{"id":1041810,"date":"2026-01-17T08:24:45","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T08:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=483978"},"modified":"2026-01-17T08:24:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T08:24:45","slug":"how-broken-is-too-broken-when-you-buy-a-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/how-broken-is-too-broken-when-you-buy-a-game\/","title":{"rendered":"How broken is too broken when you buy a game?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure> <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-caption=\"\" data-portal-copyright=\"\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/how-broken-is-too-broken-when-you-buy-a-game.jpg\" \/><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">I have a question for you, Polygon commenters. How broken is too broken when you consider buying a game? <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">The question\u2019s been top of mind for me this week. <em>STALKER 2 <\/em>was my most anticipated game of 2024. But now, with my finger hovering over the buy button on Steam, I\u2019m having second thoughts. As my colleague Charlie Hall noted in his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/review\/481607\/stalker-2-review-pc\">thoughtful review<\/a>, the game simply needed more time to in the oven. And it will get that time, in the coming months, as its <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/stalker_thegame\/status\/1859265478276894856\">developers begin to release patches<\/a> that stabilize their post-apocalyptic world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">To complicate the question, though, does our tolerance for a game&#8217;s rough shape depend on the circumstances of its creators? In the case of <em>STALKER 2<\/em>, developers GSC Game World have been producing the game amidst war. As the <a href=\"https:\/\/kyivindependent.com\/delayed-by-war-ukraines-long-awaited-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-2-surges-to-top-of-video-game-purchases\/\">Kyiv Independent<\/a> writes, \u201cOriginally set for a release in April 2022, the game experienced several delays when many of its staff were forced to flee Ukraine that February. Ahead of the release this week, presales of the game took it to the top spot for games sold on the popular video game platform Steam.\u201d I understand why many reviewers have been factoring this in when critiquing the game, not just on traditional media sites but on user-submitted review platforms too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">So, back to the main question for the comments. How broken is too broken when you consider buying a game? Do you make exceptions for certain developers? Or circumstance? Or entire genres? Will I buy<em> STALKER 2<\/em>?<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">OK, I know the answer to that final question, because <em>STALKER 2<\/em>\u2019s now in my Steam library. Now to discover if I made the right choice!<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/opinion\/483978\/stalker-2-broken-games-patch-updates\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have a question for you, Polygon commenters. How broken is too broken when you consider buying a game? The question\u2019s been top of mind for me this week. STALKER 2 was my most anticipated game of 2024. But now, with my finger hovering over the buy button on Steam, I\u2019m having second thoughts. As my colleague Charlie Hall noted in his thoughtful review, the game simply needed more time to in the oven. And it will get that time, in the coming months, as its developers begin to release patches that stabilize their post-apocalyptic world. To complicate the question, though, does our tolerance for a game&#8217;s rough shape depend on the circumstances of its creators? In the case of STALKER 2, developers GSC Game&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/how-broken-is-too-broken-when-you-buy-a-game\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1041811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1041810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polygon"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How broken is too broken when you buy a game? | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I have a question for you, Polygon commenters. How broken is too broken when you consider buying a game? The question\u2019s been top of mind for me this week.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/how-broken-is-too-broken-when-you-buy-a-game\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How broken is too broken when you buy a game? | Arcader News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have a question for you, Polygon commenters. How broken is too broken when you consider buying a game? 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