I cannot begin to tell you the amount of time I spent roaming the Wastelands around DC in Fallout 3... numerous playthoughs all enjoyed! Then the DLC added strange new adversaries... chop, lag, freezes. Not the opponents I wanted to battle at all.

I waited for a patch to cure these horrible, game crushing problems. I almost wore out the power switch on my PS3 when it would lock up solid time after time. No patch ever came.

I thought to myself, "Self, don't worry, it's a very well discussed issue on the forums. Bathesda knows about it and are pouring the resources into making sure these issue are absent from Fallout NV." I don't like making a fool out of myself.

I'm no programmer. I wouldn't know a good page of code from a turnip. But that's not something your programmers should be proud of saying. You used the same source code in FO:NV that you did in FO3. I'm okay with that. But to ship the product with the glaring bugs, glitches, and nonsense that you did is inexcusable.

The game has been out for awhile. No patch so far. Please don't tell me you aren't working on addressing these issues in favor of banging out the newly announced DLC for NV. Do I need to book my PS3 in to the shop for the switch replacement?

A large patch was announced about two weeks ago, but large comprehensive patches take time to develope, test, and certify.

The sort of peolpe who work on DLCs are generally not the sort of people who work on patches, excepting QA. I don't know if it will be true for this upcoming DLC but Bethesda has delayed DLC releases in the past because they needed to get a patch out first.

QA? I hope you don't mean "Quality Assurance" because I'm sure that their department for that is shut down due to a high employee absentee rate..they all went to lunch and never came back obviously.

There is just something soooooooo oxymoronic about this.

How so?

Bug hunting is much harder than you think. Not only do you have to find an error, you have to be able to reliably replicate the error, and determine whats causing it.

Funny - my system seems to have no problem what-so-ever replicating the problems.

Honestly all they would have to do to find most of the issues is actually read the forums here... seems nothing's been done since the last time I rented this, great... lol

*Face palm*
Speaking as someone who has done tech support there is a difference between knowing the problem/finding the cause and than solving it.

For example four or five years ago I was trying to figure out why my brother's laptop couldn't connect to the wireless network anymore. It happened the day he updated to Vista. So I figured right off that it was probably Vista's fault. It took four hours to figure out how to solve the problem. It turned out that Vista can't connect to the internet through a network using WPA encryption. So once I changed the network to a different security encryption it could connect.

The issue here is similar Obsidian[the developer] and Bethesda[the producer] know the problems. What takes time, effort, blood and sweet is finding the cause and fixing it without breaking something else in the process. And remember this, asking someone doing debugging or techsupport work. "How much longer" or "Hows it going" is like asking your dad "are we there yet" on a really long car ride. All it does cut into the brain like nails.

The issue is, yes they knew the problems, yet opted to release the game with them anyway.

The problems are often very random. 5 of my friends have had the game from day 1 and have not run into anything but the occasional lag of loading an environment and a very rare freeze. Totally opposite to them are my other 2 friends. They have also had the game from day one and have had all the problems described on forums. The thing is, the developers may have NEVER run into any of those problems in their game files (for all we know, they only use a few play-throughs and those were just fine). So the point is, get off the Developers backs and be patient, because we all know their doing their best to patch up everything, after all it is in their interest and the name of the game is to get the highest profit possible.

for those of you who still think the problems with this game are only effecting a small number of players..go over to amazon or some of the other online retailers and read all the negative USER reviews on this game..i knew there were a lot of ppl having issues but i was shocked by the number of ppl on these sites that wrote reviews..now im wondering how many ppl out there that are having problems just havent bothered complaining or writing reviews..i am pretty sure those responsible for releasing this mess know full well how many ppl are unhappy with what they did too bad well never hear a reason for it much less an apology over it...i hope bethesda/obsidian have learned a lesson here about releasing trash of this kind on an unsuspecting public but somehow i really doubt it..they made their millions and i guess in the end thats all that matters in the end..

I am annoyed by the lack of reliability, too. The consoles are closed systems, so the adressing of diffrent types of hardware with the same software (like on a PC) shouldn't be a problem. One reason that made me buy a console was, that they are not crashing and patching and patching again and always you have to download hundreds of MB of code to fix the latest problems.

I buried that belief already. You buy a brand new console game, and first thing it does is downloading a patch.

But New Vegas sets new levels of malfunction. Today I played NV for 4 hours and it crashed like 10 times, always freezing the console and making me get up from my seat and go to the PS3 in order to restart it.

Not to mention the video lags, the partially extremely long loading times (sometimes I had to restart the console, because it seemed to load endlessly, and then it did the same loading process in 10 seconds) and the problems with the mission logic.

The game is based on a real good idea, but to release it while test players MUST have known the issues now experienced by all my fellow players is beyond good and evil. I paid 70 € for a game that realy made me mad at several occasions. There is no way that those issues haven't occured in beta - tests. I don't buy that. And I don't buy the "it's Havoc's fault" - story, either. Fallout 3 was almost flawless (at least compared to this title). I can't remember that it crashed on any occasion, so why is the same engine crashing now over and over again ? I played through FO 3 several times, and there were no issues.

Ok, it might have cost another year to fix those problems. But I'd rather wait another 12 months and play a playable game, than have a wonderful gaming experience wasted by a half baked game. I tell you, I will only buy the next Bethesda - or ZeniMax title when I know there are now issues of the size experienced here included.

I experienced major problems with Fallout 3, especially after going through the DLC. [most notably Point Lookout and Zeta]
By saving to new game data[instead of overwriting] playing without the current patch and on occasion restoring the file system I can get an hour or two without a crash, I'm also patient and don't assume its froze until the dial stops spinning.

I didn't buy Point Lookout or Zeta, but some other DLC (Broken Steel, Anchorage and the Pitt). The only difference I can imagine between my hardware setup and that of others is, that I own a 32" CRT - TV - set, while Plasma, TFT and LCD TV - sets with HD - capability may be more common these days. Furthermore, I own a 5.1 surround - system for audio, which is fed via the optical out of the PS3. Apart from that, every PS3 is exactly the same, and I can't believe that others don't have the same problems with the game.

How can that be - Fallout 3 working ok, and then NV working horribly not ok. Why do they develop DLC that messes up your FO3, as you reported ? Why don't they seem to do anything about it ?

Guess I just have to sit back and concentrate on GT5 until the developers feel comfortable to release a patch dealing at least with those crahsing issues.

I've read other's posts and some of the post from Bethesda. I hope this message will get the developers and managers on this product. I am extremely embarrassed that I pre-ordered this item. I only buy games that are high quality brand new. Otherwise I wait until they are used. I loved FallOut 3 on PS3. I had no issues that I remember, but I bought it a year or so after it came out and had to download a patch that was pretty big.

The following are my concerns with New Vegas. Please Bethesda, "C'mon and get your act together".

1.) The women in this game look hideous. Their shoulders are the same size and shape as the males. The blockiness of there faces really make this game less attractive.
2.) I have never had a game lock up on me like this. Sometimes 3 or 4 times in one session. That is unacceptable when I paid 60 bucks, plus this could cause damage to my system.
3.) There are logic problems in the conversations if you do something out of order. This is just a simple condition check to see if the player has met or completed the required quest.
4.) The very first barmain I saw in the starting town turns 180 degrees without moving his legs. There are other anomalies that I would expect in a demo, but not the release software.
5.) There is no reason for the load times when you are walking into a one room house or something.
6.) The map (local and world) is confusing since the arrow is not always accurate
7.) I like the compainions but they aren't smart because they start fights even in passive mode. Also they have been known to get "stuck". Sometimes you won't notice until it is too late.

Yep this would fall into the abusive patching issue again. Release a buggy title and "plan" to patch it, then patch it again. Until interest in patching is lost and you move on to another title to so the same thing with.

Bathesda? Twice?

get off their backs? if those tools at Bethesda would give keep us a little more in the loop, then we would not have to keep on about this train wreck of a game. no offense to you personally, but I DO NOT KNOW THAT THEY ARE DOING THEIR BEST to patch everything up, because they are already going on about releasing the DLC "Dead Money" for the XBOX, which tells me they are more focused on making more cash for the holidays then fixing the serious errors that are preventing many of us here from even playing the game, let alone completing it. these same problems were present in Oblivion and Fallout3, AND the G.O.T.Y. edition, so how could they not know that these same problems were going to present in FO:NV? there is no excuse for this at all.

i am well aware that people are saying "don't blame Bethesda, because Obsidian made New Vegas". that does not wash with me, because Bethesda put their name on the game, they put their name on the guide, and they should have worked harder to ensure that their loyal customers were done right by. others say that it is the fault of the game engine itself, run by Havok i believe. but again, Bethesda nor Obsidian should have used it if they knew that it is outdated and obsolete. if this was a first time thing for these guys, i could understand you and others to say "be patient", but it is not the first time that these game breaking bugs have been present.

I have read in these forums that Bethesda has so far sold close to 5 million copies of NV. but if even 1% of the people who purchased this game have encountered the many problems listed in these forums, then that is 50,000 people who are stuck with a broken game. and i have a funny feeling that more than 1% of the people who bought NV are right now, unable to play the game because of the many game breaking bugs and glitches, or Bethesda would not even be claiming that a second patch is "in the works", whatever the hell that means. again, no disrespect to you for your opinion, but i myself do not think Bethesda has done anything to earn our patience or our trust in their products. just the opposite in fact. i know nothing when it comes to developing games, but what i do know is, is that i have played games from all the Halo's to the Metal Gear Solids to Gears of War to the Modern Warfares, and aside from the very occasional screen freeze, i have never had any problems what so ever. yet with F3, and F3 G.O.T.Y., and now NV, the problems just seem to get worse and worse. i refuse to believe that a large amount of these bugs and glitches could not have been prevented with a more thorough testing and quality control process. because if other companies can do it, WHY CAN'T BETHESDA? we do deserve better.

I did love Fallout 3, but I bought it some time after it's release, because I wasn't aware of it before. So I couldn't have experienced any problems fixed with the "Big Patch". After the good experience with Fallout 3 I thought of buying other titles from this company, but after the New Vegas experience I will wait a year or so until I buy the new releases from them.

I still find the amount and the severeness of the bugs experienced unbelievable. How can one release such a "trainwreck" and hope for the mercy of his customers ?

I want to believe most of the bugs will be fixed. But then again one day Bethesda decided they would stop patching Oblivion, despite the infamous game-breaking Vampire bug on the PS3 that ruined so many players games. Most (including me -- twice) needed to start over their game and make new characters; in games like TES and these Fallout series, meant dozens maybe hundreds of hours lost.

Here's to hoping. I feel like they tried building a high-rise building on the foundation of an anthill.