Orange Box patch already on the way

[Queasy]

Link

No, console kids, you aren't crazy.

Team Fortress 2, part of Valve's epic The Orange Box compilation that was released last week, is experiencing some serious lag issues on Xbox Live. The vast majority of complaints stem from gamers attempting to participate in more competitive 6v6 or 8v8 matches, where "connection to host lost" messages became common place or gameplay rendered completely unplayable by never ending lag.

Valve realizes things are amiss, however, and told 1UP the studio has already dispatched a title update to Microsoft. Unlike the PC world, patches are not immediate and the hopeful remedy has to make the rounds through Microsoft's certification process and through the Xbox Live pipes. Valve anticipates the title update will arrive in gamers' hands either sometime this weekend or early next week, but no specific date is available.

Valve's networking experience is on the PC, but you have to wonder how an multiplayer-only game gets released with online networking issues this severe? Valve worked on The Orange Box for Xbox 360 internally, and with so many competitive multiplayer games available -- and more on the horizon -- if this issue isn't nipped in the bud quick, it could leave a permanently sour taste in gamers' mouths.

Expectedly, this does not appear to be an issue in the PC version.

Update

A late night missive from Valve informs us that there is a major update for the recently released Orange Box for the 360. The update is mainly for Team Fortress 2 and includes the following changes.

? Reduced network bandwidth usage in multiplayer.
? Improved overall game performance.
? Arranged search results to favor preferred host conditions.
? Improved searching for ranked games.
? Addressed a possible false report of too little storage space on larger hard drives.

And there you are. Updated to the teeth for your playing pleasure. Now, go forth and give your Team Fortress 2 a (apparently) much needed overhaul. The Engineer awaits!

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

awesome. It is an excellent game and controls great with the xbox controller (no Halo floaty feel) but if you try to play more than 6vs6 .........good luck.

 

[RagingBITCH]

Well least they've ID'ed it and are doing something to fix it. I'm really contemplating buying OB, but considering I've played XBox once in the past 3 weeks, don't think I'll have time 🙁

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
Well least they've ID'ed it and are doing something to fix it. I'm really contemplating buying OB, but considering I've played XBox once in the past 3 weeks, don't think I'll have time 🙁

Heh. I've made time to play since Halo 3 has come out. Sometimes to the detriment of other things like sleep. :laugh: I'm gonna have to pull back soon because going through every day sleepy is getting old and I need to do some work on my wife's website and the house.

 

[lupi]

Originally posted by: Queasy
Unlike the PC world, patches are not immediate

Obviously the person whom wrote this doesn't play pc games.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: lupi

Originally posted by: Queasy
Unlike the PC world, patches are not immediate

Obviously the person whom wrote this doesn't play pc games.

This is more in reference to once the developer believes they have a PC patch done, it goes out. Not so with the 360. Once a developer believes they have a 360 patch done, it has to go through a Byzantine process to get certified. This puts a delay of about a week or more on patches.

Same thing goes with stuff like Arcade games.

 

[Hyperlite]

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
Well least they've ID'ed it and are doing something to fix it. I'm really contemplating buying OB, but considering I've played XBox once in the past 3 weeks, don't think I'll have time 🙁

Yeah no kidding...school has been more than enough to keep me occupied lately, and thats not exactly something i can push aside.

 

[lupi]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: lupi

Originally posted by: Queasy
Unlike the PC world, patches are not immediate

Obviously the person whom wrote this doesn't play pc games.

This is more in reference to once the developer believes they have a PC patch done, it goes out. Not so with the 360. Once a developer believes they have a 360 patch done, it has to go through a Byzantine process to get certified. This puts a delay of about a week or more on patches.

Same thing goes with stuff like Arcade games.

Which still is not much different than the pc side; better yet go take a look at the games whose developer has a patch ready to go out but sat on it cause the distrobutor holds the rights to release any official material and has declined to check the patch out or release it.

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: lupi

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: lupi

Originally posted by: Queasy
Unlike the PC world, patches are not immediate

Obviously the person whom wrote this doesn't play pc games.

This is more in reference to once the developer believes they have a PC patch done, it goes out. Not so with the 360. Once a developer believes they have a 360 patch done, it has to go through a Byzantine process to get certified. This puts a delay of about a week or more on patches.

Same thing goes with stuff like Arcade games.

Which still is not much different than the pc side; better yet go take a look at the games whose developer has a patch ready to go out but sat on it cause the distrobutor holds the rights to release any official material and has declined to check the patch out or release it.

But that's not standard across the board on all PC games. Most of the decent developers have patches ready to go out and posted on their own websites. Hell I see multiple patches released within the same week. As a whole, PC's are patched up much faster as there's no official process binding them (not all developers/games anyway) like there is for the 360

 

[bullbert]

When will consoles add the "patch" update path for the user submitted add-on content like in the PC gamer support communities? Never.

 

[Jules]

Can't wait!

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: bullbert
When will consoles add the "patch" update path for the user submitted add-on content like in the PC gamer support communities? Never.

I'm not so sure... I believe Unreal Tournament 3 will be able to use user-made maps. User modified models and textures are certainly a possibility. User-modified executable code is obviously never going to happen for obvious reasons, but I think we'll see more user-modifiable games, if not this generation then definitely the next.

 

[Queasy]

Update

A late night missive from Valve informs us that there is a major update for the recently released Orange Box for the 360. The update is mainly for Team Fortress 2 and includes the following changes.

? Reduced network bandwidth usage in multiplayer.
? Improved overall game performance.
? Arranged search results to favor preferred host conditions.
? Improved searching for ranked games.
? Addressed a possible false report of too little storage space on larger hard drives.

And there you are. Updated to the teeth for your playing pleasure. Now, go forth and give your Team Fortress 2 a (apparently) much needed overhaul. The Engineer awaits!

 

[Jules]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Update

A late night missive from Valve informs us that there is a major update for the recently released Orange Box for the 360. The update is mainly for Team Fortress 2 and includes the following changes.

? Reduced network bandwidth usage in multiplayer.
? Improved overall game performance.
? Arranged search results to favor preferred host conditions.
? Improved searching for ranked games.
? Addressed a possible false report of too little storage space on larger hard drives.

And there you are. Updated to the teeth for your playing pleasure. Now, go forth and give your Team Fortress 2 a (apparently) much needed overhaul. The Engineer awaits!

Thats awsome but too bad i got rid of my 360 :/