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Darksiders II |OT| What starts with War, ends with Death.

Just finished the game(360). Overall I really enjoyed it. A better game than the original. The soundtrack is likely to be one of the best this year and I think will continue to stick out in my head as one of the best soundtracks I've heard in some time. Seriously awesome music, though a few tracks didn't stand out much. Some thoughts.

The Dead Kingdom was especially awesome. That place, particularly, was easily the coolest section of the game and felt like it had the most thought behind it.

Character movement still feels wonky. Death is nimble, but he often feels bulky and weightless at the same time. I think Ninja Gaiden is a great standard for how characters should move and feel in a third person game.

The loot system definitely needed balanced better. I went very long stretches without ever replacing numerous items. That just ended up wasting a lot of time as I'd have to jump into a menu every time to find out what I had picked up wasn't very good.

Why isn't there a stat comparison when I'm looking at items to buy? How could a developer overlook something like that? It's crazy and annoying that I'd have to remember stats from an item I was looking at and then go compare it to what I had on.

Level design was significantly better than the original. I also loved having optional dungeons to explore. I think I did everything except for the Soul Arbiter's Maze. Which brings me back to loot. I skipped the maze because I checked and found out I was going to just get loot. I already knew loot pickups were generally underwhelming, so I skipped it. If I'm going to go out of my way and put time into extra quests, the rewards should motivate me to want to do that. I don't want a weapon that might not be as good as I have equipped. Don't leave that up to chance. Give players something that they couldn't have otherwise. Better items from the smith was a nice touch. More along those lines. Ex. The grab move could be given a dmg. element that isn't available otherwise.

Why was the framerate generally bad, but the Archon fight and sections of Shadow's End ran at around 60? Wtf. Literally the only points in the game where that happened.

I was pretty underwhelmed by the story. Everything seems so cool, yet characters were constantly just being vague about corruption or talking about how everything accidentally split into three and Death needed to go tape things back together. I only played the first Darksiders because the reveal trailer for 2 reminded me so much of Legacy of Kain. Now, I knew after Darksiders that the story wasn't of that caliber, but I was hoping 2 would improve it. With the criss-cross of realms and characters, there could've been a lot of intrigue and behind-the-scenes stuff to show and tease players with. I never felt like that was happening, though.

The end of the game was really abrupt and disappointing. I literally walk into the tree, fight a pretty easy boss(Samael was cooler and more difficult), get zero resolution without any reveals, and bam. Credits. Who thought this ended was acceptable or satisfying in any way? More stuff with Samael and Lilith would've been cool. They're both really interesting characters and barely had any screen time. Also, regarding the Well of Souls. Absalon and the corruption called to mind the Metroid Prime series, particularly, well, Corruption. Take a look at how the end of that game played out in terms of gameplay. You made your way down into the core at the end, with atmosphere oozing and tension building before the final fight. That's how you do things. Literally walking in and being treated to the final fight with zero build-up was just jarring and disappointing.

It seems like I disliked the game, but that really wasn't the case. I had a good time and enjoyed it more than the first. I'll totally recommend it to others, but I can't help but feel that it has some obvious problems(that I mentioned) that should've been recognized with ease.
 

EekTheKat

Member
. I'm one of the lucky ones where the 11 step voodoo magic workaround doesn't work on my PS3 for the
maze/book/freeze issue
.

I convinced someone on my friend list that this was a good game, and he was planning to pick it up next Friday. Now I feel kind of bad for recommending a game that he may or may not encounter freezing/game breaking bugs.

THQ and Vigil is killing a lot of good will here.
 

aristotle

Member
Hey! GUESS WHAT?! Turn the game off and turn it back on. Your problem is now fixed.

Don't be a melodramatic and instead try to troubleshoot things instead of just giving up.


Anybody reading his post should ignore it. I can't state with certainty, but I think every single bug encountered has had some kind of workaround. Its a great game and should be experienced.

I did do that. Why must you be an apologist? You have some serious stockholm syndrome. Stop being a knob-rider.

There is no workaround. The game saved when he didn't pick it up the first time and then it saved again once I moved forward a bit and aggro'd the nightmare prowlers and beat them. Karn was originally stuck in a wall (another progression bug!) and now he won't pick up the heartstone and he is now stuck in the pressure plate room with 2 doors.

Great game!

But go ahead and ignore this game breaking bug and all the other numerous ones other people have had on this forum and every other gaming forum.
 

Dahbomb

Member
Honestly though experience on bugs varies. If someone completes the game without experiencing any progression bugs and enjoyed the game why wouldn't he/she recommend it?

I once got into a progression bug in Mass Effect 2. Had to make a new save. Had that happen in Jak 2 as well and had to send in my memory card to Sony. I still enjoyed and liked those games despite experiencing bad bugs.
 

aristotle

Member
Honestly though experience on bugs varies. If someone completes the game without experiencing any progression bugs and enjoyed the game why wouldn't he/she recommend it?

I once got into a progression bug in Mass Effect 2. Had to make a new save. Had that happen in Jak 2 as well and had to send in my memory card to Sony. I still enjoyed and liked those games despite experiencing bad bugs.

Sorry I refuse to recommend broken products or enjoy them. If I was in the EU I would get my money back, but here in the US we have no such Consumer laws for broken products. Especially media (such as games) that once opened you can never return or get your money back.
 

Archpath1

Member
spent alot of time re-searching the maps for these Stones with a guide now.

I'M STILL MISSING ONE. I HATE MY LIFE. : (

*it was in the fjord lands. i'm an idiot. hah
 

Famassu

Member
Sorry I refuse to recommend broken products or enjoy them. If I was in the EU I would get my money back, but here in the US we have no such Consumer laws for broken products. Especially media (such as games) that once opened you can never return or get your money back.
Bugs are a part of big, open(-ish) world games with a lot of freedom (doubly so if there are tons of choices you can make that affect the world & the story), it would simply be impossible for devs to fix all of them. Bugs will usually be missed no matter how much effort is put into QA. If, like, a million gamers buy a game and then play it, they can put more hours into it within minutes they start playing the game than a fair sized QA team in 50 years, and as such they can also confront bugs that the QA team missed. If you can't live with them, I'd suggest you never buy games such as Darksiders, Fallout, GTA or the like again.
 
Bugs are a part of big, open(-ish) world games with a lot of freedom (doubly so if there are tons of choices you can make that affect the world & the story), it would simply be impossible for devs to fix all of them. Bugs will usually be missed no matter how much effort is put into QA. If, like, a million gamers buy a game and then play it, they can put more hours into it within minutes they start playing the game than a fair sized QA team in 50 years, and as such they can also confront bugs that the QA team missed. If you can't live with them, I'd suggest you never buy games such as Darksiders, Fallout, GTA or the like again.

Well said
 
Just finished the game. Loved it.

Now i only need to get me the rest of the trophies.

I got some possessed weapons. Lvl 20-21. Some scythes and some maces and a fist weapon I think. Most of them are free of upgrades :p

So if you want one hit me up on PSN.

Also: I created a Lvl 19 possessed scythe with 19% life steal and 19% wrath steal. How easy the game got :D
 
Just finished the game. Loved it.

Now i only need to get me the rest of the trophies.

I got some possessed weapons. Lvl 20-21. Some scythes and some maces and a fist weapon I think. Most of them are free of upgrades :p

So if you want one hit me up on PSN.

Also: I created a Lvl 19 possessed scythe with 19% life steal and 19% wrath steal. How easy the game got :D

=O

Are you giving that one away?
 

EscoBlades

Ubisoft Marketing
Just finished the game. Loved it.

Now i only need to get me the rest of the trophies.

I got some possessed weapons. Lvl 20-21. Some scythes and some maces and a fist weapon I think. Most of them are free of upgrades :p

So if you want one hit me up on PSN.

Also: I created a Lvl 19 possessed scythe with 19% life steal and 19% wrath steal. How easy the game got :D

Why do you have to be on PSN? :( lol
 

aristotle

Member
Bugs are a part of big, open(-ish) world games with a lot of freedom (doubly so if there are tons of choices you can make that affect the world & the story), it would simply be impossible for devs to fix all of them. Bugs will usually be missed no matter how much effort is put into QA. If, like, a million gamers buy a game and then play it, they can put more hours into it within minutes they start playing the game than a fair sized QA team in 50 years, and as such they can also confront bugs that the QA team missed. If you can't live with them, I'd suggest you never buy games such as Darksiders, Fallout, GTA or the like again.

Well said

Well said??? Really? This stupid line of apologist bullcrap thinking seriously has to stop.

The vast majority of the game progression stopping bugs have to do with the simple game mechanics not working. Simple geometry shapes not being able to pass through doors and getting stuck on non-movable geometry such as walls and rocks is just utter bad coding and lack of care. It baffles me how many people are saying "this is ok" or "deal with it" or "don't play games that should work". FYI, GTA 4 and Fallout didn't have any game progression stopping bugs when I last played them. I must've missed all the posts on various message boards where people complained about their broken mechanics as well.

Simple bugs and graphical glitches are one thing, but I'm talking about bugs and glitches that had to have been caught and/or seen by the QA that weren't fixed that fundamentally stop you from playing that game anymore! It's shameful so many of these bugs made it out in the finished copy.

You are doing nothing by accepting mediocre coding standards in games. You're making the situation worse. THQ/Vigil don't need a PR department anymore, they have posters that stick up for them on GAF for putting out a shoddy product. SMH.
 

Famassu

Member
Well said??? Really? This stupid line of apologist bullcrap thinking seriously has to stop.

The vast majority of the game progression stopping bugs have to do with the simple game mechanics not working. Simple geometry shapes not being able to pass through doors and getting stuck on non-movable geometry such as walls and rocks is just utter bad coding and lack of care. It baffles me how many people are saying "this is ok" or "deal with it" or "don't play games that should work". FYI, GTA 4 and Fallout didn't have any game progression stopping bugs when I last played them. I must've missed all the posts on various message boards where people complained about their broken mechanics as well.

Simple bugs and graphical glitches are one thing, but I'm talking about bugs and glitches that had to have been caught and/or seen by the QA that weren't fixed that fundamentally stop you from playing that game anymore! It's shameful so many of these bugs made it out in the finished copy.

You are doing nothing by accepting mediocre coding standards in games. You're making the situation worse. THQ/Vigil don't need a PR department anymore, they have posters that stick up for them on GAF for putting out a shoddy product. SMH.
YOU didn't have any game progression bugs, I had Fallout 3 crash on me several times, doors not opening and saves corrupting. So if you've ever recommended Fallout 3 to anyone, you are a bad person and a hypocrite.

It's not apologist crap, it's a fact of life. Maybe the QA team DIDN'T get stuck on those parts? Another thing to consider is the fact that often, in software development, when you fix one thing, you might break another. Game development isn't as simple as you naively think it is.

Again, go play your linear 2 hour movie games if you can't handle some bugs that might affect your advancement in the game.
 

Monocle

Member
OK seriously, is there really no way to tell where my final Boatman Coin is, other than checking all 100 locations? I just spent like 5 hours tracking down the last of the collectables, only to find that I'm still missing a single coin. It's literally the only thing I don't have in this playthrough.

I think I'm about to get annoyed.
 
OK seriously, is there really no way to tell where my final Boatman Coin is, other than checking all 100 locations? I just spent like 5 hours tracking down the last of the collectables, only to find that I'm still missing a single coin. It's literally the only thing I don't have in this playthrough.

I think I'm about to get annoyed.

FYI, you can only carry 99 Boatman Coins, and you don't need to collect them all for any sort of Trophy/Achievement.
 

EscoBlades

Ubisoft Marketing
OK seriously, is there really no way to tell where my final Boatman Coin is, other than checking all 100 locations? I just spent like 5 hours tracking down the last of the collectables, only to find that I'm still missing a single coin. It's literally the only thing I don't have in this playthrough.

I think I'm about to get annoyed.

I wish their icons showed up on the main map (or at least a an indicator of how many collectibles remain in an area).
 

Monocle

Member
FYI, you can only carry 99 Boatman Coins, and you don't need to collect them all for any sort of Trophy/Achievement.
Are you sure about the carry limit? I was planning on saving all my coins for when I hit level 30 so that I can buy the best gear from Vulgrim. One coin short could mean I miss out on an item.

I wish their icons showed up on the main map (or at least a an indicator of how many collectibles remain in an area).
Yeah, I have no idea why Vigil didn't include some way to locate the last collectibles. It's absurd to expect people to find them all without a map.
 

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
Hey, can a guy with a PC copy make a quick Youtube video showcasing the recap > current location main menu > transition instantly into the game feature? This is probably my favorite part thing ever.
 

Lima

Member
Are you sure about the carry limit? I was planning on saving all my coins for when I hit level 30 so that I can buy the best gear from Vulgrim. One coin short could mean I miss out on an item.

He is wrong.

There are 100 coins per playtrough. You can carry a maximum of 999.999.999.
 
Do the ones you've picked up carry over in your inventory? If not, I might as well spend them before starting the final mission.


Sigh. I guess I'll have to go through every single dungeon again. Yay.

Yeah, sorry for the wrong info. You can carry over 99 Boatman Coins and they'll transfer over to NG+, while the Coins reappear again.
 

aristotle

Member
YOU didn't have any game progression bugs, I had Fallout 3 crash on me several times, doors not opening and saves corrupting. So if you've ever recommended Fallout 3 to anyone, you are a bad person and a hypocrite.

It's not apologist crap, it's a fact of life. Maybe the QA team DIDN'T get stuck on those parts? Another thing to consider is the fact that often, in software development, when you fix one thing, you might break another. Game development isn't as simple as you naively think it is.

Again, go play your linear 2 hour movie games if you can't handle some bugs that might affect your advancement in the game.

What the hell are you talking about I didn't have any game progression stopping bugs? You have no idea WTF you're talking about. When vital pieces of game progression stop working as intended, that's a game progression bug. When characters who are supposed to do something to advance the story/dungeon don't do it, it's a game progression bug.

So you're not an apologist, yet you're defending a broken game. Hell even Vigil apologized for it! And no I never recommended Fallout to anyone. I got it for free :) And I'm sorry, but if you actually tally all of the game progression bugs on this forum in that past 10 pages, you'll suddenly see how many bugs people have come across. You're naive if you think QA departments find bugs like these and let them pass simply because they can patch it "later". It's poor business and it's anti-consumer. You are an apologist for Vigil because you like their game, not everyone does or has to you know?
 

Famassu

Member
What the hell are you talking about I didn't have any game progression stopping bugs? You have no idea WTF you're talking about. When vital pieces of game progression stop working as intended, that's a game progression bug. When characters who are supposed to do something to advance the story/dungeon don't do it, it's a game progression bug.
I know what game progression bugs are. :|

It seems you are illiterate. I never said you didn't have bugs in Darksiders II. You came here all high & mighty how games with bugs shouldn't be recommended by anyone even if they have personally had no problems with the game, then use Fallout & GTA as examples of how YOU personally didn't have problems with the games, when especially Fallout is infamous of having bugs that prevent you from advancing & finishing the games. So you are a hypocrite. You bitch and bitch how Darksiders II is a broken game because you confronted bugs in it (while others have played it through just fine), yet then ignore the fact that those two series have as much if not even more & bigger problems with bugs than Darksiders II does, yet because YOU haven't confronted those kinds of problems, the games are A OK.

So you're not an apologist, yet you're defending a broken game.
If Darksiders II is broken, then so is every GTA, WRPG and other open-world games ever. It's just an massive action adventure game, I simply am not as insulted by such games having bugs as you seem to be because there will always be bugs in games like these. The more freedom you have & the bigger the scope of the game, the harder it is to have it be as polished as more straightforward, smaller scale games.

Hell even Vigil apologized for it!
Good for them, of course bugs in games are not a good thing.

And no I never recommended Fallout to anyone. I got it for free :) And I'm sorry, but if you actually tally all of the game progression bugs on this forum in that past 10 pages, you'll suddenly see how many bug people have come across.
That is no different to how every Fallout thread has progressed. These kinds of games are buggy simply by their nature as a million people have a million different ways of doing things in the game and as such a million and two different kinds of ways the game can confront a bug, but not everyone suffers from those bugs as much as others. This is proven simply by looking at people's impressions of Fallout 3 vs. Fallout New Vegas. No matter if New Vegas is undeniably a massive improvement over Fallout 3, some people still like 3 better because they personally had better luck with not encountering too many game breaking bugs in 3 than in NV, while they think NV is a buggy mess.

You're naive if you think QA departments find bugs like these and let them pass simply because they can patch it "later".
And you have poor reading comprehension skills if you think that is what I meant. I said nothing about QA teams leaving bugs behind just for shits & giggles. I said that QA teams can't possibly find & fix each and every bug in games as massive as Darksiders II. They have deadlines & release dates to consider. A QA team is limited in size & time, so they have to try to fix at least the biggest problems and whatever smaller ones they encounter. What they might not notice during their thorough testing, say, 5% of a million gamers will confront the first time they get to the parts that have those problems. That's not a huge number per se, but it's still 50 000 people who can't advance (and that will be a vocal minority of nay-sayers, when the 95% of people who don't suffer from any of that are fully content with the game).

It's poor business and it's anti-consumer. You are an apologist for Vigil because you like their game, not everyone does or has to you know?
No, I just understand that they didn't have an infinite amount of resources & time available to them. I'm not an apologist because I don't mind games such as Darksiders & Fallout having bugs. If they made the kind of compromises to those franchises they would need to to have noticeably less bugs, then they wouldn't BE Darksiders & Fallout games anymore. I'd just rather take an ambitious game over a super-polished, yet more restricted one.

And this argument wasn't about who likes the game and who doesn't, it was about whether the bugs make Darksiders II a crime against humanity, like you seem to be thinking, or if they can be tolerated. Bugs don't really affect my enjoyment of certain kinds of games if they are good enough (i.e. Darksiders II, Fallout: New Vegas). Though, again, if you can't handle a bit of bugginess in your games, then you really shouldn't be playing games like these.
 

aristotle

Member
I know what game progression bugs are. :|

Then how in the world can you sit there and tell me I didn't have them when I factually did?

It seems you are illiterate. I never said you didn't have bugs in Darksiders II. You came here all high & mighty how games with bugs shouldn't be recommended by anyone even if they have personally had no problems with the game, then use Fallout & GTA as examples of how YOU personally didn't have problems with the games, when especially Fallout is infamous of having bugs that prevent you from advancing & finishing the games. So you are a hypocrite. You bitch and bitch how Darksiders II is a broken game because you confronted bugs in it (while others have played it through just fine), yet then ignore the fact that those two series have as much if not even more & bigger problems with bugs than Darksiders II does, yet because YOU haven't confronted those kinds of problems, the games are A OK.

What a great way to have discourse. Name-call the person who doesn't agree with you. You flat out said "YOU didn't have bugs in Darksiders 2!!". Also I never once brought up Fallout or GTA until YOU did! I was just stating that I never once recommended those games even though I didn't have bugs myself. I knew for a fact they had issues. I'm not the hypocrite buddy. You need to re-read everything and take it all in before you come and try to take apart my argument when you're totally missing everything I've said.

If Darksiders II is broken, then so is every GTA, WRPG and other open-world games ever. It's just an massive action adventure game, I simply am not as insulted by such games having bugs as you seem to be because there will always be bugs in games like these. The more freedom you have & the bigger the scope of the game, the harder it is to have it be as polished as more straightforward, smaller scale games.

I have no idea why you stated this. I never said those games weren't buggy. I just said I wouldn't recommend them when you implied I did even though I've said several times I haven't.

Good for them, of course bugs in games are not a good thing.

That is no different to how every Fallout thread has progressed. These kinds of games are buggy simply by their nature as a million people have a million different ways of doing things in the game and as such a million and two different kinds of ways the game can confront a bug, but not everyone suffers from those bugs as much as others. This is proven simply by looking at people's impressions of Fallout 3 vs. Fallout New Vegas. No matter if New Vegas is undeniably a massive improvement over Fallout 3, some people still like 3 better because they personally had better luck with not encountering too many game breaking bugs in 3 than in NV, while they think NV is a buggy mess.

Let's be honest here, Darksiders 2 is not open world. It's a linear story game that makes it feel like an open-world do anything game. Just because you can back-track, doesn't make it open-world. Hell Mario on SNES was open-world game going by that logic. And for the record I'm not talking about random occurring things happening, I'm specifically talking about bugs that result from the AI of characters out of your control not doing what they were specifically designed to do! Constructs getting stuck on walls, Karn not completing his part of the quest, etc. Those stop game progression and have nothing to do with the wannabe open-world nature of the game. These types of bugs are happening at a rather high frequency just by going on the posts here on GAF. Add in other forums and the problem is even larger.


And you have poor reading comprehension skills if you think that is what I meant. I said nothing about QA teams leaving bugs behind just for shits & giggles. I said that QA teams can't possibly find & fix each and every bug in games as massive as Darksiders II. They have deadlines & release dates to consider. A QA team is limited in size & time, so they have to try to fix at least the biggest problems and whatever smaller ones they encounter. What they might not notice during their thorough testing, say, 5% of a million gamers will confront the first time they get to the parts that have those problems. That's not a huge number per se, but it's still 50 000 people who can't advance (and that will be a vocal minority of nay-sayers, when the 95% of people who don't suffer from any of that are fully content with the game).

The high frequency of the same types of bugs is disheartening to say the least. The hundreds, perhaps thousands of people who have these same issues as on GAF and other boards, is very telling. High frequency of occurrence = small pool = shitty QA. I don't see how you can honestly defend that. Especially when VIGIL!!! has apologized already. Why are you defending them again??


No, I just understand that they didn't have an infinite amount of resources & time available to them. I'm not an apologist because I don't mind games such as Darksiders & Fallout having bugs. If they made the kind of compromises to those franchises they would need to to have noticeably less bugs, then they wouldn't BE Darksiders & Fallout games anymore. I'd just rather take an ambitious game over a super-polished, yet more restricted one.

That's your opinion, but it still doesn't make any sense. Not everyone wants a broken game just because it's "different". Darksiders is no where near the same as Fallout. Maybe in 20 years if it's still around as a series, then we can talk. I don't know why you keep bringing up other games when I'm talking specifically about one.

And this argument wasn't about who likes the game and who doesn't, it was about whether the bugs make Darksiders II a crime against humanity, like you seem to be thinking, or if they can be tolerated. Bugs don't really affect my enjoyment of certain kinds of games if they are good enough (i.e. Darksiders II, Fallout: New Vegas). Though, again, if you can't handle a bit of bugginess in your games, then you really shouldn't be playing games like these.

Maybe the developers should fix their shit before it gets released. Or maybe they should stop promising features that were cut out of the PC release. Or maybe they shouldn't lie about no screen-tearing or framerate issues. It's not a crime against humanity. It's shoddy workmanship and it's a bug-filled release. It's been proven it is, even by Vigil. Like I've asked over and over, why are you defending them when they themselves have made apologies about how messed up of a release it is?

I can't recommend this release to anyone in it's current state and anyone who listens to someone who glosses over all the issues is a fool.
 

BY2K

Membero Americo
How do you guys get those health steal/health on hit weapons? I'm into 3rd World in Apocalyptic on NG+ and I only found a 10% one waiting patiently to be used to level up a possessed weapon.
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Anybody have any links to collectible maps? I see plenty of videos but having maps is more convenient.
 

JJD

Member
I've never heard anyone say that Zelda is an open world game. I'm pretty sure Darksiders II isn't either.

There's really no excuse to the amount of random bugs this game has. Unfortunately I doubt Vigil had the time to give it the polish and QA it deserved.

I have beaten 3 bosses (including the Deposed King at lvl. 13) and had the game freeze on me making me miss all the loot they dropped. That's not acceptable.

Regardless of troubles like this DS II is still a good game.

If there's one problem that many people complain but haven't affected me at all is screen tearing. I hardly had any screen tearing in 20 hours of game time. This was something that detracted a lot of DS I for me as I played it without the patch that lessened the problem.
 

JohngPR

Member
I have to agree, there is no excuse for having bugs that will end your progress full stop.

I can understand a few glitches here and there, but having to start over after devoting 5 hours of your life to a game sucks...let alone those that have probably lost more playtime than that.

I'm going to shelf the game until they patch it. I don't want to get into a situation where I replay it only to have the same game ending glitch happen again.
 

ShdwDrake

Banned
I did do that. Why must you be an apologist? You have some serious stockholm syndrome. Stop being a knob-rider.

There is no workaround. The game saved when he didn't pick it up the first time and then it saved again once I moved forward a bit and aggro'd the nightmare prowlers and beat them. Karn was originally stuck in a wall (another progression bug!) and now he won't pick up the heartstone and he is now stuck in the pressure plate room with 2 doors.

Great game!

But go ahead and ignore this game breaking bug and all the other numerous ones other people have had on this forum and every other gaming forum.

I had similar probs and GAF just said I suck at puzzles...
 
Just wanted to chime back as someone who finished the game on console with the game having froze twice and only losing about 10 seconds of progress because of it.

Game-breaking bugs are unacceptable. Anyone defending that is a bit...misguided, to say the least. If anyone put time into the game only to have a bug ruin their save file, they deserve a refund. It's insane that anyone considers that acceptable practice. That you're buying a working product is absolutely part of some unspoken agreement when you buy a game. Publishers should be ashamed of that practice, though they aren't. Developers should as well, and to some extent I like to believe they are. I know a lot is out of their control, and I think they should be providing the best customer support possible in any case where they couldn't provide a working game to someone. Just because my experience was okay doesn't mean I'm going to tell people they shouldn't be upset.
 

Dahbomb

Member
You guys are acting like they purposely put in bugs....

Progress bugs are fucking ass, there is no debate over that and no one is arguing against it. Sometimes the best QA can't pick up on a particular game breaking bug. The only way to really prevent this is to stop making open ended games. That's not going to happen so bugs will happen.

Games should have better customer support though.
 

aristotle

Member
You guys are acting like they purposely put in bugs....

Progress bugs are fucking ass, there is no debate over that and no one is arguing against it. Sometimes the best QA can't pick up on a particular game breaking bug. The only way to really prevent this is to stop making open ended games. That's not going to happen so bugs will happen.

Games should have better customer support though.

You should re-read Famassu's posts where I'm being blamed for expecting a game without progression bugs. Oh and it's my fault for expecting a game with an overworld to not have bugs. Or Empty Space when he flat out said I didn't have a bug and it's my fault. I don't understand their viewpoint and never will, thank God.

And I've never acted like they put them in on purpose, but they should definitely be taken to task and called out for how bad the bugs are.
 

Famassu

Member
Then how in the world can you sit there and tell me I didn't have them when I factually did?
Because I NEVER MADE SUCH CLAIMS.


You flat out said "YOU didn't have bugs in Darksiders 2!!".
I never said such thing.


I have no idea why you stated this. I never said those games weren't buggy. I just said I wouldn't recommend them when you implied I did even though I've said several times I haven't.
Pretty sure you said it once or twice. Besides, the point wasn't really in you recommending those two games, it was more about the fact that you defended those two games even though you had criticized people of defending Darksiders II for the same reasons.


Let's be honest here, Darksiders 2 is not open world. It's a linear story game that makes it feel like an open-world do anything game. Just because you can back-track, doesn't make it open-world.
It's not quite GTA, but it still has a big world and complex environments with a lot going on. Only the story is linear, otherwise it offers you some freedom.

Hell Mario on SNES was open-world game going by that logic.
That's not even remotely the same as Darksiders II.

And for the record I'm not talking about random occurring things happening, I'm specifically talking about bugs that result from the AI of characters out of your control not doing what they were specifically designed to do! Constructs getting stuck on walls, Karn not completing his part of the quest, etc. Those stop game progression and have nothing to do with the wannabe open-world nature of the game.
Yet, AI can fail in even simpler tasks in simpler games. The AI should've been polished more, but it's just one aspect of a game that otherwise usually works just fine.

These types of bugs are happening at a rather high frequency just by going on the posts here on GAF. Add in other forums and the problem is even larger.
All kinds of negative stuff is usually emphasized. That's why you get all kinds of "I thought NeoGAF hated game X" when, to some's surprise, certain games pop up on recommendation & GOTY lists. The ones who love something don't necessarily have to post about it a hundred times, while the whiners usually post about their negative experiences a million times, at minimum ("WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE LIKING THIS GAME I HAVE HAD PROBLEMS WITH?!?!?!11!!!1!")




The high frequency of the same types of bugs is disheartening to say the least. The hundreds, perhaps thousands of people who have these same issues as on GAF and other boards, is very telling. High frequency of occurrence = small pool = shitty QA.
Except it ISN'T very telling, necessarily. The thing with the Internet is that the vocal displeased minority is almost always the loudest one. It might seem like no one likes Darksiders II if you read a couple of pages of complaining, especially on message boards as prone to bitching as NeoGAF, but the truth might be that a majority of gamers have very little to complain.


I don't see how you can honestly defend that. Especially when VIGIL!!! has apologized already. Why are you defending them again??
Because not everyone thinks that some bugs in a game = OMG THE WORST SHIT IN THE WORLD HOW CAN ANYONE PLAY THIS CRAPOLA? I'd complain if this was Tetris and it was failing every other second, but Darksiders II is infinitely more complex than that.

Again, of course bugs are a bad thing. Still, there are times when I feel the devs couldn't have done a much better job without more people and/or more time. Of course in the ideal world games wouldn't get released until they were perfect, but this is not one and I'm just happy there are still publishers willing to fund big projects like Darksiders II (and that it turned out so good, bugs aside). In the case of Darksiders II, I feel the bugs come from the scope of the game & how much it offers, not because Vigil didn't give a shit. Of course it's still good of them to apologize as bugs are a negative thing and if people's enjoyment is suffering because of it, that's not the best thing in the world.

Much in the same way that I don't mind Fallout New Vegas having bugs. It comes with the territory and I'm just happy that I have a game that I can play the way I can play New Vegas. If they had started to limit the game just because of making a more polished product, I wouldn't have liked it as much (then it would've probably been another Mass Effect, straightforward & boring).


That's your opinion, but it still doesn't make any sense. Not everyone wants a broken game just because it's "different".
Again, your reading comprehension skills baffles me. It's not that Darksiders II is different, it's that it offers a complex game in a massive world. It's ambitious. They could've made an Uncharted-like 5 hour, super-linear experience with none of the bugs. But they didn't. Darksiders II is an ambitious games and I can forgiven ambitious games for some flaws (such as a certain degree of buggyness)

Darksiders is nowhere near the same as Fallout.
Maybe not in how much choice it gives you, but it's still a really complex & massive game that basically offers Diablo, Devil May Cry, Zelda and even a bit of God of War in the same package. No other game tries to do or offer what it does. I can forgive some AI-stupidities for this ambitious a package.

Maybe in 20 years if it's still around as a series, then we can talk.
What does the age of the franchise have to do with anything?

I don't know why you keep bringing up other games when I'm talking specifically about one.
Because they share certain similarities (big ambitious games which suffer from bugs), dude. And I'd recommend Fallouts no matter how bug-filled they are (well, not Fallout 3, but New Vegas).



Maybe the developers should fix their shit before it gets released.
And you still fail to understand that that's easier said than done. There's no magic button that will fix these things with a press of a button. Sure, Vigil should've polished the game more, but I'm pretty sure it's not because they don't give a shit that they released the game in this state. I'd wager THQ's financial situation has a lot to do with it (it's a wonder they let the game get delayed for as long as they did).

Or maybe they should stop promising features that were cut out of the PC release. Or maybe they shouldn't lie about no screen-tearing or framerate issues.
Well, those have nothing to do with bugs, which we have been discussing so far, so I don't understand why bring them up.

It's not a crime against humanity. It's shoddy workmanship and it's a bug-filled release. It's been proven it is, even by Vigil. Like I've asked over and over, why are you defending them when they themselves have made apologies about how messed up of a release it is?
Let's cut it with the hyperbole. It's not a "messed up" release. It's not a perfect one, but there are more than those two ends to the spectrum. If it was, it would've gotten a lot more shit. Vigil apologized (rightly so) because it wasn't just one or two gamers experiencing them, but if it was really as wide-spread and severe as you make it seem it is, then there'd probably been a lot of "Darksiders II is an unplayable mess" threads around the web and at least a few reviews giving the game shit because of it. As it is, the PC gamers seem annoyed by the lack of options and the bugs seem like a bit of a hindrance on an otherwise great game, not something that makes it completely unplayable.

I can't recommend this release to anyone in it's current state and anyone who listens to someone who glosses over all the issues is a fool.
I don't "gloss over" anything. Bugs are bad, but Darksiders II is still a great game despite them. They just haven't been severe enough to hamper my enjoyment of the game and I would fully recommend this as one of the best games of the year, though I'd probably mention that some people have confronted some bugs.
 

Dahbomb

Member
And I've never acted like they put them in on purpose, but they should definitely be taken to task and called out for how bad the bugs are.
They ARE called out on it, they know it's a problem and they ARE putting out a patch soon to deal with these bugs.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
I just can't shake the feeling that this is a huge disappointment. This is not at all what I wanted from the sequel to Darksiders. It has lovely aesthetics and music (though it repeats too much), but I just...didn't want this. Ugh.

I got DS1 day like 40 after it had price dropped, and I got this day 1. And now I'm off the train again. :(
 

aristotle

Member
Because I NEVER MADE SUCH CLAIMS.


I never said such thing.


Pretty sure you said it once or twice.

You REALLY should read what you type. Here I quoted it for you:

YOU didn't have any game progression bugs, I had Fallout 3 crash on me several times, doors not opening and saves corrupting. So if you've ever recommended Fallout 3 to anyone, you are a bad person and a hypocrite.

That is exactly what you said. And no where in any of my posts did I say I recommended those games. You're just making shit up now.

It's not quite GTA, but it still has a big world and complex environments with a lot going on. Only the story is linear, otherwise it offers you some freedom.

It's not open-world. Sorry. Neither is Zelda nor Super Mario SNES. GTA is open world as are most of Rockstar's games.

That's not even remotely the same as Darksiders II.

Its closer to Zelda and Mario World in terms of map traversal than GTA. As much as you want to believe it, Darksiders is not an open world game.

Yet, AI can fail in even simpler tasks in simpler games. The AI should've been polished more, but it's just one aspect of a game that otherwise usually works just fine.

All kinds of negative stuff is usually emphasized. That's why you get all kinds of "I thought NeoGAF hated game X" when, to some's surprise, certain games pop up on recommendation & GOTY lists. The ones who love something don't necessarily have to post about it a hundred times, while the whiners usually post about their negative experiences a million times, at minimum ("WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE LIKING THIS GAME I HAVE HAD PROBLEMS WITH?!?!?!11!!!1!")




Except it ISN'T very telling, necessarily. The thing with the Internet is that the vocal displeased minority is almost always the loudest one. It might seem like no one likes Darksiders II if you read a couple of pages of complaining, especially on message boards as prone to bitching as NeoGAF, but the truth might be that a majority of gamers have very little to complain.



Because not everyone thinks that some bugs in a game = OMG THE WORST SHIT IN THE WORLD HOW CAN ANYONE PLAY THIS CRAPOLA? I'd complain if this was Tetris and it was failing every other second, but Darksiders II is infinitely more complex than that.

Again, of course bugs are a bad thing. Still, there are times when I feel the devs couldn't have done a much better job without more people and/or more time. Of course in the ideal world games wouldn't get released until they were perfect, but this is not one and I'm just happy there are still publishers willing to fund big projects like Darksiders II (and that it turned out so good, bugs aside). In the case of Darksiders II, I feel the bugs come from the scope of the game & how much it offers, not because Vigil didn't give a shit. Of course it's still good of them to apologize as bugs are a negative thing and if people's enjoyment is suffering because of it, that's not the best thing in the world.

Much in the same way that I don't mind Fallout New Vegas having bugs. It comes with the territory and I'm just happy that I have a game that I can play the way I can play New Vegas. If they had started to limit the game just because of making a more polished product, I wouldn't have liked it as much (then it would've probably been another Mass Effect, straightforward & boring).



Again, your reading comprehension skills baffles me. It's not that Darksiders II is different, it's that it offers a complex game in a massive world. It's ambitious. They could've made an Uncharted-like 5 hour, super-linear experience with none of the bugs. But they didn't. Darksiders II is an ambitious games and I can forgiven ambitious games for some flaws (such as a certain degree of buggyness)

Maybe not in how much choice it gives you, but it's still a really complex & massive game that basically offers Diablo, Devil May Cry, Zelda and even a bit of God of War in the same package. No other game tries to do or offer what it does. I can forgive some AI-stupidities for this ambitious a package.

What does the age of the franchise have to do with anything?

Because they share certain similarities (big ambitious games which suffer from bugs), dude. And I'd recommend Fallouts no matter how bug-filled they are (well, not Fallout 3, but New Vegas).



And you still fail to understand that that's easier said than done. There's no magic button that will fix these things with a press of a button. Sure, Vigil should've polished the game more, but I'm pretty sure it's not because they don't give a shit that they released the game in this state. I'd wager THQ's financial situation has a lot to do with it (it's a wonder they let the game get delayed for as long as they did).

Well, those have nothing to do with bugs, which we have been discussing so far, so I don't understand why bring them up.


Let's cut it with the hyperbole. It's not a "messed up" release. It's not a perfect one, but there are more than those two ends to the spectrum. If it was, it would've gotten a lot more shit. Vigil apologized (rightly so) because it wasn't just one or two gamers experiencing them, but if it was really as wide-spread and severe as you make it seem it is, then there'd probably been a lot of "Darksiders II is an unplayable mess" threads around the web and at least a few reviews giving the game shit because of it. As it is, the PC gamers seem annoyed by the lack of options and the bugs seem like a bit of a hindrance on an otherwise great game, not something that makes it completely unplayable.


I don't "gloss over" anything. Bugs are bad, but Darksiders II is still a great game despite them. They just haven't been severe enough to hamper my enjoyment of the game and I would fully recommend this as one of the best games of the year, though I'd probably mention that some people have confronted some bugs.

I was going to defend myself point by point and then I just realized it's worthless. You go ahead and defend a game that is randomly broken and I will steer everyone I can away from it, as any sane person would do. You keep saying my reading comprehension is horrible and I'm illiterate when you're the one making up shit and not listening to what many people are saying. I guess we're all wrong and we're all part of some conspiracy to make your current video game darling the bane of the community.

In it's current state, Darksiders 2 should not be bought by anyone. Wait for the patch if and when it comes. until then, it's a gamble on if you can actually progress in the story.

They ARE called out on it, they know it's a problem and they ARE putting out a patch soon to deal with these bugs.

They are now sure. But when people on here say it's somehow my fault that the game has bugs and I bring it up and let people know about the bugs, I'm going to keep standing up for myself and what I think.
 
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