Day 1 Patch for Battlefield 3

[EKublai]

I was inspired to write this based on this sort of comment I hear.

"Day 1 Patch FTW"

This is a very troubling comment because it is tolerant of publishers that say "It doesn't work now, but it will work then" a very short time before release of a game.

Through its PR, Electronic Arts maintains that this Day 1 patch is the result of feedback from the beta. But what I'm saying is: Don't play Battlefield 3 singleplayer without the patch. And here's why.

I am a pretty avid follower of gaming news and a fairly analytical one even though I don't play FPS' generally, I have watched all the gameplay videos of BF3 available, which are surprisingly scarce for a game just a few days from retail. This is one more cause for concern about the game, and the past year of marketing for Battlefield 3 has revealed a very troubled and rushed production.

Some Notes:

Battlefield 3 showed very little gameplay to the public in the months before its release. What's more, it showed very little gameplay to the PRESS behind closed doors. This means that very little of the game was prepared to be shown that was not shown to the public.

A Public Beta came out one month before the release of the game. While it was no doubt fun (I have a roommate who played it all day so I got to see quite a bit of it.) it was also fundamentally broken. This should not happen in betas one month before release. Take the multiplayer offerings of Uncharted 3 and Gears of War one month ahead of time, which were polished experiences needing minor tweaking and server load testing.

Real beta testing is supposed to occur months before the disc is printed. Battlefield 3 did not have this beta, one can reasonably assume, because it was not ready to have a beta.

Next, EA did not send out review copies to magazines before other gaming news outlets. This is likely again because the review copy was not ready.

Why am I telling you this?

There is no reason to assume, based on this evidence, that the retail game will be ready to be played either online or offline, without a Day 1 patch. Even then, EA has not delivered anything else on time regarding this game, so why should we even expect the Day 1 patch to solve problems.

I am not trying to discourage anyone from buying this game (the truth is that you have probably already decided whether you are getting it or not), but I'm really trying to highlight a problem with Day 1 patches and why they arise. They arise because of greed and narcissism. A game not being ready is a problem that becomes apparent early in production. Battlefield 3 will not be ready when you put it in the first time, and may not be ready when you've downloaded what I suspect will be a 500mb+ patch.

Perhaps that doesn't matter to you. But when someone is so obsessed with releasing their game before a game like Modern Warfare 3 that they would sacrifice the convenience and enjoyment of those they've convinced into pre-ordering their game. Well, that's not the kind of man I want to support.

[Asperchu]

I don't see nothin' wrong with a little bump n' grind.

[Rampant]

You're too late, OP - I already cancelled my pre-order weeks ago (upon seeing how absolute shit the beta was) and put that money toward Skyrim =D

I have to agree - and I posed the point to other people at the time - that a game should not be that broken a month before release.

Here's my reply to some of the utterly stupid comments I received in return:

- "obviously, they toned down the graphics to ease the load on the servers for the beta"
---- Er, what the fuck? If they can't run the game at full capacity when there aren't that many people playing, how the hell are the servers going to cope on release!?

- "well, sure they need to patch some stuff"
---- People are going through the fucking floor! That's not "oh, we can just patch it up in a week" that's clearly a fundamental glitch in the game engine!

- "they still have a month before release"
---- They have a month. And during that month, they have to finalize the game disc cover art, print the booklet (which nowadays is literally just a folder over piece of paper with a picture of a controller stamped on it), send the game to the ESRB and PEGI for rating certification, print the physical game discs, and ship the discs to the store. They DO NOT have time to patch up all of the crap that was wrong in the beta!

- "dude, it's only a beta"
---- A beta is supposed to provide feedback on what the community thinks can be done to improve the game. Balance issues, spawn issues, maybe suggesting that an MCom station should be moved somewhere else... "Hey, DICE, people are falling through the floor; the game is laggy as fuck; the weapon markers suck; the hit detection is worse than Call of Duty; the weapons glitch all the time; the graphics are awful; and the game mechanics are fundamentally broken" IS. NOT. A. BETA. It's an embarrassing look at how abysmally they rushed the game JUST to get it released before Modern Warfare 3.

[CaveStoryGrounds]

At 10/23/11 11:12 PM, RampantMusik wrote: You're too late, OP - I already cancelled my pre-order weeks ago (upon seeing how absolute shit the beta was) and put that money toward Skyrim =D

The beta was an older build then the Alpha. It was for the sole purpose of server/network testing. All bugs seen in the beta do not exist in the full game let alone many of them didn't exist in the alpha.

[Rampant]

At 10/23/11 11:41 PM, CaveStoryGrounds wrote:

At 10/23/11 11:12 PM, RampantMusik wrote: You're too late, OP - I already cancelled my pre-order weeks ago (upon seeing how absolute shit the beta was) and put that money toward Skyrim =D

The beta was an older build then the Alpha. It was for the sole purpose of server/network testing. All bugs seen in the beta do not exist in the full game let alone many of them didn't exist in the alpha.

And you know because you've played the Alpha?

Look, I'm just judging the game from what I played. And I played was awful. It was like Modern Warfare only somehow... worse.

You say "it was an older build." But I can't judge the game on an Alpha build that I have not played. For the pre-release game footage, well, what's to stop them from simply deleting any footage that showed glitches or graphical bugs? What's to stop them from allowing the press to ONLY play on a map(s) that DICE knew wasn't too glitchy?

Currently, everything we're both saying is just speculation. Until the game is released tomorrow at midnight, there's no way to know how good of a job they've done patching the game.

[CaveStoryGrounds]

At 10/23/11 11:56 PM, RampantMusik wrote: And you know because you've played the Alpha?

No, but i've seen the gameplay videos from alpha. I've heard from people who have played the alpha. I also know the beta is by no means the proper representation of the game. The bugs and glitches won't exist, the developers have already stated they have been fixed.

The things people should worry about, are things that can't be fixed in a patch. Which are missing core features that made BF2 what it was, such as commander.

[naronic]

guess that only leaves CS:GO, skyrim and dishonored

[TheRipper00]

This is a great example of just how fucking stupid people can be, congrats.

Rushed production? Your fucking kidding right. They build a new fucking game engine for the game, that alone takes some fucking time. Something you would know nothing about if your fanboy gay for COD. How has reused the same game engine for 5 games, that they have released every single year for the last 5 years. So if you wish to rant about shit like devs rushing games look no further than Activison. Also, pretty sure Activison has had a few day one patches on there games as well as other devs. You know what, I'm ok with it. If they want to actively try to make there product better instead of just leaving the game alone, awesome. There might be minor flaws in cosmetics or something major that comes up. There is also gun calibration, glitch patching and the fine tuning for the final product of the game.

Its graphics, sound, and controls were supurb in the beta and only fanboys and perpetual bitchers will disagree, They did have some beta bugs, good thing it was a FUCKNG BETA YOU IGNORANT MOTHER FUCKER. Do you even comprehend what a beta is? It is not a finished product of the game it is going to have some flaws and is mainly released to test servers. In the case of BF 3 we were playing a month old version of the beta, if you dont realize this let me enlighten you.
In order for a Beta or any content to be released on the PS3 or Xbox it has to go through a screening process and a lot of legal bullshit. This is so that Sony, Microsoft, and the devs can cover there asses respectively .

Finally, there was not alot of in-game footage? WTF are you talking about. Not only did the show almost a whole level of single player but they also showed a ton of Multiplayer and you know RELEASED A FUCKING BETA. Did COD release a beta...ever, or show you any more gameplay footage than BF3? That would be a No. So would you please look around a little more, gather some info and pull you head out of your ass.

[Jin]

"Guess I'll release a perfect and complete game as beta!" There's a reason why it's called beta.

[Love]

And this is why I no longer buy games involved in the FPS rivalry. It's sad to see the Battlefield series sink from stand-alone glory to this.

I'll be on Uncharted 3, Tomb Raider, and Human Revolution if you need me.

[EKublai]

At 10/24/11 05:44 AM, RightWingGamer wrote: Holy Jesus! We need to take a few minutes to download a free patch before playing the game!? Call the police, call the army, call Superman! This is a crime against humanitaherpaderpaderp!!!!

It's really about the patch. It's what the existence of the patch reveals about the game as a whole. The first reviews coming are in support of my prediction. You have two different experiences between multiplayer and singleplayer. One that is worthwhile and one that seems like a whole bunch of stuff just thrown in together. Maybe you don't care about the single-player, and that's fine, because neither did DICE.

Oh and I hope you're getting Battlefield 3 on PC. Because I wouldn't be surprised if the PS3 version was dysfunctional, and the 360 version was fundamentally broken. I have more faith in the PS3 version because the 360 version is a port. However, both are in trouble, evidenced by the fact that what little gameplay shown on consoles has not been anywhere near as good as the PC version.

[BananaBreadMuffin]

We don't need any more threads about battlefield 3. This one's already shit and it's only got like 10 posts or somethign in lol