Games That Grant You Early Access

  I was playing Dayz Standalone just the other day and i did my normal routine.  Go to the coast and loot up at berezino and then head up to North East Airfield and net me some more gear.  As I approached the airfield, I felt lost and disoriented and pulled out my map of Chernarus to try and figure out just  where in the world I was because what I was seeing was most definitely not North East Airfield and as a matter of fact it was the complete opposite with just an empty airfield with just a couple of buildings to loot.  To my absolute dismay, what I was experiencing  was the New North East Airfield and a game that is still in alpha that left me frustrated but yet excited.

Old NEAF

New NEAF

  Alphas (also known as "Early Access") are a double edged sword.  You pay the price of admission while a game is still in its early stages of development and what you get is a game that is constantly changing before your eyes for the better and sometimes even for the worst.  You will also see games that are in Alpha and are struggling to update their game leaving it to feel bland, empty and sometimes forgotten.  Take Rust for example,  a game that I've put over a hundred hours into and you would think that for someone who has invested that much time into a game that he wouldn't have may complaints, but I do and this is why.  Rust has been in alpha for quite sometime and the only "major" update has been the removal of zombies from the game due to player feedback.  Now they have an experimental branch which allows you to play around with what the developers are currently working on to add to the stable servers, but for Rust's sake, the experimental servers often feel nothing more than an open map filled with blocky textures that serve as place holders for different weapons, clothes, etc. and not much more than that.  I cant help but feel like being forced back into the same old Rust which is "OK" but this game just screams for an update to really change and add features instead of it feeling left abandoned and forgotten.  Every devblog from the developers are them talking about what they re working on but sadly that's about it.  It almost feels like I paid twenty dollars just to read about what they re currently sketching on a notepad instead of actually adding anything to the stable servers.

  I'm frustrated but also happy with Dayz Standalone because even though they changed North East Airfield, they have also added, through a string of updates... Hunting, crafting, new animations, fishing, campfires, cooking, new weapons and a whole slew of other things like a whole new city add to the map of Chernarus for example.  Now for the experimental servers, they add all of these new features for you to play around with before adding it to a stable branch through an update and for that I am happy that they are actually adding new content to the game. These two games are just a couple of examples of how a game that grants you early access for anywhere between ten to twenty dollars can be a good thing but also a bad thing as well.  So for your sake before you drop the cash on a game that's not finished yet, make sure you read up on some of the reviews on Steam and also ask yourself  "Do I want to buy my way in now to see this game through or wait for it to release for two to three times as much money?"  Because even if it is only twenty bucks, it's twenty bucks you could be spending on a much better game.

*NOTE:  In my E3 article, I stated that i was going to add a link to all of the games that were announced at E3.  So here you go...List of games at E3.

Justin