I’ve been a fan of Fallout for a long time and was really excited about Fallout: New Vegas – outsourced by Bethesda Softworks to Obsidian Software, based on the original Fallout 3 game engine.
I love the games environment, the open play, the story… everything. Fallout 3 lasted me nearly 9 months of play with all the downloadable content packs. And for that, Bethesda will always have a soft spot in my heart. The only game I can ever recall playing that long was Starflight from Electronic Arts back in 1989.
But enter Fallout: New Vegas.
This game has been plagued by bugs and crashes since day one. But I played through them. I found workarounds. I waited for updates. Probably 80 hours of game play – and I wasn’t even close to finishing the main story line. Then my world was turned upside down by a sudden change in my job and I was pretty much forced to put down the controller for more than 4-5 months, may be longer – I don’t remember.
So it’s Christmas 2011 and I finally have some free time. Time to start playing again. Apparently they’ve patched this game… like FIVE TIMES since I left it. So XBox 360 auto-downloaded the patch and away we go.
THE PROBLEM
Holy jeezus. My game saves won’t load. It just sits there for 10 min doing nothing – no matter how many times I try.
Alright. Don’t panic. Search the Internet. Go to the support forums. Figure out what the solution is… WHOOPS! The Bethesda forums are ablaze with angry players & apparently these patches have resulted in the same experience that I have. Game saves that won’t load, people losing their progress. Frustrated people threatening Bethesda. Some blaming it on the DLC. Others on the patches.
THE SOLUTION. SORT OF.
Finally, I start to delete the DLC and the game patch #5 from my Xbox 360. SYSTEM SETTINGS – STORAGE – GAMES – “Delete Game Patch #5 & anything else”. I run the game again, decline the patch, and lo-and-behold, my game saves now load in 3 seconds.
So what of all the patches they made over the past 6 months. 5 patches must be pretty significant. Surely they’re going to fix this, right? This can’t be the end of the line.
Then I read on the forums:
BETHESDA SOFTWORKS, Jason Bergman:
“Sorry guys, this is it. I’m the last one on the project, and I’ll be turning out the lights after this week. It’s been a good run, but everyone is moving on to new projects. (9/26/11)
BETHESDA SOFTWORKS, Jason Bergman:
“No plans for another patch.“ (9/26/11)
WTF.
I mean, I get that it’s just a game, and I get games have only a certain lifespan… but after a year, they still don’t have the game in a functional state – so they just decide to pack it in and call it a day.
I can’t say that I’ll ever purchase another Obsidian Software product. Unless I hear otherwise, to me this is may be a Bethesda problem… but it’s mainly an Obsidian problem.
What a waste.
kurtsh
Kurt's Thoughts 