Divinity 2, to buy or not..

Gorath & or pytricc:

Are any of these bugs game breaking? Do any of these make it impossible to finish the game? Or are these just for side quests?

This really pisses me off. I don't have time to replay games like this.

If you have a game that is bugged, won't Larian fix the save if you e-mail them? That's what people always say.

Ovenall and darkling,

I would call them game breaking bugs. Some would be game stoppers. With others, you could finish the game, but you would be missing some substantial resources that are only available from the bugged sections.

Darkling is correct in that Larian has been exceptional in fixing individual Save games by email and return. I've had several Save games fixed at this point, and I'm considering waiting for the patch before I venture into the next known bugged area. I did brave one of the bigger known bugs having to do with a boss, and ended up not experiencing the bug.

I have mixed feelings about it all, but I do feel that Larian has done a superb job of addressing the problems and they've gone miles out of their way to provide support. I feel like I HAVE to support a company that goes to such great lengths to help their customers.

I'd like to elaborate on my "pissed off" comment.

I decided to dip my toes into the PC gaming world a few years back. I got an Xbox 360 in 2005 specifically for Oblivion. Prior to that, I hadn't really played any video games since the mid 1980s, with the exception of a game here and there on the Macs I use for my profession. Neverwinter Nights 1 got me back into the game world back in 2004 when I got laid off.

Anyway, reading about all the cool RPGs available on the PC, I decided to give some of them a try, and have had some nice experiences. But games released with bugs like Gothic 3 and now DKS are just pissing me off.

Having to deal with patches, updates, corrupted saves, and bugs is getting to be too much. Yes, you can do detective work and hang out on forums and fiddle with stuff, but they're supposed to be games that you paid $50 for to PLAY, not some set of software to tinker with.

I'm almost 40 years old and and have less and less time for this crap. At least when you buy a game for the Xbox it (generally) isn't full of bugs, unless it's a PC port that was buggy to begin with. It's taken me around a month of playing on and off to get the Battle Tower in DKS. I'm not going to start over and go through all of that again.

Good thing I happened to stumble on the fact I can email the game save and maybe get it fixed. Of course, this will require more detective work on my part to determine if what I'm seeing is a bug, or if I'm just missing something that's actually supposed to be in the game. Unless I want to read spoilers, which ruins the whole point of playing these games to begin with.

F**k.

By gar, games have bugs! I'm getting too old for this shit!

I mean, I get what you're saying, but let's be honest- It's a lot better than it used to be. Let's travel back to the late 90's/early 00's. Ultima 9 was just released. Might and Magic 9 too. These games were unplayable. Completely. And patches? What patches? Who could you e-mail saves to to get them fixed? What were the forums good for but finding that you're not alone in the sea of angry customers being ripped off by these shoddy publishers forcing devs to shit out bad games. Then there was Dungeon Lords and Wizards & Warriors. More bugs, still no support. Troika, beloved of all, puts out TOEE, a game that is massively flawed. Those other guys put out that awful Pool of Radiance game and it erases a lot of peoples entire C drives. Companies go out of business and devs never react to customer input. Patches trickle out occasionally but barely fix the bugs, and often leave underlying systemic problems intact. What a nightmare!!

Let's come back to now, the Div2 dev team is still working on the problems. Patches are imminent. They're fixing save games via e-mail. They're talking to people on the forums and reacting to customer feedback. Problems are getting solved, Larian hasn't gone out of business and left solving the problems to the fans. Doesn't sound so bad now.

360 games ship bugged too, no question about that or they wouldn't push patches through the system. Platform arguments are really silly for the most part as you can look at the systems specs and determine what is better and worse relatively objectively and the 360 is sub-par to a modern PC in every way.

I'm not claiming the 360 is inherently "better" than a PC, as that's a pointless argument to make from either side.

And I don't doubt that other PC games in the past have been worse, or better. I'm merely stating my own limited experience. I'm not an expert. But that's my point.

Yes, Xbox games are patched. But that means I turn the box on and the patch downloads and installs. No forum-surfing or detective work needed.

And you all wonder why games are becoming "console-ized." I understand the downsides of a console, but when you can't dedicate yourself to playing IT guy, detective and maintenance man just to play a game YOU PAID MONEY FOR… consoles start looking more and more attractive.

/rant

Doesn't Divinity 2 have a "Check for Updates" button?

Pretty standard in most games these days.

Originally Posted by Ovenall
Yes, Xbox games are patched. But that means I turn the box on and the patch downloads and installs. No forum-surfing or detective work needed.

And you all wonder why games are becoming "console-ized." I understand the downsides of a console, but when you can't dedicate yourself to playing IT guy, detective and maintenance man just to play a game YOU PAID MONEY FOR… consoles start looking more and more attractive.

/rant

That's the best features of Steam, dont need to look for new patches or even install them, or look for the CD.. I would never buy a game like Company of Heroes on DVD, it's like hours of work downloading and finding the right patches for it.

Divinity 2 doesn't have a check for updates button, no. Steam, for example, handles that for you if you go through them. If you don't, well, you should always be aware that PC games may have patches and that you may have to (omg no!) go to a webpage and download it and install it. And downloading and installing a patch doesn't make you an "IT guy".

Divinity 2 did have a Check for Update button when I had it installed. Maybe it only appears on the UK retail release or something.

Ooh, I dunno! It's not in the main menu of DKS, at least on the Steam version. Maybe they removed it cuz Steam manages patches.

I was exaggerating about the IT guy thing.

But still… this version of Divinity 2 was supposed to be the one where the bugs are fixed. For the most part I like the game. But really, releasing a revamped "fixed" version of the game (with an expansion) and STILL having bugs where you can't finish quests is purely ridiculous. If it were an occasional crash, or a glitch in graphics I could understand. But these are known bugs that prevent you from finishing quests ---- which is the whole freaking point of installing and playing the game in the first place!

Originally Posted by darkling
Ooh, I dunno! It's not in the main menu of DKS, at least on the Steam version. Maybe they removed it cuz Steam manages patches.

Possible. It was a programme that you ran outside of the game. So, if you went Start > Blah Blah to the Div 2 folder, there was a "Check for Updates" button. I would wager the retail version of DKS will include it, too. Many games have them so finding patches just isn't hard these days.

Originally Posted by Ovenall
But still… this version of Divinity 2 was supposed to be the one where the bugs are fixed. For the most part I like the game. But really, releasing a revamped "fixed" version of the game (with an expansion) and STILL having bugs where you can't finish quests is purely ridiculous. If it were an occasional crash, or a glitch in graphics I could understand. But these are known bugs that prevent you from finishing quests —— which is the whole freaking point of installing and playing the game in the first place!

Every game has bugs. Every game. It's possible that when fixing bugs they caused other ones to appear (Which can and will happen), or they're so obscure they didn't find them - They could be caused by doing quests in a certain order, they might not work if you explore somewhere too quickly and so forth.

They didn't make the game with the intention of annoying you. Bugs happen, bugs have happened and bugs will happen. Larian, and other developers, won't bend over backwards to fix YOUR copy because YOU have a limited time span to play games. YOU have to be patient whilst they fix the game for everyone, i.e. via patches.

You're a PC gamer, surely you should know by now that playing a game when it releases often means you'll encounter bugs or problems? It's why I'm glad I'm not getting New Vegas for another two (Or maybe more) weeks - Because a number of the issues will be fixed by then.

I understand every counter argument being made here. I really do.

Also understand that these same exact arguments support why companies like Bioware keep getting excoriated here for "dumbing down," "console-izing," and "streamlining" their games for "casual" gamers. I played through Mass Effect 2 twice and never encountered a bug other than a graphical glitch or two. I paid nearly the same amount of cash for ME2 as I did for Gothic 3 and for DKS.

Let me repeat: I enjoy DKS quite a bit. It's really a great game. However, I do not give unwavering support to a company (or industry) that releases buggy products. Selling a product for $50 only to have it not work as advertised rubs most sensible people the wrong way.

Mass Effect 2 not buggy? OK, I'll just forget about getting stuck on objects, and enemies being unable to be attacked because they decide to get stuck in objects. Every game (Well, nearly every game) from every company and every publisher is buggy. Mass Effect 2 is buggy. Dragon Age: Origins is buggy (Awakening horribly so). What about BG2 and NWN? They were famed for being buggy!

If you don't want to support companies releasing buggy products then, well, don't buy anything because *all* games are buggy.

I played ME2 on the Xbox. I encountered no bugs like the ones you mentioned. It wasn't PERFECT in every way, but I could sit down and play the damn thing without quest breaking bugs.

Notice I wrote "quest breaking bugs" specifically about a game centered around completing quests. I don't expect absolute perfection in every aspect, but a quest-based game with quests that you can't finish because of bugs is not acceptable. Especially in a re-released edition touted as polished.

Also, read above where I have stated that I like and enjoy DKS. In other threads I have praised it in many different ways as well.

And some of us didn't. If the game isn't buggy for you, then count yourself lucky.