This one's been a while in coming, I know. The game's already out on its Greatest Hits version, so maybe this review won't be that helpful. Or maybe it will. What if, like me, you waited and were going to pick up this game for cheap? Well, then I would say to you, "Good call." My review agrees.
Presentation: 7
In the graphics department there's not too much to complain about. The biggest problem is the woodenness of the movements you control. For example, when watching an NPC walk across the room it looks fine. The mo-cap really works. Try the same thing with your currently controlled character, and you look like a puppet with termites. Same goes for the facial expressions. Don't get me wrong; the faces themselves look pretty great. But if you watch someone talk in a scene, it looks much better than if your character speaks as you stumble about with blankly staring eyes and a lack of expression.
There are also numerous clipping issues in any scene involving a crowd. You can have people walk right through you.
The persistent damage to the characters is nice though. If someone gets beat up in a fight, it changes the character model to reflect how badly, and it stays that way. Very nice touch.
As for the sound, the biggest problem is from the early game's Ethan character. And when he yells for his kids he just sounds ridiculous. He gets better as he goes on, but at the start he sounds very hollow. Madison also gets this occasionally. Other than that, no real problems.
Story: 7
The game's greatest strength, but it's not without its own faults. I'll say very little of the actual story because it was good enough that I can recommend playing the game for it and wouldn't want to spoil anything.
The structure of the story is very malleable. It changes depending on your choices and successes with (or rather against) the controls in many scenes. You'll get one of 18 combinations of endings based on that. Most of the time it flows pretty seamlessly. It's like watching a good movie. However, there are instances where it seems that the story counted on this or that to have happened when you didn't actually do it. Someone pulling a name out of the air when they never encountered them or even heard of them, for example. And in one case, a full on retcon of an event to be something other than what the player witnessed. Not just seeing it from a different view, but actually changing it. Very immersion breaking.
Also taking away from the story--and again it's like a modern movie here--are the all too standard issue nudity (male and female) and an obligatory sex scene. These instances have no place in the story other than to be what they are; that is, ways to cater to the lowest common denominator or add "shock value". The problem, of course, is that to be there simply for the sake of shock value makes them pointless in terms of shock value. By contrast, the fact that your characters have numerous places in which they can be permanently killed adds real shock value if it happens. Having fakes alongside it really belittles the genuine article.
There are also several missed opportunities and things left unexplained. I want to say more, but won't spoil it here. Might post in the Heavy Rain thread later for those who have finished the game and want to know what I'm talking about though.
For all that, when you reach the ending stretch, and all (well most) of the pieces fall into place it all really comes together.
Characters: 8
Aside from the aforementioned hollowness, these characters are pretty good. When he's spending time with his family or trying to save them, Ethan's affection and desperation really come through (except for with that silly yelling).
Madison fills the role of dedicated journalist very well, but has the unfortunate drawback of being the sex object of the game. Still, when she's not making the day of the 14-year-old boys who managed to get this game due to lack of parental interest, she shows that she's intelligent and brave.
Scott is perhaps the best character. This retired cop turned PI is dogged in his search for the evidence that could catch the Origami Killer and put an end to the murders. Smart and tough as nails despite his age, his story segments provide some of the more entertaining parts of the game.
Jayden is very convincing with his flaws, and even manages to break out of his stereotype of 'criminal profiler'. He deals with his problems and does his best not to let them get in his way.
Even the side characters manage to have some solid personality to them.
Gameplay: 3
Ouch. You read that right. "3".
Most actions in the game are handled by virtue of a QTE. The first problem is that there are far too many pointless actions. In the tutorial/prologue it's understandable since you need to learn all the controls and what they do. But even as the game progresses you're still expected to do each and every little thing. QTE to open the cabinet. QTE to walk up the hill. QTE to do everything. It's boring and unneeded. The QTEs in the various action/fight scenes are better because there at least it feels like you're accomplishing something.
Unfortunately, actually succeeding at them is also spotty sometimes due to the inclusion of motion controls. These just do not seem to work sometimes.
During the times when you get to walk around you're fighting the camera and controls. Instead of simply letting you walk around with the stick, you're forced to use R2 to walk at all and the direction you're going changes with the camera. So you can be walking one direction, have the camera change (or change it yourself) and suddenly be going the opposite direction than you were. This can be infuriating during time sensitive events.
Moreover, your characters all subscribe to the Fatal Frame school of movement. That means no matter the circumstances, while under the control of the player they are never, ever supposed to move faster than a brisk walk. Not to save their lives or anyone else's.
An entertaining, but ultimately damaging feature is Jayden's use of the ARI, or augmented reality interface. It's a combination of glove and sunglasses that basically function like Batman's detective vision from the Arkham games. They let you see clues in a very limited area and analyze them instantly, or replace your surroundings to something more entertaining. Handy, yes, but it doesn't make any sense for this setting. Particularly when you return to a chapter he's in to find him sitting at his desk...on Mars or above a huge waterfall. It's pretty, no mistake, but pointlessly kills the suspension of disbelief which is vital for a game or even the movie this one's trying to be.
Replay value: Fair at best
Despite there being so many ways the game can play out, you can't unsolve the mystery. Once you know, you know forever so there's no way to bring the same tension and fun to the table again.
Overall: 5
This is a great game...as long as you don't have to play it. I would gladly have watched this in a theater, or even still played it as a game if the controls were better. But as it is, I can only advise buying it on the cheap.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
What can I say about this game that hasn't been said already? A mountain of amazing games released this year and, for many gamers, Skyrim stands firmly at the peak. Does it truly deserve to stand there with giants like Uncharted 3, Dark Souls, and others also scaling that mountain? Well, that'd be a matter of opinion. And since you came here for mine, I'll gladly give it.
Presentation: 9
Greatly improving on its predecessor Oblivion's already nice graphics in many areas, the look of Skyrim is pretty darned good. You'll still find the occasional jagged-edged shadow, and a close look at the plants will let you see them as flat. But the character and creature models, the flowing water (complete with currents that push you along this time), spell effects, and every single item you can pick up being lovingly rendered in your inventory goes a long way to make up for it. The only true flaw in the character models is that they have some difficulty showing expression. The best example is probably the guy in the opening scenes who's voice shows he is clearly freaking out, but his expression remains quite wooden.
The musical score from the trailer captures this game's sound perfectly, going from heart pumping to breathtaking and back again. Which is what the game does too, incidentally. The wind howling at your back as you look out from the edge of a tall cliff, or the heavy breathing of your character as they stagger on, one wound away from death. Every bit of the sound in this game is flawless. There is a single annoying line that quickly skyrocketed to meme status. And it's only really annoying because of the way people won't stop talking about their knee arrows everywhere on the internet.
Story: 9
In another improvement on Oblivion, the main campaign's story is very nice. The Thieves Guild's story is good enough to rival it too. Every questline has its moments, to be sure, but those two stand out as the best. In a way it's the opposite of Oblivion's weak main story and much stronger side stories. Most side stories here could use some improvement. None are bad by any stretch, but they do suffer somewhat from having their pacing just a bit off. Or from a somewhat silly thing in the story like being made Archmage of Winterhold Mage's College by virtue of smacking someone around with a sword as opposed to, you know, using magic really well. Then again, that's almost an Elder Scrolls staple nowadays. Still, there are a thousand little stories waiting to be discovered aside from any of the major questlines. From an aged Orc wandering the wilderness in search of an honorable death in battle, to an ambushed merchant's wagon telling you of a nearby dungeon, to a friendly ghost who pops up to applaud your diving skill should you leap off a certain high place. There's always something to find.
Characters: 9
Aside from the aforementioned woodenness in their models, the characters are mostly well done. You will find some odd mismatches of text from time to time. Such as children who claim not to have 'seen such a thing in all their years' when you fell a dragon. I'm pretty sure this was purposefully done for a giggle as it is voice acted for the children and not simply them getting an adult's lines. There are a number of likable characters and an equal number of detestable ones. And all are great to see.
Gameplay: 8
The classic Elder Scrolls combat style of 'backpedal furiously while attacking' makes its return. But it's now complimented by an improved stealth system as well as more effective use of blocking and the ability to dual wield any one-handed weapons or spells, and combine two casts of the same spell for increased effect. Not to mention the inclusion of various Shouts, abilities with a cooldown in between uses that can let you do things like push enemies away to gain a moment's respite in combat, breathing dragon's fire on your foes, or sensing the lifeforce of enemies through walls, and many, many others.
That's a lot of improvement on your options over past games. But it's not without its downsides.
There's a smaller number of spells to be used per school than in past games, and the ability to make spells yourself has been removed completely. This kinda sucks because it would be really helpful to be able to make weaker versions of stronger spells. For example, when the Destruction school's basic Flames or Firebolt spells aren't strong enough, but you don't have enough magika to cast Fireball effectively. Things like that make playing a pure Mage character a lot tougher than it should be compared with the other character archetypes of Warrior and Thief.
Also suffering from a limiting factor is the Enchanting skill. Not only are you now limited as to what item can be enchanted with which effect, there are also fewer pieces of armor and equipment available to enchant. You can only wear one ring, and the torso and grieves armor are no longer separate. While this is pointless from a gamer's perspective, it does make sense in order to maintain balance. Without this limitation you would have no reason not to cover your equipment in enchantments that increase your primary attack skill (One-handed weapons, Destruction magic, etc) to crazy heights and just dominate everything you come across.
Not that you can't do that anyway, mind you. People were quick to find a way to exploit the system, as always, to make weapons and armor that can completely remove a school of magic's mana cost allowing for infinite free spells, or to craft weapons that can do over a thousand damage per strike while their original form could do only 50. Of course, doing so takes any and all challenge out of the game.
The leveling system too has it's improvements and problems. Unlike in previous games, your level no longer requires you to use only specific skills to level up your character, which greatly removes some of the tedium and so is quite a welcome change. In addition, the new perk system lets you feel like you've really been rewarded when you level since any given perk's effects are a lot more tangible than the previous games' minor increases to stats. Oblivion had perks too, true, but they suffered from the same problem of being too subtle most often. It's definitely an improvement...but it's not perfect. Why?
Level scaling, while more in line with Fallout's version, still causes gamers grief. One of the bigger problems is that improving social or crafting skills still contributes to increasing your level. This is a problem because enemies' stats are still based solely on your level. It's best summed up in this comic. You can quickly find yourself outclassed by even the basic enemies if you focus too much on increasing skills like Smithing or Speech. After all, no matter how charismatic you are, you generally can't talk well enough to convince a bear not to eat your face. (Though you can Shout at him and send him flying.)
I can't help but think that the whole thing would go over better if your combat and social skills were split into different levels. Or if they would just stop insisting on using this badly flawed level scaling system.
One of the game's premier features is fighting dragons. Which turns out to be kind of a mixed bag. In the game's initial state dragons were afflicted with a bit of ADD. They might be poised to kill you, only to suddenly notice a mudcrab 50 yards away and be overcome with the urge to attack it instead. The patch released not long after the game mostly fixed that, but afflicted them instead with a random decision to just sort of fly away backwards on rare occasion.
The difficulty of fighting dragons sort of takes on a bell curve as the game progresses (*on the standard difficulty setting). Early on you won't be well equipped, but can still take them down with a little careful dodging for cover and timely healing. They're no bigger threat than any other boss enemy. Towards the middle of the game as your level has gone up you'll start encountering Elder or Ancient dragons. These guys are the heavy hitters. One breath attack you aren't prepared for can be the end of you. But by the time your character starts to reach their end game build (roughly level 50-60, though you can twink it up to 81) you'll be able to take even these two at a time.
Even with that though, there's still a good bit of enjoyment to be had from dropping one out of the sky through spell or arrow and having it plow up the ground as it crashes. Despite what's seen in the trailer, the dragons aren't usually dumb enough to fly within melee range. Which makes sense. Why would they when they can just strafe you with fire and ice?
Lastly, I must mention that there's currently a bug due to the patch that was released. While it fixed many issues, letting the game play more smoothly, it also broke one of the key combat mechanics: your character's Elemental Resistance stats. As it stands now, they don't work. No matter your armor or resistance enchantments, any mage or dragon can put a serious damper on your day. This won't really effect the assassin or thief type characters who tend to focus on not being seen in the first place, but it can give others serious trouble. There's supposed to be another patch to fix it on the way soon though.
Patching lately in games is kind of a hydra. Slay one head and two more arise in its place. Let's hope Bethesda can put this particular beast down for good.
Replay Value: High
There's just so much to do that it's highly unlikely that you'll find even half of the content in a single playthrough. In fact, you're best served by at least making a character for the Warrior and Thief archetypes and playing out the questlines built for their kind of character in their own playthroughs.
Overall: 9
There's something for everyone here. It's got its flaws, but overall its positives far outweigh the negatives. This is a must buy for sure.
If you're still looking for my opinion as to which game stands atop that mountain, I can say this: "I don't wanna choose, 'n you can't make me! Neener neener!"
I haven't played all the games I'd like to, but I can say of Dark Souls and Skyrim that I'm glad I played them back to back. It feels like each has what the other lacks. Go get them both.
Presentation: 9
Greatly improving on its predecessor Oblivion's already nice graphics in many areas, the look of Skyrim is pretty darned good. You'll still find the occasional jagged-edged shadow, and a close look at the plants will let you see them as flat. But the character and creature models, the flowing water (complete with currents that push you along this time), spell effects, and every single item you can pick up being lovingly rendered in your inventory goes a long way to make up for it. The only true flaw in the character models is that they have some difficulty showing expression. The best example is probably the guy in the opening scenes who's voice shows he is clearly freaking out, but his expression remains quite wooden.
The musical score from the trailer captures this game's sound perfectly, going from heart pumping to breathtaking and back again. Which is what the game does too, incidentally. The wind howling at your back as you look out from the edge of a tall cliff, or the heavy breathing of your character as they stagger on, one wound away from death. Every bit of the sound in this game is flawless. There is a single annoying line that quickly skyrocketed to meme status. And it's only really annoying because of the way people won't stop talking about their knee arrows everywhere on the internet.
Story: 9
In another improvement on Oblivion, the main campaign's story is very nice. The Thieves Guild's story is good enough to rival it too. Every questline has its moments, to be sure, but those two stand out as the best. In a way it's the opposite of Oblivion's weak main story and much stronger side stories. Most side stories here could use some improvement. None are bad by any stretch, but they do suffer somewhat from having their pacing just a bit off. Or from a somewhat silly thing in the story like being made Archmage of Winterhold Mage's College by virtue of smacking someone around with a sword as opposed to, you know, using magic really well. Then again, that's almost an Elder Scrolls staple nowadays. Still, there are a thousand little stories waiting to be discovered aside from any of the major questlines. From an aged Orc wandering the wilderness in search of an honorable death in battle, to an ambushed merchant's wagon telling you of a nearby dungeon, to a friendly ghost who pops up to applaud your diving skill should you leap off a certain high place. There's always something to find.
Characters: 9
Aside from the aforementioned woodenness in their models, the characters are mostly well done. You will find some odd mismatches of text from time to time. Such as children who claim not to have 'seen such a thing in all their years' when you fell a dragon. I'm pretty sure this was purposefully done for a giggle as it is voice acted for the children and not simply them getting an adult's lines. There are a number of likable characters and an equal number of detestable ones. And all are great to see.
Gameplay: 8
The classic Elder Scrolls combat style of 'backpedal furiously while attacking' makes its return. But it's now complimented by an improved stealth system as well as more effective use of blocking and the ability to dual wield any one-handed weapons or spells, and combine two casts of the same spell for increased effect. Not to mention the inclusion of various Shouts, abilities with a cooldown in between uses that can let you do things like push enemies away to gain a moment's respite in combat, breathing dragon's fire on your foes, or sensing the lifeforce of enemies through walls, and many, many others.
That's a lot of improvement on your options over past games. But it's not without its downsides.
There's a smaller number of spells to be used per school than in past games, and the ability to make spells yourself has been removed completely. This kinda sucks because it would be really helpful to be able to make weaker versions of stronger spells. For example, when the Destruction school's basic Flames or Firebolt spells aren't strong enough, but you don't have enough magika to cast Fireball effectively. Things like that make playing a pure Mage character a lot tougher than it should be compared with the other character archetypes of Warrior and Thief.
Also suffering from a limiting factor is the Enchanting skill. Not only are you now limited as to what item can be enchanted with which effect, there are also fewer pieces of armor and equipment available to enchant. You can only wear one ring, and the torso and grieves armor are no longer separate. While this is pointless from a gamer's perspective, it does make sense in order to maintain balance. Without this limitation you would have no reason not to cover your equipment in enchantments that increase your primary attack skill (One-handed weapons, Destruction magic, etc) to crazy heights and just dominate everything you come across.
Not that you can't do that anyway, mind you. People were quick to find a way to exploit the system, as always, to make weapons and armor that can completely remove a school of magic's mana cost allowing for infinite free spells, or to craft weapons that can do over a thousand damage per strike while their original form could do only 50. Of course, doing so takes any and all challenge out of the game.
The leveling system too has it's improvements and problems. Unlike in previous games, your level no longer requires you to use only specific skills to level up your character, which greatly removes some of the tedium and so is quite a welcome change. In addition, the new perk system lets you feel like you've really been rewarded when you level since any given perk's effects are a lot more tangible than the previous games' minor increases to stats. Oblivion had perks too, true, but they suffered from the same problem of being too subtle most often. It's definitely an improvement...but it's not perfect. Why?
Level scaling, while more in line with Fallout's version, still causes gamers grief. One of the bigger problems is that improving social or crafting skills still contributes to increasing your level. This is a problem because enemies' stats are still based solely on your level. It's best summed up in this comic. You can quickly find yourself outclassed by even the basic enemies if you focus too much on increasing skills like Smithing or Speech. After all, no matter how charismatic you are, you generally can't talk well enough to convince a bear not to eat your face. (Though you can Shout at him and send him flying.)
I can't help but think that the whole thing would go over better if your combat and social skills were split into different levels. Or if they would just stop insisting on using this badly flawed level scaling system.
One of the game's premier features is fighting dragons. Which turns out to be kind of a mixed bag. In the game's initial state dragons were afflicted with a bit of ADD. They might be poised to kill you, only to suddenly notice a mudcrab 50 yards away and be overcome with the urge to attack it instead. The patch released not long after the game mostly fixed that, but afflicted them instead with a random decision to just sort of fly away backwards on rare occasion.
The difficulty of fighting dragons sort of takes on a bell curve as the game progresses (*on the standard difficulty setting). Early on you won't be well equipped, but can still take them down with a little careful dodging for cover and timely healing. They're no bigger threat than any other boss enemy. Towards the middle of the game as your level has gone up you'll start encountering Elder or Ancient dragons. These guys are the heavy hitters. One breath attack you aren't prepared for can be the end of you. But by the time your character starts to reach their end game build (roughly level 50-60, though you can twink it up to 81) you'll be able to take even these two at a time.
Even with that though, there's still a good bit of enjoyment to be had from dropping one out of the sky through spell or arrow and having it plow up the ground as it crashes. Despite what's seen in the trailer, the dragons aren't usually dumb enough to fly within melee range. Which makes sense. Why would they when they can just strafe you with fire and ice?
Lastly, I must mention that there's currently a bug due to the patch that was released. While it fixed many issues, letting the game play more smoothly, it also broke one of the key combat mechanics: your character's Elemental Resistance stats. As it stands now, they don't work. No matter your armor or resistance enchantments, any mage or dragon can put a serious damper on your day. This won't really effect the assassin or thief type characters who tend to focus on not being seen in the first place, but it can give others serious trouble. There's supposed to be another patch to fix it on the way soon though.
Patching lately in games is kind of a hydra. Slay one head and two more arise in its place. Let's hope Bethesda can put this particular beast down for good.
Replay Value: High
There's just so much to do that it's highly unlikely that you'll find even half of the content in a single playthrough. In fact, you're best served by at least making a character for the Warrior and Thief archetypes and playing out the questlines built for their kind of character in their own playthroughs.
Overall: 9
There's something for everyone here. It's got its flaws, but overall its positives far outweigh the negatives. This is a must buy for sure.
If you're still looking for my opinion as to which game stands atop that mountain, I can say this: "I don't wanna choose, 'n you can't make me! Neener neener!"
I haven't played all the games I'd like to, but I can say of Dark Souls and Skyrim that I'm glad I played them back to back. It feels like each has what the other lacks. Go get them both.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Bad Business Models and What You Can Do About Them
In the last several years gaming has grown. More people play games now than at any time in history. It's gone from being a children's diversion to the most sophisticated technology in the entertainment industry. There can be no argument that gaming is bigger than it has ever been.
But that's not altogether a good thing. As gaming has become more profitable, it's suffered from the same problems as many other industries. It is a business, yes. But now there are more that see it only as a business. The industry has become dominated by those who are only in it to make money. And that comes at our expense in more ways than one. Let's look at a few of the bad business practices that are infesting gaming today.
Shovelware
Particularly prevalent on the Nintendo Wii, shovelware is what you get when companies throw out as many games as they can that provide as little as possible to cut expense and maximize profit. Usually low quality ports of other consoles' games, or quick attempts to cash in on momentarily popular movies, shows, or anything else, as long as it's cheap to make and get out the door.
Rapid Release Titles
Perhaps the biggest offender here is Activision's Call of Duty franchise, with a new title released yearly. Activision tends to keep two developers working on the franchise and alternating releasing titles. This way they can keep coming out with titles yearly, and spending the bare minimum of two years on development. The results are badly broken gameplay experiences that can last for months from release, if they ever do get fixed at all.
Gutting Games for Profit
It was bad enough when this was confined to simply holding out parts of the games to be released as DLC for an additional cost. Now it has spread and gotten worse as publishers are taking things from the game to be given only to people who preorder at specific retailers. LA Noire is a prime example. Numerous different missions and associated content were withheld, meaning if you wanted it all on launch, then you would have to preorder the game from several different places. It was eventually put up for sale as DLC months later.
But even that's not as bad as EA's recent attempt to give preordering players permanently exclusive weapons and accessories in the upcoming Battlefield 3's online multiplayer. Only a massive outcry from the gaming community stopped them.
On a similar note, we have the PSN Pass or Project $10, which won't let you play online without an additional investment unless you buy the game new. My initial reaction to this was very negative. However, having given it some thought I'm now torn because the arguments for and against it both have merit.
On the one hand, I understand that it takes money to keep servers running. They're providing a service, and do deserve some compensation. I also understand that the used game business is starting to really cut into profits for them.
But on the other hand, games are still quite profitable. In fact, they've never needed additional compensation before when they were making less. The profit from selling the game and from any DLCs has always been more than enough to cover the time the servers are up. Games have gotten more expensive to make, but they've also raised the prices accordingly.
If the used games business is cutting into their profits, then it's the publisher's own fault. By releasing shorter, easier games with less content and heavily targeting the growing casual market, they've assured that more games are going to be traded in. Since used games are cheaper, and the discs themselves will have seen very little use, it makes more sense for the consumer to buy a new quality product for less. The only way to make people buy new is to partake in these other shady practices.
Though they are still providing the service of running the servers, it feels more like publishers trying to dig their way out of the mess they made. And the only exit is through our wallets.
Pay to Win
EA's aforementioned abomination was the first real hint of this that we've seen on consoles. However, another big blowup recently occurred in the EVE Online PC game. CCP, the game's developer, recently had some internal documents leak that strongly suggested plans to unveil what came to be called "Gold Ammo". That is, the ability to use real money to buy your way out of a bad situation, or into a position of superiority, in ways you simply could not manage in the course of the game. Things like this throw all sense of balance and fair play out the window, giving victory to those with the deepest pockets.
The outrage from the EVE community was enormous. Protests ranged from actual in game rioting to about $1M worth of cancelled subscriptions. It was enough to get CCP's attention, and they ended up having the game's Council of Stellar Management (a player-elected council to represent the views of the players to CCP) flown to the head office in Iceland in an effort "to help us define and address the real underlying concerns, and to assist us in defining and iterating on our virtual goods strategy." said Arnar Hrafn Gylfason, Senior Producer of EVE Online. The result was a claim that the leaked info was taken out of context, and that there never were plans for Pay to Win. Many remain skeptical.
Overpriced DLC
And we return now to Activision's CoD series and take a look at Black Ops. To date, three map packs have been released, each one containing four multiplayer maps and one zombies map. A fourth map pack, all Zombies maps (4 remakes of WaW's zombie maps and 1 new one) has also been announced. At $15 USD per pack, the total price comes to $60 USD. The initial cost of the game is $60 USD, and that included the single player game, 14 multiplayer maps, and two zombies maps. That raises the question, if you got all that for $60, then is 12 maps and 8 zombies maps really worth double the initial purchase price? Especially considering it's entirely digitally distributed, meaning there are no packaging, shipping, or even physical production costs. For those keeping track, that's $120 USD you'll be paying to get all the Black Ops content out there.
It's also worth noting that another popular franchise, Halo, includes in their games a "Forge Mode" which allows the players to create their own maps all for free.
Sadly, this isn't a full list of all the business practices we could certainly live without. But the important thing is that all the things we want to get rid of share the same solutions. You have few weapons in this fight, so make the most of each one.
Education
Many people just don't know why these business models are bad, especially the booming causal market which is largely responsible for their creation and propagation by buying into them. Talk to them. Help these newcomers and you help us all. Spread the word not to support these business models wherever they crop up. Tell them why it's bad, and take the time to explain that as long as we keep supporting the publishers that do these things, the worse they are going to get.
Abstain from Buying
This is our most potent weapon, but it hurts us almost as much as it does them. It's a part of our culture, and a well ingrained desire, to buy the newest game. To rush out and pick up our favorite series' latest installment. These publishers are taking advantage of that and trying to milk it for profit. As much as it hurts, as much as you don't want to miss out on that special preorder bonus or "free" DLC, do not buy games that are doing these things. At the very least, do not preorder or buy from retailers that assist in the gutting of our games. Angry rants and sincere complaints all go for nothing if you're still handing over your money.
Donate
You might ask, "Why should the developers suffer for their publisher's decisions?" And I would say, "They shouldn't." Time to put your money where your mouth is. Donate to the developers you want to support, preferably with a message as to why you're doing it. You think Battlefield's great? Wonderful! Send money to DICE. Leave EA out of it. You love IG? Help show them that they don't have to be under Sony's yoke. Donating sends two messages. To the Devs it says, "We care about you." To the publishers it says, "Look at all the money you're not getting."
The industry has changed for the worse, but that doesn't mean it can't be changed again for the better. And change is coming. The only question is whether it will be the change we want, or one that takes us further down the wrong path? Your only hope for the former is to use each of the weapons you have to their fullest effect wherever possible. Do this, and change for the better will happen.
It won't happen overnight.
It won't happen without sacrifice.
But it will happen.
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