RipTen Videogame Blog » bugs

Skyrim PC Patch 1.4 Releases on Steam, Bug Fixes Detailed

Ben Nanke — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:00:46 +0000

It’s the moment fans of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim have been waiting for, or at least those fans that are playing on PC. As of today, Patch 1.4 is live on Steam, which means a huge quantity of bug and quest fixes for you, the PC gamer.

Better yet, Bethesda stated in their announcement that the Skyrim Workshop on Steam is now supported via the launcher. The Skyrim Workshop will give the community a fast and easy way to distribute and download mods, which can be created with the upcoming Creation Kit. That link also has a video showing some of the awesome new features included with the Creation Kit.

Bethesda also said that the Xbox360 and PS3 versions of the patch have been sent out for approval. Hopefully Microsoft and Sony have learned from the week-long debacle that was Patch 1.3, and will make reviewing Patch 1.4 a far shorter process.

If you’re curious whether the bug that’s been plaguing you has been addressed by the patch, the list of fixes is below.

BUG FIXES

General optimizations for memory and performance
Fixed occasional issue with armor and clothing not displaying properly when placed on mannequins in player’s house (PS3)
Long term play optimizations for memory and performance (PS3)
Improved compiler optimization settings (PC)
Memory optimizations related to scripting
Fixed issue with dangling scripts not properly clearing from memory
Fixed crashes related to pathing and AI
Fixed crash in “Haemar’s Shame” if player had already completed “A Daedra’s Best Friend”
Fixed rare crash with loading saved games
Fixed issue with accented characters not displaying properly at the end of a line
Fixed issue where dragon priest masks would not render correctly
Fixed issue where quests would incorrectly progress after reloading a save
Fixed issues with placing and removing books from bookshelves in the player’s home
Optimized bookshelf script in player-owned houses that would occasionally block other scripts from properly firing off
Fixed issue where weapon racks and plaques would not work correctly in player’s house if player immediately visits their house before purchasing any upgrades
Fixed issue where the player house in Windhelm would not clean up properly
Fixed crash related to giant attacks and absorb spells
Fixed issue with ash piles not cleaning up properly
Fixed occasional issue where overwriting an existing save would fail
Fixed memory crash with container menu
Fixed infinite loop with bookshelves
Fixed issue where transforming back to human from werewolf would occasionally fail
Bows and daggers will display properly when placed on weapon racks
Fixed occasional audio issue that would play sound effects louder than intended
Fixed bug related to hitching between cell boundaries
Master Criminal achievement/trophy unlocks properly in French, German, Spanish and Italian
Fixed issue where traps in Shalidor’s Maze would not work properly in French, German, Spanish and Italian versions

QUEST FIXES

The Unusual Gem that was inside the Thalmor Embassy is now accessible after finishing “Diplomatic Immunity”
In “Breaching Security”, the quest token is no longer required to receive a fortune reading from Olava the Feeble
Fixed issue where Galmar would not complete Joining the Stormcloaks properly if “Season Unending” was an active quest
Fixed issue where starting “Season Unending” after finishing “Joining the Stormcloaks” would prevent “The Jagged Crown” from starting properly
Fixed issue where progressing through “Message to Whiterun” while “Season Unending” was still open would block progression for both quests
In “Arniel’s Endeavor”, fixed issue where a quest journal would trigger multiple times
In “Forbidden Legend”, the amulet fragment can no longer disappear after player leaves a dungeon without taking it
Fixed rare issue in “Forbidden Legend” where killing Mikrul Gauldurson while sneaking would make his corpse unaccessible
In “The White Phial”, the phial can no longer disappear if player leaves dungeon without taking it
“The White Phial” will now start properly if player already has a briar heart in their inventory
Player can no longer get stuck in Misty Grove after completing “A Night to Remember”
Fixed issue where leaving Riften during “A Chance Arrangement” would prevent quest from progressing
In “Darkness Returns”, a door in Twilight Sepulcher will properly open if the player leaves the dungeon for an extended period of time before completing the quest
In “Revealing the Unseen”, if the player leaves the Oculory for an extended period of time after placing the focusing crystal and returns, the quest will proceed correctly
“Onmund’s Request” will now start properly if player has already found Enthir’s staff before receiving this quest
Fixed instance where Tonilia would stop buying stolen items and also would not give Guild Leader Armor
“Repairing the Phial” will start properly if player already has unmelting snow or mammoth tusk in their inventory
Finding Pantea’s Flute before speaking with Pantea no longer prevents her quest from updating
In “The Break of Dawn”, fixed rare instance where a quest object would spawn incorrectly on the Katariah during Hail Sithis
Fixed rare issue in “The Mind of Madness” where player is unable to equip the Wabbajack
Fixed issue in “Pieces of the Past” where Mehrunes Dagon’s Razor will not trigger properly if player leaves the cell for extended period of time before activating it
“Blood’s Honor” will start properly if you visited and completed Driftshade and an extended period of time passes before starting the quest.
Fixed rare issue where “Dampened Spirits” would not start properly
Fixed issue where player would be unable to become Thane of Riften if they purchased a home first
Fixed issue where killing guards in Cidhna Mine would block progression for “No One Escapes Cidhna Mine”
Fixed numerous issues with “Blood on the Ice” not triggering properly
In “Blood on the Ice”, Calixto can now be killed if player owns a house in Windhelm
In “The Cure for Madness”, killing Cicero then resurrecting him no longer impedes quest progress
Fixed rare issue in “To Kill an Empire” where an NPC would fail to die properly
Clearing Knifepoint Ridge before starting “Boethiah’s Champion” no longer prevents quest from starting.

BioWare Explains how Bugs and Exploits are Handled in SWTOR

Jensen Walker — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:30:26 +0000

In the latest developer blog for Star Wars: The Old Republic, Executive Producer Rich Vogel details the process of locating and fixing bugs, as well as preventing exploits.

BioWare employs a dedicated Live Support team consisting of of on-call engineers, designers, artists, and producers, who are available 24/7 to work on and resolve issues that crop up in SWTOR. Additionally, their in-game metrics tools allow the development team to pinpoint exploiters and determine the steps required to counter game-breaking problems.

Certain bugs can be harder to replicate than others, meaning those bugs which are more commonly experienced are likely to be addressed swiftly, while the more obscure or rare instances require a greater amount of effort to solve. In regards to response time, Vogel has the following to say:

Please remember, if we don’t respond publicly to a bug that does not mean we are not going to fix it. We want to make sure we provide a good playing experience to our players. That is why we have a large team of people working every day to bug fix and remove exploits from the game.

The blog is a fairly lengthy one, and you can read it in its entirety here.

SWTOR’s Patch 1.0.2 Now Live – Changes and Fixes

Jensen Walker — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:41:01 +0000

I’ve spent the past three weeks in a galaxy far, far away and enjoyed every second of it. While the end of the holiday period brings me back down to earth, I come bearing news of BioWare’s latest update for the recently launched Star Wars: The Old Republic.

While 1.0.2 isn’t a huge patch by any means of the imagination, it does include a number of welcome bug fixes such as the cover mechanic now working correctly when behind hard cover, the ‘Sith Corruption’ toggle no longer turning itself back on every time you enter a new area, and a fix that was preventing Bounty Hunter’s from completing their class story under certain circumstances.

Unfortunately, there are still a lot of issues which need to be resolved, such as the current lack of high-res textures, various bugs in hard mode flashpoints and operations, and the mysterious case of party/guild chat randomly disappearing for certain players. Hopefully these issues will be resolved in short order.

The full list of changes can be found below.

General

Guilds that are currently leaderless will have an Officer chosen and promoted to Guild Leader.

Classes and Combat

Sith Inquisitor

The Darth title is now properly granted to Sith Inquisitors. Bug Fixes

Corrected an issue that could prevent players from taking cover when targeting large NPCs

Fixed a bug that caused some abilities with activation times to be interrupted when used from cover.

Crew Skills

Gathering

Removed some high-level harvesting nodes from Tatooine, Corellia, and Ilum.

Flashpoints and Operations

Flashpoints

Cademimu

General Ortol can no longer be pulled out of his room.

Maelstrom Prison

Corrected an issue that could cause Kilran to behave incorrectly when defeated in cover.

Taral V

General Edikar now has the correct loot in Hard Mode and no longer enrages in Normal Mode.

Operations

Eternity Vault

Gharj can no longer be pulled out of his encounter room. Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue that could cause choosing Nightmare Mode to not set enemies to Nightmare difficulty.

Items

General

PvP lockboxes now cost 70 commendations, contain more consumables, and always contain an item. Bug Fixes

Corrected several PvP items that were Bind on Equip. They are now Bind on Pickup.

PvP vendors on Capital Planets now offer the correct PvP items.

Commendations received via in-game mail are now correctly added to the Currency tab.

Missions and NPCs

Missions

Imperial

Number One with a Bullet: Players who choose dark side options now correctly receive the mission First Strike after completing this mission.

First Strike: Players who did not receive this mission will now receive it upon entering their personal starships. Republic

Death Cloud: Players can now complete the “Toxic Waste” bonus objective regardless of how quickly they complete this mission.

Bug Fixes

Corrected mission steps on several planets that could cause client instability.

Fixed issues with some missions that could prevent pending rewards from being accepted.

Space Combat

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue that caused a client crash if a space station was destroyed in Space Combat.

UI

Maps

Group members no longer appear on all planets on the Galaxy Map. Corrected an issue that could cause map notes to disappear after logging out and back into the game.

Corrected some map notes that referenced the incorrect map. Updated map notes for “travel to planet” steps in class missions on Nar Shaddaa, Hoth, and Belsavis to indicate the planet’s space station.

Bug Fixes

Group members outside of a player’s phase are no longer prompted to roll on items.

The In-Game Customer Service Portal no longer appears to hang while the “updating” message is displayed.

The Guild interface now properly displays the guild member list when it is sorted.

The “Show Sith Corruption” option no longer toggles off when transitioning between areas.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

Taxi rides are no longer occasionally interrupted, causing the player to be dropped from the taxi.

Using the /dismiss command now correctly dismisses a vanity pet.

Corrected some issues that could cause players to become stuck on the loading screen when logging into a character.

Players can now use emotes while riding a vehicle.

Fixed a bug that prevented some text-only mail messages from being received.

Graphics preferences in settings files are now consistent with actual settings in use.

Being in Do Not Disturb mode no longer prevents characters from being logged out for being away.

Corrected an issue that caused poor performance on some machines in indoor areas with shadows enabled.

Fixed an issue that could prevent players from being logged out for inactivity.

This Battlefield 3 Star Wars Glitch is Epic

Dave Oshry — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:00:37 +0000

There have been some pretty hilarious and awesome BF3 glitches that have been found since the game’s release, but this one is as epic as it gets.

When the map textures somehow end up in the sky… prepare for deathstar from above!

For more on Battlefield 3 be sure to check out the RipTen Review.

How DICE Is Addressing the Top 10 Battlefield 3 Issues

Dave Oshry — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 20:20:50 +0000

EA and DICE have been receiving plenty of feedback since the BF3 beta got underway. Some positive and some negative. In a recent blog post, they’ve outlined how they plan to address te top 10 issues plaguing Battlefield 3 multiplayer by the time the game launches on October 25th:

1. Squad issues: Cannot play with friends within same squad, squads get split up onto opposite teams, etc.
There will be improved squad functionality in the retail game (including but not limited to): the ability to create squads prior to launching into a game, sticking with your squad when joining a game and continuing together through future games (If team balance on the server allows it), inviting friends to a squad and changing squads once in game.
2. Regarding additional Open Beta content and fixes/patches for consoles, including PlayStation 3 issues with chat and party systems
While we would like to patch the Open Beta, DICE is currently focusing its available resources on polishing the retail game.
3. Will DICE have enough time to iron out everything by release?
Please see General Manager Karl Magnus Troedsson’s blog post regarding this question.
4. Can we have ability to change settings/options before deployment into match on PC?
The ability to modify your settings via the deploy screen has been added into the retail game.
5. Issues with terrain stability and “falling into the map” on Operation Métro
This has been fixed for the beta via a server side update.
6. Kill cam sometimes zooms out too far or outside the map
This has been fixed for the launch of the retail game.
7. A bug that sometimes keeps some players from being able to sprint
This has been fixed for the launch of the retail game.
8. Screen flickering/stuttering. Blue screen remains after respawn. Game locks up after deploying C4 (360)
This has been fixed for the launch of the retail game.
9. Downed bodies appear to be dead, but are not
The DICE team has been looking into this issue – which is caused by a combination of incidents in a confined area – and are working hard to address the issue for the launch of the retail game.
10. Why is the hit detection seemingly different from Battlefield: Bad Company 2?
The netcode is one of the many things that we are testing as part of the Open Beta and is not necessarily reflective of the final retail game. The DICE team appreciates and has heard the feedback you’ve provided and is further optimizing online play.

So there you have it. As for the sick giraffe neck bug, we can only hope it remains in for the retail launch.

For more on the Battlefield 3 beta, check out What We Love and Hate.

via [BFBlog]

This is What The Battlefield 3 Beta Looks Like In Real Life

Dave Oshry — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 05:45:42 +0000

It’s no secret that the Battlefield 3 beta has some hilarious bugs and glitches, but what would those look like if they happened in real life?

Well, DigiTom Productions is here to show us:

In case you’re not familiar with this particular bug in the beta, Aaron and Dave run into it quite a bit…

Stay tuned to RipTen for continued coverage of Battlefield 3 and sick neck action.

Hilarious Battlefield 3 Vehicle Glitches Are Hilarious

Dave Oshry — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 22:45:34 +0000

Beta builds are fun.

Not only because you get to test out some of your favorite games before they get released, but also because hilarious glitches and bugs are bound to be found!!

Well, Battlefield 3 is no exception:

Who needs jets when you have flying tanks?!

For more on our actual thoughts about Battlefield 3, read What we love (and hate) so far.

Also be sure to check out this “official” Beta trailer…

Battlefield 3 is set to deploy on October 25th. Ready up, soldier!

What We Love (And Hate) So Far About Battlefield 3

Aaron Alexander — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 18:00:45 +0000

(Please note, these impressions are specifically for the PC version of the Battlefield 3 Beta)

Now that the beta is finally open to everyone, Battlefield 3 is among the most discussed video games. We’ve seen new features such as the Battlelog, and experienced the refined gameplay. However, some newer features are better than others in the grand scheme of things, so let’s take a look.

Loved

The game is satisfyingly fun

It's fun popping people who attempt to disarm MCOM's.

Perhaps the most important aspect of Battlefield 3 is the amount of fun it has to offer. If you’re lucky enough to join one of the smarter teams, you’ll enjoy some of the most dynamic combat a videogame can provide. Each class fulfills a specific role and when properly played, they all compliment each other vastly. Support gunners can lay down ammo for team-mates while suppressing the enemy (causing their vision to completely blur), Assault’s can quickly take out targets with their rifles as well as reviving their own men, whilst Engineers and Recon’s can take care of vehicles and pop heads respectively. Minor changes like the ability to go prone, or suppress enemies really change up the game, especially when compared to the Bad Company series. It adds a new depth to the combat, and makes formation and positioning especially important. So long as you and your team are doing their respective jobs and attacking (or defending) the MCOM stations, Battlefield 3 is an absolute blast.

Battlefield 3 is simply beautiful (at least on the PC)

Don't Stop To Smell The Roses Soldier!!

If you have a capable rig, Battlefield 3 is one of the most beautiful and visceral games on the market to date. The destruction (while not as outrageous as Bad Company 2′s) is realistic, scary and mind-blowing to see in motion. The environments look convincing and react to the battle in lifelike ways – Tree’s will shake from the impact of nearby explosions, concrete will chip from random flak and dark hallways will be blown out by the shine of a flash-light. It’s poetry in motion provided you’re up to spec, and even running on a mid-class GPU like the GTX460, playing on “High” settings at 50-60 FPS isn’t as far-fetched as you’d think.

The Battlelog is the be-all, end-all for Battlefield statistic tracking

Stat-tracking for everybody!

Bad Company 2′s stat menu was boring, bland and not very helpful or informative. The Battlelog however, serves as your Battlefield Facebook (quite literally). Your news feed will encompass all of your recent endeavors, as well as your friends, and you can “Hooah” each status, which serves the same purpose as a Facebook “like”.

Not only does it display recent events, but you can also click on the “stats” tab to bring up a fully featured recollection of everything you’ve done. From score-per-minute, to your most used weapon, this really has it all. Gone are the days of 3rd party tracking sites, Battlelog is absolutely the pinnacle of this stuff – it’s comparable to that of bungie.net’s services for Halo games. The community is also a central part of the battlelog, forums are at your fingertips as well as the ability to create and join platoons. The platoon section will also display your best members for each class, and various little statistics that really make Battlefield feel like an always connected experience. However, the battlelog also leads us to our next point..

Hated

The Battlelog is absolutely atrocious if you like playing with friends

Forever Alone...

Yes, it’s a beta. However, if you’re going to launch a game out of an internet browser, you should probably make sure it works. For the most part, applying server filters and finding a game whether it be Caspian Border or Operation Metro, then joining a game by yourself works just fine. This is Battlefield however, and with the rampant amount of little shits running around with Sniper rifles not helping at all, you want some knowledgeable friends by your side to even the score. Having played about 12 hours now with various friends around the world, it’s nothing short of an absolute pain in the ass to join a game with them. The party system always leaves someone out of the server, or other times, people won’t get the invite at all. If you do manage to get into a game, joining the same squad as your buddies is as likely as winning the lotto. You literally have to sit at a menu clicking “leave squad/join squad” until the fateful day when you actually join the desired squad. Compared to that of Bad Company 2′s squad system, it’s a huge step back.

Not enough incentives presented for people to play properly

The Four Classes of Battlefield 3... That Nobody Uses Properly

I can count the times I’ve been revived in game on one hand. I’m not kidding.

Whether it be brain-dead players, or the game is not presenting enough information, most of the classes in Battlefield 3 aren’t played to their full extent.

Assault’s won’t heal themselves (or anyone else for that matter), Recon’s won’t place mobile respawn points and even some support players will shoot until their empty, and opt for their handgun instead of you know – dropping an ammo box and continuing to suppress enemy troops.

I’m not going to sit here and call everyone shit (even though I’d like to), but instead I put the Onus on Dice. Present players with tool tips depending on the situation. If an Assault player is standing near a dead body, tell the player “REVIVE YOUR HOMIE”, or if a Support is near players with low ammo, they could be told “RESTOCK YOUR G”. Simple tool-tips like this would be a great reminder, and teacher of how to play the damn game correctly. (In the mean time, educate yourself here)

These are the five most outstanding features about Battlefield 3 so far, for better or worse. No doubt DICE will address some of the listed issues here, as it’s only a Beta, but as it stands Battlefield 3 is an intense combat game (perhaps one of the best), only held back by uneducated players, several technical bugs and a less than ideal social experience on PC.

Bad Company fans will feel right at home in Rush mode, whilst the people who preferred the original Battlefield series will revel in the conquest game type. It’s a new beast, taking the best features from both series and combining them into something truly worthy of you time.

For more on the BF3 beta, be sure to check out this video from DICE and stay tuned to RipTen for our continued coverage of Battlefield 3.

EA Pulls The Plug On PS3 Demo of Crysis 2

Dave Oshry — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 03:00:18 +0000

Well, that was fast. And yes, that’s what she said. Apparently the issues with the PS3 version of the Crysis 2 demo have become overwhelming and EA is taking the demo offline effective in the next 24 hours.

According to EA:

Thank you for your interest in the PlayStation 3 version of the Crysis 2 multiplayer demo. Though many gamers have had a great experience playing the demo, we are aware that others have been experiencing server connection delays. We’ve identified the root cause and have decided to close the PS3 demo in the next 24 hours to ensure all issues are resolved when the game launches next week. Our priority is to ensure that the final product is flawless at launch.

Let’s hope the final PS3 version doesn’t have as many issues and is on par with the other versions.

Source: EA

Sniper: Ghost Warrior Getting PC, Xbox 360 Patch, Sniping Bugs Away

Dylan Duarte — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 06:33:27 +0000

Apparently the recently released Sniper: Ghost Warrior has some bugs in it, and I don’t mean the creepy crawlers that you can eat for protein. I mean the kind that hurt your gaming experience. Though I guess if insects were to crawl inside of your console, that wouldn’t be great for the experience either.

A patch is coming in the next few weeks for both the Xbox 360 and PC versions and will address a number of concerns, including AI issues, GUI problems, multiplayer bugs, as well as some issues of the PC version crashing altogether. They’ll also increase the ability to hold your breath in multiplayer.

I have asthma, so I would love for someone to patch in an improvement for my lungs. What do you say, science? Also, I don’t understand how games can get released in such a state where patches are warranted immediately. Though I admittedly know very little about the development process.

Look for our Ripten Review of Sniper: Ghost Warrior soon!

Infinity Ward Aware of Modern Warfare 2 PS3 Bugs, Patch Coming Friday

Chad Lakkis — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:25:24 +0000

There are apparently a few hiccups with the PlayStation 3 version of Modern Warfare 2. Specifically, issues with the party invite feature. Infinity Ward is aware of these problems and promises to have a downloadable patch out by this Friday. Over and out.

[Thanks Examiner]

Gears 2 Bug and Exploit Update Patch Incoming

Chad Lakkis — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:53:54 +0000

Epic Games’ Gears forum received a post from company VP Mark Rein a few minutes before 1AM today. In that post Mark makes mention of a title update for the Gears sequel that they hope to release in January. The laundry list of issues being addressed include the ability to wield an invisible shield, infinite lancer ammo, melee through walls, and more.

Hit the jump for Mark’s post in its entirety.

A brief status report on the next Gears2 title update

First of all I hope all of you had a safe and happy holiday season.

As I mentioned before the break we’ve been working on a major title update for Gears of War 2. This update will address bugs and exploits as well as add some new achievements related to downloadable content. We don’t have an exact date for it but all indicators are it will go live within January. If that changes we’ll let you know.

We’re fixing a whole bunch of online exploits. For example we’ve fixed the ability to wield an invisible shield, melee through some walls, gain infinite Lancer ammo and equip a shield and a two-handed weapon simultaneously plus many more.

We’re also making several small changes to improve the overall online gameplay experience. A few of the ones that might interest you are; increased penalties for quitting matches early, adding additional spawn protection against planted grenades and chainsaw attacks, and adding the ability to see the Submission flag carrier destination by using Tac/Com.

We know you folks love achievements so on the achievement side we’re adding achievement progress numbers to the War Journal, increasing the frequency of in-game Achievement progression notifications and adding some new Achievements for DLC.

This is just a very small list of some of the things that will be in the next title update but one more item which has been talked about a lot in our forums deserves a special call out…

About that shotgun…

We fixed the client side hit detection on the shotgun so that in a high-latency (i.e. “laggy”) match, the shotgun will be more reliable. We’ve also fixed another bug whereby shotgun and boomshot rounds could strike the ground when firing from the hip.

So there’s a brief status report on the next title update. At some point I expect we’ll post a more detailed list but I assure you we’re working hard to get this out the door and once it’s done we’ll start working on the next update. We’ll try to do a better job keeping you informed of our progress on future updates and we’ll try to be a little more active in the forums once this update is released.

Source: gearsforums.epicgames.com

Epic Gears of War 2 Patch Wishlist

Chad Lakkis — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:28:48 +0000

The Gear loving crew over at G4TV spent their weekend “working” very hard in the name of better gameplay. Yes, this means they played lots and lots of Gears of War 2. The list after the jump outlines the issues they came across while playing single/co-op campaign, straight up multiplayer, and horde mode.

Bugs:

Weapon Sliding – Weapon sliding (picking up weapons while moving) appears to be back and definitely ruins the map balance. The game is designed in a way that makes picking up a power weapon immediately usually results in a quick death as the pickup animation plays. Being able to grab the Boomshot while moving into cover hurts the multiplayer, especially since this was a bug in the first Gears of War…

Voice Chat With Dead Players Between Rounds – This is a minor bug that we think will be definitely be fixed, but between rounds dead players cannot converse with players that survived the round. Again, this is a Gears of War 1 launch bug and we’re sad to see it crop up again. We’re not suggesting dead players should talk with the living while the game is being played, but they shouldn’t be restricted from chatting between rounds.

Annex / King of the Hill Framerate – Games of Annex and King of the Hill tend to suffer from framerate drops and lag as the pile of body parts surrounding the capture point grows and grows. To us, this seems like there should just be a hard limit on the amount of gibs allowed at any one time.

Invite All In What’s Up? - Hitting the Back Button in the What’s Up? Menu (which we love, by the way) sends game invites to everybody on your friend list whether they be online in Gears, online in any other game, and even offline… we’re assuming it’s only meant to invite friends currently playing Gears of War 2.

Removed Gears of War Features

Matchmaking is a very welcome addition to Gears, but we noticed some dropped features from the original that we’d like back.

Map Rotation / Cycle – In the first game, private multiplayer games followed the classic map cycle format with a lobby before the game started. While Epic has made it easier to change up options without having to re-host a game it currently knocks everyone back to the pre-map lobby after each game. This drastically slows the action down as everyone is forced to reconnect to the host. Most of the time the host just hits start right away to choose the next map. Why not give the host the power to “Return To Lobby After This Game” or “Return To Lobby Now”, but bring map cycles back?

“Ready” Icon – With 10 people in a private game (or even a party of 5 for Horde) it’s tough to tell who’s ready and who has stepped away to grab a drink or go to the bathroom.

Game Balance

This is a very subjective section, but we definitely stand by our initial impressions of the new game balance so far:

Super Powered Chainsaw - We aren’t sure if its the new netcode or if Epic just really wants the Lancer and chainsaw to be the new shotgun, but it’s staggering how hard it is to shoot someone out of the chainsaw before they hit you right now. In our tests, it’s really only reliable to counter a chainsaw charge with a chainsaw of your own. We’ve started dropping our shotguns for power weapons now instead of the Lancer. Chainsaw charging is the new shotgun charging.

Shotgun – The shotgun seems drastically underpowered at close range and is unreliable. Blind-firing it is inaccurate, but that isn’t our problem. At a few steps away, the shotgun sometimes takes 3 hits to down somebody. This is a big change from the original and we want our trusty shotty back. Epic already threw in stopping power to stop somebody from roadie running right up to you and one-shotting you, but was it really necessary to tone the shotgun down at the same time?

Mortar – The mortar fires way to quickly and can be fired from cover. By the time the shells are falling, the mortar operator can be lining up his next shot while his targets scramble to a nearby building. We’re not saying that it should be removed, but the risk of use needs to be increased beyond a slow move speed, especially on maps like Day One where the mortar spawns on a catwalk with ample cover overlooking a giant open map… it’s placed well on Jacinto and Avalanche. Actually, just move it on Day One. Thanks.

Grenades – Grenades seem much more powerful, which is fine, but we have an issue. Shooting wall-planted grenades takes too long and is often difficult from a safe distance. The explosion from a planted ‘nade is so quick that it’s nearly impossible to avoid if you get caught by one. We’d like to be able to clear them safely for having the foresight to check for them.

I’ve been playing campaign and horde mode for the most part, but from what I have seen, the G4TV list seems to be pretty accurate. If you’ve seen anything not mentioned on this list, feel free to share it in our comment section below.

Source: G4TV

SOCOM: Confrontation Getting 1.30 Patch with Trophies and New Features

Rangebar Merani — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:47:59 +0000

Looks like things are finally starting to turn around for SOCOM fans. The recently released 1.20 patch fixes a majority of bugs and other problems, but what about Trophies?

Well, like a Navy Seal unit closing in on an enemy base, the trophies are on their way. The 1.30 patch is said to be arriving soon, complete with Trophy support as well as a full list of new features and bug fixes. Check the complete list of updates after the jump.

New Features

SOCOM Awards and PSN Trophies
DTS audio support
Add HUD and scoreboard opacity
Scoreboard invocation improvements (tap select for persistent scoreboard, hold for temporary)
Spectator mode HUD turns off after brief interval
Spectator camera look now respects user invert on/off setting
Spectator camera pan now consistent with in game camera
Add dive-to-prone
Add lean control to d-pad
Gear items stackable
Extend post-round period
Restrict RPGs and grenade launchers in ranked rooms
Increase prone movement speed
Adding support for lefty control configuration (analog stick functions swapped)
Increase frag grenade effectiveness
Prevent incorrect reload interruptions

Bug Fixes

Fix animation issue when prone rolling near certain objects.
Fix remaining issues with statistics gathering and display
Fix bugs related to equipping of C4 in breach mode
Fix occasional audio drop outs
Fix last remaining framerate hitch when other clients late join
Fix remaining stability issues
Fix hostages being affected by smoke

While this looks sweet, the SOCOM team was quick to note that all the features on the list are not guaranteed to come with the 1.30 patch, but may arrive at a later date:

“… some items listed may be delayed to a following update if additional development is required beyond what our schedule for the 1.30 update allows.”

Source: socom.us.playstation.com