@stevo302: A friend and I ended up getting into this discussion last night regarding vendors. It's always kind of tricky to talk about ownership issues with software, especially with the era of digital downloads. When we buy from a online vendor, at least the way things currently work with steam/origin/etc - you do actually get a local copy of the software, and have the ability to make backups and hardcopies if you wish. As far as I can tell, the concept is analogous to buying a product from a physical vendor. I think that because Steam was one of the first digital vendors, intelligent marketing, and having no real competition, we don't really think about Steam in the same way we do any other digital vendor- i think for a lot of people it feels almost like its part of our operating systems (I mean, they even call it Steam OS) and it's been used for 16 years. So- again, I just feel like this might be one of those things that in the future we'll have a different mindset. Again I use the analogy of TV stations... there are different shows on different stations- HBO has game of thrones, etc, etc- each media is attached to a different station, stations pay to have TV shows... Using words like "Bribes" I think really sets the wrong idea.
And the other thing, if I was an indie developer, I would much rather have my software on Epic/Origin - Steam has become so filled up with software titles, a lot of it "throwaway", tons of things released everyday, and your software just gets lost in the noise unless you have a major publisher or some viral article hyping your game. Many indie developers talk about how difficult it is to get their software noticed on steam... With more digital vendors, there is much more opportunity for indies to be scene and accessed. The funny thing is that just by not being on steam, and raising all this raucous- it's inadvertently given these guys a lot of PR. :)
Thanks for your points and the discussion- i think its worth talking about.
I know that these "middle" releases like blood dragon, Primal, New Dawn re-use a lot of assets from their "parent" games- but I'm not gonna lie- I love Far Cry and more Far Cry makes me happy. It's cool to see the creativity that they put into these releases.
I haven't spent a lot of time with this franchise, but I remember checking out the other entries and this entry definitely doesn't look on par with the rest of the series... Looking through the screenshots, assuming that the screenshots are good representatives of the content, the action really looks rather minimal and bland, almost has a slightly unfinished look like there should be more things going on...
I'm a little surprised these sequels are still coming out. They never review very well, and I don't think I've ever bought one of these games... *(oh nevermind, it looks like I have it J3 in my steam collection, haven't played) It'd be nice to see these guys try a new IP.
It's a little curious to me all of the fervor that always gets kicked up about games being released on vendors other then steam. I know that psychologically we can feel linked to a specific brand, but as someone already said, Brand fidelity really doesn't benefit anyone except the brand. Artificially cutting yourself off from content / etc because the source has a different name seems like you're only shorting yourself? In a way it seems like an old fashioned way of thinking about things... Just like we have different stores we can go shop at, or different radio stations/tv stations, there are different content providers. Why is there such negativity towards other vendors? Isn't competition a good thing?
@BigFeef: I hear you- I was worried about this. One thing I can say is that its not QUITE as bad as expected it to be, from the GTA online experience. Of course, there is less people on, and its new- so this may be impacting players behavior. I did find that because the world is so expansive, it's easier to have your own adventures, and the game is really fantastic when played with like minded friends. I've actually found a few new strangers to play with, who are all of the same mindset- and it's really made the game fun. Also, having a posse of 4 also discourages would be griefers, which ends up being a fun element. I have my hopes for this game- I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops.
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