Is Quality Control a foreign concept for Bethesda? What were reviewers thinking?

I'l make it short:

1) I WANT TO BUY SKYRIM

2) I have a PS3

3) I want to buy Skyrim for my PS3

4) Bethesda released a PS3 version. Currently 95 on MC, i think.

5) Yayyy!!! Perfect, right?

yeah...

*GAF impressions of the past FOUR console Bethesda/Bethesda published games*

"New Vegas was a nightmare. The stuttering popped up at about 20 hours / 5mb, and just grew worse and worse. At first restarting the game would make it go away. But as I finished the game up, even that didn't work. The ending sequence was a sloughfest."

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"Oblivion had a version of this bug with the Shivering Isles expansion. There was an infinite counter in a script somewhere and it kept growing and growing until the game broke. Either this is something that will affect the 360 as well or it really is specific to ps3 save format."

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"THe rumor with the PS3 version is that the performance degrades over time right? I noticed that when looking around about Fallout: New Vegas as well. If that is indeed the case, I wonder what's going on in that engine of Bethesda's."

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"If I recall correctly, Morrowind on Xbox also had drifting NPCs that could clip through inaccessible geometry and stop your progress in the game if that NPC was required to advance the quest lines."

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On Skyrim:

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there's STILL that issue of a growing save file on PS3? ****** Bethesda, get your **** together seriously. either your PS3 coders are clowns or you're intentionally trolling PS3 owners.

Fallout 3 and New Vegas became pretty much unplayable for me when my save file reached 12-15mb. framerate often dipped to an incredible 1 frame per several minutes. i literally made myself dinner during a VATS sequence.

there's no excuse for this sort of unforgivable, laughably horrendeous bugginess that still hasn't been fixed after so many years.

FFS, go ask Rockstar how to make a big game stable.

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"I'm like 50 hours in; my save files are around 8MB now. Some messed up pathfinding made a few important NPCs totally disappear from my game. They also took with them the game's quest marking system since that broke, too, for every single quest. I somehow managed to glitch it all back to normal after struggling with the oldest save file I had created before the incident became completely irreparable. =\"

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"My save files are almost 8 megs and the game is chugging along sooo slowly. Walking through Whiterun was like a damn slideshow. And the game wasn't running so bad up until tonight. I noticed it grow progressively more sluggish over the weekend, but tonight was a whole different can of worms. This needs to be fixed ASAP."

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"16 hours in, loving the game, and i just sold it because it seemed to be on its way to imploding. Apart from that problem, i was okay with the ps3 version. My gaming sessions weren't even that bad but it was starting to get worse and i don't want to be 60 hours into it with a chance of doom."

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"Once you hit 7mb, you will start to notice a drop in performance. If you follow some of the steps posted in this thread it will help. One of the best tips is to take a 10-15 min break every two hours or so."

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"apparently when your save file gets to 5.5mb the performance tanks. I'm creeping up to that point and i'm noticing more stutterting/frame rate dips, but if it's only going to get worse i'm really mad that Bethesda put out such a crappy game that i'm 15 hours into, so i either have to buy the 360 version and start all over which i hate doing, or continue and have a progressively worse experience.

Shouldn't have bought this game."

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What

the

hell?

This is one of the best reviewed games this year. One of the strongest GOTY contenders!

How can reviews overlook these serious game-breaking issues? Did no one play the PS3 version or PS3/M$ version of the older Bethesda games? Are reviewers playing magical copies of Bethesda games that work? REPORT THESE THINGS IN YOUR REVIEWS, FFS!!!

I almost paid 70EUROS for Skyrim the other day if it wasnt for an internet forum full of unfortunate players that went ahead and bought it day one in face of all the high praise from the press. The game looks great, but if it becomes unplayable halfway through it, its useless.

And if Bethesda keeps ignoring these issues like they did with Fallout 3 and New Vegas, we are left with a string of broken titles that could've have been great if someone bothered to give the developer hell for their incredible lack of polish.

Man i'm pissed off right now. Really wanted to buy this

Thunderdrone

thank god for onlive right? at least the ps3 multis can outperform at least one system.

I think Bethesda should make games where everything is super scripted with cutscenes ever 5 minutes. The hero, if you will should be a little kid with some weird hair color and all of the adults should look like teenagers. Random encounters should also be implemented that way you don't have to worry about ambient life. The world should be broken up into...zones that way worrying about an open world isn't a problem.

Open world games are usually buggy because they are open. There is no way to account for every single issue that will crop up. These already games take years to make.Bethesda is kind of horrible about the NORMAL bugs they should be dealing with though.Although annoying I still like the fact that almost anything can happen while you are playing one of their titles.They make some of the largest open world games.

heretrix

lol u bought a bethesda game at launchFirebird-5

Bethesda games have some of the worst programming in the industry. I mean, really, who is surprised at this point?

Bethesda=/= New Vegasdr-professional

I've never played a Bethesda game that wasnt chock full of bugs upon release. I think people just kind of accept that fact these days. I would like to see them improve their quality assurance but maybe i'm just too hopeful?

Bethesda's games are supposed to have bugs and glitches to have that magical feeling that you know you're playing a bethedsa game.

supdotcom

So because TC wants to play the game on a console, paying the same amount as you PC gamers doesnt entitle him to the same quality of product?

thats the general concensus of this thread....

Wow hearing so many terrible things about the PS3 version. Maybe i should buy it on PC, even if it's on low setting :(

I have the PS3 version and I've had no major issues. The game runs and looks great. Despite what others would try to have me believe, the game I've been playing is by no means broken, let alone a mess.incuensuocha

sure they have quality control....but no way will the QA testers catch EVERY single bug in a game like this....things are just too random all the time, not every QA tester will play the game the same way we will...just about everyone of us has a different experience with this game

it's utterly impossible to catch every single bug in a bethesda game

CDUB316

why don't you try it for youself? you're missing out, I have plenty of friends who play it on the PS3 with none of those problems.

The ps3 framerate/save file bug is hard to notice until you have put upwards of maybe 30-40 hours but yeah I learned my lesson to never buy bethsade games at launch, next time will w8 for game of the year addition :P so sad though as its an awesome game.

Whats a bit dishearterning is that it appaears they new about this bug ( as it was an issue in Fallout 3 and FAllout Nv) but they released anyway, also we should have guessed something was up when all the video demos were xbox 360 and all the copies sent to the majority of reviewers were xbox 360.

musalala

This completely. I wanted to get the game for PS3, but was skeptical over how it would be based on Bethesda's past work. I'm glad I didn't buy it day one, that's for sure, and now I'll probably pick it up for 360 because I doubt this can even get patched.

How a game can launch in this condition is beyond me. Maybe Bethesda should just come up with the idea for the game and hire someone like Rockstar to do the actual programming.

Yeah it seems they get a free pass.TheGuardian03

lol u bought a bethesda game at launchFirebird-5

Yeah, pretty much. You are also under the impression that the ps3 version is somehow buggier than the other versions, and that isn't the case. Bethesda makes huge games, and with that comes a lot of bugs. That's the way it is.

You can try to make Bethesda seem incompetent if you want, but you don't have any other devs to compare them to as far as scope of a game goes.

so has it been the ps3 version that has been getting all of these problems? How about the 360 version?Shinobishyguy

360 just has the texture problem if you install the game....that should be fixed within a couple of weeks max

from what people are saying...the problem with the PS3 version is unfixable

I'm taking a break from it at the time being because I want the patches to come out so I get the best experience possible

Buggy game is buggy. Link contains bad language.

But the real issue with Skyrim is not how buggy it is. It is how weak each and every one of its elements are. While its melee combat while improved from Oblivion, is still horrid and results in weapon rubbing. Its archery is downright broken atm and while I enjoy the much more limited magicka pool, magic is just too poorly balanced atm to be as fun as it should have been. Making spells dual wieldable was the worst idea ever when it comes to magic.

Dont get me wrong, it can still be pretty decent at times though. At its worst it is still better than Oblivion, that is for sure.

That´s why I don´t buy bethesda games on release,only when the mods come and most of the issues are solved.