2014/7/15: Xbox One: Forza Motorsport 5, Ryse: Son of Rome

[alvatron1]

Wow, Forza 5 looks awesome.  I'm a huge Indycar fan, good to see them included. 

Almost makes me want to get an Xbox One.

[Weekend_Warrior1]

I think you should re-review Forza 5. I just saw CGR's video review of Forza 5 and he reported that roughly half of the cars in the game are DLC

[Weekend_Warrior1]

You buy a game for $60, then the developer wants you to pay an additional $2.99 for a certain car that you see and like in the car selection menu, and you see nothing wrong with that? Isn't that what the Critic and virtually everyone else complains about on these boards almost on a daily basis - how day one DLC is wrong/evil?

 

The Critic also failed to mention in his review of Street Fighter X Tekken, the additional 12 characters that were locked in the menu and required a $20 payment online in order to unlock *even though they were proven to be on-disc*. I brought this to his attention after his mostly positive review of the game and he commented by saying that he simply didn't know about it. 

 

This is exactly why I'm bringing this up again. Because I feel that it is important to his video game review of Forza 5. 

 

Things like this DO matter when reading (or watching) a video game review in this day and age. I want to know what I'm getting when I buy a game - am I getting everything that is on the disc and shown in the menus or just a fraction of it?   

[ptdebate1]

[QUOTE=Weekend_Warrior]You buy a game for $60, then the developer wants you to pay an additional $2.99 for a certain car that you see and like in the car selection menu, and you see nothing wrong with that? Isn't that what the Critic and virtually everyone else complains about on these boards almost on a daily basis - how day one DLC is wrong/evil?

 

The Critic also failed to mention in his review of Street Fighter X Tekken, the additional 12 characters that were locked in the menu and required a $20 payment online in order to unlock *even though they were proven to be on-disc*. I brought this to his attention after his mostly positive review of the game and he commented by saying that he simply didn't know about it. 

 

This is exactly why I'm bringing this up again. Because I feel that it is important to his video game review of Forza 5. 

 

Things like this DO matter when reading (or watching) a video game review in this day and age. I want to know what I'm getting when I buy a game - am I getting everything that is on the disc and shown in the menus or just a fraction of it?   

[/QUOTE]

While I like DLC that substantially adds to an already complete experience (Mario Kart, Dark Souls), I have to agree that Day 1 and on-disc DLC are the two of the most sinister corporate practices ever devised.

[VideoGameCritic]

I hate DLC and the idea that you need to continually download patches for a game.

I'm old school, so I think a game should be complete out of the box.  I keep my consoles off-line (when possible) and I think I'm doing people a favor by reviewing the game in its "purest form".  This is how the game will play years from now when the downloads are no longer available.

I find it amusing how some reviewers use patches to let the developers off the hook.  I've actually seen reviews in real magazines that say something like "this feature is pretty glitchy, but that should be taken care of with an update or two".

Plus, can you imagine a review process that takes into account all the patches and DLC?  You'd be revising the thing constantly, and would have to dedicate your life to it!

Screw that!!  I'm not going down that road.

[ptdebate1]

[QUOTE=videogamecritic]I hate DLC and the idea that you need to continually download patches for a game.

I'm old school, so I think a game should be complete out of the box.  I keep my consoles off-line (when possible) and I think I'm doing people a favor by reviewing the game in its "purest form".  This is how the game will play years from now when the downloads are no longer available.

I find it amusing how some reviewers use patches to let the developers off the hook.  I've actually seen reviews in real magazines that say something like "this feature is pretty glitchy, but that should be taken care of with an update or two".

Plus, can you imagine a review process that takes into account all the patches and DLC?  You'd be revising the thing constantly, and would have to dedicate your life to it!

Screw that!!  I'm not going down that road.[/QUOTE]

That future where old DLC and patches no longer exist isn't going to come, however. Ever heard of a little device called the Satellaview? It was Nintendo's experiment in digitally distributing games for the Super Famicom. You'd think all those exclusive games, like Radical Dreamers and BS Zelda, would be lost in the wake of a service long discontinued, right? Wrong. Fans saved them and uploaded them to the internet. If you have a BS setup with a Super Famicom, you can download the games right back onto the console, indefinitely.

30 years from now, I will plug my Wii U into whatever space-age display technology is current at the time, and play my Mario Kart 8 DLC tracks like it's 2014. The Internet always finds a way.

[VideoGameCritic]

You may be right, but I think naive is a better word.  Entrusting your games to the cloud takes control out of your own hands.  Who knows what the future holds?  Today's downloadable code is encoded in DRM, so not just any kind-hearted soul can distribute it.  And one thing is for sure: on-line services will only exist while there is more money to be made from them.

I suspect in 30 years your Mario Kart scenario will be much different.  Assuming Nintendo will still be around, when you try to access Mario Kart 8 DLC a hologram will appear instructing you to upgrade to Mario Kart 23.
"You now about 15 seconds to comply..."

[ptdebate1]

[QUOTE=videogamecritic]You may be right, but I think naive is a better word.  Entrusting your games to the cloud takes control out of your own hands.  Who knows what the future holds?  Today's downloadable code is encoded in DRM, so not just any kind-hearted soul can distribute it.  And one thing is for sure: on-line services will only exist while there is more money to be made from them.

I suspect in 30 years your Mario Kart scenario will be much different.  Assuming Nintendo will still be around, when you try to access Mario Kart 8 DLC a hologram will appear instructing you to upgrade to Mario Kart 23.
"You now about 15 seconds to comply..."[/QUOTE]

If hackers can make immediately available both games and DLC like Destiny and Skyrim's expansions, respectively--sometimes pre-launch (just give Google a quick look)--I don't think Nintendo's DLC will prove particularly difficult when it comes to DRM. If I wanted to "back up" every single retail game I own via isos saved on an external HDD, I could. It's not a matter of "trusting the cloud." There's no reason why I can't download a collection of every game made for every system in digital form, given enough storage space (probably something on the order of 100 terabytes). HDDs that are not subject to regular I/O will last for an eternity.

The reality is that the packaged products sold to us which we call "games" are not the key to long-term preservation of the medium's legacy. What I'm talking about absolutely signifies taking the matter into one's own hands. If people weren't backing them up digitally en masse, we would reach a very real scenario where CD-ROMs and the circuit boards in cartridges will start rotting, resulting in games being lost forever.
Evidence: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/08/18/340716269/how-long-do-cds-last-it-depends-but-definitely-not-forever

[Sut1]

I don't mind DLC that adds content and increases the longevity of a game like Fallout 3, Killzone and Mario Kart 8.

However I hate this day one rubbish when it's on the disc Forza deserves it's grade reducing.

[Vexer1]

I'm fine with DLC as long as it's stuff that's not already on the disc, day one DLC is total BS, there is no practical reason for it.

No matter how reliable old cartridges and CDs are, they won't hold data forever, and after many years they will eventually start to decay and rot and become unplayable, so like it or not, digital is the only way to truly preserve them.