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team fortress 2 updated
Team Fortress 2 Updated
Zips @ 5:00 pm pdt on 5/2/08 - team fortress
An important update for Team Fortress 2 was released just a short time ago. This update fixes a few critical errors that came about from the latest title update.
  • Fixed Kritzkrieg client crash in particle system
  • Fixed Milestone 2 and Milestone 3 achievements being given at the incorrect times
  • Fixed exploit where players could drop weapons onto the ground for other players to pickup
The update will be automatically applied provided that you own the game, or are participating in the free weekend!

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comment #1
MrBosnia

7:46 pm pdt - 5/2/08		 You know, in game development in general I find "fix for the fix for a fix" pretty interesting.

It seems as we've progressed to this kind of development. Remember back in the old 80's PC games when patches were nonexistant? Game developers did not believe that games need to be further worked on when they are released to the public, as an error is basically an "error". It should not have existed, so the game philosophy was to intensively scan every single bit of data in the game to see if it creates an error.

Now, look where we are. Not only are patches and updates so frequent, but there are essentially patches to fix patches that patch a game. This is as bad as "beta patches".

Remember I'm not specifically attacking Valve for this, but the game industry in general. Some would argue that this is helpless since how 3D graphics are evolving and the room for error keeps multiplying. In my opinion, this means that the mind of the developer needs to evolve to, and have even a stronger work ethic to weed out these issues.
comment #2
Renegade[CSR]

1:16 am pdt - 5/3/08
Edited by Renegade[CSR] @ 1:19 am pdt on 5/3/08

MrBosnia wrote..
You know, in game development in general I find "fix for the fix for a fix" pretty interesting.

[ read full quote (172 more words) ]

It seems as we've progressed to this kind of development. Remember back in the old 80's PC games when patches were nonexistant? Game developers did not believe that games need to be further worked on when they are released to the public, as an error is basically an "error". It should not have existed, so the game philosophy was to intensively scan every single bit of data in the game to see if it creates an error.

Now, look where we are. Not only are patches and updates so frequent, but there are essentially patches to fix patches that patch a game. This is as bad as "beta patches".

Remember I'm not specifically attacking Valve for this, but the game industry in general. Some would argue that this is helpless since how 3D graphics are evolving and the room for error keeps multiplying. In my opinion, this means that the mind of the developer needs to evolve to, and have even a stronger work ethic to weed out these issues.

They added an entirely new gameplay mode, new map, and a new system to unlock weaponry for each class.

I hardly think this is reason to criticize them. Developers actually updating and adding content to their games (free of charge) is really incredible. Also, to note, there WERE bugs with games in the past, just they were never fixed because developers didn't have the means to patch them, that is, before the internet came along. Sending a new CD or floppy with a patch to each client was hardly feasible.

In addition, some issues just can't be spotted upon initial testing. Bugs may only be discovered once the product is delivered to the masses, in which case a patch will then have to be released as a result. I agree that some developers don't fix things that should've been resolved before release, but Valve hardly falls into this category. Their patch was released two days ago, and they fixed any and all problems with it before a week even passed.

As mentioned, I do think your argument can be valid in some cases, and if you made this post in an EA forum about a majority of their games, I would agree wholeheartedly. However, I feel that in reference to a patch from Valve, it just doesn't hold any water.
comment #3
Admz

8:17 am pdt - 5/3/08		 Something wrong with patching up exploits? well maybe if you're an exploiter.
comment #4
Thortok2000

2:00 am pdt - 5/5/08		 Don't attack him, he's making a generalized comment, and said so.

Yes, I agree, it shows how gaming has evolved to be something more complex.

Commander Keen was like 4 megabytes. A single person could hand-scan the code and look for errors to prevent them.

Now, games are made as a team, and what one team does may not be completely compatible with what another team does, or what a third team has already done.

There's bound to be more bugs. That they can patch them is the necessary step that's evolved because of the size and nature of game development in its current form.

Next step of evolution I believe would be P2P and open-source patching, but currently intellectual property law is in the way of that.
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