How pissed off would you be if you had to pay for patching games?

[child of Thor]

In away the whole on-line thing for consoles is a trap, and an excuse for console game makers to release buggy software(+spend less on play testing and fixing).

Sure its a fun idea - and on-line mp console gaming is a nice option to have, but its not a free feature.

I've found quite an annoying bug in KOTR on the xbox(the star wars rpg), where by i can get two of the same character as part of my party - but one of the others is overwritten, so i cant get them back from that saved game - its a shame and spoilt my otherwise great experience with the game.

Morrowind has already been mentioned. And i'm sure there will be more - so its not just a case of buying a complete new game for the patched options, but also you may be forced instead to by an online package to get your patches. This also encourages less rigorous pre-release testing.

So i guess i'm going to become as cautious about buying my console games as i am about my PC ones - ie its becoming prudent to wait for reports on console games on forums before buying.
Which wont help the games industry much?

[Space05us]

In away the whole on-line thing for consoles is a trap, and an excuse for console game makers to release buggy software(+spend less on play testing and fixing).

Asher disagrees, unless he's changed his mind since the last time we had this discussion. I'd have to agree with Thort, consoles going online is a curse in disguise.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Space05us
Asher disagrees, unless he's changed his mind since the last time we had this discussion. I'd have to agree with Thort, consoles going online is a curse in disguise.

Of course I disagree, because this hasn't been the case so far.

What HAS been the case is that online can be used for balancing online games, which previously forced vendors to charge for new versions, is now done free.

Besides, the next version of the Xbox won't even have a harddrive.

The reason console games are less buggy than PC games is because it's static hardware. The vast majority of PC bugs come from the fact that everyone's hardware is slightly different and behaves in different ways. In a console, everyone's is the same, so it's very easy to reduce the number of bugs.

[alva]

The reason console games are less buggy than PC games is because it's static hardware. The vast majority of PC bugs come from the fact that everyone's hardware is slightly different and behaves in different ways. In a console, everyone's is the same, so it's very easy to reduce the number of bugs.

Yep, and it lets coders get to know the hardware so they get more out of it.

[Sava]

btw, for all intents and purposes, we do pay for patches... just look at Civ3 with the X-packs.

[alva]

* sigh *

[Asher]

Originally posted by alva

The reason console games are less buggy than PC games is because it's static hardware. The vast majority of PC bugs come from the fact that everyone's hardware is slightly different and behaves in different ways. In a console, everyone's is the same, so it's very easy to reduce the number of bugs.

Yep, and it lets coders get to know the hardware so they get more out of it.

Absolutely. Carmack himself has said it's trivial to get twice the performance out of a fixed platform, if not more.

That's why Xbox graphics, in games like Ninja Gaiden and Halo 2, look as good if not better than most PC games out there. They can push way more polygons per second on average, sustained 25MPolys/sec on the Xbox's essentially GF4, while a Radeon 9800 Pro gets about 15 MPolys/sec.

The Xbox is usually limited in resolution to 720x480 (not including the high-res HDTV games coming out now), but thanks to how NTSC & PAL works it doesn't look nearly as jagged and awful as 640x480 on the PC. Hell, you don't even notice it being low-res most of the time.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Asher
The reason console games are less buggy than PC games is because it's static hardware. The vast majority of PC bugs come from the fact that everyone's hardware is slightly different and behaves in different ways.

No. The reason why console games are less buggy than PC games because you can't patch console games. This forces developers to put in good programming practices and do a lot more testing before putting games out.

[DrSpike]

Now now, they don't have to be mutually exclusive do they?

[Skanky Burns]

Based on experience...

[Asher]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
No. The reason why console games are less buggy than PC games because you can't patch console games. This forces developers to put in good programming practices and do a lot more testing before putting games out.

That's a very small part of it, if any, and I'm fairly sure you know it.

Look at the list of bugfixes for PC games, the vast majority of them are caused by hardware configurations, not logic errors.

Xbox games have been able to be "patched' for a long time now, yet there's no quality issues...

[alva]

Calling it a very small part might be a slight exageration though.

-
Aren't on the other hand console games simpler by nature. IE less that can go wrong?

[DrSpike]

Is that a subtle troll?

[flipside]

Depends on your definition of subtle, I s'pose.

[alva]

Héhé
Nope wasn't a troll, I hardly ever play console games but if I do they do seem less elaborate.

Was just asking a question.