First of all I must confess that I am a perfectionist, even though I am in no way close to being perfect! I demand perfection from games. It really annoys me to see so many bugs in post-modern games ( after 2005). I will list a few examples, most of these have been verified and any idiot who tested the game should have noticed!
[1]. Metro 2033 :- No Vsync ( my eyes hurt!). Even when enabled from the config file vsync does not work. Enabling tessellation makes doors see through when you are near them.
[2]. Stalker : COP No vsync again. The option in the settings does absolutely nothing.
his would not ordinarily classify as a bug but the game has best lighting and shadows I have seen, but the vegetation makes it look like a 2004 game. This makes the game look highly inconsistent and plain ugly. I classify this as a bug simply because they could have used speedtree which is a standard tool used in many games.
[3]. Mafia 2 : Random crashes and they seem to occur many times just before a checkpoint! Another irritating thing is the checkpoints are often illogically chosen. Enables Physx cripples the game on non-nvidia hardware. Sure Physx does enable lots of eye candy but I get the feeling that the performance loss is greatly disproportional.
[4]. Far Cry 2 :- DX 10 is absolutely broken and there is zero difference between DX 9 and DX 10 in terms visual quality. Enabling DX 10 causes micro stuttering when sprinting or riding a car. So even though frame rates are higher in DX 10 mode, DX 9 is the better option.
[5]. Witcher 2 :- I have not played this game but read and watched various reviews. To sum up what I have read, a game which comes close to being a best game of all time candidate is ruined by horrible bugs. Check gamespot video review for details.
[6]. Bulletstorm (Mother of all bugs) : It has been fixed now but if you do not have the latest patch, bulletsotrm has a massive performance loss at 1680 x 1050 (in fact at all resolutions not divisible by eight). The funny bit is that this resolution is one of the most commonly used resolutions by gamers. How could you not notice this bug, it just plain stupid!
[7]. Crysis 2 : I am going to pass on this one! I am sure the readers know the bugs in thsi one.
So my point is this, many of these bugs are crippling bugs and I do not see how these were not squashed during testing. Unless you are one of the few lucky people whose eyes are oblivious to screen tearing, how in hell do you miss that Vsync is not working! In my opinion, this is entirely our fault that we put up with these bugs! Gaming is a multi billion dollar industry and soon to be a trillion dollar industry. But games are often not even considered art by many (at least the Smithsonian thinks it is art). This has to change, review sites should become more critical. It is a crime that a game like Crysis 2 is able to score > 85 on metacritic. The day when people start tearing apart games into shreds for lack of perfection is the day we are going to get our moneys worth. Game companies always crib about how PC gamers are all pirates but I really think they are better off fighting piracy by striving for perfection instead of wasting millions of dollars on DRM.
[1]. Metro 2033 :- No Vsync ( my eyes hurt!). Even when enabled from the config file vsync does not work. Enabling tessellation makes doors see through when you are near them.
[2]. Stalker : COP No vsync again. The option in the settings does absolutely nothing.
his would not ordinarily classify as a bug but the game has best lighting and shadows I have seen, but the vegetation makes it look like a 2004 game. This makes the game look highly inconsistent and plain ugly. I classify this as a bug simply because they could have used speedtree which is a standard tool used in many games.
[3]. Mafia 2 : Random crashes and they seem to occur many times just before a checkpoint! Another irritating thing is the checkpoints are often illogically chosen. Enables Physx cripples the game on non-nvidia hardware. Sure Physx does enable lots of eye candy but I get the feeling that the performance loss is greatly disproportional.
[4]. Far Cry 2 :- DX 10 is absolutely broken and there is zero difference between DX 9 and DX 10 in terms visual quality. Enabling DX 10 causes micro stuttering when sprinting or riding a car. So even though frame rates are higher in DX 10 mode, DX 9 is the better option.
[5]. Witcher 2 :- I have not played this game but read and watched various reviews. To sum up what I have read, a game which comes close to being a best game of all time candidate is ruined by horrible bugs. Check gamespot video review for details.
[6]. Bulletstorm (Mother of all bugs) : It has been fixed now but if you do not have the latest patch, bulletsotrm has a massive performance loss at 1680 x 1050 (in fact at all resolutions not divisible by eight). The funny bit is that this resolution is one of the most commonly used resolutions by gamers. How could you not notice this bug, it just plain stupid!
[7]. Crysis 2 : I am going to pass on this one! I am sure the readers know the bugs in thsi one.
So my point is this, many of these bugs are crippling bugs and I do not see how these were not squashed during testing. Unless you are one of the few lucky people whose eyes are oblivious to screen tearing, how in hell do you miss that Vsync is not working! In my opinion, this is entirely our fault that we put up with these bugs! Gaming is a multi billion dollar industry and soon to be a trillion dollar industry. But games are often not even considered art by many (at least the Smithsonian thinks it is art). This has to change, review sites should become more critical. It is a crime that a game like Crysis 2 is able to score > 85 on metacritic. The day when people start tearing apart games into shreds for lack of perfection is the day we are going to get our moneys worth. Game companies always crib about how PC gamers are all pirates but I really think they are better off fighting piracy by striving for perfection instead of wasting millions of dollars on DRM.
