Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown and its day 1 DLC

Other Games
1

blogs.sega.com/2012/05/14/virtua … ease-date/

The game got a release data and a new trailer. While the core game seem to be quite cheap at only ?13, I’m not exactly thrilled about their DLC pricing. Basically they’re selling day 1 DLC in the form of costume customizations for all the fighters, and if you want to buy all of those and thus get the “complete” game, it’ll cost you an additional ? 26. So you end up paying near retail price for a game, and at that point it’s suddenly not nearly as good a deal. Now these costumes are optional and (I assume) don’t give you an in-game advantage, but that still doesn’t excuse the fact that the DLC offers very little value for money. I’ve seen worse in the form of day 1 DLC (Capcom/Bioware for example), but I think it’s about time gamers start to draw the line and stop buying content that’s simply not worth the price. Anyone else share that opinion?

2

Hmm… if the total price is the same as a normal new release game, how much of a practical problem is this? The main problem I can see is that this DLC cannot be purchased second hand, whereas if all the content came on a disc, it could be. But if the customer was going to pay full price for all of the content anyway, then they could just treat this as a full price game sold in oddly priced pieces.

Assuming that all of this content is fully optional (e.g. you don’t need it to progress through the main game), if the customer doesn’t buy the DLCs, it seems to be quite a good deal. A cheap game, with less features than most, but perhaps not everyone wants those features. Can we safely say it is “incomplete” though? How do we define completeness in this context?

To answer your question though, I personally don’t think these DLCs are worth paying much for, so if I was interested in the game I’d either wait for a sale or simply not purchase them.

3

Look at it this way: the extra content will be finished on the day of release. They’ve essentially taken it out of the game (or just locked the content) to sell it separately. Something that’s becoming more and more common nowadays. Now this is slightly different from what we’ve seen with certain retail games locking out content that is on the disc, since the game itself is being sold at such a low price. I’m not even sure if they can make a profit from selling just the game itself.

But the real problem I have with what they’re doing is that the DLC just doesn’t offer any value for money. Compared to the game itself, it’s terribly overpriced. They let you buy 90% of the game for a low price, then charge a ridiculous amount for the remaining 10%. I don’t think what they’re doing is a bad idea, it’s just that they need to find a better balance.

4

If they made the content six months after the game was released, would that change your view? In either case, they probably would have planned the extra content to be sold separately from the start. It’s the same with expansion packs - I imagine at least some of the time developers hold back certain content to sell separately later on as an expansion pack or DLC.

I agree. I guess its up to gamers to decide if they think this extra content is worth paying more for (as with collector’s editions, etc). Personally, I don’t usually go for the collector’s editions unless its a game I’m really interested in. Like with Halo 3, there were three different editions, but I just got the regular edition because I wasn’t into the game enough to pay almost double for the best edition.

5

Just throwing out there that this version is pretty much lots of awesome. I didn’t purchase any of the extra content and am completely satisfied with the game as is. It really is a balanced and polished fighter. Would recommend it whole-heartedly.

6

Surprisingly, they actually seemed to have listened to the complaints and are selling a “complete edition” for $30 in the first two weeks, but only on PSN. At that point it’s not such a bad deal. I have to admit though that the game has aged quite a bit. The characters look odd, what little voice acting there is is very uninspired and the overall audio quality is poor (intended or not, the announcer sounds absolutely terrible). At the price it’s being sold it’s certainly worth it though, but I was just expecting a bit more polish.

7

Time flies I see and some graphics aren’t built to last. I don’t like how they chose to make the graphics more realistic. Having a unique art style made the graphics more timeless. I could enjoy watching VF2 more than VF5. It’s a matter of opinion no doubt.

8

I am pretty sure the goal for VF2 was realistic graphics also. It was the technology of the time that held it back. VF5 is a good looking game for how old it really is now.

9

I still think VF2 aged better because of the more artsy style, whether it was an accident or not.

Gaming has changed so much over the years it’s unreal. It only feels like yesterday that VF5 came out. I’ve been lost in WoW for too long.

10

This has to be the worse stealth trolling ever.

Draikin, let me guess, you are a tekken player right? even without knowing you, I can see from your trolling that you cannot be anything but a tekken player.

I have no idea how you tekken players do it. you are so defensive of your game, to the point that you cannot even notice the stupid pandas and hit sparks and laser eyes and stupidity of kangaroos and the robotic animation.

The DLC was not included because its bigger than the xbla limit. you are free to purchase costumes for single characters for 300 points or the whole set for 2400. keep in mind that each fighter has more than a 1000 items.

This thread IMO is nothing more than an attempt to troll VF from an envious tekken player. people who are not into VF try to dismiss it with subtle remarks about voice acting, this is nothing but a thinly veiled attempt to avoid talking about the core gameplay of VF, maybe because tekken players lack the knowledge to critically appraise a game like FS.

11

It isn’t, but your post is certainly the worst “first post” I’ve ever seen here. I have no idea what you’re rambling about since I’ve never even played Tekken. I wasn’t even that negative about the game to begin with. I advise you to think before you post here next time.

12

Long time lurker, first time poster. I stand by what I said.

I have to admit though that the game has aged quite a bit. The characters look odd, what little voice acting there is is very uninspired

Aged quite a bit? character look odd? voice acting?

You ARE a tekken player, or you have spent a lot of time with tekken players, either way, you would talk about the gameplay if you had a slight clue about FS at all. you clearly dont.

Prove me wrong if you wish.

13

There’s a logical gap in your claim, mattfabb. You went from talking about Draikin’s other complaints about the game to claiming that he is a Tekken fan. But there’s no necessary link between the two - even if it is true that many people who criticise Virtua Fighter (or aspects of it) are Tekken fans (which would be a dubious assumption to make), it doesn’t follow that all people who criticise VF are Tekken fans.

14

Well, I guess my liking for Sega games gave me a certain insight on those type of players who like to dismiss games without even having played them.

This being a site about PD it goes without saying that we all have experienced the frustration of people dismissing PD as “too short” or “too simple” as if they were playing rail shooters for length and not for the game itself.

These complains about FS seems to come from somebody who clearly does not know much about the game and smack of the same reductionism.

Besides, as I wrote, Sega offer individual character DLC for a reasonable price. How can this be a bad strategy for Sega? if you like the game, support it by buying all the costumes, as I did. If you dont, just buy the costumes for those character you like best, or none at all. I dont see how Sega made a bad business choice by allowing people to decide how much to spend.

As I said, I can only make sense of these complains if they were made by somebody who did not play the game, nor understand how to play the game.

As I said, he can prove me wrong if he wishes.

15

i don’t have to prove anything. For the last time, I never played Tekken nor do I even know the first thing about that game or how it plays. Virtua Fighter 2 is the only fighting game I invested any reasonable amount of time into playing. If you want to believe otherwise, be my guest, but don’t attack me for having an opinion about a game. Secondly, I never said the gameplay was bad. Virtua Fighter’s gameplay is second to none, most reviews agree on that and I do as well. I also said the core game was a good deal at the price it’s being sold. As for the things I did say:

I don’t have a problem with the business choice here. As I explained, what I have a problem with is simply the price point of the DLC. If you disagree with that, fine, no need to start raging about it.

Yes, what about it? Technically the game has aged and it shows, and the audio quality is lacking (probably in some part due to the size limitations of XBLA/PSN). Put the game next to Dead or Alive 5 (before you start, no, I’m not a fan of that series either) and it’s clear which game had the higher production values. I simply find it regrettable that Sega can no longer keep up in that department, but that’s something Virtua Fighter 6 can fix.

16

*Yes, what about it? Technically the game has aged and it shows, and the audio quality is lacking (probably in some part due to the size limitations of XBLA/PSN). Put the game next to Dead or Alive 5 (before you start, no, I’m not a fan of that series either) and it’s clear which game had the higher production values. I simply find it regrettable that Sega can no longer keep up in that department, but that’s something Virtua Fighter 6 can fix.
*
Put the game next to a game that is not out yet? oh well yes, it does shows its age then…compared to unreleased games!

Yes, DOA5 looks great and I am also looking forward to it…but well have to see about production values. Will DOA5 allow for little customization? will it have a good single player game beyond the incentive to unlock costumes? these are areas that in past DOA’s have been weak…not to mention online play. FS offers, hands down, the most playable experience online. Will DOA5 offer the same or better? DOA4 was a mess, so the ball is in their court now. (vanilla VF5 online was also outstanding)

DOA5 looks great but…will tecmo be able to keep up in an online enviroment? I find it regrettable that Tecmo can no longer keep up in that department. But that is something that DOA6 can fix (maybe).

17

Look, this is the last time I’m going to post about this subject, since it’s really just a waste of time. You’re not even addressing the points I made, but rather you go one about aspects of the game that are in fact good. Sure the online is good, but I’m not talking about the online play. When I’m talking about lack of polish then I’m referring to the graphics and sound.

I’ll just quote from Eurogamer’s in-depth look at the technical side of the game:

Does that make the game bad? Of course not. But that doesn’t make these points any less valid. The real irony here is that while you come in here accusing me of being defensive about Tekken (a game I never even played), it’s you that is in fact being defensive about Virtua Fighter 5. And that’s all I’m going to say on the matter.

Link to the Eurogamer article: eurogamer.net/articles/digit … n-face-off

You should read it, despite the above quotes they’re actually quite positive about the game.

18

Thank you for the link,

I had read the Eurogamer review back when it was first published.

So let me put something in prospective: DOA games have always looked better IMO than their correspondent VF games,

DOA looked better than VF2,

DOA2 looked better than VF3

And DOA5 arguably look better than VF5

SO your comment about finding it regrettable that VF cannot keep up in that department has to be interpreted somehow. Are you talking about VF in general? I would say that both DOA2 and SC1 looked better than VF3…did you find it regrettable at the time that VF looked worse than those games?

You say that you have not played seriously since VF2. have you played VF5 at all? does it look bad to you? It looks great to me, so we might have some different opinions about aesthetics, but IMO VF5 has been the best looking game on xbox since 2007.

Finally, regarding you issues with prices…you think 400 points is too much for a 1000 plus customization items? but you haven’t payed much attention to VF since VF2, so what makes you think those 400 or 2400 points are too expensive? too expensive compared to what? to other games DLC content? they are not expensive IMO when you take into account what they offer and how they offer it.

I have more to add, especially about how poorly other fighting games have handled balance and graphics glitches and bugs in comparison to VF, maybe due to the fact that they put so much emphasis on eye candy to the detriment of gameplay.

I mean, surely the “techinical side” of the game must extend to include issues like hitboxes, clipping and bugs, not to mention online code and consistency of side steppable moves (Im looking as SC5 mostly).

This is the last time you post here? fine, its a public forum on the internet, you can decide to reply or not, I just wanted to address some of the condescending remarks you made about DLC and VF which I think are misguided.

19

Well this is an interesting discussion.

IMO style matters more than substance when it comes to graphics; they simply last longer that way.

VF seems like a niche series to me now, and even mainstream fighters have become niche. The market has just changed.

Also, let’s relax people!

20

Guys, have you seen the pricing for DOA5 DLC?

Its 400 pointsd for 4 costumes, or 1000 points for 12 costumes.