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Who releases the buggiest, and least-buggiest games on day one?

M

Mama Robotnik

Member
Games have got exponentially complex over the last few generations, and more and more companies are resorting to emergency patches to fix things that somehow bypassed their playtesters. Some developers are capable of creating complex gaming experiences that don't need to be desperately patched immediately after release, and some simply aren't.

This thread is to discuss your experiences with software at the moment of release, ie before it has been patched, if ever.

Question 1: In your experience, who releases the buggiest games?

By "releases" I mean introduces the game onto the market, before any patches, and your experiences were so buggy it was memorable? If you have a specific bug to recall then please do!

Question 2: In your experience, who releases the least buggiest games?

This might be tricky, because we don't often think to ourselves "wow, this is really unbuggy" when immersed in a quality product. Try to think of a developer from whose games you have experienced the most minimal or zero bugs. A developer that seemingly playtests their games thoroughly.

Question 3: Have bugs in previous products ever put you off purchasing a developers future products, even in established franchises?

I'm asking this one out of curiosity, do we care enough about bugs that we will actually stop us spending money? Can developers reduce the quality and resources of their playtesting departments and suffer minimal backlash?

That's it. I'll add my own opinions later in the thread, so the OP is about the questions rather than my subjective answers.
 
M

Metalmurphy

Member
Bethesda and DICE for the buggiest.


For the least buggiest, Santa Monica studios.


As for question 3, yes, Bethesda, I got Oblivion and Fallout 3 but passed on New Vegas and Skryim.
 
DonMigs85

DonMigs85

Member
Bethesda for sure has the most bugs. Naughty Dog messed up just with U3.
Nintendo generally has the least thanks to Mario Club.
 
F

Franklinator

Member
1. Bethesda. Can't think of anything specific, but I'll edit if any come to mind

2. Nintendo, probably

3. I buy every Bethesda game day 1
 
K

Khrno

Member
Bethesda releases the bugiest games on day one, and the same buggied code, and even worst, on the GotY/UE day one.

Square Enix have some of the best QA policies, their games are usually quite clean. Nintendo too.
 
Alexios

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Buggiest: Most Western devs.

Least buggy: Most Eastern (not Europe, those are Western too!) devs.

Obviously there are exceptions to both cases. Like Blizzard for the West and eh, surely there's something for the East.

For whatever reason. Before PC devs got onboard consoles you rarely heard of issues to begin with... Now they dominate them it's the rule, to a lesser or bigger extent.
 
H

Hey You

Member
Buggiest games I usually seem to come across are from Rockstar.

Bungie does a pretty good job of releasing games with little bugs/gltiches.
 
A

Admiral Bone to Pick

Banned
Have to go with Bethesda as well.

Oblivion had game breaking bugs. I'm not talking about getting stuck on rocks or anything. I'm talking about bugs that keep you from finishing the main quest and force you to start the entire game over (okay maybe it's just one but it still pisses me off to this day).

And Nintendo for least buggy.
 
M

Man God

Non-Canon Member
Bethesda, Nintendo, Bethesda (skipped Oblivion after Morrowind, will not buy Skyrim until GotY or heavy mods come out)
 
R

rollingstart

Banned
Bethesda is maybe the most popular one that releases buggy games, but c'mon, play some east europe developed games if you want to see the buggiest.


iirc Twilight Princess had a game breaking bug, and it was used to hack Wii consoles. but for the amount of games Nintendo releases, it's surprisingly little.
 
C

Count of Monte Sawed-Off

un33dab@dpu$$y
Buggiest: I'll say Obsidian. KOTOR2 had its issues and New Vegas was (and kind of still is after downloading Lonesome Road) a mess. I've had better luck with Bethesda's games, surprisingly.

Least Buggy: Japanese games rarely seem to have many problems.
 
D

DimmuBurgerKing

Member
1. Obsidian and Bethesda for the tie, I think.

2. Nintendo and Valve have a pretty good track record.

3. It depends. I said Obsidian and Bethesda, but in truth I usually end up playing their games anyway. Elder Scrolls: Oblivion was a bit of a mess, but I still loved it, and I'm currently VERY MUCH enjoying Skyrim.
 
X

XANDER CAGE

Member
1. The buggiest release I've ever been through was (at least, that I can remember) was Brink - specifically, the PC version. The game had tons of connection issues, collision problems, map exploits, and on my end, issues with AMD graphics cards that effectively forced me to play the game on medium to even get a solid framerate - and even then, I was getting color and freeze bugs out the yin-yang. Very frustrating, considering I was assigned to review the game. It wasn't a pretty article in the end.

It's a shame, because I love the art direction and idea of the game. Patches came and went and solved nothing, and I eventually gave up on the game altogether. Too little, too late.

2. I've never experienced a single bug, freeze, or obvious exploit while playing a Nintendo game. Naturally, they polish the hell out of everything, but I've always been impressed by how "finished" games like Mario Galaxy have felt. Playing the second Galaxy game really made me think "wow, they're good at pumping out really solid games." I had been worried Galaxy 2 was a bit of a cash grab, at that point.

3. The Alpha and Beta versions of Battlefield 3 had turned me off of the final product completely (I still ended up being assigned to review the PC version, funnily enough). What awful programs those were, especially when the beta was still busted so close to release. Luckily, the full game felt much more polished, even if it wasn't a fantastic launch - it felt held together with duct tape, but held together all the same.
 
W

Wanace

Member
I'd say Obsidian releases the buggiest day one games, even buggier than Bethesda. Bethesda really stepped up their game with Skyrim, I've only had 3 CTDs in 60 hours of play.

New Vegas on the other hand crashed on me all the time, even though I played it months after release. Not to mention KOTOR2 and Neverwinter Nights 2 which also bugged out on me a lot.
 
T

trinest

Member
I would say Nintendo for least buggiest games. They don't really have the system archecture to push out patches for titles so they have to get it right on release.
 
L

Lingitiz

Member
Bethesda, Obsidian, and Lionhead for sure on the buggiest. You know Lionhead is bad when a bug mutes their biggest voice actor for a majority of the game.

I'd have to say Nintendo on the least buggiest, I really can't remember too many game breaking bugs or lock ups in a Nintendo game. Although, they kinda have to make sure its bug free considering they don't patch.
 
D

Drkirby

Corporate Apologist
For #1, Bethesda, no contest. For #2, I have to say Nintendo, since they still make games that can't really be patched. For #3, they have kept me off buying something in the first week or two to make sure it not a mess again.
 
H

Hot Coldman

Banned
Everyone already said the right answers, haha

To answer the third question: hell no. I never run into bugs. I'm like some kind of god, I've had games freeze before, and I made a truck float to the moon once in inFamous (don't ask), but apart from that, I never find bugs. Ever.
 
M

Manmademan

Member
Bethesda has the buggy crown hands down. I have a personal policy not to touch any of their games until the GOTY edition, and even then I'm wary.

most japanese devs are pretty solid in terms of not releasing buggy crap. Nintendo is obvious, but I also can't really say the last time I said "man, this Final Fantasy/Resident Evil/Metal Gear/Virtua Fighter/Shin Megami Tensei game sure is a buggy pile of shit."

it's EXTREMELY rare for that to happen. Bad localization used to be the biggest issue, but even that hasn't been routine in 2+ gens now.
 
K

KeioSquad2

Member
This is definitely an east vs west question. Most Japanese gamemakers don't believe in the "day one patch" and therefore almost always release a complete game. It's western studios that are more lax in development and take a "if it's broke fix it later" approach.

It kind of sucks too cause like AA, the first step in getting a patch is admitting there is a problem.
 
R

revolverjgw

Member
1- Bethesduh
2- Nintendo, all their games are polished to a mirror sheen. Good thing because you don't want to have them trying to do the online patch thing
3- I've never encountered a bug that was anything more than a minor annoyance. I bought Skyrim day 1... it's a mess but worth every penny times 10
 
sublimit

sublimit

Banned
1.Bethesda.

2.Nintendo.

3.If a previous game was filled with bugs then i'll definitely not buy the future releases (of the same developer) at day one.I'll just wait for patches (and the price to come down.)
 
R

Raziel

Member
1) bethesda
2) dont know. maybe nintendo, maybe valve and blizzard? cant say, its been a while since i played any of their games day 1.
3) i was one and done with bethesda (fallout 3).
 
M

Manmademan

Member
revolverjgw said:
1- Bethesduh
2- Nintendo, all their games are polished to a mirror sheen. Good thing because you don't want to have them trying to do the online patch thing
3- I've never encountered a bug that was anything more than a minor annoyance. I bought Skyrim day 1... it's a mess but worth every penny times 10
Click to expand...

me neither, until I started buying bethesda games.

"Oh, you can't turn back from a vampire in PS3 oblivion? Er...just don't do that sidequest."

The PS3 version of Fallout 3 is also insanely crash prone, and the longer you play it the more likely the game is to lock up and crash on you. Much more than "minor annoyance" territory.
 
E

Ebris

Member
Some folks are thinking too inside the box for buggiest.

A lot of smaller devs have released buggy-as-shit games. Kerberos, who makes the Sword of the Star games, is notorious for having completely unplayable games on release. SOTS2's launch was just plain awful, though at least Kerberos will eventually patch it and make it better. Stardock comes to mind with Elemental, which had an ABYSMAL launch. Also, the devs behind All Points Bulletin...hahahaha.

Also, to those who say Eastern/Asian devs are paragons of bug-free games? They aren't all Nintendo. Anyone remember Final Fantasy 14's launch (and well, kinda sorta to this day)?
 
M

Manmademan

Member
dreamer3kx said:
I have to say the same, Bethesda, but their games are so massive, hoe can you not?
Click to expand...

I dunno man. I look at something like FFXII or Dragon Quest 8 done on last gen hardware- (with no hard drive!) both huge, open world type games that push the hardware as far as it can go with zero bugs- ZERO bugs-

Then I look at Oblivion, Fallout, and Skyrim, laden with bugs on current gen hardware and looking positively slapdash in comparison.
 
Alexios

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Ebris said:
Some folks are thinking too inside the box for buggiest.

A lot of smaller devs have released buggy-as-shit games. Kerberos, who makes the Sword of the Star games, is notorious for having completely unplayable games on release. SOTS2's launch was just plain awful, though at least Kerberos will eventually patch it and make it better. Stardock comes to mind with Elemental, which had an ABYSMAL launch. Also, the devs behind All Points Bulletin...hahahaha.

Also, to those who say Eastern/Asian devs are paragons of bug-free games? They aren't all Nintendo. Anyone remember Final Fantasy 14's launch (and well, kinda sorta to this day)?
Click to expand...
When was this about flawless records? Or a single yet loud dud? What about the 13 (or 12, I don't know about XI - then again there are all the perfectly polished spin offs too, so more than even 13) FF games before it? Or the tons of other non FF Square games? People aren't thinking "inside the box" they're actually responding to the questions which suggest a recurring phenomenon. If that wasn't the case, Nintendo has a couple duds too.
 
S

saunderez

Member
Anyone who is saying Bethesda hasn't played an Obsidian game. New Vegas was hands down the buggiest game I've ever suffered through to completion. Skyrim in comparison seems like the most polished game in the universe.
 
J

jman2050

Member
Ebris said:
Some folks are thinking too inside the box for buggiest.

A lot of smaller devs have released buggy-as-shit games. Kerberos, who makes the Sword of the Star games, is notorious for having completely unplayable games on release. SOTS2's launch was just plain awful, though at least Kerberos will eventually patch it and make it better. Stardock comes to mind with Elemental, which had an ABYSMAL launch. Also, the devs behind All Points Bulletin...hahahaha.
Click to expand...

Also don't forget Troika. Arcanum was buggy as hell even AFTER the giant (fanmade?) megapatch that more or less fixed the game. And while I haven't played it I've heard bad things about ToEE
 
Z

Zertez

Member
For buggiest it is a tie between Bethesda, Obsidian and Sony Online Entertainment. I have yet to play any game made by SOE that was not riddled with major bugs on release. It is one thing to beta test a game and miss some bugs, but SOE is aware of all the bugs during beta and still releases the game anyways. For least buggiest I would have to go with Blizzard and Valve. They take forever to release games, but they normally address the bugs they aware of.
 
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