[Game] Battlefield 3

[Stephen]

I can't imagine I'll try this; it's sort of representative of the kind of games and way of gaming that I despise.

 

[Actin]

From developers that aren't imaginative enough to replace chest paddles with a med kit and smelling salt, abbreviated bandaging, saline injection, or opa application animation, I'm not expecting much in terms of gameplay.

Lol, this actually reminds me; Killing Floor is even more realistic on healing than battlefield is

 

[Ralfst3r]

Reviving ppl on the battlefield to fight on is done realisticly how exactly? Battlefield obviously never went for realism on this part, so if that's a reason you will not like this game you'll never will I guess.

 

[Dietrich Graf]

Sounds like EA wanted more than Steam was willing to offer, or they just fabricated a blatant lie so they can have gamers buy from their crappy digital service. As long as Steam gives me want I want, I prefer to use it exclusively and like having all my games on one service.

In all honesty, there are so many games that have been released since 2010 that I don't feel like I'm missing out on BF3. From what I have seen and heard from the game, it doesn't seem like something that will fill my constant search for the realism holy grail.

 

[Dcode]

Funny how EA seems to be the only corporation that has a problem selling games on Steam.

I don't want another client to install to play my games, its silly. I just hope they don't riddle with digital copies with DRM like SecuROM.

Jesus EA why do you always make your customers jump through hoops just to play your games? On an unrelated note my Bad Company 2 account stopped working and after 2 password resets and a lot of frustration did it finally resume function.

Assholes.

 

[Makino]

Dont know about BF3, but on other games you install using Origin you dont even need Origin running to run the game.

 

[Nenjin]

Just had a 20 min conversation with a friend of mine who is trying to re-install BC2 through Steam. It's telling him his game CD-key is registered to another email and it won't let him into MP. (He only has one email account.) He just went and did the whole ea.com/Origin deal, registering all the same information, and it still won't recognize his CD-key as valid.

Meanwhile, Origin is telling him he can download BC2 right now and start playing.

 

[hockeywarrior]

Well honestly there's nothing wrong with some competition in the digital games industry. Steam has had a monopoly for a very long time, and it's always healthy for others to challenge them in competition.

The problem is that I really doubt Origin is going to serve as a true alternative to Steam, which has spent years trying to improve itself to be a viable and successful online service/retailer. If Origin was trying to be BETTER than Steam, I would welcome it with more open arms. The problem is I have absolutely 0 faith in EA coming remotely close to pulling it off ....

 

[Dcode]

What other benefit would there be other than price wars?

Maybe another platform may have some neater features.

Problem is then my games are spread over several platforms. I want them all in one place. I guess that is one of the pitfalls of Steam in the first place and some people hate it for that reason - locking your games into it.

However me personally I have been using it for so long and I sold all my boxed copies, only to purchase some of them again through Steam. I like it, all my buddy's use it and it is a portal to everything gaming related on my PC.

If you don't have to have Origin running to play the games then it is not such a bad thing.

 

[johncage]

they want to reap all the profits. with steam, they don't get the full amount.

ea's trying to compete with valve and i hope they lose.

 

[bradofcanada]

I dont care where I get it as long as I get it

 

[Flogger23m]

... it doesn't seem like something that will fill my constant search for the realism holy grail.

BF was never about realism. You'd be disappointed in BF3 if you are looking for a realism based game. With no mod tools, I doubt there will be a realism mod for it.

Sadly the only recent shooters that seem to be realistic is the ArmA series and RO2... with any mods they have.

 

[Grobut]

Well honestly there's nothing wrong with some competition in the digital games industry. Steam has had a monopoly for a very long time, and it's always healthy for others to challenge them in competition.

Sadly that won't happen.

The reason Steam isen't cheap is that Valve doesen't set the prices, only for their own games, the publishers get to set the prices for their Steam titles.

And they have not desired to set low prices, for companies like UBI, EA, Actvi and so on, they view Steam as a competitor that they have begrudgingly had to do buisness with because the Steam platform is popular, it's where most of the PC gamers are.

9 out of 10 times, i could find any non-Valve game cheaper at retail outlets than i could at the Steam store, and this is because the publishers have no reason to compete with the retail prices, it's their game beeing sold regardless of where you buy it, and they don't care where you buy it, just that you do.


Adding publisher owned outlets like Origin will do nothing to solve this, it just means that a company will offer their own games cheaper on their own service, and charge full price on Steam and others, to preassure the consumers to do buisness with them, on their terms, when we buy their games.


So basically, if this takes off, it just means we will need to own accounts for Steam-like services for every damned publisher, and the only way we will get deals is if we buy the games from the publishers own service, they will have little reason to offer them cheaply on competing services, hell, they might soon stop offering them there at all, in which case we will have no choice, and there won't even be any competition between which service offers the best service, it will all come down to which service carries the game you want.


That's not monopoly busting, that's just setting up more monopolies, EA owns all EA titles, they set their prices, and they control how they release their titles, if they don't want a competitor like Valve getting in on the deal, then it won't happen.


Games are copyrighted and highly regulated products, they are sadly not like ordinary consumer goods, if i want Ramen noodles, i can shop around and probably find deals on neigh identical products, but games aren't like that, just like movies aren't, and their distributers have absolute control over the flow of thease products.

The whole buisness is pretty much set up to build monopolies, and that is precisely what it does.

 

[hockeywarrior]

9 out of 10 times, i could find any non-Valve game cheaper at retail outlets than i could at the Steam store, and this is because the publishers have no reason to compete with the retail prices, it's their game beeing sold regardless of where you buy it, and they don't care where you buy it, just that you do.

This is where the US market differs quite a bit from the European and abroad markets in digital games prices. When those Steam sales hit, the prices are way better than what I can find in any retail store, and even without the sales, prices on many games that have been out for a few years are still cheaper.

I know that Europeans are subjected to all sorts of terrible pricing issues on Steam, and that's a damn shame. I'm simply stating that it isn't the case for everyone, namely the US market.

Regarding the rest of your post, I have to agree with you because you're right. In terms of competition being healthy, I was simply referring more to feature sets in the online services themselves. Most people who actually like Steam probably do so because, at least in part, due to the friends system, community features, achievements, and all the other stuff that comes along with the negatives of having a third party essentially own your game for you.

 

[Flogger23m]

This is where the US market differs quite a bit from the European and abroad markets in digital games prices. When those Steam sales hit, the prices are way better than what I can find in any retail store, and even without the sales, prices on many games that have been out for a few years are still cheaper.

This. I'd rather pay $50 for a game than pay $56 in a store. On the plus side, you do get a DVD and a box for the extra money you spend.

As for the Valve/EA issue I just remembered that EA publishes or published/boxed Valves recent titles such as the Orange Box ect. I wonder if Valve will look for a different publisher to sell DVD copies of their games in the future.

 

[=GG= Mr Moe]

This is where the US market differs quite a bit from the European and abroad markets in digital games prices. When those Steam sales hit, the prices are way better than what I can find in any retail store, and even without the sales, prices on many games that have been out for a few years are still cheaper...

Yes, that's how I see it here in the US. When there is a Steam sale, it usually destroys the sales other places have. You just have to wait for them to happen. If you can't, then you can usually pick up the same games for a few dollars less than Steam's regular price.

 

[Mr. Explosion]

Valve isn't all that innocent regarding the high prices on Steam. Convos were leaked when they introduced regional pricing for CIS countries recently. They suggest that the regular pricing is officially recommended (with claims that it increases revenues), and titles without regional pricing aren't permitted in said regions. No excuse for the big publishers to ignore this and do their own thing (they already do, bringing their premium titles up to 60 USD/EUR), but small, inexperienced studios probably won't question those recommendations.
DD turned out to be more in line with the pessimists' visions, at this point it doesn't really matter anymore if Valve, EA or Lord Satan Kotick are in charge

EA DICE PKM Gun Recording - YouTube
Was this video posted already? Just saw it recently, considering such details is something I love about big budget titles. Better to use it for this than for bringing an actual fighter jet to your game presentations, but EA apparently has the monies for both.

 

[gomer]

Sadly that won't happen.

The reason Steam isen't cheap is that Valve doesen't set the prices, only for their own games, the publishers get to set the prices for their Steam titles.

And they have not desired to set low prices, for companies like UBI, EA, Actvi and so on, they view Steam as a competitor that they have begrudgingly had to do buisness with because the Steam platform is popular, it's where most of the PC gamers are.

9 out of 10 times, i could find any non-Valve game cheaper at retail outlets than i could at the Steam store, and this is because the publishers have no reason to compete with the retail prices, it's their game beeing sold regardless of where you buy it, and they don't care where you buy it, just that you do.


Adding publisher owned outlets like Origin will do nothing to solve this, it just means that a company will offer their own games cheaper on their own service, and charge full price on Steam and others, to preassure the consumers to do buisness with them, on their terms, when we buy their games.


So basically, if this takes off, it just means we will need to own accounts for Steam-like services for every damned publisher, and the only way we will get deals is if we buy the games from the publishers own service, they will have little reason to offer them cheaply on competing services, hell, they might soon stop offering them there at all, in which case we will have no choice, and there won't even be any competition between which service offers the best service, it will all come down to which service carries the game you want.


That's not monopoly busting, that's just setting up more monopolies, EA owns all EA titles, they set their prices, and they control how they release their titles, if they don't want a competitor like Valve getting in on the deal, then it won't happen.


Games are copyrighted and highly regulated products, they are sadly not like ordinary consumer goods, if i want Ramen noodles, i can shop around and probably find deals on neigh identical products, but games aren't like that, just like movies aren't, and their distributers have absolute control over the flow of thease products.

The whole buisness is pretty much set up to build monopolies, and that is precisely what it does.

very nice read. great insight.

 

[Grobut]

This is where the US market differs quite a bit from the European and abroad markets in digital games prices. When those Steam sales hit, the prices are way better than what I can find in any retail store, and even without the sales, prices on many games that have been out for a few years are still cheaper.

I know that Europeans are subjected to all sorts of terrible pricing issues on Steam, and that's a damn shame. I'm simply stating that it isn't the case for everyone, namely the US market.

Denmark is actually one of the fringe cases, a new game retails for 399,- Dkr here, which is 53.55 Euros, so i save 3

 

[Murphy]

It gets a little more iffy in central Europe, where games retail for 45 Euro's or less, but Steam charges 50..

Central Europe as in Germany? Because games retail for 50