Disagree - I’ve done it, it is easy and straightforward, but anyone who hasn’t installed an OS on bare metal and used a certain tool that you can get from Github to activate MS products, isn’t going to explain the process as “super easy”. More like “a mother-fucking pain in the ass” and “why did you suggest this” and “what the fuck is an iso”.
This is definitely “I’ll swing by this month and install it” territory, not “here’s a guide, ez pz” for anyone older than 40 who didn’t major in CS.
Unbound is… an improvement over heat, yeah. I own a copy, only because it’s a birthday gift and it was $10. I also own heat, got it for $1.25, want my $1.25 back. Whatever the one with the upgrade cards system is trash - and I pre-ordered it. NFS 2015 is… Soulless, awkward. Nevertheless, they all pale in comparison to their older brethren. I’ve been on the nfs train since 3, I own almost all of them, across multiple systems. It’s been an honestly depressing downward spiral - and my friends agree, so it’s not just a sole data point. I think I’m the only one who has heat or unbound, even though I poked people when heat was a dollar, even when unbound was five. That’s… not good. These are people who also love racing games, also love the series.
Burnout got a remaster on the EA App. I bought it, because the ultimate box on pc never included big surf island, and I wanted to experience it. But also, EA bought Criterion to shutter the competing series. They belong in that list. EA killed the game, then they gutted and merged the studio, then restarted the studio in name only trying to do damage control. Then, they used it for a quick buck with burnout, with no effort at all. Similar how the re-release of TS1 and 2 is. EA is essentially serving shovelware itself at this point, ruining the last of their goodwill from the ‘good old days’.
I’ve read battlefield (whatever the latest one is) was half-baked on launch, and from friends who play it, told me to get CoD instead (which is a low blow if I’ve ever seen one; that’s a series that needs to be put out to pasture, imo). Older versions apparently have shitty/broken multi-player game browsing now, and the player base is dwindling because of it. I can’t independently verify any of this, just trusted friends and reviews. The last one I played myself was bad company 2, and I thought it was alright, no big problems.
Normal is taking a publishers promises up the ass to fund the game. Granted if I see the next Need for Speed up on early access for $60 then yeah, I get what you are saying, but early access was made so small teams (or solo devs) can not starve while working on a passion project.
A couple of games that come to mind are BeamNG, which only released on early access after 3 years in development (and offering the full game at a very low price); it’s still in development, almost 13 years so far, with regular updates. And Motor Town, which afaik is a team of two people, one making the world and the other doing everything else; they have been in development for 3 years now.
An example of a successful game that started in early access and was finished is Wreckfest. It took something like 5 years. If I remember correctly they had to take a publishing deal midway through, which is unfortunate, but the finished project is great.
Early access is an alternative way to stay afloat while making a game. At least, that’s how it should be. Everything in life has risks. Losing $10-20 after a year of playing a game in development just to have the dev croak, lose interest, change career paths… Isn’t that big of a deal. I’d much rather take that frustration and channel it to piece of shit publishers that axe games a few years after release, taking the full amount and running.
The NFS series (“look how they massacred my boy”), The Sims, Burnout mostly. Battlefield as well, I’ve watched that series implode from the sidelines instead of in my face.
O.o @ your last sentence there. I’m a flaming gay furry, diversity is great.