Fallout: New Vegas - J.E. Sawyer on Bugs

Obsidian have stood up and said Alpha Protocol was partially their fault, but they did leave plenty of blame on SEGA.

That article was probably what I was thinking of but with my memory problems I couldn't quite remember. Sega giving Obsidian extention could just mean that the original time they had was too short to even complete the game content wise. No one will know unless Obsidian says but they may not be able to say if thats the case because of contractual obligations.

I would probably take Obsidian's side (Personally) in regards to AP. I can't remember the last time SEGA published a game that did really well. Petroglyph's Universe at War practically flopped (Seen copies selling for very little, and it's been given away left, right and center), I think Aliens vs Predators was riddled with bugs and issues, Stormrise flopped on both platforms, I think Viking: Battle for Asgard flopped too.

So really, SEGA have really only succeeded with Total War, if we're only talking about western developers/IPs, and even then that's likely because it was already a well known IP in the strategy/historical game scene. Hardly a great track record IMHO.

セガUSAが最低だね! (http://boingboing.net/2010/08/10/yakuza-3-review.html)

What in the world is:セ minimum da ne ga ga USA

Google translate is your friend normally, but it didn't have a clue as to what you said.

Anyway, English please! I get enough of that here. I want at least one place where I can actually read what's being written.

Originally Posted by guenthar
That article was probably what I was thinking of but with my memory problems I couldn't quite remember. Sega giving Obsidian extention could just mean that the original time they had was too short to even complete the game content wise. No one will know unless Obsidian says but they may not be able to say if thats the case because of contractual obligations.

I don't think that the reason(s) for the delay really matter. It seems like even Obsidian themselves were not sure why the game was delayed since they were once talking about the delay being necessary due to additional polishing and another time they claimed that it was purely business reasons (i.e. in reverse that Matt Hickman of Obsidian must -at one time- have considered AP finished in October 2009!).

Anyway, fact is that they got more than six months of extra time (from October 2009 to May 2010). That should have been more than enough time to wrap things up.
Everyone knows that game development is project-based and extremely time/deadline critical. I have little sympathy for developers who are not able to deliver quality products on (extra) time. As they say: If you can't stand the heat you need to get out of the kitchen. Just pointing the finger at the publisher all the time is way too simple in my opinion. We're not doing ourselves as consumers and customers a favor by being developer apologists. Everyone who is involved in the delivery of a broken product needs to be held accountable.

"Matt Hickman of Obsidian"
Matt Hickman was Sega's associate producer on Alpha Protocol.

"Anyway, fact is that they got more than six months of extra time (from October 2009 to May 2010)."
According to Sega's Matt Hickman, it's not true.

Bloodlines, Arcanum, TOEE, Fallout 1 and 2. All buggy as hell and will take them over ANY polished piece of cow dung that is released.

So, hell yes I will apologize for any developer who lays the ground work on a deep and meaningful rpg. Those games are some of the best games I've ever played. Were they perfect upon release? Nope, not even a little bit.

After a few patches/community fixes were they some of the best RPGs made? You know the answer to that.

However, the problem with Alpha Protocol wasn't that it was buggy. The problem was that it sucked. Just my opinion of course. The thing bored me. All those games I mentioned never bored me even when they were first released and buggy as hell.

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
After a few patches/community fixes were they some of the best RPGs made? You know the answer to that.

No, I don't know the answer to that actually . All of the games that you mentioned are "teh suck" in my personal opinion. I'm more of a Gothic guy, Risen, Morrowind, Oblivion, Drakensang, The Witcher and more… but Arcanum, Bloodlines and the Fallouts (never played TOEE) never did anything for me except either being sleep or aggressiveness accelerators due to their either boring or annoying nature, respectively.
Agreed on AP though. It's not exactly a good game either.

OMG!!! TEH SUCK??? REALLY? Well to each their own as they say

Then how about The Witcher? It was buggy…sorta…. Longest loading screens EVAR!!!111

I would still defend that game if it was as buggy as the ones mentioned because they laid the ground work down on something great and released it. A good game that's buggy can be fixed eventually, but a polished turd ball is always a polished turd ball

I'm not saying that all games that are released in pristine condition are outright bad. They're normally the ones that are easier to make and don't have the kinds of problems that making even a basic rpg has.

My point in this is that I think we as gamers don't necessarily have to focus on what condition it is released in. Just whether or not that condition can be fixed while they bring in some revenue from the game itself. I don't mind being a beta tester for good rpgs as long as the game is at least somewhat playable and fun even in its buggy state.

The day I see another rpg released in perfect condition is the day I check to go make sure the Earth is still round and not square

Alpha Protocol had so much potential, but the gameplay screwed that all up. There's no fixing that with patches unfortunately.

Yeah, I don't see how any fan of crpgs could possibly say Bloodlines "sucks", by any stretch of the imagination. Unless maybe they had a bad experience with the release version, and never played it after it was patched.

As far as the load screens in the original Witcher release, who cares? The only thing that matters is that it was fixed.

I guess I'm an Obsidian fanboy. I'll take their buggy games over pretty much everyone else's every day. Loved Alpha Protocol - one of the best games I've played this year. Haven't seen a single bug in F: NV (admittedly early in) but throughly enjoying that too. So, blame whoever you like - including Obsidian - I'll still take their games.

Carry on.

i loved the hundred of hours i spent with fallout 3
but after nearly 40 hours with New Vegas damn I just keep being amazed the sheer depth and scope of it especially with the character/quest/guns/mods/crafting
the bugs are so inconsequential and usually fixed by a quick reload.
this could end up being my favourite sandbox rpg of alltime

Originally Posted by Dhruin
I guess I'm an Obsidian fanboy. I'll take their buggy games over pretty much everyone else's every day. Loved Alpha Protocol - one of the best games I've played this year. Haven't seen a single bug in F: NV (admittedly early in) but throughly enjoying that too. So, blame whoever you like - including Obsidian - I'll still take their games.

Carry on.

The story was great, but the gameplay. I just couldn't get past it. This is definitely personal taste though. Everyone praised the Thief series and I hated it. I don't like sneaking. My preference is to either talk my way out of a situation or go in guns blazing/hurling fireballs(depending of the setting) with my posse backing me up

Originally Posted by curious
i loved the hundred of hours i spent with fallout 3
but after nearly 40 hours with New Vegas damn I just keep being amazed the sheer depth and scope of it especially with the character/quest/guns/mods/crafting
the bugs are so inconsequential and usually fixed by a quick reload.
this could end up being my favourite sandbox rpg of alltime

Sounds great. I've heard people mentioning STALKER (which i would rank as one of the best games on PC) when they descrive FO:NV, which also makes me incredibly happy to hear

Originally Posted by Dhruin
I guess I'm an Obsidian fanboy. I'll take their buggy games over pretty much everyone else's every day. Loved Alpha Protocol - one of the best games I've played this year. Haven't seen a single bug in F: NV (admittedly early in) but throughly enjoying that too. So, blame whoever you like - including Obsidian - I'll still take their games.

Carry on.

I'm with you there, Dhruin … very flawed games, but I love them. Finally got my review for AP up after 3rd playthough …

+1 to Obsidian fanboi club, if it's legal to be a fanboi of more than one company. I need to look at AP one of these days. More Fallout 3, with even better writing? Gimme, gimme, gimme.