Console Gaming - patches and updates

[FaceAche]

Just saw this on Joystiq;
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/02/ja...four-per-year/

Totally agree with this guy. It's like console gaming has gone the way of the PC; "Yeah just f**king release it! We know it's broken, but we can patch those bugs later"

It's the one thing i HATE about this "always connected" generation. I mean, i really do want to get into GT5, but not until all 351 patches have been released (that was just an example - back in your boxes, PS3 Fanboys )

[dst]

I agree bigtime, most recent in my head is Test Drive Unlimited 2.

Theres still things they listed as features, and major ones, like the kind you buy the game for (i.e clubs) that are not accesable because of bugs and such.

Fixes and Patches are 'in the works' and they are 'working hard on fixing the issues' with a 'dedicated team' but its besides the point entirely. Games should be released in a fully functional and playable way.

thats what BETA's and DEMO's should do.

Its unacceptable, especially because of the price we pay for these days.



I can understand exploits not being fixable from day 1, people go out of their ways to find dirty ways to cheat the system or to make someone elses experiance crappy. Patches that fix that sort of thing, i totally understand, but a 'patch' to fix missing features or broken elements to games is bullshit.

You should be able to buy a game with the only 'patch' being additional content/dlc. Not frequent bug fixes.

Grrrr

[FaceAche]

See the thing with TDU2 is that they did the same thing with TDU1 - i learnt my lesson with that, and steered clear of TDU2 for that very reason.

I saw Nol say of some issues with the game "Never mind - they;ll get it all sorted eventually." and i have to admit, i raged inside. To me, it's this sort of attitude that makes developers think they can get away with this kinda BS.

No offence intended there Nol; i know that any game i buy i want to work properly, and no-one wants to feel like they bought a lemon, so optimism regarding bugs being fixed is all good.

But yeah, agree with you that the only 'patches' a console should see are content patches.

[Leggetron]

It's such a cop-out, and it almost seems like the attitude of so many devs these days seems to be, "ah well, we can just patch it later".

[Vivasanti]

COD Black Ops on PS3 is where this is stemming from mostly it felt like it wasnt even play tested at all!

[Innocent Dingo]

This sort of thing has put me off getting a PS3.....have heard lots of bad things about waiting around for patches to install etc.

I don't mind if balancing patches are fixed and minor bugs but shipping broken games/features is not cool mkay.

[Vivasanti]

Ps3 is the worst of them all for sure!

[Evil]

MW2 is the worst I've experienced, was broke on launch and is still broke today. FAIL

[emetic]

PS3's patches seem to be unnecessarily large in size too.

Hay... it's business though. It's not really going to change.

[accidental]

This doesn't affect me much as I don't play many games at launch, so by the time I play a game the patches are already sorted. So then the only issue is the large download sizes chipping away at my broadband data cap, and prolonging the dick-around (combined with installation time) to finally start playing the game.

Still, all this pales in comparison to the pains that come with PC gaming. Steam has removed the major issues, but many are still unavoidable. Count ourselves lucky that we know every game will run as intended with no tweaking, that the controller is supported, that the online works fairly seamlessly, and that we can play on the couch with friends.

[FaceAche]

Yeah i'm all for championing the successes of console gaming, the awesome functionality and ease of use of consoles.

Was the main reason i stopped serious gaming on my PC - 8 weeks of saving my pocket money to buy the Janes Apache Ah64 Longbow simulator game, circa 1995, and then i get home with it on Saturday morning to spend the next 12 hours trying to get it working! Anyway, not bagging the PC or PC Gaming, just saying that for my limited technical knowledge, plug 'n play is where it's at.

All the massive patches the PS3 has puts me off using it more too. To me, it's essentially a blu-ray player that can also play some games.

[captain x]

Originally Posted by FaceAche

All the massive patches the PS3 has puts me off using it more too. To me, it's essentially a blu-ray player that can also play some games.

This. I have some great games on PS3, but at 10pm I'm scared to put them in and spend half an hour watching a progress bar.

[accidental]

Originally Posted by captain x

This. I have some great games on PS3, but at 10pm I'm scared to put them in and spend half an hour watching a progress bar.

To be fair, you can just skip the updates if all you're wanting is a quick blat.

[fahrenheit]

Just add a second console to double your rage.

I recently had a friend stay for a week and I broke out several games that I had not played in years and there was not a single one of them that didn't prompt me to update.
Of course if you update one console, you have to update the other, because system-link more or less breaks as soon as you have different versions trying to connect to each other. Even when the update has absolutely nothing that impacts mp. Either that or you wipe the cache on the updated console.
If they are running different versions, the game won't tell you either. They just refuse to talk to each other and leave you scratching your head.

And thats just the 360. I'd hate to try and setup a lan with PS3s.

[esoj]

I like the way nintendo has done it for some games on the wii by putting the actual update needed on the disc itself.