Firstly, seems more than a few people here agree with me... enough to be statistically relevant.
With who? The ignorant fuck claiming this to be a scam or the guy whose been on the board for 4 years and can't read the numerous banners, threads, and e-mails sent out concerning the pre-order benefit?
Everybody else wanted more, sure I'd like to see more, but most of the work of this title went into the engine troubles of it. The fundamental problem of enjoying the game to 100% capacity. They also added new fundamental functions of the game by adding in new role types (not including the new tech which can make or break the game). They advanced the metastory to reflect this.
I'm glad you are happy with your purchase. I, on the other hand feel that I didn't get enough for my money. This isn't a Sword of the Stars 2 situation where the game is broken and the whole thing is a big joke... but it left me feeling disappointed that there wasn't more new content.
Where in this does it say to expect something otherwise (the same key points pointed out for the last year):
Key features:
- New Factions: Decide whether to play as a Loyalist or Rebel – each unlocks new technologies, ships and play styles for each race.
- New Titan Class Warships: Mighty titans enter the fray of the war to tip the scales of power. Each faction may field their own unique titan, drawing upon unique strengths and abilities on the battlefield.
- New and Updated Capital Ships: A new capital ship joins the fleet for each race to offer even more tactical options. Additionally, all existing capital ships have been upgraded to four levels for their abilities, allowing players to focus their ships along specific strengths.
- New Corvette Class Ships: Small and maneuverable, each faction has developed a new light attack craft to harass enemy forces.
- Updated Visuals: Updated graphics, particle effects, lighting and shadows, race specific UI and other enhancements make the Sins’ universe look better than ever.
- New Victory Conditions: Take multiple paths to victory including – Military, Diplomatic, Research, Last Flagship Standing, Last Capital Standing and Occupation.
- New Audio: More than 60 minutes of original music, countless new sound effects and dozens of new voice overs help bring the drama of battle to new levels of immersion.
- Tutorials: New and updated tutorials make it easy for both experienced and new players to quickly start building their own solar empire.
- Plus, a number of optimizations that provide better performance than ever before!
Did they ever once say anymore than this or not follow up on ANY of these points? If so, pray tell.
If you are going to charge AAA prices for your expansions, I think you should deliver a bit more than a rehash of what we've seen before. This would be a great buy at $10-15. Unfortunately, it's priced at the same level as games like Skyrim or Diablo. Think about that...
Are you daft? Diablo and Skyrim are both $60 games. Skyrim hasn't budged in price point since November and Diablo III is still new. The majority of AAA titles are $50 to $60. Very, very few ever come out on the $40 range. Most new DS games are $35 to $40. Regardless, I would bring up my beta point again, and the chance for people to have cancelled if they some how didn't know how to read or simply didn't like what they experienced. Simply not buying or waiting for a Steam sale for the product is a very valid thing to do vs. buying it, and bitching about it, or even calling it a scam, after months of open beta test (and near full release content for the last month).
Even then, I've been a Stardock customer for over 10 years. What they are doing here isn't anything new to them or the industry:
1. The expansion for Supreme Commander, Forged Alliance. You get another faction (which aren't even in the mockery of a sequel), a few new units in on other sides, a few new maps, and a continuation of the campaign (albeit short). This was sold as a stand alone sequel for about $35 in '07/08. Not really different in price point now. Aside for the campaign, the content isn't that much different than what Sins did. Most of the work of what Sins did, went into engine work.
2. Stalker series. The only difference in each Stalker series is story, some new items, and a few new areas of the Chernobyl locale to explore. Most of the content is through updates on the X-Ray engine that GSC was able to pull off. Guess how much they charged for each new title coming out a little over a year apart from each other?
3. SF/GC I/GC II. This is all based on the same IP. The races, concepts, and story from Stellar Frontier (good times) were put into a strategy genre. That's were Galactic Civilizations came from. GC II isn't really all that different from GC I, just all round expanded gameplay. Guess the pricing differences between 1 and 2 when it came out?
Bottomline, the points I bring up only show how retarded people look in this post-Mass Effect III controversy that makes people so god damn cynical over games now. It is up to the consumer to make the purchase choice or not. Nobody is forcing their hand in this (only fanboydom, pure and simple). It is smarter to WAIT, and GAUGE the situation on an unknown title before blindly purchasing. Even then, if you experience or receive feedback you don't like, do a return ASAP. Don't fucking wait on it. The longer you wait, the more of a fool you'll look.
The gaming industry hasn't miraculously changed because of that particular title (ME III). It's still the same. You'll always have shit games, and you'll always have gems. It various across the board. These trends won't change any time soon.