Enough with the Broken Games Already!

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Now that we're getting into the holiday season and the gaming release schedule is reaching its apex, there are a huge number of AAA games that are all battling for the cash in gamers' wallets. This past Tuesday (November 11th) saw the release of two of this fall's biggest games: Assassin's Creed Unity and Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Both games had considerable hype behind them; Unity promised to be the biggest and most engrossing Assassin's Creed game yet, and The Master Chief Collection, a huge exclusive for the Xbox One that boasts all four Halo games on one disc, complete with every multiplayer map and mode ever released for the series.

Sounds great, right? Now that the current generation of consoles has had a full year to become assured of itself, we should finally be able to see what these powerful new machines can do!

Except, that's not happening. Assassin's Creed Unity is littered with glitches, bugs, frame rate stuttering, and a litany of other problems that are basically rendering the game unplayable (though I must admit, the glitches are pretty hilarious). Matchmaking for the online portion of The Master Chief Collection, arguably the most anticipated aspect of that game, simply doesn't work.

And those aren't the only two games that have been crippled with problems. One of the PlayStation 4's few exclusives this fall was the much-delayed racing simulator Driveclub. Even after a full year of delay to improve performance, Driveclub has been facing serious server problems which have been plaguing it ever since its release in October; it is essentially unplayable. Sony was even going to release a free version of the game for PS Plus subscribers, but the game's ongoing problems have forced them to put it on hold "indefinitely". Last year's Battlefield 4 faced similar problems, as both the single player and multiplayer modes were crippled by problems for months and months after release.

Sure, a game being released with problems is nothing new, but my issue lies with the fact that companies are essentially releasing unfinished games, more so now that ever. Developers are rushing their games to meet release dates, caring more about sales than quality. Assassin's Creed is a perfect example of this, as it's an annualized series (as it has been for some time), causing UbiSoft to put itself under pressure to release a new Assassin's Creed game every year. Unity had been in development for four years, and despite that time, it was released as a buggy, broken mess. UbiSoft does have a number of studios developing Assassin's Creed games all the time, which helps to ease the load of development so that no one studio is cranking out a game every year. But somehow, even with a long development cycle and an extra team on hand to help, Unity released unfinished; it's obvious now that it game needed some more time in development to iron out its problems.

To be perfectly honest, I could have been just fine with waiting an extra year for Unity in order to ensure that it turned out as the game it was meant to be. In fact, I am fine with games delays in general, even if that means having to wait a much longer time for a game that I am feverishly anticipating (I'm looking at you, Bloodbourne). As Shigeru Miyamoto once said, "A delayed game is eventually good, while a rushed game is forever bad."

Speaking of Nintendo, a lot of people give flack to the Wii U due to its lack of games. While that may be true, I can't remember the last time that I played a game from Nintendo that had major problems. They may not release games that often, but when they do, they perform and play perfectly, free of any major technical issues.

Now I know that server problems are not tied directly to a game itself, but it shouldn't take a long time to iron out performance issues on that side of things. What's going on with Driveclub is insane, as I have never seen a game suffer from such a massive problem for so long. I feel the worst for the game's developer, Evolution Studios, as they worked for years on this game, only to have it face multiple delays and a disastrous launch. The Master Chief Collection is a bit baffling to me, however, as this marks the first time that I have had any sort of connection issues in regards to Halo multiplayer. I understand that there are thousands upon thousands of Halo fans eagerly trying to play online, but the fact that matchmaking is just flat broken is a mystery to me. Every other aspect of the game works fine (though there are a few minor issues, nothing to take away from the experience) but Halo has always been about multiplayer, and to have that part of the game essentially shut down is a massive disappointment.

As far as I'm concerned, 2014 has been the year of disappointments and broken promises. Too many games this year have either failed to meet expectations or failed to even work at all. To a certain extent, this can be forgiven, as the new console generation is still in its infancy, but problems like this can't continue for much longer. Games cost, on average, $60, and those who pay that amount of money for something rightfully expect and deserve to get a working product. Developers need to take notice now, and realize that if they want gamers to still play their games, they need to be able to at least deliver one that works, even if that means delaying it.