GOG, Steam and so on should stop selling half completed games and stuff like that. It is a bad policy that will only hurt themselves in the long run.

A "to be continued" game for 15 bucks. I'm fine with that. Did you all not watch Back To The Future in the cinema until the 3rd part was released or what?

I can't help but feel GOG is letting the "G" standard slip with some of these GNGs.

Montague's Mount is getting hammered in reviews, and the devs have openly admitted that Dark Matter is a cobbled together, "polished" version of what they'd already done when their kickstarter failed. I.e. unfinished with some bugs tweaked, features unimplemented and a "To Be Continued" screen slapped on the end.

Fun fact for those of you who're saying To Be Continued isn't a problem...the devs are referring to that as "a bug" on the steam forums...because it gives the impression that there's going to be more later....when there isn't.

Quality control is part of your brand GOG. As a fan, I ask you to defend it carefully. Hold the line...I'm not used to viewing new releases with suspicion here...but that's quickly changing.

Wow, I didn't realize this was released. Now my next week is gone.

Thats whats got me stumped. How can they say its a finished product when things are missing etc?. Nowhere does it mention its an episodic game etc. So they ran out of money (and time from what it sounds like), People are going to buy it an assume its a complete game, when its really not.

That's all very disheartening, Mr Ratatouille.
If they're really done with the development of the game, the least the devs could do is to patch out the "To Be Continued" screen.


That's perhaps the sadest part regarding GOG - heavy shadows over new releases that cause people to lose confidence and trust in GOG.

+1. And a fair warning it is. Thank you, kind sir.

Argh. I'm having a déjà vu.

Ten days ago, GOG released Montague's Mount. That game had a history of two failed crowdfunding campaigns, and it was unclear how many of the originally planned episodes were realized. The official information was that the game was "all episodes rolled into one game" and had a "self-contained story". GOG operated on the basis of this assumption - while they did test they game, they did not play it to the end (it's impossible to test each game 100%, the majority of stores don't test games at all beyond checking whether the installer works). However, when you actually finished the game, you noticed that none of its three story arcs received any form of closure, and the game literally tells you that you need to by an as of yet unreleased sequel to get any answers. On Steam Greenlight, the author said that he had to split the story in two parts. After we found all this out, and invested a bit of work, the gamecard was amended and now describes the game as "open-ended" and the story as "leaving questions open for interpretation". GOG and the publishers were cool and GOG even offers a refund to the people who bought the game before the gamecard was corrected.

All this was resolved, so I'm far from pointing fingers here. But if Dark Matter is indeed similarly unfinished as "Montague's Mount" (and it sound like it might be), then you could contact GOG, and I'm sure they will do their best to fix this. But it would be ... tragic, if two releases within 10 days were in similarly unfinished states.

The devs have said in the steam forums that they are going to change the "To Be Continued" text to some other text in an upcoming patch.

GOGdamnit, I was just coming here to post my updated review of the game, as I've gotten more comfortable with it and am enjoying it in spite of some bugs. Now I find out this is Montague's Mount Redux? I'm ready to chew glass.

Well, Judas did say I could PM him with questions, so I'm going to see what he says about this. It seemed from his posts that he played all the way through, and I can't imagine he would have let this through if it was another "To Be Continued" fiasco. Now I'm wondering if I need to bother immersing myself in the story if I'm never going to finish exploring the ship and confronting the real truth of the events.

If this is accurate, this is a very worrying trend forming.

I hope that the publisher/devs use the income from this games' sales to continue to update the game. We already have classic games on GOG that had a good deal of content chopped from them and ended on a "to be continued" note like Beyond Good & Evil and Anachronox, yet those games are enjoyable (not to mention other games that left plot threads tantalizingly dangling like Bioforge, System Shock 2, and XIII). And I still think that the devs have something good here that I would like to play, and with some more work they would restore goodwill between them their customers and we'd end up with a better game. So let's see what their next move will be.

Charming release.

Very true. +1
If the developer does go on to either finish this game the way they wanted by either an update or even a DLC pack then the early release part is non-consequential. Even a sequel to finish the story would be the story concluded and not unique in the world of entertainment.
I will say that the price is a little high for me personally, but I will be watching this game for a decent discount.

As with XIII, Beyond Good and Evil and System Shock2 you are right, some games never see their story finished. At the end of the day it is a shame, but we cannot have everything, and so long as the game is fun and enjoyable then we should just enjoy it for what it is. Then go looking for mods that finish the game their way.

Game developers, movie writers/directors, hell I'll throw in book writers, should stop ending their stories on cliffhangers or "to be continued" unless they are already working on the second part and can guarantee that it will be released. I find it infuriating when I play a game or watch a movie and am confronted with a "to be continued" and then the continuation never is released. All you did was waste my time.

Its also not the best idea to buy a new game as soon as its released. Why not wait a couple months? Usually the price drops drastically (for indie games at least) and you will have far more information for making a decision.

HYPE. We all want things now. Now. RIGHT NOW!!! *Goes away and purchasing something right now..*

I agree though, just adding a limit to never buy games newer than 3 months and you save yourself a considerable amount, both because of the price drop and more available information (even if I dislike the idea of judging games with anything other than personal experience).