I hate episodic gaming and I hate this crap. I want to shell out a decent amount of money and get a decent amount of game in return. I don't want to spend five cents or five dollars or whatever on something that should have been in the game proper in the first place, and I don't want to spend half price getting a measy 6 hours of gameplay. I would finish a 6 hour game in a single sitting, and there's no fucking point in doing that, to me. Opinions vary widely on the whole episodic thing, but I'm definitely one of those who doesn't like it at all.
We've seen 6-7 hour games games charge that price for retail price, even.
I don't mind having episodes in a game, ala Duke3D or Doom, but I want them all in a single package. I don't want them standalone. I want to access them all from the same executable when I boot the game up.
Yes, I like that, myself -- though, all those episodes are more or less chapters to the overarching story and should be played in order.
Also what I like about PK -- all under one EXE entirely, where you can select to go w/ the original campaign or the Battle out of Hell expansion.
This is also what I like about NWN -- it's all under one EXE file. You have a "Campaigns" section (for all the Official NWN Campaigns & Expansions) and a "Modules Section" straight from main screen, after you select "Single Player" option.
I also like what Dungeon Siege series does. They don't change the old original EXE, if you install an expansion. They create a new folder and create a new EXE file for the expansion, once you install that. You still have the old original DS2.EXE and saves and can play the game as it was being played originally and all. In Broken World expansion under that EXE file, once you create/select/import your character to start a new game, you can select to run the old DS2 campaign or the new Broken World campaign within the new EXE for the expansion packs -- with all the new features (the new classes, more magic spell slots, and game balancing changes) added.
I don't mind paying a little bit of money for something cool in a game, either, as long as it's a VERY reasonable amount of money for something REALLY work paying for, and ONLY if the game itself is already a complete and satisfying game by itself. Oblivion, for instance. I don't mind spending a few bucks on official mods that are actually cool, because the game is already perfectly awesome without them. I don't NEED a wizard's tower house because the game already has purchaseable real estate, but if I happen to want that, it isn't expensive and it's awfully neat. That's okay by me. This GT thing is absolutely not.
I find what Oblivion's doing is WAY more acceptable than GT. I just wish they'd put those mods on disc, myself.
I wonder how many mods they are planning to actually do for Oblivion. And as much as they say there probably won't be an expansion, with the way the game ended, I am hoping and waiting for one....That or for Elder Scrolls 5 to pick up right from after the end of part 4.
The next GT has an edition that comes w/ NOTHING?!?!? And then you have to pay to get tracks and cars and stuff??? What the hell is that?!?!?