Sunday, October 18, 2009

Does Bethesda Softworks suck?

How could a company that creates games containing so many good elements, ignore an ever growing list of bugs and huge annoyances?

Do you want examples? I have only played a few Bethesda games, but already wonder what the hell is going on. I actaully enjoyed Fallout 3 very much. It had great quests and a cool storyline. But....
it had some real annoyances, such as bodies twitching or getting stretched out, all spidery and spinning about the sky. Or the celebrated VA.T.S. combat system locking the PS3 solid every once in a while. It also had NPCs sticking part way through walls, etc. Oblivion had the twitching bodies too, but also added annoyances like NPC dialog without audio, and system lockups when leaving cells like rooms or caves, etc. Of course there was the ver annoying issue with any NPC on a floor above you having its shadow cast through the floors. What they didn't see that before release? Sure the forum was populated with examples of these issues, but not much was ever mentioned about fixes or patches.

Now folks like me, who bought the latest Fallout 3 Game of the Year edition got screwed. It was hailed as Fallout with all the great downloadable content on one disc. How great is that? All the DLC finally for the Playstation. Sure the other platforms had it a long time ago, but we pS3 owners are patient. Sadly, I can't resume where I left of in Fallout 3, as the ability to load a previously saved game is broken in the new Cnadian version of the GOTY. Real nice Bethesda. Looking on the forum or sending a support email didn't result in anything that would help. So maybe I should be patient and wait for a patch (not like Bethesda is exactly quick with any patches).

So I do a little research and find that there are hundreds of complaints about the added content anyways. People are suffering from even freezes/lockups, frame rate issues, save problems, graphic problems, and an assortment of other problems. The rumor out there is that Bethesda isn't going to provide patches for these, as they are concentrating on upcoming releases.

So now I have a $68 game I can't continue and I not even sure I want to continue, as I would be bothered by even more Bethesda bugginess. Perhaps Bethesda doesn't deservemore of my money, and a better game company does.

Can anyone recommend a decent action RPG, with a sandbox I can explore in first person?

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