but the frustration level is reaching boiling point so here goes.
Forget the 28th guys. I'll eat my T2 if said item puts in an
appearance.
Special Reserve are now quoting the 17th July, Premier quote 12th
July, GAME quote 12th July and my local softco says his distributor
advised him yesterday that it will be '3rd week of July' which puts it
at the 19th I would guess.
This is beyond a joke. The only way we are going to get this game it
seems is to get a hacked copy of it. Fact is, if the mastering is
complete, as others have reported, and all we are doing is pandering
to some stupid marketing BS regarding British GP weekend, then a
genuine release version will appear soon on the .warez groups, not the
widely reported early alpha that is currently doing the rounds. Yes,
of course I will still buy it, definitely, no question, but if a
version appears now that works, I am not*** around until xmas for
MPS to release it.
No need for another flame war about piracy, I have a shelf full of
commercial products, and a bin full of programs that weren't worth the
disks they were distributed on. 'Let he who is without sin' and all
that eh? Most of the games you can get off the net are so bugged that
they are only good for evaluation use anyway. Incidentally, I work for
a software company that's get's as annoyed as anyone when their work
is copied illegally, but we will (nearly) always allow a prospective
client a trial version if they want to gain confidence in it before
signing up.
MPS/SH/GC sent apologetic letters to the major chains in May when they
missed the 27th April date, explaining that 28th June WAS THE DAY,
DEFINITELY, NO COMPROMISE (this from the manager of my local GAME
store). This will be the fourth or fifth 'official' date they have
missed now this year.
And this is for a game that I played for over an hour at the ECTS show
several months ago which was, apparently completed. You can always add
extra features to your software but the time does come when you have
to go public with the damn thing and start earning some money on it.
Interestingly, David Braben's stock fell enormously in many peoples
eyes with the total debacle that was Frontier First Encounters. This
was very late and very bugged. This man previously, as the co-author
of Elite, was regarded quite rightly in the same 'coding God' category
as Sid Meier and our Geoff. Is the same thing about to happen to GC?
If the game is very late (it already is) but still bugged (maybe) then
the man's credibility will have gone like a shot.
MPS did things right with Civilization 2 IMO. The initial release had
some minor bugs in which were fixed quickly. Now, eleven patches (!)
later we have a game sporting a number of features that weren't in the
original release through customer feedback. No patches = No
opportunities to enhance. And all the time they were fixing those
minor problems, I was playing the game.
Would you all REALLY rather be kept waiting six months plus as we have
for a '100% bug free version that Geoff is happy with' (it won't be),
or buy a product rushed to release which has a number of bugs in it
which get patched over the same period. I vote for the latter, without
a doubt. It's easy to say no now, but if you had read the early
reviews and then been asked whether you wanted a bugged version or to
wait until July (at least) for the release, what WOULD we all have
done? Bird in the hand and all that.
Patience is a virtue, I have a number of them, but not this one. I'll
buy/beg/borrow/steal the buggy beta and you can all buy the full
version six months later ;-)
Finally, Let's none of us forget that this game was good enough to
review last March by more than one of the major mags. That means they
got the review copy in January! Are they really saying it takes
another SIX MONTHS to produce a release version?
SOME TELLING QUOTES:
'It's been a long time coming, but the sequel to MPS F1GP is very
nearly with us.' - PCZone Preview Sept 1995. OUCH!
'F1GP2 is one of the first games to support the new GLINT 3D graphics
standard'. - Same PARDON?
'An absolute masterpiece, the finest game in a long, long time - 95%'
- PCZone March 1996. LUCKY SODS
'...I have been working on F1GP2 for two years now' - GC in PCZone
March 1995!!! !?!!?
FORTY MONTHS ?!?!?! Doesn't the man have a life? Or is the problem
that he only works one day a week :-)
Sorry if I've ranted and raved a bit. We won't have any problems
finding things to talk about once it is released, I'm sure. This group
is gonna develop a bandwith problem literally overnight.
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