After my first day in SH4...

[macky]

I am glad I bought it, but I have to say that I will not purchase any other SH-series until I know they are in a fit-for-purchase state.

Dont get me wrong, this is not a rant, whine or troll post. More so it is a recomendation for anyone thinking about this title to postpone it or accept a poor performing game.

Not going into any of the bugs, there are so many. Suffice to say it appears that the manual provided does not always reflect which is actually in the game.

Like everyone here, I expect there to be problems, some quite big ones. I was impressed that a patch was available before they launched in the UK. Though in reality, this only fixed a minority of the issues and also managed to create a unique CTD with the patch:nope:

It appears that this game is not alone in its state. Operation Flashpoint 2 was slated for its unfinished state and is apparently unplayable. This game is not unplayable, but it can be very annoying. It will probably rank in my top 5 games...eventually.

I never thought I would say this but I do believe that if a large corp can deliver a game this unfinished then the world of PCGaming must be coming to an end, because PCgamers will leave in thier droves.

If anyone from ubi actually reads any of these posts, rants and flames they wont come back again. I certainly would not, I would be too embarrassed. It really is unforgiveable to allow a game that is unfinished out! Fine, there are going to be compatability bugs, but the majority of bugs are gameplay. Where were the testers? Asleep? Dead? (sorry, slipped into rant mode)

I will keep an eye on these forums for future patch announcements, but I think my SH4 gaming will be very limited until it is more playable. I would rather not ruin my experience now and hate the game because its broke, but instead wait for the fix and hopefully enjoy the game once its fixed. My only experience from this episode is to only buy from recomendation and reading the bug lists first and make an educated decision.

[ryuzu]

It appears that this game is not alone in its state. Operation Flashpoint 2 was slated for its unfinished state and is apparently unplayable. This game is not unplayable, but it can be very annoying. It will probably rank in my top 5 games...eventually.

OFP 2 isn't out yet - in fact it is probably vapourware but you never know.

Armed Assault on the other hand (perhaps the spiritual successor to OFP) doesn't have any major problem now - and it has been that way since the UK release - the only people screwed were those who bought the German or Czech versions since they had 3 months of waiting for a major patch. However, ArmA is a more complex game than SH4, and while it has it's share of problems, for what it does now, I think it's pretty good.


<snip>

I will keep an eye on these forums for future patch announcements, but I think my SH4 gaming will be very limited until it is more playable. I would rather not ruin my experience now and hate the game because its broke, but instead wait for the fix and hopefully enjoy the game once its fixed. My only experience from this episode is to only buy from recomendation and reading the bug lists first and make an educated decision.

I think the parts I snipped count as a rant and/or whine....

However I can agree with your final point - I do find that I cannot fully enjoy SH4 now since although the patch has fixed the major problem that stopped me playing the game in any meaningful way (the stadimeter crash), there are still enough niggling gameplay issues that it becomes a chore to get through a patrol.

r.

[Waterboy]

While I couldn't wait for this game to hit shelves, I share many of your views.

It simply wasn't done, and for UBI to decide to release it in the state it was in is totally unprofessional on thier part. I understand many companies are in the "release now, patch later" mindset, but - I'd like to see one that still delivers the goods on release date.

Blizzard comes to mind as a company who's games are usually pretty well polished on release date.

I am playing it, and having a good time with it, but there are a few things that, like you said, certainly detract from from the experience. SHIII was great, but only after the modders worked their magic and made the game what it could be.

I figure we get 3 more patches and then it's "done" (finished or not) as far as UBI is concerned.

I hope the modding community steps up and fixes this one too. (And so far, it's looking great....Thank you to all the modders).