Think about the last time you pre-ordered a game. Now think about the extras you got for pre-ordering the game. Now think about how those extras had a significant role in the way you played the game. While some of you may be thinking, hey I got an extra map for Black Ops 2 or an extra character for Borderlands 2, others are saying, I got weapons with the same if not less power than the ones currently in the game. I got an item that doesn't really help me out much, or other things that do not really make the game any better or worst than it already is. See, just recently I went out and bought a copy of Battlefield 3 Premium Edition. I owned Battlefield 3 in the past through a trade I made with a friend, but I never bought any of the maps or the extras because I found them to be expensive. The Premium edition was $25 on Black Friday and it includes all the maps and weapons from the past DLC as well as the future DLC upon release date. That for me was getting more than my money's worth of game. When I pre-ordered borderlands I got some starting weapons that I used maybe twice, an extra character that would be $10 had I not pre-ordered the game, a character I may add that did not change the game at all for me. A vault hunter's relic that gave you a 5% chance to loot better items, the creature slaughter dome which wasn't all that great and a key to open up a treasure chest that would give you some awesome items according to your level but that were totally random and what you currently had on you may be 10 times better than anything you got from the chest. How about those pre-orders that give you a skin for your character? Or how about having to buy the game NEW to get a complete game like Batman Arkham City did with the Catwoman story? This is how the prices retailers pay for games and pre-orders have affected us gamers. Retailers are sort of forced into these game deals and honestly I believe the price for a retailer is kind of high for the amount of games they buy to sell to the public specially when the price has been standardized across all consoles. Then we have the promise of DLC of extra weapons or skins when we pre-order a game, but these items rarely make gameplay better and most of the time the item in question is negligible. Now we're back to the fact that we give these companies a free loan and they give us items or DLC that is uninspired and has little to no value. Have you guys noticed that lately EVERY game has some sort of extra if you pre-order it. It's how they lure us into buying and we have to stop this practice. The reason why we must stop this practice is because we must send a message to developers that we wont buy whatever crap they throw at us. DLC should never be something that completes a game like what happened with Asura's Wrath, the game did not have a TRUE ENDING, you had to buy it. Seriously? WTF Capcom? And the Mass Effect 3 fiasco was not any better, the game felt, no actually it was incomplete in it's ending. Uninspired, lazy and of course a lot of people felt it was not worth the $60 they paid for it, and many others were even angrier when they had pre-ordered the N7 edition, paying $80 for what would turn out to be an incomplete game, with extras that really did not make the experience better.
As you can see not only are these companies getting our money early, but in return we are getting NOTHING from them. The N7 edition costs $30 right now at Best Buy, how does that make you feel? I think the price now is about what the game is really worth. We have to stop falling for clever advertisement and we have to show these companies that we keep them in business and we want our money's worth and yes I must admit some of them give us even more than our money's worth for some games. I have to be honest, games like ZELDA, METROID PRIME, HALO, INFAMOUS, RESIDENT EVIL 4 have given us awesome stories and gameplay that will be memorable for years to come. The plot twists the powers, the weapons, everything was awesome. We didn't need any extras, we just wanted a good game didn't we? And we were fine. We have stopped looking for good games and instead we now pay to get an extra skin, or a medal in the game or a weapon that gets replaced immediately by other in game weapons, we traded awesome story telling, plot twists and great gameplay for useless items, useless skins and bad story lines. This is exactly why we must stop caring so much about putting down our money to get items that are just not worth it, and instead allow those over hyped games to be released and await reviews or some rentals, because with the games we have gotten lately we've been really disappointed. AC III wasn't as good as the ads made it look, RE 6 left much to be desired, Medal of Honor War Fighter was horrible, Ghost Recon Future Soldier was short and boring, but all of them offered some extras with your pre-order, and all of them delivered a broken game. And now they want to move us to digital downloads and make used games unplayable. I hope digital doesn't go through, simply because it has no real value. You pay $60 and get nothing in return, you can't resell a game you got on PSN or XBOX LIVE. Physical items have a value, don't let companies fool you, they make money of digital because they do not have to produce a box or transport the item anywhere, but in turn you get nothing. I tend to sell my used games, I make some money back so in reality I am not exactly paying $60 every new game, and as a reviewer that is important because I play a lot to bring you guys reviews. As a consumer however it is just as important, because we can not return these items, we are not allowed to do so even if we are displeased when the product fails to deliver what its ads promise. We have to fight back and show companies that what really is important to us is a good game and getting our money's worth. Who cares about useless DLC. Sell us multiplayer maps that's ok but make it worth our time and money too. Do not sell us incomplete games and then post apologies saying you will complete it but it will cost us $10, Screw You. I'll be happy if you give me what I paid for, I'll be happier if you deliver more than what I paid for and it will make me want to buy your next game, but don't ride on the popularity of the first one or second one and make crap on the next one and give me that, because that will be the last time I will buy from you. I don't know abot you guys, but I will not be buying anymore Call of Duty games, and I am one of those that bought the maps and paid for elite on past games. I am a customer that spends his money on a franchise and I was one of those who used to pre-order. I see now how this has become a problem and companies are taking advantage of me and are taking my money and returning next to nothing for it. If we continue like this, soon we will have nothing but downloadable games, which didn't exactly work for the PSP GO so maybe they should learn a lesson from that, so yeah we will have nothing but downloadable games or new consoles will be made so they cannot play used games and the industry start dying out like it did in the past. Don't buy digital, get that physical disc that has real value, don't pre-order unless it's a game that really contains valuable or collector's items worth the $150-$200 you're paying for it. Don't let this problem escalate because soon games will cost more and deliver less, and we do not want that... do we?
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