HOMM community rallying to get HOMM V delayed

[Everlost_MI]

Worthplaying (http://www.worthplaying.com/) has posted an interesting bit (http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=31428&mode=thread&order=0) about the Heroes of Might and Magic community rallying behind a petition to delay the release of the game. The community wants the delay to allow the developer, Nival, to have enough time to finish the title properly.

A group of Heroes of Might and Magic community Websites today launched a collaborative effort (http://www.saveheroes.org/petition) to persuade Ubisoft executives to delay the launch of their highly anticipated title Heroes of Might and Magic 5.
I haven't had the time to touch the beta, what has your experience been with it? Does it match the need for the delay?

[Cool AN]

Well that's a first.

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

I tried the beta and it was crap... Nothing really specific other than crap graphics and 1% finished gameplay.

[BleedTheFreak]

I was in the second Beta push a few months back, and it was pretty fun. Un-polished, but fun. Then again, that was also 4 months ago (or more?) and we only had a small chunk of the game (no single player). I really did think this was silly, until I realized the estimated release puts it right around when I'm going to be playing a TON of other games, like Oblivion and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. So, yeah, I guess I wouldn't mind if they had some extra time to balance and polish the game. Oh, and Battle for Middle Earth II, that looks hot.

[Abash Alarmist]

Game is undeniably fun....when it works.

[BlindSwordsman]

Beta was in very bad shape - uninstalled it in 5 minutes...

[JazGalaxy]

HoMM was the very first game I played the Demo of for about an hour and then immediately went out and bought.

Roller Coaster Tycoon was the second.

I haven't played a HoMM game since...

I wonder why not?

[DarkEternal]

Hmm, quite the reversal of roles here. Usually, fans are always moaning the loudest when their games are pushed back, and now they're asking for it? Well, I think this is definitely a turn in the right direction, at least.

[Bonnici]

What do we want? HOMM5!
When do we want it? Later!

... sorry.

[GoblinToe]

How long can the PC industry tolerate devs releasing unfinished crap before it just buckles in on itself under the pressure from consoles? Aside from yet another "PC Gaming Is Dead" post, seriously, does anyone blame people for not buying PC games with the level of quality we see today?

I know release & patch has been industry standard for the last 10 years, but with the console market in full force now, already demolishing PC sales, and showing only signs of just beginning the gaming wars (with online gaming support coming up fast), it just can't go on like this anymore.

Yet PC publisher after publisher release games that are totally unfinished and unpolished looking for the quick buck off rabid fans or unsuspecting customers.
PC gamer fans scream, "It's the publishers fault, not the devs, blame the publisher! They rushed it!" That argument and two quarters will get your tires filled with air at a Chevron station. It doesn't hide the fact that the consumer is getting screwed.

KOTOR 2 is a great recent example of this. KOTOR 1 was an amazing title, and KOTOR 2 could have been equally as great, except for the last 20% of the game which was crumpled all together with duct tape and chewing gum, and then shipped to stores. Leaving fans of the first game with a big what-the-fuck-kind-of-ending-was-that?!?!

I still hold out for the one, two, sometimes three gems per year that are true quality, but most everything seems to be utter trash.

I've been a diehard PC gamer since day one, and still haven't even purchased a console. I will eventually, no doubt. But damn, don't you people get tired of seeing game after game released that is virtually unplayable at the point of purchase?

[drakkarim]

any details on what the problems are? i tried finding details on their site (the ones with the petition) but couldn't find any list of issues...

[Demo_Boy]

Beyond good and evil had the same kind of unfinished ending, but would it have sold more copies if they had finished it?

still a great game.

[ddbrown30]

Beyond good and evil had the same kind of unfinished ending, but would it have sold more copies if they had finished it?

still a great game.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. I've played through BGE a few times and I thought the ending was fine. They leave a bit of an opening for a sequel at the end, but it didn't seem like it was thrown together.

[Abash Alarmist]

any details on what the problems are? i tried finding details on their site (the ones with the petition) but couldn't find any list of issues...

Framerate issues, disconnects, unwieldly UI, ingame browser is a mess, crashes, so on and so forth.

[HotCoffeeDude]

What this notice does accomplish is making me not want to buy it until all the reviews are in, and forget about preordering it. They're going to have to learn somehow.

[Thenetcase]

I tried the beta and it was crap... Nothing really specific other than crap graphics and 1% finished gameplay.

It wasn't that bad... but it was bad.

They need to polish it a LOT before it's released.

-TNC-

[Mrbunchypants]

How long can the PC industry tolerate devs releasing unfinished crap before it just buckles in on itself under the pressure from consoles? Aside from yet another "PC Gaming Is Dead" post, seriously, does anyone blame people for not buying PC games with the level of quality we see today?

I know release & patch has been industry standard for the last 10 years, but with the console market in full force now, already demolishing PC sales, and showing only signs of just beginning the gaming wars (with online gaming support coming up fast), it just can't go on like this anymore.

Yet PC publisher after publisher release games that are totally unfinished and unpolished looking for the quick buck off rabid fans or unsuspecting customers.
PC gamer fans scream, "It's the publishers fault, not the devs, blame the publisher! They rushed it!" That argument and two quarters will get your tires filled with air at a Chevron station. It doesn't hide the fact that the consumer is getting screwed.

KOTOR 2 is a great recent example of this. KOTOR 1 was an amazing title, and KOTOR 2 could have been equally as great, except for the last 20% of the game which was crumpled all together with duct tape and chewing gum, and then shipped to stores. Leaving fans of the first game with a big what-the-fuck-kind-of-ending-was-that?!?!

I still hold out for the one, two, sometimes three gems per year that are true quality, but most everything seems to be utter trash.

I've been a diehard PC gamer since day one, and still haven't even purchased a console. I will eventually, no doubt. But damn, don't you people get tired of seeing game after game released that is virtually unplayable at the point of purchase?

Yes yes all hail console games they rock over everything else. NOTI seem to rember that halo had a few bugs in it. as do most games. so get youe head out of your a$$ and look around a bit.

[Shawk]

Yes yes all hail console games they rock over everything else. NOTI seem to rember that halo had a few bugs in it. as do most games. so get youe head out of your a$$ and look around a bit.

Great comparison..

Halo on Xbox had 20 times less bugs then the PC version of Halo.. I wonder why...

Clue in buddy, Consoles are the future for gaming, why would I buy a game when I can just download it.. companys just cant make enouph money on pc games... they are dieing fast.

The sooner you give in the less it will hurt later :cool:

[Varsity]

Clue in buddy, Consoles are the future for gaming, why would I buy a game when I can just download it.. companys just cant make enouph money on pc games... they are dieing fast.
<3 irony.

Edit: now how about this for timing? (http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9200&)

Edit: and some more. (http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9210&)

[Derwin]

i swear, all this time they thought theyve been petitioning for the delay of HOMM V but little did they realize that they were on 3D Realms' website all along.

[GreenIce]

Wasn't KOTOR 2 first relased on xbox?

[Tricky Thumb]

KOTOR II was indeed an Xbox title to begin with, heh.

I don't really think that the PC market is being demolished, I just think that it hasn't grown much since about 1999-2000. Consoles have come a long way since then, passing up PC gaming quite a bit. That's not to say PC gaming itself is entirely stale, there have been plenty of experiences in the past few years that are worth owning a PC for. Just nothing that's quite as grandour as some of the titles we've been seeing on the consoles.

I still have hope though, a renaissance for PC gaming is still entirely possible. Yes, I have hope.

[baz]

If its just the multi... I don't really care, HoMM has always been a single player title for me. Give me a polished single player campaign and I will be happy as all buggery.

[Lord_Don]

I'm not sure where the comments are coming from that the beta looks like crap. The graphics and animation are amazing. The overworld is beautiful.

It's the networking code that's shit. The matchmaking service is painful and if you DO manage to get a game started, 8 times out of 10 it drops before the second turn.

-LD

[drakkarim]

KOTOR II was indeed an Xbox title to begin with, heh.

I don't really think that the PC market is being demolished, I just think that it hasn't grown much since about 1999-2000. Consoles have come a long way since then, passing up PC gaming quite a bit. That's not to say PC gaming itself is entirely stale, there have been plenty of experiences in the past few years that are worth owning a PC for. Just nothing that's quite as grandour as some of the titles we've been seeing on the consoles.

I still have hope though, a renaissance for PC gaming is still entirely possible. Yes, I have hope.


personally the only thing i've seen since the atari/nes that's made me want to get a console is zelda and its iterations, so finally i broke down and got a used gamecube for $36 and bought a bunch of (really cheap used) rpg's and zeldas and metroids, other then that, everything i want to play is on the pc.

[Evil Avatar]

personally the only thing i've seen since the atari/nes that's made me want to get a console is zelda and its iterations, so finally i broke down and got a used gamecube for $36 and bought a bunch of (really cheap used) rpg's and zeldas and metroids, other then that, everything i want to play is on the pc.

Dude, that is a really cool story. I love it when you can get a lot of gaming for very little money. Almost all the PS2 titles I have purchased I got at $19.99 or less.

[normyk]

I felt that the 'beta' felt more like an alpha. I could see tons of potential so I'm not going to go around saying it was crap, but it really needs some serious work.