Obsidian Mailbag
- Thread starter Shamus Young
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Wow, those dumbasses actually read your column Shamus? Do I feel sorry for you. NV has many plenty of bugs but not all ruin the experience. But a game that crashes every few hours isn't exactly what I'd call a stable game.
The buggy FO3 engine probably deserves a lot of the blame but it's still an amazing game.
The buggy FO3 engine probably deserves a lot of the blame but it's still an amazing game.
Great game with that big but. Only had one issue so far (about 10 hours in) but it was a bit of a mood breaker.
I got myself to a railway tunnel south of the Nellis AFB, got in, picked my way through the ghouls and mines, only to see a turn off and fall through the floor. After several attempts to jump the vortex I gave up and continued to the end of the tunnel - and gotten eaten by a Deathclaw.
I got myself to a railway tunnel south of the Nellis AFB, got in, picked my way through the ghouls and mines, only to see a turn off and fall through the floor. After several attempts to jump the vortex I gave up and continued to the end of the tunnel - and gotten eaten by a Deathclaw.
I can totally understand bashing a game for bugs...even giving a "Do Not Buy" rating due to excessive bugs...but this all seems a bit unfair. Yes, the PC version hardly works at all...but the 360 and PS3 versions seem to work great. If you want to bash a game because it works poorly on a platform that very few gamers still use, that is fine; but then you have to move on and talk about the game itself (even if you just complain the whole time)...because it works great on the PS3 and the 360, and that is where it will be played the most.
kouriichi said:
"I like shoddy products" is my whole conclusion from you. 1/30 is a horrible statistic of failure, an acceptable one is when we are talking about 1/1000 at the very least. If you can't see that, it just means you are too far up your ass to even notice that there is a world around you. Fun case, if I have a car that 1/30 have shoddy breaks, but if you don't have the break problem, the car works like a dream, it's still a car with shoddy breaks.
Also, aside from broken save files (WHICH SHOULD NEVER BE A PROBLEM IN A PROFESSIONAL PRODUCT, EVER), there are crashes to desktop and even crashes on the home console versions. Really mate, if you can still put a conceited smile and just say "it didn't happen to me, so fuck everybody else" then not much else I can say. I can only hope you get the next Fallout sequel and get it working wonky on you so you get the bloody point of the whole article. The costumer demands quality, if the costumer does not demand quality, quality drops. It is specially sad in this case since the game quality itself is amazing and is brought down by technical quality.
Another thing, games should NOT need patches. Patches should only exist in MMO games unless they exist to add content and to tweak power scales, not not avoid game crippling bugs. I find it bullshit that the answer form some people is "Hey, no problem, just wait with your bugged mess for a month till a patch comes out and pray it doesn't bring more problems".
I remember when games used to have to specify what brands of hardware they would work on. I remember when you used to need a reasonable amount of technical knowledge to even understand what the system requirements for some games actually meant. This is actually getting a lot better and continues to do so every year.Vestsao said:
This is partially because of growing monopolies/oligopolies in the computing world, and partially because the industry is just learning to do things better as generations of computers come and go. Still it would be better if companies didn't have to try and support 3 or more different generations of Windows, etc.
Rants like the previous article tend to draw out the fanboi. It's like throwing a steak into a tiger pit.
i love the game but there is no denying that it has issues i have had saves go corrupt, quests get bugged out etc etc, but i had the same issues in fallout 3 to, the gamebro engine is a piece of shit period. it was a piece of shit for oblivion, it was a piece of shit for fallout 3 and it is a piece of shit for fallout new vegas.
not that obsidian has had a glowing track record for bug free games but i think this time it is mostly down on the engine that bethesda stuck them with.
far as the well bioware makes mostly bug free games, well alot more less buggy than bethesda or obsidian, but bioware makes linear rpgs, and bethesda and obsidian nv makes sandbox rpgs. linear rpgs have a huge advantage there is only one way to go one way to advance and the games are paced and scripted to work under specific conditions. a sandbox game is open by its very nature it has alot more going on and has to account for alot more scripting and possibilities period, sandbox games always are going to have more issues than the go down the hall turn left enter boss room fight rpgs.
on a plus note beth has taken sole possession of id's latest engine they are making rage with and that bodes well for the next gen of fallouts and etc. since id has been making great engines for years with full support mod tools and stable engines to boot. so the gamebro engine is in its last throws.
not that obsidian has had a glowing track record for bug free games but i think this time it is mostly down on the engine that bethesda stuck them with.
far as the well bioware makes mostly bug free games, well alot more less buggy than bethesda or obsidian, but bioware makes linear rpgs, and bethesda and obsidian nv makes sandbox rpgs. linear rpgs have a huge advantage there is only one way to go one way to advance and the games are paced and scripted to work under specific conditions. a sandbox game is open by its very nature it has alot more going on and has to account for alot more scripting and possibilities period, sandbox games always are going to have more issues than the go down the hall turn left enter boss room fight rpgs.
on a plus note beth has taken sole possession of id's latest engine they are making rage with and that bodes well for the next gen of fallouts and etc. since id has been making great engines for years with full support mod tools and stable engines to boot. so the gamebro engine is in its last throws.
Wow, these are some deeply worrisome bugs.
Floating objects? Bad textures? I can forgive those. Testers could just have missed Object #40913.
Broken quests? Collision problems? Unexpected balance problems? I'll wait for the patch. This is worthy of blame, but not of avoiding the game entirely.
Save file corruption? Hard crashes with no warning? Deal-breaker. If I wanted to lose hours of progress with no recourse, I'd boot up Demon's Souls.
Floating objects? Bad textures? I can forgive those. Testers could just have missed Object #40913.
Broken quests? Collision problems? Unexpected balance problems? I'll wait for the patch. This is worthy of blame, but not of avoiding the game entirely.
Save file corruption? Hard crashes with no warning? Deal-breaker. If I wanted to lose hours of progress with no recourse, I'd boot up Demon's Souls.
From what I've heard it was released buggy on purpose to peeve pirates and most bugs are going to be fixed in a patch later on.
I think I like this line, and am going to use it in my own work.Suicidal Hobo said:
I only turned in a bad product to deter would-be thieves. All that struggling and braying and crying in the corner I've been doing for the past year or so was just to cover my masterful plan.
I only came across three bugs. One was that I was not able to do the Nightkin Brahmin murder quest. Sometimes when I would switch to third person my character is not visible and last but not least, when I switched to third person once, the entire terrain clipped to me and it felt like I drank some bad cactus juice. Aside from that, I am having a hell of a good time with the game.
That's what I thought too. That was my only complaint with original article. Bethesda was the one who was supposed to be handling the whole "making sure the game isn't bugged to hell and back". I'm probably going to wait for the game of the year edition to come out. Hopefully by then all the bugs will be fixed and I won't have to pay extra for all the DLC.Ultratwinkie said:
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and I think it is silly for Shamus to have to defend his.
I have played NWN2, both the NWN2 expansions, KotOR2, Alpha Protocol, and Fallout New Vegas. There were bugs in all of these games, but none so bad to halt my progress. Would I like better QA, of course I would.
Still, I have to say that Obsidian is like Bioware in that they craft great stories with memorable characters and tackle themes which most other games would never dare to. Also they cater to player freedom, often giving you many ways to progress through the game, leading to a rich set of choices, each with their own consequences in end-game.
If I have to live with some annoying bugs, especially early in the release so be it. I still buy and support Obsidian games. It's better than yet another Halo/Gears of War/Modern Warfare clone.
I have played NWN2, both the NWN2 expansions, KotOR2, Alpha Protocol, and Fallout New Vegas. There were bugs in all of these games, but none so bad to halt my progress. Would I like better QA, of course I would.
Still, I have to say that Obsidian is like Bioware in that they craft great stories with memorable characters and tackle themes which most other games would never dare to. Also they cater to player freedom, often giving you many ways to progress through the game, leading to a rich set of choices, each with their own consequences in end-game.
If I have to live with some annoying bugs, especially early in the release so be it. I still buy and support Obsidian games. It's better than yet another Halo/Gears of War/Modern Warfare clone.
The thing most irking is the lack of logic in the actual game design that others have mentioned.
He's an enemy. I kill him. I can loot his corspe. But if I loot his camp, I lose Karma for stealing. WHAT?!!
Fallout 3 was like that, but it was easier to give a pass then. That it's still the same way is like Obsidian validates it.
He's an enemy. I kill him. I can loot his corspe. But if I loot his camp, I lose Karma for stealing. WHAT?!!
Fallout 3 was like that, but it was easier to give a pass then. That it's still the same way is like Obsidian validates it.
Accually, you know what? I hate shoddy products. Modern Warfare 2, halo reach, the last scilent hill release. These are shoddy products. These are games that are just horrible.Razhem said:
Your letting a few bugs get in the way of a good, solid game. And those are hard to come by these days. So what if theres a few problems. You cant expect everything to always be perfict. To expect a game to come out, bug free, with 0 problems is just insane.
As time goes by, games get larger. Have you seen the size of New Vegas?!? Its almost ((if not more then)) 7 gigs! Just for one game! Back when games didnt have "problems" they were barly 1 gig!!
This is a great game. Not a shoddy one. Any game that can sink an addicting total of 200 hours plus from just 4 or 5 people tells you its not shoddy. ((without complaining i mean.))
Its a great game. Your complaining about things that WILL BE FIXED. If you cant handle the bugs, dont gripe about them, wait for them to be fixed.
Yet again, i state that i dont know a single person who has encountered a "game crippling bug" that others have. And in my group of friends ((30+ or even 60 if you include the local gaming club)) we complain about alot of things. You cant go 5 minutes with my friends without hearing them complain about some BS in halo or OMA Noobtubes in call of duty. Yet i havent heard a single complaint about New Vegas yet.
You seem to think 80% of everyone who purchased this game has horrible, mind blowing bugs. But im guessing its barly out of the 30% area. Times are changing. Games are getting bigger. The chances of something being wrong are increasing.
The real question here is, eould you rather have a few bugs, or wait another 2 months for them to beta test the game? I dont care if i get hit with a bug or two. BE HAPPY THE GAME IS EVEN OUT TO ENJOY!!
Two fucking years, they had two years to fix the engine and most of the bugs are still present, they have somehow even managed to consive some prtty interesting new ones. And those of you who plame the PC, it's not about the platform, ok the consoles may have less graphical bugs but overal games on all platforms are still buggy as hell. I think it actually depends on the way you play the game, for example I have the pc version and I could get like 4 hours straight and clean gamepaly no bugs whatsoever, but then turing half an hour the game fucks with me more ways than you could imagine and it's because I play the game in a way developers did not itend me to play it, but I want to play the fucking game however I like and it's bloody annoying if I can't.