When we reviewed Gears of War 2 back in November, I quite confidently gave it a 9.0. I did this because I loved the game and couldn't get enough of it. Fast forward a month later, and I cannot bring myself to pick the game up. Thanks to a matchmaking system that was ruined after the supposed "fix" launched and a bevy of exploits, Gears 2 has become unplayable for me.
At the time, I had no clue it would be so bad. How can you? Most of these real game breaking exploits only surface after weeks of bug hunting (on the part of players it seems, not on the part of Epic's so-called testers). Had I experienced then what I experience now when I try and play Gears 2, a 9.0 would not have been the score.
The above video is savage in its attack on Epic, listing some of the most prevalent glitches to be found in Gears 2. While I wouldn't go as far as to label Rod Fergusson a "ginger liar," I will say that this has become a disappointing norm for what people still insist on calling the "next generation." While technology progresses, game development seems to decline, as corners become cut with ever-lengthening scissors and projects get rushed out of the door with barely any testing. Gaming is evolving beyond the means and budget of developers, and that's not a good place.
Is this what the game industry is trying to tell people that Hi-Def gaming is all about? Patches and rush jobs? I dread to think what the new generation of hardware will bring. If studios can't cope with the pressure and scale of today's HD console demands, the future looks rather bleak.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
10:00 PM on 12.30.2008
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WHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!! you stupid Gears! you ruined my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You, Jim Sterling are a pioneer! a revolutionary that is shining a bright light on the darkest of corners! Thank you SO MUCH for pointing out the most obvious fucking shit ever. AWESOME!
*hi five!*
While this game spawned some of the greatest games I've ever played, it's also created some of the worst, and most downright biggest disappointments in my gaming history. Were lucky to have such incredible games to have come out this past year to overshadow the much poorer games that most people can ignore while they're playing the better ones.
On a side note, it's strange. To this day, I have no desire to play Gears of War 2. I loved the first, but the more and more videos I watch of the sequel in an attempt to get me pumped to play it, it just makes me noticed how little it has changed.
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@Jim's article
I'm concerned about this over all issue. Pretty much every game I've played this year has a nasty bug in it that ruins the experience. I could list them . . . heh, maybe I I should blog it!
But I think its pretty unfortunate that with ever balooning production budgets on games, we're still managing to get really nasty bugs at release. I've experienced so many freezes on my 360. Its one of the reasons I've taken a break from Fallout 3, and why I haven't steam rolled through Saints Row 2.
Certainly not all bugs are gamebreakers. I think Fable II and Castle Crashers were amazing despite their bugs. And of course, movies release all the time with "glitches" in set flubs and continuity breaks.
But. as a QA man, I'd like to think that either QA can do much better in the industry as a whole, or that QA can play a larger role than it appears to in some cases.
So do companies like Bungie and Infinity Ward, yet they could still manage have a functioning matchmaking systems. The glitches are sort of forgivable for the reason you stated, but the matchmaking isn't.
Youd be surprised at the fail rate of high budget software; its ridiculous. Meanwhile, assuming a project even comes to fruition, testing is whole new challenge. MS brought some well known tester guy in to look at their tests for XP, i think; he found that they were only looking at 1% of the code. Yeah, make jokes as you please :P.
Its come now to the point where the only way you could possibly find all the bugs, is to have several hundred thousand or even millions of testers, going over every minuscule aspect of the game. Yeah, thats right, you put it out there for everyone to play.
And thats were the bullshit comes in, that you are quite right to point out. We pay plenty of money for these games; we expect a good product. We should not be paying for a beta.
Devs like Bungie and Valve both made a good example last year, with Halo 3 and Tf2, and i hope more devs make an effort like this. If not for our sakes, for theirs, so they dont have crap like this ruining their good name.
Load testing can still be performed without live play testing. I am concerned that there isn't like a universal matchmaking API, where it all works like the ones that . . . work. Like Icarus points out.
"But. as a QA man, I'd like to think that either QA can do much better in the industry as a whole, or that QA can play a larger role than it appears to in some cases."
Seconded. These kind of bugs were either not found or found and reported but decided to be not worth fixing. Either way, it's sloppy sloppy work and reeks of "gotta get it out on time". Makes me wonder if it's their QA that sucks, or if they just outsource their QA and thus have to compete for resources with every other project the outsource qa has.
I wasn't excusing the matchmaking. I was saying that millions of players will find glitches that the testers wouldn't.
But they bring outside people in to play-test. That's a huge win for realizations like "huh.. I didn't think about breaking the game like that!" And then they fix it. I guess that's the cost of a free pass, eh?
Some games these days (geez, I sound like an old man) just make me stare at the screen and go... "really? you never thought that would be a problem?"
Don't even get me staaahted on my opinions on QA outsourcing. :)
Fair enough. I do think that a few glitches in games are forgivable, but some of these really look like things testers should have caught. Like Technophile said, this seems a lot like a "gotta get it out on time" issue.
There is no need to open up the entire game to an entire community in order to perform some major load testing and QA testing, which they flat out didn't do.
In order to keep the game a secret they went ahead and released the multiplayer in beta form and now we're buying an unfinished product with glitches. Something tells me a month long beta would have done this game wonders.
This is not suprising. This is not news.
Really what the fuck do people expect? Live is a shit service. You're paying to host your own games via listen servers. Of course it's going to lag like crazy.
I don't know why retards still put up with paying for that shit.
That said, I find this video rather over the top, and says more about the GoW2 community then it does about the testing of GoW2. Sure, a proper beta would have caught some of these bugs, and I'm sure that's something the Epic guys will be looking at for future games. But calling many of the designers 'liars' is quite pathetic really.
I've found GoW2 a great game. Sure, there are annoying glitches, but I'm sure they'll get fixed.
PC gaming... So yeah I expect better from MS.
Live would be acceptable if it was free. It's not free however. Steam, Xfire, Gamespy, etc are all free. Why the fuck does it cost MS $50 a year per user? What are they doing that's so special? Aside from screwing over their customers with a "Because we can" tax.
For some reason Xbox players love handing MS money for a service that should be free. Ok yeah yeah, the Netflix service has be pay-to-use, but the multiplayer? Hell no.
Someone is going to post a reply stating all kinds of features for the reason why. Sorry, they should be free. Just like the PC, PSN, and Wii.
Also, I can't believe they didn't use the following line in the video "LOOK AT ALL THAT JUICE!"
Game like fallout and CoD FOUR, do way more than there share to earn my cash.
Either you're deliberately being cunts simply because I wrote this, and anything I write has to be attacked by certain simple minded pricks, or you have no taste or concept of quality whatsoever.
Your call.
these glitches only for the MP or also for the SP?
Someone is going to post a reply stating all kinds of features for the reason why. Sorry, they should be free. Just like the PC, PSN, and Wii.
If PSN and the Wii's online 'service' is what free netplay is, I will happily continue to give Microsoft my money.
for the Wii i agree it sucks ... but the PSN is more then ok for a free service ... i suggest you get a better internet provider instead of giving your $$$ to M$ ... cause i see no difference between PSN and XBL when i play online
This is the exact fucking think I think all the time when something like this happens. WHY? Why do you let this kind of shit slide? Bugs in game happen, yes, but if they break the game like they are breaking GoW2, then THIS IS NOT GOOD. Don't fucking bend over for this shit. Back in the day, if a console game had a glitch you had to live with it. There was no online patching. There was no hope it would be fixed. Now, we have stuff like this with people just turning their heads and saying "Meh, don't worry about it." I'm SORRY? I like my game to work, thanks.
Games like Gears of War 2, Fallout 3 and even Valve's Source-based games (Left 4 Dead PC) have all featured either bugs present in previous versions or piled even more on top. If it wasn't for dribbling morons apologising for these fuck ups and the culture of getting reviews out as soon as possible, publishers might think twice about putting a half-finished, buggy, exploit-ridden game on store shelves.