Metro Last Light Pre-order Bonus

Watching Angry Joe's rant on Metro Last Light brought this title onto my radar, and not in a good way. Actually I totally overlooked Metro 2033 even though I really like horror games, especially survival ones. I guess it was during the period where I was getting sick of first person shooters. If I had found out what kind of series the Metro games were in another circumstance, I might have purchased Metro 2033, and bought Metro Last Light once it's out. As it stands, removing a hard difficulty that's "the way it was meant to be played" and forcing players to either pre-purchase or buy it, is like selling the endings to games as DLC.

Is the publisher forcing players to pre-purchase because the game sucks, like Aliens: Colonial Marines did, or is this just a cash-grab? Should pre-order bonuses include essential content so that gamers can't play "the way it was meant to be played" so people will have to pre-order, without the chance to wait for reviews before deciding on the purchase? Would there be ridiculous pre-order bonuses in future, like mouse support for RTS and controller support for action games in future? Either way, things don't seem to bode well for gamers.

PC Gamer asked the publishers "If Metro: Last Light Ranger Mode is “the way it was meant to be played” why isn’t it included for all players? We ask Koch" Read it and see if you agree with them. At least they can now push the blame to retailers for whatever crap day-one, pre-purchase DLC they want to do from now on. Too bad gamers, deal with it.

Well, that's more money saved on a couple of games I would have bought. Thanks!

And here is AngryJoe's rant.

What bonuses do you think is ok and what's not? Is this pre-order trend good or bad, or is it just getting out of hand? Let us know in the comments.

Era 486 - Master of Magic

All the talk about Worlds of Magic has made me hungry for some 4x Turn-based Fantasy action. If you're wondering what Master of Magic is about, here's quick look of it. It is on GoG.com, and it works pretty well even on Windows 8, and it's cheap. If you can get by the graphics, and you like turn-base strategy and 4x, you'll find lots of enjoyment from this. Visit Youtube for a better view: http://youtu.be/FX-i49XIU_g

If you're interested in playing a spiritual sequel to this game, you might want to pick up the Age of Wonders series, also on GoG, or support this game, Worlds of Magic, through Paypal on their site: http://myworldsofmagic.com/

Kickstarter - Worlds of Magic

Kickstarter has become a very popular platform for old games to get remakes or spiritual successors. From Baldur's Gate styled Project Eternity to Dungeon Keeper remake, War for the Overworld to Space Sims like Star Citizen, old-school games of different genres are getting funded left and right. If you've been looking for a successor to Masters of Magic like me and Age of Wonders just wasn't enough, it might pay for you to look at Worlds of Magic. The Kickstarter campaign is ending in 3 hours, but if it's like most other games, likely there will be a Paypal version going on for a while longer so do check it out.

And if you still missed the link, it's
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/304725524/worlds-of-magic-a-new-classic-4x-fantasy-game