Have you ever tried the beta version of a game?

[giizz3]

So, it could seem a strange question, but!
During these days I'm having a lot of fun playing and trying the beta version of games that are going to be released soon. I think it's kinda cool being able to see and play the game while it's still a work in progress.
What do you think about it? Do you have some title to recommend to me?

(Hope this doesn't go against any rule, lol)

 

[Colif]

isn't that what most of the Early Access games on Steam are?

Early Access Titles

Early Access Hub

store.steampowered.com

Dorf Romantik was the last one I tried, its a puzzle city builder

Beta versions - Star Citizen comes to mind, it may never leave beta. Need a pretty good PC to play it though. not exactly optimised yet., It eats ram

 

[ZedClampet]

So, it could seem a strange question, but!
During these days I'm having a lot of fun playing and trying the beta version of games that are going to be released soon. I think it's kinda cool being able to see and play the game while it's still a work in progress.
What do you think about it? Do you have some title to recommend to me?

(Hope this doesn't go against any rule, lol)

I assume you mean games that haven't even been released to Early Access yet. I've signed up for some betas before. Ubisoft usually invites me to their betas, and they are typically pretty well done, although you usually only get to play the game for a weekend. Then they send you a survey to complete.

I've stopped participating in them (except for some Early Access games) because when a major publisher wants you to test a game, it's almost always some sort of PvP thing which no longer interests me. I did apply for an MMO beta recently, but haven't heard anything back from them.

It can definitely be pretty cool to test out an unreleased game, though. Some of the most fun I ever had gaming was the beta for World's Adrift (RIP).

 

[DXCHASE]

Yes, i love testing betas for games im excited about, this meaning that its not on early access on steam or isnt a 'demo' of what is done.

I have saved money too by playing betas, finding out the direction in which a certain game is going has made me save my money and wait for a sale or not purchase it.

Im also a fan of playing alpha builds of games too. Recently tried the "alpha" build of Lost Ark and it was amazing, granted its a full release in other countries and its really in alpha for smaller things than the game design, but still, alphas i enjoy playing as well.

 

[Pifanjr]

I think the last beta I played was The Elder Scrolls Online. I had some hopes that it would feel like a multiplayer Elder Scrolls game, but instead it felt more like a generic MMO with Elder Scrolls assets.

The only other beta I've played that comes to mind is the Mine & Craft one.

 

[Yggdrasill]

Phew, since so many games are now being released as early access, I've probably played a lot. DayZ Standalone... Minecraft. Bunch of MMOs.
But I will not play Baldur's Gate 3 before it's actual release. I don't want to spoil anything.

 

[Zloth]

X4: Foundations' latest patch is in public beta testing now. It can be pretty fun, but not in the normal way. Depending on how far along development is, there's going to be bugs. While playing the game is still fun, there's another game going on: bug hunting.

A few bugs are easy, like, say, a typo in some text. You spot it, you report where it is, developer fixes it, all done. Some need more work, though. To take a made up example in X4, maybe you land a station and the game crashes. If that is happening to everyone, all the time, it's an easy problem to find. But what if it happens sometimes and not others? "Sometimes I land a stations and it crashes" isn't going to be that helpful. But, if you figure out that landing in a Magpie always crashes while other ships don't, that's a lot more useful. If you can provide a save game that's just before the crash and it crashes for you (and the developers) soon after it's loaded, that's very useful and will likely result in a dead bug.

So, basically, you get to spend hours and hours finding problems, but you don't have to fix any of them!

Of course, that's not all the betas out there. Sometimes beta testers are expected to just play the game and the game itself will report anything going wrong. Or maybe they are just doing it more for general impressions of how fun the game is, either so they can adjust gameplay or adjust who they target for marketing.

A few are clearly just demos being called 'beta testing' to try and get more people to play the demo. A "beta test" that's going to start 4 days before the release date, with crates full of game copies already in stores, is not a beta test.

Beta versions - Star Citizen comes to mind, it may never leave beta. Need a pretty good PC to play it though. not exactly optimised yet., It eats ram

That's still in alpha. Once they put it all together, maybe they'll call it beta.

@Pifanjr, didn't that get named Buried Grenadecraft?

 

[Colif]

@Pifanjr, didn't that get named Buried Grenadecraft?

i think its called cave hobby, When you see it much as I do, you start to make up new names. that wasn't one I had seen yet. Some people misspell it trying to avoid us noticing but we see it all...

Goes back to lurking

 

[Brian Boru]

I almost never buy games close to release, so I don't get much opportunity for beta testing—by the time I get to consider the game years later, all the beta testing that's going to be done has been done. Then it's just a matter of reading the recent player reviews, ignoring the earlier ones from during the beta phase.

 

[McStabStab]

Hunt: Showdown I got a beta key for. Ended up buying the game at release.

Also Escape from Tarkov.

 

[Sarafan]

Tried a few. It was Starcraft 2 (had access to closed beta!), Gwent, Quake Champions and a few other. Basically I like the idea of getting early access to games that are not yet released. Yes, there are bugs, crashes and other technical difficulties, but nothing can beat the feeling that you're one of the first persons that played this game.

 

[Colif]

100's of people are beta testing win 11 as they can't wait... shame its a buggy mess and I know 1 guy that lost all the data on 5 hdd by installing it. So yeah, it looks good but not safe for your main pc yet

 

[Brian Boru]

nothing can beat the feeling that you're one of the first persons that played this game

You must try the incomparable bliss of Patient Gaming:
All bugs fixed;
All player unofficial patches available;
Dozens, hundreds of mods available, many genuinely great as voted by the players;
More walkthrus, videos and answers available than you could have conjured up with the original slightly buggy wand;
Lots of reviews from players—some excellent—of which the recent ones reflect the current state of the 'fixed' game;
All the DLC included in the Platinum Edition;
Now playable on the recent mid-range PC you got, without needing a mortgage;
All on sale for $5!

 

[Sarafan]

You must try the incomparable bliss of Patient Gaming:

I highly value complete editions of games. Betas include a limited portion of gameplay, so you can combine those two approaches to some extent. Think about betas as a form of demo.

 

[Brian Boru]

Think about betas as a form of demo

That works. One of the reasons I stopped buying new games was that pubs stopped releasing demos, so I no longer had an idea if I'd like the play or it would work on my PC.

Is there a reason the tutorial mission in most games can't be released separately as a demo? Even a month or quarter after release, once marketing have got their full complement of buy-it-blind purchases.

On BigFish where I buy my casual games, EVERY game has an hour-long free trial. That's a lot more solid than retailers' refund policies.

 

[Zloth]

All bugs fixed;

Well, all bugs fixed that are gonna get fixed, anyway.

 

[Sarafan]

Is there a reason the tutorial mission in most games can't be released separately as a demo? Even a month or quarter after release, once marketing have got their full complement of buy-it-blind purchases.

The main reason given by the developers why they dropped demos is the additional time and money needed to prepare such a version of the game. Basically it's complicated when we're talking about open world games. This I can understand. It's a little harder to understand why we're not getting demos of linear games. These are easier to prepare and don't require that much of a work. In the last years we've seen a comeback of demos on the indie scene however. I hope that some day demos of AAA titles will return as well.

 

[Zloth]

Beta 5 for X4:Foundations showed up a couple of days ago. They've added the ability to turn station pieces around any axis now, instead of just spinning them like a top. I'm having a ball with it! Finally, I can make a seriously twisted station to reflec... <ahem> to throw my wonderfully organized mind into sharp relief!

But, of course, it's beta. Odd stuff happens from time to time. As always, patience is needed when beta testing.

 

[ugun13gaost]

I never tried it, maybe the beta version will have some weaknesses or features that are not available in the original version

 

[Colif]

Currently unexpectedly running win 11... does that count? I can play games in it?

 

[Brian Boru]

win 11 … I can play games in it

Yes, but can you play beta games?

 

[L-N23]

Yes I have, because trying is important to be able to like the game

 

[xxxKSRxxx]

So, it could seem a strange question, but!
During these days I'm having a lot of fun playing and trying the beta version of games that are going to be released soon. I think it's kinda cool being able to see and play the game while it's still a work in progress.
What do you think about it? Do you have some title to recommend to me?

(Hope this doesn't go against any rule, lol)

Yes I have COD Vanguard lately