Sniper GW patch targets review criticisms

By Tom Bramwell Published 15 July, 2010

Addresses complaints and rebalances.

City Interactive has released a patch for Sniper: Ghost Warrior on PC to "address complaints made in reviews and add more balance to the gameplay".

An Xbox 360 version will "follow shortly".

According to the patch notes there are big changes to AI and multiplayer and a range of stability fixes, tweaks and weapon adjustments.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior was released in late June and took a bit of a thumping in reviews, including our own 2/10 write-up.

We were rather excited about a game where you play a well-conditioned and supporter sniper, but then we realised it was a regular FPS where you just had the wrong gun most of the time.

Oh well, here's the full changelog for the patch, and you can check out the first 15 minutes of the game in action on video further down the page.

Patch Info: Notable changes include tweaked AI behaviour, fixed camouflage efficiency and stealth system. Most of static AI scripts referring to stealth actions have been removed and replaced by a real-time stealth system. Specific changes are as follows:

Artifical Intelligence

  • Fixed interactions of camouflage system with plants (the player will be less vulnerable to enemy sight when hidden in vegetation)
  • Adjusted AI alertness and seeing (e.g. the player will be less vulnerable to enemy sight at long distances)
  • Tweaked influence of the players posture and movement speed on being spotted by the enemies
  • Tweaked AI reactions, better behavior in combat situations
  • Removed over 95% of the static AI scripts during stealth actions and replaced with the improved stealth system

Multiplayer

  • Fixed multiplayer statistics
  • Adjusted duration of breath-holding
  • Fixed minor multiplayer maps geometry issues

Optimisations and Stability

  • Fixed possible random crashes on multi processor systems
  • Fixed minor stability problems on several hardware configurations

General Fixes/Tweaks

  • Fixed registration of internet profile
  • Fixed blink after exiting game to menus

Weapons

  • Adjusted melee (knife) attack strength
  • Adjusted damage, accuracy and range of AI weapons

The first 15 minutes of Sniper: Ghost Warrior.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • carlitoswagon #1 2 years ago

    Still reads like...... "we didn't play the game before we released it".

  • d00dl #2 2 years ago

    Awesome. Now it reads like a 3/10

  • geeza2020 #3 2 years ago

    Does the patch include new levels that actually require you to use the sniper rifle?

  • Jonathan_Fakenham #4 2 years ago

    It's almost like they're patching in direct response to the EG review..

  • Icyclectic #5 2 years ago

    I see. It was all a smart financial move where they don't hire testers, but wait for game reviewers do the job before patching all bugs.

  • oupe #6 2 years ago

    You've got to give them credit for changing it so fast though.

  • CaptainQuint #7 2 years ago

    Let the polishing of turds commence!

    Nah, good luck to 'em.

  • Pistonhead #8 2 years ago

    Any chance of a re-review now, EG? At least when the 360 patch comes out that is...
    Edited by Pistonhead at 15/07/10 @ 10:53

  • Frumper #9 2 years ago

    "You've got to give them credit for changing it so fast though."

    A little too quickly, sounds like it was rushed for release- and they decided to address the issues while it was being pressed.

  • LetsGo #10 2 years ago

    Multiplayer would have been great if it wasn't for camping snipers!!

  • Moskau #11 2 years ago

    Sounds like a brilliant method of free Quality Control.

    Why hire Q&A people to debug and beta your game. When the Public and Games Journalists will do it, whilst paying for the product!!

    Ingenious :/

  • JahB #12 2 years ago

    going through that list, where's the hit detection fix? i was dumb enough to buy this (yeah, before the review came out and the vids looked good...), only to find myself shooting straight through the AI, to then see them wander off and stare at the decals behind them.

  • itsfuzzy #13 2 years ago

    Pat them on the back for reacting so quickly to the criticism, or slap them around the head for releasing a very incomplete game?

  • ozzzy189 #14 2 years ago

    isn't that why playtesters exist ?

  • muscleblade #15 2 years ago

    "Sounds like a brilliant method of free Quality Control. "

    Exept for the fact that bad critical reception dont help sell games.

  • OllyJ #16 2 years ago

    XBOX patch updates are quite tiny hence why the updates are super fast (no imposed limit on PS3), thankfully code changes are also tiny, however it seems a lot of the criticism is due to game design and level design as well as AI, so I wouldn't get hopes up for it being much different.

    A great sniper game would still be awesome, to give that one class a huge amount of skill and purpose would be fantastic. I'd almost see it like Splinter Cell with a bit of Golf thrown in where the golf part is theskill of taking one shot and making it count judging in bullet drop, wind and elevation.

  • 8bitMofo #17 2 years ago

    Patch-size sweepstakes, anyone?

    I'm going for 1.8Gb...

  • Boomerang #18 2 years ago

    These should have all been in the final release!

    Why release something that's going to get you a 2/10 then hurredly patch it after the damage is done?

  • PoundHound #19 2 years ago

    Fixing the stealth really needed fixing, as we all know by now, but the chronic AI actually lengthened the game. I finished it on normal in 7 hours and 4 minutes. I'm going to guess a good couple of hours will be knocked off the game length as a result of these changes (if implemented properly).

  • Spunkweazle #20 2 years ago

    Can the sniper be a monkey? We like monkeys

  • Acrid #21 2 years ago

    Simple adjustments which should have been in the game before it went to QT.
    It's sad really, this game had potential.

  • alasdairm #22 2 years ago

    Would have like to be able to switch off the map/radar in multiplayer - any indication of this happening ??

  • NBAoz #23 2 years ago

    This is all good and well for the PC version, but I am a bit skeptical about the X360 patch as isn't there a size limitation? The other thing that worries me the most (not just with this game but potentially all games on the 360) is that patches on the X360 are saved into a temporary cache which is ridiculous. What happens years down the road when you want to play an old game again and for some reason the patch is no longer available and has since been overwritten in the temp cache? Or what happens if you want to play a game and for some reason your internet is down and the patch is no longer in temp cache? You're stuck with a broken game that's what. Why can't Microsoft change it so that patches are saved permanently like the PS3 or at least give you the option? Currently, the only way that game developers can get a more sizable and permanent patch out to X360 customers is by releasing it as a manual download from XBOX Live marketplace (eg, like Burnout Paradise).