"The Dark Side of Game Patches"

"This latest patch from Epic Games will give you everything you need to update UT2004 to the most current version, including nine new Deathmatch, Assault, and CTF maps. The patch also includes all of the content from the first (Editor's Choice Edition) bonus pack for UT2004."

Wow that should be kickass right?
Nope.

You cannot access net-hosted games in unreal tournament 2004 without the latest patch, and you cannot get the patch unless you "bend over" and make an account, paid or otherwise, at gamespot.com

Well, that is bad enough, that I bought a game for $49.99 back in the day when it was actually new, you know, nearly 2 years ago now, and now, in order to make the game PLAYABLE online, I have to go through some aol-clone of gaming site to access the needed file?

This shit pisses the fuck off. Not only is this game fucked up the cakehole and unplayable with all but bots without the patch, but pretty much ANY game nowadays is like this. Mind you, I am not referring to MMO games, those tend to update themselves. I am talking about shooters like Quake III arena, which took me like 3 hours to locate the latest patch for, on a FANSITE that linked to the file on, you guessed it, fileplanet and gamespot.

What about that hot game you have wanted to see in action, but you live 5400 miles from E3, so you wanna watch the vid, and that fucking shit pops up "subscribe to access".

This trend that has sprung up of releasing a major game update via some mega-marketing-whore option is really turning me off to gaming in the non-MMO marketplace.

Take the makers of Unreal Tournament, for a prime example:

These sons of bitches have more cash than most people can imagine, backed by Atari, and Midway, and other high-end industry backbone, and they cannot afford to host these update files on their OWN SITE? I find that hard to swallow. The bastards have every other conceivable type of server load material, wallpapers, stats, fan kits, mods, maps, blah blah blah. But you mean to tell me you cannot put up a 200 mb file that you say I have to have, and instead make me open my ass cheeks to some company that is suspiciously like AOL, and is in fact a subsidiary of AOL/TIME WARNER? What the fuck?

What do the companies actually have to do with your game? Ad dollars? Like I see no UT ads ANYWHERE. Please. What do I get for selling my personal address, my email address, and my name to these add-blanketed mazes of shit? And before anyone says "use a dummy email account you moron", that isn't the issue. I am aware that is a good method to avoid spam, but my point is, I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO EVEN DEAL WITH THIS SHIT.

These companies are viruses on the gaming industry's immune system in my opinion. They do not really tell me anything I CAN'T READ in a mag, and they advertise those same mags every 2 clicks. They do not really offer any maps or game add ons that are not located on countless OTHER SITES WITHOUT ADS. They do not offer me any real incentives to come back, but they have a PAID ACCOUNT option? $9.95 a month to...not have to wait on a download? Are all gamers that fucking spoiled and jaded, according to these dipshits, that we will pay cash money to download a file SOONER than later? In this age of broadband, I fail to see how that even matters one magot-laced turd.

Anyone else have similar patching migraines?

yeah, and i love it when my antivirus/spyware software decides that having those gaming sites bookmarked is bad. nothing quite like being told that Steam(for halflife 2) is a "potetially unwanted program." same with either gamespot and file planet. also, my version of steam is buggy. it runs into an error and has to be shut down about once every three days!

when i go out and buy an offline game, i should not be required to have internet access to 'unlock' the friggen thing so i can play it. doesnt us paying good money for the game in the first place mean anything anymore?!

i guess ya got unbanned eh? whatd ya do??