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Gaming Gaffes of 2004
jvm writes "It's about time for the "Best Games of 2004" articles to flood the web, and in preparation Curmudgeon Gamer has assembled Gaming Gaffes of 2004 (alternate link), a followup to our 2003 edition. This year we point to the the EA_spouse blog, the Driv3r review scandal, Sony's hardware missteps, and seven other less than impressive moments from the past year."
How about the Steam update from two days ago that disabled logins from Linux/Cedega users?
I really hate Dan Patrick.
Some of the best games I've ever played this year, like Katamari Damacy, were made on a small budget with very few developers. In fact, with the notable exception of Yu Suzuki's Shenmue, most big budget games have left me extremely cold.
Metroid Prime 1 & 2 proved that console shooters *work* (this coming from a PC gamer since Wolfenstein and Blake Stone 3D ;) ), but Deus Ex 2 is an atrocity. If he let Retro handle Deus Ex 3, I'm sure it would be *much* better.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
What about Steam/HL2? There are plenty of graffes with this scheme, the release, and the game.
For one thing you have to register just to play single player, even if you legally purchased the CD/DVD. Just one more step from us not really owning our software purchases, and giving profit hungry companies even more power and control.
The day they were suppose to unlock the game was a mess, lots of people not being able to play the games they purchased. Also these problems lasted beyond the initial unlocking date. While understandable for an MMORPG, it isn't for a single player game, especially if you bought it retail.
Then there is Valve's decision of requiring users to register Steam. Wouldn't be surprised if Value did this with money on their mind, what better way to get people to be registered with your distribution scheme then to force them register?
And then there is HL2, with people having problems with stuttering sound, graphical glitches, a map not loading, and people getting motion sickness apparently due to the frames per second greatly dropping in places. And these problems such as the audio and FPS affected even those with high end systems, a lot of them were something you would think they would have found when testing and corrected before relase. While I can understand the obscure bug on a rare video card that hardly anyone has, this wasn't the case.