2017/8/19: Playstation 4: Kromaia, Carmageddon: Max Damage

[VideoGameCritic]

Here are two perfectly awful budget games for the PS4.
Comments?

[Stalvern]

Kromaia was released by Rising Star, not "Red Star". An understandable mistake, though, given their logo. (By the way, you should review the unjustly ignored PS2 game The Red Star sometime.)

I think that the "budget" icon is a bit misleading when applied to indie games. For something like the new Carmageddon, sure, but Kromaia is coming from a completely different place.

[VideoGameCritic]

I'm not sure how the budget icon would apply differently to indie games. It's still a cheap game no matter how you slice it.

[Stalvern]

Because the indie market is different from retail. Most indie games cost between $20 and $30, so while that's in the "budget" range for retail, it doesn't mean the same thing at all for an indie game. At the same time, the norm for retail is $60, which would be very expensive for an indie game. "Full price" for indie and "full price" for retail are completely different standards, and the idea of a "budget" game is relative to the full price standard, not something absolute.

[Retro STrife]

I've expressed concerns in the past about the budget icon...I was probably the biggest opponent of it, because it's so hard to apply for VGC and hard to interpret for readers (especially down the road.. e.g., for a new game the budget icon tells me it's cheaper than usual, but in 5 years the icon will still be sitting there.. and what does it mean then?)

That said, if it's going to exist, I agree with the VGC on it applying to indie games. One of the reasons that indie games are usually cheaper is that they have shorter single-player campaigns and/or simpler multi-player offerings. They're not big-budget titles, so the developers release them at a lower price. As for retail "budget" games?..Their cheaper price is usually for the same exact reason. So for consistency, I think any new game that starts under a certain price ($30? $40?) should get the icon.

[TheBlondeGamePunk3]

Carmageddon:Max Damage? Jesus Christ.. I fell for it's $40 price on the PSN store thinking it would be a good game and long awaited sequel to Carmageddon TDR 2000. I was wrong.. This review def sums up how I feel about the game.