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Terminator Salvation Game Launched, PC Version Recalled
On Tuesday, the video game tie-in to the Terminator Salvation movie was launched for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Most reviews pegged the game as solidly mediocre; IGN said, "the action is fairly tame throughout and the cutscenes are stunningly ordinary. And yet despite the poor presentation, there are some clever gameplay elements that make Terminator enjoyable. Too bad that joy only lasts a handful of hours before the credits roll." However, customers who had purchased the retail PC version ran into installation errors, leaving them unable to play the game. Now, publisher Evolved has issued a recall for that version of the game, saying, "a defect occurred during replication," and promising a replacement plan for people who had purchased it.
I just discovered this game tonight, and it will REALLY surprise me if it comes back without being polished up - because yes... the game is boring. Your main mission is to save a couple of guys. Thats it. No big bosses, simple battles the whole way.
I didn't know people were still buying games
fixed.
I doubt that they're gonna do much more than come up with a new gold copy. Its not like they're gonna drop a big boss battle into the game as part of an install fix.
Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
A mediocre movie spin off game? I have never heard of such a thing, I am shocked I tell you, shocked.
The game sucks. No wonder PCs won't install it. Most players won't get that lucky with other games.
There is currently a "non-scene" working release available on torrents and such. Basically someone repackaged the game (manually done some tasks that installer should have done automatically) in a matter of hours. Question is: why do paying customers get to wait for the replacement "plan" to be put together? Why isn't there a downloadable fix put together by developers? Clearly it doesn't take much time to make.
Skynet is doing this! They don't want us trained in robot-killin' and such. I, for one, welcome our shiny metal overlords...
Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
-- Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
They are for consoles. I love my pc, but I'm a little surprised that companies even bother publishing games for it.
I agree. Why would they publish for a platform that has the most profitable game ever by a wide margin? Damn these people are stupid.
Is it just me, or does anyone else find the fact of the game based on the movie launching two days BEFORE THE ACTUAL FILM a little irritating? IIRC, this was the case with Quantum of Solace as well.
I don't think I like this trend...
another game release that people need to acquire "illegally" if they purchased it in a box
My son purchased Crysis and then found he could not install the game so he went on-line and pirated it. Normally my son is quite happy to buy software but when things like this happen you sort of wonder why bother to purchase.
In all fairness at least the company concerned with making the Terminator game has offered to replace it and I doubt if you try to pirate the faulty game it will work. Still you never know because I have had legitimately purchased games before that I had to get so called illegal cracks and patches for the game to work properly.
IMHO console games normally have little if any problems than PC games although one or two sometimes get through, however they are normally replaced when the customers complain. On the other hand time PC games normally do get fixed eventually but whether it is a Console or PC it is still annoying.
There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
Ahhh, consolization at its best. Games being dumbed down, franchises becoming more important then creating good stories and/or gameplay, release dates being set in stone weather a game is ready for release or not, repetition being used in every conceivable way to artificially lengthen games without writing new code/assets.
By the sounds of it, the Terminator game is a turd and no amount of polish will make a turd interesting to play.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
I wonder if they decided that they had to put assloads of DRM in and THAT was what was broken.
the Master System from which all their little consoles derived.
What?
Sounds more like 'a defect occured in QAing replicated discs'.
Oh my... I thought this was a kind of funny joke. And even if it wasn't, I think there are other posts that deserved the -mods. Oh well.
While (movie) studios by now realized that it's not a good idea to just cash in on the movie name and drop the franchize on whoever pays the most (which resulted in some pretty sucky games that were only sold on the movie's name), games to current movies are usually a nightmare.
Realize a few corner elements and ponder for yourself why the games usually suck:
1. Hard deadline. No way to push production back because either you deliver now or never. In 3 months, nobody will care about your game.
2. Lots of money spent on a name instead of dev time.
3. Limited room for story development, since the movie kinda sets the scene.
Now think for yourself why games-to-movies suck.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
the Master System from which all their little consoles derived.
Both the Sega Master System and the Nintendo Entertainment System . The ColecoVision had a Z80 CPU and a TMS9928 VDP (picture generator). The Japan-only Sega SG-1000 by Sega was Sega's clone of the ColecoVision. The Sega Master System was an SG-1000 with more RAM and more color depth in the VDP. And the designers of the PPU in the Nintendo Entertainment System were inspired by the design of the TMS99 series VDP, especially the way it handled processing of the sprite display list.
Huh? The Call of Duty series on PC is alive and well. Plenty of players online for all of the versions currently sold in stores. I personally play Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: World at War on a regular basis.
The Call of Duty series has plenty of players online using the PC versions. Just watch, when Diablo III is released, it will sell like hotcakes. :) PC gaming is still alive, but the # of titles worth playing has dropped to a handful, IMO. But when a worthy game is released it does sell well.
Side note: I don't buy anything published by Electronic Arts (that's both PC and console).
"Now, publisher Evolved has issued a recall for that version of the game [...] and promising a replacement plan for people who had purchased it. " ...and arrest for those that pirated it.
Brain surgery - it's not rocket science!
I was hoping someone would catch that...
You're not pirating the game if you bought a copy.
The license allows you to install one copy of the program onto your computer for the purpose of using that program. It does not specify that you must use the disc you purcahsed to install it. What your son did is entirely legal, and the kind of case which needs to go to court so this whole "AMAGAD P2P IS TEH LOOZORX!!1 Piewacy iz killinz teh bizniss!!1" tripe from major corporations can be thrown out, as it should have been before technology like BitTorrent ever existed.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
How soon we forget. Consumer console gaming preceded consumer PC gaming by several years.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Funny that you mention two Activision games while you bash EA. Don't you know? Activision is the new EA. I hate to misquote it because it was so funny, but the head of Activision said "We don't want any franchise that cannot be exploited on a yearly basis".
EA at least has Ghostbusters, Brutal Legend, Dead Space, Mirrors edge, and a few other new ip's (along with all the other dead horses they keep beating).
Whether or not there is some sort of god, I'm not supposed to say/god is a word and the argument ends there-Smog
Funny you mention bit torrent because purchasing the game doesn't give you the right to distribute that game to other people which is what BT does.
that says for every new movie there has to be an accompanying video game released? What's the point? Milk the cash cow a little more?
IMHO console games normally have little if any problems than PC games
Console games have to pass the rigorous quality assurance process of the console manufacturers. PC games do not.
And this is not my humble opinion, this is coming from a former quality assurance project manager (I used to impress the beta testers by quoting the Sony Technical Requirement Checklist by heart).
I've seen games submitted against my advice and rejected by Sony or Nintendo for the very reasons I had bemoaned. On a PC, they just ignore the QA and ship it, with a "we'll patch it later if enough people complain" mantra (I got out of QA when consoles got connected to the net, the "patch it later" mentality ruins the whole process for me).
Oh, also, PCs have near-infinite hardware configuration possibilities, consoles have a handful of nearly identical models. It's actually harder to test for PCs, you have to do compatibility testing, constantly mess with device drivers... it's a helluva chore.
You can't take the sky from me...
Is this the future of DRM?
Funny you mention bit torrent because purchasing the game doesn't give you the right to distribute that game to other people which is what BT does.
That's why I set the upload speed to 0. I'm just making my own copy, I'm not distributing.
Ahhh, consolization at its best. Games being dumbed down, franchises becoming more important then creating good stories and/or gameplay,
That's a problem with all gaming-console and PC alike.
release dates being set in stone weather a game is ready for release or not
PC games are notorious for shipping in alpha quality, with the attitude "we'll patch it later." Consoles have largely been spared this fate, however it is creeping in a little bit with the PS3 and 360.
repetition being used in every conceivable way to artificially lengthen games without writing new code/assets.
PC games do this as well. I'm not sure why you blame this on "consolization."
By the sounds of it, the Terminator game is a turd and no amount of polish will make a turd interesting to play.
Well, I agree with you on this one at least. Tell me, has there ever been a good Terminator game? The T2 pinball game was pretty good, that's the only one I can think of.
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
He means Portal (Orange Box), not WoW. 8')
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
It's a game I recall with great fondness, never mind how few colours it had.
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
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Looks like if you want to play the game now, You can download it and play a working copy.
Or you can use steam, for simplicity.
Pirates 1, publisher 0.
They're using their grammar skills there.
EA at least has Ghostbusters, Brutal Legend, Dead Space, Mirrors edge, and a few other new ip's (along with all the other dead horses they keep beating).
Yes... a game based on an 80s movie series, plus cartoon series, isn't beating a dead horse at all...
Learn something new.
That's why I set the upload speed to 0. I'm just making my own copy, I'm not distributing.
And that's why the download takes a month to finish.
Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
Because "consolization" means you can't have boss battles?? Sorry, but that doesn't sound like a console problem, that just sounds like a shitty game.
Because consolisation means that it was rushed to release without the thought or effort going into game play, testing, development/bug fixing or story. In other words the arbitrary dumbing down of the game experience in order to shorten multi-platform dev time and make the game appeal/accessible to the Lowest Common Denominator crowd. This is what the OP was complaining about, throwing in an arbitrary boss fight wouldn't have fixed the problem.
Some of the best games I've ever played lacked "boss battles", a game done well is a game done well whether it is formulaic in design or not. By the same note, a bad game with a boss fight is still a bad game.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
You should never play any game that's directly tied to a movie. Especially one that comes out the same time the actual movie comes out.
First you know they got a small budget. The game itself is categorized by the movie industry the same way a movie-themed lunch box is. Just as extra merchandise to turn a quick buck.
Second you know they don't have a realistic time frame to make these games good. There's no "When it's done" type speak. There's no "Hopefully we'll have it out by Q4 2009". It's out when the movie comes out, regardless of how much is fixed or broken.
Third, if you actually care about the stories in games, then you know movie games don't have very good stories. There's no imagination with it since you already know the plot-line. You already know what's going to happen since you've already seen the movie. Again this isn't a big deal to most people but it does matter to some.
Ok, I'm sleepy and I'm going to bed. I didn't even know there was a new terminator movie coming out until I heard an ad on the radio a few weeks ago.