Bugs and glitches galore since 2005

[HowIPendragon]

So this is basically a rant stemming from the recent problems GTA Online has had. Not aiming this directly at Rockstar, though it does seem like they made a billion dollars for a seemingly poor job, but I just got to thinking about this after all the technical problems they've been having with their online service, as many other games have been plagued with.

 

I just don't know what the hell is with this new generation of games. Ever since the beginning of the 7th gen games have been riddled with bugs and glitches that later get patched through online updates. Have devs gotten lazier or less competent over the years? This stuff rarely happened with games of gens past, probably because back then they figured it'd be the absolute last chance they'd have to touch the game before release.

 

I mean sure, games have a lot more information and code to them nowadays which leave room for a lot more bugs than before, but for such a sudden rise in poorly done jobs to occur from literally one generation to another is ridiculous.

 

Again, just a rant. I realize I started talking about online games and then went the other direction and talked about all games in general, but its what got me started.

 

Let me know your opinions. Argue about it and all that fun stuff. Meanwhile I'll be waiting another 30 minutes for this GTA session to launch -.-

Edited October 3, 2013 by rsoto1125

[MoreTheVictim]

True. Very true. I'm glad you brought it up. I'm saying this for a long time. All they want is more money eh.

[HowIPendragon]

Well who can blame them for that, I mean that's where DLC comes in too (which is a whole 'nother thing I won't even start on).

But its a joke that companies can release games so buggy to the point of almost being unplayable (ie. Skyrim) and still rake in millions of $$.

 

Don't get me wrong, I loved it. I'm a huge sucker for it. Its my first Elder Scrolls game ever. But it still feels that way.

[MoreTheVictim]

Indeed. Games nowadays get released so quickly and get tons of DLC within a few months and a year later the sequel is released.

How the hell do they manage to make DLC and a full new game within a year? Well they don't because it's always full of glitches and bugs.

 

Don't get me wrong though I love gaming and I couldn't see myself living without gaming.

 

It's the publishers I think. They are the ones who make the release dates. They take all the money. While the devs work their asses off the publishers lay back in their chairs while on the phone yelling them to hurry the f*ck up.

 

I have no clue what a publisher's job is but I don't know why they get to decide the release dates and seem to have a big influence in the creating of the game.

Perhaps I'm dumb, but wouldn't it make more sense if the devs get to choose the release dates? They create the game, know the most about it, right?

What do publishers do? Put the game on discs, make a cover and put it in a case and ship it to stores? Or am I seeing that wrong?

 

But when it comes to Bethesda they always have amazing, huge, open world games and I can understand it's hard for them to find and fix all the bugs before release because it's so big and so much to do but every and any developer and not only Bethesda should listen more to the player and fix more bugs. It can't be that hard to fix a bug once 1000 players pointed it out, can it?

Edited October 3, 2013 by MrCostari

[HowIPendragon]

Well the publishers get to tell them what to do because they do just that, publish the game for them, as well as help pay for development costs and advertising. Which is thankfully happening a lot less thanks to Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Sony's thirst for indie games.

 

But you're right, I didn't think about what a big role they must play in this scenario. Some probably just release the most recent build of a game just to meet a deadline. A deadline which was probably strategically set so as not to outshine the games made by the publisher's own studios.

[skateak]

The sad thing it is $40,000 to put a patch up. A lot of indie's could not afford to to do that if a little bug squeaks through. I have to say the main offender of buggy games this gen is Bethesda. Sometimes the bugs are so apparent it seems like they didn't even do Quality Assurance testing. Engines are being built better and better though so I don't see it happening as much on PS4.

[DEMON]

Yea  they have got a lot lazier.. but if you noticed, it doesn't take long for a game to release these days.  Because they are able to patch the game after release means they can get that extra bit of time in building the game before deadline.  Like skateak said though.. not a lot of indie developers would like to do this.. as far as I know, Xbox 360 has free patches now.. but the Fez developer isn't for doing them even know he had the patch made it was just the money was an issue.  Although a game shouldn't be released broken til the point even casual players will notice.  I remember seeing the list of bugs Assassin's Creed 3 had.. that was mad to release a game with that many bugs but I guess AC has quite a tight release date now to be made for.

[Parker]

I suppose I'm in the minority that think developers have actually started working much harder after each generation. Yeah, we do see a lot more bugs in games nowadays (but you'd be dead wrong to say older games don't have bugs too) but what is harder to code for, a Sega Genesis or a PlayStation 3? As our consoles get more and more advanced they get harder to code for and create games so of course we're going to see more bugs pop up as a result of that. Games are also getting bigger with way more technical engines than we've ever had which obviously results in bugs that only occur when millions of people have your product rather than your smaller game testers. 

 

Do some developers take advantage of the patching process to release broken games early? Absolutely, but we generally know which developers do that and know to avoid them. We also have the wonderful website known as YouTube where we can look up gameplay for just about every game known to man so we can see whether or not we'll like it. Patching is not a bad thing, it allows developers to fix problems we have with the games and allows them to continue to support the title long after release.

 

To summarize, game developers are working harder than ever and game consoles are more advanced than ever so of course we're going to see more issues with games. A 2.0 litre, 4 cylinder Subaru engine will be more reliable than a 5 litre, 12 cylinder Ferrari engine but that doesn't mean the Ferrari engineers are lazy, it is just the nature of the beast. 

 

 

Parker

[Nasty_Rory]

To summarize, game developers are working harder than ever and game consoles are more advanced than ever so of course we're going to see more issues with games. A 2.0 litre, 4 cylinder Subaru engine will be more reliable than a 5 litre, 12 cylinder Ferrari engine but that doesn't mean the Ferrari engineers are lazy, it is just the nature of the beast. 

 

 

Parker

Not really a fair comparison there Parker - there is one third of the valves, pistons, spark plugs etc in the subaru engine so there is less parts to go wrong with it in the first place.

Now if you said compare a 2.0L 4 cylinder Honda engine to a 2.0; 4 cylinder Spoon engine - the 2 are very similar, yet you would expect more life from the Honda engine and more fun from the Spoon engine. But the price would be substantially different!

[weeztha]

Well they released gta5 early, left out the online. Scabbed it on later... Really.. What did you think was goin to happen? Saw this comin that's why I didn't rush out day 1 to buy half a game.

Edited October 3, 2013 by weeztha