James McGeachie Posted April 20, 2012 Posted April 20, 2012 Yeah, this doesn't sound like the kind of hole you get out of in development hell, at least not with a good product in the end. Sucks as the game concept was definitely nice.
flameboy Posted April 20, 2012 Posted April 20, 2012 Yes, the thing is, I don't think Bethesda were aware of how bug ridden Fallout and Skyrim were, simply because even a substantial QA team of 40 people wouldn't have been able to put in the amount of time, and had the diversity of play styles that the game's eventual 6 million strong audience would have been able to, and thus there would just have been a lot of problems that weren't uncovered until you got the game in people's hands. Any game as systemic as the stuff Bethesda puts out is going to be host to some issues. You again. Fallout: New Vegas had a bug that was the stuff of nightmares right at the beginning of the game: And I think the ps3 glitch for Skyrim is all I need to say about that game. I'm with Deathjam on this one. If a company wants to bring out a product of this scope then take the 6 months to QA it effectively for all these permetations you speak of. I don't even think that's the issue, there were random crashing mere minutes into the game so your telling me they couldn't have tested for this? I have the PS3 version and waited until this patch that apparently sorted everything but it hasn't I still have system lock ups doing the most seemingly small things...frequent lock ups when just walking around...this morning one talking to someone in an inn and it wasn't even someone who had proper dialogue so what exactly was it working out that caused it to crash? I'm 55 hours in and it's certainly not been without it's frustrations.
The Bard Posted April 20, 2012 Posted April 20, 2012 I'm with Deathjam on this one. If a company wants to bring out a product of this scope then take the 6 months to QA it effectively for all these permetations you speak of. Stop to think for a moment, about the financial ramifications of paying a full QA team to bug test a game for six months, and then tell me whether it seems like a viable course of action to you. I'm more prone to give Bethesda a pass because I know that the nature of the games they make mean there exist such a huge amount of interactive systems that nobody can holistically test before release.
Deathjam Posted April 20, 2012 Posted April 20, 2012 I'm with Deathjam on this one. If a company wants to bring out a product of this scope then take the 6 months to QA it effectively for all these permetations you speak of. I don't even think that's the issue, there were random crashing mere minutes into the game so your telling me they couldn't have tested for this? I have the PS3 version and waited until this patch that apparently sorted everything but it hasn't I still have system lock ups doing the most seemingly small things...frequent lock ups when just walking around...this morning one talking to someone in an inn and it wasn't even someone who had proper dialogue so what exactly was it working out that caused it to crash? I'm 55 hours in and it's certainly not been without it's frustrations. Yeah, this doesn't sound like the kind of hole you get out of in development hell, at least not with a good product in the end. Sucks as the game concept was definitely nice. When you take these into consideration, it maybe a good thing that Prey 2 may never see the light of day, as I would not be surprised if it became a source of major frustration and disappointment with those development issues and Bethesda's possibly questionable development practice.
flameboy Posted April 20, 2012 Posted April 20, 2012 Stop to think for a moment, about the financial ramifications of paying a full QA team to bug test a game for six months, and then tell me whether it seems like a viable course of action to you. I'm more prone to give Bethesda a pass because I know that the nature of the games they make mean there exist such a huge amount of interactive systems that nobody can holistically test before release. That's not my problem I'm a paying customer who doesn't expect to get terrible game breaking bugs...I genuinely think there is an issue that needs addressing 6 months was perhaps an exaggeration but there is definitely a case to be made that arguably these games need an extended period of testing longer than they are getting. There is no excuse for some of faults that arise so early on in games.
The Bard Posted April 20, 2012 Posted April 20, 2012 I know, I mean, it's a weird thing with games right, like if you went to see a film at a cinema and it kept cutting out for 30 second intervals, you'd be pissed and want your money back, but because there are so many more variables in video games, you kinda have to learn to live with it, especially in Bethesda games, where the amount of player input is so drastically more consequential than in most other games.
Deathjam Posted April 20, 2012 Posted April 20, 2012 The thing that really gets me thinking though is, at the beginning, there are that many variables, and what kind of coding produces such horrifying results.
The Bard Posted April 20, 2012 Posted April 20, 2012 (edited) Well, it's the variables that they have to provide contingencies for in the code that produce unforseeable interactions that result in the sort of bugs that you describe. Also on PC, for example, the problem is further compounded by the fact that everyone playing will have a different machine, with different components and drivers installed, presumably working on a different version of Direct X and Windows. Now, if it's something like the original Prey, for example, the range of possible actions is very limited by the games scripted nature - you walk here, trigger a set of enemies to appear, the only real choice you have being the weapon you use to kill said enemies - whereas with Fallout or Skyrim, right off the bat you have a character whose traits are customised to your specifications, meaning he/she is going to interact with the environment in a totally different way to how another persons character will. Add to that an unimaginably huge amount of interactive things in the environment itself, such as the cheese wheels and the soul gems and the flowers, not to mention the physics elements and all the other bullshit. I mean, I heard there was a bug that was somehow triggered when you picked up every cheese wheel in the game. Now how exactly would it occur to a QA team, or the developer to test for that? How are they going to hypothesise the existence of a player who makes it his sole mission to pick up every one of this or that random item, and the contortions these actions are going to cause in the code? These are the reasons that I'm more liable to give them a pass; I'd rather they keep making huge systemic games of this caliber, and I'll deal with the bugs as they come. Edited April 20, 2012 by The Bard
Deathjam Posted April 20, 2012 Posted April 20, 2012 The cheese wheel thing is understandable. But the point I think you are missing is that some of the bugs are obvious and right at the start of the game, or in the ps3's point, after you have spent a certain amount of time in the game. Was it 40 hours+? Can't remember. Either way, those should have been foreseeable. What kind of testing would not have queried what happens when you spend X amount of time in the game's world? And it wasn't only a select few but a widespread problem. And for a game of this type, it's certainly feasable to spend at least the amount of hours that triggered the glitch. Different gaming setups is not an unexpected variable. It comes with the territory when developing for PC, and remember, The Elder Scroll games started out on the PC so it isn't like it's creators are amateur's stepping into new territory. We have been here before with Fallout, Oblivion, New Vegas. May have been here with Daggerfall too but I never played that so I don't know.
Cube Posted February 2, 2013 Posted February 2, 2013 http://www.aliennoire.com It's alive. From people analysis the code, the (re?)announcement is due on the 1st March.
Shorty Posted February 2, 2013 Posted February 2, 2013 It's alive. From people analysis the code It's just text right? So we could just c+p it into something without that font... like this textarea right here... 2343616 seconds 39060 minutes 651 hours 27 days
Cube Posted February 2, 2013 Posted February 2, 2013 The code says "Mar 1 2013 18:00:00", which is a bit easier to read. Edit: Also, the page source was also where it mentioned Prey 2 - but that part has been edited out.
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