“Changelog: changed version number”
I like this!
It was always there though, they are just putting it up front because people are too lazy to read the words on the games front page.
Theres literally a link called ‘view update history’ that shows you the update history for all titles.
I had no idea. I mostly just look at reviews and the play time of those reviews. If there aren’t people with a lot of play time who completely love the game it’s probably a pass for me.
Ah, you must be one of the lazies we’ve been warned about!
True enough 😂
Am I wrong in thinking “Early Access” is just a way for devs to sell lazily slapped together games? Like I’ve seen games that are in “early access” for years. Just feels like an admission: “this game might be broken in many ways but we don’t accept responsibility because it’s ‘early access’”.
Yes and no.
Do some devs abuse the early access system to basically avoid testing their own game whatsoever? Absolutely.
Do some smaller devs or solo devs use early access as a way to fund continued development because they can’t afford the finish the game first and then start selling it? Also yes.
I find that most early access games I have bought into tend to get finished eventually. It’s not perfect but I have found some great games that I really love through early access and it’s been fun to play them at varying states of completion.
I do think most gamers should just wait until a full release but some people actually enjoy playing slightly jank buggy games and giving feedback to smaller devs.
Edit: spelling
My philosophy is “do I think the game in this current state is worth the price now?” If so, buy it and you get free updates to an already good game. Otherwise, add it to a wishlist and check back in a year.
I’m a little more wreckless with my spending. Sometimes I let my hopes and dreams make purchasing decisions for me… So far I have only been stung a few times. Battlefield 2042 was the worst one. I really thought it was going to be like the good ol days of bad company 2 and it so was not at all.
I’m tentatively excited for the next one again (I know I’m just being hopeful one of my favorite series isn’t dead) but I will not be giging them a penny until I see some gameplay and some reviews from people I trust on the battlefield games.
We all gotta learn somehow. Mine was Brink from back in the day.
I mean in your defense brink looked so damn cool.
Sometimes, but some games get consistently better during early access.
The key is to buy games based on their current state (is this worth $xx to me right now?) vs buying what you imagine the game might be.
But I don’t know what their state is until after I buy them. That’s the point.
Satisfactory was in early access for years, as well, and while it wasn’t polished, it certainly wasn’t slapped together, even from early on. So I think there are probably lots of examples from each kind of developer. Like what was that open world multiplayer zombie game that was such a fiasco recently?
Was it GTFO? Because that’s the one that comes to mind for me.
It often can be, but there’s a ton of games that are legitimately just in development, but are still playable, and early access is a great way for developers to get user feedback, find bugs, and let people play the game without waiting for a full 1.0 release.
It’s kind of a mixed bag, but that’s why most people should be looking at videos/reviews of the current state of any early access title before immediately jumping in and buying it.
For me, it’s almost like a question: is there demand for this game? Are people willing to pay for it?
If i see a game that looks promising and i want to see it finished, then buying jt in EA is a bet that it will go all the way and turn out nice
is there demand for this game? Are people willing to pay for it?
What happens if the answer is no?
Like I’ve seen games that are in “early access” for years.
Games take years to build, especially when you are changing your design from feedback and improving the game. Some games come to early access intending to change little and just finish the game, while others come to get ideas and reshape the project as it moves along. Many EA projects are also indies with small teams, or even just one dev plugging along on their own, not even full time.
Of course there are bad actors, and devs who made mistakes (like thinking early access would fund development–even Valve tells devs not to do that, but there are always optimists thinking EA is for sales, and then they run out of money), but there are many ways to do every early access, and you have to look at each project to see what it looks like it’s doing, how much and how often it posts updates, etc.
