I can't wait for an endless pile of sequels that play largely the same as their original counterparts, priced at 80 fucking dollars, and then insultingly sold to me piece meal upwards of six months prior to release as season passes and DLC packs. I can't wait to spend over a hundred and twenty cunting dollars to get one, single video game.
To be honest, I'm not really looking forward to any particular release in 2016 until they go on sale. The price gouging on most of these titles is insane. For the price of three triple AAA titles, I could buy a fucking game console. Wrap your mind around how disgustingly overpriced that really is.
The only games I have an inkling of interest for coming 2016 is X-COM 2, and Warhammer: Total War. Both of which are confirmed to have been ripped into for massively overpriced DLC, while launching at a gross price. Remember when pre-orders used to give you discounts at least? Now you don't even get that, and people still buy them in droves anyway. Warhammer: Total War has a fifth of the game outright cut out, and people are still buying it. X-COM 2 is months away from release, and it already has a season pass that has an affixed addendum that it
may not get you all the DLC that launches after the game releases anyway. I'd at least accept it if we got bigger games, with more content, but Warhammer Total War is going to release with the fewest number of factions ever in any Total War game, and X-COM 2 still can't manage to deliver on the tactical depth a game released in the 90's on the budget of two donuts and a basement computer from the Windows 3.1 era could somehow deliver.
Look, if a modification made for Rome Total War can achieve more content than a full release several years later by the developers themselves, why should I even be remotely excited to get my ass gouged for over a hundred dollars to get a lesser product? That will probably release with bugs, with only a 50/50 chance of them even being patched?
Hell, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided initially released with a pay scheme that literally
held sections of the game hostage if they didn't get enough preorders. That's absurd. A video game is not this important.
So, while I'm excited to see new additions to franchises I adore, and while I'm liable to pick them up at some point, I can't say I'm anything less than extremely cautious. I'd love to play X-COM 2, but not until it inevitably comes out with a "game of the year" edition that comes with all the DLC for 50 bucks. Which won't be until several months after the game releases, really. I'd love to play Warhammer: Total War, but I guess I'll have to wait a year or two for them to actually finish the game and then price it appropriately, considering the horrendous abortion that is Rome II: Total War is still 65 fucking dollars at its regular price, without any of the DLC at that.
I guess the entire reason I wrote this isn't out of some loathing of video games. I love video games, and I imagine I'll pick up at least a couple titles in 2016. I'll just have to wait for them to go on sale. This is more simply a word of caution, reminding everyone that while it's fine to be excited, please don't go burning your money on yet
another easy money scheme by publishers who don't care to deliver you a working product. Make them work for your money, don't shove it in their faces without at least waiting to see if it's any good. And if you pay more than a hundred dollars for any single video game, you either have an enviable amount of disposable income, or you're a fucking idiot.
