Retail discs that are basically prototypes...

[Allie]

The American Sega Rally on Saturn is basically a proto. Crap loads missing from that.

I'd suggest adding the PAL version of Daytona USA Championship Circuit Edition for the Saturn as well, since its American counterpart introduced a few minor visual improvements. However, both were massively inferior to the subsequent Japanese-exclusive Daytona USA Circuit Edition, which incorporated considerably more changes both graphically and in terms of its handling, plus the soundtrack was expanded with a medley of all three classic original themes (in their B-univ vocal arrangement forms).

 

[speedyink]

I'd suggest adding the PAL version of Daytona USA Championship Circuit Edition for the Saturn as well, since its American counterpart introduced a few minor visual improvements. However, both were massively inferior to the subsequent Japanese-exclusive Daytona USA Circuit Edition, which incorporated considerably more changes both graphically and in terms of its handling, plus the soundtrack was expanded with a medley of all three classic original themes (in their B-univ vocal arrangement forms).

So glad I got the Japan version a while ago without even realizing the differences

 

[Arcadia]

I predict that in the near future... say like 20-30 years from now when there is no online servers anymore for systems like PS3 & PS4, that the value of a used console can heavily be valued based on what content is already on the system. Since there won't be any legit way to get DLC and patches, a system loaded with store bought games and DLC will be worth way more than a system with nothing on it.

Just look at those cell phones with Flappy Bird installed, some went for crazy money.

 

[Allie]

Just look at those cell phones with Flappy Bird installed, some went for crazy money.

Trying to find an affordable pre-owned PS4 with the P.T. demo on it can be similarly difficult...

 

[Braintrash]

The PAL version of Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness on PlayStation 2 has an interesting story.

The first retail copies were made using a beta version instead of the Gold Master. AFAIK, the said copies were given to journalists and none went to retail, but this retail beta copy was actually released on the scene by Echelon (if my memory serves me right).

 

[la-li-lu-le-lo]

Some people have said that Tube Slider on the GC is more like a tech demo than a game, and I tend to agree. Graphically it's pretty nice, and the soundtrack is good too, but the gameplay (at least the single-player mode, I've never tried 2-player) is basically nonexistent. Press and hold A. That's it. Nothing else you do matters, and it's basically impossible to lose. Weirdly, this game seems to be pretty expensive now, which makes no sense to me. I kinda feel sorry for anyone who would actually want to pay that much for it. Luckily, I got it cheap a long time ago, so I get to complain about how bad it is while still owning it. I keep it mainly because, like I said, the graphics and sound are pretty good, but there's no way I would buy it if I didn't already have it.

 

[dutchgray]

Gran Turismo 5
I had no internet for a few weeks when it launched so played it offline, its much harder with no updates, you get less credits for wins making it much more of a grind and the tire model was a bit broken, you could completely overheat all 4 tyres on a 4wd car within a few laps on some tracks, once I got internet back it was much better.

 

[cta]

this retail beta copy was actually released on the scene by Echelon (if my memory serves me right).

That may well be because warez groups sometimes have sources other than retail stores, so they might've gotten a press disc first and ran with that. [Unrelated to discs, but: Iirc the only pirate copy of TR Anniversary that was available for the longest time was a beta too. Noone bothered propering it I guess because, well, it worked fine?]


For a bit variety, how about a "hardware retail-beta" of sorts? - Nintendo didn't get enough NES Gyromite carts done in time for the NES launch, so to meet quotas they stuck Famicom boards plus adapters into US shells. Because of the extra hardware they weigh slightly more than a "real" Gyromite cart, enough so you can pick them out by feel.

 

[Pinta77]

Did anyone mention Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5 yet? First patch file was larger than the freaking game?

 

[Arcadia]

Did anyone mention Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5 yet? First patch file was larger than the freaking game?

Is that really unusual these day though?

 

[TreblaYevrah]

Yeah, we discussed Pro Skater 5 a bit on the previous page.

As Arcadia says, patches being bigger than the game isn't really that unusual these days. For MMO style games, this is very common of course. Conan Exiles is 30GB from disc, but now up to 90GB with patches. Final Fantasy 15 of course is also much, much bigger now with patches.

One of the "issues" with having the "full game" on disc this generation, is that a lot of games are actually bigger than the max capacity of a PS4 Blu ray disc after updates. Square-Enix didn't even try with the Royal Edition of FFXV; it's the vanilla release disc, without even the day one patch, and the rest just gets added with downloads. In all fairness, they couldn't have fit all the content on a single disc anyway, and everybody seems convinced that expecting a two-disc bluray release is absurd... I don't follow the logic of why that is, though. If publishers can afford statues/helmets to include with "special editions" of games, then I think they can shell out the extra money for one extra disc of content.

THPS5 didn't have that excuse, though. I believe the base game was 9GB or something on disc. What some people don't realize, though, is how large some of the texture files need to be for games these days, to satisfy the "4k generation." It's not hard to quickly take up space with all that super hi-res stuff. An entire Gamecube game used to fit on two 1.4GB mini-DVDs at the most... but those were very different times, and textures were much smaller in games that only had to look good at a 480i/480p resolution.

 

[Braintrash]

That may well be because warez groups sometimes have sources other than retail stores, so they might've gotten a press disc first and ran with that.

No.
It was a genuine retail disc, with shrinkwrap and al. I was there first hand, I know what it was.

 

[cta]

An entire Gamecube game used to fit on two 1.4GB mini-DVDs at the most... but those were very different times

The average website these days is larger than 1993's Doom.

 

[pool7]

patches being bigger than the game isn't really that unusual these days.

This only "makes sense" if those patches add functonality (ie. DLC?).
If it's a patch to fix issues, there's no reason for the patch being big (unless they somehow embedded the textures in the executables, or unless they're fixing textures that were broken, which is unlikely IMHO).

 

[TreblaYevrah]

^True... and maybe it isn't as many games as I'm suggesting that do have such massive patches.

With THPS5, I believe Robomodo claimed the huge day one patch replaced a ton of the game's textures. I never noticed that huge of a difference, but maybe it was just higher res versions of textures already in the game... which would explain why the patch was bigger than the original disc file.

 

[speedyink]

THPS5 had to patch in the whole game basically, that's why it was so large.
Most games I have, like Red Dead 2 for example, install most of the files from the disc. Any patches are super quick after that. That seems normal to me. If your entire game has to be fixed with a patch before you can play it then you have a problem. I would hope this is the minority of games. I dunno, I only got like 8 PS4 games on disc so far.

 

[TreblaYevrah]

I feel like an in-depth analysis is needed on THPS5's patch situation... time for me to boot that one up again.

Regardless of if the game is good or not, I'm kind of fascinated with all this debate on what exactly was patched in.

 

[Pinta77]

Is that really unusual these day though?

Exactly.

 

[Pinta77]

Yeah I should have pointed it out. For those of you who dont have THPS5, the patch was not dlc. It was just trying to fix the game. If a game like super smash had a patch file larger than the game, I'd be ecstatic because it's a good game and that would be a lot of cool new content. If the game is just straight up broken though...

 

[TreblaYevrah]

Another interesting thing about THPS5, is that the last gen version (360/PS3) was delayed one month after the PS4/XBONE release. So the version that came out on those consoles was actually the "fixed" version on disc, including the option to make the "slam" a double tap instead of just happening every time you pressed the grind button.

It did not have the Wild West stage, though, which released on current consoles as free DLC... same with the Underground stage. I don't think those ever became available for download, either. The "Rooftop" stage, which I'm quite sure was included in the base game by default on current consoles, also was not present in the last gen versions... otherwise it's exactly the same game.

It's too bad the game's release wasn't messy enough to have the original "realistic" visuals present in the unpatched version, hah. Granted, it didn't look massively unlike the released build, and THPSHD was still the better looking game regardless.