Damage repair. (Should fixing past games be considered?)

[Sonic Angel Knight]

We all know that we had our fair share of disappointment purchases of video games, there is always a top ten of worst games for each console by someone, or just of a series itself. Much like sonic games. Back before this generation of games, over 10 years ago, when games was purchased and bugs glitches and other failing things made the game either unappeling or just unplayable, your hard earned $60 or more was set in stone. Unless you were some talented programmer, you couldn't fix the problems, or least play them without console mods or emulators. Now and days, we can simply download updates that should fix all problems if not most of them to working state. But sometimes it just doesn't get enough support to get full function quality and ends in failure, Why? I dunno.

But i guess you thought this game would be good idea in the concept of how it was presented. Stunning visuals, graphics animations and special effects cg and stuff, then you just play it and feel bad, wishing it was better than this. Disregarding sonic 2006 game story and plot, characters and voicing, the gameplay is consider bad, probably in same boat with sonic boom and sonic free riders (Xbox kinect exlusive game) The control is bad, and so is performance.

To be honest, i like sonic riders, i have the gamecube one and the second game for ps2, the third i never touched cause i never got a xbox to play it on. But i wouldn't unless it was just using standard controllers like the first two games. The game required xbox connect to play but according to many, it was impossible to actually control, or couldn't be figured out by many impatient people, while i think pick up and play games should be the normal thing to many gamers, this one had only the problem of not using standard controls, if it was, a multiport would been possible but microsoft need some games to sell the idea of xbox kinect which ultimately was fallen with lack of interest. Save motion and body for VR or some future like all those fantasy movies have.

Basically what i am saying is i wish games would just consider the game bad cause is unplayable, if the game had used regular controls, it would probably avoid lots of top ten worst sonic games. Sonic 2006 perhaps needed more work besides the gameplay being fixed, a better story and more care to the voicing director to present the characters better. While the to me gameplay is more essential to being worth my time, story does matter to some people, You are trying to find out what happens next to see the end of the adventure.

Before i go on too long and get backlash of comiplains about "TOO LONG DIDN'T READ" I'm just asking you about damage repair, Should the people consider fixing the busted game and re releasing it (Details may be considered in comment posts) Or is the damage done and is already too late. Just state a game you wish maybe they could fix that you want to enjoy along with list of problems that you acknowledg and what should be done about it. The game has to actually be considered broken. List of possibilitys include.

• Difficulty in controlling the game. Making it either fustrating, unappeling or unplayable.
• Bugs/Glitches that breaks the game in many ways, either unintentional or purposly discovered through exploit discovery on accident or intentional.
• Concept was good enough to get you interested but failed to deliver ultimately the satisfying feeling.
• Performance issues either with framerates not consistent, or below expectations, possible to crash and freeze game unexpectedly. (Leer at mighty no 9 for obvious reasons)
• Possibly unfinished released prematurly games that is completed through updated content like DLC (free or paid)

I would prefer to keep the idea of graphics, story, voices or music left out but optionally you can discuss it as well. Mostly cause i think people will not focus on the gameplay which i consider most important over all than some of the presentation. I am not saying those things aren't important, but if you're having fun with playing you tend to forget the rest.

 

[DinohScene]

Games difficult?
IN THIS DAY AND AGE!?
You must be joking.

The problem with games these days is that their rushed, overhyped and unfinished.
DLC needs to save the game and they barely bugfix long enough.

Back in the PS2/Xbox days, games (atleast on Xbox) rarely received bugfixes and they where pretty well tested through to make sure they don't contain horrible bugs.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Well i do agree, i said difficulty in controlling, not the dificulty in game. If the controls are sloppy cause is programmed poorly that i don't agree with. Control is most important thing the player can use, and if is awful is bad. The challenge shouldn't be struggle with bad controls, or glitches and bugs faults. It should be a enemy or some boss with a slight disadvantage over you. But yes, games mostly do go rushed, even so it still do get problems that isn't noticed until to later after release day, when players find them and have to wait for patchs to continue.

 

[Deleted User]

Well, I would like for a broken games (on the top of my head Fallout 4 comes to mind) to be fixed. Along with all the shitty bugs and graphic glitches to be fixed on it. There is a lot of stuff wrong with fallout 4 and they have not fixed it. I would love for it to be fixed but I don't think it will be done (or maybe it's just because I'm playing on Xbox one). But if you are talking about OLD online games like Halo 2 or something, nah. The community might release a patch for x bug but it isn't bungee's (or whoever did Halo at that time) problem to do that.

Also Sonic Riders was lit as fuck

 

[RevPokemon]

Games difficult?
IN THIS DAY AND AGE!?
You must be joking.

The problem with games these days is that their rushed, overhyped and unfinished.
DLC needs to save the game and they barely bugfix long enough.

Back in the PS2/Xbox days, games (atleast on Xbox) rarely received bugfixes and they where pretty well tested through to make sure they don't contain horrible bugs.

Agreed
With Sonic 06, the whole process was fucked from the get go such as Sega rushing it for the holidays (BTW also happened to ET) and then cut the dev team in half so they could make a sonic game for the wii. Say what you want but i really do think 06 would have been truly great if they had taken the time and it had not had an awful process.

 

[FAST6191]

You can fix anything with enough time and money, the question becomes is it worth the effort.

For the most part it is not likely to be a profitable exercise for a company, or at least not as profitable as making something new.

I do also have to say that many things in ROM hacking are not beyond a lot of people. Sure there are some things that are hard but a lot of text editing (sort those item names/translations/phrasing) is doable with a weekend's learning, much of graphics is not much worse, stats editing is not so bad once you get the hang or it and that covers a lot of games. Or if you prefer being able to wake up in the morning and be fairly assured of being able to make headway in any random game you so desire probably would take a while to get to the level of, most games do not make life hard for you though.

 

[DinohScene]

Agreed
With Sonic 06, the whole process was fucked from the get go such as Sega rushing it for the holidays (BTW also happened to ET) and then cut the dev team in half so they could make a sonic game for the wii. Say what you want but i really do think 06 would have been truly great if they had taken the time and it had not had an awful process.

Actually no, E.T. flopped cause the developer thought he could do it in a few weeks.
Given the resources available at the time, this obviously wasn't the case and that made the game flop tremendously.

 

[dimmidice]

Fixing a broken game and re-releasing it is a big no-no IMO. Fixing it and releasing an update now that's something else entirely. But re-releasing it is just a way to get money for fixing a game that you broke in the first place. Which is like a mechanic selling a broken car as a functional car and then charging to fix it up after. It's shady and low.

NMS should've started working on free patches and updates the second their first user reviews came in. They've done the opposite and just gone completely quiet and as such the game is now dead.

 

[flame1234]

Well if you're doing modifications work like here on GBAtemp:
1) Test to see if it works
2) Release for public beta
Because I don't have time to do extensive testing; unskilled people can do testing well enough.

maidumptool and VitaMin were developed much faster after release because developers no longer had to do any testing.

 

[Taleweaver]

This isn't something you can generally say 'yes' or 'no' to; you'll have to look at it on an individual basis.

First of: if the game runs worse than it should on an (advertised) average, then it should be fixed by the developer. I know the phrase "unfinished" is used a lot by critics who want to see more gameplay content, but I'm talking about unfinished as in...well...it literally being unfinished.
Second: you'll have to have a decent understanding of the full game before making clear direction choices. I know plenty of RPG's where you start out as a vulnerable slog. If you wouldn't, the whole upgrade system would become pointless.

But with that said, I think nobody can deny that some games are just bad or even terrible. And sometimes it doesn't take much modding to turn pretty much everything around. Despite that, I usually vote for "let it die".
The problem usually isn't so much in identifying the main causes of why a game is bad, but getting everyone on board on a single solution. The modding communities I've known didn't just bring ONE solution to a broken game, but plenty. The result is a wide fragmentation of the player base, and unless it's about a single player experience (it usually isn't) this causes the (fixed) game to become abandoned quickly.

On the other side (if you DON'T rely on the community to do the repairs), there's the cost aspect . If no man's sky has to be fixed to what was (apparently?) promised, it would probably take extra years to finish. Time that could be spent on other projects (where expectations weren't blown out of proportions) instead. And the trend of games being in "early access" for an unlimited amount of time is getting pretty boring (if not to say "weird") as well.


@flame1234: erm...I don't want to offend, but open beta testing of a free-to-use program that automatically attracts an entire community is an entirely different species of a commercial game in progress.