Video Games - a general discussion thread — Page 236

doubleofive said:

Will I have my hundreds of thousands of Florins? Cause I've run out of crap to buy and the money keeps coming in.

doubleofive said:

Free DLC with more test chambers? Yes please.

sounds like the stuff that was severely lacking from the game proper. At least it's free.

I don't care what anyone says - the game was just too short and too easy compared to what it SHOULD have been. I wouldn't have minded so much but it was also EXPENSIVE.

doubleofive said:

 

While free DLC on the Steam-powered PC and Mac platforms is nothing unusual coming from Valve, DLC #1 will notably be "free of charge" on Xbox 360 and PS3 as well. Of course, adding Steam to the PlayStation 3 release was always intended to allow for this scenario, and we can only imagine Microsoft didn't feel comfortable with the Xbox 360 being the sole platform charging for otherwise free content.

Free DLC with more test chambers? Yes please.

 

Free DLC on 360? I'll believe it when I see it.

So far the only times I've see DLC free on the 360 has been when it has been extremely minor little updates. Like a couple of free plasmids (and shockingly, and extra achievement) for the original Bioshock. Even though I would have never paid even a dollar for that DLC had it cost something, the fact that it was free on the 360 was still stupefyingly incredible. There was a free DLC for Left 4 Dead as well, but again, it wasn't even the sort of thing I could imagine paying, and even then it was still shocking.

We never got extra maps for Team Fortress 2 on the 360 because Microsoft wouldn't let Valve give them away and they refused to charge for them on the 360 when they were free on the PC.

Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2's DLC packs were also free to PC/Mac users, but cost money for 360 users, again, not because of Valve, but because Mircrosoft. While L4D's DLC packs are among the cheapest I have ever seen, paying for something that was intended to be free just because of the platform you are using is a bit irksome.

Valve usually doesn't release their games on PS3, so Portal 2 is new ground there. If Microsoft's only reason for letting Valve get away without charging for the DLC on the 360 is that they don't want to be the only platform charging for them, it never stopped them in past.

Johnny Ringo said:

sounds like the stuff that was severely lacking from the game proper. At least it's free.

I don't care what anyone says - the game was just too short and too easy compared to what it SHOULD have been. I wouldn't have minded so much but it was also EXPENSIVE.

What other types of games do you play? There are very few games I'd consider being worth full price, and Portal 2 is definitely one of the ones that I think is 

I couldn't imagine paying $60 for a game like Assassin's Creed II. I paid full price for Fallout: New Vegas, and it would have been worth it had it not been too buggy to really enjoy. Black Ops I paid full price for, and it most definitely wouldn't be worth it for the campaign alone, but I've had enough fun playing it with my friends over the months since its release that has made it well worth the price. Usually I won't spend more than $20 for a game.

What makes a game's value? Content? Longevity? Re playability? The vast majority of games out there are absolutely shitty and poorly developed, a rehashing of old tired ideas, or extremely repetitive, etc. but they still all start off with a $60 dollar price tag. I feel Portal 2 is as worthy of that initial going rate of $60 as any of them, and much more so.

You misunderstand, when I say expensive I don't mean full price, i mean full blown ripoff.

$109 AUD - which if i did the math right would be $119.50 USD given the current converstion rates. Does that sound fair to you?

and there were things in the trailers that were obviously cut from Portal 2. And the fact that this stuff is ready so soon tells me it probably IS the cut content from the game repackaged as DLC.

For me there's definitely value in replayablility but as someone else said - replaying Portal games is like trying to do a crossword you've already solved.

I loved playing P2 but it was just too short - especially when there were so many new things to play with.

Gamestop -

http://www.gamestop.com/xbox-360/games/portal-2/77277

and EB Games Australia [which is owned by Gamestop] -

http://www.ebgames.com.au/search?title=portal%202&platform=xbox360

Johnny Ringo said:

You misunderstand, when I say expensive I don't mean full price, i mean full blown ripoff.

$109 AUD - which if i did the math right would be $119.50 USD given the current converstion rates. Does that sound fair to you?

Brand new suggested retail price on games in the US is typically $60 USD, you say Portal 2 cost $109 AUD which is roughly $120 US

60+60=120

If you consider that then you guys are getting ripped off big time! "Full blown rip off" is an under statement! You pay twice as much as we do! Ridiculous! Right?

No. Not so ridiculous. Pretty reasonable, actually.

It is all relative. Sometimes comparing the cost of one thing in one country to the costs of that same thing in another country is like comparing elephants to monkeys. When you consider that the Federal minimum wage per hour is $15 AUD in Australia verses $7.25 USD in the States (7.25+7.25=14.50)... Yeah, you're menial laborers are making a little over twice as much as ours... err, silly me, forgot the exchange rate... no, your minimum wage is 16.46 USD. A minimum wage employee would have to work around 8.5 hours (not taking into account taxes deducted from his pay check) in the United States in order to pay for a brand new release video game. If you got games at the same prices as us, it would only take your minimum wage worker four hour of work to more than pay for a brand new release video game. As it is, an Australian minimum wage worker could afford to dish out that $109 AUD in less than 7.5 hours.

Cost of living and standards of pay vary greatly from place to place, all things being relative, you guys are paying about the same as us, if not a little less than us, for brand new video games. That is actually quite remarkable when you consider the expenses involved in shipping things down to Australia AND any government imposed importation taxes those games may be subjected to. Breath easy, Munckinlanders, you're not being ripped off as badly as you think you are.

They did it to us again!

Portal 2, $34.99 at amazon. Just two weeks after its release. A nice massive rock hard phallus penetrating the collective anal cavity of those who flocked to buy the game on release...

http://www.amazon.com/Portal-2-Xbox-360/dp/B002I0J9M0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1304270949&sr=8-2

FanFiltration said:

 

I'm starting Star Trek Online. Anyone play this?

 

FF

While I have very little doubt I am the only one in Off-Topic who actually plays COD, I just got to play one round in each of the Escalation pack's maps and have to say they are all a lot of fun. I was never too impressed with the last map pack, and Kawloon was the only new level in that one that really excited me the first time I played it. So far I'd say Escalation is a much better bundle. And while zombie maps don't interest me in the slightest, Call of the Dead holds some gimmicky appeal to that at least puts it above the other zombie levels.

Whether or not it is worth $15 really depends on the person. Four new maps for the price of a dinner out isn't so bad if it means hours of fun online with old friends, but to most people it is borderline highway robbery.