• The Battlefield 4 launch is just another high profile cock up
    33 replies, posted
[url]http://www.pcgamesn.com/battlefield/battlefield-4-another-high-profile-cock[/url]
After the Diablo 3, Colonial Marines, and Sim City controversies I'm rather disappointed at how uselessly complacent a lot of video games media is about Battlefield 4's launch. I don't want to throw DICE completely under the bus because I like the games they make and I've been supporting them for over 10 years now. Even BF4 when it works is a great multiplayer experience. I have very few gameplay related complaints. But the technical aspects of this launch are just disastrous and absurd. On top of the usual video game launch issues of optimization and network overload, and even the typical Battlefield launch caveats where the gameplay is just a little bit buggier than it's competition, you have just downright stupid and aggravating issues that should have been picked up after even basic playtesting. The article mentions some at the top (The QBU88 silencer bug leaves me speechless) but there are even more I've experienced. The ground beneath bomb sites on objective game modes can be deformed, leading to floating MCOM's that you can't destroy. Matches that are supposed to end simply don't, leading admins to having to switch maps (which opens a barrel of monkeys on its own, or deathmatch until it inevitably crashes. There are also dozens of tiny imperfections and bugs that either were or weren't fixed in BF3 making a return. I have to wonder how exactly some of these things made it into the final build. Putting aside even basic quality assurance, which DICE has previously shown seemingly no interest in (my primary and probably only complaint against a company I otherwise love to support), this game went through numerous playable stages. It was at conventions and we had a two week long public test. If so, why weren't atleast some of these things fixed? Wad the deadline so strict that DICE could only work on the most crippling bugs, and what we got was just the best they could do? Or did they just feel like this was "good enough" and wait post-release to patch? I haven't even mentioned the singleplayer. What a fucking mess that is. Without even talking about the 4 hour length, the amount of downright ugly visual and gameplay glitches I've seen was amazing considering the developers and publishers in question. The only game I've played that was as buggy as the BF4 campaign in recent memory was Colonial Marines. That said, comparing EA and DICE to the Gearbox-Timegate B-team is laughable. I don't go into Battlefield campaigns with high standards and they still manage to disappoint. Now that I'm done shitting on the game, I'll repeat what I said earlier by saying it's still really fun when you aren't crashing or being killed in one shot. The Battlefield formula of dropping into a game with friends to capture flags and fly helicopters combined with the sheer variety of weapons works as well as it ever has, and following DICE's typical iterative design style it fixes a lot of the issues I had personally with BF3. It's just a shame that all this good gameplay is hidden behind a blatantly unfinished facade.
[QUOTE=Raidyr;42763697]...I have to wonder how exactly some of these things made it into the final build....[/QUOTE] The answer is simple. DICE were told to pump out another Battlefield regardless of quality by the hegemony that is EA. It's honestly that simple. You tell a company to produce X game in Y time and get Z amount of bugs. Z goes up as Y goes down. When EA is involved, multiply Z by 50 because they simply don't give a damn about user retention.
[QUOTE=Clovis;42763775]Every new patch there were 10 new exploits and bugs.[/QUOTE] Programming 101.
Game need more time for playtesting and ironing out. I get crap for saying this, but it should of been delayed. Yet again, delaying BF4 isn't easier said then done.
[QUOTE=-n3o-;42764748]Game need more time for playtesting and ironing out. I get crap for saying this, but it should of been delayed. Yet again, delaying BF4 isn't easier said then done.[/QUOTE] A lot of games these days are pushed out because they know for a fact they can just shrug off the lack in quality and just patch it. It's not just stuff that's been released this year, ever play Skyrim before it got patched? It was a joke, npc's clip into the ground, dragons fly backwards, and textures just drop out of the world. It's honestly sad the state that releases and launches are in nowadays.
Glad to see how much that multiplayer beta helped them iron things out before release.
[img]http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&docid=z1edEFtgIywrCM&tbnid=i2SQG1WgHJRTSM:&ved=0CAUQjBwwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhydra-media.cursecdn.com%2Fdota2.gamepedia.com%2F4%2F43%2FSilencer.png&ei=HwN5UoyQMtbMsQSQkoGACA&psig=AFQjCNG9rwN3mW2NGfyQSpJQLKNeDiXzag&ust=1383748767867409[/img] not a whisper (when that attachment is used)
[QUOTE=balls-and-all;42764884]Glad to see how much that multiplayer beta helped them iron things out before release.[/QUOTE] Funny thing: some of the shit we deal with in final version haven't been present in beta. Building falling down on Shanghai didn't crash half of the server. Knifing was more consistent. Others, like spawning out of bounds, haven't been looked at all, present in all their glory.
DICE should have been given 3 years to make the next battlefield Game instead of two. I mean GTA V took like 5 years to make and it turn out to be a success. People are still happy playing BF3 which is very balanced compare to BF4 right now.
This is the exact reason I don't yet have AC4. I was so disappointed and angry over all the bug in AC3, and still am angry for not getting my completionist achievement due to bugs, that I'm just going to wait a few months to get the game. I'll certainly think thrice before pre-ordering a game these days, and probably won't get AC4 until it's dropped in price to €35 or so
And to think people berated me for saying I'd hold off buying it after the buggy as hell beta (which was so close to release)
[QUOTE=Mr.95;42764770]A lot of games these days are pushed out because they know for a fact they can just shrug off the lack in quality and just patch it. It's not just stuff that's been released this year, ever play Skyrim before it got patched? It was a joke, npc's clip into the ground, dragons fly backwards, and textures just drop out of the world. It's honestly sad the state that releases and launches are in nowadays.[/QUOTE] Agreed, I find it stupid how it has become the norm and acceptable for game publishers and developers to thinking releasing games early is fine. Even when the game either still needs more play testing and ironing out.
Damn am I glad I didn't pre-order this. I think I'll wait for it to... stabilize.
I bought it, and it's decent when you get a good team game. But the CRASHES oh my god. Yesterday I played 4 games, it crashed after each one.
Besides Payday 2, (which somehow was more fun at launch than it is now due to Overkill fucking around with the game) I haven't bought a launch title in over a year now. I only buy games a few months after release... and I often find my interest fades long before then, and I never get them at all. Not only am I saving loads of money, but the games I end up getting are polished and already have loads of guides and gameplay vids for me to sample. This policy was derived from the staggering amount of launch failures that I have witnessed or dealt with personally. I am so god damn tired of being fucked over.
[QUOTE=Raidyr;42763697]After the Diablo 3, Colonial Marines, and Sim City controversies I'm rather disappointed at how uselessly complacent a lot of video games media is about Battlefield 4's launch. [/QUOTE] Completely agree, and just for good measure you can go ahead and throw in Total War: Rome II, Takedown: Red Sabre and Red Orchestra 2. Quality assurance is dead in this industry it seems, as is hiring test groups.
[QUOTE=Looter;42765194]Completely agree, and just for good measure you can go ahead and throw in Total War: Rome II, Takedown: Red Sabre and Red Orchestra 2. Quality assurance is dead in this industry it seems, as is hiring test groups.[/QUOTE] having an open beta is probably the best testing you can get
I didn't have a single crash, the netcode needs to be fixed, and I had a flawless singleplayer experience. I guess I was just lucky :|
It's simple, really. When you already have the money in your pocket the quality of your product at release day becomes less of a concern. Stop pre-ordering games so liberally, you pillocks.
[QUOTE=Shreddinger;42765334]I didn't have a single crash, the netcode needs to be fixed, and I had a flawless singleplayer experience. I guess I was just lucky :|[/QUOTE] Same here. It crashed once during a game which was a little annoying but that was it for me.
[QUOTE=Im Crimson;42765709]It's simple, really. When you already have the money in your pocket the quality of your product at release day becomes less of a concern. Stop pre-ordering games so liberally, you pillocks.[/QUOTE] So you are saying its our fault that the game is having issues and covered in bugs?
[QUOTE=Clovis;42763775]I haven't bothered with Dice games since Battlefield 2, every new patch there were 10 new exploits and bugs.[/QUOTE] I didn't know Garry worked for DICE.
[QUOTE=-n3o-;42765838]So you are saying its our fault that the game is having issues and covered in bugs?[/QUOTE] If Dice can get away with a shit release like BF4 and suffer no consequence then they have no reason to change their approach and it will only turn other developers to thinking they too can get away with it. IF you want to change anything, you do so by voting with your wallet. It's pretty damn hard to do that once you've already bought the game before it even gets released.
It took every ounce of willpower I had to hold off pre-ordering this but I'm glad I did. I'll wait for a new GPU and a few patches before buying sometime next year.
[quote]There’s a silencer on one rifle that turns off the sound for everyone on the server when used. [/quote] How does this even happen
[QUOTE=-n3o-;42765838]So you are saying its our fault that the game is having issues and covered in bugs?[/QUOTE] DICE has no initiative if people are still going to buy the game and still going to defend the issues. Don't buy it.
[QUOTE=Untouch;42766558]DICE has no initiative if people are still going to buy the game and still going to defend the issues. Don't buy it.[/QUOTE] omg guys if you buy it they won't fix things they didn't mean to be broken fight the man and boycott it I'm sure if we all do it the bankruptcy will nullify the existence of programming errors and driver issues it [i]has[/i] been a shitty release but it says less about DICE- the actual team who made the product, and more about the current market pressure due to the upcoming generation of consoles and [i]the resulting influence by EA as a publisher to get shit out the door[/i]. The beta was very last minute and while I knew it was needed, I was still baffled they basically gave it a last minute run
[QUOTE=daijitsu;42766640]omg guys if you buy it they won't fix things they didn't mean to be broken fight the man and boycott it I'm sure if we all do it the bankruptcy will nullify the existence of programming errors and driver issues[/QUOTE] It's the same shit across the gaming world because the consumer has no sodding backbone, they don't put nearly enough effort into QA because why the hell do they need too? Gamers have consistently proved to the Developers / Publishers that the bar for an acceptable product is pathetically low. No other aspect of life would you accept this, but for video games it's to be expected and actually allowed. I completely understand the teething issues I'm not ignorant. But just like BF3 there's a stupid amount of glaringly obvious glitches and problems that prove that QA was done as an after thought (if at all). BF4 is being sold in the shops right now for £60 as a finished product and no matter which way you look at it, it's simply not, forgive me if i think that's not on.
are you new to PC releases or something granted there's a ton of common errors at the moment, a good number didn't show during beta, and a number of beta issues aren't showing now. How's the console side of the release? last I saw those were running perfectly fine, because they only have one hardware configuration to account for. A major issue right now is they're trying to push requirements quite a bit for PC and there's a shitton of weird hiccups that could be attributed to any one of thousands of pieces of hardware for seemingly unimportant differences Beta couldn't have accounted for a lot of problems, like the rifle silencer issue is a null point because you were locked down to defaults. Who knows what caused it, I seriously doubt it happened to them when programming and testing everything so it must be a server related issue. A lot of things appear to be server related fuckups (they fixed the servers themselves crashing now), which is something we could have used an extended open beta for, but again there was huge pressure coming in to make sure it was available for PS4 and XBO at their launches, because [i]publishers[/i] are money grubbing asshats bitch all you want about how heartless and awful dice apparently is, complaining they "don't care" because they already get the money. How much money is there to be made in the future if you intentionally just wave away problems of this magnitude? Do you think there's going to be a lot of interest in another gearbox handled title after colonial marines happened? DICE may be a big house developer but hell if they're lazy greedy assholes because of some bugs. They clearly need a lot more time to patch everything, but it's people like you who wreck a company's view of customer interest and support. If everyone had such a shit attitude nobody would care to patch anything because it would be a thankless job that couldn't fill the holes from a rough start
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