DOA4 save game problem discovered, acknowledged & a temporary work around offered

[Everlost_MI]

Within the last week, reports of a problem of saving games in DOA4 have begun to surface. Gamespot (http://www.gamespot.com/) has posted (http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=24198870) an acknowledgement from Tecmo regarding this problem and a temporary work around.

Here's a bit from the article...

After a several-day lag, a Tecmo rep indicated that there is a problem with some copies of the game. "We're aware of the issue you're referring to," the rep told GameSpot. "We're working to identify and resolve the potential problem with the technical folks at Microsoft." The rep said a patch would be coming soon.

So what can DOA4 players do in the meantime to ensure their hard-fought DOA4 victories don't vanish into thin air? Tecmo technical support says to do the following: (1) With your copy of DOA4 already inserted, turn on your 360 by pressing the "open tray" button. (2) Wait until all the information from your Gamer Profile is fully displayed on your Gamer Card, including achievements and other awards. (3) Close the tray again with DOA4 still inserted. If problems still occur, call Tecmo technical support at (310) 944-5005 (8 a.m.-6 p.m. PST) or e-mail them at help@tecmoinc.com.
Anyone personally experienced this yet?

[Kefkataran]

Nice to see they've worked so fast to get this taken care of, even if the fix is only temporary while they search for a more long-term solution.

[Achilles]

I’ve run into at least 10 other major ‘fail cert’ type bugs with this game, including it hanging when trying to sign me in, hanging while loading a match, not being able to hear everyone in the chat room till reboot, hanging when trying to send a message in-game, hanging while trying to send a voice chat, and having an outfit available in the store that I already unlocked. But I haven’t run into this one yet.

[Adam Blue]

My friend mentioned this to me today. I figured it was just him.

[Arai]

I lost all my unlocked characters, but I still have my online ranking and my achievements (including "Unlocked Spartan" etc). Not sure if this is the same glitch cause I kept my online rankings.

[Demo_Boy]

What to say, maybe their rickety old game engine is not compatible with multiplayer, so they shoe strapped it and there ya goes?

Or that I'm shocked how crash o riffic the game is on teh front end of the 360?

[Sazime]

Bugs in console games are UNNACCEPTABLE. It's the same hardware all way round. This kind of thing should not happen so frequently.

[RMan]

Bugs in console games are UNNACCEPTABLE. It's the same hardware all way round. This kind of thing should not happen so frequently.
Like it or not, the ability to patch the games via the internet will make it more likely to happen.

[Sazime]

And the hard drive thing only solidifies it.

[IndependentGMR]

I've had no such thing happen to me.

[MrMeatshake]

I’ve run into at least 10 other major ‘fail cert’ type bugs with this game, including it hanging when trying to sign me in, hanging while loading a match, not being able to hear everyone in the chat room till reboot, hanging when trying to send a message in-game, hanging while trying to send a voice chat, and having an outfit available in the store that I already unlocked. But I haven’t run into this one yet.

welcome to the brave new world of dynamic updates. now developers can feel happy releasing unfinished code to the market, safe in the knowledge that some subset of people who have a live connection may at some point in the future be able to download a moderately bug-free version of the original game. ahhh.

:)

[[Jez]]

To thier credit MS have made a free version of LIVE this time round so you dont have to pay for the game AND the patches but this is still uncalled for, having "downloadable" content for games should not mean fixing the fucking mistakes

[Derella]

The first night I had DO4 this happened to me. After beating story mode about 20-25 times, I called it a night. Everything I had unlocked was gone the next day. I thought I had done something wrong :P

[captainspankypants]

I've been worried about shit like this since the first Xbox came out. This is supposed to be one of the benefits of playing console games over PC... no downloading patches. The entire idea of companies releasing broken, unfinished games should be unnacceptable in any situation, but in console games it should be absolutely mythological. It shouldn't happen. Think about those poor fuckers who got a core system. If they bought DOA4, it's nearly worthless without a $100 upgrade (well, there is the "workaround," but still).

[Taco]

And yet people will still blab about how PC's suck because you need to patch the games, while denying problems like this exist.

[mister_slim]

welcome to the brave new world of dynamic updates. now developers can feel happy releasing unfinished code to the market, safe in the knowledge that some subset of people who have a live connection may at some point in the future be able to download a moderately bug-free version of the original game. ahhh.
If it gets so bad that Team Ninja stops caring about bugs, we're doomed. By that point I imagine some EA bug will cause the console to eat any available children.

[Yeti2005]

Ok, let's have a reality check. Everyone is bitching that some games may have to be patched for consoles. I admit this sucks but the number of games I've had to patch on the Xbox and Xbox 360 is probably around 3 (Halo2, Rainbow6, and Splinter Cell:Chaos theory). Pretty much every PC games I own has been patched at one time or another. Patching every (or most) console games didn't become a trend with the Xbox so why do we suddenly thing it's going to be that way for the 360? I'm just wondering why people are claiming the "sky is falling".

[Double T]

I haven't run into this bug, but it would seem to me that the bug that gives you achievements you haven't earned including high rankings should be fixed first.

I have the 100 win achievement and have only won about 80 times.

[Inverarity]

If I remember correctly, this sounds like the same general mechanism that was causing a problem in Call of Duty 2. The game has profile settings linked to an XBox Live account, and if the account fails to log in quickly enough (or the game/OS gets confused about the account status) the profile can be corrupted or overwritten.

An OS-level fix is probably appropriate for something like this. I suppose MS could patch the OS so that the XBox Live login takes place before the game launches (via an overlaid account selection/"Working..." window or some such). It sounds like the DOA4 workaround makes you do just that by leaving the tray open. Waiting for the account to be ready would be time-consuming, but probably not too painful...

[NightRain]

Not only that PSOne games and N64 games had bugs in them that just couldn't be fixed. One I recall in particular was Gran Turismo 2. The game would only go to 99% complete becuase of not adding drag racing or somethings, I also think you got a car unlocked for 100% that you couldn't get becuase you could only possibily get 99% done. This was a bug and it was not patchable at all. Instead Sony fixed it and released it when all the old copies of the game had been sold off. At least with Xbox Live you can get fixes for games. Today's games are so complex that it would take forever to test 100% of the game and it would delay released for an extremely long period. I don't mind getting a patch as long as I have the option to get it, I'd rather them fix it with a patch then ignore it like some other companies. It was months before EA admited to major bugs in the Madden 06 game for the PSP, then all they did was send you a replacement disc if you sent in your game first. I've been waiting several weeks for my game to come back, which really sucks.

[SweetsGreen]

Being a software developer (and doing a good amount of QA) I know that it is hard to develop and test for the PC since you can never know all the different permutations of HW and SW that may exist on a PC....

Most patches (but not all) for PC games usually have to do with a bug on a specific graphics card, or with a particular joystick.

But if you told me that I only had to develop and test one type of system configuration..I'd be in heaven, I could write better tests and eliminate more bugs.

This is the advantage that console development has....for there to be this type of bug is unacceptable....It is obvious that this title ( and 360 in general) was rushed and the consumer is now paying for it....

[Paendragon]

Sadly, this happened to me... thankfully I had only beaten the game a few times, but if I had unlocked a large chunk of stuff I would be REALLY pissed.

[hallowedground0]

I have not had this happen to me yet in DOA4 but it did happen to me in Call of Duty 2 and sound like the problem that was encountered by people when it was released. It sounds like a software problem associated with the 360 rather than being only a specific title problem. It is curious that the saves would vanish while leaving acheivments unchanged......

[Kefkataran]

I have not had this happen to me yet in DOA4 but it did happen to me in Call of Duty 2 and sound like the problem that was encountered by people when it was released. It sounds like a software problem associated with the 360 rather than being only a specific title problem. It is curious that the saves would vanish while leaving acheivments unchanged......

I don't own a 360, so do correct if I'm mistaken here, but aren't achievements an Xbox Live thing? That being the case, wouldn't they record them online rather than off?

[Royal Fool]

Yeah, I do believe they are recorded online. I think it was even mentioned somewhere that you couldn't hack games like Hexic to cheat your way to achievements...

[hallowedground0]

They are recorded online, but they are also contained and displayed within your dashboard and your system. In fact the online component reads your achievments off of your system and if you do not login or access Xbox Live with the profile you created on your 360 then those achievments will not be uploaded for others to see.