I think many people know from their own experience that doing something absolutely right the first time is very not an easy task. Often, if the work does not have to be redone from scratch, then some parts of it definitely require improvement. The gaming industry is far from an exception: many games released both recently and perhaps several years ago are constantly supported by the developer And improve over time. They polish unfinished elements, fix bugs, sometimes improve balance, add new features, and sometimes even go so far as to the plots change or whole chapters of stories!
To sum it up, patches are an integral part of any modern product, proving that work on a game does not end after it hits the shelves. This is one of main stages of the game life cycle, in which, by maintaining feedback from the audience or, in some cases, completely based on it, developers are able to correct all the shortcomings, making their game almost perfect. But can everything be fixed with patches??
I think that – No. Despite the fact that in our time there are precedents when changes were incredibly significant or so huge that they changed the entire game almost completely, there is exactly one thing that no patch can fix – your first impression!
The role of this factor cannot be ignored, because when you sit down to play the game for the first time, you decide within the next hour whether you like it or not, and this is not taking into account the “refund" V Steam. If your first acquaintance with the game is marred by glitches or other problems, then most likely you will abandon it and it is far from certain that you will return to it someday, having forgotten that such a thing even existed. But even if the stars suddenly align, and you again decide to plunge into the wondrous “new"the world of the game, your delight will no longer be as strong as if this was your first acquaintance with it.
Well, not to be unfounded, let’s take a look at a similar situation. Most people are familiar with the series "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.", which became a real phenomenon. Indeed, despite the obvious prerequisites for “failure", the game was not just able to "shoot", but also became a cult. And exactly the same, most will agree that the entire trilogy is a real encyclopedia of all kinds of glitches: scripts that don’t work when needed, freezes, models falling under textures, physics not working correctly, crashes, and the worst thing – crashed saves.
You can argue for a long time,which part suffered more from this?, but I personally think that the worst game of the trilogy at launch was “clear sky». The game amazed me from the first minutes, perhaps the most atmospheric location of all the games about the “exclusion zone” – the swamp was a real pearl, a most atmospheric find, but everything was spoiled by incessant glitches. NPCs did not go where they were supposed to, which made the idea of a faction war more annoying than revealing the potential of the idea. Each loading between locations made you nervous, because at any such moment a crash could happen. But the worst thing was that the game simply could not be completed until the developers released a patch!
In the majority, due to the impressions being spoiled by such a poor technical component, many did not master it, depriving themselves of a truly unforgettable journey. The game not only lost part of the possible audience, but also remained in the minds of many as the most "not working"from parts of the trilogy, some players still associate it exclusively with its problems, although a lot of time has passed and most of them have long been fixed.
But not just one trilogy"S.T.A.L.K.E.R."unlucky at the start – relatively recently there was a major scandal around the PC release Batman: Arkham Knight. Rocksteady studios created perhaps the best series of games not only about guy in a mouse suit, but also in the genre of superhero games in general! Every game that came out wanted to be like Arkham Asylum or Arkham City, and therefore it was necessary to end such an entertaining series on a high note. What did the players who bought it on PC get??
You can endlessly list the problems that owners of personal computers encountered: For some, the game simply did not start, for others it regularly turned into a slide show, for others textures broke, but the result was truly grandiose – the game was removed from sale! That is, to understand the situation: there was AC:Unity, which we will talk about later was Mortal Kombat X, But Batman: Arkham Knight – the first major game that was removed from sale, it was so bad.
However, we are talking about something else here. The last part had a row and other shortcomings, for which it was not appreciated as highly as its predecessors (in particular, the studio’s overzealousness with batmobile and some plot moves). Only, at the same time, in this game there was the best appearance of the joker of all possible. This was that final relationships, for the sake of which one could endure many of the game’s shortcomings. The effort that the studio put into creating the grandiose ending to this story was definitely worth it for all the fans of this series to play it. But, to be honest, many who returned money for the game later bought it again? Many experienced the same delight, without being annoyed by every issue, after the release became playable?
The textures are gone… but they promised to return (with a patch)
All of the above once again proves that first impressions are the most important of those that can affect the success of the game as a whole. Such examples can be given infinitely many and it is possible to help some, but for others Mass Effect: Andromeda, nothing will save you.
It would seem that all problems can be solved by fighting to release an initially high-quality product, but sometimes there are situations that are not so easy to predict. Something that the developers cannot think about and that the players themselves are unaware of.
For example, everyone probably knows the game Mafia, which is incredibly cool, and which appealed to such a large audience that it became a real "classics", however, there was an episode in it, because of which the ending of this delightful story personally not everyone survived – racing mission. At that time, only a few passed it, and this was provided that people had much more time than today. Over time, a patch was released for the game that corrected this mission and it could be easily won, but again, as in the case of Batman: Arkham Knight – quite a few couldn’t personally experience the rest of the main character’s journey.
Another example and again fresher – Final Fantasy XV was expected for ten long years and as soon as it came out, it was expectedly criticized. There was a lot in her too "revolutionary» decisions that old players could not forgive. Much was frankly unfinished, and the history compared to its predecessors was superficial. However, there was a special moment, the outrage about which reached the point that the developers not only promised to add cut scenes to the game, but also completely change an entire chapter from the game.
This is a rather unique case, on par with what happened with Batman: Arkham Knight – so that after the game is released, it is not just completed or scenes are added, but one might even say that the entire game chapter is changed. Here we must admit that the developers clearly care about public opinion, at least because of the prompt response to the problem, and therefore I also cannot ignore this gesture. Yes, those impressions from the first playthrough remain, but, damn it, the team that made the mistake is making a lot of efforts to eliminate it and will It’s my mistake not to note this, thereby not expressing satisfaction with such a policy.
So in the end what should be done: on the one hand, only in to our strengths fight for quality products and express dissatisfaction by refusing to sponsor frankly crude projects, but on the other hand, by doing so we risk missing out on many good games that are worthy of paying attention to, and most often these are the very ones that come across “rough diamonds»? Honestly, I don’t know the answer. The fact is that there is simply no clear answer.
You can call me an https://anadol24.co.uk/ idealist, but I want to respond with gratitude to those studios who are aware of their mistakes and are ready to work on them. I’ve never been scared off"roughness» games if they were eliminated over time. Maybe for this reason, or maybe because games for me are not only gameplay, but also peculiar art form, in which I want to understand what works and what doesn’t, I want to know the language in which the game "talking"- I am ready to wait and sometimes return to what once was"broken».
Actually, it opened my eyes to this Assassins Creed: Unity – the worst, according to most, game in the entire series and my favorite. For the most part, the rejection towards it was caused precisely by its technical flaws: missing faces, brakes, people hanging in the air and much more. There was so much of this that most players simply could not see what this part was able to achieve.
-Afraid of me, boy? – Seriously.
In fact, it was a grandiose rethinking of the series. In it, the game again punished rash actions, forcing you to be more careful. The approach to killing has changed – now it was a goal in certain conditions, in which only the player chose one of many paths, limited only by imagination and arsenal. The plots in the series have always been quite secondary, but here there was something more hidden behind it – I didn’t think I would say this about this series, but here the “chemistry” of the characters was felt.
But the most important thing that she showed Unity – This Paris, huge, alive, with many places and situations, breathing along with the people filling it, consistent with the neighborhoods and classes of people living in them. A city where you could travel just to explore its surroundings.
An electric razor is often the cause. But sometimes they find… a vibrator.
Of course, we don’t mention whose it is. We are obliged to call it purely, without reference – a vibrator, but not to say “your vibrator”. © Fight Club
Actually, perhaps this is the answer. You can solve this problem only by understanding what games are for you. Unfortunately, the press in our country is, for the most part, quite poorly developed (if there are trusted publications, they are few) and, to be honest, on many issues I am quite skeptical about what they say. However, I believe that there will be a day when we will be able to overcome this barrier.
Therefore, if for you games are primarily a way to pass the time, then it would be more correct to learn to wait until the game is clearly clear about how good and efficient it is. If you, like me, are ready to delve into even the most obscene project, looking for its features, then you need to develop patience and learn to come back.
Well, with this I must say goodbye, I will be glad if you share your opinion. And remember: "gold doesn’t always have to glitter!"
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky
Batman: Arkham Knight
Assassin’s Creed: Unity
Final Fantasy XV
Best comments
Oh, Clear Sky – these were the most epic five minutes of the beginning of the game in my life – you wake up who knows where, fall into bed, see some guy levitating, try to go out the door and the game crashes – 10 out of 10, GOTY. I was never able to play it because of the wild number of bugs – I only completed the first part.
I played through the game almost at the time of release, and I don’t remember any problems there at all… It’s either the case – Arcanum and VtM – Bloodlines(
If I remember about poor optimization and a bunch of bugs, then Gothic 3 immediately comes to mind, I will never forget this slide show with glitches, now it’s a sin to complain about the number of games with an open world, but then 10 years ago – this game seemed to me something unrealistically cool and interesting, I thought that it was just my computer that couldn’t handle it, but with the advent of the Internet it turned out that the problem was deeper. Now few people remember about it, the game never reached the level of a “classic”, it was thanks to the crappy optimization that many people gave up on it, but I liked the game and found it very atmospheric, thanks to the excellent soundtrack and colorful locations, but the impressions when you play an RPG with an open world at 5 FPS were of course more memorable)))
No, friend, I’m not confused.
Oh, Clear Sky – these were the most epic five minutes of the beginning of the game in my life – you wake up who knows where, fall into bed, see some guy levitating, try to go out the door and the game crashes
I described my adventures – even now, I picked up the collection at this sale, there was a lot of things: the most brutal thing was when a detachment of bandits simply disappeared before our eyes (apparently a new anomaly) and when the model fell into the boards in the “swamp”, I had to download.
After Stalker and the first Witcher, I never pick up games at the start, which I advise everyone to do. First impressions – yes, this is an important thing, I put off the same Clear Sky twice until I finally completed it, but the impressions were spoiled, and I instinctively expected another glitch. I started playing the third Witcher seriously after the release of the last expansion, and I don’t regret waiting – I didn’t encounter a single bug during the game.
So know how to wait, gentlemen, because those happy games are unlikely to come when games stop being problematic from the start. So far it’s the other way around (
Great article, give it a thumbs up.
Just a quick note about Final Fantasy XV: they didn’t actually remake the chapter outright.
Gameplay fixes concern one single uber-duper gun, which we are not allowed to see for a long, long time, positioning it as the coolest thing. But since, as planned, the chapter should be dark, oppressive and stealth, this artifact was noticeably limited, and everything else was taken away. Not everyone was ready for this and the contradiction was resolved simply – they strengthened the weapons in the patch, thus “correcting the gameplay of Chapter 13” by simplifying the action playthrough.
Plot corrections resulted in a separate short (20-40 minutes) episode showing what was happening from the point of view of other characters. And between the lines it reads: “Guys, you seriously need to explain everything? OK. ». In fact, there is only one important video, in which they slightly explain (read: clearly show) the development of one hero and give a taste of the villain. Could all this have been originally?. Were these fixes really necessary – most likely not, in general everything was in the game.
However, I completely agree with you, we must give the Japanese their due. When it was necessary, they postponed the game for a month to fix critical errors, although they should have collected money for a 10-year long-term construction long ago. And then, after that, they gathered everyone again, including the actors, to make another piece of a wonderful (in my humble opinion) thing, adding new gameplay from the add-on, and all for free.
I had a disc with the first Stalker version 1.003, which I played with pleasure. But then I bought a license with the latest version, which did not have one gun. I read it on the forums. It turned out that the developers forgot to add it in the patches) But they improved the spawning of things and updated the assortment in stores and merchants.
They became secondary after the death of Desmond, and Unity is one of the flagships of the secondary.
Why do you hit me so hard??
I completed Batman Arkhan Knight first on a pirate version, then, a year later, on Steam with a license that had already been patched. The corrected version went very well, the impressions and emotions were completely different, and the first time I played according to the principle: Well, this is Batman, Arkham, you just need to play.
Here are very sad conclusions 🙁 Sometimes I also don’t know what to grab onto: of course, it’s very good to be able to wait, so that later you don’t “eat” a ton of bugs, but personally, from my own experience, I’ll say that in the wave of new releases, a lot is forgotten.
That is, now games “go out of date” so quickly that after just a couple of months I can easily forget a third of what I wanted to try or end up returning to them for scrap – although the chance of missing out on something really good is very high.
And there is still no patch for “Alice: Madness returns” that would fix FPS spikes, umbrellas, and rare bugs for some of our friends with controls..
Last month passed. I only encountered a couple of problems: FPS dropped when shooting with a pepper shaker (it was treated by lowering Physics in the settings) and the script did not work in the middle of the game (loading the last save helped). Otherwise everything went without a hitch. By the way, I recommend the game, I liked it more than the first part.
Apparently you were lucky, I didn’t have any special problems with the first two parts (with patches), but “Call of Pripyat” never finished, somewhere in the middle of the game it began to crash consistently when loading another location.
The PC is a magical artifact, for some people even the bats didn’t lag, but for me, because of the permission, Alien: isolation was launched only through the config 🙂
I remember the series as a whole vividly and clear sky, although I took it on a Strat, I only launched it three or four days later, when it had been somewhat patched up. The execution is still disgusting, sometimes you jump on the boards, sometimes the enemies just disappear, sometimes the monster does something weird – you can’t save the game from this – it’s a complete anomaly 🙂
Although there is an unplowed field of potential in her.
Well, I don’t know, I keep a list of games in a text file that I want to play, and so far it’s just accumulating… I even put exclamation marks next to more priority things, it’s just a pity that nowadays there’s still very little time for everything – other things take priority in life)
Think Alice: Madness returns not the only one who “hung” like this. 5 years have already passed, I don’t even know if there is hope. And everything is really bad there?
It’s so good when there is the Internet, when you know that this is a bug and it must be fixed. At one time I was obsessed with Daggerfall. I probably found out that it was stupidly impassable after six months or a year. And what to do? Where to get the patch? Just ask friends for heaps of discs from all sorts of game magazines in the hope that there will be a patch. And not only that he will be there, but that he will also be on my version of the game. In general, I didn’t complete Daggerfall, I still regret it =(
PS How did it end with Whatman?? I saw reviews on Steam that they said they fixed it. I bought it for myself in the spring, started it up and that’s it. FPS in some places sags just horribly, although I’m not complaining about the weakness of the computer, new products fly.