Maybe I'll give it another whirl. A friend of mine gave me his code for the 50% off coupon they were giving out way back when, but I was in China at the time and they got all mad at me wanting to buy the game with all my US cards and junk. What's worse, is I when asked a close friend back in the States to order it for me and the code became null and void once they axed my initial order... it sort of put me off and I didn't look back.
From what I've seen though, it is definitely catering to a completely different audience than DotA or the forthcoming Heroes of Newerth, so I don't know if I'll like it that much.
I thought Demigod was a pretty fun game, but it played pretty much exactly the same no-matter what map you're on. The Demigods all felt very similar, as well. Overall, I thought it was pretty fun at first, but then it lost its luster.
The guy with the wings and the crossbow, I forget his name, and the lady with the vines and flower that she can hide in and uh... the girl who rides a polar bear... those are three characters that really feel different and seem to require a different strategy than just rushing in and attacking.
I thought the girl rider (white tiger, I believe?) was the easiest to play with, by far. The Big McLargeHuge towers guy was okay, and the guy with the huge Scythe thing was pretty cool ... but I just didn't see much a difference aside from cosmetics and minions.
A little too late, I already pirated it and got bored with it...
But, I applaud Stardock. They release great games and usually without the bullshit copyright issues other companies have. Maybe in a month or two I'll scrape a real copy of Demigod out of the bargain bin, but Demigod loses it's touch after a little while...
Sorry, didn't mean to come at you that way. Crowing about piracy irritates the shit out of me, and I couldn't figure out why anyone would promote that crap.
I wasn't sure whether I should buy the game due to lack of a demo. However, I saw it on sale last week for $25 and I picked up a copy. If you're not looking for a single player game, this is a masterpiece. It's one of the best multiplayer RTS games I've played since Starcraft. However, there is no singleplayer campaign at all. Nothing. Just a skirmish mode, which is essentially multiplayer with bots.
The initial p2p/Pantheon fiasco has not alleviated enough suffering to justify downloading the demo but they returned my money within 12 hours of putting in a ticket. 1 out of 2 ain't bad, I loved SSE and their customer service at least guarantees another gander from a consumer.
Also, perhaps Steam spoiled me, but I would like to see their platform at least auto-update my games when I log on to their...platform. I remember when the first big patch came out, couldn't play with half of the people in the game since no one knew about the "patch" tab. Annoying.
I love Stardocks dedication to PC gaming and I loved Sins of a Solar Empire but was unsure about Demigod because of the mixed reviews so I'll be checking out this demo and buying the full game if it's good.
Pirate from megacorps like Activision or whoever all you want but support devs and publishers like Stardock and GPG who care about their community.
It took them this long to figure out a proper demo? It doesn't exactly seem that hard. Limit the number of options, make sure some of the cool stuff is available, and make sure the incentives for upgrading are obvious.
Battlefield 1943 did it well on the consoles: I got to play two full matches on Wake Island with all the options available. When the message came up that I had run out of trial time, I was already more than happy to shell out the $15 because I was having so much fun.
@Xenigma: They had to spend all this time fixing their launch issues in order to get people to keep playing the game they bought. I bet a demo is way low on priorities at that point.
@UberScytheLord: ...and rightly so. By fixing the game issues first, they continued their reputation for supporting their games post-launch, something that I greatly appreciated having purchased the game on release. Other companies less concerned with customer satisfaction may have instead put their resources into launching a demo, which is little more than a marketing tool.
And while it may sound trivial to limit features and options in a demo, they still have to make sure that there is a good play-balance with the options that they leave in.
@ryosen: I agree. A recent example of what you were talking about is Arma II. Anyone that's gotten the game knows how buggy it was at launch and still is but instead of supporting the game better between the development time ending and now, they spent a good portion of that time getting a demo together.
Unfortunately demo players were supposed to be able to play with retail owners but they apparently axed that. Weak, still a great game though. GPG has been really out of touch/lazy/ignoring their player community but publisher Stardock makes up for it and are really great and communicate about issues.
@Oreot: The decision to limit demo MP to demo users makes a lot of sense. Gives them a good idea of the MP experience while limiting the variety. If they were allowed to play against actual owners of the game, two things would happen. The first is that there will be less incentive to purchase the game, since the crux of the game is its MP features. Second, demo players may get discouraged playing against veteran players. The game is not without its learning curve and it takes a while to develop your strategies.
@ryosen:
Perhaps you are correct. However, it is just a feature they had stated they wanted to have/were working on, then never said otherwise. So it is disappointing to find it isn't there. I think a plus is that demo players COULD see what they are missing and that would be motivation to buy the full game. Instead they are in a more insular world. They wont miss what they don't see. I think the Spectromancer demo is a good example. You can play cleric all day long, but after awhile playing defense gets old and you want to play the other classes you are up against. Also, as another poster lamented the Demigod maps are simpler than DotA's which is fine, it works and there are a lot of maps not just one (I also love being to pull the camera back) but I think including more than one map would have been good. Grey out favor items or limit it however you want but I think map variety is a good selling point they should have stressed. But whatever, its a great game. Has some bugs that are hopefully getting fixed soon. *Cough* Invulnerable minions inside the citadel. *Cough* But so worth a shot.
If this was Lair, and Factor 5 (RIP) had given a coupon for half off the game so you could BUY IT AGAIN if you wanted to play a less broken version of the game... This board would be jumping with "SONY IS EVIL" sentiment (even though it wouldn't be Sony, but I digress)
Telling you to buy more isn't how you bloody "apologize" for selling a broken product. It would have been better for them to dump it, to be honest.
@Kobun: Or Microsoft's "Oh, sorry Xbox Live was completely unusable for over a week during the Christmas holiday. Here's a free copy of Undertow for your trouble."
@NeoStarr: Along the same lines as the Orange Box.. Oh you already have HL2, and Ep 1? Now you can give them away to your friends, instead of doing what makes sense and releasing the Black Box!
That's not the same thing at all. Stardock is giving you a coupon to BUY another game for friends, family etc...With the orange box you got a free copy.
@supo: The thing is; most people didn't have a problem with Half-Life 2 by the time the orange box came out; and there were other games included that alone were worth the price of the full set. This deal came about because people were unhappy with the product they got. Having too much of a good thing isn't as bad as having too much of a bad thing.
@NeoStarr: Yeah, but it was still a bit frustrating when we could have bought the black box at a lesser price. Which is most likely the reason it got canned.
Did they not give full refunds for the game? I believe they did, so if anyone was unhappy with the game, they should have gotten a refund.
I'm sorry, but when did it become standard to receive free shit when something doesn't work right off the bat? As far as I'm concerned, the 50% off coupon is more than anyone should get to begin with.
If they end up fixing the multiplayer, yeah, it sucked when you couldn't play, but you aren't entitled to more shit because of that.
@Paradox me: I don't know... when did it become standard to release video games that don't work.
Oh... that's right. When they discovered they could make money faster by releasing half-baked crap and then patching it later. Just look at Bethesda. They did that, and were called game of the year!
Still doesn't mean you should receive free stuff from them if they're planning on fixing the game.
Besides, there have been broken, half-assed games as long as there have been games. I wouldn't count Demigod as one of them. Neither would I call Fallout 3 one, aside from the DLC.
@Paradox me: I'm sorry, but when did it become standard to receive free shit when something doesn't work right off the bat? As far as I'm concerned, the 50% off coupon is more than anyone should get to begin with.
i must be misunderstanding this, cuz how I read it, it sounds like you'd be perfectly fine buying a new telly which only shows channel 1 because of a manufacturing defect. When the corp fixes the problem, you'd just buy another?! ("even 50% off is more than anyone should get to begin with") O_o
I love the level of detail trying to explain what's going on, the status updates, and the honesty. It's like a complete 180 from, say, Rockstar where you have no idea if they're even alive.
07/30/09
From what I've seen though, it is definitely catering to a completely different audience than DotA or the forthcoming Heroes of Newerth, so I don't know if I'll like it that much.
07/30/09
And, yes, I paid fucking retail.
07/30/09
The guy with the wings and the crossbow, I forget his name, and the lady with the vines and flower that she can hide in and uh... the girl who rides a polar bear... those are three characters that really feel different and seem to require a different strategy than just rushing in and attacking.
The rest, though, do feel really similar.
07/30/09
I thought the girl rider (white tiger, I believe?) was the easiest to play with, by far. The Big McLargeHuge towers guy was okay, and the guy with the huge Scythe thing was pretty cool ... but I just didn't see much a difference aside from cosmetics and minions.
07/30/09
But, I applaud Stardock. They release great games and usually without the bullshit copyright issues other companies have. Maybe in a month or two I'll scrape a real copy of Demigod out of the bargain bin, but Demigod loses it's touch after a little while...
07/30/09
You're not allowed to applaud a company for not using DRM when you stole from them.
Stop ruining it for the rest of us.
07/30/09
Well, maybe if you had paid retail Stardock would've had the resources to put out a demo earlier.
Who would promote this bullshit comment?
07/30/09
And by the way, pirates can circumvent nearly any DRM system. It's not like it would've stopped anyone from pirating it.
07/30/09
Sorry, didn't mean to come at you that way. Crowing about piracy irritates the shit out of me, and I couldn't figure out why anyone would promote that crap.
07/30/09
I only pirated Demigod because there wasn't a demo.
I legally enjoy their other games like Sins of a Solar Empire. God, I love that game.
07/30/09
07/30/09
The initial p2p/Pantheon fiasco has not alleviated enough suffering to justify downloading the demo but they returned my money within 12 hours of putting in a ticket. 1 out of 2 ain't bad, I loved SSE and their customer service at least guarantees another gander from a consumer.
Also, perhaps Steam spoiled me, but I would like to see their platform at least auto-update my games when I log on to their...platform. I remember when the first big patch came out, couldn't play with half of the people in the game since no one knew about the "patch" tab. Annoying.
07/30/09
Pirate from megacorps like Activision or whoever all you want but support devs and publishers like Stardock and GPG who care about their community.
07/30/09
Battlefield 1943 did it well on the consoles: I got to play two full matches on Wake Island with all the options available. When the message came up that I had run out of trial time, I was already more than happy to shell out the $15 because I was having so much fun.
07/30/09
07/30/09
To be fair, 1943 had it's own server issues without the massive insurgence of pirates and hacks who torrent a game into oblivion...
I'm actually surprised they released a demo, considering...
07/30/09
And while it may sound trivial to limit features and options in a demo, they still have to make sure that there is a good play-balance with the options that they leave in.
Stardock took the right course on this one.
07/30/09
07/30/09
07/30/09
07/30/09
Perhaps you are correct. However, it is just a feature they had stated they wanted to have/were working on, then never said otherwise. So it is disappointing to find it isn't there. I think a plus is that demo players COULD see what they are missing and that would be motivation to buy the full game. Instead they are in a more insular world. They wont miss what they don't see. I think the Spectromancer demo is a good example. You can play cleric all day long, but after awhile playing defense gets old and you want to play the other classes you are up against. Also, as another poster lamented the Demigod maps are simpler than DotA's which is fine, it works and there are a lot of maps not just one (I also love being to pull the camera back) but I think including more than one map would have been good. Grey out favor items or limit it however you want but I think map variety is a good selling point they should have stressed. But whatever, its a great game. Has some bugs that are hopefully getting fixed soon. *Cough* Invulnerable minions inside the citadel. *Cough* But so worth a shot.
05/23/09
Telling you to buy more isn't how you bloody "apologize" for selling a broken product. It would have been better for them to dump it, to be honest.
05/22/09
05/22/09
05/22/09
05/22/09
Sorry I cheated on you, here is a free coupon for a night of fun with a midget.
05/22/09
05/22/09
05/22/09
I think I speak for everybody when I say; Does. Not. Compute.
05/22/09
05/22/09
That's not the same thing at all. Stardock is giving you a coupon to BUY another game for friends, family etc...With the orange box you got a free copy.
05/22/09
05/22/09
05/22/09
05/22/09
Did they not give full refunds for the game? I believe they did, so if anyone was unhappy with the game, they should have gotten a refund.
I'm sorry, but when did it become standard to receive free shit when something doesn't work right off the bat? As far as I'm concerned, the 50% off coupon is more than anyone should get to begin with.
If they end up fixing the multiplayer, yeah, it sucked when you couldn't play, but you aren't entitled to more shit because of that.
05/22/09
Oh... that's right. When they discovered they could make money faster by releasing half-baked crap and then patching it later. Just look at Bethesda. They did that, and were called game of the year!
05/22/09
Still doesn't mean you should receive free stuff from them if they're planning on fixing the game.
Besides, there have been broken, half-assed games as long as there have been games. I wouldn't count Demigod as one of them. Neither would I call Fallout 3 one, aside from the DLC.
05/22/09
First off, I'm not complaining, I just find it stupid that they try to twist it around and put pretty flowers around it.
Black Box would have *had* to cost less, otherwise people would never buy it. And if it didn't, then that would be the prime reason they canned it.
Jeez, all because I related it to this article... It's not like I *didn't* buy the orange box, so lighten up kids.
05/22/09
Also: for your friends or family
05/22/09
i must be misunderstanding this, cuz how I read it, it sounds like you'd be perfectly fine buying a new telly which only shows channel 1 because of a manufacturing defect. When the corp fixes the problem, you'd just buy another?! ("even 50% off is more than anyone should get to begin with") O_o
05/22/09
That is exactly what he's saying. And you'd be amused to find that he'll quickly deny such a statement as soon as it applies to himself.
05/23/09
05/19/09