So X3, so far unreleased here in the states, gets patched. Why is this so bad? Because the game hasn’t even been released in the states yet… at least I hope it hasn’t gone gold yet so all the Americans don’t have to download it.
Is this a trend we’ll be continuing to see (Aoe3)? I think yes. Is this a good trend? I think no.
It’s all relative, I guess. I’d rather have a game that needs no patching at all, but if I have to have a patch, I’d rather have it ready at launch than not.
And if there is no internet connection then I guess the person is just out of luck. I mean whatever happened to quality control? Maybe it got outsourced like the rest of the human resources.
Umm yea no internet connection? Are you timewarped from 1993 or something?
I’m guessing this is going to be this weeks QT3’s bitch fest thread. It seems like we have this constant round and round of complaining about patching, or how PC gaming is doomed, ot that there’s more innovation and well wheatever else…
The freakin’ thing is 75MB, though. There are still folks stuck on dial-up…
Oh good. This discussion again. Should someone do play-by-play? Where has The Narrator gone?
I think 99.999% of the people getting X3 probably have “better than average” computers plus Internet connections. For that .001%, I’m sure the publisher would send them the patch on CD.
PC Games get patched. If that pre-patch makes a game fantastic - then I say - do it to all games!
So the game needs a patch to be better? Good! I have a growing list of
games I want, so I can wait :)
Apparently, the US version will be 1.0, so yes, you’ll have to patch it.
Umm yea no internet connection? Are you timewarped from 1993 or something?
Due to the hurricane, I’m gonna be without DSL for quite some time. I’m not dling a 50mb patch on sub 28.8 dialup. :)
And what makes it even better, the patch doesn’t work with the files needing to be copied over manually to the correct path after installation.
Just start it before you go to bed and it should be done by the morning.
Worked fine for me, and the patch is a simple RAR self-extracter. You point it at the install directory and it does the rest. Under what circumstances does it not work?
Worked fine for me, and the patch is a simple RAR self-extracter. You point it at the install directory and it does the rest. Under what circumstances does it not work?
They re-issued the patch to solve the problem (the game has gone from 1.0 to 1.1 to 1.2 in a matter of days). The original patch did not install the files to the same directory structure as the game, I believe - this is from a friend in the UK who grabbed the troublesome patch.
Wow, that was a pretty quick iteration then, because they said the patch would be released on the official release date of the game - 28/10, and I installed/patched about 10am that morning (UK time). Clearly, I had the right patch, but I don’t think I got it that long after it was uploaded. It doesn’t seem like many people will have been burned by the short-lived dodgy self-extractor, so it’s a bit out of order to say the patch doesn’t work full stop.
Anyone willing to share some impressions of X3? I’m saddened by the state of this release, not that it will affect me too much, but I want this game to find a wider audience (assuming the changes in X3 make it more accessible).
Maybe it will be all cleaned up when it shows up on the Xbox 360.
I’ve only put a couple of hours in, but…
It’s a bit of a shambles. The video sequences are probably some of the worst I’ve ever seen, the engine is a dog, a lot of the content is re-used from X2 (this was originally an expansion) and the missions are hopelessly designed - you go from the super easy first mission, to a completely solid second. Speaking of the first mission - there’s a sequence where you’re manning the rear turret while your partner flys the ship, and you’re escaping from a planet, flying through the city. This sequence was so badly put together, I could hardly believe it. I don’t think a second went past when you couldn’t see through the city geometry to 3D infinity beyond. Very, very unprofessional.
The new interface is just as awkward as the old one, only now it has the added advantage of being semi-transparent, making it difficult to read the tiny font, unless you’re facing anything but Space. Mouse control has been further implemented, and is now the default control scheme, which works fairly well in combination with the keyboard. You right-click to switch between helm and mouse-pointer modes. There’s a new semi-inertia based flight model, but to be honest, I couldn’t really tell the difference. It’s still a world apart from something cinematically fun, like Freespace, or realistically Newtonian, like I-War.
The graphics are incredibly beautiful, but you knew that anyway. I think I’m shelving it until it’s been thoroughly patched.
At least they learned about things like fixed width font and commas (i.e. thousands separators) in the third iteration of the game. Mmm, progress.
X2
X3
I really think the game has a lot of potential, but fer crying out loud, hire just ONE usability person, please.
Those are still readable in X2, but imagine prices in the 000000 and 0000000 range, which becomes fairly common later on…oy vey.
I’ve only put a couple of hours in, but…
It’s a bit of a shambles. The video sequences are probably some of the worst I’ve ever seen, the engine is a dog, a lot of the content is re-used from X2 (this was originally an expansion) and the missions are hopelessly designed - you go from the super easy first mission, to a completely solid second. Speaking of the first mission - there’s a sequence where you’re manning the rear turret while your partner flys the ship, and you’re escaping from a planet, flying through the city. This sequence was so badly put together, I could hardly believe it. I don’t think a second went past when you couldn’t see through the city geometry to 3D infinity beyond. Very, very unprofessional.
The new interface is just as awkward as the old one, only now it has the added advantage of being semi-transparent, making it difficult to read the tiny font, unless you’re facing anything but Space. Mouse control has been further implemented, and is now the default control scheme, which works fairly well in combination with the keyboard. You right-click to switch between helm and mouse-pointer modes. There’s a new semi-inertia based flight model, but to be honest, I couldn’t really tell the difference. It’s still a world apart from something cinematically fun, like Freespace, or realistically Newtonian, like I-War.
The graphics are incredibly beautiful, but you knew that anyway. I think I’m shelving it until it’s been thoroughly patched.[/quote]
Dang, that’s disheartening.
Patched.