Having bought temple of elemental evil after following the game through development and reading a good review from gamespy, i was disappionted by the amount of bugs that were blatently obvious. Now i didn't take the game back because there was mention of a 1st patch, this didn't really address many bugs but a second was due for release, which by now i can' take the game back and eagerly (but very annoyed) await a 2nd patch. Now vampires looks pretty darn good, but are we going to be done again? How well is this project going timewise, is there going to be extensive QA? My faith in troika is a non starter, i would love to pre order this game to play asap, but having been burned once i may just 6 months after release and see how other gamers reguard it. Does troika have the freedom to release their own patches rather than going through the "publisher"?
Ouch. Never trust Gamespy. I think it's expected to be coming out shortly? It's an interesting question. I mean, historically Troika have been good with patch releases. They personally want to get the bugs fixed because it shows against their reputation. I don't think they don't want to be known as buggy developers. We can only hope there'll be extensive Q&A. This is where I think the delays with Half-Life 2 will be beneficial for Troika. It should give them ample time to do some serious bug-tracking. As for waiting 6 months. Heh, I usually do that anyway. I think the only game I ever bought on day one was Arcanum. As to whether Troika can release their own patches without going through the publisher, we'd have to check with them. I'll see if I can find out.
cheers for the reply think i'll hover the forums when it comes out and see what the gamers point of view is. hopefully the second patch for temple will be out b4 then to tide me over
Actually the second patch was finished 2 months ago and mailed to Atari. Atari gave no answer to Troika who can't just release the patch without the former's accord. If I recall correctly, the 3rd patch is ready too but since the second patch isn't approuved yet, there is no possible way to get it. I never liked Atari but after that incident, I swear never to buy anything published by it with the exception of Bioware's products. In addition, whereas Baldur's Gate 2 came in a nice 4 cd case, NWN came in a pitful papersleeves (usually budget titles come in those) and a badly-printed cloth hankerchief. But enough about Atari: I have no doubt Troika would support Vampire: Bloodlines. Activision is a more flexible company to work with.