Hey, it's another patch. And another. And... wait.
by AC - permalink
So here's my problem. To patch, or not to patch? Does it matter? Do you have to patch? It depends on the game, and the patch, and the developer's commitment to releasing patches that mean something. I'll give you two examples of why this whole issue makes my head hurt.
I have UT 2004 Editor's Choice. I'm not sure what build of UT2K4 I have, because there's no easy way to know, but I know it's been patched since my version. I've been trying to find the latest patch for the latest retail release, and I can't. The official site has this one patch for me, but the link is broken, like every other link on that half-assed site. Looking around at various game and software oriented download hubs led me to three different patches, all claiming to be the latest. On one site, the link was dead, and on three more all the servers were tied up for up to half an hour. So I gave up on the whole thing, because my UT2K4, ultimately, is working just fucking fine anway.
The other side of this issue is Valve Software. Look, I love Valve. They gave me Half-Life, and Half-Life 2, and Counter-Strike: Source, and more. But they also game me Steam. Steam means if there's a patch for one of my Valve games, I can't play that game unless I download the patch. No matter what it is, or how big it is, or whether I'm on dial-up and never play online and don't necessarily want to spend two days downloading a patch that will mean nothing to me, I can't play the games I've already spent $30 or $40 or $50 on until I download the latest patch that Valve thinks I should. Suddenly, I don't like Valve so much.
Some of the more recent patches for Half-Life 2 have gone a long, long way towards reducing, and at some points eliminating that infamous stutter. The game became quicker and more immersive. In addition, patches were forced on me that gave a few CS:Source maps HDR, and it looked good. I also downloaded, via Steam, the demos for Darwinia and Rag Doll Kung-fu and Shadowgrounds, and Half-Life 2: Lost Coast and Project Gordon and other misc. freebies I get for buying HL2 retail. This all took days and days and days of background downloading over dial-up. But I did it, and thanks for the opportunity to download stuff in random increments, Valve, because it's very helpful.
But why was I forced to download the latest Steam engine update that has not only undone all the previous patches' effort to reduce that stuttering problem, but made it worse than ever? Half-Life 2 is one of my favorite games of all time, and now it lags and stutters so badly that half the cutscene NPS dialog is unintelligible, and the game seems to randomly stop and start, as if it's loading new content into memory. But it isn't, because I've tweaked HL2 to use half a Gig of my RAM, and I know from playing the game for the last several months that this is plenty of damned RAM. It's this newest patch, one that I never wanted, and certainly would have surfed around looking for user feedback on whether it was worth it or not before downloading on my own.
Here's the main issue. If you release a game, it's out. It'd better work. If it doesn't, you have to make sure your users know that there's a patch that will make it better, and where they can find it. You can't just keep throwing out patches, then wait and see how it works for us before forcing more patches on us in case it's shit.
Are you listening, Valve? We are not your play-testers. We are your end-users. We've already paid good money for your games, and that exonerates us from unwillingly beta-testing for you.
As for Atari and Epic, fix your goddamned web site. Three quarters of the links to the MSU contest winner sites are broken, many due to improperly-written HTML code. And all the official download links throw up a tiny pop-up window that either goes nowhere or links to Atari's main site, which is less than helpful.
Look, I just want to play games. It's why I bought a fast PC and spent even more upgrading it. Obviously, it's why I've spent so much on games for it. Is it really too much to ask that they work? I know everyone's PC is different, but if you're going to release patches, tell me where they are, and for fuck's sake, test them. Don't make me your lab rat, and don't force me to download patches for games I already own.
by AC - permalink
So here's my problem. To patch, or not to patch? Does it matter? Do you have to patch? It depends on the game, and the patch, and the developer's commitment to releasing patches that mean something. I'll give you two examples of why this whole issue makes my head hurt.
I have UT 2004 Editor's Choice. I'm not sure what build of UT2K4 I have, because there's no easy way to know, but I know it's been patched since my version. I've been trying to find the latest patch for the latest retail release, and I can't. The official site has this one patch for me, but the link is broken, like every other link on that half-assed site. Looking around at various game and software oriented download hubs led me to three different patches, all claiming to be the latest. On one site, the link was dead, and on three more all the servers were tied up for up to half an hour. So I gave up on the whole thing, because my UT2K4, ultimately, is working just fucking fine anway.
The other side of this issue is Valve Software. Look, I love Valve. They gave me Half-Life, and Half-Life 2, and Counter-Strike: Source, and more. But they also game me Steam. Steam means if there's a patch for one of my Valve games, I can't play that game unless I download the patch. No matter what it is, or how big it is, or whether I'm on dial-up and never play online and don't necessarily want to spend two days downloading a patch that will mean nothing to me, I can't play the games I've already spent $30 or $40 or $50 on until I download the latest patch that Valve thinks I should. Suddenly, I don't like Valve so much.
Some of the more recent patches for Half-Life 2 have gone a long, long way towards reducing, and at some points eliminating that infamous stutter. The game became quicker and more immersive. In addition, patches were forced on me that gave a few CS:Source maps HDR, and it looked good. I also downloaded, via Steam, the demos for Darwinia and Rag Doll Kung-fu and Shadowgrounds, and Half-Life 2: Lost Coast and Project Gordon and other misc. freebies I get for buying HL2 retail. This all took days and days and days of background downloading over dial-up. But I did it, and thanks for the opportunity to download stuff in random increments, Valve, because it's very helpful.
But why was I forced to download the latest Steam engine update that has not only undone all the previous patches' effort to reduce that stuttering problem, but made it worse than ever? Half-Life 2 is one of my favorite games of all time, and now it lags and stutters so badly that half the cutscene NPS dialog is unintelligible, and the game seems to randomly stop and start, as if it's loading new content into memory. But it isn't, because I've tweaked HL2 to use half a Gig of my RAM, and I know from playing the game for the last several months that this is plenty of damned RAM. It's this newest patch, one that I never wanted, and certainly would have surfed around looking for user feedback on whether it was worth it or not before downloading on my own.
Here's the main issue. If you release a game, it's out. It'd better work. If it doesn't, you have to make sure your users know that there's a patch that will make it better, and where they can find it. You can't just keep throwing out patches, then wait and see how it works for us before forcing more patches on us in case it's shit.
Are you listening, Valve? We are not your play-testers. We are your end-users. We've already paid good money for your games, and that exonerates us from unwillingly beta-testing for you.
As for Atari and Epic, fix your goddamned web site. Three quarters of the links to the MSU contest winner sites are broken, many due to improperly-written HTML code. And all the official download links throw up a tiny pop-up window that either goes nowhere or links to Atari's main site, which is less than helpful.
Look, I just want to play games. It's why I bought a fast PC and spent even more upgrading it. Obviously, it's why I've spent so much on games for it. Is it really too much to ask that they work? I know everyone's PC is different, but if you're going to release patches, tell me where they are, and for fuck's sake, test them. Don't make me your lab rat, and don't force me to download patches for games I already own.
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