this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2024
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'Worse than horse armour'—Age of Mythology: Retold is charging $6 for 22-year-old jpegs, giving the DLC 'very negative' Steam reviews before the game's even out (www.pcgamer.com)
submitted 2 months ago by nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works to c/games@sh.itjust.works
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[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 21 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I'll repeat my comment from !aom@lemm.ee:

Gonna be honest, I have mixed feelings about this.

On the one hand, I do agree that it's kinda shitty to charge $6 ($8 here in Aus) for something that was basically the thing people already had in the original game.

On the one hand, the description of it as "22-year-old JPEGs" is wrong. They're at the very least upscaled, but certainly in some form higher quality than the originals. There's also the fact that they're completely optional and unnecessary. They provide nothing but cosmetics, and not even cosmetics that you see in important places like character models. I also think it was primarily intended as a small added bonus for people with the Premium Edition, and to me the Premium Edition is a no-brainer for reasons completely unrelated to this. It costs like $20 extra, and includes the first two upcoming expansions free, each at $15 (or similar maths to that), as well as the Freyr god pack (like $10?). It's able to be bought stand-alone, but I don't think that's really what's intended.

Still, yeah I really think trying to upsell with this pack is kinda penny pinching in a way I wish they wouldn't do things.

[–] sneezycat@sopuli.xyz 31 points 2 months ago (3 children)

There's also the fact that they're completely optional and unnecessary. They provide nothing but cosmetics

I hate this argument, because videogames themselves are completely optional and unnecessary. That's the whole point of them, they're just for entertainment, to have fun and enjoy playing them. So I don't see how something being cosmetic makes any difference.

It's more like we didn't like pay2win on online games, so they started making it "just cosmetic" in those, and somehow now people think it's acceptable to have to pay for parts of a game they bought, in every game ever?

Well, people waste their money on useless crap all the time, so I guess I'll just be the cranky old lady and go back to playing my original AoM, where I'm actually playing a game and not an advertisement.

[–] MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 months ago

Yeah i hate that argument too. Cosmetics used to be unlockable, not purchasable. We've took a massive step back and people just give it a pass. Not me though

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

where I’m actually playing a game and not an advertisement

That's more than a little bit hyperbolic.

[–] sneezycat@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 months ago

Yes it is but it's a rant, of course I'm exaggerating a bit xP

[–] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It’s more like we didn’t like pay2win on online games, so they started making it “just cosmetic” in those, and somehow now people think it’s acceptable to have to pay for parts of a game they bought, in every game ever?

Warhammer: Total War really annoyed me on it's DLC. Some the DLC factions were already in the base game. I would be paying to unlock factions that were part of the dev cycle.

I could at least understand it, if the factions were released after the base game.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 2 points 2 months ago

See this, this I get. This is an actual reasonable problem. And we could be talking about it wrt Retold, since Freyr is a day one DLC.

Personally I'm not too concerned with it because even if you ignore Freyr, the cost of Premium is $25 AUD more than standard, and it includes two future DLCs (which they've already said will be $15 USD, probably $20 AUD each). So Premium is worth getting just for the two future pantheons. And since Premium includes Freyr in addition to the future pantheons, it ends up not looking like an added cost in the way it would otherwise.

But it still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth that there's actual playable content not included for free that's available day one. And it would leave me very angry if the prices had ended up such that the best deal for everything except the day-one DLC actually cost less than the best deal for everything including Freyr. But all this discussion about cosmetics. Not even interesting cosmetics like unit skins, but something that's basically just profile pictures. Is annoyingly distracting from that conversation.

[–] Iapar 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It cost $20 but what you buy for it is free? That are mental gymnastics on a dangerous level.

You buy the stuff for 20 it is not free if you pay money for it.

People sounding like advertisements nowadays.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 3 points 2 months ago

You buy it for the expansions. The Chinese, one more as-yet-unannounced pantheon, and Freyr. The other stuff you get with Premium is basically irrelevant.

I'd much rather have a conversation about the day-one DLC of Freyr, and the fact that they're charging for the future Chinese pantheon despite Chinese being available in 2014 Extended Edition and no previous Age of Empires Definitive Edition removing a civ that was previously available (indeed, aoe2 and aoe3's DEs both added new civs in addition to all the existing ones). Granted, there are extenuating circumstances there, in that the EE Chinese DLC was so terrible it basically killed the game and they've promised the upcoming expansion to Retold will be "all new Chinese". But it still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

This discussion about what is basically profile pictures is some irrelevant bullshit as far as I'm concerned. I don't give a shit about it, and I find the rhetoric from people claiming they do care (especially that one person claiming that this is a reason they'll avoid Retold entirely because it's "an advertisement, not a game") extremely unconvincing. It's eye-rollingly stupid to care about this when there are real things to get upset about both with this game and in the wider gaming industry.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 13 points 2 months ago

Mercifully, the base game's faring far better.

On Steam it is. Though ironically, given the source of this article, PC Gamer has not given it such a stellar review. While heaps of other review sites are giving it 90/100 and its Metacritic score is 84, PC Gamer gives it just 75, which in the inflated world of online game reviews is basically a failing grade, and is a significant outlier compared to overall review sites and fan reception.

I've seen others allege that it's part of a general trend at PC Gamer having a grudge against remasters and not scoring them entirely on their merits.

[–] Senseless 8 points 2 months ago

Judging by todays standards of microtransactions, horse armour is pretty tame tbh. That's not saying that this shit is okay.

[–] johannesvanderwhales@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Review bombing games that you haven't played is great! Really useful for people.

[–] Mr_Blott@feddit.uk 3 points 2 months ago

These are the people who leave a 1-star review for a quality, handmade item because their delivery driver put it in the wrong place