I keep hearing about " Other games are buggy when they come out "

[Bahger]

The BATTLEFIELD series is infamous for its bugs but it's well-supported with patches. You are the only person I've ever encountered (both pro- and con- the game) who has never used the words "Battlefield" and "bug" in the same sentence. Frequently.

The relaunch of FALCON as ALLIED FORCE required tremendous patience as the devs labored over bug-squishing. We are now ten patches in and it's great.

GHOST RECON ADVANCED WARFARE was released to howls of protest over buggy AI and mission glitches. Five patches later, the game seems to work just fine.

Right now, I'm playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and enjoying the heck out of it depite bugs so serious that, until a patch arrived this week, I couldn't even quicksave. There is still work to be done.

Here's an obscure one (to US audiences, anyway): BRIAN LARA CRICKET 2007: Promising game with buggy catching dynamics requiring a patch.

Having said all that, I've shelved SHIV until the TDC is fixed. Which it will be, I reckon, partly thanks to Neal and the community here.

[Immacolata]

Originally Posted by fastfed

LMAO!! Even WW2 online right out of the gate was more playable IMO.

Battlefield 2 and then this? Right there I think you lost any credibility, and your argument is just a thinly veiled pointing of fingers. BF2 and ESPECIALLY WW2 were rather buggy and BF2 actually got more broke with each patch.

[sea enemy]

Age of Sail 2 was buggier than a baitshop. And, the sad part of it is, it was NEVER fixed...I've seen alpha versions of games that were in a more complete state.

After Age of Sail 2, nothing else really seems that bad.

[ubatsnalle]

Originally Posted by sea enemy

Age of Sail 2 was buggier than a baitshop. And, the sad part of it is, it was NEVER fixed...I've seen alpha versions of games that were in a more complete state.

After Age of Sail 2, nothing else really seems that bad.

I will second this statement.

This post is not really hitting at the original poster of this thread in particular, it is more of a general comment on the behaviour of players on message boards. Other games which definately deserves mentioning here is

- Destroyer Command
- Neverwinter Nights 2
- The Guild 2
- Battlefield 2 (This one even managed to introduce new issues on par with the 'a' button bug in its patches)

In addition to this I do not fully support the symtomatic 'typical UBI crap' whining which is common on internet messageboards. My observations of 15 years worth of computer gaming accross 3 different platforms is that any company will release unfinished games with quite similar frequency. I do not even think it has gotten that much worse with the introduction of downloadable patches a couple of years back.

The trick as a player is to manage your own expectations, remember that patience is a virtue and that throwing eggs on messageboards is not. The trick is to make constructive critisism in a polite and mature way written in proper English.

[DaMaGe007]

Black and white 1+2
X2, X3 Reunion (X3 was worse than X2 just)

Both got patches on or around realease, and were flamed heavily.

Atlease X2,X3 eventually got finished, I wont buy another Black and White game.

[Ark]

Fastfed, if you think SHIV is buggier than WWII Online v1.0, than you did not play WWII Online v1.0.

WWII Online was the worst mess I have ever seen at release. What keeps me playing is the great support by CRS, the fairly steady stream of patches/feature updates, and the community.

[fastfed]

Originally Posted by Ark

Fastfed, if you think SHIV is buggier than WWII Online v1.0, than you did not play WWII Online v1.0.

WWII Online was the worst mess I have ever seen at release. What keeps me playing is the great support by CRS, the fairly steady stream of patches/feature updates, and the community.

Fellow WW2 onliner???

I will PM you, I was joking about that one, how is that game these days? Played about 6 months ago last for a trial..

[Faamecanic]

Originally Posted by fastfed

Fellow WW2 onliner???

I will PM you, I was joking about that one, how is that game these days? Played about 6 months ago last for a trial..

Another WWIIOL'er here..... 14e Regiment de Parachutest..... 2nd year playing and I will tell you even as recently as the last major patch over christmas holiday, CRS really stepped in it (10 fps, server crashes...) 1.26 is MUCH better and 1.27 is shaping up.

[Ark]

Originally Posted by fastfed

Fellow WW2 onliner???

I will PM you, I was joking about that one, how is that game these days? Played about 6 months ago last for a trial..

Yep, been playing since release.

31st Wrecking Crew.

I can't remember how the game was 6 months ago (it all blends together, hehe), but it is still a LOT of fun for me.

[Sldghammer]

I gotta agree with Immacolata.

WWIIOnline out of the gate was a POS that almost sank the company. They sold IIRC 50000+ copies in shops and the vast majority were returned. I think they had to extend the "trial" period by 6 months until they got it somewhat playable.

Does SH4 meet the expectations of the hard core simmers? It's getting there.

Is is playable out of the box for the average player who probably only wants to go out and blow up stuff. Yup.

Will it be greatly improved soon? I think so so I'm not giving up on it.

[Jace11]

Ha, at least Age of Sail 2 had quite nice graphics for the time...

I agree it was bugged and Akela never fixed it but it was alright to play for me anyway, I did end up shelving it though due to lack of depth.

I don't think it is as bad as SH4 though..

[fastfed]

Originally Posted by Immacolata

Battlefield 2 and then this? Right there I think you lost any credibility, and your argument is just a thinly veiled pointing of fingers. BF2 and ESPECIALLY WW2 were rather buggy and BF2 actually got more broke with each patch. Go away, troll.

Go away troll?? I might of been exaggerating a little with WW2online.. They still haven't fixed that game..

I am 27 years old and have been playing games since Pole position on attari and Silent Service on my commodore..

The bottom line is I have never put a game away after buying it until SH4, I don't know what bugs you're talking about with BF2, because I played the game from day one all the way until the many patches after it. I didn't notice the bugs until reading forums and the readme's on the patches..

Nothing has even been such a disappointment until SH4 and thats the truth!

[Lionman]

Originally Posted by fastfed

Go away troll?? I might of been exaggerating a little with WW2online.. They still haven't fixed that game..

I am 27 years old and have been playing games since Pole position on attari and Silent Service on my commodore..

The bottom line is I have never put a game away after buying it until SH4, I don't know what bugs you're talking about with BF2, because I played the game from day one all the way until the many patches after it. I didn't notice the bugs until reading forums and the readme's on the patches..

Nothing has even been such a disappointment until SH4 and thats the truth!

I am 6000 years old and have been playing games since the legendary "Tryanosaurus Racer" from the now defunct Silurian Studios, on an early model low RAM alpha model stone circle which I put together myself from Welsh blue stone - so what beats me is how cool some of these new fangled video game thingees you kids have now really are! Submarines aye? Marvellous idea! Sure would have helped hunting stegasori in-water! Now that's what I CALL a "super-lunch-hunter".

However, although I have searched far and wide above and below the waves, so far I haven't found a single wolf, so obviously you are right about there being plenty of bugs as yet. I guess I'll just sit here by my camp fire until it's dark enough to navigate by the stars again. Anyway, I hears me a rumour that them visigoths might be a'coming this way . . . . . better load them bow tubes agin!

OK - seriously shipmates - I am 60+ and my first PC was the legendary "BBC B" which was, in its day, "state-of-the-art" because it had coloured text (!) but mine was eventually re-tro-fitted with 128K (!) of "sideways RAM" as they called it back then, an early GUI, a Viglen mouse and metal boxed twin 5.5" disk drives with their own second extra computer, a zilog ZX80 chip! The office software was the "Perfect Software Suite" and I used to play wire frame DOS flight sims on a black screen! Now THAT took imagination and persistence.

So I am pretty tolerant of bugs in early releases of contemporary games now. I still find it a miracle that all those trillions of lines of code and blizzards of data can produce a believable stormy ocean and convincing weather, also perhaps, I am considerably more patient than I once was. Oh and in between there was a professional career on and under the real ocean, so for me, virtual voyages pander to a profound nostalgia . . . . once you have lived on, under and by it, the ocean's grip never really let's you go again. It's a jealous and dangerous mistress but the most ancient thing our DNA knows and the love runs deep indeed . . .

[malkuth74]

Black And White 2 (POS still to this day)
The Movies (read forums, had alot of same issues SHIV have)
Star Trek Legacy (dont even ask)
Pacific Storm (awful AI, only 1 patch so far and didn't fix AI)
Midevil Total war II (AI lackluster, Two handed sword bug still not fixed ETC ETC)
BattleField 2 You so proudly bost about
Patch 1.1 Readme

Patch v1.01
================================================== ======================

Fixed an issue that caused the Multiplayer Browser to become unresponsive.

Fixed an issue where some game controls were not available to be rebound within the Options menu.

Fixed an issue with increasing performance degradation on servers.

Fixed a problem with shader caching on client/host : after the first
map in a rotation, shaders would be loaded on the fly during gameplay.

Fixed a crash with rebinding LMB

Fixed a problem that caused environment mapping to not appear on
reflective surfaces.

Fixed a crash that happened when a client picks up a kit that doesn't
exist anymore.

Fixed a problem with AI when the game was paused for a long time: bots
would become unresponsive and also shoot more accurately.

LOD distances tweaked on certain objects.

I stoped playing after Patch 1.4 (sure thier are more now.)

World Of warcraft Patch notes (IE ITS AT 2.0)
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/


And by the way SHIV is playable out of the box just like all the others.

[minsc_tdp]

Originally Posted by fastfed

LMAO!! Even WW2 online right out of the gate was more playable IMO.

Now that's a low blow. Can't say I disagree, but a low blow.

It's hard to compare FPS bugs to this sort of game. Especially not the level of HL2/COH/WOW which are much, much larger projects.

Hopefully Ubi will step up to the plate and resolve this.