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The Daily Grind: What was the best patch ever?
There are three responses to every patch released by every game, no matter what the patch does or doesn't contain. There will be people who decry the patch as something horrible, those who act indifferent, and those who enthusiastically gush about how wonderful it is. But there are some patches that stand out as being real game-changers, from Star Trek Online's enormous Season patches to the various content-and-system upgrades doled out regularly for World of Warcraft. If you've been playing long enough, you can reflect on the patch history for your favorite game. What was the best patch that you can think of in terms of its individual impact? Was it one of the major overhauls introduced to Final Fantasy XIV? One of the story updates for Lord of the Rings Online? Or some of the large epilogues added to Guild Wars? What has your nod as the best patch ever, and why? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Gamescom 2011: More details on RIFT's patch 1.5
RIFT hasn't been out for all that long, but the game is already rapidly approaching its fifth major patch since launch. A recent demonstration at Gamescom reveals more of what will be coming along with the patch, which promises more options for endgame players as well as for players without a great deal of time. For the former group, the game is adding a new Planar Achievement System that will give players points to spend in unique supplemental skill trees, adding some fine-tuning and character customization. For the latter group of players who don't have time to delve into large-scale group content, solo instances will be added, with one or two players easily able to clear the area depending on equipment. Hammerknell will be one of the first sorts of this dungeon, allowing players a chance to see more of the game as a whole. Higher-end players aren't forgotten, however, with a new Master Mode added to give dungeons extra sting and rewards. It looks like patch 1.5 will be a good time for all RIFT fans, whatever their level of commitment to the game.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Stricken pack
It's been a while since the Incarnate system went live, and we've had a little time to get used to the ideas that the Issue 19 Strike Pack brought to the table. Not a full shakedown, mind you, but enough to make it clear what the fairly minor addition actually does for the nascent endgame. Whether or not it brings anything positive to City of Heroes is still up for debate. Depending on whom you're talking to, it either nicely handles a few weaknesses of the current Incarnate design or it's a step in a bad direction. As usual, I don't think the answer is anywhere near that simple. The Strike Pack is a good thing in many ways, and not just because of the addition of the higher tiers of Incarnate abilities. I love giving people more reason to run Task Forces, definitely, but if there's a serious problem introduced by this it goes right back to the same endgame problems that City of Heroes has always had, problems that I'm not completely sure even Issue 20 will fix.
The Daily Grind: What changes were you worried about that turned out fine?
Whenever a new feature is put into a game, there's a portion of the playerbase crying foul before it even hits the test server, and not without cause. Nearly every fan crying out that this change will cause huge problems has evidence, both anecdotal and otherwise, that will be pointed to as an obvious reason why the change is a bad idea. The developers listen, nod quietly, and push it live anyway. And as it turns out, the sky remains where it is, cats and dogs do not begin living together, and the hysteria is remarkably contained. To claim that we don't all have our pet causes is ridiculous -- we all have certain things that we know will break the game beyond a shadow of a doubt. But sometimes these game-breaking changes go live after all, and as it turns out they aren't actually such a big deal. So when have you been frightened of a major game change that turned out to not be all that important? Was it a class redesign, a major mechanical change, or an apparent simplification that wound up making the game more fun to play in the end? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of our readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's The Daily Grind!
Grand Theft Auto IV patch finally here
Well, finally. We were hoping this would come sooner, but better late than never, no? The widely reported problems of "freezes during certain modes" and "multiplayer connectivity issues" finally have a remedy -- a patch has just been released by Rockstar for Grand Theft Auto IV. An apology was also included in the patch notes, along with details of each problem resolved. [Via Joystiq]
Patch coming for Assassin's Creed freezing problems
If you've been met with continual freezing while playing Assassin's Creed, never fear because Ubisoft is hard at work on an update to rectify the issue. It seems gamers are experiencing the freezing intermittently and not from the same point in the game."Following our recent statement regarding the freeze issues that some consumers are facing with Assassin's Creed on PlayStation 3, we can confirm that we are actively working on a game update," Ubisoft's UK community manager posted on its forums. "This update will help improve the stability of the game and will be released as soon as possible. In the meantime thank you for your ongoing feedback and patience."It's great that Ubisoft is working on the fix so soon, but it's disappointing at the same time that gamers may have to wait weeks to be able to fully enjoy the game they spent their money on. These type of bugs should have been spotted and fixed long before the game was released to the public. Hopefully, Ubisoft says sorry by throwing us all some free downloadable content in addition to fixing the bug.[Via Evil Avatar]
