Uuuuughhh Zombie Games, and early access

[NeonSamurai]

I got to say, I'm starting to get really tired of all the darn zombie games. Don't get me wrong, there are some really good ones imho out there (dead rising 2, state of decay, left for dead, the walking dead from telltale, etc.) and being developed (project zomboid looks really cool, and then there is DayZ). But with them there is a veritable ocean of utter garbage, and there is an insane number of them being developed or recently released (look at steam greenlight and all the early access games). Seems like everyone is making zombie games, particularly on the indie scene.

I'm also getting really fed up with the early access games. In games like minecraft or Kerbal space program, the concept worked really well. But those games were already complete functional games, that were just being continuously added to and improved, and they didn't charge a whole lot. Most early access games on steam on the other hand are charging larger sums (sometimes more than AAA titles), from unproven developers, and the game is at best an early alpha (barely playable, almost no content, and riddled with bugs that are often game breaking). This isn't early access, this paying for the privilege to alpha test a game with the hope that you will end up with an actual game! There have been a number of these early access games on steam where the developer dumped the game entirely, only completing a few builds over several months, or jumped to a new game or new version and demanding people buy it again.

I don't think I can stress the old concept of caveat emptor enough when it comes to steam, early access, and crowd-funding like kickstarter. A lot of people have been getting burned by this. What is even more disturbing is it looks like the big companies are moving in this direction to (along with in game purchases like with mobile games, except you are paying full price for the game on top of it).

Anyhow rant over