Editor's Note: DIY

[Earaldor Xerron]

Well it's certainly annoying that Obsidian games have so many bugs, but that is kind of their trademark. "It's Obisidan, it'll gonna have a lot of bugs!" Almost nostalgic except Black Isle had no such problems (I think). Not that it's a good thing and I agree that they should/could have fixed it a long time ago...
But is this really important enough for an editorial? And "Seriously, fuck you"? I don't know...
Then again, you do have a point, and as others have pointed out, this "who cares it's buggy, we'll fix it post-release!" attitude is getting quite annoying. Both DA II and (to some extent) The Witcher II had rather serious problems at release and their only redemption was that they are very good games (imho!).
I still didn't like this editorial all that much.

 

[BrotherRool]

A buggy game can be fixed, with hardwork and dedicated fans. A bad game will be forever bad and no amount of modding will make another game give you the same fantastic stories that Obsidian have.

KotoR 2 not having the same spirit as the first was a fix not a bug. It's very hard to slog through KotoR 1 and know the story is nothing without it's twist but KotoR 2 will make you think every time.


Obsidian took the brilliant KotoR and improved it endlessly but also left it buggy. They took Fallout 3 and again improved it endlessly but left it buggy.

In the end, if you took the design team of Obsidian and put it in charge of decent tech people (iD?) then I would never need to touch another Bethseda or Bioware again.

Story wise, choice wise and most of all character/development wise KotoR still leaves even Mass Effect and ME 2 in the dust. I don't know why people haven't realised that companions should look at you and judge you for your actions and the way you treat them rather than this rubbish "talk to them after X missions" that Bioware still does. The former creates wonderful characters, the other is like a rather lame and easy dating sim.

 

[AquaAscension]

I like this for the most part because it's trying to make a metaphor out of a relationship - personifying the game studio and then talking to it (her?) as though it were a real love interest - it's poetic. I admire that. Love it actually. But the writing shifts tone so much that the immersion of the story was lost to me at several points. The writing is good, of course, but I felt as though it suffered from some of the same problems as the very love it was criticizing.

The idea was great, but the execution could have been so much better. And you can't love something just based on its idea - it needs to be able to follow through. And perhaps it'd be asking too much for a a games' journal to really put more than the requisite amount of work into a possibly powerful piece like this, but is it?

What if this letter were rewritten as though it made it obvious that it had gone through a couple of ammendments? Like certain lines were crossed off and revisited, certain words fought over in the mind of the writer a few times just to make sure that it was exactly what the ex-lover intended to say. What if the letter focused on the small things that made this person fall in love with Obsidian? Like the way it got this look in its eyes when it was about to tell one of its oh so famous stories? Like the way it would leave you wanting more, but just seemed to get lazier? Like how you'd have to clean up after it so much (but in poetic terms - i.e. keeping the central metaphor intact and letting your intelligent audience get more out of this rather than switching between Obsidian as a lover and Obsidian as a game studio).

I love the idea of personification, but wish that I could more clearly see, feel, hear, understand why the narrator fell so deeply in love with something, to be fair, that was never meant to be soft, that, in the end, would cut itself off and leave those who loved it lacerated. After all, nothing is as sharp, nothing is as good at cutting itself off or cutting itself short as Obsidian is.

Editor's Note: DIY

You've burned your last bit of goodwill, Obsidian.

Read Full Article

 

[archabaddon]

Never thought I'd say "Perhaps it IS a good thing that the PS Store is down."

That being said, though, I gave up after F:NV. The memory leaks would catch me out in the open, far away from an auto-save point, and lock my PS3 down so bad the XMB wouldn't even come up. When they released Dead Money exclusively for the XBox 360 (and didn't release it for other platforms until a full 6 months later), that was the last straw for me. Wasn't going to wait around for however long to buy a DLC for a game that was buggy to begin with.

I've never had more problems with any PS3 games than I have with Fallout 3 or F:NV. Obsidian (and Bethesda) sure know how to make customer feel like 2nd class citizens - by having shotty QA and not fixing existing bugs before trying to get another $10 out of you.

 

[Sannom]

I'm saving my ire for them for however Dungeon Siege 3 turns out. After all, this time they're well financed (IIRC), it's their own engine, and they're not being forced to rush the game out the door.

If they screw up Dungeon Siege 3, *then* then deserve this kind of anger, but not before.

The first reviews are in [http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/103087-dungeon-siege-iii-magazine-reviews.html]. The game is nearly bug-free. Bad timing Mr Pitts.

I have said these self-same things numerous times - including Obsidian's douchy behaviour leading up the release of New Vegas

How were they 'douchy' exactly?

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

Whaaaaaaaat? I've tried so many times to get into kotor 2 again but that level makes me lose the will to live. Seriously that overlong walk in the spacesuit can fuck right off!

 

[JDKJ]

I'm saving my ire for them for however Dungeon Siege 3 turns out. After all, this time they're well financed (IIRC), it's their own engine, and they're not being forced to rush the game out the door.

If they screw up Dungeon Siege 3, *then* then deserve this kind of anger, but not before.

The first reviews are in [http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/103087-dungeon-siege-iii-magazine-reviews.html]. The game is nearly bug-free. Bad timing Mr Pitts. Also Cracked.com did the same thing, and better.

It's been done before a million times and better. Including previous doing by Mr. Pitts himself. And that he didn't resort to the use of the term "eagle semen" in this most recent doing is, frankly, disappointing. I quite enjoy his use of the term "eagle semen."

 

[Kicenna]

The last sentence was over my personal line but I agree that:

Patches are supposed to fix things.

 

[Agayek]

Can't say I agree, in all honesty. I haven't had any really bad bugs in any Obsidian game I've played. I never played NWN2, and KOTOR2 was doomed to failure from the start as it had to be compared to the first, but Alpha Protocol and New Vegas are both excellent games. I ran into a couple of bugs in both admittedly, but nothing really game breaking. The worst bug experience I had was on day 1 of New Vegas. The game simply wouldn't run at more than 10 fps with more than 2 people on screen, and I was attempting to save the opening town with that. It was horrendously optimized, running as a slideshow.

Then a patch came out two days later and completely fixed the problem. Since then, I've had 0 problems with New Vegas. Though to be fair, I have only put in 85ish hours into it. There may be other bugs out there I just haven't run into.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

I don't get what the deal is. Ever consider that your system itself might be on its last legs? I've seen about two or three major bugs in the last 40 hours, and none of them were a significant problem. I haven't played any of the DLC yet, but the game works even better than Fallout 3 did most of the time. I suspect the problem might be using pre patch saves. Bugs saved into the game after the script runs probably can't be changed back without significant tampering with the file. The "game breaking" patch got pulled weeks ago. Are the buggy saves a result of playing using the crap patch?

 

[Imp_Emissary]

I never encountered a bug with New vegas. i also haven't played it for a while because it started to bore me.

Well then this letter really wasn't for you.

>_< F@#k you Obsidian! You broke my heart you whore!

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

Can someone please tell me why there's so much hate? I've seen no major bugs in any Obsidian game i've ever played.

And guys at least they're trying unlike some devs... No names mentioned here of course

Let me put it this way: If you've never played Mask of the Betrayer, you have no idea how many bugs can happen with a Spirit Rainbow Bear.

Plus, there is a very game-breaking bug in NWN2 near the end that can make the ending unplayible.

Perahps they need to fire most everyone except Chris Avellone. He can stay.

 

[beema]

hehehe this was great
maybe you should play FNV on PC, where you at least have mods and console commands to work around bugs.
Sometimes that aspect embitters me even more though -- like the fans of the game are doing all the work that the developers should have done, and for free.

I guess you can take some solace in the fact that half the people probably responsible for FNV were recently fired.

 

[Sniper430]

A one article edition and a letter from the editor that falls into the explicative gutter?
Awesome >.<
Hope you pick up your game next week Escapist....

 

[Sannom]

I guess you can take some solace in the fact that half the people probably responsible for FNV were recently fired.

I'm still flaggerbast at how out-of-proportions those lay-offs were blown. As if firing 6 people, and mostly interns among them, was the equivalent of firing half the people on the payroll.

 

[Magnalian]

You can tell Russ is being serious when there are no /Fingerguns to be found.

 

[B2kCyclops]

Perfect.
I could not have said it better myself.

Exept that I quit the "relation" with Obsidian because of the release of NV.
Well, actually because of KOTOR II.
Releasing NV and Alpha Protocol in the state they were(or rather still/again are), after the mess KOTOR II was, was just too much for me to still say "...,but when it works it's a great game".

If I buy a new car, I want to be able to drive it.
Without having to fear that the engine will stop working randomly, or that parts of the body-kit fall of because I accellerated a bit too much and had to brake hard. [small]FYI, that's why I don't buy cars build in America(sad but true), India or China...[/small]

And that's why I won't even bother for any release from Obsidian, until they stop putting out crap.
Over ten(10!!!) years of this malpractice is more than any loyal customer should have to bare. -.-
Enough is enough.
It saddens me, but I honstly think they should disband the team and build up a new one.
Well, or they should get kicked in their private parts, until they fix this BS...
/rant

Anyways.
Great article.
Good writing and nice viewpoint.
At least I can rely on The Escapist for releasing quality material.

Well, most of the time. ;-P

[small]-typos edited-[/small]

 

[Jens_T]

Slamming Obsidian isn't particulary difficult or clever. But doing it with this much style and panache deserves applause. Well done, Sir.

 

[DCB]

Neverwinter Nights 2 and Kotor 2, never forget, never forgive. Bioware handed them gold and they turned into lead with weird science. What ticked me off about New Vegas was having to wait for the first couple of patches to be able to play it, nothing turns you off quicker than having to go back 5 hours in the game cause of some bad programming.

 

[chronobreak]

I wish more writers in the game community would tackle this issue head-on. Why do you think it is that they don't? I mean sure, they'll write about an issue, but they won't go out of their way to really say what they (or more likely their readers) think. Maybe if they did, things like this New Vegas debacle with a 7 month old game that is still broken wouldn't get a free pass from the gaming media.