked it, but it is our server, take it or leave it. Oftentimes, pubbers become regular guests to the server adding to the community atmosphere of these games.
Since there is basically no information on this new matching making service, I can’t really say too much else on the matching making service. All I can say is that I was very exited about CoDMW2 and waiting for it to pop up on Steam so I could snag it, but now I am cautiously pessimistic to wait-and-see what happens next.
October 19th, 2009 at 10:56 am
I’m with you guys on the $49.99 vs $50 garbage, it’s the same thing as saving the extra $0.001 per gallon of gas.
October 19th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Mass Effect 2 release date January 26th in NA and January 29th in EU.
AWESOME!!!
October 20th, 2009 at 9:50 am
I like DICE’s twitter feed…
Dedicated servers FTW!
So here’s to hoping Bad Company 2 will be freaking awesome b/c CODMW2 for the PC can go suck it! I cancelled my pre-order..and I’m a competitive gamer in competitive gaming clan looking forward to MW2…not anymore.
October 20th, 2009 at 10:45 am
I like laughing at the MW2 whining, then again I’ve never like Call of Duty games, so I don’t care either way. what I am looking forward to is L4D2 (less than a month to go.. awesome) and Dragon Age Origins, this will be my first Dragon age game and first Bioware fantasy game, so we’ll see how it goes.
Anyway, have you all seen Google’s Wave? it looks pretty awesome thus far, I know a few people who’ve gotten invites, but since the user base is so small still they don’t get to use it that much
October 20th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Gamz jarnalizm question for the podcast:
When you get review builds for games, are these builds usually buggier than the average finished game? Is it hard to gauge the bugginess of a review build versus what you think the final code will be like (considering each game has its own level of bugginess), and tell if the finished code will be fixed?
October 20th, 2009 at 11:55 am
. “We thought maybe it would be cool if the fans could play the game,” he laughs.
I give up on PC gaming tbh because it’s only gonna get worse with developers treating everyone like retards. I mean its not hard to use a server browser.
Everyones just become stupid this generation I swear and podcasts like this will have people who stick up for them because they’re fucking retarded too. You watch them take the piss outta all us who have the brain to setup a server and know how to create maps.
October 20th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Remember to enter the PCG Zune contest/survey.
Too bad it isn’t open to residents of Canada
October 20th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
@ Ride, Uh, it’s everybodies first Dragon Age game. Looks awesome though.
October 20th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
@Aeshir - Nope, review builds are the finished game. Occasionally the installer will not be finalized, but developers and publishers know that any bugs that show up in the review build will show up in the review, so they’re not going to send us something that doesn’t work right if they can help it.
October 20th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
There’s been previous Dragon Age titles, but none by Bioware, I thought… pehaps I heard/thought wrong?
anyway, it looks very good, so I will definitely try it.
@ Just Be-
I am getting very annoyed with your pessimistic attitude and your complaining, “I give up on PC gaming tbh…” then go do something else and stop complaining here “…developers treating everyone like retards….” yes, some developers are doing direct console ports, however, it seems that lots of developers, are not, look at BioWare look at Valve, not all developers are like Infinity Ward, even though Infinity isn’t the worst I’ve seen.
“Everyones just become stupid this generation…” really? it’s ‘Everyone’s just becoming’ or ‘Everyone has just become’ if you’re going to talk about people being stupid use proper grammar please. Then you go and cuss us all out, here’s a hint for you; YOU DON’T ENJOY PC GAMING GO SOMEWHERE ELSE! You say they take away any power you have to make maps or run a server. How many FPS games in the past two years have cut dedicated servers and custom maps? That’s right, not many. MW2 is the first I’ve seen that doesn’t have dedicated servers. Even if it doesn’t have aboveboard mod support people will make mods.
Now, if you insist to call all PC gamers “f***ing retards” and complain incessantly, I think it would be prudent for you to take it where there are no PC gamers and where you will most likely not get flamed to the ends of the Earth.
October 20th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
@ Just Be:
My son just turned 8. He plays COD W@W all the time. He’s figured out a server browser no problem. I just keep in game voip off for him, and he owns. We were both looking forward to MW2..not anymore. This is the first game I’ve ever had hate fever about and signed the stupid petition that doesn’t mean squat and joined this steam group:
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/MW2-Boycotting
This also delayed me building a new i7 system as well, so I’m sure intel is happy to hear that, and no need to get the new bad ass ATI card as well just yet. My 8800GT is still rocking, but I was going to drop over a grand into some new hardware. Now I’ll just wait for next year. 2010 looks good for DICE games. BF1943, Bad Company 2, and then BF3. CYA IW!
October 20th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Great article by Michael Fahey on his EQ addiction:
http://kotaku.com/5384643/i-kept-playing–the-costs-of-my-gaming-addiction
October 21st, 2009 at 8:44 am
So… I may eventually call in about this whole Borderlands screwup, maybe, maybe not, but I remember on the #195 podcast there was some discussion about the possibility of these PC-only delays for games not being for the reasons provided (i.e. not for ‘extra polish’, etc).
It looks like with Borderlands, the suspicions are true. It’s not 100% certain yet (-maybe- they have a release-day patch ready for the game or something), but it -is- pretty evident that 2K Games delayed the game for either marketing or piracy related reasons only.
A) The PC version of the game was in boxes in stores such as Best Buy and Gamestop on the 16th, four days BEFORE the console release date. Some stores even had the retail boxes on the shelves for a little while on the 16th, before someone tried to buy one and their computer systems stopped them with a release date warning.
B) Best Buy, Amazon, Wal-Mart, and Gamestop (plus possibly others) were publishing the 20th as the PC release date, even right up until the 20th itself. This includes Best Buy and Gamestop sending out emails saying that the game could be picked up on the 20th that were sent out on the 19th.
C) A Gearbox employee had to call his own Best Buy, confirm that they too were advertising the 20th, before calling 2K Games to tell them of the issue. (Amazingly, this Gearbox employee was the guy in charge of the Starforce…er, SecuROM stuff on the disc, and only heard about the early release date on a live chat inside of a live stream of a street-date broken Xbox 360 version of the game that started up on the 16th. Not the half-dozen threads on their forums, he heard about it on an obscure video channel.)
D) The PC version is currently sitting, locked up, inside locked storage areas inside Best Buys. No idea what other retailers are doing, but they all (probably still) have copies of the game.
E) Currently printed discs all have an activation based DRM scheme that is date-locked. They’re calling it a ‘release date lock’, and installing the game requires activation on an internet server to confirm that the release date has passed. Supposedly, future discs that are replicated after the release date will not have this layer of anti-consumer protection.
What does this all boil down to? The PC version was ready to go when the console version was, it’s sitting in stores, and retailers are just having to sit on their hands to abide by the 2K Games imposed delay, a delay that supposedly was for “extra polish”, but unless they’ve got a 0-day patch ready, it’s all a bunch of big fat lies.
TL;DR: Borderlands’ 6 day delay for polish on the PC was a lie, and was just (probably) a marketing decision, possibly due to piracy concerns.
A) http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=75861
B) C) http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=76472
D) http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showpost.php?p=1565508&postcount=7
E) http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=75949
And I predict Dan still won’t believe it.
October 21st, 2009 at 9:19 am
I predict you’re right.
October 21st, 2009 at 10:53 am
@Moleculor - If Borderlands were made by any other developer, I’d be far more suspicious. But let’s just say they have a certain reputation when it comes to hitting dates. Also, since when is a zero-day patch the slightest bit unusual?
October 21st, 2009 at 11:30 am
I don’t know what reputation 2K Games or Gearbox has for hitting dates. Nor do I know what that has to do with the delay of a game that was ready five days ago. Regardless of what reputation they have, they -said- it needed to be delayed to the 26th. It was -ready- on the 16th. If it was ready on the 16th, it was most definitely ready on the 20th.
If it was in stores on the 16th, it didn’t need to be delayed like it was.
And if you’re asking me why a 0-day patch would be unusual, either you didn’t read, or I didn’t communicate the concept of “This is suspicious” clearly enough.
A 0-day patch would LESSEN the suspicious nature of this whole debacle, not increase it. And that’s my point. Right now, it’s looking about 95% certain that the delay was entirely unnecessary. A LACK of a 0-day patch would crank that up to 100%.
TL:DR: Gearbox better have a 0-day patch to explain why they delayed the release of a game that was in retail boxes five days ago.
PS: It sounds like didn’t read the links, especially the third one.
Also, called it, Dan doesn’t believe it.
October 21st, 2009 at 11:56 am
I did read the post, and the links, actually. I got what you were saying about a zero-day patch lessening the suspicion, but my point is that a zero-day patch is the norm these days - I’m more surprised when a game doesn’t have one. You’re talking as though you’d be surprised to see a patch, and that’s what I don’t understand.
Points B-E are completely irrelevant. 2K’s failure to adequately communicate a delay to retailers means nothing. Nor does the presence of boxed copies in a retail store room, for that matter - that simply means they were getting a head start on the distribution, which is also totally normal. There were likely boxed copies of the console versions in the storerooms for a week before that launch date, too. In the case of the PC version, if Gearbox knows that no one can play the game before the release date that they have set, they know for certain that they have time to complete the patch. Therefore the game was not necessarily “ready” on the 16th, and until proven otherwise their “optimization” story holds water.
Anyway, I never said I was certain that there’s no other reason behind the delay. I just said that based on my experience with Gearbox, a missed date is in no way out of the ordinary. But I’ll also throw in that an unnecessary delay wouldn’t make any sense from a marketing perspective - it would serve only to confuse people on the release date and frustrate people like you who want it now. That’s bad marketing. If anything, they’re worried about piracy, which still seems like a stretch given their original statement that they were going to release simultaneously and the activation lock system. Which, by the way, has thus far been successful in keeping the PC version off of torrent sites ahead of release, as far as I can tell. (Most pre-release leaks come from disc duplication facilities.)
So in my mind they’re innocent until proven guilty. There’s no point in calling anybody liars just yet.
October 21st, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Masterdebated!!
October 21st, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Glad to see you’re admitting at least the -possibility- it’s for piracy reasons.
Ok. So… Two possibilities.
Either the game is not optimized as it is on the disc (why go gold at all then?) and there’s a 0-day patch OR the game on the disc is how we’re going to be playing it for a few weeks, and it’s as optimized as they were going to get it.
If the second case is true, they could have just as easily sold it on the 20th, but chose not to due to a reason that is -not- the stated reason.
Guess we’ll find out in five days.
Of course, they could fail to produce a patch and I’m fairly certain Dan’s reasoning at that point would be “Well, maybe they just ran into some problems and it took them longer than expected to finish the patch”, but Dan always argues against everything.
BTW, I don’t believe the current distribution system requires any ‘headstart’, seeing as how the PC version went from gold on the 10th to distributed on the 16th. And if it’s that fast, I doubt that there were console copies sitting in back rooms for weeks. Retail outlets generally either don’t have a lot of space in the back room to act as long term storage for new products and/or new products sitting in back rooms for a long time have a greater tendency to walk out the back door, and companies know that, keeping shipments out of retail hands until the last minute.
I had no idea about Gearbox and release dates, as the last game I think I bought from them wasn’t release-day material for me (at least I’m assuming Brothers in Arms was the last game I bought from them), and I had no idea about 0-day patches being the “norm” now, as the only time in recent memory I can think of one that wasn’t a Valve game/expansion was the Batman: Arkham Asylum disaster where the patch to enable PhysX broke people’s games, preventing them from signing into Live, and thus preventing them from saving. It actually stopped me from buying the game, unfortunately.
Regardless, if this delay -isn’t- for the exact specified reason of “extra polish” (which apparently wasn’t good enough to stick in the retail discs) then it means we’re being lied to, and what other reason is there to lie to the PC gaming community other than to hide a reason that’s less than pretty. Piracy, marketing, etc.
Oh. And for that thing about marketing reasons making no sense? There’s been post after post on the Borderlands forums about people saying “Well, if they’re not going to let me buy the PC version, I guess I’ll have to buy the console version instead.” Converting PC gamers to console gamers is what it seems like every company with a stake in the console market is trying to do right now (example: Infinity Ward).
October 21st, 2009 at 1:52 pm
…if they didn’t want you to buy the PC version, why would they spend the money to make a PC version in the first place? That makes no sense whatsoever. Simply not producing a PC version would be a much more efficient means of getting people to switch to consoles - see Microsoft’s approach to bring gamers to the Xbox. But 2K and Activision don’t own consoles. There is no incentive for them to convert PC gamers to console gamers. Activision made a dumb decision to remove dedicated server support in MW2, but they still very much want you to buy it on any platform you choose.
Also, take it from us: it takes a lot of time to distribute a product to every store in the country. We do it every month. Based on their proximity to the point of origin, some stores will get it early, some will get it later. The idea of the on-sale date is to be able to say “Come to your local store on X date, and they will have it in stock.”
October 21st, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Why would 2K/Gearbox lie? People seem to be under the impression that companies are constantly trying to decieve us and lie to us, because of a few companies that do lie. If Gearbox says that the delay was due to the game needing extra polish, then the game needed extra polish. End of story. Full stop.
October 21st, 2009 at 8:06 pm
You know, I have no doubt that Borderlands was delayed on the PC because of Day 1 piracy fears… and I say… so what?
Piracy is a real issue, and I don’t mind getting my game 5 days late if it means avoiding far more intrusive anti-piracy measures, or if it means waiting 6 months to a year for the release of the PC version.
October 21st, 2009 at 9:03 pm
“Activision made a dumb decision to remove dedicated server support in MW2″
I noticed Dan said ACTIVISION and not IW. This just wreaks of Bobby Kotick. I have noticed most of the complaining about this does not mention Activision at all
I’m not going to judge this decision because I wasn’t there when it was made nor do I know what information they used to come to this conclusion. I don’t agree with it but I’m not going to judge IW for it either. Time will tell whether this works or not.
I have heard rumors that this is IW’s last game for Activision, is that correct? If so I hope MW2 sells millions and millions of units. This would give IW a great bargaining position when it’s time to re-negotiate the publisher contract. Maybe they could get better terms and more control so things like this don’t happen again.
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:42 am
@Madcow
In 2003 IW became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision. The rumors may be around IW not doing another COD game but I haven’t searched out any info.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:22 am
I don’t know -why- 2K Games would lie to us about the delay for Borderlands, I just know it looks very very likely that they did, seeing as how console and PC versions arrived at retail stores at the same time.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Who gives a crap about the 1 week release difference. I pre-ordered the game and could care less about 1 week. 1 week is a godsend. It could be 9-13 months like gta games or The Force Unleashed(well that was due to the pc’s lack of power,we needed to catch up to that ol’ xbox). I’m glad to hear Dan S say something about MW2. I hope you guys rail on it during your podcast.
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:21 pm
http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=77177
People have paid for and have a copy of a game they can not play. DRM punishing consumers, not pirates. Thread is up to about 28 pages and climbing, and folks are mentioning that they’ve found torrents to download so that they can play the game they bought.
KrazIIvan, maybe you don’t care about being a second class customer, but I do. And it’s getting worse.
Rumors are now currently that they’ve bumped the US date of the 26th and the European date of the 30th up to the 23rd.
I love how console users who got the game early could play early, but PC users get told to sit on their hands and wait.
Any one having an issue with the last comment not loading forever and ever on this page? No matter which comment it is?
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:29 pm
It’s a fucking week.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Six days or six months, it’s the principle. It’s the idea that consoles take priority, even in ways that don’t affect their bottom line. Why is everyone up in arms about the consolization of Modern Warfare 2, but not seeing how this is exactly the same thought of “Consoles are a priority over PC gaming”?
BTW, it might not be a week, now. The broken street date may result in 2K Games throwing the switch early. Which is weird, since they still need those six days for ‘extra polish’.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:42 pm
The makers already said that the PC version will be better than the console, how is that a 2nd class customer. WE also PAY 10 bucks less.
The MW2 thing is a real showing of 2nd class customer.
“Rumors are now currently that they’ve bumped the US date of the 26th and the European date of the 30th up to the 23rd. ”
So are they releasing it Friday?
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:40 pm
@Andy B.
That’s right I remember now. IW takes over the MW franchise and Treyarch works on the COD games. I thought IW was still an independent developer with Activision doing the publishing. Still wreaks of Kotick though. I just can’t see the IW guys doing this on their own. Guess they’re pulling an Epic/Cliffy on us?
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Actually, KrazIIvan, some reviewers are saying that the PC version’s interface feels like a console port. Things like only being able to start the item comparison mode with the keyboard, but only exit it with the mouse, for example. Graphical superiority is just the nature of the platform, and nothing special that Gearbox went out of their way to provide.
We pay $10 less because of the console manufacturers charging a $10 fee for every game sold, not out of the goodness of 2K Games’ heart.
And rumors are rumors. No one knows anything yet. (Apparently ennui, the community manager over at Gearbox found out about the thread above just a couple hours ago, right around the same time the 2K Games community manager responded to a thread on the 2K Games forums. So Gearbox and 2K Games might be talking with lawyers, possibly SecuROM, etc, seeing what they should do, what they can do, etc. Or they might be thinking of new lies to cover up their screwups, who knows. I heard something about Bioshock having a somewhat similar SecuROM situation, and 2K Games doing nothing about it.)
Kotaku’s advertising is showing the PC version as being ‘Available Now’. In fact, pretty much every bit of media and advertising from 2K Games has always shown that the PC game would be simultaneously released with the consoles, with the exception of the singular delay announcement.
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Ok, well we will see on Tuesday. I have yet to read a review, I want to see for myself. I will be the first to tell you if I feel consolitis. I hate that shit.