Saboteur Has a Game-Breaking Bug for Some

[Anenome]

http://evavhost.com/i/news/Saboteur2.jpg


Remember Saboteur? We posted a preview (http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=100507) of it last month. Apparently 90% of players with a common hardware/OS combination are experiencing complete game failure after the title-screen:

So far, there are over 35 pages of people posting (http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/240/346070.page) [asking] why EA released Pandemic Studios' final game, Saboteur, to first the EU on December 4th and then, after knowing full well it did not work properly, to the Americas on December 8th. They have been promising to work on a patch that is apparently now in the QA stage of testing (http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/51853/Serious-Saboteur-ATI-Crash-Issue-Being-Investigated-Workaround-Offered).

It is not a small bug; rather, if you have an ATI video card and either Windows 7 or Windows Vista, the majority (90%) of users have the game crash after the title screen. Since the marketshare for ATI is nearly equal to that of Nvidia, and the ATI logo is adorning the front page of the Saboteur website, it seems like quite a large mistake to release the game in its current state.

"Sounds like they've been sabotaged." - scdeimos
(source: Slashdot.com (http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/12/09/0542246/Saboteur-Launch-Plagued-By-Problems-With-ATI-Cards?art_pos=1))

The game, made by Pandemic Studios, was barely out the door when EA canned all the employees and shuttered the dev-house.

[Gedd]

Doesn't the 360 use ATI video hardware called Xenos? I bet it works just fine for the targeted console audience.

[alienchild]

Someone set us up the bomb. And expected us to pay for it.

[Lodin]

Doesn't the 360 use ATI video hardware called Xenos? I bet it works just fine for the targeted console audience.Pretty sure the 360 doesn't run on Vista or Win 7. :rolleyes:

Anyway, seems this is even more broken than their previous game, Mercenaries 2. Now that's friggin impressive.

[murpes]

Since the marketshare for ATI is nearly equal to that of Nvidia ...

Dunno about that:
Valve Hardware Survey Nov 2009 (http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/)

Still, ATI has a significant presence and this bug, if accurate, is embarrassing.

[Gedd]

Pretty sure the 360 doesn't run on Vista or Win 7. :rolleyes:

Yes, I know, you missed the sarcasm, though, I probably should have been more obvious about it.

[AspectVoid]

Glad I don't have an ATI card, then. Not that I'm planning on getting this anytime soon, but its still nice to know.

[ElfShotTheFood]

People still buy PC games before the first patch has been released?

[Demo_Boy]

Wow. I mean just wow. That is an egregarious bug. Someone needs a demotion.

[Stormwatcher]

Wow. I mean just wow. That is an egregarious bug. Someone needs a demotion.

I think you mean "egregious"?

[divinechaos]

I think you mean "egregious"?

Don't you guys mean "bad"?

[Johan]

I think they mean "yikes!"

I LOVE playing games on my PC, but this is one reason many people don't. :( This is also a reason I'm soooooo glad I typically wait for games to "marinate" on the shelves for a while before buying. They tend to improve with age (patches, additional content), and if they don't, they drop off my list of games to buy.

:wistfully longs for the days of blowing off a cartridge:

[Anenome]

Yeah, you're right. Consoles have that feedback loop where a manufacturer simply won't allow you to release a broken game. But PC gaming has no such inhibition and travesties like this happen. I've bought a few PC games over the years that I simply could not get to work and had to write off :( It was a crap-shoot every time. But the vast majority do work. Even the ones that do work often require some fanegling that it probably beyond the skill of most people.

First thing I do when I get a new game is look for .ini tweaks and all sorts of things like that, customize the experience to my own liking. Or if I can't get it running, I can fix 90% of all problems by spending an hour in the forums and finding fixes. I remember Splinter Cell the first one had a problem like this that I ended up solving. Very glad I did, good game, but less tech savvy people would've been floored and frustrated.

[corwiniii]

OK, I'm a very literal person - 90% of the posters have the problem, or truly 90% of those who own the game have the problem? And if so, how would they measure that. Please flame away - I'm sure it's a serious problem - but why not 100%? What is the missing (or additional) variable causing the problem? UAC? ATI driver? DirectX?

[Anenome]

90% of those with that hardware combination have the problem. Who knows where that number came from, tbh. Probably from the fact that few to no one's popping into the forum saying they have that hardware combination and no problem. The question's academic at this point.

[corwiniii]

Probably from the fact that few to no one's popping into the forum saying they have that hardware combination and no problem.

Isn't that typically the case with anything? Anyway, must be a glaring error for that many people to have issues. I could be wrong, but I've read about other games with multi-core issues (i.e., a workaround is to set game to use 1 core). I think Borderlands IIRC. And/or World of Goo.

[White667]

Yeah, I've both got Vista and ATI, so damned? I was actually considering buying this game and everything: suck.

[Mantooth]

So 9 of the 10 people that bought it have the problem?

[Anenome]

So 9 of the 10 people that bought it have the problem?
It's really not that hard to understand. Apparently 9 out of 10 people that bought game that have the listed hardware/OS combination have the problem. Yes.

So, if you have a Nvidia card. You're fine. And if you have XP you're fine. Anyone who doesn't own BOTH an ATI GPU and either Windows 7 or Vista is fine. Anyone who does, for now, is screwed while they work on a patch.

[Johan]

90% indeed! (http://www.theonion.com/content/news/report_90_of_waking_hours_spent)

No...90%!?! :sniffle sniffle: (http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/14/cocaine.traces.money/index.html)

No freaking 90% way! (http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/78384027.html)

ACK! Not again! (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10249172-83.html)

Anyone who does, for now, is screwed while they work on a pooch.

Fixed that for you. ;)

[Anenome]

90% indeed! (http://www.theonion.com/content/news/report_90_of_waking_hours_spent)

No...90%!?! :sniffle sniffle: (http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/14/cocaine.traces.money/index.html)

No freaking 90% way! (http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/78384027.html)

ACK! Not again! (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10249172-83.html)



Fixed that for you. ;)

Johan's drunk again :P

[corwiniii]

It's really not that hard to understand. Apparently 9 out of 10 people that bought game that have the listed hardware/OS combination have the problem. Yes.

So, if you have a Nvidia card. You're fine. And if you have XP you're fine. Anyone who doesn't own BOTH an ATI GPU and either Windows 7 or Vista is fine. Anyone who does, for now, is screwed while they work on a patch.

OK, wait - so do they have to all be installed and running on the SAME machine? Or even if I have a Win 7 disc and ATI card in my junk pile? Will it effect my game play on my Ubuntu dual-boot Ion Atom netbook with IGPU????

I kid...

[Anenome]

OK, wait - so do they have to all be installed and running on the SAME machine? Or even if I have a Win 7 disc and ATI card in my junk pile? Will it effect my game play on my Ubuntu dual-boot Ion Atom netbook with IGPU????
Yes, in fact if you've ever even considered buying an ATI card, this game WILL NOT work for you!!!1 And if you can see out a window wherever you currently are reading this from, that means you have windows installed and you are SCREWED, but only if you have more than 7 windows installed on the premises, or if you can see something that can be described as a 'vista' from said windows ;P Everyone in Africa, that is, in Ubuntu, can play this game just fine. And it works on atoms if you have reeeeeally good eyesight >_> Although, if you like eating Apples you're just fucked in general :P

[Sasori the Medic]

Never ever buy a game from a developer that shut down during its making. There are ALWAYS QA issues.

[Mantooth]

It's really not that hard to understand. Apparently 9 out of 10 people that bought game that have the listed hardware/OS combination have the problem. Yes.

So, if you have a Nvidia card. You're fine. And if you have XP you're fine. Anyone who doesn't own BOTH an ATI GPU and either Windows 7 or Vista is fine. Anyone who does, for now, is screwed while they work on a patch.

It was a lame joke that only 10 people total bought it.

[Anenome]

It was a lame joke that only 10 people total bought it.
Yeah I didn't get that at all. Bit too subtle :P