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The Rise Of Bugs In Console Games
Thanks to GameSpy for posting a column discussing the increasing prevalence of serious bugs and glitches in console titles, especially in relation to several of this summer's 'blockbusters'. Singled out are Enter The Matrix: "Even if you enjoy the game.. you can't ignore the fact that all three console makers let Atari have a 'get out of final approval free card' when it came to testing...", as well as the new Tomb Raider title: "AOD froze up on me at least half a dozen times... Lara fell through invisible gaps in the street, walked through invisible gaps in walls, and refused to walk up stairs that she was supposed to be able to climb." What's to be done when, as the author says, "judging from the sales of these... titles, enough of you guys just aren't punishing the companies for releasing sub-par products to make a difference"?
Buggy games certainly have to account for a portion of "piracy" out there. A few bad experiences of dropping $50 for a piece of trash can make individuals who aren't quite in the middle-class less than eager to take the risk again.
Consoles are even worse. At least for PC games we can anticipate patches, which generally tend to do a pretty good job fixes bugs, especially if its a big game (or an online one.)
I'm betting on "We HAVE to get this game on the shelves, otherwise we lose money because of X"
X = in time to be released same weekend as movie
X = it's already been delayed and it's killing us
Don't the publishers realize that releasing sub-par games on schedule is MUCH worse than releasing excellent games behind?
Look at Blizzard - standard-bearer for "when it's done, it'll be fabulous" - Diablo 2, Warcraft 3 are prime examples
Gamers are lenient on deadlines when the game exceeds expectations, but I'm betting that Matrix Revolutions (if they make a game) won't have quite the same reception....
Enter the Matrix was a rush job by a studio that never should have gotten the contract. Shiny's biggest accomplishments (Earth Worm Jim, MDK) are no where near the great games put out by the first two studios contracted by the Matrix producers (SquareSoft et al). Also, Tomb Raider was an abomination to let out the door. The controls are terrible, and the game is buggy. A beautiful looking game however. Even with that said, these games are in the minority. Alot of good bug-free games came out this year
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2) With Enter the Matrix, there finish date was not determined by the status of the game but by the realease date of the movie (they were meant to come out at about the same time). I suspect the release of the Croft title corresponds to the new movie, though I am not sure.
3) Consoles have never really been bug free. Granted, they had a much better track record than PC games (since PC developers always figured they could patch). However, I remember even Super Mario Brothers and Donkie Kong having minor unintended glitches/exploits.
look, we're not talking about pac-man anymore. every year the games and the systems involved get more and more complex, and the potential for bugs increases geometrically. consoles have been able to keep major bugs from becoming common by limiting the variables -- that is, using a standard system to play the game on -- but the system is getting very complex. it used to be, a game developer team had to write all their own code. nowadays, they use drivers and game engines that may or may not have major bugs or incompatibilities built in, even on the consoles they were written for.
show-stopping bugs like crashes or even just annoying gameplay bugs should never make it to the final product, to be sure, but crappy games based on a movie license are certainly not a NEW phenomenon. anyone remember E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial for the 2600? of course you do.
there are plenty of console games out there that are basically (major) bug free, and economic darwinism is still at work weeding out the crappy titles from the stellar ones, except where an established license gets in the way.
i could live a little longer in this prison
Consoles, however, should be identical. The X-Box they test on is exactly the same as the X-Box that you play it on. This means that they should be able to test much more for console games than for computer games. There is no excuse for this trend.
I can't say that I don't give a fuck. I've just run out of fuck to give.
how some bugs exist and to a certain extent I sympathise with developers. The range of not just hardware but also drivers available for each piece of hardware, make it simply impossible to guarantee a bug free game, something that can be said for any program but I think multiplied in the gaming industry.
But saying that I have to agree that lately some appalling games have made it to the shelves, with Enter the Matrix leading the way. I have never been as disappointed with a game as I was with EtM, I am a huge matrix fan and I would have preffered they kept the launch back, it actually would have been a good way to fill in the months leading up to revolutions and could have been a far more solid game but its money that talks these days, not quality and even worse, not gameplay quality.
Enter the Matrix though was not just a buggy game, it was no fun, if you want to see what it should have been like, get yourself a copy of Max Payne, which despite its age looks as good as EtM and download the mod MAX PAYNE: Kung Fu Edition . This is exactly how EtM should have played and this is a mod made by one person, not a giant software house.
Anyway, I could rant on for hours about the state of games today, you get the idea...
This is why I tend to a) check online reviews of games and b) rent a game from Blockbuster before purchasing it. Of course it gives more profit to Blockbuster and doesn't really hurt the game sales much since Blockbuster will tend to buy more of a frequently rented game, but it does save me $$'s if the game sucks.
And here we have a case of the "good-old days syndrome"
"When I was your age.... All our software worked! There was no patching and freezing or any of that! None of this 6 years in development crap you kids today put up with"
While I won't argue for the quality of a lot of the games that get put out (3DO and Acclaim, I'm looking at you two) I would hardly say that the games of yesteryear were bug-free or really any more functional than the games of today.
Are games buggy? Yes
"But super mario brothers never froze when I was playing my NES" you say. And I ask "How many of Nintendo's games today freeze up all the time? Zero" The companies that produce crap, have produced crap since the dawn of time. Those that have been commited to quality, have for the most part stayed with that creed.
Is this a new phenomenon? No, we are just a lot more likely to notice and or hear about it from others than we used to.
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
I've noticed this becoming an increasingly alarming problem on the Xbox, and part of it is due to the PC port mentality they seem to have. This was especially apparent in games like Morrowind and Ghost Recon. We're talk roach motel. Live games have seen this problem with a vengence as the "patch it later" menatlity of the PC is taking increasing hold. Not only are they shipped with obvious bugs, but timely patching is a fanciful illusion. Honestly, I laugh everytime I hear somebody mention a patch for a Live game.
I wish I could say it was getting better, but this is one area where the PC seems to be overrunning the console and not vice versa.
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