Obsidian is Sorry that Fallout: New Vegas Was So Buggy

[Rakewell]

Well, at least they acknowledge it.

http://www.nowgamer.com/news/5753/obsidian-we-wish-new-vegas-wasnt-glitchy

Obsidian has told Play Magazine that they wish Fallout: New Vegas "wasn't as glitchy when it came out".

Talking exclusively to Play, Obisidian CEO Feargus Urquhart talked honestly about Obsidian's reputation as a 'buggy' developer and why Dungeon Siege III will avoid the same fate.

"I think it's fair and unfair at the same time, because in the same conversation that I hear how buggy KOTOR and Alpha Protocol were, I also hear how great they were," Urquhart explains when asked about Obsidian's reputation.

“We've been working very hard to make sure it doesn't happen again”

"Now in the case of Fallout: New Vegas, we made a gigantic game, and I'm proud with what we were able to do but I wish it wasn't as glitchy when it came out. The criticisms people had are fair but it's difficult to get a game the size of New Vegas bug free. But that's an excuse and it doesn't matter when someone's paid $60 for a game. It's something we need to work on.

"From the standpoint of Dungeon Siege III, we've been working very hard to make sure it doesn't happen again. We've been playing and playing and playing and playing to ensure it's of a high standard. On top of this, this is the first time we've got to use our own technology on something, which means we know where to find the bad bugs from the start!"

 

[Liet]

I haven't encountered many glitches, but I also purchased it several months after release. It does need work, like any game does, but it's twice as good as Fallout 3.

Funny to see Feargus is still involved with Fallout. There was a dog named after him in Arroyo, the starting village of Fallout 2.

 

[Rakewell]

I haven't encountered many glitches, but I also purchased it several months after release. It does need work, like any game does, but it's twice as good as Fallout 3.

Funny to see Feargus is still involved with Fallout. There was a dog named after him in Arroyo, the starting village of Fallout 2.

LOL... I never made that connection until now.

 

[Ancalagon44]

I dont think they really learned their lesson, sales were still high.

Lets not forget, developers dont make these decisions, publishers do. Publisher says it needs to be out by a certain date, and they have to release it, buggy or not. So, its the publisher that needs to learn from this, not the developer. And the publisher wont, because the sales were still good. People still buy buggy games as long as you do your marketing properly.

 

[Mem]

I'm always surprised on how many simple bugs get through on RPGs,its not like they are hard to find for their beta/bug testers.

We expect some bugs because RPGs can be complex, however I think its a case too often where deadlines are release the game now and fix later.

 

[Red Storm]

Obsidian has become synonymous with "bug ridden and/or incomplete RPG". They have a track record for this kind of thing. Whether that's them or pressure from publishers it's tough to say, but it's no good no matter who is at fault.

 

[DaveSimmons]

You have to also give them credit for making some of the best RPGs though -- the 90% of KOTOR 2 that shipped is in my top 5 PC RPGs, and Neverwinter 2 and Fallout NV were also both very good games.

The Black Isle curse extended to Troika as well -- Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is also in my top 5, but only with the final official patch plus a year or two of script fixes from Wesp or Tessera.

 

[Via]

You have to also give them credit for making some of the best RPGs though -- the 90% of KOTOR 2 that shipped is in my top 5 PC RPGs, and Neverwinter 2 and Fallout NV were also both very good games.

The Black Isle curse extended to Troika as well -- Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is also in my top 5, but only with the final official patch plus a year or two of script fixes from Wesp or Tessera.

So you consider KotoR 2 among your top 5 RPG of all time?

I could not get into that game.

 

[ibex333]

I played New Vegas for quite a while and I NEVER noticed any serious issues with it. Nothing that even came remotely close to preventing me from playing and having an enjoyable experience.

People whine too much. They don't know how to manage their computers and make sure everything is running smoothly. Then they blame it on games. When a computer is not running well, it only makes a buggy game even worse.

 

[ahenkel]

The only serious issue I ran into was not being able to alt-tab without the game crashing.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

I haven't encountered many glitches, but I also purchased it several months after release.

Same here. If it was THAT bad they did a good job patching it up over the time they've had. Games of this magnitude are going to have bugs, you just hope they aren't gamebreaking when it first releases.

 

[shortylickens]

Actually I had MUCH fewer problems with New Vegas than Fallout 3.
I went a good 18 hours before my first crash to desktop. And it never once froze my system.

 

[AstroManLuca]

When they were still Black Isle they weren't exactly good about it either. Who remembers Fallout 1 and 2?

 

[zerocool84]

I've said it in all my other hate filled Fallout 3/NV posts, they're buggy but they don't care because people still buy them so you're showing support that you're fine with it.

 

[Jules]

I played New Vegas for quite a while and I NEVER noticed any serious issues with it. Nothing that even came remotely close to preventing me from playing and having an enjoyable experience.

People whine too much. They don't know how to manage their computers and make sure everything is running smoothly. Then they blame it on games. When a computer is not running well, it only makes a buggy game even worse.

Must of not played it when it launched then. They patched it up pretty quickly. Well worth the 10 bucks I paid for it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[smackababy]

Maybe I am just used to bugs after PC gaming for a number of years. I didn't notice anything terribly buggy with NV when I played it. I got it on release day.

 

[skace]

Obsidian, amazing developer with a harsh reputation. If someone finds any, _ANY_ bug in an Obsidian game they will immediately site it as a rush job from a known buggy developer. But that same person will overlook countless bugs from other developers. But that is what a reputation does to you and, for better or worse, Obsidian earned that reputation.

But again, amazing developer, so I wouldn't expect anything less than them openly and honestly talking about this subject without making ridiculous excuses, unlike many other developers.

I hope they stick around for a good long time.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

I did play it at launch. It was more stable and functional then Fallout 3 is now.

Seems like an odd grouping, really. KotOR2's problems were not technical bugs, it was a publisher screw job. New Vegas really didn't have all that many bugs as these things go. Alpha Protocol, on the other hand, was and will remain in perpetuity a buggy mess largely because of the terrible save game mechanics.

 

[mmntech]

Seems like an odd grouping, really. KotOR2's problems were not technical bugs, it was a publisher screw job. New Vegas really didn't have all that many bugs as these things go. Alpha Protocol, on the other hand, was and will remain in perpetuity a buggy mess largely because of the terrible save game mechanics.

Yep. LucasArts wanted KOTOR2 out by the holiday. It's why Bioware stopped working with them and passed the sequel to Obsidian in the first place. LA rushes games and Bioware didn't think they could do the job properly in the time they were being given.

As for New Vegas, I had the eyeball glitch when I first got it. I can't really blame Obsidian for the glitches. Gamebryo is a notoriously unstable engine. Especially when it comes to multithreading. I remember how much FO3 used to crash before I learned how to force it to use two cores instead of three.

 

[skace]

Alpha Protocols most buggy level is the first intro level (the desert base). Which is why its buggyness got so much visibility. Nearly everyone who started the game hit odd save bugs with NPCs disappearing / moving / etc.

Not an excuse, just a note, if you managed to stumble through the level, the rest of the game was nearly flawless (I say nearly because I don't recall hitting another bug).

 

[bart1975]

Fallout NV was the most amazing game for me. I have never had so much fun playing a FPS game. Fallout 3 was decent also but I prefer NV.
I wish for more games like these.

 

[Bateluer]

NV was actually playable though, unlike FO3. Which is STILL broken.

Still, while I'd like to blame publisher greed and arrogance for the 'release now, patch never' release mentality, I have to shift that blame to us consumers now. Every time a big new title gets released, so many people rush out and buy it, only to complain about the bugs. Then, the DLS is released, and the same people rush out and buy that too, only to complain about the bugs. The publisher doesn't give a damn about the bugs at that point, they have our money. And we've proven that we'll continue to buy their bug ridden junk time and time again.

 

[DominionSeraph]

People whine too much. They don't know how to manage their computers and make sure everything is running smoothly. Then they blame it on games. When a computer is not running well, it only makes a buggy game even worse.

Sorry, there was no excuse for NWN2 to release at a level where you had to put all settings on minimum just to eke out 10FPS from an Athlon X2 5200+ and Geforce 8800 GTS. (Near top-end processor and only the $600 GTX was above the GTS in performance.)
It certainly wasn't because of Crysis-level graphics. The game looked worse than HL2.

I shelved the game for four years after the first several patches didn't put a dent in the problems. Reinstalled it in 2010, and MUCH better (and the hardware I was playing on was actually worse). You just had to put up with several hours of patching to get it to the point of playability.

nwn2_pc_english_from100788_to102809.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from100788_to103840.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from100788_to103835.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from100788_to104860.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from100788_to105910.zip

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nwn2_pc_english_from101807_to102809.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from101807_to103835.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from101807_to103840.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from102808_to102809.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from102809_to103835.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from102809_to103840.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from103835_to103840.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from103840_to104860.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from104854_to104860.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from104860_to104870.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from104870_to105910.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from105909_to105910.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from105909_to105912.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from105910_to105912.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from105912_to106972.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from106968_to106972.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from106972_to106973.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from106973_to106980.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from106980_to1101115.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from1101115_to1101116.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from1101116_to1111152.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from1111153_to1121295.zip

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nwn2_pc_english_from1131409_to1211549.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from1211549_to1221586.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from1221586_to1221587.zip

nwn2_pc_english_from1221587_to1221588.zip

REALLY, Obsidian?

 

[Veliko]

People whine too much. They don't know how to manage their computers and make sure everything is running smoothly. Then they blame it on games. When a computer is not running well, it only makes a buggy game even worse.

What a load of apologist crap. The state of a person's PC doesn't excuse developers releasing buggy games.

 

[gorcorps]

Well then why don't they fix NV then? It sounds like they're already done with that game even though they still have lots of DLC coming up. If you know the game is buggy, then fix it. Will not buy Dungeon Siege 3. Fool me once (or twice, or I've lost count)... I won't fall for it again.