This is where we are now in 2024.
Check if Game is Safe to Buy Checklist:
- The game is available as a direct download, on Steam, GOG, or a console I own (if I want to play on console)
- The game functions
- The game is complete, has launched publicly, and has mostly positive reviews
- Exception: If I believe enough in the product to purchase it early access
- The game is compatible with my system
- In my case, this also means 32x9 support in Windows
- AND Linux because I’m heading there soon no doubt
- In my case, this also means 32x9 support in Windows
- The game’s performance is generally good on a system with my components
- The game’s bugs aren’t a dealbreaker to me
- The game is fun
- The game price is a good value to me
- The game is not PTW
- The game has minimal/no MTX
- If the game has MTX, it’s not intrusive
- If the game has in-game currency, it can be earned in-game without grinding for ages
- The game has no advertisements (unless it’s just for a joke)
- The game is not from the following developers:
- Bethesda Games Studios (post FO4)
- Battlestar Games
- Psyonix
- Whoever developed the Gollum game?
- Starbreeze Studios
- [more to come]
- The game is not from the following publishers:
- Sony/Playstation
- Bethesda Softworks
- EA
- Activision Blizzard (post D3)
- Riot Games
- WB
- Deep Silver
- Ubisoft
- Psyonix
- Gearbox (post BL2)
- [more to come]
- The game does not require 3rd party launchers
- The game does not require 3rd party DRM
- The game does not require 2nd or 3rd party account linking
- The game does not require kernel-level anti-cheat
- The game is not related with a blockchain, NFTs, or crypto
- The developer of the game treats their employees well
- The publisher of the game treats their developer well
- The game is not a live service game
- If the game is co-op, it allows local hosting
- If the game is single-player, it does NOT require an Internet connection to play (optional net connection OK for things like Elden Ring features)
- Red Flags:
- Games developed by:
- Hello Games
- CDPR
- Rockstar
- Nintendo games (it supports Nintendo’s crappy business practices)
- Games developed by:
*some exceptions still apply
Whoever developed the Gollum game?
It was Daedalic Entertainment and their older and more indi titles are fine. Since they closed down their dev team after gollum, I don’t think you need to avoid them.
Why CDPR? They just had a single game with a disaster last gen console launch and a kinda rough PC launch, they made up for it in basicly no time and iirc they own Gog the platform without any drm always online crap
it was only in “red flags”?
maybe more of a “never pre-order” type comment?
Yeah, I meant it more as a caution than a “DO NOT BUY”
I think you were meant yellow flag, which means be cautious.
Red flag: to identify or draw attention to I’m pretty sure I got the color right.
But red flag means that: never even consider to buy, or if bought by accident, refund if still can. Or at least in other areas of life it has such a meaning.
I think you answered your own question in the first part, and for the rest, I was mostly interested in the immersion in the game via roleplaying, like NPC’s having their own routines, living, breathing world, etc. A.K.A. the stuff they lied about that still has not made it into the game.
Sounds about right. You should add Paradox Interactive as they added a launcher to Across the Obelisk.
I think that’s not the only game to which they added their own launcher. I don’t know exactly which one, but from what I have read my impression is that it’s most of new games.
At least the launcher of their games actually has a practical use with modding (being able to quickly create sets of active mods that you can switch between).
You should definitely check out this video to understand hello games were the good guys fucked over by a bunch of hype and then Sony, the publisher, giving the studio barely any support while pushing the blame on them for everything.
Why Psyonix? Rocket League is the only game they still work on.
Edit: Psyonix isn’t even a publisher
It feels like they should have replaced that one with “has epic bought the game or developers”
Like, with rocket league for example, almost every negative thing they mentioned on the list that applies only happened to the game after Psyonix was bought by epic.
Why Hello Games?
No Man’s Sky wasn’t all it was hyped to be on launch, it’s actually much better now (I’m literally playing it right this second lol)
Hello Games sold a game that was not what was promised. It is not common to have a game be released in the state that NMS was released in get the support that NMS received. Definite red flag. I would stop, and really think hard before purchasing another game from them. Not that I wouldn’t buy one, but I would use some brain function before doing so.
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You forgot to include Epic Store, and itch
Also forgot must be open source and self hostable (if multiplayer)
I wouldn’t buy something from the epic store. Though I agree with Itch and direct download.
Direct download is already listed there. No Epic store. Games do not need to be open source. I already included local hosting.
You said for co-op not all multiplayer though
Oh! Good call. Thanks.
Must be open source? Would be nice, but you are excluding 99.9% of games. Which is fine as a stance, but you don’t need the list then, your stance is just “I don’t play games*”.
Must be self hostable? How would that work with MMOs? Releasing the server software would spoil everything, and discovery of how new mechanics and content works is part of the fun. It would also allow cheaters to learn how the server-sidr anti-cheat works.
Would be nice, but you are excluding 99.9% of games
Take LoL, you can’t physically play the version of the game you want anymore. Buying anything in that game means nothing because it might not exist tomorrow, with open source you can fork it when they change it/remove the thing you bought
How would that work with MMOs?
There already is private servers of closed source MMOs, and there are open source MMOs
Releasing the server software would spoil everything, and discovery of how new mechanics and content works is part of the fun
Not sure I understand it
It would also allow cheaters to learn how the server-sidr anti-cheat works
I don’t know where people suddenly decided cheating is bad. Getting into hacked lobbies and playing scrapped content was so much fun in MW2. Or hacked zombies in W@W
But basically the same as now, anti cheat doesn’t stop cheating. Just ban them when you see them
Again LoL example, they have a kernel anticheat and there’s still cheating. Same with Fortnite.
Take LoL
I agree, I’m just saying it’s an unrealistic stance to have unless you want to play no games at all.
There already is private servers of closed source MMOs
Yes, most done by reimplementing the protocol. They are separate projects that network with the same client project.
Not sure I understand it
Many MMOs have secrets that are undiscovered for years. Many communities spend lots of effort testing mechanics trying to discover how something works, or working together trying to solve a new quest, or piece of content nobody figured out yet. They create wikis trying to catalogue what the player base figured out about the game. When you put it out in the open, all of that is gone, the game is “pre-solved”.
I don’t know where people suddenly decided cheating is bad.
Millennia ago, I assume, when competitive sports became a thing.
Getting into hacked lobbies and playing scrapped content was so much fun in MW2. Or hacked zombies in W@W
Sure. Never played that but this sounds like mods and has nothing to do with cheating.
anti cheat doesn’t stop cheating.
And door locks don’t stop burglary, but they sure reduce it.
Bethesda Why?
The game is not a live service game
I don’t know about you but I enjoyed my time in RuneScape. And haven’t paid a cent for it!
Omori fits
Being created by omocat is a red flag by itself
Why is that
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Technically they haven’t changed the terms, they were very up-front about the requirement for a PSN account. There’s been a warning on the Steam page this whole time and it even tells you it’s required the first time you open the game. The problem is that they didn’t actually follow through on making it a real requirement for 3 months.
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If it was mandatory from the start then it shouldn’t have been sold in the countries PSN has deemed unfit. The argument kinda falls apart from there. Probably not even legal to do so, the singlehandedly most scummy move anyone could do though.
Think about it, its mandatory, and you Jo Schmo living in Kazakhstan get to play for months, and now nope. Just nope, they straight lied to your face, took your money happily, rode on the success from you adding to the “total players”, then took it all away.
Mandatory my ass.
They didn’t change after sale, they eula roofied you
This is the first time I hear the term outside of a Louis Rossmann video, thank you
Try to refund a second time. From what I’ve heard, the first request is done by a bot but it will be manually reviewed on the second try.
I was actually planning on getting this game until all this.
Same
I was thinking about buying the game and immediately refunding but apparently it would do literally nothing to hurt Sony except pad their refund stats
I’m still seeing that tweet with the context you screenshotted
I don’t think the tweet is an issue, but the linked page being edited.
oooooo
