Guest EricMM Report post Posted January 14, 2003 From Infogrames They released a patch to fix bugs, address framerate issues, and finish up things like stats. It's a sad day where one can no longer say that games on a console don't need patches. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest jimmy no nose Report post Posted January 14, 2003 This is definitely not the first time that a console game has needed a patch, just the first time they did it. I wish they would fix up more games on consoles. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest KoR Fungus Report post Posted January 14, 2003 It's still not something that I want to see happening. I want to see console developers release complete, bug free games. If I hear that a game is buggy, I'll usually just avoid it, so as not to support rushed development. The last thing I want is to have to deal with constant patches and upgrades. Hell, I pretty much avoid PC gaming entirely to avoid that crap, so I certainly don't want to see it spread to consoles. Still, this is just one case. It doesn't bother me too much, as long as it doesn't become a trend. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest MarvinisaLunatic Report post Posted January 14, 2003 Just wait til the good games get patches... ...Oh wait... Anyway, I said this was gonna happen way before X Box launched. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Lethargic Report post Posted January 14, 2003 So if there is something a little messed up in a game, you'd rather the company just be cheap and leave it messed up instead of fixing it for you for free? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest KoR Fungus Report post Posted January 14, 2003 Like I said, I'd like to see developers releasing complete, bug free games. That means that they should adequately playtest the game before it comes out. If some small, obscure bug slips through and the developers want to patch it, that doesn't bother me too much. However, it looks like there were a lot of relatively obvious things wrong with UT, and those should have been dealt with before the game was released. I don't want to see a trend of developers releasing incomplete games in November to get the Christmas sales, and then having to patch them up somewhere down the line. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Lethargic Report post Posted January 14, 2003 Well, I'd assume that nothing like that would happen until the industry is almost completely online. Right now the PS2 and Xbox units that are online is still quite small so making patches and that kinda stuff isn't really very useful since not everybody can get them. It seems to me that 90% of the time, patches for PC games aren't even really needed for most people anyway. Just little tweaks of improvement here and there. I'd personally rather have a company keep working on improving a game and letting us download the stuff for free than just releasing a game and moving on to making next year's version to try to sucker us out of another 50 bucks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Jobber of the Week Report post Posted January 14, 2003 So, let me get this straight.... * Developers make game that has almost 0% usefulness without online connection (and let's be honest here guys, how many people without Live have the Unreal game?) * Developers release game into hands of many thousands of people. These people find bugs in the game that a small Quality Assurance team could not. * Exploits are abused, games are ruined, title becomes no fun to play. * Developers produce fix downloaded to all clients who play online, fixing the trouble of people cheating online. * Internet users whine. Would you rather go play SOCOM instead, where people can leave the map and still shoot you from outside the world? And because the PS2 has no hard drive, everyone must suffer and nothing can be done about it? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest MarvinisaLunatic Report post Posted January 14, 2003 Man, you know..like I said way before the X Box launced..this whole patching thing will end up being just a ploy to get people to sign up for X Box live. You'll have to download the patches from the X Box live Service, and if you can't get broadband then sux to be you because the patch files will be large and it would take 6 forevers to download them over a modem, but you can't anyway because you can't access X Box live via a regular dialup modem. After a while..the hard drive will be full with patches and then people will have to fork over money to buy official X Box 2nd Hard Drive kits. Of course, you couldn't go and buy a cheap hard drive from Staples and do it yourself since the Hard Drive is one of the things they check to verify in order to get X Box Live service (people who have had X Boxes with defective hard drives replaced by Microsoft themselves have had this problem..) So there you go. Game developers can rush out X Box exlusive games that have bugs in them and need to be patched after the fact, and Microsoft can make even more money off you buy requiring you to pay for X Box live service and the additional hard drives that you'll need to store all those patches. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Lethargic Report post Posted January 14, 2003 I love Microsoft conspiracy theories almost as much as I love Kurt Cobain murder theories. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest MarvinisaLunatic Report post Posted January 14, 2003 I love Microsoft conspiracy theories almost as much as I love Kurt Cobain murder theories. If I remember correctly, there were a ton of people who posted on this board last year who told me I was stupid to believe that there would be patches for X Box games, but look whats happened. My last post isn't exactly a conspiracy theory...I mean, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Microsoft (who already makes people pay for upgrades to their buggy OS'es in the form of those Service Packs) will eventually see $$$ poping up in front of their eyes when they realize there is money to be made on patches and hard drive upgrades to hold those patches. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Lethargic Report post Posted January 14, 2003 But I would bet any money amount you could imagine that if this was happening to a PS2 exclusive game instead of an X-Box, the amount of people complaining about it would be cut in half. It's only when Microsoft does something like this that it gets so much hate. I don't believe any company that's in the middle of a console war would go out of their way to purposely put out defective products just to get people to get Xbox live so they can download the patches. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest MarvinisaLunatic Report post Posted January 14, 2003 But I would bet any money amount you could imagine that if this was happening to a PS2 exclusive game instead of an X-Box, the amount of people complaining about it would be cut in half. It's only when Microsoft does something like this that it gets so much hate. I don't believe any company that's in the middle of a console war would go out of their way to purposely put out defective products just to get people to get Xbox live so they can download the patches. Well..its not Microsoft who is putting out games, so Microsoft is not directly to blame for the patches. Most of the developers LOVE to be able to release a buggy game and then offer a patch later on when they get to it. Microsoft is how allowing them to do the patches with the hard drive in the X Box and X Box Live's internet connection..both of which Microsoft does fully control and makes a huge profit off of it. Microsoft is to blame for letting developers release buggy games, but can you blame them since they can inevitably make money off of the patches? In this case, UT2003 could have stayed in development an extra month or two to tweak those bugs, but then they would have missed out on the holiday selling season and lost money. How many PC Games are released early and have bugs and glitches which require patches? I don't think I've ever bought a game thats been out for at least a month for the PC that didn't have some sort of patch download available to fix some sort of problem.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest GeneMean Report post Posted January 14, 2003 Patches for console games. ANY console games regardless of system are absolutely inexcusable. Patches in the PC community are a necessary evil as there so an infinite number of system make ups floating out there. Video/sound driver and Direct X changes after a game has gone gold or been released can fek up compatibility. Tweaks to multiplayer net code are always a welcome addition to me. Games like Everquest or Dark Age of Camelot NEED constant patching as there is always some aspect of gameplay changing, not always for the better but it keeps the content fresh. So there are goods to patching out there. HOWEVER I do hate the trend of releasing games that are flat out unfinished betas and then relying on a patch or series of patches to get the game to a playable state. It is happening more and more on the PC and it can be very frustrating. When you start talking about X-box and PS2 implementing patches I cringe because how can any developer making a game on a platform where EVERY single machine is the same (It's not like my PS2 and yours are running on different OS's) not churn out a proper title. It will fly though because there will always be fanboys buying the shit up left and right. Take Mortal Kombat: DA, here is a classic example of a potentially good game rushed out in a piece of shit state. The damn thing will lock up an Xbox entirely by landing one char's special move. There are other things about this game that scream rushed to sale that I won't touch on but it doesn't matter because there are enough morons out there sucking Ed Boon's wanger and screaming 'This is the best MK of all time and it's better than Tekken and VF you n00b fool!' Are they idiots? Absolutely, that's what I see. Are they idiot's who willingly plop 50$ on an incomplete game and lovingly do so? Yep, and that's what publishers see. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Sakura Report post Posted January 15, 2003 MKDA is great and IS better than VF if you ask me. I could also see it being the best in the series. I'm not an idiot when it comes to fighting games and I'm not "sucking Ed Boon's wanger". The game rules. I also would not call it incomplete or rushed. That Frost glitch is overhyped and while it's true they did not have time to implement some extra features they had hoped to, that's the case for almost all games. What developer does not say there's always stuff they wanted to add but didn't have the time to? Compared to some of the last few games it's REALLY polished. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Razor Roman Report post Posted January 15, 2003 So if there is something a little messed up in a game, you'd rather the company just be cheap and leave it messed up instead of fixing it for you for free? WWF No Mercy :-) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites