Now there is free to play MMO games that don't require a monthly fee, that why I am glad I didn't buy DC Universe when it first came out. Premium MMO games like Guild Wars 1 and 2 you don't have to pay a monthly fee and the DLC is optional like a require game for example. Ya I agree this dude is a whinner lol !!! He fail to realize that Nintendo is more of a gaming system than 360 or PS3, cause they don't rely too much on multi media content, making their consoles cheaper.

""Games are released with terrible bugs that are eventually sorted out by updates, that require… an internet connection."

I'm sorry but isn't that to be expected? I mean it's not like games on PS2 were perfect even when playing online. I'm glad we have patches to fix issues that were never fixable before.

also while I know there are people without broadband connection, it just seems like a stupid point really. It's starting to become a standard feature in today's world. Businesses are beginning to eliminate the need for papers and job applications can now be filled online.

Nearly all games available today can all be played offline. PC is a different story because for most cases if you have a PC then you probably have internet connection. But almost all games I have on PS3 can be played offline, all but Warhawk, MAG, and DC Universe (from the ones I own)

I don't think online gaming is ruining the industry in the same way that the author does. I think that the overwhelming popularity of online console gaming in the past 5-7 years has led devs and publishers to skirt what once was the pinnacle of gaming: The single player story portion. Think back to the last generation of gaming (ps2/original Xbox era). Most games that released sold themselves on fun gameplay, and above all else an interesting story/characters.. Some games had online MP, but nothing really substaintial because online play didn't really get off the ground and become popular (on consoles anyway) until this gaming generation.

I'm not saying that there aren't still great games with awesome single player campaigns this generation, but the further we move into this generation the more the focus becomes on the Multiplayer online portion of a game, and we've all seen many games suffer from this online-focused formula. Recent examples i can think of where the campaign could've told a great story, but was instead left in the box as a short, rough sketch while we got a shiny polished multiplayer game instead: Homefront, Crysis 2, Battlefield 3, MW2, MW3, Black Ops...

Demon's Souls is an excellent way to seamlessly make a single player game multiplayer without changing the main function of the single player experience. It's exactly how they should have implemented online gaming but didn't. Suprisingly many people consider the online aspects archaic because they couldn't choose their friends to play with. They just didn't get that anonymity was key to the theme of the game.

@dedicateddtogamers

THAT is very true. The whole aesthetic needs to change drastically. SWTOR was reasonably fun through my first level 50, but the story only did so much.

Sure, it's a passable story for an MMORPG, but given the strict, WoW-inspired structure of the modern day MMORPG, developers are never quite going to pave over the fact that players are operating in a very static world almost completely free of any player-related influence...unless things change.

I don't disagree with anything you said, but I just want to play devil's advocate a bit, in terms of digital distribution. I like it for its convenience and, while I'm not 100% familiar with the terms I agreed to upon purchasing them, you can't deny that they've proven fair so far.

I've purchased a lot of PS1 classics from the PSN store. I played them on PS3 first then, when I bought a PSP, I played them there too. If I bought a Vita, I could play them on that too. My point is, games on disc could not have been shared so easily across 3 platforms like that.

So short-term, it's great. Problem, yes, is long-term. If the PSN Store drops games I've bought, it's possible I may have lost those purchases. But no one knows what's going to happen long-term. It's entirely possible that DD proves to have more longevity than physical copies, making it both better in the short-term and long-term.

Old games had tons of bugs too, and back then they couldn't be fixed. Just look for example the old 3D GTA's, they are full of them. It's like people have forgotten how broken some games were back then, or maybe people whined less and didn't care as much, now if there is little irritating bug in game it's "omg I will never play this again"...

And you really can't compare games back then to games present time, it's like comparing bicycle to car, and by that I mean by the complexity of the current games (tecnically) and by the grand sizes of them, not to mention online game and more advanced hardware.

Ofcourse there is exceptions, like CoD, five games, all with same engine, almost same game, all more or less broken, but you can't blame internet for that, since obviously the reason is somewhere else.

Online for gaming is almost 100% positive thing, negative things f.ex. DRM's and other similar thing, and piratism... Not the ability to improve/complete the games later on.

And really, why won't people just wait a bit with some releases, like Skyrim. I still haven't bought it, since I knew it will have a lot to patch when it comes out (not becouse I would think the devs are just lazy or something mambo jambo like that, but bacouse I know the game is massive), and there is still coming a lot from the modding community. IT's just unrealistic to think games like this would come out flawles, and back in days a) the game would have been a lot more simpler to be sure of everything works for release b) the game would come, and stay somewhat broken.

I just don't get those arguments "patching" has ruined gaming, no they aren't. If your (not for you, generally saying) CoD is broken every year, blame the devs that have released it 5 times broken, and have not bothered to fix it.

Now I'm of to check if there is any new cool mods to download for FO:LasVegas^^

they should know that we are OG fans of VIII as it sold truckload as well. not as much as VII or X. I personally didn't like IX but X and VI are my personal fav.

Shadow Hearts 2 covenant is another game I love. I hope one day someone can make remake, I would be delighted

Final Fantasy VIII is great and you are always the first to defend it in the comments

Underrated comment. I used to hate that game so much that any time my siblings asked me to play it, I just picked Hom and shut myself down mid-match.