I think this article at PCGamer is a little slanderous and overtly malicious. Gratefully the problems he complains about I don't even experience myself. And I have usually been a skeptic here. Articles like this one are only designed to hurt and not help. The article is disguised to help buyers by steering people away through blown out of proportion accusations and statements. I believe the game needs work but not on par with the writers complaints. I don't believe its a disastrous launch. That statement is overblown and an outright a lie in my opinion. I am not a fanboy but I know a good game with potential when I play it. It just saddens me that there are players out there with chips on their shoulders or vendettas.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/08/25/elementals-disastrous-launch-stay-well-away/
I would say PCGamer is dead on about this game. 6 months of polish and bug repair would have made it ready for release. It still would be light in content, but good enough to release. This company is working to get a reputation like SOE has for games. Wait 6 months before you buy it. If you want to make big money in PC games look at what Blizzard does. 1 million sales the first day on SC2 is about releasing a polished and relatively bug free game consistantly.
Retract what? They said: we're not reviewing the game until it's in a better state. It's still not fully playable for many people I know even with 1.06 - slowdowns, crashes, and even bizarre unheard of DirectX failures that require a restart are still in. We're weeks from it being in a state where people should be recommending the game.
Ya, man.
Maybe it's time I gave them another look, but I don't think it could ever again be as good as when you had Gary Whitta as editor in chief, The Vede doing hardware, Andy Mahood doing simulations, William Totter doing strategy, Deslock covering all things RPG, and the rest of the gang. That was a damn good gaming rag back in the day.
I don't know about everyone you listed, but Andy Mahood and Deslock are still doing their thing at PCG. They are doing more developer interview as well...they just had an interview with one of the Mount & Blade guys. Not about the game really, but more abstract about sand box gaming and how gaming has changed and how gamers have changed as well. I'm noticing more of these cool kind of stories lately.
*edit*
The Vede is obviously still gone, though.
Deslock and Mahood are there again, Mtn_Man, doing their old columns
Really, I am a fan of Blizzard, but to say SC2 was relatively bug free is a stretch. They are still having crash issues, balance issues, units disappearing. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying that game as well, but they are experiencing basically the same problems. The good thing about Blizzard, and Stardock, is the support you get. They continue to work on fixes and balancing for years.
With the complexities existing in making a PC game combatible nowadays, I think you will be hard pressed to find any game released bug free. The only difference is the support you get after the purchase. I do not have any worries about my pre-order of the LE.
I think it's a huge exaggeration to say SC2 and Elemental are having the same issues on a whole. The game is very polished and complete in comparison. Yeah some people are having issues but I don't think it's anywhere near as much as what's going on here, nor are the issues as bad.
Dude...what...? Blizzard is not consistent. Starcraft 2 is Starcraft with a new paint job and look how long that took, and Warcraft 3 went through several patches. Stardock is just a tiny company who's primary business isn't even game development, Blizzard is massive entity inside a much larger corporation, who basically eats money, with a side of money, on a money sandwich, while getting lap dances from women made out of money. 1 millions sales is more about having entire LEAGUES devoted to your game, massive advertising budget, and world wide distribution.
This article is nothing more than vitriol because of the gamer bill of rights. Most Journalist/Critics are nothing more than vultures trying to get a feast. The more hits they get, then more attention and money they generate. The game was playing horrible when it released, but last nights patch cleared my lagginess right up. Most companies would not have had patches out there that quick, if at all. In the beginning of the early gaming years news was pleasant, now it mostly a whinnying fest.
"Blizzard is massive entity inside a much larger corporation, who basically eats money, with a side of money, on a money sandwich, while getting lap dances from women made out of money. 1 millions sales is more about having entire LEAGUES devoted to your game, massive advertising budget, and world wide distribution."
The reason why they eat money sandwich's is because they make good, highly polished, fun games with lasting appeal.
Also, Starcraft 2 is more than just Starcraft with a new paint job.
Blizzard got those fans by releasing solid, working and complete games back when they were still just a small independent developer. Their reputation didnt just materialize out of no-where. It was EARNED. Other developers that want the same rep will have to earn it the same way.
I agree, however it pains me to see reviews like the one above.
I was just talking to a friend about how, unlike every other stardock release save demigod, Elemental is being watched. When Sins came out, I had no clue. I even had been watching Stardock at that time, because I played GC2 and was anticipating the rumored 'master of magic' sequel. It was only after I got a link from a friend to Sins with a message something to the extent of "this game... looks awesome" a month after its release did I even recognize that Stardock was actually making games.
Now elemental had the eyes of the internet watching to see if they could pull off another great game. I believe elemental can be that game, but it no longer only holds the attention of the niche audience that GC2 held. Everybody can see the promise elemental has, but I fear the poor initial reception might harm it more than with other games.
It wasn't a review, it was a rant, but they seem to have cooled their jets in the last few days.
That's a great point. Stardock seems to still be operating with the mentality that they're a small, unknown company with a small but loyal and dedicated fan base. That mentality doesn't work quite as well in the big leagues.
Absolutely, Blizzard is a great company and they earned all of their loyal gamers, including me. If Stardock continues to make quality games that they support then they also will continue to gain even more loyal customers. This is my first Stardock purchase and is something that I have been following for quite some time. For me the game is fun and I don't have the problems people are reporting. With some more play there will probably be some suggestions I will make, but that can wait.
On a side note, for most people the difference between a "complete" game, or a game still in "beta" is if you are being effected by the bugs or not. Unfortunately I was effected by some of the issues with SC2. In the case of Elemental, I am not. It seems by most of the posts certain Operating Systems combined with even more specific ATI video cards are causing the biggest assortment of issues. Hopefully they will get that worked out. Again, I do not envy compatibility developers. What a nightmare.
Sweet. I'll have to check 'em out!
Well I tried posting this earlier, but apparently some mod is cencoring the forums.
Brief french review of Elemental
Bugs are a big part of initial impressions, but being unfinished is about far more then just being buggy. It's about haing poor AI, poor balance and having gameplay features that were clearly not well thought out or playtested and which do not work well with the game as a whole.
And i took the time to translate it, but it dissapeared as well.....
10sec translation: Says its a greatly unbalanced game that is part civ part HOMM. Says it has a couple of "rare" good ideas and the rest is shit. Only talks about the modding part of the game when he talks about units. Says multiplayer not working although game out since early this week.
Some commenter said the reviewer wrote this at the beach on a long chair and its an apt metaphor.
Now after 1.06 update I say "Elemental is the way to go!", before that I was tend to agree with PC Gamer reviewer.
I don't blame them for deleting it because that "review" is just another shallow rant at Stardock's expense.
And anyway, when something gets moderated, it's bad form to just post it again.
We speak American here. So translate it.
I'll be curious to see the fanboi reaction when other reviews come out. Will every negative review be labeled a rant at Stardock? Will the fanbois ever take off their rose colored glasses and see the current "game" is not very good?
I actually agree with the 'rant' from PC gamer, but that 'review' does actually suck.
Well then I guess Blizzard is glad that I can overlook initial bugs, because I was part of the group that the computer froze almost every 15 minutes of play. For me the game was practically unplayable. But, I sent my note to Blizzard and low and behold it got fixed. There is another company, shall remain nameless, I bought a game, actually sent them 5 screen pics of a bug happening write in front of me. You could reproduce the event almost at will. Their response was, "that is not possible". To this day it has never been fixed. To this day, I have never bought another one of their games. How idiotic to tell me it was impossible. They even said they would even send me some autographed thing if I could show them. Still waiting for that thing as well.
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