About two weeks ago, Bethesda released patch 1.2 for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and was supposed to fix many of the issues that players were reporting on the Skyrim forums, most notably the “texture” issue on the 360. While this patch did resolve the fifteen or so bugs that most gamers experienced, it also created a number of new and interesting bugs.
http://youtu.be/_xCjK3BD6u4
That was one of the more bizarre bugs, but another issue that arose was a game breaking bug for certain players. Anyone that created a mage class character, became practically unprotected as Magic Resistance no longer existed. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim had literally become unplayable for many gamers as crashes, corrupt save files and unbearable levels of lag seemed to have gotten worse after Patch 1.2 instead of better.
Today Bethesda has released Patch 1.3 with promises that this patch will fix the following:
Since Patch 1.3 has gone live there have of course been reports of new bugs, such as the inability to run when dual-wielding spells, but on the whole it seems that 1.3 is very stable and only a small percentage of gamers are still experiencing major issues. This of course by no means that the game is in perfect working condition, rather the game is merely playable for everyone once again.
Now while there are a lot of problems to complain about in this game, we as gamers need to understand that a game of this magnitude will have its problems. There is so much going on in this game, it is difficult to comprehend and the guys over at Bethesda are working their tails off to give us the best gaming experience they know how. In less than 30 days, we have received not one, not two, but three different patches; that’s a patch every ten days! Mo other game on the market can claim such thing and as long as Bethesda continues to support Skyrim they way they have been thus far, I can easily see The Elder Scrolls V being played for years to come.
John
December 9, 2011 at 12:43 AMI beg to differ that it (patch 1.3) made it playable for everyone again. On Bethesda’s own forums, plenty of people are saying they are experiencing the same Hard Crashes and Crashes to Desktop that they experienced before 1.3.
I personally experienced this, and basically had to completely delete my progress and re-install the game to have a crash-free experience again, and I’m not confident that when I get into higher hours of play that I won’t have the same problems.
I think it is a very fun game to play, don’t get me wrong, but I have to be able to play it to enjoy it.
BlackBeard
December 9, 2011 at 5:47 AM…”We as gamers need to understand that a game of this magnitude will have its problems.”
I think if you had payed $60 dollars for a “game of this magnitude”, only to have hard crash your system repeatedly, you wouldn’t be such an “understanding gamer.” I (and literally thousands of others) payed for a product which wasn’t in working condition. And, have been offered no official explanation or compensation. Patch 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 didn’t address Hard Crash nor Crash to Desktop issues. In fact Bethesda hasn’t even admitted such a problem exists despite thousands of different posts on Bethesda’s official website reporting similar crash instances. System hard crashes are not only very inconvenient for gaming, but are also hazardous to hardware itself, potentially damaging or breaking components. Some user’s (including myself) have reported that crashes in Skyrim have now started to make other previously installed fully working games mimic the same type of crash behavior. i.e. for me, Cod Black Ops as well as League of Legends. Both fully working for a long time, then after an install of Skyrim both start experiencing BSOD’s. These are major “snowballing” problems, and since they only seem effect a small percent of Skyrim gamers, those gamers are getting the shaft. Apparently at Bethesda, updates to fix backward flying dragons are at a higher priority then ones to fix extremely frequent system crashes. Give me what I already paid for, then I’d be happy to give credit where credit is due.
Sonny
December 9, 2011 at 8:51 AM1.3 did nothing for the PC.
Still have Dragons flying backwards, major crashes, spells suck, MAJOR LAG, and more.
With 1.3 on PC..graphics got worse.
I have many hours of play on this game and it seems Bethesda has a lot to still do to fix major problems.
zanarkand2009
December 9, 2011 at 12:46 PMSure.Let’s all be nice to Bethesda for giving us Skyrim.I agree that it’s a beautiful game to experience,and one that you can lose yourself in.The only problem is that after a few false starts,to get used to the game,I now CAN’T PLAY THE F***ING GAME BECAUSE OF ALL THE CRASHES.If software houses keep churning out games and throwing them at players before they are truly complete and 100% playable,then they don’t deserve the trust and loyalty,(never mind the cash),of their customers and should be blacklisted until they get their acts together.
Laboosh
December 9, 2011 at 1:05 PM@ BlackBeard
Ok, so I haven’t done the legwork, but I think it’s safe to say Skyrim is one of the largest and most complex games (upon initial release, i.e., excluding expansion packs, etc.) we have ever seen. Given the tremendous scope and elaborate detail, you should understand that the game is going to have bugs, but I’m sure you’ve heard that enough already. The real question is has it ever occurred to you that Bethesda is taking a little extra caution before patching this issue you’re having (which is probably not an easy fix at all) so that they do not have a repeat performance of 1.2? If they are too aggressive in fixing bugs that only .1% of the gamers are facing, they run the risk of breaking it for the rest of us.
Truth is, the game is amazing, but incomplete. Not necessarily their fault though – you can’t fix every bug in a game this size without millions of testers. Personally, I love the game, I love the work they are continually putting into it, and I love the fact that Bethesda is so in touch with their customers (see their blog for examples). I can’t wait to see the polished final product!
Blunt Weapon
December 9, 2011 at 2:28 PMBethesda. BETA TEST YOUR F-ING GAMES!
The problems arising could have largely been ironed out prior to release with a large scale beta test issued to customers who preordered Skyrim.
However Bethesda simply isn’t in the habit of releasing their games in any playable form prior to shelf date, probably due to piracy concerns.
GUESS WHAT? SKYRIM WAS AVAILABLE AS A PIRATE DL PRIOR TO 11.11.11!
Every game worth interest & probably some that aren’t will be pirated, it’s an inevitability.
So no, people aren’t mad at Bethesda because Skyrim is small or mediocre,
IT’S BECAUSE OUR $60 IS GLITCH RIDDEN FOR NO GOOD REASON AT ALL! Oops, forgot the almighty $$$ factor, my mistake… thank the marketing geniuses that enforce the decline of quality in the gaming industry.
Now the real question is, who among us really thought Skyrim would run any better on release than it’s predecessors upon release? And yet we still gave them our money. The upside is they are diligently patching the game, the bad news is the unfinished products will continue to roll out of these game companies until the money dries up for unproven software. That means ultimately it was our (the consumers) choice for Skyrim to be buggy.
By purchasing on faith we validate the current practice of games being released without adequate testing measures & quality controls.
John
December 9, 2011 at 2:42 PM@ Laboosh
Bugs are one thing…I could care less if dragons fly backwards, or there are a few texture problems. That a person cannot physically play the game at all due to Hard crashes and CTDs is what BlackBeard was complaining about. He was saying that the gamebreaking and potentially computer breaking hardcrashes should be #1 on the priority list and that hasn’t been the case until 1.3, which in my personal experience, didn’t actually fix anything, and from Bethesda’s forums, didn’t look to have fixed others problems either (and actually created crashing problems for people who had no such problems before!). It is nice Bethesda is taking such “care” in putting out patches…perhaps they should have taken the same care when they put out the BASE game, which if you are a PC or PS3 player, seems like it wasn’t even QA tested or they would have caught these kinds of problems.
Look, I love the game too (when I can play it), but reading your post, I can’t help but think you are a Bethesda employee trying to do media damage control.
Laboosh
December 9, 2011 at 3:18 PM@ John
Lol. Nah I’m not a Bethesda employee. As a matter of fact, I was cursing at the game last night saying I would never play it again after it crashed on me just before entering Blackreach for the first time (FYI: I fixed the issue shortly after by clearing my system cache and trying again). But I have to say that 1.3 was DEFINITELY a priority. Patch 1.2 nullified ALL resistances for crying out loud! Take it from a Breton, that is game breaking. Not to mention I personally crashed twice when the backwards-flying dragon showed up (although I suppose it could be coincidence). Also, what I was trying to point out earlier was that perhaps they ARE taking his issue seriously, but would like to exercise a little more tact in releasing an update this time around.
@ Blunt Weapon
I think you’re 100% right. I don’t know if refusing to beta test is or isn’t the problem, but if so then hopefully the pitfalls of Skyrim will finally teach Bethesda a damn lesson. Part of me wishes they’d lose GOTY just so they’ll take beta testing seriously next time.
OhBoy
December 10, 2011 at 12:44 PM@Blackbeard: If your machine is crashing “hard” while playing Skyrim or any other game it means that you are having a hardware or a driver problem. Skyrim is a quite a system hog on PC.
Game or any other program in any modern operating system cannot bring the system to BSOD or kernel panic without something working at kernel level (drivers) or without a bug in the operating system itself or a hardware fault temps/memory/disk/graphics cards etc…
So, if your machine BSODs while playing games or using something demanding like video encoding/ray tracing etc.. it means you have something more serious going on. Inadequate cooling? Hardware fault, like a memory module going bad etc. etc…
Thanks to people overclocking CPU/Video it is hard to filter all the shitty systems in order to find a reason for all these CTDs etc… I mean people with computers heavily over clocked and then running the 3dmark couple of times to say that my comp is stable… ARrrgh! Or the good old.. Game A works just fine… B doesnt.. FIX IT.. AAAAAAAAAArgh… Fix your shitty computers or bug a console!
Yes I have the CTD issues too, usually after alt tabbing a few times, but never EVER has the game caused BSOD neither on my desktop PC (over clocked heavily cpu/vidcard) or on Asus G73 gaming laptop.
In Skyrim CTDs are normal, BSODs/reboots ARE NOT!
Rockafella
December 12, 2011 at 5:15 AMI think I’m one of thoses lucky players who dosent have any problems playing this game., WELL i think your pc is the PROBLEM not the GAME!….
joebore
December 13, 2011 at 7:32 AMi thought too that it was my PC whose at fault here, but mine is built with intel i7, 16Gb of ram, with an AMD Radeon HD 6000 graphics card,and my game also crashes, and i thought man, this game is heavy, but too heavy for that graphics card to handle??? i veer away from forums and guides and all that, but i had to know, how big is that “magnitude” this game has to a PC built for gaming, so Rockafella, can you enlighten us further?
juputti
December 16, 2011 at 7:34 AMWhen comes an update, where you can have new thieves guild armour, because I’m not able to do all the thieves guild missions ’cause I don’t have any of those armour left.
Sam
December 16, 2011 at 11:20 AMI Think Bethesda s doing a great job trying to fix bugs. Then remember we still have Dlc and mods in the future which will improve alot that Bethesda is also working on as they give creation kits. Be patiient people, I grew up with Pong in 1977 and when I look at skyrim and remember pong , my head hurts.
Hine
December 16, 2011 at 4:35 PM“Be patiient people, I grew up with Pong in 1977 and when I look at skyrim and remember pong , my head hurts.”
/giggle
tex79
December 17, 2011 at 5:01 PM@Laboosh The company knew what they were getting into when they built a game of this size it should work 100% when purchased. there is no difference between them and other products. Would you buy a brand new wheel not in perfect working order. Bethesda would be like here’s your car and the brakes don’t work but we have someone working on a fix for that and we’ll let you know when its out. Sorry but that’s not the way it works I should be able to buy a product that is in fully working order and not have to be fixed.And it’s not just bethesda all games are coming out this way and if we keep letting them do it the products from game developers is going to get alot worse.In my opinion it should have been fixed before release and if it took longer to fix then release it later rather than early and BROKEN.
Anthony
December 19, 2011 at 12:05 PMIt is evident that Bethesda did not massively test this game on ALL PLATFORMS before release. In all honesty, they should have an epic team of testers (25 for PS3, 25 for XBOX, 25 for PC) that are required to put at least 200-300 hours of gameplay in, PRIOR TO THE GAME’S RELEASE!!!
I could have waited another year for this game to come out so they could at least release a somewhat stable game. The glitches have become OUT OF CONTROL! But I guess that’s the hard lesson they have to learn at Bethesda when they try to be “cool” by releasing a game on 11/11/11 when it clearly wasn’t be ready.
This game is an outrage, and I demand the 1st expansion pack for FREE when it comes out.
EVERYONE RESPOND TO THIS POST IF YOU DEMAND SATISFACTION!
Archer
February 15, 2012 at 2:01 PMGuys, really. Did you honestly expect the game to be fully playable right when it’s released? This is the exact same thing that went on with Morrowind and Oblivion. The game is barely out of beta and they release it out to the masses. It’s like a whole world of beta testers ready with their feedback on every little problem they have with their game. And when they do get all the bugs fixed and dlc released, it’s just about time for the… Game of the Year edition! And there you can buy the fully patched game for half the price and all of the dlc, which is why I’m waiting to get it.