Topic: Mortal Kombat X

[PyroMenace]

No thread for this yet? I thought there was... anyhow NetherRealm seems to be the only studio pushing the fighting genre into the casual with its really well done single player content, however still attracting a competitive fighting audience. It maybe not as technically heavy enough to satisfy Street Fighter savy pro players, but god damn its fun.  

I'm sure everyone has already been aware of MKX but this latest trailer got me pretty pumped for it's release in a couple months.

[PyroMenace]

Comes out tomorrow, Giantbomb did a lengthy quicklook on it and it looks pretty good. However Jeff tweeted this out and it looks like you can purchase easy button press fatalities which is reeaaaaaally fucking lame.

[gpw11]

Haha, that is lame but that takes a lot of moxy and I respect that.

[scottws]

Microtransactions, while it is making some people a lot of money, is destroying videogaming.  Most adults are smart enough and remember better times to avoid it but, honestly, kids are killing the videogame industry.  Two of my brother-in-laws kids have spent nearly $400 combined on Clash of Clans.  Basically, they are teenagers and no one knows what to get them as gifts so they basically get a bunch of iTunes gift cards for their birthdays and Christmas.  They have so much in iTunes gift cards that they own every possible song, video, and app they want and they just spend whatever is left on gems in Clash of Clans.

I've asked them if they saw that the game was $175 on the Apple App Store, would they buy the game and they said no.  But they'll buy gems totaling up to that much over time!  It boggles the mind.

Mobile platform developer:  "Hm... I could sell my little mobile game for $1.99 because that's the maximum amount that people will pay for such things no matter how good or large in scale it is or I could make a craptastic piece of throwaway garbage that people can only play for a few minutes a day, give it away for free, charge for the ability to advance, and become incredibly rich. What should I do?"

On top of that you have things like kids buying downloadable console games instead of the physical copies.  The physical game does everything the downloadable game does with the additional bonus of actually having the ability to give or sell it to someone else.  The only possible negatives with physical copies is that they can get lost or damaged and you have to go to a store or have it shipped to get it, but those negatives are far outweighed by the positives compared to digital download.

Additonally, they are interested in the Xbone at all.  Granted, Microsoft did back away from most of the bad stuff they wanted to do with it, but the mere fact that it was a direction they wanted to go towards in the first place is a horrifying thing.  I grimace every time I hear someone say they bought one.

Sorry for the rant, but pay-to-win, horse armor, and all that other microtransaction crap as well as game companies and publishers trying to steal away every last right we have as consumers via licenses that include things like force arbitration and language that says you automatically accept future revisions to the license agreement and doing stuff like counting people in the room at all times and killing off the used games market angers me to no end.  But it happens because it's mostly kids that are consumers and they have no concept of their rights and just go along with everything and say "Thanks may I have another!"

I'm not even a gamer anymore and I still get all riled up about it.

[Cobra951]

!?

Man, are you on something?  Are you alright?  I know you've had some trying personal times.  Is that where all this is coming from?  It just doesn't seem like you.  Nobody hijacked your account, I hope?

[PyroMenace]

Haha, that is lame but that takes a lot of moxy and I respect that.

Heh, I actually thought about that some more and while initially it comes off pretty gross, in the end it really doesn't hurt anybody. I honestly don't see many people buying that but if they do I can understand someone justifying it. If you want to see the fatalities without memorizing some button sequence at the end of the match who cares? Its one of the main features of that series and doesn't have any impact on the gameplay. They could easily have just put the option in but meh, the real way to play MK is the way they are selling it.   

[scottws]

Am I on something?  No.  I read the article when I was in a foul mood anyway and went off on a rant, nothing more.

I saw your post before you edited it, but I don't want to derail the thread into a conversation about the Xbox One.

Anyway, this fast fatality idea in MKX is dumb and hopefully no one buys it.

[Cobra951]

I edited it for the same reason, and to give you the benefit of the doubt.  Sorry I wasn't quick enough.  You do know that at least two members of this community have that system and use it daily, right?  If I went on a rant about what a fool anyone is to move to Florida, or take responsibility for someone else's kid, you'd have a thing or two to say about it.

Paying for fatalities.  Pay to win.  The new landscape of gaming.  In the newer AC games, you can buy "timesaver packs" which are along the same lines.

[PyroMenace]

Hmm, I know what you mean by pay to win, but in this specific example, it is not.

[Cobra951]

Isn't like half the challenge of traditional fighting games since SF II to master the killer input combos?  If that gets dumbed down to a single button press in exchange for real money, how is it not pay-to-win?

[PyroMenace]

Fatalities are just end match violent animations you can use on your opponent just for gloating purposes. They have no bearing on the fighting mechanics of the matches themselves.

[W7RE]

You do know that at least two members of this community have that system and use it daily, right?

I was reading it all, but was hesitant to chime in because I didn't want to argue. I do think there is more anti-Microsoft sentiment out there than makes sense though. I completely understand anyone who is against digital game purchases though, I just don't share their opinion.

[gpw11]

On top of that you have things like kids buying downloadable console games instead of the physical copies.  The physical game does everything the downloadable game does with the additional bonus of actually having the ability to give or sell it to someone else.  The only possible negatives with physical copies is that they can get lost or damaged and you have to go to a store or have it shipped to get it, but those negatives are far outweighed by the positives compared to digital download.

Like W7RE said, I see where you're  coming from here but I don't share that viewpoint. Almost all the games I own these days are exclusively digital.  I don't want to get up to switch a disk, I don't want to go to the store to buy a game, and (more than anything) I don't want dozens of game boxes sitting around my house. If I had physical copies of games I'd pretty much never revisit any of the old games I liked because I have the habit of purging and giving everything away because I don't want to deal with the clutter. Plus, for me, it's generally cheaper for me to buy a game on a digital sale and never sell it than to buy a physical copy (even used) and sell it back.  To each their own.

[Cobra951]

Part of what I edited out of my argumentative message was this:

"You forgot the biggest reason for digital copies: convenience.  A physical copy needs to be transported physically to your console, somehow, while a digital just arrives through the wire.  More importantly, you never need to be swapping discs to play your games.  They are all immediately selectable from a menu."

So, yeah.  Totally agree.  The last time I sold my games was over 20 years ago, when you could get 25 cents on the dollar for them, and buy them used for 50 cents on the dollar.  Then Gamestop changed everything for the worse, and that was that.  I never sold the really good games either.  I do have a lot of those boxes you never want to keep around.

Fatalities are just end match violent animations you can use on your opponent just for gloating purposes. They have no bearing on the fighting mechanics of the matches themselves.

Oh, OK.  I thought they brought a fight that could go on for a bit longer to an abrupt end, like a KO does in boxing.  If easy fatalities are just cosmetic, then you're right.  It makes no difference.

[W7RE]

I traded some games to Gamestop to get World of Warcraft when it came out in 2004, and regret it.
I sold a couple GCN games a couple years later and sort of regretted it.

I don't want to sell off my games ever again. This isn't why I go digital, but it certainly makes it easier.

[scottws]

We've already allowed Steam to completely take over and eliminate any shred of ownership rights we had on PC games. Did you ever read my experience with Deus Ex: Human Revolution, when I was not able to play a game that was purchased for me as a gift from Target because I didn't agree with Steam's new-at-the-time ridiculous EULA?

The last bastion is consoles, but everyone seems to be opening their arms to an era where you have no ownership rights at all over the content you purchased.  It seems like I am in the minority, but I'm not interested in further aiding and abetting the rise of an era with no ownership rights.  I'll trade getting up off the couch every once in awhile to change the game if it means that I get to have some small level of ownership over it.  And just because you have physical stuff doesn't mean you have to sell it.  I don't understand regret selling a game as a counter argument at all, except maybe in the sense of physical items taking up space and wanting to reclaim that space; however, there are answers for that as well such as CD wallets.  At least you have the opportunity to sell or give away the game if you want.  Additionally, while downloading games is most certainly convenient, in an era where you can get almost anything shipped to your door in just a couple days with no shipping cost, I don't see the big deal.

Cobra, in the removed part of your post, you said something about being surprised that some of the content of my rant was coming from me.  Likewise, given that you previously refused to install Windows XP SP2 for a very long time due to some of the anti-piracy measures introduced with that update, I am just as surprised at the viewpoints you've expressed here on the topic of modern digital rights.  They seem to be the polar opposite of that previous stance.

Perhaps everyone has just thrown up their arms and succumbed and that is absolutely your prerogative.  I'm not ready to do that.

Microtransactions, what this thread was originally about, are bad too.  Sure, in this case it's a completely optional thing that doesn't really make the fighting part of the game easier or give you an advantage.  But I think the success of microtransactions creates an incentive for publishers to put parts of the game behind a paywall and make it pay to win.  Just look at mobile examples where microtransactions are completely out of control and the game content is basically junk with everything being unlocked by paying more and more money.  I'm not a fan.

[MysterD]

We've already allowed Steam to completely take over and eliminate any shred of ownership rights we had on PC games. Did you ever read my experience with Deus Ex: Human Revolution, when I was not able to play a game that was purchased for me as a gift from Target because I didn't agree with Steam's new-at-the-time ridiculous EULA?

GoG still sells all their PC games w/out any DRM. If you want games without DRM, keep a lookout there. Square Enix is with GOG - so, maybe you'll be in luck and they'll one day bring Deus Ex: HR Original Edition or Director's Cut to GOG.

We've seen games that once shipped at Retail and most digital stores w/ Steamworks-only, later get DRM-FREE versions on GOG - see Alan Wake, AW: American Nightmare & Risen 2: Gold.

Also, if you decide to tolerate Steam...keep your eyes on Steam-versions of games that have no DRM - see this thread on GOG:
http://www.gog.com/forum/general/list_of_drmfree_games_on_steam/page1

People in that thread will often test-out to see if a game works w/out Steam running, game-saves saves locally, and things of that sort.

While you will of course have to download the game via Steam in the first place...once downloaded, back-up the game-folder files + keep them somewhere (CD, DVD, BR, another HDD, whatever, etc). Most likely, these games will run w/out Steam running (i.e. just boot game-up from game-folder w/out Steam running or create shortcut to desktop directly from game-folder). And you might want to find out (see PC Gaming Wiki) is listed as saving locally to the hard-drive, when you ain't using Steam Cloud for Saving. And likely, these games will even work when they're not in the Steam folder, if you want to move it elsewhere (i.e. Wizardry 8 Steam-version - you actually have to move it to C:\Wiz8 even for it to run; it just don't get along w/ Steam-overlay).

I highly advise gamers who are willing to tolerate Steam, even despite their crummy EULA + many games coming with CEG/Steamworks DRM - do not buy games ASAP from them. Buy them cheap. Buy games that have Steam-keys when they're cheap in Humble Bundles, Groupees, IndieGala, BundleStars, etc and stuff like that, if and whenever possible...especially if they have a cheap $1 tier. If you can't do that - wait for 75% off sales from lowest MSRP or better somewhere, if you can. Ignore urges to buy ASAP b/c you'll likely pay premium pricing + get least amount of content. B/c of the way the market on PC is w/ so many games needing numerous patches after Version 1.0 get releases on the market; so much content pushed-out later (DLC's/expansions, Season Passes, etc), Re-Released Edition (with All DLC's/expansions), and now even HD Remasters With All Content Plus Maybe Some Extra content included (State of Decay: Year-One, Dark Souls: Scholar Edition) - it's best to wait. Don't buy now, buy later - which is often easier said than done, of course.

[MysterD]

The last bastion is consoles, but everyone seems to be opening their arms to an era where you have no ownership rights at all over the content you purchased.  It seems like I am in the minority, but I'm not interested in further aiding and abetting the rise of an era with no ownership rights.  I'll trade getting up off the couch every once in awhile to change the game if it means that I get to have some small level of ownership over it.

As a PC gamer, I think games like GTA5 PC that ship on 4 DVD's or more are absolute crap - i.e. games that are 30-70 GB in size (GTA5 PC is said to be around 63 GB and take up 7 DVD's). We're also at a point now where since PC users + retails didn't adopt BR-format fully, unlike where consoles forced them (i.e. PS4 + XB1). So, we're still getting games on ridicuclous amounts of discs @ retail on PC, unlike console platforms. Especially since it'll likely be cheaper digitally anyways on PC - I think I'll just buy the game from somewhere digitally go away to watch a movie or something, and let it take the 1-2 1/2 hours on my Comcast Blast to do the download + install.

And just because you have physical stuff doesn't mean you have to sell it.  I don't understand regret selling a game as a counter argument at all, except maybe in the sense of physical items taking up space and wanting to reclaim that space; however, there are answers for that as well such as CD wallets.  At least you have the opportunity to sell or give away the game if you want.  Additionally, while downloading games is most certainly convenient, in an era where you can get almost anything shipped to your door in just a couple days with no shipping cost, I don't see the big deal.

As a PC gamer - I find myself backing-up huge games I'm done with on my external HDD. Some of these games, I just don't want to burn onto 4 DVD's or more.
Games that have DLC's, Season Passes, or extra content I might want later - hell, I'll likely just leave on my Internals.

Microtransactions, what this thread was originally about, are bad too.  Sure, in this case it's a completely optional thing that doesn't really make the fighting part of the game easier or give you an advantage.  But I think the success of microtransactions creates an incentive for publishers to put parts of the game behind a paywall and make it pay to win.  Just look at mobile examples where microtransactions are completely out of control and the game content is basically junk with everything being unlocked by paying more and more money.  I'm not a fan.

I think the problem is - dev's + pub's spend so much on development + marketing (Especially in the AAA arena), they decide to come up w/ crappy ways to rake us over the coals here w/ micro-transactions. The wisest thing to do - and the hardest, albeit - is to buy things ASAP when they're at a premium pricing and are giving you the least amount of content. I discussed that a bit in my above-said post, so refer to that.

And if they're going to do "locked-$DLC", don't do it. They can lock files there, if they choose - but, they shouldn't make gamers $ for it, IF IT'S DONE. Just patch it to work later, for FREE.
MKX PC version - modders figured out how to unlock certain characters (Shinnok, Baraka, Rain), that likely could've been $DLC's later (and still could be $-DLC later, for all we know):
http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/04/17/mortal-kombat-x-modder-unlocks-rain-sindel-and-baraka

[Cobra951]

We've already allowed Steam to completely take over and eliminate any shred of ownership rights we had on PC games. Did you ever read my experience with Deus Ex: Human Revolution, when I was not able to play a game that was purchased for me as a gift from Target because I didn't agree with Steam's new-at-the-time ridiculous EULA?

The last bastion is consoles, but everyone seems to be opening their arms to an era where you have no ownership rights at all over the content you purchased.  It seems like I am in the minority, but I'm not interested in further aiding and abetting the rise of an era with no ownership rights.  I'll trade getting up off the couch every once in awhile to change the game if it means that I get to have some small level of ownership over it.  And just because you have physical stuff doesn't mean you have to sell it.  I don't understand regret selling a game as a counter argument at all, except maybe in the sense of physical items taking up space and wanting to reclaim that space; however, there are answers for that as well such as CD wallets.  At least you have the opportunity to sell or give away the game if you want.  Additionally, while downloading games is most certainly convenient, in an era where you can get almost anything shipped to your door in just a couple days with no shipping cost, I don't see the big deal.

Cobra, in the removed part of your post, you said something about being surprised that some of the content of my rant was coming from me.  Likewise, given that you previously refused to install Windows XP SP2 for a very long time due to some of the anti-piracy measures introduced with that update, I am just as surprised at the viewpoints you've expressed here on the topic of modern digital rights.  They seem to be the polar opposite of that previous stance.

Perhaps everyone has just thrown up their arms and succumbed and that is absolutely your prerogative.  I'm not ready to do that.

What I said was that the only way to do disc games on consoles without needing the disc in them after install (as copy protection, to prevent runaway piracy) was Microsoft's evil vision of being always online.  That was completely unacceptable, and if you remember some of my other previous posts, I said they pretty much forced me over to the Sony camp.  No way would I have bought into the Microsoft future as laid out then.  I hate the very idea of Steam, with its constant intrusion, and this is one of the two major reasons I don't do gaming PCs anymore (the other being high cost, and not a one-time cost either).  Consoles still work with a simple local licensing system that doesn't require any outside intrusion of any kind.  You can pull the ethernet cable out, replace the network key with bogus characters, and still do all the single-player and couch co-op you want, in all your stuff.

I haven't changed, but I understand that no successful corporation is going to allow a system without any piracy impediment.  You're confusing two separate sentiments when you bring up the old WinXP SP2 posts.  The problem at the time was that I had an "unofficial" version of the OS which would have gone inactive with any major updates.  I have since rectified that.

I'm not disagreeing at all with your stance against the eroding of property rights.  I know; it sucks.  But these big-money outfits have been drilling the licensing-not-owning bullshit into the collective consciousness for decades.  They've been very effective at convincing the general populace that this is the way it always has been, and the way it has to be.  At some point, fighting against it is no better than cutting off your nose to spite your face.  I can sit in a corner and sulk, or I can avail myself of what there is, and enjoy it for what it is.  The consoles are now in a space I can live with.  PCs have moved well beyond it, at least when it comes to the big games.  And if I'm not going to be playing the likes of GTA V and The Witcher 3 on PC, then I don't need a cutting-edge gaming PC at all.  I suppose if I decided to go the pirate route, and a big bag of money landed at my feet, I might change my mind.

[MysterD]

What I said was that the only was to do disc games on consoles without needing the disc in them after install (as copy protection, to prevent runaway piracy) was Microsoft's evil vision of being always online.  That was completely unacceptable, and if you remember some of my other previous posts, I said they pretty much forced me over to the Sony camp.  No way would I have bought into the Microsoft future as laid out then.  I hate the very idea of Steam, with its constant intrusion, and this is one of the two major reasons I don't do gaming PCs anymore (the other being high cost, and not a one-time cost either).  Consoles still work with a simple local licensing system that doesn't require any outside intrusion of any kind.  You can pull the ethernet cable out, replace the network key with bogus characters, and still do all the single-player and couch co-op you want, in all your stuff.

I haven't changed, but I understand that no successful corporation is going to allow a system without any piracy impediment.  You're confusing two separate sentiments when you bring up the old WinXP SP2 posts.  The problem at the time was that I had an "unofficial" version of the OS which would have gone inactive with any major updates.  I have since rectified that.

I'm not disagreeing at all with your stance against the eroding of property rights.  I know; it sucks.  But these big-money outfits have been drilling the licensing-not-owning bullshit into the collective consciousness for decades.  They've been very effective at convincing the general populace that this is the way it always has been, and the way it has to be.  At some point, fighting against it is no better than cutting off your nose to spite your face.  I can sit in a corner and sulk, or I can avail myself of what there is, and enjoy it for what it is.  The consoles are now in a space I can live with.  PCs have moved well beyond it, at least when it comes to the big games.  And if I'm not going to be playing the likes of GTA V and The Witcher 3 on PC, then I don't need a cutting-edge gaming PC at all.  I suppose if I decided to go the pirate route, and a big bag of money landed at my feet, I might change my mind.

I think the problem w/ PC gaming - and always will be, quite likely - is buying pre-fab is a losing game. Buy a high-end PC from Best Buy, Dell, or somewhere - expect to spend a damn fortune (i.e. $2000+), if you want the best stuff...and even though, you might not get 100% what you want. Buying a high-end PC from a local mom + pop shop that builds PC's - expect say $1000-2000. If you have vast knowledge of PC stuff and how to build one, you can shine: build an insanely awesome rig that you picked-out all the parts, buy most parts during sales (especially crazy sales), and whatnot....you will be looking at around $1000-1500 (I fit somewhere in there). I've done ONE minor hardware upgrade since May 2011 (when Witcher 2 PC came out) - I went from 8 GB of RAM to 16 recently (that was around $60). Now, all I need is to buy a video-card (looking at around $200-400 here), more or less - since some of these games are stiff for me, if I want to run at 1080p (i.e. The Evil Within PC). I've bought more HDD's (internal + external), but those weren't really to help how a game runs; I just wanted more space.

I've got 900 games with also almost 400 DLC's or so on Steam + God knows how many games w/ other services put together (GOG, Steam, Origin, etc) - so, I'm not really crying too bad here yet to buy a new vid-card ASAP.

I don't spend too much for games anymore. I buy most games in Humble Bundles (or bundle-sites like that) or catch AAA games in crazy sales/clearances when they happen, whether digital (most likely) or at retail (that happens, but rarely these days). Last game I really spent $20 on was Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls expansion (at retail). God knows last time I spent $30 on a game - probably Mass Effect 3.

[Cobra951]

I guess I'll weigh in on MTs.  Generally horrible, with exceptions.  It's possible to add value with MTs, but that's seldom the case.  They're usually just cash grabs.  I've mentioned before that capitalism has one fatal flaw, which is the fallacy of infinite growth.  Any publicly traded company needs constant growth to thrive.  Maintaining a healthy, but unchanging profit margin leads to stagnation and decay.  The reason is that investors expect a return on their investment.  They expect it to grow, always.  When it stops growing, they pull their money out and invest it elsewhere, lowering the price of the stock.  You can see the cascading effect this will have if left unchecked.

Of course, nothing can grow forever.  But that won't keep them from trying.  It's gotten to the point in the game industry where hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue is no longer enough.  Now they need to figure out other ways to milk money out of the users.  The $60 customer needs to turn into a $200 customer (as a Ubisoft exec said almost verbatim, and I'll find the video if pressed on it).  Enter MTs and, worse, "free"-to-play business models.  We may be hard-pressed to find traditionally marketed good games in the near future.  They may go the way of the dodo.  It's not a good time to be a young gamer.  I'm glad I had my experiences when I did.

I think the problem w/ PC gaming - and always will be, quite likely - is buying pre-fab is a losing game. Buy a high-end PC from Best Buy, Dell, or somewhere - expect to spend a damn fortune (i.e. $2000+), if you want the best stuff...and even though, you might not get 100% what you want. Buying a high-end PC from a local mom + pop shop that builds PC's - expect say $1000-2000. If you have vast knowledge of PC stuff and how to build one, you can shine: build an insanely awesome rig that you picked-out all the parts, buy most parts during sales (especially crazy sales), and whatnot....you will be looking at around $1000-1500 (I fit somewhere in there). I've done ONE minor hardware upgrade since May 2011 (when Witcher 2 PC came out) - I went from 8 GB of RAM to 16 recently (that was around $60). Now, all I need is to buy a video-card (looking at around $200-400 here), more or less - since some of these games are stiff for me, if I want to run at 1080p (i.e. The Evil Within PC). I've bought more HDD's (internal + external), but those weren't really to help how a game runs; I just wanted more space.

My experience was different.  I basically bought into a dead end, unknowingly, of course.  It was actually touted as the future, and I even remember the term "future-proof" (yeah, right).  Dell Dimension 8100: Intel i850 motherboard, Pentium (1--old socket), dual-channel RDRAM, AGP videocard slot.  Dead.  End.  RDRAM went quickly extinct, so upgrading even to 1 GB was never affordable.  The very next gen of Pentiums used a socket with more pins.  AGP gave way to PCIe only a few years afterward.  Gen-5 Nvidia was as far as AGP went.  So my experience has made me rather gun-shy.  It's impossible to know when they're going to decide to pull the rug out from under our feet again.  You've been fortunate that it has stayed stable for so long, and that you can simply upgrade individual components, which have themselves gotten so much more bang for the buck over the years.

[MysterD]

I guess I'll weigh in on MTs.  Generally horrible, with exceptions.  It's possible to add value with MTs, but that's seldom the case.  They're usually just cash grabs.  I've mentioned before that capitalism has one fatal flaw, which is the fallacy of infinite growth.  Any publicly traded company needs constant growth to thrive.  Maintaining a healthy, but unchanging profit margin leads to stagnation and decay.  The reason is that investors expect a return on their investment.  They expect it to grow, always.  When it stops growing, they pull their money out and invest it elsewhere, lowering the price of the stock.  You can see the cascading effect this will have if left unchecked.

Of course, nothing can grow forever.  But that won't keep them from trying.  It's gotten to the point in the game industry where hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue is no longer enough.  Now they need to figure out other ways to milk money out of the users.  The $60 customer needs to turn into a $200 customer (as a Ubisoft exec said almost verbatim, and I'll find the video if pressed on it).  Enter MTs and, worse, "free"-to-play business models.  We may be hard-pressed to find traditionally marketed good games in the near future.  They may go the way of the dodo.  It's not a good time to be a young gamer.  I'm glad I had my experiences when I did.

More reasons for gamers to stop buying games ASAP! Buying ASAP/early leads to paying more of a premium for less content...especially in an era loaded w/ more DLC's, Season Passes, Re-Released Complete Edition, HD Remastered Edition With New Content, etc. Again, I know - easier said than done. Buying ASAP leads to game might still need patching/optimizations first (especially w/ big, huge, and complex games) - one of the main reasons I definitely did not buy RPG's like Pillars of Eternity + Dragon Age: Inquisition ASAP (i.e. RPG's b/c they are such time-sinks are my most likely game to buy ASAP, if I actually do so).

I have no problem w/ skipping DLC's that are glorified cheats, weapons, items, skins, and other nonsense that likely won't do much to the game. I prefer content packs like actual game-content DLC's/expansions (think like Dawnguard DLC & Dragonborn DLC for Skyrim) + full-blown Season Passes.

About easy Fatalities - I don't really have much interest in that. Part of the fun is pulling off a Fatality in its original sequence.
Though, I normally suck w/ trying any Fatalities where Up is a movement, especially if it isn't at the end...so, "Easy Fatalities" might be worthwhile, in that instance...if they ain't expensive. Chances are - they will be too expensive for me, so "Screw 'em"!"

Good thing, most finishers don't have an Up in them. Great, now watch Ed Boon troll us and in MK11, most Fatalities have an Up in there - in the hopes he gets people like me that suck w/ "Up" motions in a Fatality to buy "Easy Fatalities" DLC.

[MysterD]

My experience was different.  I basically bought into a dead end, unknowingly, of course.  It was actually touted as the future, and I even remember the term "future-proof" (yeah, right).  Dell Dimension 8100: Intel i850 motherboard, Pentium (1--old socket), dual-channel RDRAM, AGP videocard slot.  Dead.  End.  RDRAM went quickly extinct, so upgrading even to 1 GB was never affordable.  The very next gen of Pentiums used a socket with more pins.  AGP gave way to PCIe only a few years afterward.  Gen-5 Nvidia was as far as AGP went.  So my experience has made me rather gun-shy.  It's impossible to know when they're going to decide to pull the rug out from under our feet again.  You've been fortunate that it has stayed stable for so long, and that you can simply upgrade individual components, which have themselves gotten so much more bang for the buck over the years.

I think one of the best things to happen to the PC was extended life cycle w/ consoles. Since many games on PC are also on the consoles and since consoles have gotten so much closer to PC's (in power + architecture), I feel like compared to older days...I just ain't upgrading as much period. I think this self-built PC has lasted longer than any other PC I had, w/out ever before w/out upgrading much at all. PC games didn't really get stiff for me w/ this PC, until quite recently - which was when most console games decided to ditch the XB360 + PS3; and they began releasing some games only for PC, PS4, and XB1.

Most games for me now: 1080p resolution + games ranging from overall Medium to High settings - I'm fine here.
It's games like TEW PC that give me a kick in the pants, to where I just can't accept 720p or a resolution b/t 720p + 1080p.
Maybe I need a smaller 2nd monitor here or something.

The last time I remember having a PC and getting a kick in the pants w/ much stiffer high-end PC requirements and wanting a new video-card - oh, that's right...the X360 launched and less games hit original XBox. Coincidence? I think not. New console releases cause this problem on the PC, every time.

The only other time I think it's time to toss the towel in w/ my current PC is usually after 5-6 years with that PC. Usually, by then - so much has changed, time to start over. By then, time to build a new one. When it looks like my CPU is too weak; mobo's have gotten much better; and GPU is aging - yup, towel goes in. New PC time.
 

[Cobra951]

More reasons for gamers to stop buying games ASAP! Buying ASAP/early leads to paying more of a premium for less content...especially in an era loaded w/ more DLC's, Season Passes, Re-Released Complete Edition, HD Remastered Edition With New Content, etc. Again, I know - easier said than done. Buying ASAP leads to game might still need patching/optimizations first (especially w/ big, huge, and complex games) - one of the main reasons I definitely did not buy RPG's like Pillars of Eternity + Dragon Age: Inquisition ASAP (i.e. RPG's b/c they are such time-sinks are my most likely game to buy ASAP, if I actually do so).

I have no problem w/ skipping DLC's that are glorified cheats, weapons, items, skins, and other nonsense that likely won't do much to the game. I prefer content packs like actual game-content DLC's/expansions (think like Dawnguard DLC & Dragonborn DLC for Skyrim) + full-blown Season Passes.

About easy Fatalities - I don't really have much interest in that. Part of the fun is pulling off a Fatality in its original sequence.
Though, I normally suck w/ trying any Fatalities where Up is a movement, especially if it isn't at the end...so, "Easy Fatalities" might be worthwhile, in that instance...if they ain't expensive. Chances are - they will be too expensive for me, so "Screw 'em"!"

Good thing, most finishers don't have an Up in them. Great, now watch Ed Boon troll us and in MK11, most Fatalities have an Up in there - in the hopes he gets people like me that suck w/ "Up" motions in a Fatality to buy "Easy Fatalities" DLC.

Oh yeah.  Good point.  It's a mistake to buy early, and an even worse mistake to preorder.  You don't know what you're going to get.  I got DA: I several months after release, and didn't start playing it until about a month ago (I think).  I was surprised to find it already had 5 patches, and another one hit shortly thereafter.  It's in fine shape now.  It must have been a mess upon release.

One outfit that seems to get DLC right is Gearbox, at least with Borderlands.  They have seriously enhanced all 3 of their entries in the franchise with DLC.  But that doesn't mean all their DLC is worth buying.  Those "hunter packs" (or whatever they're called) for BL2, for instance, are just money grabs.  But if you get the Handsome Collection (new-gen port), everything  is thrown in for the price, and that's for 2 games.  Great value, for new players anyway.

[MysterD]

Oh yeah.  Good point.  It's a mistake to buy early, and an even worse mistake to preorder.  You don't know what you're going to get.  I got DA: I several months after release, and didn't start playing it until about a month ago (I think).  I was surprised to find it already had 5 patches, and another one hit shortly thereafter.  It's in fine shape now.  It must have been a mess upon release.

One outfit that seems to get DLC right is Gearbox, at least with Borderlands.  They have seriously enhanced all 3 of their entries in the franchise with DLC.  But that doesn't mean all their DLC is worth buying.  Those "hunter packs" (or whatever they're called) for BL2, for instance, are just money grabs.  But if you get the Handsome Collection (new-gen port), everything  is thrown in for the price, and that's for 2 games.  Great value, for new players anyway.

Handsome Collection on PC doesn't exist. So for us PC gamers, right now - this whole situation is kind of fucked. Kind of.

BL1 isn't much of a problem - b/c there ain't many DLC's for that; only 4. And it's easy enough to buy BL1: GOTY dirt-cheap in a sale to Collect everything for BL1, anyways.

BL2 is a problem on PC. Kind of. BL2 PC has 46 DLC's - look here on Steam, you'll see what I mean.
Basically, most of the important BL2 stuff is this - you'll really want BL2 (base-game), any of the Character Packs, UVH Leveling Packs, and Season Pass.

Best way to buy BL2 on PC is to buy BL2: "Complete Edition" from GameAgent (since it supports Steamplay, once activated on Steam - you get both Windows + Mac versions on PC). That's been $11 before, at its cheapest - which is when I bought it. It comes w/ most of the important BL2 stuff (see the stuff I listed above) + Headhunter Packs 1-5.
I already owned BL2 (base-game only) when I bought GameAgent's "BL2: Complete Pack" bundle (it's not 100% complete, but damn close), some time ago - so, I bought it namely for all the DLC's that I was missing that I really wanted.
So, if anyone's looking to get all the important BL2 content on PC - wait for GameAgent to have a killer sale again on their Close-To "Complete Edition."

[Cobra951]

Holy crap.  46?  Hahaha!  Well, the only ones I was thinking of were the content DLCs--4 of them, just like for BL1--plus whichever extra characters you like.  It's a shame they're not giving the same THC deal to PC players.

[MysterD]

Polygon -> Newest MKX PC patch killed PC Save Files; Patch pulled.

As previously announced, developers NetherRealm and High Voltage Software rolled out a substantial patch for the Windows PC version of Mortal Kombat X today. While the patch promised "huge improvements" for the PC version, bringing it to parity with its console counterparts, it also came with a major bug.

Shortly after rolling out the patch through Steam, players reported that the new update was deleting their save data. Players found that unlocked characters were no longer available and all of their progress in the game's Krypt, a dungeon crawler-like game stuffed with unlockables, had been reset.

Publisher Warner Bros. has since pulled the patch from Steam and said it's investigating the issue.

"We are temporarily removing the patch until we can pinpoint the cause of save data loss," an update posted to Steam reads. "We are actively working on this and will keep everyone posted as we work towards a fix. We sincerely apologize for this disruption."

The update for Mortal Kombat X included a long list of changes, tweaks and improvements, including fixes for a number of crashes and performance issues related to the PC version. NetherRealm said earlier this week that it's working to improve the game's online networking code and address player concerns.

Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon appeared on NetherRealm's livestream yesterday, saying, "We are slaving to try to get [the game] as good playing as possible. There's no way we consider ourselves content with where we are as far as the online experience."

[Quemaqua]

So Mortal Kombat X is like $30 on Steam for the game plus all the bells and whistles except for Goro, who remains a separate purchase (lame). I've been wanting this for a while, so finally grabbed it, and it's really pretty great. Worth jumping on if it's something you're into. Would be fun to play some online matches if any of you guys grabbed it.

Reviews aren't so great due to that tremendously bad launch, and also due to how DLC was handled; but at this point everything is stable and you can get nearly all the DLC in one go for pretty cheap, and it's got a ton of content.

http://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/307780/

[MysterD]

Still waiting for MK10 to get cheaper. It's been $20 before on BundleStars w/ MOST (not all) of the DLC's before.
So, I'll just play the waiting game.

Also, old MK10 thread:
http://www.overwritten.net/forum/index.php?topic=9489.0

[Quemaqua]

Weird. I searched for it and got nothing.

Anyway, still enjoying the game. Not a bad price for the content at all, and it's nice to have a fighter on my PC, where I'm way, way more likely to play it.

[MysterD]

Anyway, still enjoying the game. Not a bad price for the content at all, and it's nice to have a fighter on my PC, where I'm way, way more likely to play it.

I had a blast w/ MK9 - and still do, from time-to-time.
Mostly waiting for some major price-drops, as I don't really feel a super-duper need for another new MK game yet.

[MysterD]

IGN -> MK XL Edition announced for PS4 + X1 only.
Destructoid -> MK X on PC will NOT get new content/DLC Kombat Pack 2 & PC will not get MK XL Edition.

[Quemaqua]

Glad I didn't pay full price. I've heard the online play is fine now from the people I've talked to, though obviously they're not pro-level. But 99% of the people who play these games aren't.

Pretty fucking shitty on the part of WB and NetherRealm. I don't care because I think I have all the MKX I really need, and I doubt I'll play online much. But still pretty fucking shitty of them.

[MysterD]

Glad I didn't pay full price. I've heard the online play is fine now from the people I've talked to, though obviously they're not pro-level. But 99% of the people who play these games aren't.

Pretty fucking shitty on the part of WB and NetherRealm. I don't care because I think I have all the MKX I really need, and I doubt I'll play online much. But still pretty fucking shitty of them.

I'm glad I've held off a few times on MK X now. This just....sucks.

I was like, "Yeah, keep putting those combat packs out, Netherealm and WB; I'll wait for a GOTY Ed."
I thought the Xenomorph Alien + Leatherface being in a MK game looked cool; so much for that now as we won't get Kombat Pack 2.
Well, looks like we won't get any more love on the PC.

Plenty of complaints on Steam forums and Steam reviews have dropped now to "Mixed" - loaded with complaints of lack of PC support and no more PC support even being planned here.

I'll keep waiting for MK X to get cheaper. I still from time-to-time dig out MK9 Komplete PC; love that game.