Since when did releaseing an unfinished game on the PC become the standard?

This gen the PC has been getting the shaft. It seems that every major PC game release is either broken, buggy, incomplete, or has a lot of hardware issues. Let's just run down with a few that I can think of off the top of my head.

Crysis 1: Some broken AI, didn't run on half the machines, online was a broken laggy mess that never got fixed, lots of hardware problems. This was even a polished game by some of the standards this gen.

Empire Total War: Graphical glitches, sound glitches, AI glitches, map problems, hardware problems, install issues, DX runtime errors, couldn't finish a campaign, online was to broken to play for weeks.

MW2: IWnet didn't work, matchmaking sucked, glitches everywhere

CoD Black Ops: Terrible sever browser on launch, game crashes, DX runtime errors, sound issues, horrible framerate on modern hardware.

ArmA 2: Broken AI, terrible framerate, slow/clunky menus, terrible online connections, horrible latency issues, unfished/broken campaign that couldn't be finished.

Crysis 2: DX11 support delayed, hardware issues, software issues, HD texture pack delayed, no graphical settings (I had to write that damn app), terrible multiplayer latency. This was still a more polished game than others.

Red Orchestra 2: Framerate issues, crashes, latency, broken single player, stats didn't even work (had to do a wipe and restart), sound bugs, graphical bugs

Battlefield Bad Company 2: Slow as crap server browser, framerate issues early on, punkbuster disconnects everwhere, terrible hit detection (that only got minorly fixed), lots of reported crashes

Battleifeld 3: Framerate stuttering, latency, punkbuster disconnects, broken UI, broken squad system, BATTLELOG...

These are all the ones that came ot my head. What gives PC developers the right to released such broken games this gen? It's a plauge. I have played very few stable games on the PC this generation at launch. Patches should not be used to finish your game. This has been really annoying me this entire generation.

Please feel free to add your own.

It's fine,we'll patch it up soon.MonsieurX

ARGH!!!!

Dues Ex:HR was a bit of a mess when it launched. They patched that up pretty quickly though.

Can't forget RAGE and all of it's problems at launch.

I thought PC games always got patched, this is something recent?SaltyMeatballs

Yes, but usually games could be played fine at their version 1.0. The quality of launch titles on the PC this gen is really lower than they used to be. It's really annoying.

Who cares ? the developers put time and effort into the game and a lot of PC gamers turn around and mod content OUT of game as well, modify character models, maps etc. ... even the visuals.

PC market is an afterthought. That's why.

Why do you think developers delay games on the PC when they are available on consoles too? To prevent piracy and get the PC users to switch. They dont want people to buy PC games and therefore they dont put any effort in developing a PC product.

[QUOTE="MonsieurX"]It's fine,we'll patch it up soon.Wasdie

ARGH!!!!

All capitals is disruptive posting, Wasdie. :P

[spoiler] Oh please don't hurt me. [/spoiler]

In some ways it's good that they use the delay between going to disc and being sold to continue to make the game as good as it can be. But on the flip side it's a shame that many games have issues that shouldn't be in a released version.

But at least it's usually a simple download these days. I remember I had to get a floppy disk posted to me to get the original Worms installed on my computer (the only saving grace being that you could play it off the CD).

[QUOTE="Wasdie"]

[QUOTE="MonsieurX"]It's fine,we'll patch it up soon.BigBoss154

ARGH!!!!

All capitals is disruptive posting, Wasdie. :P

It's not disruptive when in context of the post.

HOWEVER IF I MADE AN ENTIRE POST LIKE THIS IT WOULD BE CONSIDERED DISRUPTIVE.

There is a difference :wink:

This :| is :D also :shock: considered :evil: disruptive :p.

As is this!!!!!!!!

[QUOTE="MonsieurX"]It's fine,we'll patch it up soon.Wasdie

ARGH!!!!

[QUOTE="BigBoss154"]

[QUOTE="Wasdie"]

ARGH!!!!

Wasdie

All capitals is disruptive posting, Wasdie. :P

It's not disruptive when in context of the post.

HOWEVER IF I MADE AN ENTIRE POST LIKE THIS IT WOULD BE CONSIDERED DISRUPTIVE.

There is a difference :wink:

This :| is :D also :shock: considered :evil: disruptive :p.

As is this!!!!!!!!

I'll just uh...go away and cower in the corner now. :cry:

Seriously though, I agree. You take a look at past PC centric developers such as id with the likes of John Carmack at the helm, and you have wonder how games like Rage got released the way it did on the PC. I mean this is f***ing John Carmack we're talking about here.

I'm getting a bunch of DX runtime errors on Battlefield 3. 35% of the online games I play, I get a crash =/..Must be the Nvidia drivers.

This is happening on consoles as well...so its pretty universal to every platform (except Nintendo ones)

[QUOTE="BigBoss154"]

[QUOTE="Wasdie"]

ARGH!!!!

Wasdie

All capitals is disruptive posting, Wasdie. :P

It's not disruptive when in context of the post.

HOWEVER IF I MADE AN ENTIRE POST LIKE THIS IT WOULD BE CONSIDERED DISRUPTIVE.

There is a difference :wink:

This :| is :D also :shock: considered :evil: disruptive :p.

As is this!!!!!!!!

It was always like this. Heck, it was worse, because the access to patches wasn't as easy as it is now. I've played through unpatched Daggerfall and Patriot :D

I'm surprised by how polished Heroes VI is though, I've been playing it for many hours now and I've yet to encounter even a single but or crash. Hope this bodes well for Anno 2070.

I agree with you Wasdie 100%. The scary part is, that, it has become common practice even on consoles. Remember that mess of a MP with COD2? The crap has rolled hard downhill since then.

Since games developpement went from 1 year to 3-4 years and devs need money between that time to not close their doors I guess. Btw I can't speak about all the games the TC mentionned beside Red Orchestra and BF3. I agree with Red orchestra, barely playable when it came out, but I have 0 issues with BF3 so far.jack00

The way it has been explained to me is that it costs less in the short term to release an unfinished game and then patch it later. Publisher want their money, and they want it NAO.meetroid8

Plus, if a game comes out and doesn't do well, they don't have to bother spending the time, money and energy fixing it.

I think you're overreacting, there were always a ton of PC games that were buggy to all hell at launch trough out decades. Call of Duty 1 has a catastrophic AI bug that pisses me off, i know this because i have the original. Battlefield 2 was also buggy at launch. Lord knows Daggerfall had bugs, Fallout 1 & 2 aswell, Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 had bugs, and a ton more. Though there were always polished games with a minimal nr. of bugs side by side with these back then, as to this day.

I thought this has been a problem with PC as long as I can remember. Games like Daggerfall, Fallout, Fallout 2.. bigger the game and game world more problems at launch. In my own personal opinion and experience I think the situation is actually better today than it was like 10 years ago.

I thought this has been a problem with PC as long as I can remember. Games like Daggerfall, Fallout, Fallout 2.. bigger the game and game world more problems at launch. In my own personal opinion and experience I think the situation is actually better today than it was like 10 years ago.

Icarian

Fallout 1 had a bug that caused saves to be broken from time to time. Fallout 2 wasn't as buggy though, but still had a ton.

[QUOTE="Icarian"]

I thought this has been a problem with PC as long as I can remember. Games like Daggerfall, Fallout, Fallout 2.. bigger the game and game world more problems at launch. In my own personal opinion and experience I think the situation is actually better today than it was like 10 years ago.

Lucianu

Fallout 1 had a bug that caused saves to be broken from time to time. Fallout 2 wasn't as buggy though, but still had a ton.

I just resently installed Fallout 2 and I forgot to patch it before playing. I encountered a bug that crashed my game everytime I tried to complete a quest. Luckily patching the game fixed it. Both were bad.

I guess I'm upset because the status quo of PC games should be changing. Our standards are rising, we shouldn't accpet the fact that PC games need so many patches today to fix them up.

The way it has been explained to me is that it costs less in the short term to release an unfinished game and then patch it later. Publisher want their money, and they want it NAO.meetroid8

Its not only on PC. Paying $60 for Betas has been all the rage this gen. Fallout 3, New Vegas, Black Ops, Medal of Honor, Resistance 3, etc etc

[QUOTE="jack00"]Since games developpement went from 1 year to 3-4 years and devs need money between that time to not close their doors I guess. Btw I can't speak about all the games the TC mentionned beside Red Orchestra and BF3. I agree with Red orchestra, barely playable when it came out, but I have 0 issues with BF3 so far.AdrianWerner

To be fair, I think you've hit the real nail on the head here. With consoles, it is usually simpler to make a game because the hardware is set and standard from user to user. Every PS3 owner, for example, has the same hardware specs other than maybe HD space. This isn't true for PC owners so you end up with millions of different gamers and a million different hardware specs. Developers have to try and make a game compatible for as many PC owners as possible regardless of specs.

I think this is the real issue and other than accepting patches and glitchly launch games, there isn't much they can do until the game is released and people start reporting issues that need fixing.

Its not only on PC. Paying $60 for Betas has been all the rage this gen. Fallout 3, New Vegas, Black Ops, Medal of Honor, Resistance 3, etc etc

BPoole96

I really haven't had many problems, and the few cases I did, the solution was a google search away ... (Intel/NVIDIA user ;P)

I guess I'm upset because the status quo of PC games should be changing. Our standards are rising, we shouldn't accpet the fact that PC games need so many patches today to fix them up.

Wasdie

This I agree.

I just remembered probably one of the biggest bugs ever in games. Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor (2001). If you tried to uninstall unpatched version of the game, it will also wipe your system files. That was a nasty surprise. Now I can laugh at it, but it wasn't funny back then.

Though I loved the game, Crysis was a mess, at least in my experiences. For some god unknown reason, that game and Warhead run like crap on my system when I should be able to run them fine. Unless it's running at medium or low, the other settings give me the same exact performance regardless of resolution. The ArmA games were a mess, though I can kinda forgive the developer considering how small they are. If they were bigger, then yeah, they'd have the resources to optimize it.

That list needs GTA4.

PS3 gets alot of bad ports aswell OP

its the 360 that gets all the love

There's not much that can be done from us as long as the people that bend over to this practice are in the majority. This doesn't just apply to PC, but anywhere, including consoles. A lot of games now are incomplete, even if it is bug-free. It's only complete when it becomes a GOTY edition.

It would be nice to be able to fight against this in some way, but the majority of people that eat this up has more money, sadly. I don't just want to complain about this practice without thinking of a solution to this.

when the internet connections re becoming everyhwere, developers are becoming more lazy, releasing half games and putting the other half as patches and DLC to download.

And I hate it.

Actually that dates way back to the times of the old Ultima games, Everquest and such which were horrible buggy messes when they came out.

Altho console games are also becoming buggier since they can patch them now (that wasn't an option on the consoles in the past).

Amem with that bro.

Half the games I got this year had some sort of issue. F*** them!

Pretty ironic then that S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat shipped relatively bug free. organic_machine

Dues Ex:HR was a bit of a mess when it launched. They patched that up pretty quickly though.

heretrix

You should make a counter list of recent games that did launches right.