What was the last bug free RPG to come out? And didn’t take over five years to make?
So this was the same level of bugs as previous PC game releases? We’ve generally been getting better and better, not worse. NWN2 was a step backwards and even patched the extent of the released patches, it still has serious problems (lack of AI anyone?).
Know what the ultimate sin is for NWN2, in my book? They lost the fun. I’m slogging through a game that promises to have fun in the second chapter, if I can just make it. I’m fighting through useless AI, lackluster boring combat, cities with no real direction (you have this entire dock area, but you can’t go any but two of the buildings…welcome to the boarded up city), general blah quest lines, and party members who I must baby sit to be able to do their side quests…and oh yeah, I can’t change the class of my companions…in a class based system.
That’s the big problem, they are actively trying to kill my fun.
Most of the people that worked at Troika ended up at Obsidian after they closed their doors. Chris Jones, lead programer/technology officer at Obsidian is the guy who created Acranum engine’s and Fallout engine’s at black Isle. Not blaming him specficily, just using him as an example of someone significant that worked at all three and there are a large number of people like that.
Depends on what you mean by bugs. Every game has some sort of “bug”. As for gaming stopping bugs, NWN2 and Dead Man’s chest are the only two out of 70 some games I played this year where they were an issue.
Incorrect, ex-Troika folks scattered far and wide. Only about half a dozen ended up at Obsidian. I don’t think former Troika folks are even 10% of the Obsidian headcount.
I’m sure there was some form of game stopping bug in the 1.0 release you can cite, but I certainly don’t remember seeing conventional “bugs” like that being the main issue cited. The issues I remember being referenced most were awful performance compared to the visual quality, frustrating camera, and poor AI.
The latest patch has made NWN2 quite playable. I’m enjoying it.
World of Warcraft was TOTALLY BUG FREE
LOLercaust
The last bug-free RPG I’ve played was Wizardry 8. (Okay, it had one pretty nasty spell bug, but nothing plot killing).
I miss SirTech :(
And I ran into two or three game stopping bugs for NWN2. One of the common ones was an inability to transition from act 1 to act 2 because (I think) some of the characters needed for a cutscene were dead.
Wizardry 8 was bug-free? You do know that if you leave NPC party members behind, occasionally they will just randomly disappear forever? It happened to me twice on a single playthrough. It was never patched. Oh, there was also that funny bug where you could fight the Dark Savant when he first appears to you in the swamp. You could then kill him and take his Cobaltine Powerglove and essentially powerglove your way through the rest of the game – ironically, killing him in the swamp does not affect his appearances later. What I don’t understand either is why something you’re not even supposed to fight not only can deal and take damage, but also drops the highest level items in the game as if you were fighting him as the final boss.
There are a shitload of bugs in Wiz8. They’re pretty well documented in the fan boards too.
There also was a main quest killing bug. I had to send my save to SirTech to have them fix it. They did get the game patched, and the folks there were super awesome in the turn around time on fixing my save.
Now riddle me this. Why in the name of fuck are you still playing it?
Well, crap. I guess I can’t think of any bug-free RPGs, then. Obsidian/Black Isle games have always had some noticeable rough edges, but NWN2 has been the first to cause me pain. Hopefully this next game they’ll get back up to their previous level of quality.
Is it just the RPG crowd that whinges the loudest? How come no one complained about the bugs in Company of Heroes before they were patched?
Last RPG I played without bugs? Gold Box SSI D&D games.
Bugs are one thing. An RPG without bugs is a polished Diablo clone, simplistic and thus less prone to bugs. Fuck those games. Bugs are bugs, although I’d like the game shipped with a bug list shorter than the one for ToEE or DUngeon Lords.
KotOR2 shipped unfinished. NWN2 has questionable design decisions on par with Temple of Elemental Evil.
Obsidian may not be Troika, bue they sure act like them. Great games hobbled by bugs, shipping unfinished, and/or ignorant of similar games and the things those games did right. Both Troika with ToEE and Obsidian with NWN2 acted like Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale never got made.
The good news is, hardcore RPG fans may be whiny bitches but they throw in. ToEE, Vampire, and very soon KotOR2 will be playable and as complete as possible. I expect the same for NWN2 and in time, this new fruity alien game.
From reading the official CoH boards, I’d say people didn’t complain about bugs because they were too busy posting about how this or that unit is too powerful, or not powerful enough. It’s always funny seeing the guy with a user name like “HerrKommander” and a picture of a German tank as his user pic complaining about the Sherman being overpowered, or whatever. You can usually tell what side people play based on what they are complaining about.
Last game I played that didn’t have a patch? Shadow Watch
I haven’t messed around with NWN2 yet, but the KotOR 2 experience was a bit of a let-down, if only because of the half-finished storylines that were unceremoniously truncated when the game shipped. To their credit, the game was released and finishable, even if in an entirely unsatisfactory way.
- Alan
Unlike the Troika games and KOTOR 2, NWN2 is getting official dev post release support- three patches so far (the third of which improved the game dramatically) and at least one more on the way that I’ve heard of.
I’m pretty damn happy with NWN2 after the 3rd patch and, combined with Evan’s AI mod, would be alright without any future patches.
ToEE plays very nice with the Circle of Eight patches, and is turn-based. (A+++)
Vampire, I have no idea since I played it as release, but their Mod/Patches keep coming.
Kotor2, hopefully the Restoration project is finished soon.
Currently, I’m trying to get to the second act so I can what’s up with all the goods part I hear about. And it’s D&D. It’s hard to resist a D&D game, even a bad D&D game. I played a lot of ToEE too and I wasn’t horribly impressed with that game, though the combat engine was fun.
If I knew what I know now, I probably would have waited to purchase for a few months and let them or the community patch in some fixing. As it stands, I progress slowly. I haven’t played it in a week, but I’ll give it another shot this weekend, probably.
How many of those issues do you think will magically disappear because you are into Act II? The game is pretty honest about what it is. Storyline IS on rails, AI WILL screw you if you trust it, you WON’T get to reclass anyone but one companion, you WILL have to babysit your pardners if you want to do their quest lines, all buildings WILL NOT suddenly become enterable. But you WILL be able to forge your very own Holy Axiomatic adamantium +5 katana with Greater Vampiric regeneration and do Whirlwind attacks with it, so there’s that too.