2 replies to this topic

[Shilue]

PC gamers have long had to put up with 'patches' basically the gaming industries way of saying. "Hey we couldn't be assed to fully test or fix the game before we released it so buy a shitty game and put up with it until we fix it sometime later." Skyrim anyone? Ok so yes there may be a small amount of glitches that slip passed the QC stage and at that point patches are a great thing but just how much of it would the gaming industry let slip by if they knew what was going out the door would be a final product. Console games used to be this way and in my opinion seemed to have glaring errors at a smaller rate than PC games but in recent years games are requiring more and more updates before we can play them. Battlefield recently had one that took over an hour to download a serious pain in the ass that killed my mood of even wanting to play the game not to mention even thinking of taking it to a friends place to play just to wait for this massive update to download before we could play it.

This acceptability of failure has not just stopped at patches for consoles. The recent Marvel vs Capcom tittle was so broken and caused such an uproar with fans over the lack of a spectator mode and the legendary massive roster the series is known for that they quickly released a new 'Ultimate' title with these concerns addressed and a few re-skinned levels and graphics but otherwise it was the same game. There was not even a single new achievement for it.

Why is this happening and what do you all think about it? Discuss please.

[NeppyNepNep]

In my opinion, I think it's happening because they're trying to put so much into the game, and make it look impressive within such a small time frame that they just can't do it without having massive glitches. Companies nowadays are more concerned with making the money instead of making a good game that has little bugs and glitches. One thing about games is that not a single one is perfect when it comes to glitches. But there is a difference between big and small ones. You can tell a game is rushed if it has large bugs which then have to be fixed in large updates, like that Battlefield one you mentioned.

[Tripp]

I have also noticed that there is a tendency of publishers pushing games to be released quicker and quicker. Sometimes so quick, the developers don't have time to fix all the bugs and kinks with it. (Good example to his is when they release a patch before the game even comes out in shops).

I have noticed that Modern Warfare 3 for the xbox 360 has had more updates than amount of times I've actually played it. There were alot of bugs, glitches, and exploits. But at least the patches have been consistently under 5MB. There are lots of things that a QC team and BETA testers can't do. For example if there is a bug that only appears after 500 odd people are using your online services then that's one of them. Finding glitches and exploits for cheating, I believe Infinity Ward did employ a load of people to test their maps. Map Monkeys I think they're called. But a handful of people looking around compared to millions of people, well... Obviously some more will be found.

Then you have the lazy so and so's, without mentioning names of companies (No names, No lawsuits) that do release games without so much as a proper check and that causes problems. Particularly when they can't be arsed to patch them and it takes months just to get a basic patch.

Games that has patches in excess of >1GB however, suggests to me that unless something was added into the game (Like Burnout Paradise: 1.9 Patch where it added bikes and I think another island) -- That there was a massive fuck up. Or their patching system is shoddy. I'm not an expert, but I'm using common sense here; I'm guessing there is a set of rules that gave developers have to live by if they want an xbox 360 game, or something, maybe that forces patch sizes to be not so big. However I have seen PC games with patches as big, if not bigger than the disc they came on.

Sometimes however game companies add patches to add new features (Such as the Burnout Paradise one I was talking about earlier) mainly because of customer/user feedback and requests. Minecraft is a favourite one here.

It's dependant but one thing I do believe in, is I believe companies should admit when they make a mistake. I believe they should at least look like they've learnt from it. I admit when I make mistakes, even on here, when I've made mistakes on here, I admit to them, show I've learnt my lesson, and move on. Some people/corporations are just so obsessed by PR that they do more damage than good. That said there are actually more and more companies admitting to their mistakes, which is a good thing to see.

I hope that says everything I need to say, I might have gone off topic (Apologies), I'm having a very, groggy morning.