[QUOTE=HomersGhost;343135]I never wrote that games were released bug free. You wrote that. I sling code for a living and I’m more than well aware of the software complexity. hell, people are still patching Unix bugs that are over thirty years old.
My point with the NES is that developers lived by do-or-die releases which ups the stakes dramatically as opposed to the “fix it in post mentality” of current game developers. When you know you can’t update code once it’s been released, your going to approach the code differently than a developer who knows that he or she can patch later. That’s my point.
Granted, games today radically more complex, but showstopping bugs that would have postponed a launch ten years ago are now being released with the intention of fixing it in post. I mean, buy any game for the XBox at launch, fire it up for the first time, and a large majority of them will download a patch.
By stipulating that the network is not intended for major code rewrites as opposed to minor point releases, you are forcing developers to spend more time in QA (the first thing that’s get downsized in contemporary rushed schedules) since the developers can’t rewrite the damn game after it’s been released. The curve is obviously a shallow one (see Brink network code for the XBox or any Fallout DLC release), but at least there’s something, otherwise, some games would simply be unplayable at launch.
This is a good thing for gamers and a bad thing for the bean counters. I don’t know about you but I get pissed when I drop sixty dollars for a game to then have to sit on my hands for three weeks until the developer fixes what should have worked out of the box.[/QUOTE]
I hear what you are saying. You are right. I just want to point out that its not fair to bring up NES stuff because those games are not Mulitplayer games with lots of working parts, they are for the most part platformers mostly, and single player experiences. Traditionally, PC games have a long standing tradition of fixes, and tweaks post release. And Xbox and PS3 are really just a scaled down version of PC setup and system specs. Sometimes, it seems like gamers will request fixes for games and patches for stuff that is subjective, like balance. Everyone’s idea of balance is different. I am not specifically talking to you when I say this, just in general. Brink has worked well for me. Initially in the first week I faced lag. The rest was what I had expected; I had followed the game off and on while in dev for almost a year. I watched every single video, Dev Diary, commentary so I had a good handle of what I was getting with my money. Honestly, anything that is $60, like a game, I have to do lots of research before I plunk down that much coin.
There are lots of people who seemed to buy Brink thinking they were getting a better COD. Or some kind of Cod+ Revolutionary Gameplay, when in fact all the pre-release videos spelled out what the game was going to be. Lag is the main issue on consoles. I don’t have a PC, so those problems have less to do with me.
I stopped buying PC games for a more streamlined, and simple approach even if at the expense of Super Terrific Graphics. Graphics come absolutely last for me after gameplay, fun, and art style. what’s good about consoles: Just buy a game and plunk it in. then play. at least the patch was there from day one. Also, it seemed like they sorted out most of the lag by week two. That’s pretty dang good. Some games like Gears of War 2, took 6 Title Updates and almost 2 years to get anywhere good in multiplayer! I still don’t play that game. But I just moved on. Sometimes if you make the wrong decision buying a game, you just chalk it up to that and just move on.
