My Worst New Video Game Experience - SERIOUS SAM

[jaybird]

About a week or so before Christmas, I saw the Xbox game "Serious Sam" for $19.99 at my local entertainment store. I was curious as to why a new game (only a month old) would be so cheap, but I remembered that it received some pretty good reviews, so I bought it.

When I got home & played it, I kept getting "dirty disc" errors & the game would stutter horribly in some places. For a fast-paced shooter, that was unacceptable.

So after some research on some message boards, I learned that there was a huge batch of defective copies sent out. Instead of taking it back to the store for a return & getting stuck with another bad copy, I went to the publisher: Take 2 Interactive.

They told me "a couple of bad copies" got out & for me to send it in for a good copy. So, I pay the $1-2 to send just the disc back in. I figure for a good copy of a game I paid only $19.99 for, I shouldn't complain too much about paying to ship it & waiting awhile.

A couple of weeks later, I get the new game in. Works fine as far as I can tell. It's a very good stress-relieving 1-player game, but multiplayer sucks compared to other games out there.

Yesterday while I'm at work, UPS leaves a pick-up notice at my house. So I take a few minutes from work & drive across town today to get the package. It's another Serious Sam disc with this note:

"Dear Customer,

Take 2 Baltimore recently exchanged your Serious Sam Xbox game released by Gotham Games. It has been determined that you may have mistakenly been sent another defective game. Enclosed is a new game that should be free of errors."

They also included an SASE envelope for me to send the old disc (1st replacement) back in. What idiots!!!

I've never had such a nightmare experience with a brand new game. I'm wondering what's the matter with the 1st replacement now. It plays fine, so does it damage your Xbox or something?

So, in reading this, would you take more time out of your life for a $19.99 game & send the 1st replacement back in, or keep them both & use the cool green Xbox DVD case for future replacement?

Have any of you ever had such a bad experience in dealing with game companies?

[omnedon]

Ignore the mail, but don't toss the SASE and stuff. See what happens.

The chance of the disc being capable of damaging your XBOX are virtually nil IMO.

[WiseSalesman]

If both disc are fine, KEEP the new one. It's federal law that if any company mails you unordered merchandise you can keep it and you don't have to pay for it either.

[digitalpress]

Actually what will make this really interesting is to hear that you don't like the game. It *might* have been worth all of that trouble for something you enjoy...

So do tell us what you think when you finally do get around to playing a working copy!

[jaybird]

That's what is strange about all this, the 1st replacement disc seemed to work fine. The game played without all the glitches that the original had in it. So I was just worried that something I'm not seeing is going on with the disc while it is in my Xbox.

It's really a fun game. I haven't played too many 1st person shooters, but this one is good mindless fun. You just run & blow everything up. It's pretty amazing how many enemies they have coming at you on some levels.

So, I'm considering keeping both discs & using the 2nd one for system link play with my other Xbox when friends come over. Playing 2 players on one screen isn't fun because the resolution drops & the screen size is really small because the game doesn't utilize the whole screen.

It's really sad they've screwed this game up so badly. It must be a nightmare for whoever spent all the time developing it to see it crash & burn like this.

[DarkSoul]

I know it's a hell of a good game on the PC... Also a always bargin bin title (As is Serious Sam 2). It doesn't revel in any deep story whatsoever, but instead just wows you with one of the best 3d game engines I've ever seen, and in some cases, literally hundreds of enemies on your screen at once (Really, think back, what's the most you've EVER seen in Quake or Unreal or whatever? 15? 20? MAYBE 50?)

I hope you can get some fun out of the Xbox version (Which I haven't played)!

[DarkSoul]

It's also the only game I know of made by Croatians! c'mon!

[ManekiNeko]

Reminds me of when I bought my Genesis and sent in for the free Sonic game offer. I waited a very long time for that game, and complained to the company that it never arrived. Eventually, the game arrived, but it turned out that a copy of Sonic was ALSO mailed earlier to my old address. Yeah, I kept 'em both.

JR

[maxlords]

I remember that ,mail in free Sonic 2 deal. I mailed in for, sent in all my stuff and never heard back. Forgot all about it and then two or three years later I got a letter in the mail saying I'd won a class action lawsuit against Sega! Turns out that the particular model/barcode Genesis I bought was excluded from the free game deal even though it was for sale at the time and someone sued them over it, so Sega had to give everyone their choice of a free Sonic 2 or Subterrania but you had to pay like $6 or $7 shipping so I never bothered. It was amusing at the time tho!

[ManekiNeko]

Hmm... speaking of video game lawsuits, I wonder if I still have my $5 rebate certificate from Nintendo? The court ordered them to mail these out after a court battle with Atari. What amazed me about this verdict is that these certificates didn't HURT Nintendo at all, and certainly didn't help Atari. It's just more proof that when the Tramiels are running your company, you lose even when you win.

JR

[hamburgler]

I rather play MechAssualt then play Serious Sam a piece of crap,garbage game.Plus MechAssualt is 10x better and more fun to play.

[Six Switch]

If I were you I would keep both and see what happens.

[chazbeenhad]

Serious Sam is a GREAT game. It's made even better playing COOP on XBconnect. (can be hard to get a game going at times, as it is designed for LAN not INTERNET)

Keep in mind Serious Sam XBOX is Serious Sam 1 & 2. You can't beat it for $20 either.

Chaz

[Michael Thomasson]

I'm having a GREAT time with Serious Sam. FYI, they are only $10 at Electronic Boutique. It is priced $19.99 and they have a $10 off coupon that you can pick up off the counter from within the store. I haven't played the computer versions, but I believe the X-Box version has several games. I get to an ending, and then a new game appeares. So far, I'm on my 5th round. Anyone know which PC versions of the game that the X-Box includes, and if any of these are extra X-Box only levels?

Michael

[chazbeenhad]

After you defeat what is probably the largest enemy in any game, I think the xbox version just rolls over into serious sam 2.

You will know the enemy im talking about. He's a huge demon and you wind up fighting him in a stadium. Thats where the PC version of serious sam 1 ends.

When I play serious sam I have to set it up as a multiplayer lan game.
I've played so much online with xbconnect that I am only at level 3 of the single player mode, but almost done with the entire game in multiplayer :-)

Chaz

[digitalpress]

FYI I played Serious Sam this weekend.

I'm really not impressed! I like the guys that come running at you screaming, that scene in the desert where you first encounter them was good fun. But other than that? It's an "ehh" FPS. The biggest problem with the game IMO is the rotation frame-rate. Why is it so broken up? The graphics are great but god forbid I turn around, the transition is obviously NOT smooth.

Maybe I'm spoiled, I've played a lot of Timesplitters 2 and Red Faction II in the past month or so. Those are super-smooth, super fast FPS titles.

[Six Switch]

I saw the game at EB for $10 new,is it worth it? :/