20°

Game Betas Should Be an Industry Standard

First Castle Crashers. Then Gears of War 2. And now Battlefield 1943.

The time to demand betas is upon us, my gamer friends. As consumers of digital entertainment, we have a right to demand quality for every product we purchase with our hard-earned dollars. Lately it seems as though the exchange has been very one-sided - we gamers plop down our cash and then sit and wait until all the "unexpected issues" are worked out on the developers side.

And we wait. And wait. And wait.

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civilizedgamers.com
Automat5397d ago

seems like the 360 could use some betas......

TheChosenWon5397d ago

This isn't a flamewar article in the least.

The core of this problem has nothing to do with console. It's at the developer level.

Keep your flamebait comments to yourself or hop on over to the Open Zone.

Automat5397d ago

did you read the article? was ths ps3 present? all he talks about is trouble with online on the 360... we all know that serious developers who don't want to disappoint their customers have betas-....

TheChosenWon5397d ago (Edited 5397d ago )

I still fail to see your point.

PSN was mentioned in the article as actually having been a smooth release for BF1943... why was it smooth for PSN and not XBL? Who knows - but general consensus is that it's because the XBL version of 1943 was much more popular than the PSN version, and the server balancing wasn't allocated properly - thus you wouldn't see "server bandwidth issues" on PSN.

But that wasn't the point of the article, isn't not PSN vs. XBL vs. PC. It's an attempt to hold developers accountable for what they release.

The other games cited in the article are popular issues within the XBL community - issues which aren't because of XBL itself, but instead were caused by poor design decisions by the developers (and could easily have occurred on PSN/PC if they weren't 360 exclusives). This isn't to say that PC/PSN haven't had shobby multiplayer games. To say one platform provides the perfect experience is asinine - noone can argue that without coming across as a delusional buffoon.

But like I said, this isn't a console issue. The bandwidth problem with BF1943 (as well as EA's existing account issue) would have been figured out sooner if there was a beta.

Activision's had very few problems with CoD: W@W or MW1 on either XBL, PSN, or PC. But they had betas that were able to deal with a myriad of issues before full release.

Noone's immune to the problem of shoddy software being released to the paying general public.

>>we all know that serious developers who don't want to disappoint their customers have betas<<

That's such a loaded statement I don't even know where to begin.
A) how do we classify "serious developers"? those who release betas? Please. This is a multi-billion dollar industry, I'm pretty sure most developers are "serious".
B) there are always going to be disappointed people, no matter what. This can't/should't dictate whether or not a beta/demo is released before a game's release, if not for the sole purpose of full-on product testing.
C) Change "We all know" to "I believe", since I don't agree with you so technically "we all know" is incorrect. ;)

In summary: The whole purpose of the beta is to limit any surprises, like BF1943's epic fail on XBL. There's no longer any excuse for developers to not offer them.

380°

65 Year Old Gamer Racks Up Ridiculous Stats After Playing 1 Game for 15 Years

A very devoted fan of Call of Duty: World at War racks up incredible in-game stats while playing regularly for the past 15 years.

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gamerant.com
franwex289d ago

Well, he definitely got his money’s worth.

Abnor_Mal289d ago

Same as Shirley Curry playing Skyrim for years. In the next Elders Scrolls game they should have her in the game as some form of npc.

andy85288d ago

She is, I read she will be a character. Not a dig in any form but I hope she's alive when it releases

Relientk77288d ago

That's over 7,000 hours geez. What crazy stats

nitus10288d ago

Actually it is very easy to up the number of hours you have been playing a game. Basically all you need to do (assuming you have a PS4 or 5) is to place the console into stand-by without exiting the game, so if you do this a one hour gameplay actually becomes a 24 gameplay or longer.

boing1288d ago

What? So the game is still runinng when you put it to sleep? What?

EvertonFC288d ago

It's actually sad not an achievement but hey we need the full story details.

Knushwood Butt288d ago

There's someone on my friend list that has more than 6200 hours on Uncharted 4.

vTuro24288d ago

7k hours over 15 years isn't that crazy. The fact that he's been playing the same game for 15 years is more impressive.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 288d ago
anast288d ago

And then you got people that want to finish a game every week.

Rhythmattic288d ago

Nailed what is the Spectrum... For good and bad, Quality or Quantity..Or the unreasonable to reason for. ;)

jznrpg288d ago

Of course you will hit a ridiculous stat after 15 of anything.
My main character for Everquest had over 500 days played in the first 6 years of the game. I was young then and had a lot of time on my hands. I don’t think I could duplicate that again until I retire and not sure I could match it if I tried.

EvertonFC288d ago

500 days in 6 years is nothing lol, you do realise how many days in a year right ?

poppatron288d ago

I might be getting the maths wrong here, I think 500 days in 6 years works out at an average of just over 6 hours every single day. For 6 years. That’s pretty serious

EvertonFC288d ago

Edit: wrote this early this morning, I understand it's lots of hours now lol at myself 😂🤣😜

RedDevils288d ago

The only way to achieve this, is by having no life outside of video game lol.

Outlawzz288d ago

Strange choice of game but hey that's some devotion. Congrats to them!

Show all comments (18)
390°

Battlefield Legacy - Sunsetting Announcement

EA: "As we close in on 15 years since the release of Battlefield 1943, and Bad Company™ 1 & 2, we are announcing that their journey is coming to an end."

darthv72395d ago

This reminds me... I have ME on my PS3 hdd. Never really played it, but it was free.

XiNatsuDragnel395d ago

Digital future ppl is good they say nope imo

Eidolon394d ago

And it still says nothing about being able to downloaded even when it's off the storefront, that's a huge ouchie for some who somehow still have it in their backlog...

Shane Kim394d ago

Dont make it an issue when it's not. If you haven't played it in 15 years, chances are you'll never play it.

isarai395d ago

That all digital future sure looks great!

/s

zidane1341394d ago (Edited 394d ago )

Online game servers shut off eventually all the time. Doesn’t matter if you have the disc or not. Even if you have the disc, it’ll be just paperweight unless the game lets you connect directly to a friend or LAN play.

isarai394d ago (Edited 394d ago )

Read the article bro. They are delisting the games, including mirrors edge which is an offline game. Online servers i can understand, not being able to buy/download the games anymore? Completely separate issue, especially seeing as how some these games had lengthy sp campaigns and not just mp.

zidane1341394d ago

@israrai, you can still buy the disc for less then 10$. Hardly a loss.

TheEnigma313394d ago

You shouldn't have to buy the disc, that's the issue.

OhReginald394d ago (Edited 394d ago )

Some brilliant minds created servers to keep these old online games alive. A lot of ps2 and ps3 games that had there servers shut down a long time ago have been restored by fans to keep it going. Warhawk, killzone 2, socom 2/ confrontation, resident evil outbreak series, etc.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 394d ago
DankSinatra394d ago

The disc still exist. I don’t understand the issue. You guys are upset about that “all digital future” yet these games are not “digital only”. Hell digital only is a minority in the gaming world and so far we haven’t moved into it, the only digital only games are games as a service or online only games, which end up failing in the end.

This is no different than a store that stops selling old games, just go and buy a copy somewhere else. So which is it, you hate all digital or you like it? Make up your mind.

isarai394d ago

Talk about missing the point entirely. I'm not going to sit here and explain it to you, figure it out.

DankSinatra394d ago

Talk about whining about something and not wanting to explain from an off handed sarcastic original comment.

I got the point just fine. You’re literally complaining about something that has an easy alternative to it.

ManMarmalade394d ago

I don't think you got the point

DankSinatra393d ago (Edited 393d ago )

@ManMarmalade

No I got it, it has to do with the push towards a future of all digital and reprocussions of losing games. Something I already stayed that hasn’t happened nor is it large enough right now to cause any issues as the games that are all digital are online only to begin with or make up the minority of games

So I’ll say it again, the disc still exists for these games that are over a decade old and can still be played easily. You guys are contradicting the whole “we don’t want a digital only future” crying when the dude I originally responded to stated:

“Read the article bro. They are delisting the games, including mirrors edge which is an offline game. Online servers i can understand, not being able to buy/download the games anymore? Completely separate issue, especially seeing as how some these games had lengthy sp campaigns and not just mp.“

So again, which is it? Do you hate all digital or do you want it?

Inverno394d ago

On PC I don't think it's much of a problem but I'm sad to see BF43 being shut down. I haven't played it in a while since it's stuck on PS3, but i preferred it way more over BF3. It was the lack of invisible barriers which made it better for me.

badz149394d ago

BFBC2 was still the best overall package offered by the franchise so far IMO

porkChop394d ago

Absolutely. BC2 was such a great game. It's a shame we never got BC3.

P_Bomb393d ago

I had a great run on Bad Company 2. Pound for pound, as solid a BF package as there’s been.

InUrFoxHole394d ago

Does anyone play the last BF anymore? I searched crossplay servers and it was 20 people the most on all the servers? Can never find a game

SonyStyled394d ago

The last BC you mean? I was still able to find 10v10 on ps3 2 years ago on NA servers during the evenings. I have all the free and paid dlc installed, but there want any matches in the Vietnam dlc.

Show all comments (35)
190°

Ranking The Gears Of War Games From Worst To Best

The Gears of War series has been a consistent deliverer of quality for Xbox, but which games are the best?

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culturedvultures.com
KicksnSnares668d ago

Gears of War is my favorite video game franchise, and the Locust is my all-time favorite faction.

My rank list:
1. Gears of War 2
2. Gears of War 3
3. Gears of War 1
4. Gears of War 4
5. Gears of War 5
6. Gears of War Judgment (No Locust in multiplayer was a disgrace)

ChasterMies667d ago

Agree 100% with this ranking. The campaign in Gears of War 2 is among the most fun campaigns ever made. It’s been downhill from there.

Zombieburger638667d ago

I’d say gears 2 and 3 are pretty even. I absolutely loved both of them.

darthv72668d ago

2 is still my favorite but 5 is also up there (for me). Then I'd say 1, 3, 4 and Judgement. Tactics isnt the same type of game, so it seems odd to rank it among TPS when its a strategy game. So I make that one all its own. Pretty fun game too.

Jericho1337667d ago

The first is and has always been the best one imo - the story, the levels, the set pieces, the soundtrack - as close to perfect as a campaign can get.

I’d say the series had been on a continual downhill slide until 5.

Om4ever667d ago

Naaaan ... 2 is the best by far

MadLad667d ago

3
5
2
1
4
Judgement

I love the series as a whole, but 4 was pretty by the numbers, and Judgement was just ok.

LoveSpuds667d ago

I played them all since picking up a Series X about 7 months ago. Personally, I don't think time has been kind to the earlier games and they feel very slow and repetitive to play. Whilst the newer games may be prettier, they stick with the original gameplay mechanics too much in my view so as a whole series of titles, I think they are pretty average games.

Not to say they weren't fun and I have a lot of nostalgia for 1 and 2, I just think there are far better action games out there.

Show all comments (14)