$89.99.

That's how much I spent on the latest ( and greatest ) game this time. If I didn't spend that money on the game it could of been used for anything else that I could derive pleasure from. Anything from a night on the town full of alcohol and debauchery, to getting a decent meal, to getting three great games on one of my portable systems. I'm quite sure I could come up with more reasons under the radar but suffice to say my point here is ninety bucks I gladly exchanged for a fully functional quality product, feels that I squandered. Not because of a foolish choice or carelessness but because I was duped, yet again, into believing that what I bought would actually do what's it's supposed to do.

Let me start at the beginning. Last night was Destructoid's Friday Night Fights. A glorious night where we shut up and put up, where we stop talking about games and get our games on as well as our lulz. Imagine my surprise when I finished my tour with COD4 multiplay with my fellow Dtoiders that I heard rumblings of GTA IV , which just debuted last night on our own PS3 Friday Night Fights, multiplayer not working as it should. From early reports the game was working fine for a few and then *poof*, the game froze. Naturally your first instinct is to reload the game and that's when it happened. You couldn't even reload the single player game either. What?

The game would go through the motions and then would just perpetually stay in the loading screen. If you were a patient man and would decide to wait it out, I reckon you would still be waiting now. Shipero called customer service and from what he gathered from them, it has to do with their stat tracking of the game through online. Another thing he found out as well was that Rockstar was quick to a point finger of blame at Sony. Now before the Xbox360 jockeys come licking their chops to drop comments here along the lines of : " Should've gotten the Xbox360 " to " No problems here on our end " these online problems are not just PS3 centric. There are more than enough online snafus to go around for BOTH systems as evidenced by our own Cblogs.


Looks like Niko needs alot more cover for that barrage.

There is a quick fix for the PS3 crowd to actually get their single player to load and that's just to sign out and be offline. Are you kidding me?? Over on the 360 side of things people are experimenting with their router settings and that sometimes help and sometimes doesn't. Sometimes the game plays online and other times it freezes. What is a definite is the game is problematic at best and unplayable at worst. This isn't high drama being spewed by me to get noticed either. This shit is as right as rain. There's no denying that Rockstar has a HUGE problem on their hands.

Ultimately it may be an easy fix with a patch, which I'm sure they are working on as we speak, and this event may blow over as a hiccup in an otherwise fine game debut. Yet haven't we heard this before from other game companies? Hasn't EA said they would release a patch for the PS3 Version of The Orange Box awhile ago? Hasn't happened. Didn't Ubisoft say they would release a patch for both versions of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 to optimize the online play and get rid of the little bugs present in the single player game? Hasn't happened. When is enough..enough? When are we going to get our fill of the bullshit that is being served our way via the bait and switch techniques of game developers and companies. Promise you one thing to get you to buy their product and then don't deliver on what has been advertised.



Do I have to question the integrety of what is being advertised in the back of their game box now?? It's getting harder and harder to trust game devs and their companies when shit like this is seeming to happen with more and more frequency. It's not like reviews help us here. Reviewers have the game before the public do, so in essence even they can't truly review all aspects of the game in question, due to them not experiencing the game the way it's meant to be played..i.e.. multiplayer modes. It's one thing playing a game online with a few people..it's another with a thousand people. Now I'm not as narrow-minded as to think all should be perfect with the game when shipped ( well yeah, I am ) but when multiplayer is a huge component of the game then I believe that needs to be taken into the equation when reviewing said games.

GTA VI is a beautifully sublime slice of gaming nirvana that needs to be experienced by all but only when it works the way it's supposed to work. It's high time we as consumers take a step back and I guess play the waiting game. Wait til it's out in the open for awhile before we snatch it up without a thought. Stop just giving these people easy money for shoddy work. Might as well throw in reviewers as well. For better or worse, I feel like they need to wait for those games to be out for the masses and judge them for their online components as well as everything else. In the race of getting that exclusive review more and more game sites and periodicals are missing critiquing an integral part of the game. If more reviewers would start doing that and start reflecting this in their scores perhaps game companies wouldn't rush out a product lacking in quality and furthermore honesty.



GTA IV has been associated with a score rivaling the greatest game out there: Zelda Ocarina of Time . Most are throwing out a ten rating. Now shouldn't that score be taken down a peg for this?? Shouldn't this major fuck up by them be taken into account when reviewing their scores? And why don't sites in general update their scores to reflect something amiss within the game to better educate the buying public at large? Some sure change their scores for the better for no reason at all.

Lookit, my goal isn't to pick on game reviewers here. It's to try to bring to the highlight that we in general, are getting fed substandard quality games at an alarming rate lately. So much so that we are getting accustomed to it. Be it through complaining to these companies, reviewing said games correctly, not buying into the mentality of prepaying our games and lining the pockets of these companies before the game is even out.. something's got to give.

Some will say..Aww give them a break ..the game is fundamentally good. Yeah let's give a multi million dollar game company a break because they chose not to deliver what they promised. Come again? The time for free passes should be over.

$89.99

That's how much I prepayed for a lock box, a small book, a Sample CD, a duffel bag for a midget, and GTA IV. The fun that I had with the game initially now is nonexistent due to it not even working right for me. When is enough..enough?


Now.