My thoughts on pre-ordering.

Nope, can't possibly go wrong, right?

A lot of people are going around now telling you to stop pre-ordering. I mostly agree, but that's not completely the way I want to talk about it. That topic has been done to death by now, even if only recently has media made a fuss about it, and if you want to hear pre-orders getting nagged go and enjoy that in the many other resources. I'm actually here to bring you something a little backwards... a small check list of when it might be ok to make an exception and pre-order. To some making an exception of anything is heresy, but I'm trying to be level headed here and give reasonable advice for normal hardcore gamers, so I'm not peddling this "ALL PRE-ORDERS ARE THE DEVIL" style thing. I've pre-ordered a good share of games, and I've been burned by some, and stand proudly by others, and I feel I still can confidently say that some games are just worth it. So I'd rather give aid to making smart pre-orders rather than running the usual pre-order shaming.

When to pre-order:

-Collector's edition for BIG fans

Ok despite my sarcastic caption and picture for a game that flopped, I actually will say that if you 100% felt a need for a game and its physical stuff, then fine take the risk... you clearly have a lot of money on you anyways to risk that sort of thing if you're looking at special stuff. Collector's edition versions are just that, they're for the major fans and collectors, and just maybe there wont be enough of them past launch day. They don't just sit around and magically appear at a good price, that stuff is expensive stuff that major big time fans put down big money on to enjoy with the normal game itself. Now if you're not a big fan you shouldn't even be considering this stuff, but if you are one then you should still be thinking really carefully. Even though I'm usually encouraging a lack of paying attention to hype now, I think if you're going to risk something this big you need to know about this game and you should not only be viewing trailers but analyzing them bit by bit to see if the HUD gives you a clue on hidden mechanics, to see what kind of level design might be expected, and to see if this truly is a game you need so much in your life that you need to got hat extra $20-$60 to secure some creepy statue with it. Don't spoil everything, but make sure you know what you're doing. Also as a rule of thumb, please don't add many if any new IPs to this area. Remember this if it helps. Unless the stuff is so unbelievable, so amazing, and so interesting that it makes its own value then I'd strongly suggest against ordering these things from a new IP. These things are for fans, and you don't become a fan of something that doesn't exist yet, so keep your cool and stay out of that stuff. Speaking of fans though....

-A major trusted release for fans

Can it be trusted?

Do you love assassins creed, or Battlefield, or sonic? That's great, but don't you dare pre-order that thing. No, its CE is not that important. No, that free skin wont be worth it. Stop looking at those questionable series as a pre-order. Be careful, look sharply at it, and let other people fall into that pittrap first. If you're still a die-hard fan that is ready for them, then go ahead and buy the stuff, just don't pre-order anything you can't trust... and be blunt fans of those games, YOU CAN'T TRUST THEM. Now on the other hand major fans of more niche or well polished series, I can't possibly question your judgement. You've choosen to put your faith in Naughty Dog's games after enjoying their work since Crash Bandicoot or at least Uncharted, or you're a major stealth fan who's been sticking to that long running hype train behind phantom pain, or of course there's Mario who never fails to bring some joy onto your TV screen. Go for that stuff if you're a major fan, and just need this next new game. I remember some of the most excited days have been going to the store, and picking up a pre-order on a game I just know will be good. I remember running into a store, and coming out anxious to play the new Sly Cooper game in my hands... something that would turn up to be far better than I could have originally planned, but still trusted anyways. I wasn't getting rewarded for it, the pre-order stuff was kind of pathetic. However its just that excitement in getting it that made it feel so worth it. I remember going to the store to pick up Killzone 3, so excited to try out the newest installment despite knowing a couple issues would arise, but I knew my enjoyment for the series outweighs all the doubt or grief over some changes. I remember walking out with the hulking CE set to Dark Souls 2, and being so excited to get into everything and it lived up pretty well to the wishes and excitement I had set for it. Going to go and grab these things is just exciting, and honestly if you're preordering a game you truly love and trust, then go ahead. The only time I ever hated my pre-order experience on a good game was with Wolfenstein, because Best Buy just has a really crappy system of pre-orders. So uh... don't go there for it. By contrast to what I also said with CE, don't exactly even look up everything either. If you really love a series, and its made by a trustable team, follow a bit of the news and impressions from insiders, but also leave a lot of room for surprises. There's probably almost nothing that will change your mind from a day 1 buy with or without that pre-order, so just let yourself experience it and enjoy things for yourself when you get the chance. Just make sure you're being honest with yourself about whether or not a game series is trustable.

-About those new IPs...

New IPs are they scarey unknowns

So... The Order, what the heck is it? Is it too cinematic? Is it the perfect steampunk themed shooter with a good story? Is it even balanced right, the enemies respond weird with being shot in one clip I saw? Is it one big dumb rail sequence? How open and diverse can battles get? Is the game at a decent length? Nobody wants to be stuck with a 5 hour single player only $60 medicore cinematic super linear shooter. So... don't freakin' pre-order! Remember Watch Dogs? Don't pre-order! Remember Colonial Marines? Don't pre-order! Remember Borderlan- oh hey, that went great. Look if the IP is claiming to be too new, or looks too familiar, you should be able to run off that. If you're really into 3rd person shooters and story telling, and love steampunk... fine maybe you can risk The Order. If you're really into Alien and horror, and don't remember colonial marines for some reason, then fine maybe you've been rewarded and feel right for grabbing Isolation in pre-order form. As a general rule of thumb I wouldn't recommend this though. Seriously, just double check and make sure with yourself if this thing is really worth it. You don't know this game as well as you think you might. Its brand new, and maybe made by an unheard of team or from guys that don't normally do what they're doing. Ready At Dawn is a studio that has practically lived off of porting, and made Daxter that forgotten PSP spin-off I heard was bad, so with such a confusing and questionable IP coming up I don't think they've earned your trust to rush out and buy the game before you know it... never the less buy its one or two Collector's Editions. I'll say similar about evolve, which looks nice but is so up in the air for whether or not it'll be what you want. Oh and dying light, while potentially great, has recently had a ton of people pointing and mocking the team behind it... and fine if you really felt burned by dead island and the rest of their mixed (and shovelware) history then stay back. I'm looking forward to hellraid from the same team, but yeah I don't 100% sell myself on their hype either and in no way am I pre-ordering it no matter how great I love First person melee.

Finally... lets recap on Brink shall we? I followed that idea stated right above that you know what you like, and if the game looks familiar or interesting enough then sure you can really get set on risking it. Oh and those Doom extras, how cool does that look? I knew this game. I studied it, watched its videos, the Killzone community was all strong about this idea that Brink would move us forward as Killzone 3 put itself a couple steps back. We were absolutely right about its idea of a shooter... but we totally didn't see that important detail about its general content. It had no campaign despite what the interface and "revolutionary" hype will try to say otherwise, and it had only 8 maps in the entire mode. The entire game was 8 maps, standard mode, and you were doing the same attack and defend focused objectives the whole time. There were 3 poorly designed challenge maps for leaderboard maniacs, but that's really all that's good for. The core gameplay in the objective multiplayer modes was perfect, but there was no room to flex it and go anywhere. The bots were also quickly predictable and dumb, making the decline on all platformers (even PC) really hurt it as its stands in the present. At least you could buy the game for $5 before it was even a year old. Things were bad enough that they felt they owed us temporarily free map pack DLC with all the issues and lack of levels the game had. When I go back and look on the trailers, I realized a big detail I missed: The levels never really changed. You saw the same look and feel to everything. There was a cleaner area, there was a garbage slum docking area, and there was talk of some underwater aquarium level, and that's most of what you saw in the footage. The campaign never looked like a campaign, we didn't hear about anything other than dynamic objective mode, the levels shown were kept to a few, and while I unconsciously dismissed it as them not giving away everything (or just not needing to say it, because team deathmatch is in all serious MP shooters... right?) the reality is that's because that's how the final game was. We saw the entire game in the trailers, and it wasn't enough to charge us $60 for. I was burned because I was too sure it would be what I wanted it to, and I was too sure that the free doom perk stuff was a nice little addition on top of what was in theory a multiplayer masterpiece. If I had waited, and saw this come out, I would see that this IP did not support staple modes and normal accessibility. If it was a sequel now, I would be able to look back on its older work and see what it did and didn't do for them, and they'd keep promises more level headed than to confuse a campaign with just a clone of MP with small cut-scenes. So please guys, I know there will be exceptions and games that work out well (like borderlands, where can easily tell its a loot RPG with guns and know if you like that), but 90% of the time you should just not go there with pre-ordering new IPs. The sad thing is they will push you for it, because they're worried and scared they wont see your $60 since they're not another safe Assassins Creed sequel, but you need to let them prove themselves and ignore the dumb pre-order bribes.

- Is a pre-order needed?

No. Probably not, and being blunt that's really where I should end it, but I'm terrible at being concise so I'll blabber on anyways. I guess running out of copies is a tiny concern that can just maybe happen sometimes... maybe. I just don't think there's any series out there that actually needs a pre-order to secure a copy from being soldout anymore though. COD is always there at launch, and needs to sustain a heavy print amount of copies (also its... y'know, one of those you shouldn't instantly trust because of their server instability). I usually see those obscure japanese games out there at their launch for at least the first month. Heck even Smash bros, a game I swore up and down would be missing for like its first 3 months, is still on store shelves wherever I go and always has been since launch. To top all of it off, there's digital distribution now. Yeah it pains me to say "go digital" but that's an option better than risking a rushed pre-order over the almost non-existent concern of selling out.

In conclusion...

Pre-orders are great for super fans. If you're a super fan of Far Cry 3 and FC4 is giving you more of that, I can see a real reason to grab that or its collector's edition. If you really trust Metal Gear Solid 5, a lot of people have your back on that decision to secure it and expect greatness from the (probably partially insane) mastermind behind the series. Same for Witcher 3, Uncharted 4, etc. If Jak & Daxter suddenly return tomorrow and you've just absolutely got to have it because that was the best thing ever to you, then go for it. What about that new IP though? Only if you're a fan of the type of content (since you don't know the game itself), and even then I would say try not to. Should you pre-order that generic shooter you might get because its got a cool bonus skin? No! Should you pre-order that weird spin-off because you get a free 4 year old dirt cheap game? No. Should you pre-order at best buy? No! Sorry, had to warn of that again. Should you pre-order from Ubisoft, Activision, EA, Deep Silver, or 2K? Unless its an exception to their usual standards (like how PopCaps stuff isn't as troubled as say Dice's stuff), no. Just for the general rule, unless you're a fan or have a serious reason to trust something, do not pre-order. That being said, if you do fit into either those (trust/fan) then I totally stand by and support your right to pre-order. I think a little bit of the optimism and fun is lost in this extreme buyer beware situation of demonizing pre-orders, which is why I've stayed out of it. Like I said with being a fan, or grabbing your first CE, there's a certain excitement that comes from that you just don't feel as a normal pick-up routine. You're not just getting a game, you're getting one of the games you've been anxiously waiting maybe over a year for. If you make pre-order an earned treat, rather than just you taking the bait, then it feels really good and it makes that day of getting a great game even greater. However a treat isn't a treat if you're messing it all up. Be responsible about it, and don't go pre-ordering and trusting anything. Really think about what you're getting into. Personally speaking though I imagine I'll end up pre-ordering Ratchet & clank, and Uncharted 4, and I'm thinking those are some good bets. I'm truly excited for those games, and I hope you all are putting your excitement in a good and fun place to.