Support NeoGAF

[Bisnic]

That is another issue though - how many people in the press are paying for all of the DLC that makes a game complete?

Calling something GOTY based on content that showed up months later and for a fee is kind of crazy. There is a huge difference between that and something having been episodic by design and priced as such.

People aren't considering ME3 "GOTY" because of Leviathan or Omega though. Extended cut is free at least and gives us a more decent ending that is less confusing, even if it's still not what many people wanted(past ME1/ME2/ME3 choices that should affect the ending and no more

Spoiler

Starchild

).

 

[CosmicQueso]

The use of the word "broken" is all that actually is broken.

 

[canedaddy]

Journey isn't broken.

(Neither is The Walking Dead, at least in my experience.)

Skyrim, now that is a broken game.

 

[elektrixx]

Journey isn't broken.

(Neither is The Walking Dead, at least in my experience.)

Skyrim, now that is a broken game.

At least Skyrim actually ran on PC.

 

[Toki767]

I think my biggest complaint about Skyrim last year was that all these big companies couldn't spend $60 in the interest of journalism to buy a PS3 copy and instead just went "Well they didn't send us that copy so we're not going to worry about it."

 

[Rorschach]

ITT: people confuse "poorly optimised" with "flat out broken".

Edit: what is" TBD"?

ITT people don't know what TBD means.

 

[RedSwirl]

I haven't played Skyrim on PS3 and I'm not saying it isn't a broken game (the save issue described does sound very damning), but I do have to ask: What are other games as expansive and deep as Skyrim but have cleaner code?

I'm talking about games that allow you to do as much as you can do in Bethesda games. Regular console open-world games like GTA or Assassin's Creed aren't quite there. I think Far Cry 2 and 3 are about the closest things I can think of.

The point is, games like Skyrim and the recent Fallout games are extremely complex compared to the rest of what's on the market. I won't forgive the PS3 save issue, but like with most computer software, many bugs just can't be discovered until millions of people have used that software. That's what betas are for. Retail release single player games just don't have the luxury of open alphas and betas.

Maybe I'm just saying this because in the last few years I've gotten used to Eastern European PC games, which are often at least as buggy as Bethesda games. We love them for how far they reach creatively, but recognize the price of that creativity in terms of code. Just look at ArmA II -- a game that attempts things Call of Duty can't even fucking dream of, and is also broken half the time.

I'll also bring back the argument that what we're seeing is PC code standards transitioning to the console market. Obsidian (or as some of them were previously known, Black Isle) was known for its great gameplay but buggy-as-hell code in the PC space long before people got pissed at them for Fallout: New Vegas, and their games are still considered some of the greatest. From developers like these, I don't think you'll ever see code as clean as what you might have been playing on the PS2.

 

[winter]

I patiently waited for months for my walking dead retail 360 preorder to ship. I was so hyped for the game hearing all the praise the first episodes got but decided to wait until the retail package was released so I could experience it all at once. I was sure the wait would be worth it. Tell tale would polish all the kinks out of the downloadable episodes for the retail release and i would be rewarded with a smoother experience for having held out for months.

And then I got the game. HOLY SHIT I was WRONG. The game is an unplayable fucking mess. It hiccups and stutters every few seconds. I literally couldn't get past the first 2 minutes of the game without being disgusted by all the dropped frames and freezing. I can't believe the game could be released in such a broken state.

 

[Laughing Banana]

I question anyone who doesn't consider it a game. If its not then neither is Kings Quest or other point and click games considered games which is total BS.

Note that I am not saying it is not a "game", all I say is that it's not an "amazing game" or "a game with amazing gameplay", ok?

 

[speedline]

I patiently waited for months for my walking dead retail 360 preorder to ship. I was so hyped for the game hearing all the praise the first episodes got but decided to wait until the retail package was released so I could experience it all at once. I was sure the wait would be worth it. Tell tale would polish all the kinks out of the downloadable episodes for the retail release and i would be rewarded with a smoother experience for having held out for months.

And then I got the game. HOLY SHIT I was WRONG. The game is an unplayable fucking mess. It hiccups and stutters every few seconds. I literally couldn't get past the first 2 minutes of the game without being disgusted by all the dropped frames and freezing. I can't believe the game could be released in such a broken state.

You are not alone...........



Walking Dead on PS3 isn't broken per say, but it definitely freezes for a split second and jerks around a lot. It's distracting. Bought the retail release :/

 

[coopolon]

ITT: people confuse "poorly optimised" with "flat out broken".

Edit: what is" TBD"?

Since you're not specifying who "people" are or actual examples of them using the word wrong it's hard to really engage with you, but I think it's pretty fair to use the phrase broken to describe

1. 0fps framerates playing Skyrim on PS3
2. Savegames not working (either not showing up, or not remembering your choices) in TWD where the core principle of the game is that your choices matter

Would you disagree that those are examples of games being broken?

 

[Tempy]

Too much value is given to what some media outlet decides to reward its GOTY to, but okay, let me play along and ask this question:

So how widespread should the "brokenness" be to make a game ineligible to be a media outlet's GOTY? (I figure we're talking about media outlet GOTYs here specifically and not personal GOTYs)

 

[Seanspeed]

Come on man; although I do understand feeling annoyed by people constantly whining about how their hated games get perfect score or their favorite games get less than perfect score, it is naive to say that people thinking that some publishers/developers--especially the big ones--getting 9s/10s are not getting them through objective, legitimate means are entirely without merit.

Maybe not, but unless somebody has a legitimate argument for a game getting a review that was based on something other than pure opinion, you have nothing to say. If somebody experiences a game without all the trials and tribulations that others have to deal with in a game and loved the hell out of it, WHO is to say it shouldn't be their Game of the Year? You can speculate all you like, but in the end, most of it comes down to people just being incapable of reconciling the idea that people like something they didn't. Its laughable and uses such faulty reasoning.

 

[coopolon]

Too much value is given to what some media outlet decides to reward its GOTY to, but okay, let me play along and ask this question:

So how widespread should the "brokenness" be to make a game ineligible to be a media outlet's GOTY? (I figure we're talking about media outlet GOTYs here specifically and not personal GOTYs)

I don't disagree with your first sentence. In the end the only reason I really care is because it reinforces the belief that it is perfectly acceptable to make buggy/broken games. I can imagine it might be pretty hard for Todd Howard to argue for more budget for the QA of the next Elder Scrolls when his bosses can just point and say "But look, even the critics thought our game was amazing" but I think an entire platform (PS3 Skyrim) is a pretty reasonable place to start. Of course in reality the critics matter a lot less than the sales #s, but it's not inconceivable that media outlets giving a game GOTY might help it garner more sales.

 

[Seanspeed]

I don't disagree with your first sentence. In the end the only reason I really care is because it reinforces the belief that it is perfectly acceptable to make buggy/broken games. I can imagine it might be pretty hard for Todd Howard to argue for more budget for the QA of the next Elder Scrolls when his bosses can just point and say "But look, even the critics thought our game was amazing" but I think an entire platform (PS3 Skyrim) is a pretty reasonable place to start. Of course in reality the critics matter a lot less than the sales #s, but it's not inconceivable that media outlets giving a game GOTY might help it garner more sales.

Some people judge their 'GOTY' less on how objectively stable the game was on all platforms PLUS how good it was and more on just how good they thought the game was.

Thats what some people cant seem to understand here.

 

[NullPointer]

Some people judge their 'GOTY' less on how objectively stable the game was on all platforms PLUS how good it was and more on just how good they thought the game was.

Thats what some people cant seem to understand here.

Yeah, what you're saying here has the benefit of being simple and true.

What isn't simple and truthful is somehow applying a stability standard to platforms a reviewer or outlet hasn't played, or holding them accountable for bugs they may never have been affected by.

 

[NinjaBoiX]

ITT people don't know what TBD means.

It's TBC where I come from. Plus, how many games could TBD be short for?

Smart arse...

 

[faceless007]

Some people judge their 'GOTY' less on how objectively stable the game was on all platforms PLUS how good it was and more on just how good they thought the game was.

Those people shouldn't be employed as professional reviewers to be watchdogs for the industry and write on behalf of consumers for the gaming press or call themselves "journalists" then.

 

[Spike]

The Walking Dead is fine. SOME people experienced bugs. It is not a broken game.

Disc version doesn't work on a 4GB Xbox 360 Slim unit with no fix in sight...

 

[coopolon]

Some people judge their 'GOTY' less on how objectively stable the game was on all platforms PLUS how good it was and more on just how good they thought the game was.

Thats what some people cant seem to understand here.

Of course. But for me there's a distinction between saying "This is my personal favorite game of the year" and an enthusiast press outlet saying "This is the best game of 2012."

 

[RooMHM]

Here are the games that have won the majority of the GotY awards since 03

03 - Star Wars: KotOR
04 - Half-Life 2
05 - Resident Evil 4
06 - Oblivion
07 - Bioshock
08 - Fallout 3
09 - Uncharted 2
10 - Red Dead Redemption
11 - Skyrim
12 - TBD

So, you can judge from there if it's a trend or fluke. RE4 and Uncharted 2 are the only two games that really stick out as very polished experiences.

Haha, no. HL2 and Bioshock are as polished as re4 or u2. Same could almost be said of kotor..