Gatling Gears and DRM

[Hawkbit]

From the Steam page:

ACCEPTANCE OF PRODUCT END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT, EA/ORIGIN ACCOUNT AND GAME REGISTRATION WITH ENCLOSED SERIAL CODE REQUIRED TO PLAY.

3rd-party DRM: EA Access
5 machine activation limit

Jesus, that's a lot of crap to swallow for a $10 game, regardless if it's even good or not.

[Azazel]

Just as Space Marine reminds me why games are often much better on PC, you remind me why I buy more games on consoles....

[Setanta]

Worst advertising for a game ever:

ACCEPTANCE OF PRODUCT END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT, EA/ORIGIN ACCOUNT AND GAME REGISTRATION WITH ENCLOSED SERIAL CODE REQUIRED TO PLAY. SERIAL CODE IS NON-TRANSFERABLE ONCE USED. EULA CAN BE FOUND AT WWW.EA.COM/1/PRODUCT-EULAS. EA ONLINE PRIVACY POLICY AND TERMS OF SERVICE CAN BE FOUND AT WWW.EA.COM. YOU MUST BE 13+ TO ACTIVATE SOFTWARE, ACCESS ONLINE FEATURES AND REGISTER FOR AN EA/ORIGIN ACCOUNT. EA MAY PROVIDE CERTAIN INCREMENTAL CONTENT AND/OR UPDATES FOR NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE, IF AND WHEN AVAILABLE. EA MAY RETIRE ONLINE FEATURES AFTER 30 DAYS NOTICE POSTED ON WWW.EA.COM/2/SERVICE-UPDATES.

Could they make it any harder to decide to buy their game?

[Vaiti]

They could have typed all that up in Comic Sans.

[Vaiti]

Don't bother with this. Even for 5$.
The video of gameplay looks good. The actual gameplay isn't. Reason this is 10$ is from the hour I spent playing, it feels like a student project, with lots of decent looking models, but no one really knew how to code a game. If there is say, a ramp you need to go up, instead of your little mechs feet, you know, being on the ground, the hover flat like you could still be on flat ground. Not that big a deal, untill you also get stuck on barrels on the ground that are maybe the size of your mechs big toe. All the weapon effects feel 2d and not part of the game. It's just... bad. Better ways to spend your money. Add in the DRM and this is a no brainer do not purchase.

[tgr]

So what you're saying is:



 

[jakonovski]

IIRC this came out on consoles many moons ago and this is just a shitty port in hopes of a cash in.

[Vaiti]

Ok, so a hilarious thing happened about 5 minutes after made the above post.
I'll let you read my Steam support message so I don't have to repeat myself too much.

Ok, I realize Steam typically doesn't do refunds, but in this particular case, I would really appreciate it if you made an exception.

A friend of mine recently gifted me a copy of Gatling Gears, he did this because when I first say the gameplay trailer, I added it to my wishlist.

However, I then noticed the DRM some time later, and forgot to remove it from my wishlist. I also got the chance to play the game earlier today and simply wasn't impressed with it.

I made a post about my thoughts about the game on a forum both myself and the friend who gifted the copy frequent. Literally 5 minutes after my post I got an email telling me I had received a gift copy from my friend. I couldn't stop laughing for a good 5 minutes. My friend hadn't checked the forums and hadn't seen the post, just that I had it in my wishlist.

Here is a link to the forum post, in case you are interested:
http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=21202.0

I'm hoping you are able to help us out on this front.

Message by Support Tech Charlie on Thu, 1st Sep 2011 2:45 pm
Hello Chris,

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

As requested, the title has been removed from your account and a credit has been applied to your friends Steam Wallet. The credit can be used for future Steam purchases.

Love me some Steam Support. 

[Prospero]

Nice. I wonder if they will generally be saner about refunds now that they can turn it into store credit. They were pretty prompt about refunding people for From Dust too if I recall correctly.

[Hawkbit]

Not really, I had to fight over six different requests to them for a refund for From Dust, I even mentioned that a store credit was completely acceptable in my second request.  It only took Ubi backing down after about 8 days.  Otherwise, Steam stuck to their guns over From Dust.

[Prospero]

That sucks. They need to step their game up on that front.

[Kageru]

I'd imagine steam is bound by the refund conditions placed by the company that owns the title.

[Prospero]

I guess that could be the issue. It would be interesting to see how other digital retailers compare.

[Rasix]

They gave me the old "We'll only do this one time only as a gesture of good will" when I wanted to return Force Unleashed.  System was well above the min specs and the damn thing would run barely faster than a slide show and crashed constantly.  Known issue too if their forums are to be believed.  

Spent the refund money in less than a day as it was during a Steam sale.  While I appreciated them actually taking back a defective product, I didn't like about how grudgingly they did it.

edit: Ahh, looking at the support ticket:  I guess at that time they had to make you buy an equal dollar purchase and let them know when you did so before they'd process the return.  Odd.

[Vaiti]

Yep, Steam is pretty stingy when it comes to refunds. They simply don't do them for the most part.

Why I stated that in my support ticket to them. I think maybe linking to this discussion might have helped some as well 

[luckton]

Considering it's an EA game, I'm not surprised at all that they gave you a refund

[NiX]

Considering it's an EA game, I'm not surprised at all that they gave you a refund

I don't want to believe it, but it seems like a good tactic to kick EA in the dick over the BF3 fiasco.

[tgr]

If by that you mean buy EA games then get them refunded, then I wouldn't bet money on that tactic working.

[tgr]

Just as Space Marine reminds me why games are often much better on PC, you remind me why I buy more games on consoles....

And just as you think you're safe on consoles, ubisoft apparently thinks it's necessary there as well to combat the evil, evil used games market. And they fuck it up:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-09-06-ubisoft-scraps-drivers-online-pass-fee

Derp.