Gameinformer | Reader Discussion: Should Devs Be Excused For Releasing Games Filled With Bugs ?

If you've been keeping up with Bethesda and Obsidian's recent release of Fallout: New Vegas, then you're well aware of the problems that came with it. Though New Vegas has gotten overall positive reviews, there is one common thread across the board: This game is full of bugs.

[ElementX]

This day in age consoles are able to have patches. If you look back to PS2 days and earlier, any game breaking bugs were permanent unless they released a new hard copy of the game.

[Cloudberry]

.
I stuck at never ending glitch after fighting with the Empress.

The glitch makes me repeating back at the first level WTF UBISOFT???

[Philoctetes]

First of all, not everybody has their console connected the web. People who for whatever reason are offline are getting the shaft when developers release broken games with the idea of patching it later.

More importantly, though, why should those of us who buy the game on Day One have to serve as beta testers for the first couple of weeks? Fans who guy a game on release should be able to put the game in their console and have it work properly. Obviously in a gigantic game like Fallout or RDR, you're going to have a few bugs here and there that the developers missed. But game-breaking bugs and freezing issues are just absolutely inexcusable and represent poor QA.

I'm happy to see that Obsidian/Bethesda got shredded in a few reviews for putting out a semi-broken game. F:NV is fun when it's running correctly, but it's important for reviewers to publically shame developers who cut corners. If they don't get called out for it, they'll keep right on doing it.

[kaveti6616]

"First of all, not everybody has their console connected the web."

That's their fault. You must use the console the way it was designed to be used. Sony releases important firmware updates to the PS3 all the time. If someone started complaining that their PS3 sucks and they've never updated it, then I can't feel sorry for them at all.

"More importantly, though, why should those of us who buy the game on Day One have to serve as beta testers for the first couple of weeks?"

Because that's life. Why do people who want to buy brand new 3D televisions now for 2000 bucks have to deal with the fact that in 6 months much better televisions will be releases for half the price?

[unrealgamer58]

But that doesn't excuse the fact that most developers have become complacent with releasing patches, So they just release a buggy game that should have been pushed back a month to hit they're target date (Mostly during christmas.)

Sometimes It feels like developers are treating they're user base as beta testers for the end product. -_-

Edit: @Philoctetes

That's exactly right, I'm glad some people still know not to take It up the ass from developers and then try to defend them.

[Cajun Chicken]

No!

It seems like games are rushed to a release date now. The best idea would be to shut up announcing the game so early, then people wouldn't be clamoring for it. I mean, look at Bioshock Infinite, sure, it probably isn't going to be that buggy, but why release so much info and detail on a game that isn't coming out for nearly two years?!?

Remove the set deadline as given to the public, remove the problem.

[Def Warrant]

Correction! multiplats are rushed. Reason why they will always luck the quality of exclusives. Reason why i stay away from $110AUS mediocre multiplats. All i gotta say is, thank you Sony.

[NewsForMe]

So you're saying all multiplatform games are mediocre? I smell a Sony fanboy. Some of the best games are multiplatform. I could name a few mediocre games that are 360, PS3 or Wii exclusives. Since multiplatform games make up the majority of games a lot of them do end up bad, but a lot of them also end up great.

[NYC_Gamer]

nope because games are rushed out too early and people shouldnt have to pay 60 bucks for bugs/glitches

[ALFAxD_CENTAURO]

It is not only Fallout New Vegas.

Operation Flashpoint Dragon rising is pretty much worse, broken with full of bugs and glitches.

Can't believe I paid $60 for that Beta game. I swapped the game for another.

This Generation, the Developers are giving to Gamers a lot of Innovation with great quality.

But also, a lot of rushed, broken games, and a lot of patches.

[Nihilism]

They shouldn't be excused, especially on consoles. On PC there are millions of hardware component/OS/driver combinations...on console there is 1 set of hardware per console...if they can't get it working on a 20mill+ budget...maybe they should spend more money/time on the vanilla game instead of the paid DLC development that they cut from the game...

[solar]

exactly. so now in this day in age of console gaming we can blame console developers of being lazy right? releasing games on propitiatory hardware with game breaking bugs?

console gamers should be livid. stand up and make a stink. stop accepting these games released in these states.

[BrutallyBlunt]

The updates for fixes are free so on one hand we are actually benefiting from the older days where if there were problems it was permanent. On the other hand not everyone is connected online and not everyone wants to have to wait until they fix it.

I think games that are blatantly riddled with bugs need to be delayed. Publishers though may want to push the product to coincide with a certain release date.

[Def Warrant]

HELL NO!!!

[Dan50]

That fixes a lot. :) Online and having patches to fix them is better then buggy games with NO online connection or ability to download patches.

[EverydayGuy]

That is what's wrong with this generation of gaming. We should get what we pay for, game reviews need to be less passive on these issues. What happen if you live somewhere where you can't get internet, you are screwed.

[WLPowell]

is a video game critic on Game Informer can give Modern Warfare 2 a fucking 98, then the magazine turns around and asks a question with such an obvious answer as if they aren't part of the problem themselves.

The problem is fanboy critics giving out near perfect scores for games just because a previous entry in the franchise was good or the game had a lot of hype behind it. expect Black Ops to get a 95+ from GI, then a million bugs/glitches to be found.

[Araceae]

Small things are ok, but game breaking bugs are absolutely inexcusable. Fallout 3 and New Vegas aren’t excusable. They both freeze, have bad framerates, and have a tendency to corrupt their save files. All of these things make the game almost unplayable. It’s sad that reviewers gave both games a pass. A broken game should be reviewed as such. Otherwise we will keep getting poorly working games.

[Tony P]

Obviously not. I tend to excuse it more with freeform worlds like TES and FO, but tbh every game could benefit from more QA. It is a bit ridiculous especially if the game isn't a hit and the studio can't afford to properly patch the game.

[dumahim]

No they shouldn't. But people put up with it thinking they'll patch the game to fix the problems. Problem is, that rarely ever happens anymore.

[PooEgg]

A good point, I remember when I bought Tropico for 360 and found out it was full of bugs I considered returning it but held on to it because they promised a patch. I waited for months but never got a patch, don't know if they ever made one, since I am over the game now, but I really doubt it.

[Bass_fisherman]

Most of these broken/buggy games are shooters so the problem can be solved by not buying them

[despair]

it depends on the game quality and how many bugs, for me its ridiculous that Bethesda could release a patch a couple of days after release to fix many of the problems that people were getting with New Vegas but in years prior development and even in final testing stages they could not see and fix those problems before printing disks?

[thesithfreak]

i think obsidian needs to be restructured or severely investigated for talent and ability. KoTOR 2, fun, but bug and glitch ridden. alpha protocol, same thing. now new vegas. seems like a trend to me

[Urahara]

Ever since the internet has become a bigger part of gaming Devs have used this as an excuse to become even lazier. Devs need to get rid of bugs before the game comes ot, and should a bug or to be missed then you should patch it. But instead we get Fall Out 3 Vegas.

[xyxzor]

Bethesda and Obsidian have serious issues with quality control. If it was the first time this has ever happened than I could see maybe giving them a free pass, however both of these companies are repeated offenders. I've only ran into a few glitches, one of which would not let me fire with any weapons until I restarted the game(Not a reboot). Otherwise the game has run a little better than Fallout 3, for me at least. I can understand people's frustration though, and frankly they have a right to be. I got a review copy and I'm in the process of reviewing it. If the game has any crashes, especially ones that require hard reboots, you can bet that I will come down hard on it.

In a way the media is the last line of defense. We have an obligation to warn consumers if a product is buggy, glitchy, or so on. It's just a shame, not everyone agrees with this.

[KidMakeshift]

Still waiting for Bioware to fix Mass Effect 1

Screen Tearing's the worst. Any developer who releases a game with that sucks

[AKS]

I'm waiting for Fallout: New Vegas to become a Steam special. It should have many of the bugs patched by then and cost around $20. I'd rather wait and enjoy it when the game is actually completed, which they will have to do via updates.

[RonXD]

ModNation Racers was one of those games released with a ton of problems. Even after multiple patches, the game still suffers from many issues. Some patches even created new problems that didn't exist previously.

It's unacceptable.

[Tdmd]

Never heard anything about any issue aside from the loading times... could you tell me what those problems are?

[RonXD]

Have you tried downloading any content lately? If you try searching for something via text, you will get an error saying "No creations have been found". When in fact, there are a ton of what you're looking for. The only way to correct this is by searching with one of the other options such as "Newest". Then if you go back and try to search via text, it will bring up a list of what you want but as you are looking through that list, it will disconnect you and say "No Creations have been found". Making it very frustrating to download anything.

Also, when you're waiting for a casual race to load, sometimes the game will become stuck in a loop. Every once in awhile, the percentage icon will no longer show when a map is loading. When this happens, you have to restart the entire game because it will never load.

Do you also recall when they first patched the game and XP racing froze people's systems? Sure they fixed it, but the fact is every new patch they introduce breaks another part of the game.

Those are just two of the issues I have the most problems with. There are other bugs in this game I could go into detail about, but i'll be here all night.