Can they do that?

(Centuri0n) #1

I read a 2 part interview (IGN I think… at E3 this year) where ET-QW was refered to several times as being in an Alpha stage (this was in late May/early June of this year). Somewhere else (sorry I can’t remember… gettin old…), I read that the game is supposed to come out in September/October of this year. Can they go from Alpha to Street in such a short amount of time?

I’m thinking the release date must be wrong, cause going from Alpha to Street in 4/5 months is a pretty lofty goal (Alpha… couple Beta versions… testing testing testing… refining… tweaking… gold status… production and distribution…). Then again, they’re the pro’s at this so I imagine if anyone could do it it would be them.

Anybody know if that street date is correct? Or if they are in fact still in Alpha?

(kamikazee) #2

What we know about the Truth is: “There is no date”.

It releases when it’s done.

(BrightSoul) #3

Is the game in Alpha? From what we saw on those E3 videos I wouldn’t say so… the game mechanics are pretty much there and so are the models/skin. I think in this months they will do some map designing/ balancing/ polishing/ optimizing/. I believe we will get a nice, complete product by October but mind, this is just a personal opinion based on some game footage.

(DG) #4

in the gamespy video interview recorded/released 9th may they refer to the game being alpha, or just coming out of alpha.
http://uk.media.pc.gamespy.com/media/748/748377/vids_2.html

(Joe999) #5

alpha/beta/rc/final are just words. we don’t know what meaning they have for the development team. for some a beta is pretty much a final which needs some polishing and bugfixing, i think it all depends on the way you see the quality of the product. example: what EA thinks is final, i consider beta.

(Centuri0n) #6

example: what EA thinks is final, i consider beta.

hehehe, true.

I guess it’s just anudda bit o hype, and like most games it’ll be like Kamikazee/others have said: it’s done when it’s done. Would be nice to have it for the Holiday season though… :slight_smile:

(Zyklon) #7

Maybe they’ve only shown the late alpha version of the game at the E3, while the game itself was in the middle of the beta.
I suppose they did this so that the E3 visitors didn’t get blinded by the goodness of the final product :moo:

(Hakuryu) #8

I used to be QA for a medical software company that processes claim forms for Medicare and all other insurance. The main software product that the hospitals used was re-created in a newer version of Cobol to keep up with the times and add new functionality.

This was a huge complex beast of a program, easily as complex as any game on the market (probably much more complex), and it went from alpha to a final version in 2 months due to the huge amount of resources put into getting it out. It all depends upon what resources are thrown at a product, not simply time.

(Nail) #9

SD could screw all of you up by saying it’s in ΔΩΉ stage

(delta omega eta)

(Killgarr) #10

I played 3 20 min games while i was at E3…this game is NOT in Alapha stage.

SD even said in these forums that they just have optimization and balance to do.

(kamikazee) #11

That’s stuff for an alpha imho.
Beta is mostly for finetuning.

(SniperSteve) #12

As you can see its just what you considder alpha/beta.

(AnarchyAngel) #13

I still say waiting is a bitch know matter what stage its at, bring it on already!

(Bongoboy) #14

Unfortunately not the case. Certainly we have alps and alps of optimization and balance work to do, but that’s by no means all. Sorry. I’m not sure to what you are referring there; do you have a link?

(mortis) #15

Here is what Bongoboy said before:

Just the single GPU, on this occasion.

Please do bear in mind, we haven’t really done ANY optimising yet, so please don’t regard this kind of spec as our minimum specifications : )

That is all that SD has said, no more, no less.

(Killgarr) #16

Just the single GPU, on this occasion.

Please do bear in mind, we haven’t really done ANY optimising yet, so please don’t regard this kind of spec as our minimum specifications : )

That is all that SD has said, no more, no less.

This all may be true, but what I played at E3 was no Alapha…and if it was, this will be a better game than anyone could imagine. The E3 demo/ Beta / alpha was great…i saw few to no flaws and could have sat there playing for days…hell i waited 2.5 hours + just to play the 60 mins i did play.

(Centuri0n) #17

This all may be true, but what I played at E3 was no Alapha…and if it was, this will be a better game than anyone could imagine. The E3 demo/ Beta / alpha was great…i saw few to no flaws and could have sat there playing for days…hell i waited 2.5 hours + just to play the 60 mins i did play.

Now THAT sounds promising. It would be sooooooo nice if a dev would release their product when it was ready (I mean actually ready). For the past few years it seems everyone has adopted the “ship-it-now-and-patch-it-later” mentality. I know nothing is perfect, and some bugs/glitches will always get thru. But it seems that most devs have accepted that as “status quo” and as a result have no problem shipping a game before it’s ready. I’d rather wait and get a finished product then get one now and have to wait for a patch(s). I can’t remember the last game I played that was ok right-out-of-the-box. Hmmm… the original Unreal Tournament maybe?

Here’s to wishing/hoping SD does the right thing and releases the game when its ready and not before raises glass

(SCDS_reyalP) #18

One common interpretation is that Beta is “feature complete” while Alpha isn’t. Notice that doesn’t say anything about the stability, number of bugs, or development time. If there are features planned that aren’t implemented, then it is Alpha. Of course, there is still plenty of wiggle room as to what constitutes a “feature”.

(Nishua) #19

Regardless of what stage they are in SD & ID should try to release before BF’s 2142 release date, or not to far after BF’s 2142 release. I’d suggest before.

(Lanz) #20

I find that comment funny considering your sig.