Are there any respectable, dependable devs/pubs?

[Shifty Geezer]

Coming off a rant in the Battleborn thread about broken games that don't get fixed, is it true that there are no devs/pubs these days that can be trusted not to release broken games? Or are there some devs/publishers who never put anything out there until it works, or at least connect with the public over issues and do actually solve them in a timely fashion? My personal feeling is any game bought day one could be riddled with issues that don't get fixed for months, and you can't buy with confidence from any publisher.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

A year ago I would have said Sony and Microsoft but online issues of both DriveClub and The Master Chief collection surprised me. That said, given the number of games they both develop and publish, they're pretty good for the most part. As is Nintendo of course.

Frankly I don't think anybody is beyond a fuck up particularly when online is a core part of the experience. Most of what I do day to day is scaling stuff up and I know from bitter experience that the weirdest things can ruin your day when you're scaling up and it's simply impossible to fully test an online game in Q&A or beta testing, the only real test is to go live and pray a little.

 

[Clukos]

CD Project Red, Blizzard, Naughty Dog, SSM, Turn10, R* out of the top of my head.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

CD Project Red, Blizzard, Naughty Dog, SSM, Turn10, R* out of the top of my head.

As much as I love Witcher 3, it was a buggy mess when it launched and continued to be quite buggy for quite some while. Seems to be the case in many other games with similar scope though.

 

[Cjail]

Bethesda Softworks makes "bug-free" games

Spoiler

in an alternative universe.

On a serious note I mostly buy day one and all the game I bought have been perfectly playable even if many had bugs, or the controls were not intuitive.
Gamers and the so called journalists use the term "broken" too lightly.

 

[BRiT]

Maybe the simpler games like TellTaleGames or the Lego series? I cant tell about the Lego series because I dont pick them jp until they're below $15 down from their $60 MSRP.

 

[MrFox]

Never had any game-breaking bugs with well over 100 AAA games purchased on consoles, fingers crossed. Witcher 3 did have a few glitches but this is the kind of game where the ambition of the world size is more important than a flawless experience. The most dramaticly broken games I read about on forums aren't games I own though. I also rarely buy open world games, prefering linear storytelling. The genre seems to impact bugs much more than who made it.

I play only MMOs on PC (it's the right tool for the job), and all of them are perpetually buggy, we end up accepting it because MMOs are too difficult to get right, and they need continuous additional content. This is a broken genre, regardless of publisher.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Maybe the simpler games like TellTaleGames or the Lego series? I cant tell about the Lego series because I dont pick them jp until they're below $15 down from their $60 MSRP.

Friend played one of the PS3 Lego games and was caught in a game breaking bug that was months before getting fixed.

Gamers and the so called journalists use the term "broken" too lightly.

On the whole they might, but when you encounter a game breaking bug, broken is the correct term. And these are all too common when it comes to trying to play a game you bought and finding the multiplayer never connects or you did events in the wrong order and your game is frozen, and no fix is coming for months.

Bugs that get fixed aren't the issue, but bugs that don't get fixed which leave you with broken games. My example was Borderlands on PS3. I had to play with a different PSN account and voice chat was a mess. The game was bought specifically to play coop with a couple of buddies and we wasted stupid hours trying to get the damned thing to work, and only had a half-arsed experience as a result of the issues that Gearbox never addressed.

Anyone who's ever wasted hours of their free time (especially when rare and pressure) knows what a 'broken' game is.

Nintendo did come to mind as I don't think I've ever heard of a N. killer bug, though I've little first hand experience of them.

 

[Cjail]

The problem I have with the therm "broken" is that is misused or used just to create noise and noise it's the lifeblood of the gaming media and the Internet, aside few forums.
Check Eurogamer, they say Batman Arkham Knight is in "a broken state" on PC (a new stare of matter invented by them because I never heard this expression from physics).
The reality is you can play it, finish it perfectly, just not at 1080p 60fps.

Game breaking bugs are another story, I encountered them too and restarting anew usually allowed me to finish the game so I can't in all honestly call a game "broken" if I could then finish it perfectly, even if I had to waste/spend tens of hours more than necessary to finish it.

I don't enjoy to waste my time because a developer/publisher bluntly ignored an issue they could have fixed but nowadays so many expect/demand nothing but perfection from games and it's an absurd expectation that no publisher/dev can meet.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I don't enjoy to waste my time because a developer/publisher bluntly ignored an issue they could have fixed but nowadays so many expect/demand nothing but perfection from games and it's an absurd expectation that no publisher/dev can meet.

I agree. However, I think that's something of a reaction from gamers who have bought properly broken games and not had them fixed, that the weight of bugs and issues now weighs heavier. If dealt with in a more positive fashion (less critical bugs at release, faster fixes of major issues, better communication and kept promises), gamers would be more forgiving. I think it's better we have a stronger negative backlash culture at the moment pressuring games to ship in a better state than a softer, more tolerant attitude that allows pubs to continue releasing unfinished products, until such time as the publisher actions earn a bit more leniency and understanding.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I kind of take online issues separately from core game issues. There are very few games I've played where there were any game-breaking problems, or even moderate issues, with single-player or offline content for console games. I'd say I've had a 99% success rate with that part of gaming. Online is a bit different. Battlefield 4 was a disaster. Master Chief Collection and Driveclub were well-reported disasters afterwards. I don't have much faith in online launches for companies who haven't done it before. The Battlefield 4 disaster was inexcusable, because of ... well ... the large number of games in the Battlefield series that had online launches that got progressively worse instead of better. For example, I wouldn't expect Driveclub 2 to have issues, now that the company is experienced.

 

[orangpelupa]

hmm I rarely got game breaking bugs on PC and consoles, whatever the game is. including skyrim that people says buggy

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Well a game breaking bug is pretty near the worst possible scenario, just because we don't get those often or even ever is nothing to be too happy about. I tolerate small bugs like wonky animation or characters clipping through objects just fine, but imo stuff like broken unfinishable quests in an RPG are very bad, even if not game breaking. Having to exit out of a game and loading again gets old pretty quickly if you need to do it too often etc.

 

[Cjail]

@Shifty Geezer
I see you point, probably you are right.

Fear will keep the developers in line. Fear of backlash or boycotts.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

@Shifty Geezer
Fear of backlash or boycotts.

I think most publishers know gamers are all mouth and buster. For all the 'downgrade' of WATCH_DOGS and technical issues with Unity, it didn't stop subsequent Ubisoft games selling and charting well.

En masse gamers feel some weird entitlement and like to bitch and whinge. Over many hobbies I've dabbled with I've never come across a more miserable bunch of joyless bastards than videogamers, which is somewhat ironic given its a pastime which is predicated on fun and entertainment

 

[BRiT]

Not entirely "game breaking" but I consider it "game play breaking" when a fundamental of a game is changed enough that it prevents people from playing it the way they would have in a previous series.

In this situation I'm talking about Halo 4. First, in all previous Halo series you could cary forward power weapons, but in H4 once you take a weapon forward one minizone then swap it with a different weapon it completely disappears. Second, in all previous Halo series you could carry forward power vehicles, but in H4 once you take it beyond a minizone then it disappears completely; you're driving a wraith one moment and the next its gone!

 

[Shifty Geezer]

En masse gamers feel some weird entitlement and like to bitch and whinge. Over many hobbies I've dabbled with I've never come across a more miserable bunch of joyless bastards than videogamers, which is somewhat ironic given its a pastime which is predicated on fun and entertainment

I think you've got that wrong. The strength of the negativity is due to the strength of the emotional power of the hobby. People love their favourite games, get excited, hyped, thrilled, and of course disappointed. I don't know that pottery fans or book fans or stamp collectors ever get as passionate about their pastimes as gamers. Sure the lows are lower and uglier, but the highs are higher. The most equivalent level of emotional attachment to a pastime I know of is sport, and we all know how low and ugly sports fans can get.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I think you've got that wrong. The strength of the negativity is due to the strength of the emotional power of the hobby. People love their favourite games, get excited, hyped, thrilled, and of course disappointed.

I've yet to encounter a community where the positives outnumber the negatives when it comes to game opinions. That includes here. GAF? 'naff said. I still blame it on some imagined sense of entitlement. People expect things not promised then complain when something does not live up to some unreasonable hype. Then do it again.

Sure the lows are lower and uglier, but the highs are higher. The most equivalent level of emotional attachment to a pastime I know of is sport, and we all know how low and ugly sports fans can get.

Sport is an apt point of reference, particularly for console gaming where there are only three teams and only two turned up to play this generation. The fanboys exacerbate the problem but what can you do?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I've yet to encounter a community where the positives outnumber the negatives when it comes to game opinions.

Again, I disagree. There's plenty of praise when companies get it right. There are games were players are raving about how awesome they are. There are services and experiences where users are saying how great they are. And bare in mind it's well known that people tend to post more complaints than compliments, chiefly I belieie because when people are enjoying something, they're too busy enjoying it to talk about it on the internet.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Again, I disagree. There's plenty of praise when companies get it right. There are games were players are raving about how awesome they are.

I challenge you to link to thee threads discussing different games where positive comments outnumber the negatives. It's ok, I'm not in a rush