X Rebirth Message Board  

Yeah I'm a bit peeved too.

used to be where game developers couldn't get away with releasing a buggy game. no publishing company would allow it.

sure the games are more complex now then they used to be, but I don't find it a valid excuse to be honest.

[Edited by tommygunner70, 11/18/2013 12:41:50 AM]

I think a lot of it might have to do with Steams refund policy, or lack thereof.

It was always difficult to do refunds on PC Games, even before Steam. Things like used CD-Keys, and the inability of a shop to guarantee that you uninstalled the game before returning the title, made it difficult for game retailers to refund PC Games.

And even on console, most retailers wouldn't let you refund a game just because you find it too buggy. They usually do refunds only when there is a tangible problem, i.e. broken disk or something.

The gaming industry in general seems to be progressing to more and more bugs at launch, which is problematic. That's why I tend to hold off on purchasing games for about a month, so that the early hotfixes and patches come out and the game becomes more stable.

I personally have two gripes with this game.

1. Compared to X3, the UI is absolutely terrible. It's convoluted, slow, and breaks gameplay so much it isn't funny. I don't understand why developers aren't willing to just take the time to design two different UIs, one for console and one for PC. On PC, you have far greater user control input options as opposed to console, where there is only a controller.

2. The idiotic first person sections. In principle, I wouldn't have a great deal of problem with a first person section to the game, but having played Albion Prelude, I didn't think it was necessary. Despite that, the actual parts of the game you can play in first person are completely terrible. They are essentially the exact same location with different people in it, over and over again. And from what I've found, you have to use it. It's a pain. The stupid banners of curvy asses are also a design choice made in really poor taste, in my opinion. This is the thing that makes me think I wasted my money on this game the most, truthfully.

The game is horribly broken and unfinished.
The selling point of all X games has been: Trade, Think, Fight, Build

Well...
Trading - You cannot cancel trades and the AI is broken so they cannot trade without extreme hand holding. The trading system is completely stupid to begin with, you have to spend hours scanning a station to get a discount and KEEP doing it for EVERY station, EVERY hour or so.

Fight - AI is broken so your NPC ships do not fight and you cant even tell them to do anything except follow you.
Equipment selection is garbage and a mockery of what previous X games had to the point the starting equipment is more than enough to destroy anything you will face
Space Sim - No radar or ability to target without actually putting your mouse over the target and clicking = Completely stupid

Build - Since trading is broken and AI is broken. You cannot build ships or stations without trading to get the resources or money.
Even if you cheat or somehow find a legit way to build something, there is nothing you can do with it.
Stations - AI is Broken so nothing works
Ships - AI is broken so they cant do anything for you

Think - The only thing you should be thinking about is how you got ripped off.
With the Fight, Trade and Build options being broken the game is almost completely unplayable unless you just want to waste time fighting against the bugs and lack of content.

Oh, but the defenders will tell you Egosoft will fix the game later because that is what they always do.

Excuse me, when a game is released I expect it to be in a reasonable working fashion or close to.
I find it hilarious it has become the accepted norm for companies to just launch broken games with the expectation people should be prepared to wait for them to be finished AFTER they paid for it.
How about the game gets released when it is finished and THEN I pay for it ?
Alternatively, state the game is a BETA or ALPHA when you put it up for sale.

Glad read this first, like the X games myself and was interested X Rebirth, but now after reading about the problems with the game going to take a wait a month or two or longer until it is stable enough to play.

At the rate of patch fixes, don't expect a fully operational game until after the new year. Their sales are on a steep decline right now which means they're paying less to the development side of the project.

That isn't to say they shouldn't commit to a serious address of these problems, just that they appear to be very poorly managed.