TheJayCat
Patches - The good, the bad, and the worse.
2007-11-20 3:01 PM PST
Whaatever happened to the good old days of patching games? You'd turn your computer on, load your favourite game, download a small file when prompted, install the thing and you'd be away, life was golden. Not anymore it seems.
Take battlefield 2142 for example. A cracking game in my opinion, but i don't want to have to download a 350mb patch before I can blow shit up, thats not cool EA! In fact it was this patch that prompted this blog entry. I understand that with new, bigger app's coming onto the market, more changes means more data to download, but surely theres a better way? World of Warcraft is another prime example, upon buying a trial of the game i was ready to play, i had the game installed, and as soon as I try and log in, wallop (wallop being the standard sound one hears when one realises that all is not right.) a 500mb download. So i think to myself, ok thats fine, its a big game and its worth the wait. So I start the download, go flip the kettle on and watch some tv.
About an hour later i return to my computer to my excitement that the patch was downloaded and installed, Huzzah! Excitement levels at maximum, i log on to find not the MMO i do so wish to play, but lo and behold, another patch! Grumbling to myself, I accept that such a big game must require another equally sized patch, returning to the kettle and thus the setee for more tv.
Again i return to the computer to find again, that the patch has completed its download and has self installed. Consolling myself on the fact that surely this must be the end to my update nightmare, i happily log in to find another patch: Much shouting followed. Now well into the early hours of the morning, i stomped back to my setee, cup of tea held firmly in hand and awaited the patch to finish.
As 5AM aproached the patch was completed, I logged on to find not one, but two more patches to download, though much to Blizzard's luck (The angy mob was ready I swear to god) these were small in comparison to their large predecessors.
Thus, after waiting for well over 4 hours, I was in. Was it worth it? Yes, would i happily do it again? No.
Surely there is a better way to update games. New content is good along with bug fixes, but this is becoming ridiculous. Everyone loves a new map, but watching a download tick by is just plain depressing.
Xz
views: 75
Take battlefield 2142 for example. A cracking game in my opinion, but i don't want to have to download a 350mb patch before I can blow shit up, thats not cool EA! In fact it was this patch that prompted this blog entry. I understand that with new, bigger app's coming onto the market, more changes means more data to download, but surely theres a better way? World of Warcraft is another prime example, upon buying a trial of the game i was ready to play, i had the game installed, and as soon as I try and log in, wallop (wallop being the standard sound one hears when one realises that all is not right.) a 500mb download. So i think to myself, ok thats fine, its a big game and its worth the wait. So I start the download, go flip the kettle on and watch some tv.
About an hour later i return to my computer to my excitement that the patch was downloaded and installed, Huzzah! Excitement levels at maximum, i log on to find not the MMO i do so wish to play, but lo and behold, another patch! Grumbling to myself, I accept that such a big game must require another equally sized patch, returning to the kettle and thus the setee for more tv.
Again i return to the computer to find again, that the patch has completed its download and has self installed. Consolling myself on the fact that surely this must be the end to my update nightmare, i happily log in to find another patch: Much shouting followed. Now well into the early hours of the morning, i stomped back to my setee, cup of tea held firmly in hand and awaited the patch to finish.
As 5AM aproached the patch was completed, I logged on to find not one, but two more patches to download, though much to Blizzard's luck (The angy mob was ready I swear to god) these were small in comparison to their large predecessors.
Thus, after waiting for well over 4 hours, I was in. Was it worth it? Yes, would i happily do it again? No.
Surely there is a better way to update games. New content is good along with bug fixes, but this is becoming ridiculous. Everyone loves a new map, but watching a download tick by is just plain depressing.
Xz
