Napoleon: Total War - is this the future of gaming?

[Peanutkiller]

First things first; I did pre-order the Imperial Edition of Napoleon: Total War.

As a big fan of the Total War series, especially Empire, I was looking forward to this for quite a while now. Visiting their website on a regular basis, looking for updates, I was really thrilled when they announced the co-operative grand campaign modes.

That was a while back, but right now I am starting to fully realize the absurdity of it all.

Isn't it strange to be exited about a gameplay mode that was originally planned to be included in Empire: Total War, and then repeatedly announced as a future (free) update?
Keeping in mind here that the current version of Empire: Total War (build 1.5 at the moment, I believe) is still riddled with bugs and other gameplay issues, and however every new patch does fix a lot, it has been over a year since the release, and it is still broken.

Napoleon: Total War is planned to be released at the end of the month; this is why this fragment taken from their site troubles me:

Just before the end the lead Battle AI programmer left CA to return to his family up north. (...) It left us with a battle AI, which at that stage, struggled to beat good players in a fair fight, and was pretty much at the mercy of great players, even with a level of handicap (I call it cheating) that is all too obvious.

So, the Creative Assembly is currently hiring people to fix this problem, while the game is to be released in 3 weeks time?!

Is this the future of gaming?
Where gaming companies can release broken games, in which they don't include announced content, and after having promised to release it free, in stead charge you fifty bucks for it?
This while this new title looks to be heading the same direction, on a crash course towards disaster.
And, while maintaining a straight face, grimacing continuously, make me want to actually buy this game (and I do want to buy it, the fiends).

Thoughts, people, thoughts!

 

[Kijan]

The future? Don't know about you ... but the amount of crappy shovelware the Wii is getting and how many people are actually buying it ... I'd pretty much say that future has already hit.

 

[Peanutkiller]

The future? Don't know about you ... but the amount of crappy shovelware the Wii is getting and how many people are actually buying it ... I'd pretty much say that future has already hit.

You are probably right, there is a lot of crappy shovelware on that little thing. The real point here, however, is the fact that we have already (or at least, I, apparently) reached a point where we are willing to spend a lot of money on broken, unfinished games, just because corporate grease-balls with pretty faces tell us to.

The Wii seems to be preforming brilliantly in this segment.

 

[Kijan]

The future? Don't know about you ... but the amount of crappy shovelware the Wii is getting and how many people are actually buying it ... I'd pretty much say that future has already hit.

You are probably right, there is a lot of crappy shovelware on that little thing. The real point here, however, is the fact that we have already (or at least, I, apparently) reached a point where we are willing to spend a lot of money on broken, unfinished games, just because corporate grease-balls with pretty faces tell us to.

The Wii seems to be preforming brilliantly in this segment.

Well ... there is probably also that little voice in your heads that is trying to tell that maybe this game won't be so crappy as you'd expect it to be. Or at least you hope so, until you start to play the said game and cringe in agony and despair. ^^

 

[Peanutkiller]

The future? Don't know about you ... but the amount of crappy shovelware the Wii is getting and how many people are actually buying it ... I'd pretty much say that future has already hit.

You are probably right, there is a lot of crappy shovelware on that little thing. The real point here, however, is the fact that we have already (or at least, I, apparently) reached a point where we are willing to spend a lot of money on broken, unfinished games, just because corporate grease-balls with pretty faces tell us to.

The Wii seems to be preforming brilliantly in this segment.

Well ... there is probably also that little voice in your heads that is trying to tell that maybe this game won't be so crappy as you'd expect it to be. Or at least you hope so, until you start to play the said game and cringe in agony and despair. ^^

Double the fun placing the game disc in the microwave otherwise :wink:

 

[Tykk]

Take a 5 minute stroll on the NBA 2k10 PC forums and you'll see that this is not the future at all, it's the present.

 

[Ted_Wolff]

There's a difference between selling crappy shovelware and selling a game that doesn't work. At least the crappy stuff works, unfortunately or not!

We should focus on the broken stuff and work to get developers to release working content, provide timely fixes, and charge a suitable amount.

The crappy shovelware? Eh, books have had Dickens, Tolstoy, and Shakespeare, yet trashy romance novels still sell like no one's business. Not much to do about that when it comes to games, either.

 

[Thee_BoBALOSA]

Its nice to see another total war fan out there, and if you were a person who liked empire then im sure you'll napolean. same shit different pile. the total war series has been failing since the days of activation(rome) giving the project to sega(barbarian). then came medieval 2 which is a upgraded version of rome. present day we have empire, an attempt to upgrade total. riddle with bugs and seems like a broken AI, i find its the little things that make the game. ie game quotes. rome had quotes from famous persons while in the newer games they're just quotes. diplomacy is still broken. ive found you can have a neighbour live next to you, become your ally for years followed by him attacking me with little to no because im at peace with everyone. their are still issues involving the ai in regards to diplomacy from the days of rome which just seemed to carry over. in battle, generals still seem to charge in first, followed an ai amry with no sense of tactics. i was really hopping empire would used military formations and tactics when commanding troops. so when i see napolean being made in less then a year, i laugh, maybe this time around i'll be downloading it then buying a broken game.

 

[FrozenBacon]

This has been happening for a while, especially with PC gaming. Most developers would favor putting a game out early, with issues over delaying it for a few more months. Logic behind it is that when a game is in development, it doesn't make money. It is so common that most developers think nothing of it. As long as the game is playable in some form, they'll release it.

With Xbox live, patching was introduced and allowed developers to continue this practice on consoles. Thing about Xbox, though, is that microsoft processes all patches that go through Xbox live so the developers can't go as crazy as they would with just a PC game. I don't think Xbox has the problem of forcing the user to download a 500mb patch as soon as they purchase the game.