10 Worst Moments In 2016's Biggest Video Games
You don't want to know what's at the centre of No Man's Sky's galaxy...
I've gone on and on (and on) about how fantastic 2016 has been for video games. Seriously, even the first half of the year's output roundly trounces that of 2015, and that's before the likes of DOOM, Uncharted 4, Dark Souls III, etc. gave us more than enough to contend with across the summer.
It hasn't all be sunshine and rainbows, however, as the higher the bar of quality across the board, the easier it is for many to slip underneath. And we're not talking about games that were just wide of the mark - I'm saying the sorts of things you're about to read about, simply do not belong in an industry that's otherwise making leaps and bounds in the right direction.
Video games continue to be one of the most lucrative entertainment mediums in the world, but that doesn't mean there aren't a few misguided decisions along the way...
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10. Square Enix Breaking Deus Ex: Mankind Divided With Microtransactions
Imagine spending years working on balancing an RPG, its requisite systems, unlockable abilities and general feel of progression - only to be told weeks before release by a load of executives, that actually, "We're just going to let people buy their way to the top."
It must have been infuriating for Eidos as they wrapped work on Mankind Divided, as it's now come out (thanks to Jim Sterling talking to an anonymous employee) that this is exactly how it all went down once Square Enix threw their two cents in.
The result is a system of new abilities you can unlock by, y'know, playing the game, or you can break the progression entirely by dumping real cash into purchasable 'Praxis Kits'; small allowances of extra points that let you upgrade hero Adam Jensen into a form usually relegated to the endgame.
This sort of thing is usually relegated to a multiplayer component or some form of competitive play, the assumption being that buying upgrades is a way to fast-track progression, allowing you to catch up with those who've dumped a ton of hours into unlocking certain things. But to butcher a single player experience just for the sake of getting even more money out of people after they've paid 60+ notes of their own cash?
That's just greed, pure, plain and simple.