Jimquisition: Shaming PC Ports Because Why Not?

[Aardvaarkman]

Jim decides to just rant unhelpfully about terrible PC ports, and the humiliating need for them to be fixed by unpaid customers.

Hang about a minute Jim.

Respect Bethesda?? Why on Earth should we do that? A company with terrible quality control that just jams "more" into its games because it can, regardless of how good or how buggy it is? A company that treats its employees like shit?

What is it that I'm supposed to respect about that company? Any company that releases games at retail with alpha-level bugs does not deserve respect.

 

[Weaver]

I assume next week Jim is going to do a episode on the whole Lets play debacle happening on steam?

Wait, what? I haven't heard of this! Can you post me to the steam link about it?
Not sure what it' about.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.836177-Major-Changes-In-Youtube-Involving-Lets-Players

Basically lets players wont be able to make money off the content they produce.

That's on youtube, not steam lol .
I heard about that one! I think maybe you typed steam when you meant youtube

 

[BlankScreen]

To be at least fair to the publishers, these games can be amazingly complex on the technical side with millions of lines of code, thousands of objects to juggle, and some of those modders out there really ARE that damn good. Just like life itself, the best fixes are often the simplest and most overlooked.

"If I am paying the same price for a console game for a PC game, I want the same quality."

I will disagree with you very quickly on that. Console quality generally seems to be worse than PC games and I don't want to pay $50 dollars, much less $60 dollars, for far less than what I should be getting anyways. We've also seen day one patches on consoles as well, so at this point, everyone is to blame. And I am still one of those older guys who will not pay more than $50 for a game on principle. There are only a few exceptions that have broken my rule because the game has proven itself after launch to actually be worth it and is clearly trying to be great. However, just because $60 may have become the norm for the consoles doesn't mean it should effect everything else.

Vote with your Dollar: if you don't like a publisher's methods, don't buy their product. This applies to ANY company, video games or otherwise.

 

[SirCannonFodder]

But wasn't the PC version of Dark Souls priced less than the console versions?

It also came with extra content, a hardcover artbook, soundtrack CD, 5 postcards, and a big-ass poster, none of which were included in the console versions of Prepare to Die (they did originally come with the Collector's Edition, though). Considering they didn't even really want to do one in the first place, I'd say it was pretty good.

 

[Hitchmeister]

"Don't port games to PC" ~ Jim Sterling

Okay I'll stop stirring, more seriously, even if you don't know how to port to PC, you should be able to pay another company to do that for you. The fan fixes prove that

Contracting another company to finish the port could be very expensive. How about finding the fan modders and tossing them a few thousand dollars for what they would do for free so you can ship the fix at release and look competent?

 

[infinity_turtles]

I mostly agree with this, but FromSoft was up front about not knowing what they were doing, and weren't going to port it because of that. But then a lot of fans said they didn't care if it was a shit port, they just wanted it on pc, so they ported it. And in the end, aside from practically needing a gamepad, it wasn't too bad a port. It just didn't have all the stuff pc gamers expect.

It wasn't a shitty cashgrab, it was acquiescing to fan demands.

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

Eeeeeh, Dark Souls has a valid excuse of being the exception, FromSoft have never done a PC port and they never would've done it if it didn't have demand. But yes, via dsfix everything is fine and dandy and noone complains.

Demand? People were begging and screaming for the game. And From was bloody up front about this, weren't they? Meanwhile the PC community pitched a fit every step of the way. DS set up a pretty good argument for ignoring the fans.

Up front, yeah. When people started screaming for a port From just came out and were like "But, what, we don't even... Fuck, we don't even know how to do that. How do you..? What is a PC? What even is a PC?" And then people kept on crying and From just caved and put one out there then people started crying again because the port was shit. Should've seen it coming if you ask me.

 

[BrotherRool]

"Don't port games to PC" ~ Jim Sterling

Okay I'll stop stirring, more seriously, even if you don't know how to port to PC, you should be able to pay another company to do that for you. The fan fixes prove that

Contracting another company to finish the port could be very expensive. How about finding the fan modders and tossing them a few thousand dollars for what they would do for free so you can ship the fix at release and look competent?

Presumably it has to be a fairly official set-up because you're going to be shipping them a bunch of NDA content that you don't want other people to see and also if you want to do it efficiently, maybe even some in-house software.

I actually figure it might be cheaper to hire another company to port your game. If you don't know how to make PCs ports then all you're programmers have to spend a lot of time teaching themselves or making mistakes, whereas another company might fit in more easily (on the other hand, you're going to understand you're own game engine better)

But it'd definitely be cool if people started hiring some of the fan-patchers, they must have serious talent

 

[Folksoul]

Jim's argument is a rough paraphrase of my absolute hatred of Bethesda. I lump them right in with EA. I may like their products, but I despise how they go about making it. I bought Skyrim, my introductory game to WRPG's, at launch, on PS3. The game simply did not work. Years have passed and I had a friend lend me his x-box version and I enjoyed it immensely. However, if the "optimal experience" for this game requires a ton of user made content, why did they publish it at all? One port outright didn't work. The "vanilla" experience on the X-Box 360 was functional but had a bland, milktoast, story that an intern at square-enix would be ashamed to receive a credit on, and the best version game play wise almost required mods to even compare to the game they were marketing instead of the game they shipped.

Jim is absolutely correct. Charging equal price for an inferior version is outright thievery.

 

[Ishal]

Well, this only applies to FROM and Dark Souls a little bit. It's true they never ported a game to PC and thus didn't have the experience. And from a consumer perspective, its true that is no excuse. But it's not like they were greedy and decided to do it anyways. They didn't want to port it, and lets not forget that it and its predecessor were developed on shoe string budgets compared to the AAA games of their day.

BAMCO wanted it, because the fans wanted it, so they did it. They admitted to it being crappy and apologized for it. Also, Dark Souls 2 is being developed for PC first and foremost. So this problem won't be happening come March. A developer learning from its mistakes and taking a step in right direction for the sequel is what we should want to be seeing.

Jim is correct, though. There are things that need to be done to get things right with certain ports. Derpesda really has no excuse with amount of cash they throw at the big franchises, namely ES and FO.

 

[Callate]

I agree with the major point, but in some ways it almost bothers me more that, depending on the EULA/TOS and how deep someone has to go to make their fixes, the fixer might be on the wrong side of the law. And that, to my mind, is a flaw in the law- no one should ever be in jeopardy for making a bent or broken product work properly. I don't see it as likely that a game's publisher would go after someone for doing so- such would likely culminate in a boycott that might actually stick, if it became public- but it underscores a framework of "supposed to be" that is completely at odds with the way things actually work.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Damn Jim, the weight is starting to fall off you.

Goood job, keep at it!

I didn't think it was possible for you to be even more sexy.

 

[SirCannonFodder]

Almost all PC games cost less but not by much, certainly not enough to excuse shoddy work. If you buy a washing machine where the door isn't fitted to the frame properly you wouldn't buy it for a £10 discount.

IIRC it retailed at 30 bucks, which isn't the typical pricing difference between versions.
[/quote]
$40 IIRC, but then it also came with a lot of physical extras (hardcover artbook, soundtrack CD, "Making Of" DVD, poster, art cards).

 

[Karadalis]

X-rebirth.

A game originaly developed for the xbox 360... then axed for whatever reasons... the ruins scraped up and packaged in a box to be sold as a "PC exclusive".

Despite the glaring obvious lines of code that all point into the direction of the xbox.. and the abysmal and mostly non customisable keyboard and mouse controls. Infact the best way to fly your ship is with a gamepad. Also the low FPS lock.

True this doesnt necesary fit this weeks jimquisition a 100% since the game never actually saw a xbox release... but since the writings on the wall that this game was clearly made for the xbox, didnt made it for whatever reason and then was ported to the PC as a steaming pile of broken code... it still somehow fits the bill

 

[Kittyhawk]

With regards to Dark Souls on PC, I agree it should have been done better. The PC is a format that Namco are getting used to after so many years on consoles. Perhaps they ran out of time or maybe just didn't know how to do 1080p with it. The langauge barrier might have also hampered them from fixing the issue, that many western devs might have easily finished.

Yeah, I'm sure Namco were humble by a random chap fixing it, but in turn such healthy feats of gallantry just help feedback into Dark Souls, a game where other gamers can grief you online or rally with you. Namco can only stand to get better as they embrace PC work more, but without this Dark Souls resolution stuff, nothing might have happened and its community would be less as a result.

More games should come out finished, end of. The realities of development might be different though.

 

[Raziel]

If fans release a patch that fixes the problem, does the publisher release an official patch that does the same thing? Does it use the same code? If it does use the same could as the fan's, couldn't the fan sue them? That could make amusing race between the fans and devs, if the fans win they'd have to be paid or sue.