Funny that the first game with DLC and a game that was announced as having future DLC went on sale back to back.

I've been interested in Omerta, but I am broke right now. And by the time I get money, the deal will be over.

Nice promo. I will wait until the game + all DLCs sell for $10 or less.

That pull quote is rather pointless, isn't it? Hardly glowing praise.

I mean, it's not even praise. It's a simple description of combat. But we got a quote for it!

Had the same reaction when I watched the YT video.

I was wondering if all the negative reviews were of either the 'pack mentality' -- ie: let's all pile on and slam this game because we can, or......because someone with a grudge against the developer is opening account after account to downrep the game?

BTW, here's Total Biscuit's WTF is Omerta: City of Gangsters video. Pretty useful review-thing, IMO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnmtsh9Iuu0

Not a particular fan of Total Biscuit, as he's a bit too arrogant for my taste, but he does a very good balanced job on his WTF series, and he's almost always correct with his game assessments. Overall, he likes the game and particularly likes the combat.

If they kept this game at $19.99 with all of it's DLCs in one package (like all GOG games should be) then it might just be worth having for those that really want to play this game. In which case I'd give it 3 stars instead of just one like I did in the review, but seeing that this is a short term offer, it stays at 1 star.

The reason I gave it 1 star was because I was looking forward to it from playing games like Gangsters 1 and 2. I thought it would be something even better. I would have purchased it if I hadn't had the opportunity to play it on a friend's PC beforehand. Lucky I did!

Like I said in my short review of it, it needs to be twice the game for half the price. They've done half the price (but not for long), now they need to rework it to make it twice the game, because bundling all of the DLCs won't make-up for it short fallings.

And I agree with HomerSimpson that it is funny to have it on promo so close after release and the mess of it's seperate DLC. It's like the publisher's are in a panic of damage limitation. Sort of: "Halve the price on it quick! Bundle that pointless DLC with it as well! Oh shit, we've got to do something to sell more!"

Simple, remove it, apologize to everyone, improve the game, and sell it again with all content.

Very cool move, GOG. It proves once again that despite you are similar to other DD stores, you are never the same ;-)

but please, release Gangsters 2 already!

Most of them, yes. IT's a gaming comunity, what would you expect ;-)

I applaud GOG for the promo on this game, but I imagine gamer feedback is useful to both GOG and the game developer as well. When this game was announced originally I had a look at the trailers and thought it looked awesome. It reminded me a bit of The Godfather game which I enjoyed quite a lot. I anticipated the release of Omerta, but then when it came out I was rather stunned at the amazingly high price. I don't mind forking out $40 or more on a triple-A title that is well reviewed in the press and gets sung praise by gamers around the world, but I felt the game's price was a little steep at the time. I put it on my wishlist and decided to wait and see what others who played the game had to say.

I went back and looked once or twice since then and saw mostly negative reviews of the game, both on GOG and other places around the web. Then the paid for DLC was added and I kind of did a double-take. It just seemed like either the game was overpriced with a strange business model, or I was missing something. In a free market, price sorts itself out based on supply and demand though, so any pricing inaccuracies would be sure to get sorted out over time. That's what was needed - more time.

So, today I see the promo and think "cool, nice price reduction plus free DLC that probably should have came with the game from what I read just about everywhere". I go read the reviews on GOG.com, and all the other popular places online and see the game getting rated 2 out of 5 stars and similar all over the place, and the majority of comments from people expressing disappointment for purchasing the game, people finding the game far too simple and lacking of strategic elements, etc. I look at the price of $19.99 on sale with the DLC, and compare it to the multitude of other games both on and off GOG at a similar price point and think to myself that there are other $10 games and even $5 games out there that seem far more exciting to me in gameplay value and which have 5 out of 5 star ratings, some of which are new games and some of which are old.

In the end, I'm going to have to pass on this game at $19.99 with or without the DLC I'm afraid. It still seems overpriced even at 50% off. No disrespect to the developers. Sad fact is that the gaming market is extremely saturated right now, and shitloads of games are available for $5 or less which are absolutely fantastic. Hell, you can get bucketloads of games for FREE on GOG forum giveaways for GOG/Steam/Desura/GG/etc. To cough up $20-40 for *any* game, really means the game has to blow your socks off, or do something really revolutionary or something.

I do still want to play Omerta, and I will probably get it some time in the future, but I probably wont pay more than $5 for it if I buy it, or I'll just wait and pick it up in a GOG.com forum giveaway contest sometime in the future. Might be 6 months from now, or 2 years from now. I've got a boatload of games to tide me over until then. $20 is just far overpriced IMHO, either that or the game trailers just don't show enough wow-factor to justify the price.

That's just my personal opinion observing from the sidelines anyhow. I will pledge one thing though - when I do actually get a copy of the game down the line to play, I will write a fair and unbiased review of the game in the GOG reviews section along with my experience playing it, game stability, etc.

Having said all that, best of luck with the promo guys!

Weirdly enough, I have had that experience with Cuttlefish.
You do know that this comment can also be applied to Strike Suit Zero, right? Especially since SSZ still doesn't have all its DLCs present here.
Or is it that SSZ has more game than Omerta?

This is nothing new. You can tell when a game has sold ridiculously poorly or has nosedived massively by the speed at which it's daily-dealed or gets a free weekend on Steam. Free weekends are basically an effort to revive a dead or dying community in a recent online game.

I recall DNF ending up for €5 in a daily deal barely two months after release.

But yes, since digital has taken such a role in PC gaming, it seems to have done more damage to the long tail in terms of revenue than used games ever did. Full-priced sales have taken a nosedive, which is attributable to huge numbers of digital buyers waiting for sales. Bioshock Infinite is at the top of the top sellers list, but when Dirt 3 was daily-dealed, it became number 1 for that day. Pretty much says it all.

Margins on digital sales may be higher, but per-unit revenue is usually lower due to the lower average price.

This is why Guillaume and TET were right when they talked about sales devaluing games, even if GOG then fell into precisely the same trap - the Steam sale phenomenon has devalued games massively.

I don't even think it needs to be revolutionary, but it does have to meet some basic standards of the genre. And that isn't a standard of cinematics or anything, it's simply realizing that your product is something interactive that should stimulate the player's mind and make sense. I pre-ordered the game, which meant not getting Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Turns out that game was an excellent example of its genre and Omerta is a terrible example of its genre.

If the empire-building side had been up to pace with Tropico or the tactical side been up to pace with Jagged Alliance, that would have been okay, and if both were quality then it would have been great, but neither were. The overworld side has been aptly described as "playing Monopoly with yourself" and the tactical side is very haphazard and arbitrary in many ways. It's something that you come to realize over some hours of playing it; all of your thoughts of what it may be as you learn it never coming to be, some irrational frustrations tossed in, and a lot of boring design.

I was quite burned by it. Since then I was gifted the new XCOM by a friend which was an unexpected gain quite healing to the sense of loss from this. Still, even with a clear mind, and ever more so now comparing to one of the top games of one of the genres it attempts, Omerta is severely disappointing. I don't even care about "AAA" graphics. The fact is that no matter what the technology or how small your dev team, smart thinking in the gameplay design makes great games. We see the long history of this reality of the industry on GOG.

I would only recommend Omerta to people who are not at all fans of the genres it attempts. It is a very simplistic and hollow experience. I would recommend it to casual gamers who have no idea what strategy or tactics are, perhaps people who usually spend their time playing some form of Solitaire or Peggle. That kind of person might be surprised and have fun. It's probably also best if they are not fans of mobster things, lest they have some developed taste in such to end up disappointed by that side of it as well.

Crazy isn't it :) Especially those gamers (can you really call them that???) who downrate a game they haven't even PLAYED. Or those who say "I'm not going to buy it as I know I won't like it". Seriously? That's like saying you don't like liver because you know you won't like it. I bloody HATE liver, but at least I've eaten it before -- several times!

IMO, you've got to be one of the stupidest people on the planet to give a negative to a game you've never experienced just because some other people are saying it's a bad game. I've played a lot of games other people didn't like and I loved them. Tastes differ Ithank God!! :)
Total Biscuit, who is one of the HARDEST people to please, liked the game and recommended people buy it. And that was when it was at 40 bucks without the DLCs.

Like I've said in a previous post, I'm not a fan of Total Biscuit but he is SPOT ON about most games he covers, so it's made me put it on my WishList.

bullcrap. he is as "spot on" as any other reviewer. his opinion - and that's all he gives - is as "valuable" as anybody else's.

the game's just not good. it had potential but then again, Haemimont usually fail when they leave the shores of Tropico, so it wasn't entirely unexpected. it says a lot that GOG had to quote PC Gamer, which has pretty much the most inconsistent reviewing going on today.

the game needs to go below $10 for me to consider buying it.

if you're willing to part with some $20 now, better pre-order Age of Empires II HD.

This, more developers need to realize this and get with the program

Whenever I look at a new title right now I always ask myself: What does this have that impresses me? what makes it special? and 95% of the time, it's fucking nothing, not only that but most games are overpriced to FUCK and provide zero value to the customer, no matter what kind of game it is, some indie title or a brand new AAA blockbuster

Last year I think I bought what, 3 New full priced games on release day?

With regards to this release, I have to give some applaud GOG and Kalypso for doing this, even if the damage was already done, hopefully this sets an example to other Publishers that GOG stands for many things, one of those things is providing value to the customer. With the release of this overpriced 40 Dollar game and the horrifically overpriced 5 dollar "DLC" Kalypso thought they could treat GOG the same way they do Steam, as in: Overprice everything to hell, put out overpriced DLC and expect it to sell

Not on our watch