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"Great article - 'Rejecting the post release fix'"

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This thread has been linked to the game 'Fallout: New Vegas'.
Wed 03/11/10 at 13:52
Regular
"Braaains"
Posts: 439
I mentioned some of the technical issues in my review of Fallout: New Vegas. One patch has been released and another is apparently in the works, but if it's anything like Fallout 3, the crashes will never completely go away.

It's still a damn good game, but this article 'Rejecting the post release fix' nails just why this kind of thing annoys me. With the original X-Box and PS2, patching wasn't an option, and there were very few buggy games released. Now both Sony and MS let publishers do this, it's become the same way it is on the PC, with developers releasing faulty games and fixing them later, using the public as beta testers.
Fri 05/11/10 at 09:11
Regular
"Tip The Scales"
Posts: 869
I think in some cases patches are somewhat unavoidable, unfortunately. Patches do irritate me quite a lot, to be quite honest, but when game development is so costly, and deadlines have to be so strictly adhered to (Polyphony and Blizzard not withstanding), sometimes things will get through that shouldn't.

However, in some cases some of the issues that get through are nigh-on unacceptable. FIFA 11, for example (which I have decided not to play or review until the mid-November patch arrives) has many Manager Mode issues (for example, in my Liverpool game, I suddenly, following my first game, had Manchester United's squad, all with the squad number 40, unable to offer them contracts, but all on something like £30m a year). This is not an isolated example, and has actually replaced Liverpool in all game modes with Man Utd's team, effectively "deleting" traces of Gerrard and Torres etc.

In other news, I got ModNation Racers on rental yesterday, having popped the game in at around 9PM, I was greeted with 0.75GB worth of patches, which, on an internet connection that is generally split 5 ways and is not exactly Fiber Optic...took a while. This is one of the reasons I approve of the LBP2 delay, because if it requires even a quarter of the patches that the original did (think it's on 22 or probably beyond by now) then it's going to be infuriating.

But when patching works, it can be quite a good thing. Burnout Paradise for example, patching was mainly used to either fix minor issues that didn't really affect gameplay all that much, or to add in features that people had requested (such as race restart), That being said, I deleted all the patch data once I 100%d it and then decided to play it again when my friends got it online...big mistake, it has over 1GB worth of patches now, so not everything's rosy, especially for the latecomer.
Wed 03/11/10 at 16:08
Regular
"And in last place.."
Posts: 2,054
A complete ban on patches wouldn't work though. No matter how much testing is done, nobody can guarantee any game is 100% bug free.

With the reliability of the 360, it would be somewhat ironic for MS to demand perfect products.
Wed 03/11/10 at 15:40
Regular
"Devil in disguise"
Posts: 3,151
As Hannard has said, the console manufacturers are complicit to some degree. All games on those platforms have to be certified and tested by them first. So they cant claim ignorance.

Like most things though I tend to take a more pragmatic view. I dont like it (obviously) but I recognise its a natural consequence of games costing so much to make. If you miss your release window these days it can end up costing you millions. I dont see a good solution other than games being much cheaper to make.
Wed 03/11/10 at 15:30
Regular
"Braaains"
Posts: 439
dav2612 wrote:
It's not down to Sony and MS allowing publishers to do this it is down to publisher allowing this.


But it is. Sony and Microsoft own the distribution system for patches, PSN and X-Box Live respectively. If they point blank told publishers they couldn't patch games that way, there'd be a lot less buggy games released.

Take X-Box Live - Microsoft told publishers that they could not release patches for games and only ever made one exception which was a patch to enhance the online playability of Unreal Tourmament. So patching after release was not an option - and so games were released without the big bugs we see today.

EDIT: As for games being 100% bug free, it's possible they won't. But we're not talking about minor bugs here - far too many games have bugs that the makers must have known about. Take New Vegas. Leaving aside the crashes for a second, the first patch apparently fixes 200 script/quest errors. TWO HUNDRED! So given that the patch was released a day after the game came out, there's no way they didn't know about these beforehand, yet they sold the game anyway.
Wed 03/11/10 at 14:50
Regular
"Monochromatic"
Posts: 18,487
As someone with no workable internet connection for the PS3, this kind of thing concerns me. You can't be putting out games that are sub-standard under the assumption that your customers have the ability to fix them.
Wed 03/11/10 at 14:24
Regular
"And in last place.."
Posts: 2,054
It's not down to Sony and MS allowing publishers to do this it is down to publisher allowing this.

Game should be thoroughly tested before release but in reality that doesn't happen. Releasing a patch is a safety net these days but it is a bit harsh on those that don't have internet access.

Fallout 3 must have been tidied up a lot. I've recently started it, 24 hours in now and not a single bug to be found... except for big cockroaches.
Wed 03/11/10 at 13:52
Regular
"Braaains"
Posts: 439
I mentioned some of the technical issues in my review of Fallout: New Vegas. One patch has been released and another is apparently in the works, but if it's anything like Fallout 3, the crashes will never completely go away.

It's still a damn good game, but this article 'Rejecting the post release fix' nails just why this kind of thing annoys me. With the original X-Box and PS2, patching wasn't an option, and there were very few buggy games released. Now both Sony and MS let publishers do this, it's become the same way it is on the PC, with developers releasing faulty games and fixing them later, using the public as beta testers.

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