July 2: wallet threat level premature

Posted by on July 2, 2012 in Games

This week sees the release of two games arguably not ready for release. Funcom’s X-Files meets Lovecraft meets Stephen King MMO Secret World is suffering the usual teething pains you’d unfortunately expect from an MMO launch. And the sexycool, superdumb, weirdly clunky/weirdly sleek sci-fi strategy game Endless Space has moved up from its August 24th release date, apparently for financial reasons. I like each game — a lot — but I’m also keenly aware that they both need work, and that it’s a sad state of affairs when games this potentially good are pushed out the door untimely with promises of patches to follow. On the same note, world peace remains elusive.

Spelunky might be old news to some folks, since it’s been out for more than three years as a freeware game on the PC. But how good can a free game be? Right? If it was any good, it would cost a few bucks. So I’ve held out for the $10 downloadable version, available this week on Xbox Live Arcade. Holy cats, I had no idea such a seriously punishing, side-scrolling, dynamically generated dungeonplumb existed. With multiplayer! Spelunky may very well be the 8-bit equivalent of Demon’s Souls, but harder. It hates me. I think I love it. So far, we’ve got a very dysfunctional thing going.

The real wallet threat for me is mostly an unknown. You’d think Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legend is just another cash-in for a set of fancypants supercars licensed by Atari. I can’t tell one fancypants supercar from another, so why should I care that this game is specifically about fancypants supercars from Spanish car-maker Ferrari? But the developers at Slightly Mad Studios made two of the best racing games I’ve ever played, Need for Speed: Shift and Need for Speed: Shift II. If they can bring to Ferrari Racing Legends just half of the attention to physics, graphics, gameplay progression, and just plain energy level that make the Shift games great, I don’t care if it’s a game based on driving Hyundais.

Finally, Max Payne 3 is getting three new maps for multiplayer, which is the hands-down best part of the game. I’d be tempted to get three news map, but it looks like these are two smaller deathmatch maps, with only one that supports the superlative far-ranging gang wars mode. After the awesome DLC for Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption, it’s a shame to see Rockstar taking a page from the Call of Duty playbook.

  • http://twitter.com/jdhas jdhas

    How is Endless Space “superdumb”? (I agree with the other descriptors.)

  • amanda_chen

    In America that’s a term of praise.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-McMaster/607680289 Jason McMaster

    Also they’re releasing the pre-order DLC stuff like the graveyard map for Max Payne 3.

  • Nightwish

    “Spanish car-maker Ferrari”

    I see what you did there.

  • CB

    Spelunky really is that good. I felt proud of myself when I beat it 20 times before I reached the 2000 death limit I set for myself.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002595198403 Jason Robards

    yeah, that’s right, I forget: america is dumb.

  • http://twitter.com/WarpRattler Evaccaneer DOOM

    Spelunky! HD and the long-awaited 3DS-music-game-with-awful-title Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy for me this
    week, because I want to play a game with bombs and a game with Bombs.

    Tom may be interested to know that this week’s update for PlayStation
    Plus (AKA “that service no one spends money on”) adds game-he-loved Renegade Ops as a free full title. This means that as long as they log in to PSN and add it to their account during July, PS+ users can download and play it for free as much as they want until their subscription expires. I missed it back when it was released, so I’ll definitely grab it now. (The update also adds Pac-Man Championship Edition DX, which is excellent, and Gotham City Impostors, which I’ve mostly ignored.)

  • Barac Wiley

    I assume you’ll be telling us why you don’t think Secret World is ready for release yet once the review embargo is up. It’s not obvious to me – I’ve experienced a bugged quest or two, which is alas par for the course in MMOs, but not to any significant degree, and I’ve had none of the other technical issues I can recall from many another MMO at launch.

  • http://twitter.com/jdhas jdhas

    Really? America-bashing?

  • tomchick

    Aw, Renegade Ops is too good to give away for free!

  • tomchick

    The AI is one of the things the developer intends to finish after the game has been released. Hence, superdumb. My experience so far is that the AI is pretty passive. Do you disagree, jdhas? I would love to be wrong about this.

  • tomchick

    On Her birthday, no less!

  • tomchick

    The bugged quests, poorly scripted quests, screwed up interface issues, bad chat system, and amateurish PvP come to mind. As much as I like Secret World, it’s got issues that shouldn’t be glossed over just because other MMOs have those issues.

  • tomchick

    I think I could achieve 2000 deaths in an extended evening of play. Spelunky is about that punishing.

  • Barac Wiley

    Oh, no, of course not. I’m just not seeing much in the way of the above. I mean, I haven’t tried the PvP, but it’s really not something that ever appeals to me, so I can’t say as I particularly care if they screw that up.

  • tomchick

    How can I get a copy of the game you’re playing?

  • http://twitter.com/jdhas jdhas

    Ah, fair enough. The AI does need work, I admit; though “super” dumb may be just a weeeee bit hyperbolic, no?

  • tomchick

    I happen to think most AIs are ultimately dumb. It takes a superdumb AI to not even be able to play its own game. See also, Civilization V.

  • http://twitter.com/jdhas jdhas

    Ha! I happen to think most HIs (Human Intelligences) are intimately dumb, which is why I tend to avoid multiplayer-heavy/-only games. Sadly, this makes the superdumbness of most AIs that much more frustrating.

  • Anonymous

    Umm…Ferrari is Italian =) Also, I can’t help but feel sympathy for smaller devs like the ones who made Endless Space. Who have to resort to pushing out a game early because they honestly have real financial issues. However, when it’s a gigantic company like EA or whatnot pushing a game that is clearly unfinished that is unacceptable. The little guys sometimes just can’t help it and they do need to feed their families. So I hope you’re not too harsh on it because it’s a pretty good game!