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Has there ever been a Pulitzer prize awarded to a videogame journalist?  I ask because online journalists are eligible to win the prize.
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May 31, 2014 08:58
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| # ? May 9, 2024 16:14 |
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The first time I played the KOTOR games was long enough ago that I don't really remember whether or not I ran into any major bugs, but New Vegas and Alpha Protocol were buttery smooth compared to what the critics made them out to be. New Vegas was less buggy and crash-happy than Fallout 3, and most of the problems it did have were things that plagued Fallout 3 as well (it's because the engine collapses under its own weight). And I ran into exactly one significant glitch across three or so playthroughs of AP. It's really annoying to see the majority of reviewers go on and on blowing technical issues out of proportion - some critics treated New Vegas and AP both as if they were borderline unplayable, which I've never seen repeated by consumers - while barely talking about the content of the game. It's not something exclusive to Obsidian games, but they definitely seem to catch it worse than anyone else.
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May 31, 2014 09:03
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Game journos are just peeved that Obsidian doesn't pay them off. Obsidian also actually makes games that are more narratively complex than a puddle. 
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May 31, 2014 09:14
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Mymla posted:I don't remember KOTOR 2 being buggy. Its problem was that it was secretly Cut Content II: The Cut Lords.
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May 31, 2014 09:16
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Disco Infiva posted:Has there ever been a Pulitzer prize awarded to a videogame journalist? I think Kieron Gillen won a journalism or writing prize some time ago when he was still writing things for PC Gamer. Of course nowadays he usually writes comics instead. I love his Young Avengers books.
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May 31, 2014 09:20
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My twitter feed has been going nuts for his new comic about pop idols as literal gods incarnate, too.
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May 31, 2014 09:33
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Walrus Pete posted:most of [New Vegas's] problems [...] were things that plagued Fallout 3 as well (it's because the engine collapses under its own weight). Did Fallout 3 have the glitch where fast travel would CTD sometimes? That and the bug where a fire gecko could become invulnerable were the only bad defects I remember.
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May 31, 2014 14:10
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Otto Skorzeny posted:Did Fallout 3 have the glitch where fast travel would CTD sometimes? That and the bug where a fire gecko could become invulnerable were the only bad defects I remember. Yes on CTD, no on Fire Geckos ( because they weren't in 3 ).
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May 31, 2014 14:18
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My girlfriend couldn't even finish New Vegas on PS3 because it gamely crashed at the battle of Hoover Dam every single time until she quit trying. It did the same to me on 360 but I did manage to slog through it once by not using VATS at all. The game had bugs and it's possible that the reviewers mentioned them because they actually existed and not because Obsidian didn't pay them off.
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May 31, 2014 14:26
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MILF destroyer posted:My girlfriend couldn't even finish New Vegas on PS3 because it gamely crashed at the battle of Hoover Dam every single time until she quit trying. It did the same to me on 360 but I did manage to slog through it once by not using VATS at all. That's not really the point that's being brought up though. The mystery is how larger developers, like Bethesda for example, release games just as/even more buggy and somehow there's not a peep about it. Not only is there not a peep, but they get universal dicksucking sessions for how bold and groundbreaking their new game is every time as though the bugs are non-existent. Why do you think that is?
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May 31, 2014 14:48
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New Vegas and Alpha Protocol were definitely playable, especially after they got patched a bunch, but they are still very, very buggy and unpolished.
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May 31, 2014 14:48
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Captain Oblivious posted:That's not really the point that's being brought up though. The mystery is how larger developers, like Bethesda for example, release games just as/even more buggy and somehow there's not a peep about it. Not only is there not a peep, but they get universal dicksucking sessions for how bold and groundbreaking their new game is every time as though the bugs are non-existent. Mystery? Money is the answer. In-house games by big publishers get enough marketing money to make reports of bugs never happen. But if they just publish something that doesn't directly fall on their own devs? Marketing budget is a lot smaller. Especially if you can save even more money by not letting the Metacritic score get too high for bonuses.
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May 31, 2014 15:10
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DatonKallandor posted:Mystery? Money is the answer. In-house games by big publishers get enough marketing money to make reports of bugs never happen. But if they just publish something that doesn't directly fall on their own devs? Marketing budget is a lot smaller. Especially if you can save even more money by not letting the Metacritic score get too high for bonuses. I was being facetious with the mystery part. I thought that was obvious 
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May 31, 2014 15:13
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DatonKallandor posted:Especially if you can save even more money by not letting the Metacritic score get too high for bonuses. Also jet fuel doesn't burn hot enough to melt steel guys
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May 31, 2014 15:24
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Yeah it's much easier to believe that Bethesda QA is hilariously incompetent and Obisidan was on a rushed schedule than Bethesda was engaged in a conspiracy to gently caress over Obsidian.
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May 31, 2014 15:34
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The problem with taking game bugs into consideration when reviewing a game is that two different people playing a game may have very different experiences, far more so when you're looking at RPGs, and especially when you're looking at PC games where there's going to be variance in the hardware running them. I found Alpha Protocol to be pretty much bug free (aside from one really irritating issue) and new vegas to be incredibly unstable at certain points, but there are people who say they had the exact opposite experience with those games and I believe them. It's also pretty likely that, if consumers did experience bugs in something like Fallout 3, and then complained about them to the magazines/websites who they saw as overlooking the bugs, reviewers are going to be more critical of bugs they find in the sequel. Given that Obsidian have produced a lot of sequels to games with notable bugs it's not that surprising that the games were harshly judged in that respect.
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May 31, 2014 15:44
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Alpha Protocol is unpolished certainly, but calling it "very buggy" is just plain not accurate.
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May 31, 2014 16:44
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Off the top of my head, enemies will occasionally disappear when reloading a save and there's a hitch in the level loading that can throw off your aim while moving.
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May 31, 2014 16:50
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StashAugustine posted:Yeah it's much easier to believe that Bethesda QA is hilariously incompetent and Obisidan was on a rushed schedule than Bethesda was engaged in a conspiracy to gently caress over Obsidian. I'm willing to believe in both, considering Brian Fargo said Bethesda moved Obsidian's ship date up, and he doesn't seem like the kind of person who makes things up.
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May 31, 2014 19:01
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Yeah, the only possible reason for moving the ship date up would be to cripple the game's Metacritic score.
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May 31, 2014 19:03
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coffeetable posted:Yeah, the only possible reason for moving the ship date up would be to cripple the game's Metacritic score. I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic, but Bethesda isn't hurting for money. If you commission a product to be completed in X amount of time, and then somewhere in the middle or near the end, decide it actually needs to be done in X-Y amount of time, there's no way to do that without compromising on quality.
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May 31, 2014 19:07
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Yeah, but if they aren't hurting for money then why would they try to dick over a company so they wouldn't get a bonus. It's silly.
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May 31, 2014 19:09
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RentACop posted:Yeah, but if they aren't hurting for money then why would they try to dick over a company so they wouldn't get a bonus. It's silly.
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May 31, 2014 19:15
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StashAugustine posted:Off the top of my head, enemies will occasionally disappear when reloading a save and there's a hitch in the level loading that can throw off your aim while moving. BUT the big question is why this is considered 'very buggy'. Such bugs or worse exist in other Bethesda games with little concern shown yet Alpha Protocol was treated like it was barely playable when it was a few relatively minor hitches. That's the argument people are making. Maybe it's because I've played through games like Fallout 2 that seemed to have a game breaking bug every 10 feet but most bugs I find now adays seem like minor annoyances and Obsidian isn't worse than any other game company currently producing.
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May 31, 2014 19:16
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a slim pixie posted:The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. lol
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May 31, 2014 19:27
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a slim pixie posted:The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. Gekko inspired Goldpact paladin is now in the running for my first playthrough
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May 31, 2014 19:29
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I'd imagine part of the fact NV was pulled up on bugs was that it was the second game in Fallout's new form and people grow more critical with familiarity. Kind of like how Watch Dogs is getting 7/10's despite being a solid example of the genre with a lot of clout behind it. Didn't help that it probably was buggier because Obsidian stretched the engine far more than Bethesda had.
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May 31, 2014 21:55
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StashAugustine posted:Yeah it's much easier to believe that Bethesda QA is hilariously incompetent and Obisidan was on a rushed schedule than Bethesda was engaged in a conspiracy to gently caress over Obsidian.
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May 31, 2014 23:11
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FRINGE posted:Have you even sat in on a business meeting where non-producing b-schoolers are "brainstorming" on how to Cf. the bazillion drinks (eg. V8) that were originally 12 oz cans that changed to 11.5 oz without changing the size of the can
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May 31, 2014 23:17
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It's not like it's asking a lot to believe that someone at a company would choose to gently caress over people at some other company, especially if it will "improve their metrics" or some such. They'll also do it over injured pride or myriad other childish reasons. It's by no means safe to assume that the people making decisions are doing so rationally. The hope that crowd funding will eliminate a major vector for that kind of behavior is exactly why I backed this game in the first place, since it seems to have hamstrung or crippled pretty much every CRPG ever. User fucked around with this message at 08:26 on Jun 1, 2014 |
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Jun 1, 2014 03:20
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Mymla posted:I don't remember KOTOR 2 being buggy. Its problem was that it was secretly Cut Content II: The Cut Lords. Every time I've played the game (which is a few) I have an issue where after combat the character I'm controlling gets 'stuck' and no move actions work. I have to quick save and quick load to fix it. This is very annoying in the prologue because it happens after about every second fight. This has also happened to me on every PC I've played on as back in '05 or '06 or something when I first played it I had a completely different machine (as most people did).
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Jun 1, 2014 09:35
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Sensuki posted:Every time I've played the game (which is a few) I have an issue where after combat the character I'm controlling gets 'stuck' and no move actions work. User posted:It's not like it's asking a lot to believe that someone at a company would choose to gently caress over people at some other company, especially if it will "improve their metrics" or some such. I mean really: if you honestly think Bethesda intentionally sabotaged the QA work for New Vegas, then you ought to take a good look at the QA work they've done for their own games. Raygereio fucked around with this message at 09:48 on Jun 1, 2014 |
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Jun 1, 2014 09:44
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Raygereio posted:That's a legacy bug from KotOR1. If the moods strikes you to replay KotORII, enabling Frame Buffer and V-Sync should prevent that from happening. I don't play any games with V-Sync and haven't since probably 2001. Does it work with just frame buffer?
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Jun 1, 2014 10:02
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Raygereio posted:Hanlon's razor. No Sabotaged. But spent less on it because they don't care and can save some money by saving some money? Absolutely.
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Jun 1, 2014 11:10
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DatonKallandor posted:But spent less on it because they don't care and can save some money by saving some money? Absolutely. DatonKallandor posted:Especially if you can save even more money by not letting the Metacritic score get too high for bonuses.
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Jun 1, 2014 11:12
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Which you do by not spending extra money on QA.
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Jun 1, 2014 12:47
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People have been led to believe that conspiracies (that are literally everywhere in business and politics) dont actually exist. People acting in secret for their own benefit? Who ever heard of such a thing?
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Jun 1, 2014 16:28
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Other people also mistake conspiracies with just one or two people being greedy or lazy or poor planners or any combination thereof.
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Jun 1, 2014 16:32
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Drifter posted:just Its not some elevated concept that means Hydra is coming.
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Jun 1, 2014 17:01
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| # ? May 9, 2024 16:14 |
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I, too, enjoy the intertwining of fanciful speculation with the literal definitions of words. It lends a certain measure of gravitas.
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Jun 1, 2014 17:11
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