Too Buggy/Glitchy To Play?

[TraderJimmy]

I've only come across this twice, once running Black & White on a computer far below the minimum specs, and once on Titan Quest with a computer capable of running much better/newer games (games from the past few months).

It strikes me as weird that games with constant updates like Titan Quest could have such game-breaking bugs as character/save deletion (with irretrievable AND retrievable flavours, for extra disappointment when you find you have the former!), armour/inventory deletion, equipment being aligned to the wrong slots, equipment ending up with the wrong stats, and all this without any mods.

If Titan Quest was a faulty film or CD (or console game, but let's not open *that* can of worms), I'd return it and face little quibbling from the store - but because it's a PC game, and because it's quite old, it's a) somehow exempt from having to be a complete product and b) too cheap for it to be worth my while fighting for however much of the THQ Complete Pack it constituted.

Has anyone else found fairly big budget, otherwise well-polished games, made unexpectedly entirely unplayable by easily avoidable bugs? Is it just bad luck that you got a software conflict of some kind, or a bad copy, or whatever, or is it genuinely a sign of a problem with the game itself?

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

Well, Alpha Protocol should've been well polished and it's amazing how much effort went into the dialogue... but, man, was it really buggy.

That made it almost unplayable, almost being the key word.

Gothic 3. As much broken in it as humanly possible.

Oh, yes, that one too.

 

[suhlEap]

alpha protocol. it was absolutely appalling in that respect. and most other respects other. i'm not totally sure why it was even released.

 

[Banana Phone Man]

I'm not sure about the big buget part but Vampire Masquerade Bloodlines was way too buggy for me to play. Even after all of the fan made patches and other stuff I found myself stuck in areas as something would not go right. Good game though.

 

[teh_Canape]

in before: Alone in the Dark PC

Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing

although there was a new patch released that fixed half of the game recently

 

[rockyoumonkeys]

I haven't run into too many glitches/bugs in Alpha Protocol yet (it froze once), but I'm still near the beginning.

Fallout 3 on PS3 froze on me a lot. Lego Harry Potter also had some bad glitches. But I can't think of something that was "too buggy/glitchy to play". I'm sure there have been such games, I just don't recall what they were.

 

[TraderJimmy]

in before: Alone in the Dark PC

Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing

although there was a new patch released that fixed half of the game recently

What?! Big Rigs was fixed?

That's almost blasphemy :O

Unless you're talking about Alone in the Dark.

 

[Azure Sky]

Sonic the Hedgehog on the Xbox 360

I mean, it was released unfinished and everything =(

 

[Nitpicker of the Wastes]

Fallout 2 is nearly unplayable if you don't either A), just play exactly through the story, or B), get the massive fan patch.

Or maybe it was playable, just full of harmless bugs...

It's a big patch.

 

[Riddle78]

Gothic 3. As much broken in it as humanly possible.

DAMN YOU,NINJA!
But yes,although the entire Gothic series is known to be buggy,Gothic III takes the cake.
Also...Hellgate:London has a nasty habit of crapping itself and dying every now and then on me. Glad that thing saves every three seconds.

 

[teh_Canape]

What?! Big Rigs was fixed?

That's almost blasphemy :O

Unless you're talking about Alone in the Dark.

no, Big Rigs was updated recently, I have the game, it still sucks big time, but at least now your 'opponents' actually race you

Update: Patch Posted: Apr 2, 2010 5:08 pm PT
Stellar Stone put out a patch for Big Rigs that is already included in newer copies. With the patch installed your opponent actually moves, there are sound effects, and the broken Nightride track is replaced with a mirror version of the first track that doesn't crash the game. The grammatically questionable but entertaining "You're Winner!" message was also changed to read "You Win!"

although it is actually more than what is described here =P

 

[roger moores eyebrow]

God yes Gothic 3 was terrible. It was a shame as I really wanted to like it but the constant crashing was ridiculous. Wonder if the new Gothic will be any better. Also every total war game I've ever played I get really far into the campaign and then the game starts to crash almost non stop.

 

[tomvw]

STALKER:SoC and it's sequel were pretty broken at launch (like the Army Warehouse crash in the original, which I unfortunately experienced). Luckily, the patched it up in the end.

Small note, Gothic 3, Titan Quest (and Immortal Throne) and Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines all have fanpatches which fix loads of bugs. It's really awesome to see the community care so much about these games that they decide to fix them.

 

[oplinger]

Order of War is the only game where I have had it so buggy it was unplayable. They fixed it, but still.

The sound would sometimes cease to work, so you'd get the background ambiance but no other sound. It would also randomly crash as SOON as you finished a mission, it's all "mission complete! You're so awesome! So awesome in fact, here's your desktop as a reward "

...Like I said, they fixed it but...meh

 

[TraderJimmy]

STALKER:SoC and it's sequel were pretty broken at launch (like the Army Warehouse crash in the original, which I unfortunately experienced). Luckily, the patched it up in the end.

Small note, Gothic 3, Titan Quest (and Immortal Throne) and Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines all have fanpatches which fix loads of bugs. It's really awesome to see the community care so much about these games that they decide to fix them.

It is, actually. The amount of work they do for free is really lovely. I wish they didn't have to do it, but it's amazing that they do.

EDIT: @DeadlyYellow, I have the Steam version too - I've been told that I shouldn't have any of the bugs I do have. Got it with the THQ Complete Pack, so it's a little spoiled in comparison with some of the other games which are both awesome and functional.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

It strikes me as weird that games with constant updates like Titan Quest could have such game-breaking bugs as character/save deletion (with irretrievable AND retrievable flavours, for extra disappointment when you find you have the former!), armour/inventory deletion, equipment being aligned to the wrong slots, equipment ending up with the wrong stats, and all this without any mods.

I've not had any of those problems, though I have the Steam version. For giggles you could always register the product with Steam then play off the client. The worst I've had with that is after a few hours of playing it starts tearing itself apart. The height-mapped terrain stops loading, leaving only the prop models and enemy visible. Soon after it either becomes too slow to really operate or just crashes outright.

Saint's Row 2 is pretty prone to glitches, moreso on the PC than consoles.