50.) What Happened to Prey 2?

49.) How F.E.A.R. has Stood the Test of Time

48.) Why Not to Purchase Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Standalone

       I’m a bit late posting this. The official launch trailer for Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare Remastered Standalone was released a while ago. Initially I was both excited and skeptical to see it being sold separately, especially since I didn’t want to purchase one of the Infinite Warfare bundles. To summarize, in order to get access to the remake of Call of Duty 4 remastered, players had no other option but to purchase Infinite Warfare which was absolutely ridiculous! In the past, Call of Duty 4 Remastered was tethered to only special editions of Infinite Warfare that costs more money just to simply boost sales of Infinite Warfare; a game that had a huge negative reception. And sadly… it worked. It was revealed that Infinite Warfare sold 50 percent less copies than Black Ops 3 had in its launch window; however sales were only down about 25 percent, due to people buying the more expensive versions of Infinite Warefare just to get the added Call of Duty 4 Remastered bonus. It was the first time I had ever witness a remastered version of a game which was essentially being held hostage by another. Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare Remastered is the prime reason why Infinite Warfare hasn’t flopped financially.

       A few monthos ago, I got the opportunity to play the game by trying out a friend’s copy since I didn’t wat to purchase a bundle. The remastered version of the game has been able to play since last November. I won’t lie, initially I was excited and thrilled to try the game out. It brought back a since of nostalgia. Then my excitement shortly after drastically declined. I was immediately taken by surprise when I came across supply drops and micro-DLC which was added to Call of Duty 4 remastered. At the time, I simply didn’t mind because they were purely cosmetic affair which allowed players to basically play “dress-up” in a first-person shooter game. However, a month and a half later in February of 2017, additional weapons which were never a part of the original game were added into the supply drops which created a problem. As I’ve stated before, never sell “power” in the form of micro-transactions. By selling weapons, this gave players unfair advantages over other players and unfortunately this unbalanced the game as a result.

       Its now a fact that this greatly altered the game. If new weapons are going to be added, then there is no excuse for the weapons to be balanced as well as other things that players have be clambering for. This defeats the purpose of the whole concept of staying true to the original. This was the first time I’ve seen Micro-dlc added to a remastered version of a game. In short, I was furious. This was not the end of these greedy business tactics as one month later, the variety map-pack which was the only DLC map-pack for the original Call of Duty 4 game that sold for ten dollars back in 2008, was then being announced as $15 in 2017. Later an exclusivity deal signed by Sony aka PS4 getting it 1 month before Xbox One and PC. So why is this so frustrating? First, the original Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare is more than 10 years old now. Second, they are charging more money for a map pack than it was originally offered. This goes against every single standard that other remastered games have set. Third, this is a remastered Call of Duty 4 that does not include all of the DLCs within the base of the game. It’s frustrating because they have the nerve, the audacity to charge for them later. This is the only time I can recall that a remastered version of a game has ever done this along with two different release dates because of a platform exclusivity deal.

       So if we buy the standalone release, we are telling Activision that it is simply okay to do these anti-consumer practices which are on a whole new level of shady for a publishing company. We are saying that it’s okay to not stay true to the original product in a remastered version of a game. We are also saying that its completely fine that there are micro-transactions in a game that released more than a decade ago. We are saying that were are fine with an entire game being released on one platform before another simply because the publishing company got its money. They will literally do anything if you throw money at them. Oh yeah! I forgot to mention, they are still charging $40 for the standalone release of Call of Duty 4 remastered. They are not giving any discount whatsoever given that the remastered version of the game has already been out for more than 8 months. Just to reiterate, it only took one month and one week for supply drops and micro-dlc to be added to Call of Duty 4 which is nearly a decade old now.

       This is where we as gamers need to stand up. We are allowing publishers to get away with these anti-consumer practices. To my surprise, there are more likes than dislikes about this standalone release and this is why I am concerned about the gaming community. This is way I was compelled to write this particular blog post because these are concerns I felt needed to be addressed. With a sad heart, I encourage gamers not to buy the standalone version of this game because it promotes anti-consumer practices by Activision but with a dollar sign. Yes, the game looks gorgeous with its improved graphics and I'll admit that I'm slightly being contradicting from blog post 38 after being frustrated the game was not being released separately at the time. Game companies are a business but they are transforming into corporate machines that forcing these terrible business tactics. This breaks the trust of their most loyal fans.

       Are there any gamers reading this who remember online passes? EA (Electronic Arts) and Ubisoft were charging people sometimes upwards of $20 just to play the online multiplayer part of the game, due to DRM concerns. This practice was absurd and after we, the game consumers spoke out against it by not buying their bullshit and making our voices heard through feedback channels like social media, this has mostly been done away with. Yes, I understand it is the job of a company to make money. However, it is completely unacceptable to milk your loyal fans in this matter with these shady practices. To any gamers reading this, don’t let this nostalgia get the better of you and don’t tell Activision and other publishing companies that its somehow acceptable to do the things that have been done to Call of Duty Modern Warfare Remastered. Otherwise, they will continue to do this with future remastered games and it will evolve into an ongoing trend.

47.) Why Was Mass Effect Andromeda Such a Mess?