Download This, Patch That...Just Leave Me Alone, Damnit
See Full ImageFor the record, I'm not entirely against the general concepts behind downloadable content, updates and patches.
I'm also not one of those nostalgia-addled gamers who think we've never managed to top Pong and Super Mario Bros. due to the purity of those groundbreaking games (or some such nonsense). I have the greatest respect for them, of course, and I'll always hold the classics in high esteem, but I do acknowledge and accept reality.
That being said, I used to love console gaming because it was easy and relaxing; hit the power button and play. Unlike with the PC, I didn't have to fiddle with settings for a half-hour, I didn't have to worry if one piece of my equipment was slightly outdated, and I didn't have to worry if the game was broken. Patches used to only exist in the PC realm, as did the other complications that go with more advanced gaming setups.
But of course, even our consoles are computers these days, so I shouldn't be surprised that they're starting to feel a little like computers. I can still avoid the equipment issue but other previously PC-exclusive frustrations are setting in. I'd say that 75-85% of all new games I get to play or review have me do an update before ever seeing the main menu. All of them have DLC of some kind, and just about all of them have a multiplayer option, which - let's not kid ourselves - isn't as straightforward as the standard single-player experience.
In some cases, provided everything is set and I have no intention of getting DLC or whatever, I can still just jump into a game and play. But even then, our super advanced machines offer so much more; I could watch trailers first, or go into PlayStation Home, or set up music playlists, or PM friends, or change wallpapers, etc, etc, etc. I'm not complaining that such options are there (I'm really not) but sometimes, I really think we're missing the simplicity that once made console gaming so appealing. To me, at any rate.
Downloadable stuff and patches and updates can make our experience better. I understand that. I really do. But there are times...oh, there are times...just stop and let me play, damnit.
Tags: dlc, downloadable content, updates, patches, gaming
12/5/2011 10:03:36 PM Ben Dutka
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Comments (48 posts)
Warrior Poet
Monday, December 05, 2011 @ 11:17:25 PM
It's not so much the loading as it is the complete simplicity of using cartridges. I can handle discs, downloads, installs, etc. That's fine. But I still wish, kind of unreasonably, that everything was still on cartridges.
0 up, 0 down
firesoul453
Monday, December 05, 2011 @ 10:33:01 PM
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I miss the days when a console was a consoles and a PC was a PC. Consoles were put in the game and play (often with up to 4 other players!)
I do like some more modern features for example, online gameplay; but the worst thing about modern consoles is a lot of times (or it seems like it), developers don't finish a game before it goes gold...
1 up, 0 down
Jawknee
Monday, December 05, 2011 @ 10:34:10 PM
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One thing I do like about Nintendo is they will make sure the game they release is 100% complete and has no flaws because they know they cannot fix it later. Say what you will about their last gen approach to graphics, when it comes to Nintendo's first party offerings, they never have the technical problems some PS3 and Xbox games have that require a huge patch. I understand their games aren't as complex but the quality is still there. They take their time and get it right the first time.
Last edited by Jawknee on 12/5/2011 10:36:39 PM
10 up, 1 down
LegendaryWolfeh
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 8:32:29 PM
1 up, 0 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Monday, December 05, 2011 @ 10:35:38 PM
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13 up, 4 down
Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Monday, December 05, 2011 @ 10:51:04 PM
A direct quote of me when facing the same thing. ;)
11 up, 2 down
TheAgingHipster
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 6:32:55 AM
It's just as frustrating with older games I haven't played in a while. I popped in Uncharted 2 not too long ago, just for fun, to play before I went to the office, but never got to play because of the stupid updates.
And Kevin Butler forbid you try to play without installing the patch, because the system will interrupt your game with a black screen every five minutes to remind you that a patch is available, rendering the game virtually unplayable until you finally break down and update.
*deep breath* Woosa.
Last edited by TheAgingHipster on 12/6/2011 6:34:13 AM
1 up, 0 down
spiderboi
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 10:08:20 AM
Btw, semi-off topic: if I buy a Heavy Rain copy with the Move logo, does it mean that I can play it immediately using the Move, or do I still have to download the Move patch? The internet speed at my new place blows and cuts off on a sadly regular rate...
0 up, 0 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 12:27:33 PM
0 up, 0 down
LimitedVertigo
Monday, December 05, 2011 @ 10:57:11 PM
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4 up, 1 down
Jawknee
Monday, December 05, 2011 @ 11:04:37 PM
1 up, 0 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Monday, December 05, 2011 @ 11:07:45 PM
4 up, 0 down
LimitedVertigo
Monday, December 05, 2011 @ 11:40:45 PM
World, I gave him the entire Uncharted series but he's a huge Elder Scrolls fan and so he wanted to play Skyrim immediately.
0 up, 0 down
Mr Bubbles IGR
Monday, December 05, 2011 @ 11:43:54 PM
2 up, 0 down
Oxvial
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 9:42:57 AM
I wonder how many months gonna take for the game to stop having so much problems.
Last edited by Oxvial on 12/6/2011 9:48:09 AM
3 up, 0 down
Mr Bubbles IGR
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 10:52:52 AM
No fanboy here, actually this is the first elder scrolls game that i've enjoyed since i hated oblivion and never tried fallout 3.
Last edited by Mr Bubbles IGR on 12/6/2011 10:55:07 AM
1 up, 0 down
Oxvial
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 2:14:04 PM
Btw I also hated Oblivion so this game is actually fun compared? because I heard from almost everyone is almost the same, if isn't the case I would buy it when it properly gets patched.
Last edited by Oxvial on 12/6/2011 2:21:26 PM
0 up, 0 down
Mr Bubbles IGR
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 3:18:41 PM
My advice is to rent it and see OR buy used at gamestop so if you dont like it then you have 7 days for a full refund, no money lost. I've done the latter numerous times. ^_^
0 up, 0 down
karneli lll
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 12:24:31 AM
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1 up, 0 down
___________
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 1:28:15 AM
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especially with steam, tis why im seriously thinking of selling my gaming PC its driving me nuts!
every game you get theres a problem with it.
ps3 you come home, install it if it needs one, download a patch and fire up.
PC oh the CD key is invalid.
spend 4 days on emails with customer support getting a new key.
or crappy console ports, cough red faction armageddon!
they STILL have not patched it, unbelievable!
no wonder the RF series is going down the sh*tter when thats how they support it!
1 up, 2 down
Geobaldi
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 4:56:53 AM
2 up, 1 down
___________
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 8:44:36 AM
then restarted it and i had to start from scratch, finally 4th time worked fine.
then i went to activate my anarchy edition code and it told me its invalid.
or with just cause 2, every time i put my disk in steam went to download it.
ahhhh, why would i want to download the game when i have the disk and am trying to install it off that?
every game i get i spend more time screwing around with driver settings, game settings, .cfg files, steam, and whatever else to get it working properly.
1 up, 0 down
Geobaldi
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 4:34:48 PM
2 up, 0 down
___________
Wednesday, December 07, 2011 @ 9:21:13 AM
i had the same problem with battlefield 3, every time i entered the cd key in the CD installation it said invalid code.
then i redeemed it through origin, and downloaded it no problem even though i had the disk.
thats one thing i hate about steam though, every time it downloads a update it says the game size not the update size.
blops for example the update says its 4888MBs.
either thats the size of the whole game, or that is one big a$$ patch!
same thing for all my games, instead of saying the size of the update, several MBs, it says the size of the game, several GBs.
contacted steam about it multiple times and all they can tell me to do is delete and re install steam.
has not changed a thing.
oh and my favourite, allot of the time when i go to redeem my CD codes, or boot my game i get a error saying steam is busy please come back later.
no i wont come back later, i paid 100 bucks for that game so i can play it when i want, not when you want!
Last edited by ___________ on 12/7/2011 9:23:55 AM
0 up, 1 down
Lawless SXE
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 2:59:14 AM
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But on topic again... Yeah, love not having to worry about it. If a game comes down the pipe with a mandatory system update on it, so be it. If it requires an installation, go ahead. It's twenty minutes or so. I can find something else to do in that time. So while y'all are patching some minor, niggling issue... I'm persevering through it, and I have no problem with that whatsoever. Alas, I kind of dread the day that I do hook up to the broadband though. The patches I'll need... The system updates, synching with the servers... bombardment with all sorts of other things. I'll miss the simplicity. o.O
2 up, 0 down
Underdog15
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 9:08:41 AM
I know it's great, but I don't want to play a game that will, at an undisclosed time, start freaking out on me.
I don't play and finish those games on a time crunch.
Last edited by Underdog15 on 12/6/2011 9:08:57 AM
1 up, 1 down
Killa Tequilla
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 5:43:47 AM
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Last edited by Killa Tequilla on 12/6/2011 5:45:55 AM
1 up, 1 down
Ultimadream
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 5:48:26 AM
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DLC is where we should frowning upon. developers leaving out content on perpose to charge us with later on. Which every developer is cashing in on now. I miss the day of wlaking comfortably into a store and being able to pick up a game without fear that I am not getting the full game or an online access code.
3 up, 1 down
Excelsior1
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 7:13:32 AM
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1. Mandatory half hour HD install
2. Download patch
3. Go online and create an EA acoount
4. ATTEMPT to redeem one time code for 4 days
5. Download Cerebus pack which unlocks the bonus missions on the disc such as Lair of the Shadow broker, downloads the interactive comic, some extra hammerhead missions, weapons, ship, and armour upgrades.
It turns out the Cerebus network was down for 4 days so there was no way to download the Cerebus pack. No biggie I thought to myself. I'll skip the comic and download the Cerebus pack later. I started my game, but later learned that that the one time code had to be redeemed and Cerebus pack dowloaded berfore BEFORE I started my game if I wanted access to the bonus missions such as Lair of the Shadowbroker. Hours of gameplay lost.
EA had an online pass on a Single player game. No code. No access to bonus content that was advertised as being included in the definitive PS3 version of ME2. I am not just talking about the comic but also all the bonus missions that add up to many hours of gameplay. Absolutely ridiculous the amount of hoops EA made gamers jump through which was only complicated by the Cerebus network being down for 4 days. If this is typical of what a PC gamer must be forced to endure then I very much feel sorry for them.
Last edited by Excelsior1 on 12/6/2011 7:16:47 AM
6 up, 1 down
Geobaldi
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 7:28:13 AM
It's not.
2 up, 0 down
Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 9:15:46 AM
...anybody who says otherwise likes PC a little too much. 'cough'
3 up, 5 down
D1g1tal5torm
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 7:17:57 AM
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5-10 mins in and bang - it freezes.
That's what annoys me about patches - the lack of attention given to what it affects in my collection.
0 up, 0 down
xnonsuchx
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 7:46:58 AM
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0 up, 1 down
slugga_status
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 8:17:19 AM
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1 up, 0 down
dork02840
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 8:43:18 AM
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0 up, 0 down
Underdog15
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 9:10:29 AM
3 up, 6 down
Underdog15
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 1:42:50 PM
2 up, 1 down
telly
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 11:29:44 AM
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But yes, your point is well taken. Too many patches on consoles these days.
2 up, 1 down
Highlander
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 12:37:02 PM
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I would also love to see a tighter limit on installation size. Even if a game fills a 50GB BluRay, as long as the disk is in the drive the majority of the resources can be loaded from the BluRay. Installations really only need to cache the most frequently used elements and core components, so I don't really believe that we need 8-10GB installations for games. Again, the platform holders can help by requiring devs to adopt a 4 tier approach. So you would have the four tiers as running from the BluRay/DVD alone, optionally use up to 2GB of HDD (or other storage) to cache data to the HDD as a kind of dynamic installation, use up to 2GB for a partial install (as well as using the 2GB cache option), and the full size install as the final option. Once again, gamers should have the choice, but the game should run without requiring an installation, even if it means that it caches an installation to the HDD as the player goes.
DLC isn't an issue for me, I like it. But the whole patching and installation thing is getting out of hand.
2 up, 1 down
CaptRon
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 1:46:53 PM
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0 up, 0 down
Alienange
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 2:48:06 PM
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0 up, 0 down
BikerSaint
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 5:12:32 PM
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On one hand, they're needed to rectify any unknown problems that arise afterwards.
But I think that developers like Skyrim's should be taken to the mat by Sony, just because there seem to be numerous well-know problems by this developer's games that still don't seem to be getting rectified.
So Sony should have a special "QCTD"(Quality Control Tester Division)" who's hours are paid by the developer of the game they're testing for bugs, glitches, & any other serious flaws.
If the gamne flunks their testing, it's flagged & sent back till it's all straightened out, PERIOD!
Now with that said, I'm always on the go, so I want to be able to "Plug & Play", but it seems that almost every game I've bought lately, has these damned patches or updates, & some of them as super-long, MS2 being the biggest one of them so far.
And 2 nights ago, I bought "Rage: Anarchy Edition", and I only had a short limited window of time in which to sample it that night, but......
1. At start up, "notice to update".
(DSL speed/at7mbs per second) = almost a 1/2 hour to D/L.
2. And install = another 13 minutes.
3.Off to PSN store to redeem "Anarchy Edition Pack" code
4. so more D/L time
5.And more install time
6.Oh wait, another damned code, the "Infamously Stolen Wasteland Sewer Mission" code
7. More D/L time
8. So more install time
Needless to say I didn't get more than a thimble of clock ticks to sample Rage after I was all done.
And I suddenly realized how truly "IRONIC" the name Rage was, as I was now in one myself after all that time lost just trying to sample it.
And BTW, there's got to be a much f8cking better way of screwing GameStop, than by f8cking all of us!
Last edited by BikerSaint on 12/6/2011 5:16:17 PM
1 up, 2 down
Rogueagent01
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 7:45:11 PM
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The one thing that has brought extreme rage out of me within this generation, is looking at the QA departments in the credits of games this generation. You used to see page after page of testers and QA related positions. Now it comes down to a head of the department and maybe a dozen testers if lucky. And we wonder why these games feel incomplete or even broken.
The people in charge of these studios have cut costs by subing these jobs out to us "gamers" and left it up to us to test their games. Now mind you I believe giving the public a chance to beta test is a good thing and can result in a better game. But you should still rely heavily on your own QA team to do their own proper beta test. Many gamers don't want to beta test they want to play a demo which is why many betas yield poor results in the long run.
I don't mind where we are now in gaming, I just wish developers would take their jobs more seriously(if that makes sense).
1 up, 0 down
hehateme
Tuesday, December 06, 2011 @ 10:31:57 PM
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0 up, 0 down
Warrior Poet
Reply
Monday, December 05, 2011 @ 10:23:42 PM
I agree with you - even last gen, everything was simpler. I generally don't play anything online, but updates and patches are still really annoying. I'm not against optimization either...but while I wait half an hour for my PS3 to update, I might just play Dr Mario on my NES...or walk my dog or eat a sandwich or play guitar. I shouldn't have to walk my dog in the time between I turn on the console and I play the game.