First Fallout 4 Beta Patch to Release Next Week

Lizzy Finnegan

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First Fallout 4 Beta Patch to Release Next Week



"A hundred testers will never replicate the many millions playing the game now, and we're hard at work addressing the top issues."

game-breaking bug [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/editorials/reviews/14910-Fallout-4-Review-Bethesda-s-Open-World-RPG-Apocalypse.3] when some players head to Monsignor Plaza. In a blog post today, Bethesda said that it plans to release the game's first patch, which will arrive as a beta next week, with the full PC and console release to follow.

"It's true that the freedom our games offer you can lead to unintentional consequences that are sometimes bad, when the game combines too many unexpected elements at once," Bethesda wrote on its official blog [https://bethesda.net/#en/events/game/thanks-and-updates/2015/11/19/53]. "We're happy that Fallout 4 is our most robust and solid release ever, and we'd like to thank our amazing QA staff who worked as hard as anyone to break the game so we could fix it during development. But a hundred testers will never replicate the many millions playing the game now, and we're hard at work addressing the top issues."

"Our process for updating the game will include releasing a beta patch on Steam, followed by full release on PC, then release on the consoles," the post continues. "This process has worked well for us in the past and allows us to get more fixes out faster. Expect to see more updates, that are smaller and more frequent, than a few big ones. This allows us to make sure each fix is working right, as any change can have unintentional side effects in a game this huge. We expect the first beta patch to be up next week."

Bethesda spared no expense in hyping players for Fallout 4, including a 10% drop in Pornhub traffic that day [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/141809-Bethesda-and-Loot-Crate-Team-Up-to-Offer-a-Limited-Edition-Fallout-4-Crate].

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Tanis

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Aug 30, 2010
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So now they FINALLY admit that they release their games before proper testing is done so PAYING customers can do it for them.
 

scotth266

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Jan 10, 2009
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I'm slightly amused by the disparity certain developers receive in their treatment by gamers when it comes to the amount of bugs in their games. Fallout 4 is allowed to have multiple stupid bugs because "it's a Bethesda game", but people righteously raked Ubisoft over the coals for AC:Unity. I think it shows just how far the bar has sunk when people genuinely got upset that Totalbiscuit flamed the game for being buggy when he played it.
 

Zontar

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Feb 18, 2013
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Tanis said:
So now they FINALLY admit that they release their games before proper testing is done so PAYING customers can do it for them.
Let's be honest though, if a Bethesda game was released that was in prefect running condition, we'd all be incredibly suspicious.
 

vallorn

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Nov 18, 2009
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Zontar said:
Tanis said:
So now they FINALLY admit that they release their games before proper testing is done so PAYING customers can do it for them.
Let's be honest though, if a Bethesda game was released that was in prefect running condition, we'd all be incredibly suspicious.
agreed. I would start suspecting that Bethesda had struck a deal with the devil for unholy bugtesting powers and begin waiting for pigs to start flying and volcanoes to start freezing over.
 

ShakerSilver

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Nov 13, 2009
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"Hey there, paying customers! Not happy with how broken our game is? Then come and beta test it for us, because lord know we can't be assed to do it ourselves!"

If EA or Ubisoft pulled this they would be rightfully crucified. Screw this company and the people that excuse or defend their horrible practices.
 

Dosbilliam

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I'm a cynical bastard beyond all reason, but I really gotta say that I'm nothing compared to half the people here so far...

First, "Beta" in this context, assuming we're talking about PC, would refer to beta patches, which are opt-in unlike the normal patches which are universal. I plan on opting in myself so I can add my thoughts on the patches to my Let's Play of the game, but it seems like I'm one of the few operating on a correct definition.

That being said, it's not surprising that they waited a bit to release it, since like they said, millions of people will come up with a lot more random stuff to try than a hundred or so QA testers, who by virtue of being paid, have a limited amount of time to try everything they can think of.
 

IceForce

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Yikes, going by the hostility of some of the comments in this thread thus far, one would be forgiven for thinking that Bethesda had stolen their baby and killed their spouse.

"RAR RAR BETHESDA DOESN'T BETA TEST THEIR GAMES HERPA DERPA DURR." <-- Proven wrong by this very article itself, where it says they employ a team of 100 QA testers.
Sooo, what are you saying... 100 isn't enough? Would you have preferred a thousand? A million?

Bethesda are absolutely right when they say a sample size of QA testers is never going to be able to find every bug, not like the actual gaming public can given their sheer numbers.
 

saluraropicrusa

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Feb 22, 2010
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IceForce said:
Yikes, going by the hostility of some of the comments in this thread thus far, one would be forgiven for thinking that Bethesda had stolen their baby and killed their spouse.

"RAR RAR BETHESDA DOESN'T BETA TEST THEIR GAMES HERPA DERPA DURR." <-- Proven wrong by this very article itself, where it says they employ a team of 100 QA testers.
Sooo, what are you saying... 100 isn't enough? Would you have preferred a thousand? A million?

Bethesda are absolutely right when they say a sample size of QA testers is never going to be able to find every bug, not like the actual gaming public can given their sheer numbers.
what this person said.

as a QA tester myself (albeit not for Bethesda), it's a bit disheartening to see people expect those in this line of work to be able to find every bug, given time, budget, and team size restraints. especially given the sheer amount of variables in a game like Fallout 4, where reloading a save from just five minutes previous can yield almost entirely different results due to quirks in programming, AI, physics, etc. that and i can't imagine the nightmare of trying to reproduce a bug that only happened 5/10 times, or worse, only once.

they have to prioritize, and sometimes that means missing something that the player might think is obvious, but that only happened the one time or didn't happen at all.
 

IceForce

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saluraropicrusa said:
IceForce said:
what this person said.

as a QA tester myself (albeit not for Bethesda), it's a bit disheartening to see people expect those in this line of work to be able to find every bug, given time, budget, and team size restraints. especially given the sheer amount of variables in a game like Fallout 4, where reloading a save from just five minutes previous can yield almost entirely different results due to quirks in programming, AI, physics, etc. that and i can't imagine the nightmare of trying to reproduce a bug that only happened 5/10 times, or worse, only once.

they have to prioritize, and sometimes that means missing something that the player might think is obvious, but that only happened the one time or didn't happen at all.
Exactly.

It's possible that people are upset about the 'beta' nature of the patch, but the article says that Bethesda are going to be rolling out patches with a faster turnover period this time, so it won't be long before the 'beta' patch turns into the 'official' patch. And as the poster above me said, beta patches are always opt-in and never forced on you.

Besides, it's not like Bethesda are the only ones doing the above, -- Microsoft release beta patches, service packs, and even entire beta operating systems to the public all the time, and no one seems to give much of a shit.
 

Fappy

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... amazing QA staff
I almost laughed at this, but honestly, it may not be an inaccurate statement. Speaking from personal experience, software QA is not an easy job. Considering how big Bethesda games are, I am sure properly QAing it is a colossal undertaking. If anything is to blame for Fallout's buggy launch it's probably the engine itself. Gamebryo is an archaic piece of shit that does not belong in the modern AAA market. I'm more inclined to put the blame on the higher ups responsible for making the call to develop the game in this obsolete engine.

EDIT: For the record, I love the game. It's buggy as holy fuck, however.
 

Briggins

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scotth266 said:
I'm slightly amused by the disparity certain developers receive in their treatment by gamers when it comes to the amount of bugs in their games. Fallout 4 is allowed to have multiple stupid bugs because "it's a Bethesda game", but people righteously raked Ubisoft over the coals for AC:Unity. I think it shows just how far the bar has sunk when people genuinely got upset that Totalbiscuit flamed the game for being buggy when he played it.
The reason we accept it is because Bethesda has developed a decent amount of good will among their player base. As such, we can tolerate a few imperfections now and again. Ubisoft and EA have no such luxury. There antics have lowered their goodwill to the point where quite a few people refuse to buy their games at all (at least for full price, I for one have bought them occasionally during heavily discounted steam sales).

It's amazing what you can get away with when you aren't voted worst company ever or have crippling scandals such as servers going down on an always online required game.
 

008Zulu_v1legacy

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Beta-Patch; The new way to say "It needs multiple patches". Only this way, they are technically only releasing one.
 

Blitsie

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I'll gladly take anything I can get at the moment, the textures in my game refuse to load and I've tried every fix I can possibly find.
 

Gethsemani_v1legacy

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scotth266 said:
I'm slightly amused by the disparity certain developers receive in their treatment by gamers when it comes to the amount of bugs in their games. Fallout 4 is allowed to have multiple stupid bugs because "it's a Bethesda game", but people righteously raked Ubisoft over the coals for AC:Unity. I think it shows just how far the bar has sunk when people genuinely got upset that Totalbiscuit flamed the game for being buggy when he played it.
Did you play Unity on release? Dropping into the 10-15 range of frames per second on a PS4/Xbone wasn't unusual, falling through the game world or getting stuck on geometry was par for the course and you'd be lucky to go more then one or two cutscenes without the game spazzing out and one of the models either not loading or distorting like no man's business. On top of that there was a host of game breaking bugs and a multiplayer mode that only connected about a fifth of the time.

Compared to Fallout 4, which has seen one game breaking bug and the usual host of fairly minor open world bugs and they are not even in the same ball park. Skyrim, by comparison, was far, far worse in terms of bugginess then Fallout 4 is.
 

jayzz911

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ShakerSilver said:
"Hey there, paying customers! Not happy with how broken our game is? Then come and beta test it for us, because lord know we can't be assed to do it ourselves!"

If EA or Ubisoft pulled this they would be rightfully crucified. Screw this company and the people that excuse or defend their horrible practices.
it helps that there wasnt a fallout brotherhood or a fallout revelations or a fallout 3.5 every year now.
 

Neurotic Void Melody

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Dosbilliam said:
I'm a cynical bastard beyond all reason, but I really gotta say that I'm nothing compared to half the people here so far...

First, "Beta" in this context, assuming we're talking about PC, would refer to beta patches, which are opt-in unlike the normal patches which are universal. I plan on opting in myself so I can add my thoughts on the patches to my Let's Play of the game, but it seems like I'm one of the few operating on a correct definition.

That being said, it's not surprising that they waited a bit to release it, since like they said, millions of people will come up with a lot more random stuff to try than a hundred or so QA testers, who by virtue of being paid, have a limited amount of time to try everything they can think of.
This seems about what i wanted to say, plus a bearded puppet avatar always helps. Am very surprised some people don't see the difference between not only Bethesda and EA/Ubibooby, but also Unity and Fallout 4. I still Haven't experienced this alleged horrific buggy mess that everyone keeps banging on about, and am having a pretty good time with the game. Once, it quit the game in the typically annoying PS4 system's jarring way, in which it insta-quits while it tells you fuck-all other than "error occurred, sorry. What? You want a reason? No can do! On your way now, pathetic human." But that has occurred with at least half my games already. Fallout is a complicated game on an old engine, QA testing will be difficult and time consuming to test all the various possibilities, which boggles one's mind merely thinking of them. Lighten up, let's put a smile on that face...think of the dying children (edit: half joke there, probably should've stuck to the more serious "economically downtrodden" phrase instead) that do not get to even experience this entertainment. Hell, i didn't have any technical priviledges (oops, is that word still bad these days?) as a kid or young teenager, so can appreciate these bonuses to life.
 

Yopaz

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Jun 3, 2009
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scotth266 said:
I'm slightly amused by the disparity certain developers receive in their treatment by gamers when it comes to the amount of bugs in their games. Fallout 4 is allowed to have multiple stupid bugs because "it's a Bethesda game", but people righteously raked Ubisoft over the coals for AC:Unity. I think it shows just how far the bar has sunk when people genuinely got upset that Totalbiscuit flamed the game for being buggy when he played it.
I believe this is due to several reasons. I can't say if this is completely true, but given the impression I've got from Assassin's Creed Unity it was borderline unplayable for some and completely unplayable for others, while Fallout 4 has been playable but buggy (this makes a huge difference).

Assassin's Creed got yearly releases so whenever Ubisoft give off an impression that they care more about releasing a game every year than releasing a solid game every year. People might get a little annoyed if they think developers just shove a game out the door and start working on a new one before they even know if customers are going to experience massive bug related problems (not how it works of course, but we rarely pay any mind to how things actually do work).

There is goodwill. Bethesda pretends to give a damn, they don't come across as equally condescending to their customers.

There is of course a great deal of bias and gamers being gamers. I think we might see the opposite ratio of complaints if we just go to the "right" place. We aren't logical.