Very interesting article. I've felt that way a few times, so I've adjusted my expectations of their games accordingly. You know, I could never finish NWN2, because of game breaking bugs ( and I've tried 3 times ), so that right there is their biggest sin in my eyes.
And I think they should fire their QA team and hire random people off the street, they couldn't do a worse job, right ?

Russ, you've excelled yourself.

I may have to plaigarise bits of this in the near future.

LogicNProportion:
...Agreed...

...

...But Russ, dude, your signature looks like it reads as "Puss Pitts." : I

Careful, now. The last poster who made fun of Mr. Pitts' signature was perma-banned by Mr. Pitts. I suspect Mr. Pitts sees no humor in jokes based on his signature.

Well it's certainly annoying that Obsidian games have so many bugs, but that is kind of their trademark. "It's Obisidan, it'll gonna have a lot of bugs!" Almost nostalgic except Black Isle had no such problems (I think). Not that it's a good thing and I agree that they should/could have fixed it a long time ago...
But is this really important enough for an editorial? And "Seriously, fuck you"? I don't know...
Then again, you do have a point, and as others have pointed out, this "who cares it's buggy, we'll fix it post-release!" attitude is getting quite annoying. Both DA II and (to some extent) The Witcher II had rather serious problems at release and their only redemption was that they are very good games (imho!).
I still didn't like this editorial all that much.

I like this for the most part because it's trying to make a metaphor out of a relationship - personifying the game studio and then talking to it (her?) as though it were a real love interest - it's poetic. I admire that. Love it actually. But the writing shifts tone so much that the immersion of the story was lost to me at several points. The writing is good, of course, but I felt as though it suffered from some of the same problems as the very love it was criticizing.

The idea was great, but the execution could have been so much better. And you can't love something just based on its idea - it needs to be able to follow through. And perhaps it'd be asking too much for a a games' journal to really put more than the requisite amount of work into a possibly powerful piece like this, but is it?

What if this letter were rewritten as though it made it obvious that it had gone through a couple of ammendments? Like certain lines were crossed off and revisited, certain words fought over in the mind of the writer a few times just to make sure that it was exactly what the ex-lover intended to say. What if the letter focused on the small things that made this person fall in love with Obsidian? Like the way it got this look in its eyes when it was about to tell one of its oh so famous stories? Like the way it would leave you wanting more, but just seemed to get lazier? Like how you'd have to clean up after it so much (but in poetic terms - i.e. keeping the central metaphor intact and letting your intelligent audience get more out of this rather than switching between Obsidian as a lover and Obsidian as a game studio).

I love the idea of personification, but wish that I could more clearly see, feel, hear, understand why the narrator fell so deeply in love with something, to be fair, that was never meant to be soft, that, in the end, would cut itself off and leave those who loved it lacerated. After all, nothing is as sharp, nothing is as good at cutting itself off or cutting itself short as Obsidian is.

Russ Pitts:
Editor's Note: DIY

You've burned your last bit of goodwill, Obsidian.

Read Full Article

Never thought I'd say "Perhaps it IS a good thing that the PS Store is down."

That being said, though, I gave up after F:NV. The memory leaks would catch me out in the open, far away from an auto-save point, and lock my PS3 down so bad the XMB wouldn't even come up. When they released Dead Money exclusively for the XBox 360 (and didn't release it for other platforms until a full 6 months later), that was the last straw for me. Wasn't going to wait around for however long to buy a DLC for a game that was buggy to begin with.

I've never had more problems with any PS3 games than I have with Fallout 3 or F:NV. Obsidian (and Bethesda) sure know how to make customer feel like 2nd class citizens - by having shotty QA and not fixing existing bugs before trying to get another $10 out of you.

talideon:
I'm saving my ire for them for however Dungeon Siege 3 turns out. After all, this time they're well financed (IIRC), it's their own engine, and they're not being forced to rush the game out the door.

If they screw up Dungeon Siege 3, *then* then deserve this kind of anger, but not before.

The first reviews are in. The game is nearly bug-free. Bad timing Mr Pitts.

carpathic:
I have said these self-same things numerous times - including Obsidian's douchy behaviour leading up the release of New Vegas

How were they 'douchy' exactly?

Sannom:

talideon:
I'm saving my ire for them for however Dungeon Siege 3 turns out. After all, this time they're well financed (IIRC), it's their own engine, and they're not being forced to rush the game out the door.

If they screw up Dungeon Siege 3, *then* then deserve this kind of anger, but not before.

The first reviews are in. The game is nearly bug-free. Bad timing Mr Pitts. Also Cracked.com did the same thing, and better.

It's been done before a million times and better. Including previous doing by Mr. Pitts himself. And that he didn't resort to the use of the term "eagle semen" in this most recent doing is, frankly, disappointing. I quite enjoy his use of the term "eagle semen."

The last sentence was over my personal line but I agree that:

Patches are supposed to fix things.

:(

Can't say I agree, in all honesty. I haven't had any really bad bugs in any Obsidian game I've played. I never played NWN2, and KOTOR2 was doomed to failure from the start as it had to be compared to the first, but Alpha Protocol and New Vegas are both excellent games. I ran into a couple of bugs in both admittedly, but nothing really game breaking. The worst bug experience I had was on day 1 of New Vegas. The game simply wouldn't run at more than 10 fps with more than 2 people on screen, and I was attempting to save the opening town with that. It was horrendously optimized, running as a slideshow.

Then a patch came out two days later and completely fixed the problem. Since then, I've had 0 problems with New Vegas. Though to be fair, I have only put in 85ish hours into it. There may be other bugs out there I just haven't run into.

beema:
I guess you can take some solace in the fact that half the people probably responsible for FNV were recently fired.

I'm still flaggerbast at how out-of-proportions those lay-offs were blown. As if firing 6 people, and mostly interns among them, was the equivalent of firing half the people on the payroll.

Perfect.
I could not have said it better myself.

Exept that I quit the "relation" with Obsidian because of the release of NV.
Well, actually because of KOTOR II.
Releasing NV and Alpha Protocol in the state they were(or rather still/again are), after the mess KOTOR II was, was just too much for me to still say "...,but when it works it's a great game".

If I buy a new car, I want to be able to drive it.
Without having to fear that the engine will stop working randomly, or that parts of the body-kit fall of because I accellerated a bit too much and had to brake hard. FYI, that's why I don't buy cars build in America(sad but true), India or China...

And that's why I won't even bother for any release from Obsidian, until they stop putting out crap.
Over ten(10!!!) years of this malpractice is more than any loyal customer should have to bare. -.-
Enough is enough.
It saddens me, but I honstly think they should disband the team and build up a new one.
Well, or they should get kicked in their private parts, until they fix this BS...
/rant

Anyways.
Great article.
Good writing and nice viewpoint.
At least I can rely on The Escapist for releasing quality material.

Well, most of the time. ;-P

-typos edited-

Neverwinter Nights 2 and Kotor 2, never forget, never forgive. Bioware handed them gold and they turned into lead with weird science. What ticked me off about New Vegas was having to wait for the first couple of patches to be able to play it, nothing turns you off quicker than having to go back 5 hours in the game cause of some bad programming.

Harsh words, but...
I get it.

I agree.
I too have spent so long letting things slide, so much so I feel somewhat to blame.

This made me laugh so hard. It's about time someone with knowledge of the business said what the other fans already knew.

I loved Black Isle, what came next was nothing more then decay and shame.

Kind of off topic but...
Kind of a short issue this week, eh?

I'm happy to say I can't agree with the article. I've been exploring New Vegas for nearly 100 hours and am yet to encounter a bug or crash that ruins my experience. Sure I've had the annoying standard Gamebryo rubbish but that's hardly Obsidians fault. I guess what I'm saying is maybe I'm lucky.

That was just beautiful.

zelda2fanboy:
I don't get what the deal is. Ever consider that your system itself might be on its last legs? I've seen about two or three major bugs in the last 40 hours, and none of them were a significant problem.

That's the problem - two or three major bugs in 40 hours isn't considered bad programming?

Are your standards (or expectations) really that low?

My problem with Obsidian / Black Isle isn't that every game they've ever released has been choppy (at best) and unfinished (or rushed), but that they refuse to address the issue - usually blaming the publisher.

It's not the publisher, Obsidian - it's you guys. You are shit at finishing games. You're bad at identifying problems, you're crap at fixing them and the bugs you do create aren't just irritating, but tend to make bits of your games unplayable.

Sort it out.

I'm sorry but what a crock of bull...I've had little of the those bugs and there were some gamebreakers but I learned to work around those ever since I started playing Fallout 1 and 2.Don't give me that look.You did too.It's an integral part of any old school rpg pc gaming fan.I want to also say that their games are gradually actually getting better.I didn't like Kotor 2 or NWN2 but damn Alpha Protocol and New Vegas.1 really pushed the envelope the other took me back to my roots.

Ah well.Must be just me,or it's a fad to bash on games.

I've logged about two hundered hours in New Vegas, and don't hate Obsidian. The Fallout 3 GOTY's bugs were a lot worse, and it froze at least once every half hour. I can comprehend the meaning of loathing Obsidian, but don't agree with it.