May 16, 2005 at 9:27PM The so-called Dungeon Siege II ‘Beta’
Beta, my ass! When exactly did the words ‘demo’ and ‘beta’ get mixed up? Back in the old days, a demo version was an incomplete version of the game, given out to drum up interest in the end product, whereas a beta version was a complete version of the game, most probably riddled with bugs, given out so that people could help find flaws in it.
But nowadays, this seems to have changes. Beta = Demo.
I really liked Dungeon Siege. Sure, it’s just a roguelike with fancy-ass graphics, but it was a fun, albeit overly linear, fancy-ass roguelike. (Aside: I never really got Angband for some reason.) If I saw it in the shops tomorrow, I’d snap it up.
So imagine my joy when I came across what proported to be a beta release of the game! Joy! I’d happily hack and slash my way through it, reporting anything dodgy I found along the way. So I installed it, anticipation welling up inside, and started playing.
A few hours later, I’d managed to complete everything up as far as the Elven Whatchamacallit, whipped by way through, and then got ambushed by a bunch of Hak’u who made my life a living hell by keeping my characters unconscious for the best part of two hours, giving me only brief moments to leather the living daylights out of them.
Eventually I managed it, and headed back to the Dryad village, and... you bastards!
Yup, that’s exactly what I said when I was confronted by the message, “Thank you for playing Dungeon Siege II Beta Review”. It was a bloody demo all along!
Grrr!
1 On June 26, 2005 at 20:33, Wilfy wrote:
I agree. This is one of the most frustrating things to happen to me all year (yes your thinking i must have an easy life)but my god! I spent the best part of a whole day getting to grips with this game thinking id got many many many more days in the future of dreamy wanderings around what seemed like a fantastic world, only to be confronted by that DAMN MESSAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As you to elequently put it, BETA MY ASS!!!
2 On July 19, 2005 at 8:22, Smarmy wrote:
It’s a controlled beta, letting people along in stages. The complete game is there, you’re just barred at chapter four. Now one thing that would make you love bugs at this point in a beta is if you find one to get you through doors. You could conceivably continue to play if that pesky south gate was not in your way. I know for a fact that there is material beyond the south gate, my face ‘almost’ lit up when I saw 4 little red blotches on my radar as I clicked fanaticly at the other side of that mis-shapen hunk of wood and animal skin. I don’t dabble in coded file manipulation, but I don’t doubt that the saved information needed to get beyond that gate lies somewhere within the bounds of activated teleporter locations. All we’d need is a geek and some cheetohs, le sigh.
3 On July 21, 2005 at 22:39, Keith wrote:
Well, it might have had all the code and data, but once they purposely put a big wall (metaphorically or otherwise), the game becomes little more than a demo. They ought to have called it just that.
4 On August 13, 2005 at 8:18, Capp wrote:
Hmm any way to unlock the south gate or use some kind of command to walk past it?
5 On August 16, 2005 at 23:34, Keith wrote:
Not that I know of, Capp.