Obsidian Does it Again

[Urh]

I was of two minds when I first heard Obsidian were doing New Vegas. My first thought was "Yay! A Fallout game by Obsidian (founded by members of Black Isle)!" yet at the same time I was having flashbacks to KoTOR 2 (which, despite the best efforts of modders, is still a bit of a mess). I was perhaps one of the few people who had a relatively smooth Fallout 3 experience....until I decided to grab the DLC. It bothers me, even to this day, that a bunch of expansions made by the original developer could turn a game into such a dog's breakfast. And Obsidian haven't exactly improved their already tarnished reputation by adding new bugs of their own. My heart sank when I had my first BSOD with New Vegas (I've had a second one since), because I knew I was going to be in for another bumpy ride.

I've noticed that the two studios founded by ex-Black Isle people (Obsidian and the now-defunct Troika) have a history of rushing games out the door, rather than giving them the polish they really need (which can definitely be said of two of my favourite games - Arcanum, and VTM: Bloodlines). One must wonder - what happened to the magic?

 

[theultimateend]

I was of two minds when I first heard Obsidian were doing New Vegas. My first thought was "Yay! A Fallout game by Obsidian (founded by members of Black Isle)!" yet at the same time I was having flashbacks to KoTOR 2 (which, despite the best efforts of modders, is still a bit of a mess). I was perhaps one of the few people who had a relatively smooth Fallout 3 experience....until I decided to grab the DLC. It bothers me, even to this day, that a bunch of expansions made by the original developer could turn a game into such a dog's breakfast. And Obsidian haven't exactly improved their already tarnished reputation by adding new bugs of their own. My heart sank when I had my first BSOD with New Vegas (I've had a second one since), because I knew I was going to be in for another bumpy ride.

I've noticed that the two studios founded by ex-Black Isle people (Obsidian and the now-defunct Troika) have a history of rushing games out the door, rather than giving them the polish they really need (which can definitely be said of two of my favourite games - Arcanum, and VTM: Bloodlines). One must wonder - what happened to the magic?

Just a bit of advice, in my experiences with anything from Bethesda, if you add anything to the game it'll drop the stability by 99%.

Want your trees to be a different color? You might as well shred the game because daring to use the tools they provided was foolish of you.

I've never used a title where even the smallest inconsequential number change would drop the game like a sand castle when the waves wash in.

 

[Bernzz]

A question for console gamers: are bugs of this frequency and severity just for the PC version? Is it fine on the Xbox 360 and PS3?

 

[Podunk]

I'm just wondering if there has ever been a game released in the past, oh, ten years that did not have at least a few people complaining about the "OMG BROKEN BUG" in the game?

Bugs in released software are pretty standard, and not just in the gaming industry. Microsoft's infamous for it; have you ever been an early adopter of a Microsoft product?

Bugs are common, sure, it's impossible to get all of them before a product comes out, and I get that. but when they are incredibly obvious and widespread it just gives the impression the company doesn't care. A better New Vegas example: Before the patch today, every single time you switched to or from a revolver it would empty it and you would have to re-load it. That means either they did not ever once have someone who used a revolver or they did not play-test the game at all.

 

[KwaggaDan]

Yeah, I just lost about 24 hours of gameplay because I forgot about the save game issue, whilst online. So the one time I forgot to disconnect my Internet Connection before playing, and boom, I'm right at the start. Again. Sad face Panda.

 

[ChupathingyX]

Wow I really can't believe the amount of people here bitching about the game and saying it's a shit game just because of the bugs. This game was better than Fallout 3 in every way.

The writing is superior, the general storylines are more believable and less stupid. There are more weapons and unique weapons are actually unique. Intelligent super mutants like they should be. More companions who have their own quests and backstories. An improved crafting system that expands to all different kinds of items. Much more likeable characters with very different personalities. An expansive area to travel and discover. Way more factions. More perks, that actually do something instead of the stupid "increase (skill) by X points". A more difficult skill progression that requires you to choose what kind of player you are and makes it impossible to be a "jack-of-all-trades". Hardcore mode that makes the game much more immmersive and challenging. The ability to finish the main quest with just speech.

Oh and one of the best parts; a fantastic voice actor roster with more than triple the amount there were in Fallout 3, and all of which have skill that allows them to change their voice instead of use the same voice over and over again. Now not every second character has the exact same voice, even if they're voiced by the same person, and the actual voices themselves are far superier.

And all of you are bitching about bugs. Tsk Tsk Tsk. It's a shame to see such a great and intelligent game go to waste on people who are crying because they saw a rock pop in or the game crashed which happens on heaps of other games.

No one is ever going to read comments so far behind, but i have to say that i agree with you in all points except that the Mainstory in Fallout 3 was not believable. I would even say the mainstory in New Vegas is a bit weaker. I mean, why can't the legion not just swim acros the river and ambush the NCR, cutting them off from the dam entirely and then just starve them out of there instead of relying on a frontal assault...which even failed once before.

I played this game for about 4 days now and so far i didn't encounter serious bugs except for one broken quest and the broken animal vs animal fight in the Thorn.

Radiation in water can be cleaned out through certain substances such as sand. There was no need to build a gigantic water purifier and sacrifice people to get it working and for the Enclave to wage a war over it. Also the Enclave shouldn't of even been in this game, they were surpossed to have all been destroyed after the canon events of Fallout 2. Also technically the water from the Jefferson Memorial would most likely wash out away from the wasteland. Also the Brotherhood of Steel were never a strong or large force, mostly a bunch of self considerate assholes who cared only for their own technology and would rather not care for other people. Also Fallout 3 forces you to choose the BoS side, at least NV gives you a chance to join the NCR or the Legion. Also a lot of places and people in F3 were given very little backstory or reason for existing, compared to F1/2 and NV where some characters will literally tell you their life story. Also there are NCR bases near the river, they would spot the Legion swimming across and they would be hopeless to fight back in the water, so no that would be a horrible idea. Also remember the Legion arn't really thinkers more than they are brawlers. The first battle of Hoover Dam proved that.

Oh and worst or all, and I mean worst. In Fallout 3, Bethesda killed off one of the greatest and most loved characters of the Fallout series, Harold. He was a great character before Bethesda decided to root him in one place and make it impossible to show up in future games. At least we still have Marcus to remind us of F1/2, but it would've been great to see Harold again.

 

[JediMB]

As soon as I saw that Obsidian was working on the next installment of my beloved Fallout, I knew I had to take the "wait and see" approach.

You're aware of that Obsidian Entertainment was formed from the remnants of the Black Isle Studios, right? The people who created the Fallout series to begin with?

Yeah, remnants. It's still not Black Isle.

It still doesn't change the fact that they have a track record of never finishing a fucking game.

Looking at the state of the first two Fallouts, I can't say they were any better as Black Isle.

I especially liked the second game's Random Save File Corruption bug.

 

[timmytom1]

This seems to be a predominantly PC problem from the looks of things.Put in a good 5 hours on the 360 and encountered two siginificant bugs the first one was fairly similar to the one Seamus described only instead of the ghoul starting on me .It was the nightstalker who gave me the quest.The second one i encountered was much more annoying

Spoiler

There`s a quest at Mcarran airport where you have to locate a traitor in the NCR ranks.Eventually you find the culprit and find out he`s placed a bomb on a monorail.Que you racing to disarm it.I found the bomb and the game told me i`d removed and disarmed it.And so i decided to watch the train travel off into the sunset.Satisfied at a job well done I went to find the quest giver and get my reward then i found out that apaarently the bomb went off and i`m taking the blame for it.WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!?????? that completey ruined my rep with the NCR as well which meant i could no longer use the two way radio.

but beyond that and the occaisionaly ridiculous (even when saved to hard drive) loading times i`ve had no issues.

 

[nipsen]

Oh, great. Suddenly we're interested in bugs again.

Hey, Shamus. Does this mean my feature: "Why Valve, Bethesda and Bioware should be barred from making new games until they patch their earlier titles" is going to print tomorrow?

No? Is that so.

 

[aaron552]

Oh, great. Suddenly we're interested in bugs again.

Hey, Shamus. Does this mean my feature: "Why Valve, Bethesda and Bioware should be barred from making new games until they patch their earlier titles" is going to print tomorrow?

No? Is that so.

Why are Valve and Bioware on that list? I've played nearly all of BioWare's games (back to the original Baldur's Gate) without installing any patches and haven't run into any significant issues. I also haven't noticed any significant bugs in Valve games, although Steam makes it harder to play those games unpatched, so I'm not entirely sure.

Bethesda, I can understand, though: I still can't play through the Point Lookout DLC without at least one major bug at some point.

 

[WittyInfidel]

I shouldn't have to "work around" their errors to play a new game I just shelled out $60 for. No thanks, I think I'd rather go play Cooking Mama. At least that game works. /sarcasm

In all seriousness, I do not see myself buying a copy of this game until it's in the bargain bin at the supermarket. Maybe, by then perhaps, they'll have the game in a playable mode. I've had a lot of friends ask me if I was going to purchase a copy. Now they understand why I only answered with a grin worthy of the Cheshire Cat.

 

[Fidelias]

I've played the game for two days straight and the only bug I've seen is that sometimes my weapon dissappears from my field of vision. Still works though, and it only happened to me like 3 times in the beginning so it's no problem really.

 

[EnglishMuffin]

Bethesda never tests their games before release yet manage to always get superbs and 10 out of 10s.

 

[A Pious Cultist]

Oh, great. Suddenly we're interested in bugs again.

Hey, Shamus. Does this mean my feature: "Why Valve, Bethesda and Bioware should be barred from making new games until they patch their earlier titles" is going to print tomorrow?

No? Is that so.

Looking down and then looking back up (or looking at any flat surface for that matter) doesnt cause severe lag spiking in games by those people does it? No? Then move along.

Seriously though, I'm assuming its a fundemental bug with how the world is loaded and unloaded (or is otherwise being rerendered or calculated when I look back up, not being able to move the camera is redonkulous).

After that though I've only really encountered one other bug, the magnum constantly gets stuck in the reload animation (so you can't scope, loot, or do anything while its like that) and necessitates holstering which is bloody annoying and keeps letting ghouls bite my face off. I don't even mean its infrequent either, I mean I had it happen like every other ghoul when getting up to Jason Bright's place. The game is good for the most part but these glitches are a little TOO fundmental to just be left in.

 

[Something Amyss]

Well, it seems to be part of both Bethesda's and Obsidian's business models to release broken games, with the promise that they'll be the most amazing games known to man once the fans have had a couple of years to fix the bugs. Just don't support them by buying their games at launch if you don't like that, it's not a secret that they do that stuff, with Bethesda it's pretty much been known since Daggerfall was released.

These are games there is no reason at all to get at launch, get them when they're sold in crazy sales at Steam or end up in the store's bargain bin - and by that time those crazily dedicated mod developers will have made unofficial patches to make the games playable.

Personally, my post was more about the apologists who do buy the games and say that you can't reasonably expect them to make a game that's not broken. Or the game, as you say, that was promised.

I'm yet to buy a Bethesda title at launch, and I doubt I ever will, knowing their history. The problem I see is a rabid fanbase who will eat it up, period. And if the average consumer will eat garbage, nothing will change.

 

[CD-R]

Didn't Bethesda say they were going to be handling the QA themselves for New Vegas in a couple of interviews? If that was the case it doesn't seem fare to place the blame solely on Obsidian if it was Bethesda who was supposed to be handling the whole bug finding.

 

[Continuity]

...and this is why you should never pre-order a game, you're encouraging this sort of half baked release. And don't buy on day one either, wait and see if the game is buggy and if it is then don't buy it until the bugs are fixed... make the publisher sweat until they learn their lesson and do the job right.

 

[ryai458]

Ah the simple joys of console gaming 10 hours and no problems, its simple yet effective.

 

[SandroTheMaster]

After having watched the Spoiler Warning episodes that covered FO3 I was wondering whether you'd have anything to say about New Vegas.
I'm almost considering buying this but honestly these huge amounts of bugs are unacceptable, you have a Q&A people, you have programmers, have them work together, hell DELAY THE GAME WHILE YOU FIX IT. Valve may always release really late but atleast their games don't tend to be horribly broken, unlike anything by Bethesda or Obsidian apparently. Its suprisingly the two companies even continue to have anything of a reputation.

Well, I'm not trying to say Obsidian or Bethesda can get a free pass, but, unsurprisingly, Valve (and Blizzard) makes both incredibly linear and heavily scripted games where you have no decisions to make and your actions don't make a lick in the overall gameworld outside of the enforced one-way rails they put for you.

I'm just saying, they're not using formulas that have any realistic chance of being screwed no matter how hard they tried.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Fallout 3 was the buggiest piece of shit that dared to wear the title GOTY.
If there ever was an event that made me lose faith in the industry, it was that, because Fallout 3 did not deserve that distinction.

And now its cash-cow sibling is out, and guess what the #1 topic I keep hearing about it is?
Oh yes, the bugs. The virtual sniffles. The Crash to Desktops.

I'm wondering myself if this could have been sidestepped, even by Obsidian.
Gamebryo is a terrible, horrible game engine. It looks shiny, but if I wanted a tech-demo/screen shot generator, I'd use the Crytek Engine (oh, and at least this engine wouldn't crash all the bloody time!)