So Borderlands has finally been released for the PC. I’ve been having a good time with it and overall I would recommend it as a buy but there are still some issues. The most annoying thing overall is that it seems to suffer from “consolitis” where all the menus and some in game stuff is plagued by being intended for consoles and not PC. One glaring example of this in game is that crouching is a toggle instead of something you hold down and there is no option to switch how this works. This is because on a console it’s hard to hold a key down while doing other stuff but of course on a PC it’s very simple.
Also the “matchmaking” service for online play is kind of lame. You can’t really find a server half the time. There is no indication of ping or latency to the host or other players. Players of all different levels end up together with no restrictions placed on this. I’ve had a very hard time getting into games where someone wasn’t either leeching experience and dragging the group down or so high that they made everything trivial. Overall though it’s still worth it.
So apparently the Modern Warfare 2 complaints regarding the announcement that it won’t include dedicated servers and people will be forced to use “IW Net” have got the attention of the developers. They responded and basically told everyone that this wasn’t done to combat piracy and it was because they wanted to make sure players had a more enjoyable experience. This excuse is laughable though and obviously transparent to most PC gamers. Lack of dedicated servers destroys community and choice and will not “improve the experience” for anyone at all. It’s really a shame that so many PC games are being dragged down by this console pandering trash. It also upsets me that “piracy” is such a major concern to developers. Most people who can afford to buy games already buy them. The pirates are children who can’t convince their parents to buy a game for them. They aren’t technically a “lost sale” like developers want to think. All they’re doing is upsetting everyone.
I guess InfinityWard isn’t hoping to sell any copies of their upcoming release, Modern Warfare 2, for the PC because they just completely destroyed the multiplaying gaming aspect of it. They announced that there will be no dedicated servers allowed, VAC and full steam integration will be used which means zero modifications allowed and no punk buster, you’ll be required to join games through a matchmaking service similar to what consoles use. This is really a horrible idea overall and has completely alienated the PC gaming market. It’s amazing to see a title like Call of Duty which got started on the PC just abandon the market that got it started in the first place.
I’m sure you all know how I feel about consoles in general but just in case you didn’t I’ll let you know. I think consoles are completely worthless in the state they’re in now. They are nothing but glorified PCs that don’t offer keyboard and mouse support all while tying you to a proprietary OS that allows the console company and game developers to have you at their mercy. I certainly won’t be buying Modern Warfare 2 and I hope others will show their displeasure by boycotting this title as well.
So I was just looking at a preorder of the game Dragon Age: Origins and was amazed that there are seemingly large parts of the game being sold off as preorder bonuses only. Like additional quests, playable characters, etc. This is completely out of control. Every game has been fishing for preorders so much lately that they’ve resorted to forcing you into it if you want to get huge components of the game that should be included with the release. I don’t mind additional items (of which there are 2 for DA:O, preorder and steam purchase bonuses) being given out with preorders but when they start limiting characters and actual game content it’s going too far.
This reminds me of a thread I read recently about GameStop and how much their employees pressure people into preordering games. You can go in and pick up a used game and you won’t escape without being begged to preorder 100 of the latest titles for any console or gaming device they can figure out that you have. It’s really starting to piss me off. The video games market is starting to mimic the movie and music markets with all the blood they’re trying to suck out of their customers in the form of cash. It’s less about making quality games now and more about how many little tricks and marketing gimics they can come up with to sale as many games possible before anyone has a chance to play it and give it a bad review. Sickening.
So I logged back into my Monopoly City Streets account to confirm what I suspected and I wasn’t disappointed. The leaderboard was dominated by people with hundreds of trillions of dollars. I’m absolutely amazed this is what Hasbro and Google had envisioned for this game. It seems ridiculous that they didn’t know this was going to happen. Basically when you start the game you have something like $1,000,000. You can then buy streets and start another account. This secondary account can purchase the street you just bought for twice as much as you just paid for it. Thus your second account is drained but your primary account has just flipped its property instantly for much more than its worth.
The very day this came out I tried this once to confirm it was possible because I thought maybe they would have included some safeguards to prevent this like many MMORPGs have done in the past. Once I realized it was possible I knew that anyone who wanted to win would just be programming a bot to perform this process over and over again and sure enough within 24 hours (before money was distributed even, since its only every 24 hours that you get money from rent, etc) people had billions of dollars which is impossible without cheating with multiple accounts. What a huge waste of time and energy that game is.
I’m amazed it took me this long but I finally finished GTA4 this morning. I don’t mean all the additional achievements and such either, just the story mode in the game. I honestly found it kind of anticlimactic but overall the game definitely lives up to the hype. This is kind of an old title now I know but I just wanted to point out that this game has given me so many hours of entertainment it’s ridiculous. I spent most of my time in the multiplayer which is why it took me so long to finish the singleplayer campaign but lately the rooms have been dead as I guess everyone has moved on. I think I might have been one of the best players ever in GTA4 and I can’t wait for a sequel to get that multiplayer action going again. If anyone wants to play some matches on PS3 drop me a line.
