Seriously EA?

[kane.malakos]

So I decided to pick up the new Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit game yesterday, since it was on sale on steam. I have no real complaints about the game, since I've always enjoyed the Need for Speed series. However, on booting it up for the first time I was pretty frustrated. First I get some unskippable logos. Alright, fine. Then I get an unskippable commercial for Need for Speed: Shift 2. Alright, whatever, just let me play the game. And then the real kicker, an unskippable video explaining how the menu worked. Seriously? Was that really necessary? The game itself is a blast, but I was seriously irked by the experience. /rant
So, any similar experiences you guys have had, particularly with EA?

 

[BlindTom]

They sold me a half finished game, offered me mass effect 2 to make up for it. Made me download their download manager and waste a shit ton of bandwidth only to discover that said download manager is completely broken and unwilling to allow me to play my game.

 

[Dott]

I generally agree with anyone who gets pissed at UNSKIPPABLE videos or logos or similar things in any game whatsoever.
It's so redundant - we KNOW who made the game, we would use the TUTORIAL that we will be reminded of ANYWAY if we don't know how to play, etcetera etcetera.

We don't buy games to watch cutscenes (unless it's MGS or FF).

 

[Irridium]

There is a special place in hell for people who make video's unskippable. Especially when you have to re-watch those video's over and over again when you die.

If anyone reading this has ever made a cutscene unskippable, I hate you.

 

[Cry Wolf]

EA's DRM not letting me play games I've legally purchased is the one that irritates me the most. I've had to crack both Mass Effect 1 and Dragon Age 2 just to play my own fucking game now and it's ridiculous. Not to mention I cannot play the Mass Effect DLC because of it.

Seriously EA, go fuck yourselves and let me play my games in peace.

 

[PissOffRoth]

Aquaman is right. Their games are excellent. I've never been more drawn into a game than I was by Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Their DRMs, their horrid marketing, their dastardly position on all things games; those things are what make me hate EA. This was all covered in the Extra Credits about EA, but I still feel the need to say it.

YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG

 

[Slycne]

The logos are often used to simply hide some loading going on in the background. Though that's not true of every single game as I've seen a few where you could bypass them and have it go straight to the menu.

 

[Dastardly]

... Their DRMs, their horrid marketing, their dastardly position on all things games; those things are what make me hate EA ...

Hey, now. Let's not make this personal.



But seriously, I just can't get behind a company that so regularly sells people the same games over and over. I realize that as long as folks will pay, they'll keep selling. But that's why I tend to keep my money to myself on EA-related matters.

They're pretty clearly a company that is mostly targeted at college-aged people: young enough to still have lots of time for sport/racing video games, but old enough to have disposable income in amounts large enough to facilitate purchases.

 

[Ponce Master-General]

Yeah, I fuckin hate that. And I really don't like the way EA looks at its customers with the unskipabble menu tutorial videos.

 

[Kevlar Eater]

There is a special place in hell for people who make video's unskippable. Especially when you have to re-watch those video's over and over again when you die.

If anyone reading this has ever made a cutscene unskippable, I hate you.

Imagine watching this over and over:

Spoiler

Oh, and you cannot skip it, ever.

*topic* I recall using my sister's laptop, and it had the EA download manager in it. I have never seen someone struggle to play a game (Sims 3) for so long. Quite disheartening, in my opinion.

 

[Choppaduel]

... The game itself is a blast, but I was seriously irked by the experience. /rant
So, any similar experiences you guys have had, particularly with EA?

I always delete the bik files named "logo" or "legal" or "intro" before playing a newly installed game... and its not just EA that pulls this crap.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Don't even get me started on my issues with EA and The Sims 3. Is there a buggier game in the world? (Answer: No.)

Hard to believe I paid $200+ (note: in Australia where game prices are through the roof, bought every expansion, and on the release day) for a game that seems to create problems for itself.

life throws you unexpected problems, they are making it as realistic as possible ;]


OT: meh i haven't really had much of a problem..got me2 to download for a friend perfectly on the dumb manager thing, and i don't care for those kinds of racing games, but i will admit that is fucking annoying as balls when it takes 30 seconds out of your experience every single time you boot up/die at a certain point just because you want to play the god damn game.

 

[kane.malakos]

It seems a lot of the time that EA just has no respect for their customers. I can't think of a good explanation for a video explaining how to use a menu unless EA thinks their customers are morons.

 

[Floppertje]

have you tried watching a dvd lately? it's insane, you lose 15 minutes to logo's, trailers, 'thank you for buying this legally' crap, more logo's, more trailers... and they wonder why people pirate movies... couldn't possibly be because that allows you to, you know... open a file and watch the damn movie without any hassle...

 

[Jasper Jeffs]

I fucking hate EA. I can't play Skate 3 online. I've rang EA up twice, rang Xbox, asked on the forums, asked for help on the online chat I don't know how many times. It basically says I'm underage, when I'm not. I can play every other EA game online, including Battlefield which has the same rating as Skate 3, I can even play Skate 2. I've got no help whatsoever. The only compromise they could give me was to allow a new account to use the remaining time of my XBL subscription, of which I could then use to play Skate 3 online, but only Skate 3. They continually told me the birthdate on my email might be wrong, I know it isn't, that's why I can do every fucking thing else on the Xbox. They're useless.

I was tempted to get the new NFS on Steam, but there is no demo. Turns out they're not releasing a demo for PC. They really need to fucking hire some actual gamers there, by not making a demo it's just gonna get downloaded.

 

[Kevlar Eater]

More proof that EA thinks their customers are idiots: This [http://store.steampowered.com/app/47890/] deal. Seriously. With the day's discount, the game and all its DLC comes to $103.93. Ordinarily, the game is basically double that price with $199.93. I don't even know what Aussies would be paying, because it sure as hell would make my eyes pop out.

 

[-Samurai-]

I honestly felt that the explanation of the new Autolog system was necessary.

What isn't necessary is the rapid response missions. The time penalty + slowing down upon hitting an object = massive rage.

 

[yoshiru]

Aquaman is right. Their games are excellent. I've never been more drawn into a game than I was by Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Their DRMs, their horrid marketing, their dastardly position on all things games; those things are what make me hate EA. This was all covered in the Extra Credits about EA, but I still feel the need to say it.

YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG

The only thing I really want to point out is you keep talking about how all their games are good, but the DRM is horrible.. The games are made by studios, the DRM is made by EA engineers. That's why Mass Effect is awesome, Bioware is a REALLY good company; the DRM is what I have a problem with, and that is created and controlled by EA, not Bioware.

 

[yoshiru]

More proof that EA thinks their customers are idiots: This [http://store.steampowered.com/app/47890/] deal. Seriously. With the day's discount, the game and all its DLC comes to $103.93. Ordinarily, the game is basically double that price with $199.93. I don't even know what Aussies would be paying, because it sure as hell would make my eyes pop out.

I completely agree with that. I bought my wife Sims 3 at 60 bucks, I WOULD have bought Steam but EA didn't put it out on Steam for over a year. Now that it's on Steam I would only double buy the original game if it was at a wicked sale. As it is, the price isn't worth it. The game and DLC at 50% off is as much as the original game and it's expansions at full price. And before people quote that costs are going up in the video game world: I honestly do not believe the Sims 3 has a very high "creative" budget. They don't need to create a game from the ground up, so they don't.

 

[Byere]

Don't even get me started on my issues with EA and The Sims 3. Is there a buggier game in the world? (Answer: No.)

You've obviously never played Fallout: New Vegas!