How do they get away with releasing games like Skyrim on consoles?

[ablac]

Clearly there is something wrong with your machine because I have never had a problem anywhere near to what you are describing nor have my friends (some of whom have clocked in 300+ hours on Bethesda games) or a large amount of other people responding in the thread. If you have such a problem with consoles then why not just get a PC because that seems to be your solution. Either you are consistently mistreating your console/games resulting in issues or you are exaggerating the problems as uniform problems like this are down to the user not the machine. My first 360 RRoDed but that was after about 4 years of consistent use and my new one has lasted since then (about 2 years) so while reliability is an issue it isnt as bad as you make them to be. The thing with cosoles is that the hardware is exactly the same across the board. Therefore if these problems are normal then everyone should get them while when they arent, like I said, they are down to the user.

So...did you just skim over that whole period where 360's were being sent back to Microsoft in droves or what? Were ALL of them mis-treating their consoles? I love how when something bad happens that it absolutely has to be user error; that the people who don't experience problems are never the exception to the rule.

The reason a huge portion of the 360's broke was because one of the chips (very technical, I know) wasn't properly soldered to the motherboard; when the system started to heat it would come loose and cause the RRoD.

Of course, there was every chance it would just keep on working too, it's sort of like when your headphones break, if you pull the cable in a certain direction so the wiring still makes the connection then they will continue to work; which incidentally is the reason that the towel trick works (and it does work, I used it to pawn my broken 360).

Make no mistake: all of the 360's had this problem; the only thing that kept some going and put others in the shit was pure blind luck.

I did actually forget about that. However you stated that you have replaced your console meaning this new one will not have that problem. Therefore my statement is still correct. I would also like to point out that I did not say that every fault is down to the user rather I said that if it is not a common problem, your problem clearly isnt (and is either on account of mistreatment or a bad luck with glitchy games), then it is probably down to the user. If this was a mass problem then it would certainly not go unnoticed and concidering the other comments in the thread and personal experience im willing to say it isnt a large problem as it has not generated mass uproar.

 

[FalloutJack]

Your joking, right? Skyrim on the PS3 has well documented, severe flaws such as a framerate that gets worse the longer you play.

Look, RedEyes, just because you think everyone knows a thing because you've seen it alot doesn't mean that they do. Do you know how long it took me to ever hear about the PS3's Yellow Light of Doom? Long! And I go HERE, to the Escapist, where people complain alot. Please, don't assume that I must be off my rocker just because I never heard of a glitch that people consider a PROBLEM in Skyrim...when many people enjoy playing with the glitches. Yes, this is the first I've heard of it.

 

[El Dwarfio]

The PS3 is pretty shitty I'd agree, but I just think it has the best controller (except for those tarded marshmallow shoulder buttons) and I'm a shameless trophy-whore so I'd lose all of them if I moved all my gaming over to 360.

Aye, but all 360 players are merely shameless achievement whores That's where the real console divide comes from, no for love of the console, but the love of your gamer score

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Your joking, right? Skyrim on the PS3 has well documented, severe flaws such as a framerate that gets worse the longer you play.

Look, RedEyes, just because you think everyone knows a thing because you've seen it alot doesn't mean that they do. Do you know how long it took me to ever hear about the PS3's Yellow Light of Doom? Long! And I go HERE, to the Escapist, where people complain alot. Please, don't assume that I must be off my rocker just because I never heard of a glitch that people consider a PROBLEM in Skyrim...when many people enjoy playing with the glitches. Yes, this is the first I've heard of it.

Forgive me, it sounded like you were brushing it off like it wasn't a big deal (I had to put up with that for two months). I apologize for being overly aggressive. And this site alone had multiple articles on it, so I thought a regular of the site would be in the know.

 

[Syzygy23]

I'm currently typing this while I stare at a screenfreeze on my TV.

After battling through a fort siege while the framerate consistently spluttered and wheezed it finally locked up on the last guy. I'd previously quit the game and reloaded because on my way to the siege the game kept stuttering every two or three steps and I hoped that stopping and starting again would remedy the problem. It did not.

Now, if I was playing this on a PC I could turn the specs down and hope it runs smoother, but as a console gamer my only choice is to reset and hope I can get through it without another freeze, just like every other time there is a problem with a console game (which has become far more frequent since developers were given the option to release patches, I notice).

This is the exact experience I've had with every Bethesda game I've played, although I must admit Skyrim has ran considerably better than either of the Fallout games, so I have to ask: How do Bethesda get away with repeatedly releasing these games on consoles when the hardware is barely capable of supporting them?

That's like Ford selling me a car with pedals instead of an engine.

EDIT: Okay, since I've had to repeat myself about fifty times to a chorus of 'UR DOIN IT WRONG!' let me clarify a few things...

-I am playing on PS3
-This is my new PS3 slim that I bought to replace my bricked fat PS3 last year.
-I have played Fallout 3 and New Vegas on my old console and I experienced all the bugs.
-I have played Skyrim on my new console and experienced all the bugs.
-I take excellent care of my discs and hardware because that shit cost money, yo.
-If you take five seconds to do a Google search, you will see I am not the only one with these problems.

Hope that clears a few things up.

Dude, this is an OLD issue. The problem is the PS3 itself, and the way it uses it's processor(s). Bethesda stated the problem lay with the PS3 trying to split the processing duty by using multiple weak processors rather than 1 or 2 powerful ones. The amount of information the game must save and constantly check eventually becomes too much for each processor and the game will stutter and freeze on you. Remember, EVERY time you move a an apple, take an item or drop an item, the game has to REMEMBER where you left that object and keep it in it's EXACT position. All that information eventually piles up.

 

[FalloutJack]

Your joking, right? Skyrim on the PS3 has well documented, severe flaws such as a framerate that gets worse the longer you play.

Look, RedEyes, just because you think everyone knows a thing because you've seen it alot doesn't mean that they do. Do you know how long it took me to ever hear about the PS3's Yellow Light of Doom? Long! And I go HERE, to the Escapist, where people complain alot. Please, don't assume that I must be off my rocker just because I never heard of a glitch that people consider a PROBLEM in Skyrim...when many people enjoy playing with the glitches. Yes, this is the first I've heard of it.

Forgive me, it sounded like you were brushing it off like it wasn't a big deal (I had to put up with that for two months). I apologize for being overly aggressive. And this site alone had multiple articles on it, so I thought a regular of the site would be in the know.

Sometimes, I skip out of here for days or weeks or months for some reason in which the Escapist may have caused an annoyance to me. Or I'd be too busy, or something. There are some topics I don't even bother with, or never see by a fluke of timing. Now, I may have seen something similar in my Fallout games, but never so severe. That's really my only good benchmark to bugginess in a massive 3D environment.

 

[EternalFacepalm]

never had a problem on my 360. you must be doing it wrong.

See, this is what's wrong with the internet.

OT: This bug is known and is still being fixed (allegedly). It happens to save files that have lasted for about eighty hours or so, I believe.

 

[Voodoo_Person]

Just a general reply as I couldn't be bothered to read through all the replies, but I always hear people complain about how games like Skyrim, Oblivion, and Fallout are always buggy and awful on console...but I've never had a single problem with any of them, I dunno if I just get lucky, but I never encounter any problems at all

 

[xplay3r]

I've never had any problem with any bethesda games either "UR DOIN IT WRONG" or you're the most unlucky gamer I've ever seen, I've never had a problem with fallout 3, or New Vegas, or Oblivion, or Skyrim and I have several friends who play them to and have never had any problem.

 

[00slash00]

well...i guess you should play it on the pc then (kidding kidding, pc and consoles are equally good). seriously though, that game is buggy as hell in general and overall...not really worth it. my pc is well over the recommended setting and even so, whether or not i crashed to desktop was sometimes a matter of luck. i have heard that skyrim is the worst on the ps3 though so you will probably need considerably more luck

 

[Joccaren]

Did you play Gothic 3? maybe not since you say Skyrime is less buggy. If you played Gothic 3 you will understand when i say WHERE IS THE GURU
This is game breaking bug that makes the game crashes because the game deos not free up the memory it used and always takes more.

Well, I've likely been spared then by playing it on a new gaming PC with 16Gb RAM. Haven't run into it, and from what I understand its an out of memory issue [Seemingly a pretty bad one ]
Edit: Others claim its an error with graphics drivers or something, which I have had no problem with thus far. Fun for those who ran into it though I'll bet...

OT: I read some where that the problems encounter on the PS3 is because of its strange memory allocation systeme.
I think they have 512MB of RAM (I might be wrong ), but it only gives 250MB for the game and 250MB for the PS3 systeme.
While on the Xbox360 you do not have those limitations.

Somewhat true.
On the PS3, the 512Mb is split into 256Mb RAM, and 256 VRAM. They are separate and one cannot do the other's job.
On the Xbox, you still have a 512Mb RAM limit, but it is shared between RAM and VRAM, and either can take some of the other's if it is needed.
Bethesda denied this being the problem from memory, but its the best explanation I've seen so far.

Last thing, this my PC elitiste side coming out ;p
This generation of consoles came out 5 or more years ago, and you can get a PC that has about twice the performance of a console now for aroud 400$

Eh, personally if you're getting a PC double the power of a console for $400 you're getting ripped off. Guess it really depends where you live, and what deals such places have going on parts. If you know what you're doing, and live in a good area, a PC is pretty cheap to buy and build these days. Its probably the best time in history to become a part of PC gaming (Except all the console ports ). Yay us heh?

So yeah for games like Skyrim try if you can to get on PC for the better perfomance, Higher frame rate and the best reasons of all MOD POWER TO THE PEOPLE

Mods = Made of win.
After Vanilla Skyrim made my eyes bleed, install a ton of mods. Looks good. Sadly, Skyrim's old RAM limit tried to stop me from using them. Another mod fixed that though. Go Skyrim modders, they put a fair bit of work into what they do.

 

[Dys]

You're mistaken if you think the PC experience is any better. This trend of making a game and cutting corners so it "works" on several platforms is at best an flawed. From what I've heard the PS3 version of Skyrim is worse off than the PC version, but the (relatively) small PC market ensures a far more half assed produt than what you'd get on an xbox (no doubt the relatively low playstaion playerbase is why it's so poor on ps3).

I wouldn't know anything about the PC market, but what I do know is that if I have a problem with a PC game I can go on forums and search for patches or ways to tweak the settings to make it run. Hell if I really know what I'm doing I could even make my own patch.

On a console if it's fucked, it's fucked; I'm at the mercy of developers to fix it. That's why I have a problem with broken games being released on consoles more than any other platform.

Your chances of fixing skyrim bugs on the PC are only marginally better than those on a PS3. I do generally get what you're saying, and to some degree think you're right (though I'm more of the opinion that games should be finished and then released..not the other way around) but in skyrims case it's generally fucked. There are no shortage of (major) bugs that completely stop the game and cannot be fixed (while others can be "cheated" around by using console commands to advance through a quest, I hardly consider this a sufficent fix as you're skipping content).

 

[rob_simple]

Your chances of fixing skyrim bugs on the PC are only marginally better than those on a PS3. I do generally get what you're saying, and to some degree think you're right (though I'm more of the opinion that games should be finished and then released..not the other way around) but in skyrims case it's generally fucked. There are no shortage of (major) bugs that completely stop the game and cannot be fixed (while others can be "cheated" around by using console commands to advance through a quest, I hardly consider this a sufficent fix as you're skipping content).

Oh, I agree with you 100% that a game should be finished before it's released, but in the event that it's not (which seems to be becoming more frequent) at least you've an albeit marginally slim chance to fix it on the PC, although the only experience I have in doing that is with getting really old games to run on Windows 7.

People (fans) just seem to have a hard time accepting that Bethesda games --and if it is down to the PS3 hardware, then how hard is it to change the code so that dropping an apple makes it disappear forever?-- are buggy as all hell, and it's nothing to do with the size of them.

Just Cause 2 probably has the biggest map I've ever seen in a game and --at the risk of sounding like the same 'no problems here!' posters in this thread-- I never had a single debilitating bug in the whole time I played it.

 

[Cannibal Johnson]

Actually I think I know why there doing it. Take me for example, I don't have enough money to be buying new video cards, updating processors etc. so if the game is released for console I can play it with out having to spend so much money on computer parts. Although I am still a PC gamer there are some games I need to buy on console because they would end up face f***ing my PC