Shedding costs

I bought my copy of Baldur's Gate 2 in a brick-and-mortar store. It came in a colorful, cardboard box with a big, honking manual (at least a third of which was taken up by spell descriptions); a cloth map of the Sword Coast and four ornately adorned CDs.

The game worked, with no major bugs present, and – from then on (nineteen ninety-something) to the present day – remained unchanged (unless you count Throne of Bhaal, which was more of a "separate, unblemished release that enhanced the base game" than an "add-on"). I still have the CDs and the manual. The map, sadly, went its own merry way at some point...

I bought my copy of Cyberpunk 2077 on GoG in 2020 and – four years later – own a subtly different game. Oh, on the face of it, it's the same title as the one I initially bought: same setting, in both cases, same cast, same item models — the same gist, as it were... But the underlying mechanics are completely different, the controls are altered and a good chunk of content in the "patched" version wasn't there on release day.

For 20 years and change, game publishers and developers have been steadily distancing themselves from anything that costs them money, displacing what used to be their responsibilities onto consumers (players) under the guise of Ongoing Support.

First, it was physical "artifacts" (like the aforementioned cloth map or manual): the fun little extras that enhanced the game's immersion and made opening a Brand New Box oh-so-much fun. They went the way of the dodo, to be replaced with colorful boxes containing nothing other than the game media (CDs).

Then, when teh interwebs caught up to speed, it was the CDs, boxes and – ultimately – storefronts, to be replaced with Steam and Epic and GoG and push the onus of "shipping" a game onto the consumer. If you wanted a new title on release day, it was on you to buy a decent internet connection and spend your time downloading the files.

Now, it seems, not even quality control or gameplay design need to be finished when a game is shipped, with new titles being sold as IOUs, of sorts, which devs can then spend years polishing into The Form They Intended long after you are done playing...

Am I happy games receive extra content post-release? You betcha. But am I equally happy to be a guinea pig for devs to bounce ideas off-of for free and spend hours downloading 10, 20 gigabyte "patches" every few weeks so that the thing I bought works as it ought to?

If, every few weeks, you had to run out to pick up and install new parts for your car, or get used to flushing your toilet differently, or walk into your home and find everything inside rearranged, you wouldn't put up with it. But this? This is just games: non-essential entertainment... And so we grudgingly waste time doing someone else's work for free and call it normal. Baa, baa.

The other farm life

Speaking of sheep, my time with Stardew Valley has finally netted me one (I called him Fuzzball, 'cause he so fluffy). And a couple of piggies. And some hares. And ducks. And a greenhouse. And a spellbook... And the community center's all fixed up, too (though it cost me my 'lil junimo buddies, which I regret, if I'm honest: in retrospect, I might have left the center in ruins if it meant the little squeakers would hang around).

Fifty-six hours in, the game continues to drip-feed new content and challenges (which is great), while depending on the same, repetitive gameplay (which is less-so). Sometimes, given how many things I want to get done, the brevity of a single Stardew day irritates me — as if the game is limiting the amount of fun I can have with it. I almost wish I could stop time in the game, so that I could relax and finish a few extra tasks without feeling pressured or rushed...

Still, my cat loves me (to the tune of four hearts) and a recently acquired cellar means I can start aging cheeses and wines (the production of which is now assured by the presence of three fond cows and year-round crops from the greenhouse). Stardew Valley is what I would call a Mixed Bag (fun things you want to get involved in hampered by very basic gameplay); but – at the end of the day – I'm still playing it, so the good must outweigh the bad.

There's a golden clock for sale that will stop debris from appearing on my farm and prevent fences from deteriorating. It costs a cool 10 million — and my current profits barely run to six-figures. Not sure how long it will take me to make that much moola, but I'm willing to wait and see.

Plenty to patch, little to play

Lex Imperialis, the second Rogue Trader DLC which was slated for a December release, just got pushed back five months or so (to "Spring 2025"). Considering what shape Void Shadows shipped in, that's probably a good thing, but Lex was the last thing I was looking forward to in 2024, so no new games for this pig to review before the year's out. I'll be splitting my time between Rogue Trader (Lord Captain the fourth), Cyberpunk 2077 (V four of eight) and Stardew Valley (baa-oink-quack).

If you're playing Rogue Trader or Cyberpunk, make sure to get the two massive patches that dropped a week back or so.

Rogue Trader's 1.3 is mostly bug fixes, but also streamlines a lot of cutscenes, adds new models for characters and items (like the hilarious Prisoner's Shank which used to look like a run-of-the-mill knife, but has now been upgraded to patented "sharpened rock" technology); adds extra VO and no fewer than 12 force swords, among other things.

As for Cyberpunk, 2.2 is the first patch CDPR produced with help from a third-party (a Chinese studio called Virtuos Games which will collaborate on all future Cyberpunk 2077 content); and most reminiscent of a hostage situation (it has little you'll enjoy in it, but might be the difference between downloading the next patch or re-downloading the whole game and expansion). Composed almost entirely of fixes and cosmetic gimmicks (a more robust photo-mode, cars that were already in the game up for sale, a dumb scavenger hunt for grafitti scattered around town); it does little to extend or enrich gameplay.

What little new content there is (such as new costmetic options for characters) is of iffy quality (I liked some new eye textures, but most of the tattoos and face plates looked amateurish, at best); and – irritatingly – the game remaps controls once again and even switches on graphics options I could have sworn I turned off the last time around...

Incidentally, I also patched Stardew Valley today to version 1.6.15. It was little more than bug fixes and a few QOL improvements, but what struck me was its truly patch-like size of 10 Mbs.

The Cyberpunk "patch"? That was nearly 17 Gbs. And I can't tell you the size of Rogue Trader's, because GoG (as GoG is wont to do) didn't release a standalone, offline installer: I had to re-download and re-install all 28 Gbs of the game...

When I was shopping for my first motorcycle, my instructor told me you can "buy a bike to work on or buy a bike to ride" and that the second option – even if it was factory-standard generic – was always the wiser move. Whatever you're playing, here's hoping you're spending more time in the game than patching it or getting it to run.

Happy holidays!

Pig — out.