ArmA II Buggy Junk?

[Evil Avatar]

German gaming site PC Games has posted a Q&A (http://www.pcgames.de/aid,685486/ArmA-2-PC-Games-testet-die-Militaer-Simulation-Update/PC/News/?page=2) with Bohemia's Marek Spanel addressing the depressing news that the first released version of ArmA II (the German version) is riddled with game stopping bugs.

PC Games: We had grave issues with the review copy (retail copies). The singleplayer campaign was nearly not playable because of a multitude of problems. Often we reached a checkpoint an nothing happened, enemies didn't shoot at us, or objectives got solved/failed without us even knowing of it. What went wrong? Did no Beta-Tester find these problems? How was it possible that such a buggy, not-ready version got into the mastering lab anyway?

Marek Spanel: It is very unfortunate that the campaign left such a bad impression. We already been working on the story and campaign for very long time, large testing was undergoing for many months. Part of the problem is that ARMA II is incredible big and even the campaign is just a smaller part of it (I know, very important for many users). Despite we are aware of various problems, bugs and possible improvements, we certainly don't see German ARMA II as something completely broken. When the German master was finished, we felt it's quite good, since then we already had chance to play test even more and collect more feedback which found its way into the upcoming updates.

We realize that the campaign maybe doesn't stand to your expectations but we hope that all the improvements made for the first patch will already make it much closer to what you hoped it will be initially.

[Evil Avatar]

Release Now! Patch Later! Go PC Gaming!

[Meusli]

Hey, there's a few console games that have patches to fix bugs. It won't be long till it happens like this on the big 3.

[Evil Avatar]

Hey, there's a few console games that have patches to fix bugs. It won't be long till it happens like this on the big 3.

It happens all the time. The difference is that most (most not all) console games go through more QA and the QA is easier because it is a fixed hardware system.

About the only company who I have seen totally drop the ball on console QA is Epic.

[retsudo]

Thankfully what I mainly look for in this sort of game is potential for modding, not singleplayer campaign. Although it is poor that the campaign is broken, it may have been caused by a huge rush for the release demanded by this producer, after the other releases were put forward.

Console games are patched nowadays too, so I don't see the problem there; at least PC games can be "fixed" by the community of modders in terms of gameplay etc.

[retsudo]

Additional: it's bound to be harder to playtest and check a dynamic campaign for bugs than a "on rails" storyline.

[brandonjclark]

I hope the U.S. release is patched prior to distribution, because I was really looking forward to this game.

Checkpoints not triggering is a pretty big thing, though. How'd that get through?

[biosc1]

Nothing new from these developers. Check their track record...buggy releases with patches is what they do.

So...that's why I hold off on their games until it's been patched up. Once their games get patched they become excellent, it's just unfortunate that they never quite learn to stop releasing early.

[Trencher]

Nothing new from these developers. Check their track record...buggy releases with patches is what they do.

So...that's why I hold off on their games until it's been patched up. Once their games get patched they become excellent, it's just unfortunate that they never quite learn to stop releasing early.
This is exactly what I was just going to say. The first ArmA was quite messy at release at well - thankfully after several patches it is in pretty good shape now.

[Derella]

About the only company who I have seen totally drop the ball on console QA is Epic.
Bethesda's had quite a few issues as well, especially with their DLC.

[lockwoodx]

Release Now! Patch Later! Go PC Gaming!

Sadly I have to agree with you here.

[senorduck]

Yup, nothing i like doing more than remembering if i patched to 1.062 or not to know if i ought to download the cumulative 1.068, to patch that patch to 1.072. Good times! I can't say i care whether it happens on the consoles or not; at least my 360 patches its own stupid self. Arma one is still broken.

[DingBat]

Additional: it's bound to be harder to playtest and check a dynamic campaign for bugs than a "on rails" storyline.

Sorry, that don't get no slack. If you KNOW you're designing a dynamic campaign FPS, then you also design it for testability. At least, you do if you're an experienced developer.

[Ulysses]

How would you design it for testability, I wonder. QA misses things in the best of cases, disappointing but hardly something to slam PC gaming alone over. Consoles have access to patching as well, this problem is only going to get worse for them.

[DingBat]

How would you design it for testability, I wonder. QA misses things in the best of cases, disappointing but hardly something to slam PC gaming alone over. Consoles have access to patching as well, this problem is only going to get worse for them.

You put in specific "hooks" into the system so you can set up conditions to test a specific series of events and triggers. For example, put my avatar at this location with this inventory with these events fired and these not. Start play. Test. Not really that hard, if you design the game that way from the beginning. If you don't, well, then you have to use brute force and, as you see, you miss things.

Do you REALLY think that Bioware, say, tested Baldur's Gate 2 by having people just play all the way through it?

[the soUL TRAder]

I get what they are thinking, might as well let the pirates do the QA and patch it after they have had their say.

[retsudo]

You put in specific "hooks" into the system so you can set up conditions to test a specific series of events and triggers. For example, put my avatar at this location with this inventory with these events fired and these not. Start play. Test. Not really that hard, if you design the game that way from the beginning. If you don't, well, then you have to use brute force and, as you see, you miss things.

Do you REALLY think that Bioware, say, tested Baldur's Gate 2 by having people just play all the way through it?

Oh, just like is already in arma then (and hence arma 2 as well). EVERYTHING you said is doable in the mission editor while making the campaign. The problem is that there is so many things to test for.


This is a problem of poor mission making rather than shoddy programming.

[Dag-Sabot]

Disappointingly unsurprised. I guess its flashpoint 2 for me.