Bethesda Softworks says it will soon announce its plans to patch and fix bugs in its just-released Fallout: New Vegas. Although the Obsidian-developed game is receiving a generally positive critical reception, much of the response to the game has made note of an unusually high degree of bugs in the post-apocalyptic roleplaying game.
"Mid-battle a foe may suddenly plummet through the game world or get stuck on a rock, making for an easy kill," said Game Informer's Andrew Reiner; Giant Bomb's Jeff Gerstmann discovered "a list of incredibly annoying bugs that only got worse as I continued playing", although both reviewers recommended the game.
In fact, Gerstmann even advised: "If you're the type of person who likes to watch for a patch or two before settling into a game, know this now: you probably don't want to play Fallout: New Vegas right away."
Initial play of the just-debuted game by fans have also found a number of other polish-related issues, although none are known to stop in-game progress on the open-world game.
But Bethesda says it hopes not to make those watchers wait too long: "We are currently working on releasing patches/updates as quickly as possible for Fallout: New Vegas, for all platforms," says the company in a statement to Gamasutra. "Announcements regarding the patches are forthcoming."
Fallout: New Vegas launched yesterday on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC in North America, and will launch tomorrow in Australia and on Friday in Europe. The game is set after the events of Bethesda's Fallout 3, staged in a future-dystopian Las Vegas as it begins to show slow signs of recovery from nuclear disaster.
but then again bugs and Fallout go hand in hand, dating all the way back to Fallout 1. I just deal with it until they iron the bugs out because the games are worth it.
I STILL can't play Fallout 3 due to crashes at the "Walk to Daddy" scene. 3 different OS's at stock (XP SP2, Vista SP1, and 7), 2 different GPU's (9800GX2 and 4890), 3 different sound devices (Realtek onboard, ExtremeGamer, ASUS Xonar D2), and two different versions of the game (Retail and GOTY (Stream)).
So, am I supposed to be shocked its sequal has major problems?
Wondering why there wasn't a day one patch. I assume there was a HUGE fix list from the approved submission build. The team, after their vacation break, would have had 3-5 weeks to work on the fixes, test and submit for approval.
Not a smart way to treat your fan base...especially in this competitive retail environment.
I love Bethesda and I understand such massive games as theirs typically having a few bugs, however when creating something based off an engine that had bugs already, I would assume some time went into finding and fixing these bugs.
This news though just made me realize, while I like my games polished, I hate day one patches or announcements the day after release that a patch is coming out.
A patch after that short after release means either the bugs were incredibly hard to replicate or the product was rushed through QA (either by the developer or producer).
That engine needs to be rebuilt. It is too old. I wish they took the time to do that for New Vegas, but hopefully Bethesda does it for the next games. Is it me or does Bethesda always arrive to the party with the not-so-current tech?
I think the engine is fine for the current gen, sure it's showing some of it's age but I think more of the flaws it has aren't specifically because it's old, they're just bugs in an engine that hasn't been polished as much as it should be for it's size.
I would expect the next Elder Scrolls (whenever we get it) to have another engine though. I agree though that the engine itself is starting to suffer from the id tech or Unreal Engine issue where suddenly there are several games with the same engine that somehow look the same even with thousands of different art assets.
I've been playing the game for two days and honestly I haven't seen bugs on the level of what's being reported. But given the number of complaints, obviously they do exist. Even if Bethesda did a minimal amount play-testing, they had to know the bugs existed. So I fail to understand why a patch was not ready on day one? Everyone understands there may not have been enough time to fix all the bugs before going gold. But they had weeks (or months) between going gold and the release date to prepare a patch. Even if it only fixed some the bugs, there should have been a patch.
but then again bugs and Fallout go hand in hand, dating all the way back to Fallout 1. I just deal with it until they iron the bugs out because the games are worth it.
So, am I supposed to be shocked its sequal has major problems?
Not a smart way to treat your fan base...especially in this competitive retail environment.
This news though just made me realize, while I like my games polished, I hate day one patches or announcements the day after release that a patch is coming out.
A patch after that short after release means either the bugs were incredibly hard to replicate or the product was rushed through QA (either by the developer or producer).
I would expect the next Elder Scrolls (whenever we get it) to have another engine though. I agree though that the engine itself is starting to suffer from the id tech or Unreal Engine issue where suddenly there are several games with the same engine that somehow look the same even with thousands of different art assets.