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[DocSeuss]

So, a few days ago, I was trying to play Bulletstorm 'cause I did an article for Kotaku about interesting handguns, and I wanted to get Bulletstorm's handgun in there. For some reason, the game wouldn't launch.

I asked here, I checked elsewhere, and like... literally nothing worked.

I deleted GFWL. I did installs for various english language versions. I tried the "run without GFWL" patch. For whatever reason, GFWL store opens with a new account, but won't open with my normal XBL account, but that's another issue I don't really get. Not a big deal, as most GFWL games will run just fine without it.

I tried installing it on my laptop. No deal (I think Win10 syncs my My Documents folders between machines?). NOTHING worked. The game just would not launch. Even tried installing on Origin and going through my registry and stripping out GFWL, Windows Sign in, and all that jazz. (Something is still up with this, because GFWL Marketplace autofills my xbl email/password combo whenever I type the email in, even though I thought I deleted the data).

The only way I was gonna get a screenshot from the game was either by starting it up on 360--I own it there somehow--and playing through until I got the pistol, which I didn't have time for, or... buying the Gearbox version, which, well, I can't afford to buy any games right now. I just lost my apartment and am sleeping in someone's spare room right now. It's awful but that's beside the point.

So I've been really bummed out. Nothing worked. And, like, guys, I figured out why The Suffering wouldn't load its graphics properly today. I did all sorts of crazy stuff. Installed every old game that shouldn't be able to run that I had. Everything worked with enough poking and prodding.

But not Bulletstorm.

Then I got the bright idea to delete my Bulletstorm folder in My Documents. What if I had a corrupted save?

It worked. I did all the basic FOV/movieskip tweaks to make the game properly playable, and then I jumped in the game.

For some weird reason, Bulletstorm still keeps track of most of my stats. I could launch any mission--it recognized I had beat the campaign--but my actual save files were gone, so I couldn't pick up where I'd left off. I played a bit, earned an achievement with GFWL, like... everything seems to work.

Then someone sends me a message on twitter.

"Have you installed Get Even recently? It messes up Bulletstorm"

I'm reading this going "Um... yeah?"

"As in, the game seems to use use BulletStorm\StormGame\Config for storing its very important configuration files."

what.

Sure enough, this is actually a thing.

https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Get_Even

Fun fact, the reason that The Suffering's graphics are broken is because when you install The Suffering 2, it uh... it breaks the graphics. You can't have both games installed simultaneously.

So yeah, today, I had two different games fail to work because two other games interrupted them.

Crazy stuff.

Anyways, if Bulletstorm won't start, delete your saves and, uh, mess around with Get Even.

Or just buy the Gearbox port.

Edit:

 

[luulubuu]

So, a few days ago, I was trying to play Bulletstorm 'cause I did an article for Kotaku about interesting handguns, and I wanted to get Bulletstorm's handgun in there. For some reason, the game wouldn't launch.

I asked here, I checked elsewhere, and like... literally nothing worked.

I deleted GFWL. I did installs for various english language versions. I tried the "run without GFWL" patch. For whatever reason, GFWL store opens with a new account, but won't open with my normal XBL account, but that's another issue I don't really get. Not a big deal, as most GFWL games will run just fine without it.

I tried installing it on my laptop. No deal (I think Win10 syncs my My Documents folders between machines?). NOTHING worked. The game just would not launch. Even tried installing on Origin and going through my registry and stripping out GFWL, Windows Sign in, and all that jazz. (Something is still up with this, because GFWL Marketplace autofills my xbl email/password combo whenever I type the email in, even though I thought I deleted the data).

The only way I was gonna get a screenshot from the game was either by starting it up on 360--I own it there somehow--and playing through until I got the pistol, which I didn't have time for, or... buying the Gearbox version, which, well, I can't afford to buy any games right now. I just lost my apartment and am sleeping in someone's spare room right now. It's awful but that's beside the point.

So I've been really bummed out. Nothing worked. And, like, guys, I figured out why The Suffering wouldn't load its graphics properly today. I did all sorts of crazy stuff. Installed every old game that shouldn't be able to run that I had. Everything worked with enough poking and prodding.

But not Bulletstorm.

Then I got the bright idea to delete my Bulletstorm folder in My Documents. What if I had a corrupted save?

It worked. I did all the basic FOV/movieskip tweaks to make the game properly playable, and then I jumped in the game.

For some weird reason, Bulletstorm still keeps track of most of my stats. I could launch any mission--it recognized I had beat the campaign--but my actual save files were gone, so I couldn't pick up where I'd left off. I played a bit, earned an achievement with GFWL, like... everything seems to work.

Then someone sends me a message on twitter.

"Have you installed Get Even recently? It messes up Bulletstorm"

I'm reading this going "Um... yeah?"

"As in, the game seems to use use BulletStorm\StormGame\Config for storing its very important configuration files."

what.

Sure enough, this is actually a thing.

https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Get_Even

Fun fact, the reason that The Suffering's graphics are broken is because when you install The Suffering 2, it uh... it breaks the graphics. You can't have both games installed simultaneously.

So yeah, today, I had two different games fail to work because two other games interrupted them.

Crazy stuff.

Anyways, if Bulletstorm won't start, delete your saves and, uh, mess around with Get Even.

Or just buy the Gearbox port.

Very interesting read also a very good idea to make a 4th wall game

 

[WhateverItTakes]

Very interesting read also a very good idea to make a 4th wall game

Shiiit, you could make a great time travel game by having your progress in the sequel retroactively change what goes on in the original, and vice versa.

 

[luulubuu]

Shiiit, you could make a great time travel game by having your progress in the sequel retroactively change what goes on in the original, and vice versa.

Exactly, or even make an horror game that breaks the game and you need to get back to the original to see everything twisted and wrong

 

[danowat]

Huh, that's interesting.

TBH, I thought it was a quip on how the games sales were affected by the release of another game close to this ones release!

 

[Haunted]

Why in the world would some other game use BulletStorm\StormGame\Config to store its files? What does Get Even do when you don't have Bulletstorm installed? :lol

pretty big fuckup by the get even devs, seems like a workaround/shortcut that was accidentally left in the retail build?

 

[DocSeuss]

The good news is that this finally got me off my butt and I actually did a bunch of the recommended PCGW .ini tweaks and the game is so much better now. Too bad I don't have my save right where I left it, but hey, whatever, more Bulletstorm to play.

Kinda want to go for 1000G for laughs, but who even plays on GFWL to do the anarchy achievements anyways?

 

[Hektor]

Why in the world would some other game use BulletStormStormGameConfig to store its files? What does Get Even do when you don't have Bulletstorm installed? :lol

pretty big fuckup by the get even devs, seems like a workaround/shortcut that was accidentally left in the retail build?

It's probably making its own folders with the same name.

I'd assume some dev accidentally copied a path to the bulletstorm folder destination when coding the folder creation of get even?

Certainly a very weird issue

 

[Zepp Twofist]

Why in the world would some other game use BulletStorm\StormGame\Config to store its files? What does Get Even do when you don't have Bulletstorm installed? :lol

It just creates the folder instead like all games do when they first run.

 

[Tecnniqe]

Impressive, this makes for great dev trolling

 

[DocSeuss]

y'know, I actually don't know if the Gearbox-published version of Bulletstorm has a different save thing, so Get Even might mess up its saves too. Anyone willing to test it? I would if I could afford it.

 

[JonnyDBrit]

Shiiit, you could make a great time travel game by having your progress in the sequel retroactively change what goes on in the original, and vice versa.

Exactly, or even make an horror game that breaks the game and you need to get back to the original to see everything twisted and wrong

Or a multiversal story where different games share some of the same files and you can send stuff from one game to one of the others, with differing effects in each game because they're all different genres.

Otherwise, still surprised this would occur from two seemingly unrelated projects.

 

[Azure Dream]

Why in the world would some other game use BulletStorm\StormGame\Config to store its files? What does Get Even do when you don't have Bulletstorm installed? :lol

pretty big fuckup by the get even devs, seems like a workaround/shortcut that was accidentally left in the retail build?

The Farm 51 is a Polish video game developer founded in 2005 by three industry veterans, Wojciech Pazdur, Kamil Bilczyński (both have previously worked on the Painkiller series at People Can Fly)

Bulletstorm is a 2011 first-person shooter video game made by Polish developer People Can Fly and the American company Epic Games,[1] and is published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows.

Get Even

I know most of that won't show up if the post is quoted, of course.

Shiiit, you could make a great time travel game by having your progress in the sequel retroactively change what goes on in the original, and vice versa.

This was the original idea behind Stop 'N' Swop.

 

[Aztechnology]

Well that's certainly... interesting.

It's probably making its own folders with the same name.

I'd assume some dev accidentally copied a path to the bulletstorm folder destination when coding the folder creation of get even?

Certainly a very weird issue

It's a hilarious a very real possibility.


Also, nice article Doc, I'm now spoiled though, by Robo Recall or more specifically VR. A revolver in VR with the Oculus Touch controller is just something else entirely. Haptic feedback adds another dimension to that visceral feedback the best, or at least my favorite weapons have. I've always been partial to the high powered semi automatic weapons that really have "impact".

I can't wait to see what can be added in future games as we gain access to gloves with really great haptic feedback. At one point I actually owned a Novint falcon and man, I cannot wait until the day we reach that without a machine driven by motors and instead with electrical impulse, temperatures, vibrations etc.

 

[BrettHeazy]

Didn't conflicts like this happen with the recent Prey and the old one having the same file path names?

 

[JaseC]

Didn't conflicts like this happen with the recent Prey and the old one having the same file path names?

Nah. They install to the same folder but don't share structure, so they don't interfere with one another.

 

[Azure Dream]

Nah. They install to the same folder but don't share structure, so they don't interfere with one another.

But if you uninstall one, does it delete the folder as well, or just complain it can't due to it not being empty?

 

[Deques]

But if you uninstall one, does it delete the folder as well, or just complain it can't due to it not being empty?

Not 100% sure, but when you uninstall a game it only remove the files it's supposed to uninstall. Not the entire folder

Edit: If I remember correctly, the remastered version of Darksiders 2 shared same save folder path as the original version, which made the remastered version not working properly

 

[JaseC]

But if you uninstall one, does it delete the folder as well, or just complain it can't due to it not being empty?

If you have both installed, uninstalling one will delete the data associated with it but not the installation folder itself.

 

[sectionse7en]

I know most of that won't show up if the post is quoted, of course.



This was the original idea behind Stop 'N' Swop.

The implication here is that the same people worked on both Bulletstorm and Get Even, which implies to me they are reusing the same code?

It's likely there's a module for saving the game and they used the same code and didn't update the paths.

 

[Azure Dream]

Not 100% sure, but when you uninstall a game it only remove the files it's supposed to uninstall. Not the entire folder

Edit: If I remember correctly, the remastered version of Darksiders 2 shared same save folder path as the original version, which made the remastered version not working properly

If you have both installed, uninstalling one will delete the data associated with it but not the installation folder itself.

Gotcha.

The implication here is that the same people worked on both Bulletstorm and Get Even, which implies to me they are reusing the same code?

It's likely there's a module for saving the game and they used the same code and didn't update the paths.

That, or it was a semi-joke that they were intentionally causing problems for Bulletstorm because of their association, hence "Get Even".

 

[KyleCross]

That is so weird. Who on the dev team didn't just "Right Click > Add New Folder > Type "Get Even?"

 

[horkrux]

I've never encountered stuff like this, but that's certainly something lol
And man, those encrypted ini files... it's beyond belief.

 

[Andytizer]

Hi - founder of PCGamingWiki here. This is a really bizarre turn of events, would love to hear what the developers reasons for using another game's save paths are. Also welcome other volunteers to verify that the Get Even does indeed overwrite and break launching of Bulletstorm.

 

[*Splinter]

The implication here is that the same people worked on both Bulletstorm and Get Even, which implies to me they are reusing the same code?

It's likely there's a module for saving the game and they used the same code and didn't update the paths.

I think it was a joke about the name "Get Even", but yeah this does seem the most likely explanation.

Actually would reusing code from a different company even be legal?

 

[gabbo]

I think it was a joke about the name "Get Even", but yeah this does seem the most likely explanation.

Actually would reusing code from a different company even be legal?

This is what I'm wondering too.

 

[DocSeuss]

Didn't conflicts like this happen with the recent Prey and the old one having the same file path names?

Nah. They install to the same folder but don't share structure, so they don't interfere with one another.

Haha, yeah, I mentioned that a while ago.

iirc, it actually did cause some minor functionality issues.

Hi - founder of PCGamingWiki here. This is a really bizarre turn of events, would love to hear what the developers reasons for using another game's save paths are. Also welcome other volunteers to verify that the Get Even does indeed overwrite and break launching of Bulletstorm.

Sup, Andy? I reached out to someone who works at The Farm 51 and am waiting to hear back.

The path to reproducing this issue would be to run the original Bulletstorm (with GFWL; not sure if the xlive replacement on PCGW matters), then run Get Even (iirc installing it won't actually create the save data; you have to run the game once).

If anyone tests this, I would highly recommend backing up the Bulletstorm data, or you risk losing some of it (maybe all if you aren't connected to Live?) when Get Even overwrites it, if that is indeed what is happening.

Ambient_Malice, my Twitter friend, discovered this on their own. Haven't seen independent confirmation anywhere else.

 

[SpotAnime]

Fun fact, the reason that The Suffering's graphics are broken is because when you install The Suffering 2, it uh... it breaks the graphics. You can't have both games installed simultaneously.

I loved The Suffering... TIL it was free on PC until WB acquired the rights from Midway...

 

[Hesh]

What an incredibly bizarre find. Very interesting that this sort of issue slipped through the cracks when ran through QA, too. Certainly someone must have manually deleted or moved save files while testing the game.

 

[DocSeuss]

What an incredibly bizarre find. Very interesting that this sort of issue slipped through the cracks when ran through QA, too. Certainly someone must have manually deleted or moved save files while testing the game.

I mean, how many people would have had Bulletstorm on a QA machine, and how many of those people would have tried to launch Bulletstorm on the QA machine, and how many people would have actually edited the save files at all? The likelihood is EXTREMELY low imo.

 

[Zenaku]

I find it funny that everyone seems to think it's an accident. It's always possible someone on the dev team did it on purpose, knowing it would completely fuck up bulletstorm.

 

[Narpas Sword0]

This is one of the most bizarre things I have seen

 

[Justinh]

Why in the world would some other game use BulletStorm\StormGame\Config to store its files? What does Get Even do when you don't have Bulletstorm installed? :lol

I know right?

How in the world would Get Even even get to that directory unless it was specifically told to go there? This is just bizarre.

At least Prey (new game) overwriting Prey's (old game) install directory (or whatever it does...) makes sense.

I'll pray for better fortunes to find you soon, OP.

 

[Jackpot]

Hi - founder of PCGamingWiki here. This is a really bizarre turn of events, would love to hear what the developers reasons for using another game's save paths are.

They're both UE3 games. I imagine Bulletstorm is a default path of an Example project and they never changed it.

 

[JaseC]

Haha, yeah, I mentioned that a while ago.

iirc, it actually did cause some minor functionality issues.

It reportedly did, but each game's data, including the executable, is stored in different folders:

...and they save in different locations. It's certainly awkward and something Bethesda should address, but the two can co-exist just fine.

 

[Hesh]

I mean, how many people would have had Bulletstorm on a QA machine, and how many of those people would have tried to launch Bulletstorm on the QA machine, and how many people would have actually edited the save files at all? The likelihood is EXTREMELY low imo.

I wasn't saying that. I meant that someone in QA must have manually removed/moved/modified the save files during a test case and it's odd they either didn't speak up on why the game's save files were being stored in a folder it created under the name "Bulletstorm", or worse, they did find it and the devs ignored fixing it for some strange reason.

 

[jotun?]

If Bulletstorm is designed to crash if config files have been modified, then I'd say it's still partially Bulletstorm's fault. Trying to prevent config editing is shitty.

 

[Grief.exe]

There is also a bug where you have to manually install GFWL in x64 systems. When I clicked in the thread that's what I assumed the solution would be, not this nightmare.

 

[SmartWaffles]

So basically Get Even copied Bulletstorm's UE3 settings template during development and no one even bothered to have those checked?

 

[Abilidebob]

So basically Get Even copied Bulletstorm's UE3 settings template during development and no one even bothered to have those checked?

If it works, don't mess with it.

 

[Shifty]

That is so weird. Who on the dev team didn't just "Right Click > Add New Folder > Type "Get Even?"

Renaming projects can be a huge pain due to namespace and reference shenanigans, and Unreal uses your project's name to place its config files.

It can be done, but evidently they didn't bother...

 

[M3d10n]

I find it unlikely that Get Even was coded to use a folder named "BulletStorm". What is more likely is that the save path is stored in a registry key both the Get Even and the Bulletstorm devs forgot to change it from whatever UE3 used as a default and both share the same key, so whichever runs first will set where both will store their configs.

 

[DocSeuss]

I find it unlikely that Get Even was coded to use a folder named "BulletStorm". What is more likely is that the save path is stored in a registry key both the Get Even and the Bulletstorm devs forgot to change it from whatever UE3 used as a default and both share the same key, so whichever runs first will set where both will store their configs.

Well, you'd be wrong, because that's exactly what it does. There's even a note that's been commented out that names the guy who changed it.

(sorry, I replied to this late because I was looking for this thread to show someone today)