Ah yes, we love them, we know what happens, we know IT WILL happen.
I call it the bane of PC gaming (and seems to be the console problem now as well)
Bugs!
After having a long weekend, with an included field trip with a bus of 50 screaming kids, and a boring day at a location called a Discovery Place, which has exhibits on Science, Math, History, etc., I put in some time on Witcher, and tried to finish some achievements in Fable 2.
Let me start with Fable 2.
Three of us in the household.
We have all played and beaten the game.
We ALL have some glitch on our game.
The wife has a glitch that her Furniture Store has become EMPTY...especially when she was being such a nice landlord and buying the furniture to redecorate all the homes she was renting (as well as the stores she owned).
I have a glitch that was based on my first wife disappearing (yes, I got married again because that wench walked out on me)...but then she reappeared after the main story ended. But, she was still broken. Could not emote, make babies, etc.
I killed her.
Now, I have a quest to rescue my child...but it is attached to the child of the dead wife, and he was taken to protective services. So, the quest is now broken...
We ALL have a glitch that various shops and stalls will not have sales anymore (usually these would be announced with discounts or markups, etc.).
So, what happened along the way? And why is this so common (check out the huge laundry list of bugs here...)
Ugly.
Luckily our overall experience was quite fun. But, why must we suffer such bugs in today's programming? These teams for these games are huge. QA runs for quite a while. Yet, we see more bugs than is possibly imaginable.
Just like MMO's. Why is it acceptable to have this player created "6 month" window for fixes. An MMO is never really ready for 6 months after release....why?
As to PC games, we have even more issues with hardware, software glitches, etc. Not even the programmers fault, but it makes PC gaming more of a hit or miss situation.
Anyways, this takes me to the NEW enhanced, bug fixed, fixed up, uber Witcher version..
That still has old bugs.
I had decided to start over, as thanks to the enhanced version, the story is more fleshed out. It reads better, is more cohesive, and some mechanics worked better (like potion making and leveling skills).
One issue presented itself to me when I played the game last year.
I got stuck in a cave after rescuing a young boy. The wall I am supposed to knock down, would not go down. Seems an updated patch would break this wall so you could not go through.
You had to reinstall the game from scratch, and then continue that save, then could patch after knocking down the wall.
This rears it's head again in the Enhanced version.
Seems some steps will cause this to happen still.
In so many words, if a certain person is not spoken to, be prepared to go back to a previous save.
But, another bug showed up.
Seems the copy protection scheme is broken on the new version, and you need to update to the latest version of that software (TAGES protection). And to add injury to insult, you must also update the DVD firmware if it is older than the recognized format of the copy protection.
Player? Meet hoops.....can you jump?
Anyways, if you did not update the protection, a very important NPC is missing (invisible) and you cannot continue.
Both of these issues are huge game breakers.
Games cost quite a bit nowadays. We pay good money to keep the developer continuing to create these great games. But, when I am forced to search for answers to dilemma's, and sometimes there is no cure...we are stuck with a 30 dollar coaster.
I have found this missing NPC thanks to hours of installing, fixing and going back to previous saves.
But, why should I have to do that?
And is the cave going to be ok on this run through?
Same with Fable 2. These issues just make the end game sort of...not too fun to load up anymore.
(But, an announcement on something happening is coming next week...hope it is a huge bug fix patch and FREE content)
Have you gotten to the point that if you buy a game...you expect a bug? Or are you still surprised when it happens?
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