Two more butchered franchises...

[CrazyBernie]

*** Non-RTS fans need not read any further. ***

So Supreme Commander 2 and Command and Conquer 4 have hit the streets, and niether is looking very favorable.

SupCom2 actually looks worse than the original graphics-wise... this is due to the simultaneous PC/Console release... honestly... RTS's shouldn't be developed for the console crowd... it's just plain silly IMHO. Regardless of how powerful people think their console system is... you can't develop a deep and rewarding RTS game on one... so they end up being action-y rather than strategic. Couple this with the fact that SupCom2 is missing the majority of the features that made the first a hit... *shakes head*

C&C4... well it looks like they fell short on the single player campaign. The multiplayer is just a glorified capture the flag... it was fun for a little while in the beta... but ultimately I got bored with it. I was hoping the campaign would at least make up for it. Not so, from what I've read so far. *sigh*

Now I'm not one to rely solely on critic reviews... but looking on gamespot... the user ratings for both were below the critic ratings... which is not the norm. I'll still likely purchase both, but at this point it's going to wait until they either hit the bargain bin or go on sale for a significant discount.

My dad's not terribly happy with the fact neither offers straight lan play either. He's even more stingy about that sort of thing than I am... especially since his system is waaay overdue for an upgrade. 0_o

In the end, I suppose it's good news for my anorexic-looking wallet.

[BasiliskWrangler]

Disappointed.

I was looking forward to C&C 4.

[CrazyBernie]

That seems to be the way the industry is leaning with AAA PC games... at least with C&C4, they make it useful... they store your savegames in the cloud so you can access your game from multiple locations. One you've registered a key to your email address, you don't even need the Disc in the drive.

With that kind of restriction, EA won't have to worry about pirates... so now they'll be able to see the real reason behind their shitty PC sales... 'cause they break every game they get their corporate paws on.

[King_ov_Death]

I was looking forward to C&C 4.

Me too, until I found out to play C&C 4 your computer needs to be connected to the internet at all times, even just to play the single player campaign. Guess I'll just be watching the cinematics on YouTube.

This reminds me of Ubisoft and their similar try at DRM with Silent Hunter 5 and Assassin's Creed II.
It was pirated within a day...

[BasiliskWrangler]

This reminds me of Ubisoft and their similar try at DRM with Silent Hunter 5 and Assassin's Creed II. It was pirated within a day...

What came first: the pirate or the DRM? Of course, it was the pirate. I'm sorry: no matter how bad a game is or how awful the DRM is, I can't give accolades to the people who promote it's illegal distribution.

All I can say, from a developer's point-of-view, is that it is a huge kick in the groin to see 2 years of your work get passed around freely, especially if people seem to like it. It sucks to have to buy more bandwidth from your host because the high traffic coming from torrent sites where your game is linked to is 20x more than any other legitimate source. This is what kills developers: lost sales and increased expenses. It is very, very hard to keep financially afloat in this industry.

There are a lot of things killing the PC gaming scene right now- lack of innovation is probably pulling the trigger. But to say piracy is not part of the problem is simply wrong.

[King_ov_Death]

Well, I wasn't trying to defend piracy or promote illegal games...

I was just saying that I thought it was a bit "fun" the fact that Ubisoft's new DRM, the one that requires you to be online as long as you play the game (and lately, DRM only seems to piss off loyal customers who pay full price for their games and have to face restrictions like the one I described above, and I read somewhere that some of them even download cracks after they buy the game), was pirated within a day after the games were released.

Sorry BW if I wasn't clear enough. Maybe those " " made you think I love cracks, pirating, and such.

I'd like to clarify a bit more on my thoughts on DRM and big game publishers by quoting Bernie:

With that kind of restriction, EA won't have to worry about pirates... so now they'll be able to see the real reason behind their shitty PC sales... 'cause they break every game they get their corporate paws on.

[macdude22]

I was looking forward to C&C 4.

Me too, until I found out to play C&C 4 your computer needs to be connected to the internet at all times, even just to play the single player campaign. Guess I'll just be watching the cinematics on YouTube.

You and me both. I'm one of the 5 people that bought C&C3 for the mac too. I refuse to support this type of invasive DRM. And it is DRM, EA can tout their no DRM horn until they are blue in the face but this is, as far as I'm concerned, the worst kind of DRM.

[macdude22]

This reminds me of Ubisoft and their similar try at DRM with Silent Hunter 5 and Assassin's Creed II. It was pirated within a day...

What came first: the pirate or the DRM? Of course, it was the pirate. I'm sorry: no matter how bad a game is or how awful the DRM is, I can't give accolades to the people who promote it's illegal distribution.

IN the same vein, I'm of the belief that a large number of pirated downloads would not equate to actual sales if, for some magical reason, they were unable to pirate the game. Now arguably a percentage of them are likely to be lost sales, but the idea of punishing your paying customers whilst the pirates get to play "superior" versions of the game is ludicrous. What's the solution? I don't know, but StarDock and GoG seem to be doing alright by rewarding their customers instead of punishing them.

Mind you I am not advocating piracy, but I won't support companies that willingly punish me for forking over cash instead of pirating the product.

[BasiliskWrangler]

IN the same vein, I'm of the belief that a large number of pirated downloads would not equate to actual sales if, for some magical reason, they were unable to pirate the game. Now arguably a percentage of them are likely to be lost sales, but the idea of punishing your paying customers whilst the pirates get to play "superior" versions of the game is ludicrous. What's the solution? I don't know, but StarDock and GoG seem to be doing alright by rewarding their customers instead of punishing them.

I completely agree. That is why Basilisk Games will never engage in shitty DRM policies. We loves our customers! In fact, when you buy a registration number to Book 2 it will unlock all 3 versions of the game (Win/Mac/Linux) because we feel that when you buy the game, it should be yours to use on any system you want.

I also agree that every pirated game is not a lost sale.

But, if even 5%-10% of actual sales are lost to piracy...man, that can hurt us small guys a lot. We just don't have any way to absorb the shock of lost revenue like the big boyz do.

...okay, I'm done. I've ranted enough on piracy for this year.

[King_ov_Death]

Well, now that we're done talking about DRM, I'd like to go back to the topic's original meaning, and ask if any of you have played SimCity Societies...
As far as I've read, it doesn't feel like the other SimCity games...

Also, I'd like to make a "special mention" to Rockstar and EA: they've butchered the PC with their ports of Grand Theft Auto IV and FIFA 10. The former is way too hardware-demanding (many games look and run better) and the latter was (visually) so badly ported that even the console versions look better.

[Iane]

Being that I also love RTS games Neither get a sale from me especially after getting Assassins Creed II and the server goes down a few times and your screwed (think they were being DOS attacked) DRM is very Restrictive and I'm worried that in 2 years time am I still going to be able to play this game.

I still play Oblivion,Fallout 3,Stalker, 2worlds etc if these games had the same DRM would I be able to play them after 2 to 5 years.

So now as a game Buyer I have to be very selective as to what I buy and it seems the selection is getting very limited every year with all this DRM and Very BAD console Ports - the winners in the end I think will be the Indie Developers

[Iane]

More DRM woes for EA - not that they care since they have peoples money anyways

http://games.on.net/article/8447/More_DRM_woes_for_EA

9 pages and rising for legitimate paying Customers of C&C 4 who cannot connect to play a single player game

http://forums.commandandconquer.com/jfo ... 37833.page

[CrazyBernie]

Here is an awesome review for C&C4 by one of the most brutally honest reviewers out there. Couldn't have summed it up better myself.