Probably some of the most irritating words to be seen by a modern game player. Especially on the day of release! How hard would it be to actually finish a game and test it before releasing it.
Were the days of the Megadrive and SNES up to the PS2 and X-Box the high points of buying a game?
I mean before that you had the loading from the tape...screeeeeeeeech, stop, screeeeeeeeeeeeeeech, go off and do something else while it loaded, and then come back to find it had crashed anyway!
That was followed by the slightly quicker disc drives. On the BBCs, Spectrum +3 and the the ST and Amiga (how I loved my Amiga.)
Here begins the golden age of gaming, where most games worked with a quick blow in the slot, and a quick blow in the cartridge, followed by instant loading. An era which brought us Mario and Sonic, as rivals, not at the bloody Olympic Games. Arcade games (arcades used to be a place where people went and used change such as 10p and 20p to play computer games not available at home) became available in almost direct ports, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, not rubbishy looking versions.
Then came the Playstation. And blew most of the old guard out of the water, with discs. More data, better graphics, bigger games. Tomb Raider, Metal Gear Solid to name but two.
But this is where we turn to the downfall. The X-Box 360, and the PS3. Fantastic pieces of tech, with very little to choose between them. But both connected you to the Internet, online gaming as only PC owners had experienced. No more connecting two or more consoles and TVs round someone's house. Oh no, now you just plugged it into your broadband and away you went.
Except you didn't, because as you put your new disc in, you found out that the manufacturer couldn't be arsed to finish the game before releasing it, so you had to download Update 1.01. That, of course, was if the console manufacturer didn't require you to perform a firmware update first to adjust the shade of the blue background, or add another half dozen buttons you will probably never use! I just want to play the bloody game!
But once it was updated that was fine, you can play away to your hearts content, oh except if you want the completed game, in which case you have to purchase the downloadable content. Extra bits of the game which they feel could extend the life of your game (cause there isn't enough to play out there.). To be fair, some of it is really good, but like all things some of it is pointless nonsense. Extra missions, more characters, even more maps for the online multiplayer (which I just seems to be an excuse to annoy Americans.) But really, backgrounds and avatars, what a load of crap.
But the worst thing is it looks like it is going even further on the next generation of consoles (not Nintendo, the lost the plot a bit after the N64.) with the X-Box One needing a 24 hour check-in to play your games.
I just want to turn it on, put my new disc in, and play the game. Is that really too much to ask?
