Please don`t pre-order.

[SupremacyKing]

pre-order complete.

 

[bhavv]

UK price on Amazon dropped to £25, and my order automatically updated to the lower price.

You cant stop me getting my pre order!

 

[gunnergoz]

I support Firaxis and 2K and especially any Sid Meier game project, so count me in. I don't pre-order just any game, only those that I either want to take a gamble on, or to show support for a sure bet.

 

[GeorgePatton]

Please dont tell me what to do with my money op.

 

[NASAROG]

As a person into Real Science, the idea of an Exoplanets Map Pack inspires me, so for me it is a unique and inspiring offer.

I'm into Real Science too, but this game is a Sci-Fi/Fantasy game. No real science in it other than the names perhaps. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with that, but as far as pre-order bonuses go, I'd hope for more.

 

[PhilBowles]

I think pre-ordering is entirely valid given there's a pre-order bonus (the 'Exoplanets' map pack), and presumably you'll be able to pre-load the game. But only if you're certain you're going to be buying the game at full price anyway. And even then, pre-ordering this early is hardly necessary; you can wait for reviews in the week prior to release.

This might be true of smaller developers, but I highly doubt this is a realistic consideration for a 2K title.

The person who pointed to Rome 2 as a good reason not to pre-order had a point - that game showed that even a big studio can make a complete mess of a game. Technically players didn't really lose out by it; the game eventually became playable (though will never be great) for no additional cost, however waiting would probably have allowed to pick it up more cheaply in a sale.

People who aren't going to wait until BE is on sale anyway lose nothing by pre-ordering; the price is steep, so I might well hold off (given a choice between this or Elite for $50, there's no contest - BE can wait). Though I'm intrigued to know exactly how these exoplanets are 'based on' known ones (given, of course, that the known ones aren't known to harbour life of any kind and one or more might well not exist). "Arid" is certainly one way to describe Alpha Centauri Bb - if it exists (which is not certain) it's expected to have a surface temperature in excess of 1,200 C...

And, back to the Civ BE vs. Elite calculation, Elite will probably do a more scientifically plausible job with the exoplanets as well... The map pack will undoubtedly be available for sale post-release in any event; I like the idea and won't turn my nose up at it if I do pre-order the game (a tidally locked map script is certainly an interesting idea, and as I always play Shuffle with Civ games the 'mystery' option sounds good though should be one of the base settings), but it's not much of an incentive.

 

[PhilBowles]

I think tbh it's a safe bet to pre-order. With it being just a skin in my opinion most of the technical work has been done for years.

The same logic could have been applied to R2 - after all, every TW game is fundamentally just a reskinned version of the last one with minor changes. CA still screwed it up. Of course, CA has had bad releases before - Empire was in a poor state at release too.

Then again, of course, exactly the same has been said of a number of Civ games, including both Civ IV and Civ V.

 

[Double A]

The same logic could have been applied to R2 - after all, every TW game is fundamentally just a reskinned version of the last one with minor changes. CA still screwed it up. Of course, CA has had bad releases before - Empire was in a poor state at release too.

Then again, of course, exactly the same has been said of a number of Civ games, including both Civ IV and Civ V.

[Medieval 2ing intensifies]

 

[Lord Shadow]

At most, the exoplanets will be very loosely based on the educated guesses of modern astronomers. Our most advanced telescopes to date can barely even notice if a given star has planets at all, by being able to tell when something eclipses said star's image (i.e. a celestial body moving about its orbit). And the properties of those planets are mostly unconfirmed guesswork based on things like size, distance to parent, parent type, and other sorts of contextual data. It's impossible to take a glance of a distant exoplanet's actual surface with current technology.

 

[PhilBowles]

There's been a notable decline in the quality of Total War games. Rome, even if it wasn't buggy as all hell, it still missing plenty of features present in the previous Rome.

I don't know. It just seems like in the case of Total War, their solution to declining quality is to throw more polygons at a model until sales improve.

Shogun 2 was the best TW game. Empire was buggy and too easy, but the campaign was the best-designed in the series. M2 was superior to R1. There's no consistent history of decline that should have forewarned about Rome 2.

However, Rome 2's marketing should have. From showing the Battle of Teutoburg Forest with unit health bars instead of unit numbers, to CA's reticence about showing the campaign map almost until the day of release, to the absence of any substantive content in the marketing hype (which seemed to focus exclusively on the scale and 'oh look, all the unit models have unique graphics at a resolution no one is ever going to be viewing the game at'), there were ample warning signs that this was going to be a poor effort. Unfortunately I was sufficiently interested to allow optimism to overcome my doubts.

As far as Civ BE is concerned, though, I don't see these kinds of warning signs - there has been no CA-style secrecy over game previews, the content revealed looks solid, and the advertising has mostly been about the game's functional features rather than cosmetics (save for a bit too much hype over unit customisation).

 

[bhavv]

Ok I just cancelled my pre order from Amazon ...

Because GMG was only £22.50

 

[CleverFool]

I've pre-ordered myself. I haven't been disappointed with a Firaxis game yet, so until that happens I will gladly support them.

Besides, I've been waiting for this sort of game since Alpha Centauri. Alpha Centauri 2 ranked as probably my most hoped for game EVER. And this will come as close to AC2 as anything will.

 

[Ryoga]

I think that the chances that this game won't be worth the money for anyone that still plays and enjoy civV right now are very low.

Because of that I'd say that this is one game that it would be safe to pre-order, the problem is that I had a very bad experience with my previous pre order from Firaxis.

The main reason I pre-ordered BNW was because it came at a cheaper price. This is the kind of bargain that makes sense to me. The problem is... as many of you probably remember... BNW was sold at an even lesser price a very few days after its official release.

And to add insult to injury in order to "apologize" for that Firaxis "gifted" me with Civ IV, the basic game only... when the cost of the expansions to make it worthwhile of playing cost as much as buying the whole collection. That wasn't a gift, more like an attempt to milk even more money from me and everyone else that pre-ordered BNW.

Well sorry, I'm not against the very idea of pre ordering games, but Firaxis won't get my money in advance ever again.

 

[Broncaholic7]

I play Civ V much less and since Civ III Firaxis has not dissapointed me so I'll take the risk.

 

[Domai]

Well 25% off GMG makes the pre-order palpable, evne though I'll eventually regret it and end up going back to Alpha Centauri. Still.. want to play on day one, if nothing else for the multiplayer ground-floor where no one really knows whats they're doing. Besides, I've enjoyed watching the BE live streams 1000% more than I ever enjoyed playing Civ V so that's a start.

 

[wgene]

This game taught me not to preorder

Same here. Will never pre order another game after the RTW2 debacle.

 

[GeorgePatton]

I don't understand the argument against pre-ordering. Even if the game is bad at start what better way to find all the bugs and help get it patched? Plus you are going to be eventually buying it anyway.

 

[GenEngineer]

The argument goes that by waiting until it is all released and patched up, you can get a better quality version of the game at a price cheaper than launch, at the cost of waiting a bit longer. Personally, I plan on preordering, for 3 reasons. 1) From what I've seen in demos and livestreams, I'd happily play the game as is. 2) I'm a sucker for the 'trinkets', and an Exoplanet map pack to me sounds really cool. And lastly, 3) Preordering allows me to safely allocate the money to play it on launch day, rather than trying to keep it in the back of my mind and finding out on release day that expenditures elsewhere means BE doesn't fit in my budget.

 

[PhilBowles]

The argument goes that by waiting until it is all released and patched up, you can get a better quality version of the game at a price cheaper than launch,

Which is erroneous. If you can get the game cheaper than at launch, certainly go for it - but then that same consideration applies to getting the game at any point post-launch before it's first on sale; whether you pre-order it or get it two days after release makes no difference, and usually games offer a small discount for pre-orders which makes them cheaper than they would be for some months afterwards (Rome 2 did this, for example).

As for waiting until it's patched up, again this applies to day of release and later, but beyond that it makes the false (and frankly bizarre) assumption that somehow, if you preorder the game, you won't benefit from the same patches as everyone else. Anyone who preordered Rome 2, for example, is playing the same game today for no greater financial outlay than someone who bought it yesterday, since the game's base price now is no lower than it was at release.

Of course, if the game is bugged at release the player may be put off trying it again post-patches, but that's their choice and again has nothing to do with preordering.

 

[GenEngineer]

Which is erroneous. If you can get the game cheaper than at launch, certainly go for it - but then that same consideration applies to getting the game at any point post-launch before it's first on sale; whether you pre-order it or get it two days after release makes no difference, and usually games offer a small discount for pre-orders which makes them cheaper than they would be for some months afterwards (Rome 2 did this, for example).

As for waiting until it's patched up, again this applies to day of release and later, but beyond that it makes the false (and frankly bizarre) assumption that somehow, if you preorder the game, you won't benefit from the same patches as everyone else. Anyone who preordered Rome 2, for example, is playing the same game today for no greater financial outlay than someone who bought it yesterday, since the game's base price now is no lower than it was at release.

Of course, if the game is bugged at release the player may be put off trying it again post-patches, but that's their choice and again has nothing to do with preordering.

Didn't say i agreed, just that that's what the logic behind the statement is.