Bethesda Softworks - The Good, The Bad and The Glitchy

[Carnagath]

Bethesda are dead for me ever since they released the completely broken Fallout 3 Goty for the PS3 which, while the original game was fine, runs at 5 fps and crashes every 10 minutes and they have not bothered do anything about it. If they don't give a fuck, I sure as hell don't either, and will pirate all their games once I get my new gaming PC from now on and till the end of time.

Oh yeah? I got GOTY as well and it runs just fine. It froze once or twice and is a bit slow when near that Deathclaw town but other than that, the game is a blast.

You obviously did not play the DLC then. The main game is still playable, although with Goty they introduced freezing, longer load times and lower frame rate, however Anchorage is a slideshow and the Pitt freezes after about every 3rd door you open, which is where I gave up. And yes, more people have the same problem in these forums, and yes, I did return the game and got a different copy twice, and yes, my PS3 has no problems with any other games, so it's pretty clear who fucked up.

 

[katsabas]

You obviously did not play the DLC then. The main game is still playable, although with Goty they introduced freezing, longer load times and lower frame rate, however Anchorage is a slideshow and the Pitt freezes after about every 3rd door you open, which is where I gave up. And yes, more people have the same problem in these forums, and yes, I did return the game and got a different copy twice, and yes, my PS3 has no problems with any other games, so it's pretty clear who fucked up.

I played the Broken Steel DLC and it worked pretty well, except for some slowdowns.

 

[MrSpider]

I look at it this way: Bethesda has budget, time and system constraints to work within so they have to make some sacrifices. I'm guessing they didn't put in too many music files because if they did, they would have had to make cuts from something else to make sure it fits on a console disc? Should they have toned down the physics engine? Should they have dropped the number of NPCs? That's a tough decision. Sure the PC isn't as restrained but Bethesda still has to cater to system requirements that will cover the widest range of potential customers. Modders don't have to worry about that. They can spend as much or as little as they want, take as long as they want and to hell with the system requirements. There are Oblivion mods out there that I still can't implement because my GPU is too weak.

I'm sure Bethesda would absolutely love to do all the things we want them to do but as long as they are a business, they can't.

 

[NamesAreHardToPick]

I've got Fallout 3 for PS3 (my brother has it for 360 as well) and I don't feel like the core game needed extensive modding - the only thing from the review that bugged me as well is the repetitive content on radio stations - but it's probably the thing you don't know you need until you've had it. On the other hand I was disgusted by the lack of basic software quality in the console verisons. Snags, hangs, the occasional outright crash, bizarre save bugs like irreversable right-stick sensitivity changes (none, multiple 360 spins from tapping it once). I played it until I got a corrupt save on a high level character, then said bollocks. My wife endured 4 nearly-complete playthroughs and bought one of the DLC packs.

I applaud Bethesda's vision but when they cock up the execution so badly there's no way they deserve the praise that was heaped on their game. Fallout 3 "game of the year" edition is like proof to me as a programmer that there is no god. FFS it can't even import existing saves from the previous version of the game! How the hell do you release a DLC bundle that can't even play your existing character?

 

[Woodsey]

I don't think I ever encountered a bug in Oblivion (bar the occasional Havok glitch after an area load) in around 100 hours of game time.

 

[willgreg123]

I don't think I ever encountered a bug in Oblivion (bar the occasional Havok glitch after an area load) in around 100 hours of game time.

...are you Jesus? O_O
What system was it played on?

 

[danosaurus]

Bethesda are dead for me ever since they released the completely broken Fallout 3 Goty for the PS3 which, while the original game was fine, runs at 5 fps and crashes every 10 minutes and they have not bothered do anything about it. If they don't give a fuck, I sure as hell don't either, and will pirate all their games once I get my new gaming PC from now on and till the end of time.

Oh yeah? I got GOTY as well and it runs just fine. It froze once or twice and is a bit slow when near that Deathclaw town but other than that, the game is a blast.

so it's pretty clear who fucked up.

That'd be you - for buying a PS3 in the first place (over a gaming rig)

 

[danosaurus]

I look at it this way: Bethesda has budget, time and system constraints to work within so they have to make some sacrifices. I'm guessing they didn't put in too many music files because if they did, they would have had to make cuts from something else to make sure it fits on a console disc? Should they have toned down the physics engine? Should they have dropped the number of NPCs? That's a tough decision. Sure the PC isn't as restrained but Bethesda still has to cater to system requirements that will cover the widest range of potential customers. Modders don't have to worry about that. They can spend as much or as little as they want, take as long as they want and to hell with the system requirements. There are Oblivion mods out there that I still can't implement because my GPU is too weak.

I'm sure Bethesda would absolutely love to do all the things we want them to do but as long as they are a business, they can't.

I do agree with you but when I ponder a little deeper I figure... why do we excuse them?
I mean don't get me wrong, I love FO3 and Oblivion but just because I love a game doesn't mean I should cast aside their faults. If you're going to be supportive of developers you've really got to put things in perspective and remember that a lot of other big name devs don't allow those types of bugs into their final releases.
It's almost like Bethesda bite off more than they can chew most of the time.

Not saying you should stop supporting them, just maybe think over your unwavering praises a little.

 

[Carnagath]

Bethesda are dead for me ever since they released the completely broken Fallout 3 Goty for the PS3 which, while the original game was fine, runs at 5 fps and crashes every 10 minutes and they have not bothered do anything about it. If they don't give a fuck, I sure as hell don't either, and will pirate all their games once I get my new gaming PC from now on and till the end of time.

Oh yeah? I got GOTY as well and it runs just fine. It froze once or twice and is a bit slow when near that Deathclaw town but other than that, the game is a blast.

so it's pretty clear who fucked up.

That'd be you - for buying a PS3 in the first place (over a gaming rig)

Oh yay, flamebait. I have no use for a gaming pc until Starcraft 2 comes out, there are no pc exclusives that interest me, but there are tons of PS3 exclusives that interest me. I suppose you could say though that I fucked up for trusting that Bethesda would not break a game that was working fine just by adding a couple of more areas, and I certainly did not expect them to release zero fixes for their fuckup, so I picked it up the moment it was released. A mistake I won't make again.

 

[Woodsey]

I don't think I ever encountered a bug in Oblivion (bar the occasional Havok glitch after an area load) in around 100 hours of game time.

...are you Jesus? O_O
What system was it played on?

Well, I have been likened to him from time to time [small]I kid[/small].

PC - and before you ask, I'm almost certain I never even patched it.


Clearly I had the master copy!

 

[MrSpider]

I do agree with you but when I ponder a little deeper I figure... why do we excuse them?
I mean don't get me wrong, I love FO3 and Oblivion but just because I love a game doesn't mean I should cast aside their faults. If you're going to be supportive of developers you've really got to put things in perspective and remember that a lot of other big name devs don't allow those types of bugs into their final releases.
It's almost like Bethesda bite off more than they can chew most of the time.

Not saying you should stop supporting them, just maybe think over your unwavering praises a little.

I'm not sure stating the probable truths really counts as unwavering praises, unless that wasn't directed at me, then I apologize.

I didn't even touch the subject of Bethesda's bug problems but I can guess why they seem to have problems:
1. Poor time management - They either need to work on devoting more time to playtesting within the development cycle or convince their higher ups to give them more time overall.

2. Game engine - They've been using game engines created by Emergent Game Technologies. Not many developers are and there's probably a good reason for that.

3. Overreaching - This actually ties into the other two points but I think they get caught up in trying to do too much. I mean, having a game with hours upon hours of gameplay stuffed onto one to two discs is amazing but if you can't enjoy it because it's broken in one way or another, what's the use?

 

[danosaurus]

I do agree with you but when I ponder a little deeper I figure... why do we excuse them?
I mean don't get me wrong, I love FO3 and Oblivion but just because I love a game doesn't mean I should cast aside their faults. If you're going to be supportive of developers you've really got to put things in perspective and remember that a lot of other big name devs don't allow those types of bugs into their final releases.
It's almost like Bethesda bite off more than they can chew most of the time.

Not saying you should stop supporting them, just maybe think over your unwavering praises a little.

I'm not sure stating the probable truths really counts as unwavering praises, unless that wasn't directed at me, then I apologize.

I didn't even touch the subject of Bethesda's bug problems but I can guess why they seem to have problems:
1. Poor time management - They either need to work on devoting more time to playtesting within the development cycle or convince their higher ups to give them more time overall.

2. Game engine - They've been using game engines created by Emergent Game Technologies. Not many developers are and there's probably a good reason for that.

3. Overreaching - This actually ties into the other two points but I think they get caught up in trying to do too much. I mean, having a game with hours upon hours of gameplay stuffed onto one to two discs is amazing but if you can't enjoy it because it's broken in one way or another, what's the use?

Agreed and I think the title of your 3rd point sums it all up quite nicely.
They aim high, I cannot fault them for that, all I'm putting forward is that they really should either;
A) Allow themselves more QA time
B) Employ more QA staff

 

[onelifecrisis]

Even after modifying the crap out of Oblivion, it was still wobbly and barely held together, its limbs falling off at the seams, screams of agony conveyed through poorly written, broken dialogue trees.

Ha! Nice one. Great writing.

 

[avshig]

I do agree with you but when I ponder a little deeper I figure... why do we excuse them?
I mean don't get me wrong, I love FO3 and Oblivion but just because I love a game doesn't mean I should cast aside their faults. If you're going to be supportive of developers you've really got to put things in perspective and remember that a lot of other big name devs don't allow those types of bugs into their final releases.
It's almost like Bethesda bite off more than they can chew most of the time.

Not saying you should stop supporting them, just maybe think over your unwavering praises a little.

I'm not sure stating the probable truths really counts as unwavering praises, unless that wasn't directed at me, then I apologize.

I didn't even touch the subject of Bethesda's bug problems but I can guess why they seem to have problems:
1. Poor time management - They either need to work on devoting more time to playtesting within the development cycle or convince their higher ups to give them more time overall.

2. Game engine - They've been using game engines created by Emergent Game Technologies. Not many developers are and there's probably a good reason for that.

3. Overreaching - This actually ties into the other two points but I think they get caught up in trying to do too much. I mean, having a game with hours upon hours of gameplay stuffed onto one to two discs is amazing but if you can't enjoy it because it's broken in one way or another, what's the use?

Agreed and I think the title of your 3rd point sums it all up quite nicely.
They aim high, I cannot fault them for that, all I'm putting forward is that they really should either;
A) Allow themselves more QA time
B) Employ more QA staff

I think that in FO3, Bethesda tried very hard to aim at the middle and avoided taking unnecessary risks (by aiming high). They went out of their way to appeaese all the gaming crowds out there. mainly, Shooters lovers, RPG enthusiasts and Fallout nostalgists.
This is why, for me, the game is extremely fun to play (about to finish BOS), but I always had the feeling that it could be much much more and there was, actually, nothing out of the ordinary out there.

Regarding bugs - I play on medium PC (geforce 9600, 2G memory, 2.8ghz Intel dual core) and the only time I encountered bugs was on mothership zeta and on my way to Adams airport.
So maybe the QA people for the PC did a much better job than the PS2 (oops... PS3 of course) ones.

 

[Revolutionary]

Yeah it is sad that I cant play oblivion without enabling about 4 mods.