I feel you can get enough info from reading forums with like minded gamers,fan reviews and demo's or even the commercial reviews. If you can't make up your mind from that amount of info then you should wait for the bargain bin imho.
Actually, I don't trust other people when discussing opinions of games. If I had to believe forums, you'd think Gothic 3 was the spawn from Satan's loins and something like Titan Quest (which, for the record, I actually bought because of what people were saying about it

) is the most fantastic, holier-than-thou work of art known to mankind. Gothic 3 wasn't perfect, but it wasn't awful either and Titan Quest was certainly nothing to write home about.
There is only one gamer in the whole world whose opinion I completely trust on games and that's my other half's. There are some things our opinions differ on (he loves Minecraft whereas I've never quite cottoned on to the appeal) but for the most part, we feel the same about games.
As for the bargain bin... I don't do "bargain bin." I either go all-out or I go home

To my absolute shame, I own three budget titles which I can't wait to replace with originals once I find them. I crave getting games on their release dates.
No dude I was being serious, you literally handled every one of my questions perfectly
I wasn't saying it in an offended way. It was genuinely a great post. I actually really appreciated it.
Oh

Um... Thank you very much for your kind words then, they're deeply appreciated :3 Sorry for misinterpreting you.
Why should I pay for something I don't want when I can get what I DO want for free?
Because people who support what you "do" want are the reason you even get to play it and why that developer hasn't gone down.
Examples:
Assassins Creed 2. Why should I pay to not be able to play the game when I want, how I want, when I can play the game when I want and how I want for nothing?
I didn't pirate it or buy it. There was no reason for me to pirate it because I disagreed with the DRM to a point where even pirating it would support Ubisoft's beliefs that DRM is its solution.
I haven't gotten at least two Ubisoft games since they implemented that DRM (Settlers and Assassin's Creed 2, being the only two I can recall).
If you enjoyed it enough to play it, why didn't you buy it THEN pirate it and voice your concerns on the official forums? I sincerely doubt the implementation of the DRM was a choice on the developers' side. Ubisoft (publisher) owns the rights so there's not much that Ubisoft (developer--Montreal, specifically) can do about it. You can support the developer without necessarily supporting the decisions made by the publisher.
Also, Ubisoft has, from what I've heard, gotten rid of DRM for the most part, reducing it just to a check every time you play. I still don't believe this is good enough, so refuse to support them until they issue the mother of all apologies.
Modern Warfare 2. Why should I pay to play on a deeply flawed P2P system that lags on the verge of the unplayable and without basic gameplay features such as leaning, when, if I get it off a torrent, I CAN use leaning and get dedicated servers.
As above, you enjoyed it enough to play it. Crack it after, sure, but support what you enjoy.
Gears Of War. Why should I pay only to not be able to register my game, and than not be able to play it, but when I download it illegally it works flawlessly? (I did buy GOW PC version, and now I'm regretting it deeply)
I've played Gears of War and didn't have a problem registering it (not that I'm saying you're lying). At least you bought it, so no complaints from me here ^.^
GTA4. Pretty much the same reason as above.
Ugh... Don't get me started on GTA4. When I first got it SecuRom took serious issue with my installation of DaemonTools. E-mailing SecuRom, they just send you a file to copy over the original executable. Go SecuRom. Ever since then I started wondering what the point of DRM is if all you need to do is whine over at SecuRom and ta-da, they send you a legal crack to bypass the entire point of the DRM in the first place.
Again, I still bought it and enjoyed it.
Any Steam game. Why should I pay for a game, than pay for bandwidth while I wait 2 weeks for the thing to patch up because there is a multiplayer bug I won't be experiencing because I won't be playing multiplayer, and when it IS done dowloading I log off, disconnect my internet, try and log in in offline mode, wait another 2 hours only to have there be some glitch somewhere and I have to go online, and now there is ANOTHER patch, so more bandwidth and 12 more hours of downloading. When Pirating it I can install, paste the cracks, and play.
I can't stand Steam, but when you do buy a game on Steam, you're paying for a digital copy. Fairly logical, no? Ergo, bandwidth is kind of the key factor in getting it from there to, well, you. If your internet connection isn't up to scratch then you probably shouldn't be using Steam.
So what I'm saying is, I can't get what I want when I have to pay, but when I don't pay, I do get what I want.
This is sort of like the no-voters' mentality: "Why should I vote? It doesn't make a difference anyway."
Fact is that one vote does make a difference. A majority consists of lots and lots of single votes. Similarly a successful game is made up of lots and lots of single purchases. Gaming is a largely successful industry because of lots and lots of single purchases each time a game is released.
If no-one supported the gaming industry, you wouldn't have the luxury of pirating. Every single person you speak to who has bought a game has been the reason you had those games to pirate which you enjoyed. Thank them, otherwise the industry would've gone the way of the betamax.
Now lets look other types of software that gets pirated.
Windows for example.
Why should I pay 3K for win7 ultimate, and I can only reinstall and update it a handfull of times (due to system formatting) before the key is blocked, while when I pirated it, I can install it however many times I want?
Windows 7? It's currently going for R1,074. I bought mine for R1,227 at the time of its release. It's the retail version, so I can format, reinstall, format, reinstall, rinse and repeat all I like. Even with my previous OEM XP, I was able to do that, the only problem was that I had to call up Microsoft and manually activate it after a while, then it was good to go again.
I'm afraid your argument isn't working so well here.
As for Windows Ultimate... well...
why? Do you need some secret magical feature the rest of the world doesn't? Something entirely arbitrary which would
never be utilised by a home user? Can you name one thing that you
need Ultimate for without looking it up? Or is the appeal purely in the black box? Aesthetics FTW.
I'm sorry, but people who buy Ultimate either have money to burn or have really tiny e-peens and need something to brag about.
Photoshop. Pretty much the same reasons as above.
A program intended for commercial use. There are a multitude of freeware equivalents that would satisfy the average Joe's needs.
Paint.NET comes to mind.
A program intended for commercial use.
OpenOffice is a freeware (and brilliant) equivalent. Alternatively, if you HAVE to use MS Office (for whatever reason) at
home or as a student, is R550 really that much to ask?
Ever heard of
7zip? Freeware, works like a charm for all archives.
Also commercial use, no?
Also intended for... you guessed it, commercial use.
If things are going like that, buying software and supporting these trends is a bigger sin than piracy ever could be.
Disagree. The only real basis of your argument is that you can't seem to differentiate between business/corporate software and software (with fantastic free options) for home (read:non-commercial) use.
I'm afraid I really don't understand your argument. You're a pirate because you're... spiteful?