Lost Planet patched News

/waits for comments about day 1 patches and how consoles are teh doomed etc. etc. blah blah blah...

God, I know.

I wonder if that bloke will appear again who claimed that 'only console gamers are daft enough to pay for paches'... despite the fact you don't.

I got a dash update today - anyone know what that was about?

Noone knows. Even the Major isnt saying anything :/

Maybe its the update that adds an HDMI port.

Someone on gamefaqs reckons it adds the UK video marketplace. At work so can't check.

Patching on Day 1,Damn youuu Microsoft,Damn youuu Capcom,it's meant to be console gaming,we shouldn't have to put up with updates,The 360 is craaaap!!So on and so on,blah blah blah,Etc....

wheres the game review EG? They have been mixed elsewhere so I'm uncertain..
That said my mate who did the face capture stuff used in Rainbow 6 over at digimask.co.uk is sending me the game and a camera so I won't have time for Lost Planet for a while anyway.

There is now a "Video Market Place" section...was that there before though? Theres certainly none of the video on demand content you see in the States.

Video Market Place has been there a while (or at least in the few months I've had my 360).

Surprised there's nothing on the Major's site about the update.

Its look like the patch-fearers are hiding, but just to pre-empt all the same.

Getting a patch through QA is considerably quicker than getting a full title through QA. You can't keep making changes to your game right up to gold master, so it may simply be too late to include certain changes/fixes you were keen on including.

You can however get a patch signed off in a much shorter time, hence the possibility of getting a patch cut before the game is even on the shelves.

So, its not about "not getting things done in time" or "lazy devs not getting it right first time" (like anyone gets anythign right first time), its purely about the (very sensible) politics of how and when you can make changes to code you are planning on releasing.

But good QA shouldn't pass things that don't work. Otherwise how would they know what to patch. Basically they pass it because they want the money and the quality can be improved post-release. Practical but far from ideal.

We SHOULD be complaining. Otherwise the situation will get worse and worse, and games will be sold with more and more bugs because devs know they can get away with it.

What if someone wants to buy the game who doesnt have net access, patches are no good to them

"What if someone wants to buy the game who doesnt have net access, patches are no good to them "

Isn't it a patch for multiplayer stuff?

Generally but not always. ex. Gow patch is going to sort out display ratio problems.

This patch is to correct complaints people had with the MP mode after the release of the MP demo.

At least they're listening, rather than doing a Dead Rising on us.

I do agree that it's a slipperly slope, but there's sensible middle ground to be had.

People make out that games are being released in an unplayable state due to a patch.

Whenever I read down a patch fix list I'm always amazed anyone spotted the little glitches that were repaired or tweaked. If the game is perfectly playable out of the box then there's really no grounds for anyone to complain in my view

looking back in console history i wonder how many crap games might have been made better if they had major problems patched?

@warzin

RUUUBBBIIISSSHHHH!!!

No QA department will find every bug in a piece of code. It will NEVER happen. Some bugs are so infrequent that maybe only a handful of gamers will see them, and maybe only once in all the time they play the game.

To assume that stuff either works or doesn't in some binary way is a fundamental flaw.

E.g. My pedal bike "works". Your bike "does't work". Discuss.

So, you get a game to level of acceptable quality, then you release it. That is how it has always been. Console games have always had bugs in them. At this stage, we don't really even know how severe some of the bugs fixed by this update are. Perhaps the patch is simply improving things even more, and on a last gen system the issues would have gone unaddressed.

Games are getting more complex all the time. If you want simplicity, play Manic Miner on an old ZX Spectrum. I guarantee you won't have to suffer any patches if thats what makes you happy.

So,

1. Game. Millions of lines of code, GBs of assets, 100s of bugs. Takes age to pass through QA.

2. Patch. A few hundred lines of code, potentially no extra assets, very few bugs. Significantly quicker to pass through QA.

Why NOT cut the patch, if the alternative is that issues simply go unfixed. The idea that older games didn't have bugs is a MYTH!

There are numerous examples. Jet Set Willy on the Spectrum, The Hobbit on the Spectrum, Driver on PS1. Someone else can give you others I'm sure, I need some food.

@Flabio, northy, Kostabi and peteb.

Bless you all for your grasp of reality :)

If you're adding more I don't think you'll hear many complaints unless they make you pay for things that could have been included originally. PC games always have had patches but people seem to think this taboo on a console. But consoles are more like PC's now anyhow plus with online you have people with different networking hardware setups so some errors are bound to crop up. No problem with these. But Dead Rising had Text that couldn't be read easily on SDTV. This is easily discovered and changed in the development process but wasn't. And to be honest there not even going to patch this.

I only take issue with patching when the patch breaks something else... that to me screams poor testing. On the whole though patching is a good thing... gives the hackers of this world something to do, you know keeping them off the street hasseling old ladies to buy them beer and what not.

@peteb - Very few... No amount of patching can make some horrific games palpable without serious recoding.

There's no doubt that as games increase in complexity that there are more opportunities for bugs/glitches to arise but, harkening back to console gaming in it's infancy, something has definitely been lost since back in the day game released to market was finished, b0rked or unb0rked.

@Ignatius_Cheese

>No amount of patching can make some horrific games palpable without serious recoding.

true

warzin: "But good QA shouldn't pass things that don't work. Otherwise how would they know what to patch."

As well as Kanga's good posts, with respects to the Lost Planet patch most of it sounds like ADDITIONAL features, not things that simply didn't work.

(from http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?art...
"Private slots can be set by host" - new feature
"Invite friends to a match" - new feature
"Number of players in a room will be displayed next to name of the room" - new feature
Etc.

Honestly, I don't know why people are even complaining about patches for 360 games. From my experiences they take less time to download then it takes me to walk to the fridge and grab a beer. By the time I'm back it's downloaded, and away we go with new features and some issues fixed.

Fair point. Patching also gives the developer the chance to improve things they weren't even aware of initially.

"Private slots can be set by host" - new feature
"Invite friends to a match" - new feature
"Number of players in a room will be displayed next to name of the room" - new feature

Even though these features are new to Lost Planet you gotta admit their pretty basic and should be included in every multiplayer game. These features work, people like these features, so no need to reinvent the wheel. So why do developers wait for negative feedback before they do the obvious. They are paid to develop games and so should be aware of what features are popular.

>By the time I'm back it's downloaded, and away we go with new features and some issues fixed.

All that AND u get a beer

Maybe the dash update is to ensure that those of you who have not yet experienced the 'red ring of death' can join the party. 360 number 2 is on it's way out. I'm not bitter....

>Maybe the dash update is to ensure that those of you who have not yet experienced the 'red ring of death' can join the party. 360 number 2 is on it's way out. I'm not bitter....

this really is my worst fear, i took my 360 home to ireland from munich for christmas and back and any turbulance in the flight or bump in the road on the bus had me crapping it. i think its all just down to luck, or lack thereof...anyone remember the story of the xbox 360 surviving the car crash?

Anyway where in the hell is EG's Lost Planet review?They're a bit late aint they?Not that it'll make a difference to me as I'm definitely buying the game (It's had an 8 from most of my review sources,that'll do)
It's supposed to be rock hard though aint it?And I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to really tough games,mehhhh.
Ohh and from the last 3 seconds I caught last night it seems MS have thrown out another good television advert for this game,lots of bangs and explosions and all that jazz.

@warzin

Sorry, I went off on one at you a bit there.

I was never too worried when I used to play PC games that devs would release unfinished products, planning to patch later. Of course there were exceptions, but the majority of PC games are perfectly playable off the shelf. I don't see consoles being any different, even if they get closer to PC games as far as the build cycle structure goes.

I'm not sure if they made it with the japanesse gamer in mind. Thought it was catered to western tastes. Have it pre-ordered anyway and really looking forward to it. Thought demos were great.

Jesus EuroSexMachine,what's up with you?Panning one of the bigger 360 releases for the next few months,a bit out of character isn't it :)
Still like the guy above I really liked the demo (didn't try the MP one though) so am looking forward to Friday,some of the bosses look fooking mental.

Seems ok.

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platform...

The default controls take some getting used to, but luckily there are lots of options for changing them to something more like a common standard for 3rd person games.

"But good QA shouldn't pass things that don't work..."

some good points above, but just to add

QA don't get to make that decision - the dev teams do. Just before any game goes final a long list of known issues found by QA are swept away and ignored. If they decide to patch the game they look at the worst issues they knew about, as well as new ones they didn't, and try to fix them.

There does seem to be a culture emerging about having day 1 patches

This is probably the first 360 game I'm actually interested in. Sounds like its a hardcore rush...

"QA don't get to make that decision - the dev teams do"

Actually they don't.

@Avenger 1324

"QA don't get to make that decision - the dev teams do. Just before any game goes final a long list of known issues found by QA are swept away and ignored."

Ummm, not at all true I'm afraid.

I think you are confusing the dev's own QA with platform submission QA. Internal QA is just another bunch of employees and of course a dev can ignore them if they wish. They are just finding the bugs, they don't actually "pass" anything.

But any console release has to pass a submission process set by the license holder (MS, Sony or Nintendo) and if they say fix you have to fix, or you don't get licensed to release your game.

captainrentboy
09-Jan-07 12:53:23 Patching on Day 1,Damn youuu Microsoft,Damn youuu Capcom,it's meant to be console gaming,we shouldn't have to put up with updates,The 360 is craaaap!!So on and so on,blah blah blah,Etc....

Dude you've got issues... Unplug your freakin console of the network and play offline with no updates. WTF was that comment supposed to be? smart?

pretence, I actually thought it wouldn't be that good but believe me... I finished it and I'm already playing it again. Since the first moment you get to play in the game you are like :O !!!

I'm just curious on the site's review.... seriously I am. If they've played anything better again than that... They burried GoW so I guess it wont be that hard for them to do it again. Let's pretend it's not a 360 exclusive and you'll all hear the best for this game. Trust me on this one...

@davisorle

He was being sarcastic, writing "in character" and so on.