Ah, the HD gaming generation. It's ushered in many great developments, and standardised some great features for console gaming. From simple, underrated pleasures like wireless controllers that can also be used for switching your console on and off, to bigger developments like making online multiplayer a standard console experience- there's a lot to like about what's happened this gen.
There's also however, one major and worrying development that has become almost the norm now with major game releases- and that's patching. In theory, the ability to patch a game and iron out a bug or two missed during development and testing should be a welcome development. This is, afterall, what patches have traditionally done in the PC gaming world. But what is happening now is plain for all to see- big games are being sold unfinished, and are being 'patched' to completion post their retail release.
Early 'day-one' purchasers more than often are the true beta testers- angrily jumping online to the games' official forums, complaining, pointing out issues that should have been picked up prior to release. It's often now that games are vastly different at launch than they are a few months later. It's so prevalent that I don't even need to give examples for anyone to know what I'm talking about- and why I think it's so detrimental to gaming.
It's getting to the point where the games we buy, with our hard earned money, simply aren't finished products anymore. Games are supposed to be fun, enjoyable experiences where you can escape from your day-to-day realities and enjoy a fantasy world for just a little while. However, instead gaming on these unfinished releases turns into little more than a tester where you wonder why features are missing, performance stutters, and end up doing the developers job for them- find the flaws the prevent the game from being fun. It impugns the integrity of developers and publishers, and mostly it just sours gamers from the hobby they love.
We deserve more as gamers. We loyally purchase games for our favourite consoles hoping for great experiences after being promised the best, only to find on launch day that game we've been looking forward to for so long doesn't work properly and is full of bugs and holes. Enough is enough!
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For Southeast Asia, new price changes.
Prices effective starting May 1st, 2026.
Replies(1)Looks like PlayStation took a hit with Marathon and is now quietly adjusting prices worldwide to recover the losses
Lets be honest raising prices doesn't do that when no one's buying it. I imagine the profit it greater selling 10 times more at a lower price
The price increases are due to the RAM demand associated with AI and the US-Iran war. You can look to any business news website and local news to see that. Heck, even the 2026 Asus Zenbook Duo I've been eyeing has faced delays and has had a price increase of $400; that laptop has two specs. Asus is doing a staggered release with per-orders for the lower spec now and shipping in May and pre-orders for the higher spec that I'm eyeing starting in June. Basically, all computer manufactures are affected. It'll most likely start affecting smart phones too if it hasn't already. I can't remember the last time any major console maker (Nintendo, Sony, Sega, etc) increased the price of their console mid cycle outside of Microsoft just to make more profit.
CGMagazine writes: "And as I said, the actual game of Kiln is so genuinely boring that playing it to unlock the creative tools was such a massive chore that I genuinely started to resent it by the end. Battling is a monotonous button masher. There are only five arenas, and despite being based on different gods from various mythologies, none are particularly memorable in visual style or music. And it’s all just such a homogeneous mess of nothing."
True, i agree with every word you say.
you can take the kz3 picture off now. thanks.
You seem to be receiving a lot of flack for this post. I agree with you. The ability to patch things post release is a great thing when done right. However the developers seem to be just releasing a game and patching it later. They need to stop trying to release unfinished games.
lol you put up a picture of killzone, which i dont think its very buggy at all. rather they are listening to player feedback and changing it so people like it more. GG experiments with things in their games instead of being a cod clone, the players asked them to take some of it out (like running into bodies) and they did, thats good development, not bad.
you should have a picture of fallout: NV on there, now thats a game that had some problems. raining cows and the like
The KZ3 MP argument is BS. MW2 was a joke and had to be patched every second but you people still brought it and made the developers rich off it. Any every other war shooter too. You claim that people complain and say that they will never buy it again but each year these games skyrocket up the charts, get GOTYs and sell million. Now suddenly KZ3 is the 'most broken game ever' and is being used as an example of what not to do? BS. And as for the forums and the whiners, if my memory is correct everyone complained just as much about KZ2 and now that GG changed things about it suddenly you prefer the KZ2 way? Then why the hell did you guys go on and on about it? Why didn't you thank GG for KZ2 instead of bitching and moaning about it?
This just like MS:PR. You complain, kick it through the mud, barely buy it and when Evolution tries something different it's ' Why did you change it, we liked the way it was'. If you Fing like it the way it is then stop the Fing complaining so they won't change it.