Why don't gaming media (and Giant Bomb) report about PS3 Skyrim?

Alert the press - the 360 version of Skyrim has some texture issues. Front page stuff.

PS3 version can literally not be played after a certain point, yet there is zero attention to this issue other than a post on GAF. I don't understand how gaming media completely ignore a developer releasing a game on a system that is undeniably a broken product. People who buy the PS3 version of the game are investing in a time bomb that will eventually stop working as advertised once the save files reach a certain size. Now, sure, rumors say that the new patch will most likely address this issue. But this game was released on 11.11.11. Not everyone is a gaming forum frequenter. There are probably plenty of consumers buying the PS3 version having no idea that there will come a time where their version of the game will simply stop working the way it's supposed to. So why doesn't this issue get attention?

There's a great article over at CG about this issue - http://www.cgmonthly.com/about/articles/item/19419-the-bethesda-dilemma-ps3-owners-are-second-class-citizens.html but that seems to be about it.

Also, shouldn't this type of absolutely game breaking type stuff be addressed in reviews? Why don't sites, including this one, properly review every version of a game before slapping 5 stars on it. It might be 5 stars on PC, but it sure ain't on PS3. That HAS to be taken into consideration, whether it be a separate version review or at least brought up in GOTY discussions. Just because it works on the system a majority of US gamers own, doesn't mean that's the only bar you can hold it to.

Thoughts?

edit: Thought I'd share the main video proof if this issue:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMu4Tzk2bdg&feature=player_detailpage#t=62s

Because gaming media are, for the most part, complete shit?

What is the "certain size"?

I played about 50 something hours and my save file size is 11 mb. Sure that's not natural but the game is working just fine.

Wow... really??? Well cheers for this, I (supplementing the very reason this thread exists, I guess) had no idea, and was actually going to order the PS3 version on Monday...

Also wasn't Oblivion actually better on the PS3 than it was the 360? It was released a year later sure, but it goes against this crazy conspiracy theory bubbled up in the article that Bethesda are purposely out to bury PS3 owners with hate - and glitches. Plus I recall New Vegas being a mess on both 360 and ps3 at launch, too.

Well there is an article on the IGN hype machine. It's under "Most Commented Stories," which sure comes as no surprise to me. I would agree that (what I consider to be) the higher quality websites really aren't reporting on it, but I'm sure it's been seen by most who watch, say, Kotaku.

IGN reported on it, and even polled their readers on it, but that's about all the coverage it's gotten.
 
I find that saving and quitting out to the main menu, then reloading helps alleviate some of the severe framerate problems.  Still a pain in the ass though.  I don't know how the game shipped like this.

@thebazel said:

Alert the press - the 360 version of Skyrim has some texture issues. Front page stuff.

PS3 version can literally not be played after a certain point, yet there is zero attention to this issue other than a post on GAF. I don't understand how gaming media completely ignore a developer releasing a game on a system that is undeniably a broken product. People who buy the PS3 version of the game are investing in a time bomb that will eventually stop working as advertised once the save files reach a certain size. Now, sure, rumors say that the new patch will most likely address this issue. But this game was released on 11.11.11. Not everyone is a gaming forum frequenter. There are probably plenty of consumers buying the PS3 version having no idea that there will come a time where their version of the game will simply stop working the way it's supposed to. So why doesn't this issue get attention?

There's a great article over at CG about this issue - http://www.cgmonthly.com/about/articles/item/19419-the-bethesda-dilemma-ps3-owners-are-second-class-citizens.html but that seems to be about it.

Also, shouldn't this type of absolutely game breaking type stuff be addressed in reviews? Why don't sites, including this one, properly review every version of a game before slapping 5 stars on it. It might be 5 stars on PC, but it sure ain't on PS3. That HAS to be taken into consideration, whether it be a separate version review or at least brought up in GOTY discussions. Just because it works on the system a majority of US gamers own, doesn't mean that's the only bar you can hold it to.

Thoughts?

Brad, and the giantbomb crew, play the game on the system the dev send it to them on, ie the 360. if he didn't mention the error he probably didn't encounter it. you, or rather, i don't expect them to encounter every error that every player might encounter. I'm not trying to belittle your problem, i understand that you probably read the review, bought the game based on the review, and now cant play the game. even if he did play the ps3 version after he played the 360 version he probably would not have played for long enough for his save to be corrupted

Fallout 3 had the same problem, and I wasn't surprised that Skyrim had the same problem. 
 
Quitting out helps the problem. 
 
Edit: Since this is the same problem as Fallout 3, the explanation is simple. Game reviewers are never going to put in enough time to hit this level. Even if they used the PS3 version, they would have moved on well before this became a problem. 

@thebazel said:

Alert the press - the 360 version of Skyrim has some texture issues. Front page stuff.

PS3 version can literally not be played after a certain point, yet there is zero attention to this issue other than a post on GAF. I don't understand how gaming media completely ignore a developer releasing a game on a system that is undeniably a broken product. People who buy the PS3 version of the game are investing in a time bomb that will eventually stop working as advertised once the save files reach a certain size. Now, sure, rumors say that the new patch will most likely address this issue. But this game was released on 11.11.11. Not everyone is a gaming forum frequenter. There are probably plenty of consumers buying the PS3 version having no idea that there will come a time where their version of the game will simply stop working the way it's supposed to. So why doesn't this issue get attention?

There's a great article over at CG about this issue - http://www.cgmonthly.com/about/articles/item/19419-the-bethesda-dilemma-ps3-owners-are-second-class-citizens.html but that seems to be about it.

Also, shouldn't this type of absolutely game breaking type stuff be addressed in reviews? Why don't sites, including this one, properly review every version of a game before slapping 5 stars on it. It might be 5 stars on PC, but it sure ain't on PS3. That HAS to be taken into consideration, whether it be a separate version review or at least brought up in GOTY discussions. Just because it works on the system a majority of US gamers own, doesn't mean that's the only bar you can hold it to.

Thoughts?

Brad, and the giantbomb crew, play the game on the system the dev send it to them on, ie the 360. if he didn't mention the error he probably didn't encounter it. you, or rather, i don't expect them to encounter every error that every player might encounter. I'm not trying to belittle your problem, i understand that you probably read the review, bought the game based on the review, and now cant play the game. even if he did play the ps3 version after he played the 360 version he probably would not have played for long enough for his save to be corrupted

Its those damn lizard men in congress!!

@Dagbiker said:

Brad, and the giantbomb crew, play the game on the system the dev send it to them on, ie the 360. if he didn't mention the error he probably didn't encounter it. you, or rather, i don't expect them to encounter every error that every player might encounter. I'm not trying to belittle your problem, i understand that you probably read the review, bought the game based on the review, and now cant play the game. even if he did play the ps3 version after he played the 360 version he probably would not have played for long enough for his save to be corrupted

If you read the article I posted, you'll see media who specifically requested the PS3 version were "mistakenly" sent a 360 version. This issue is not a new thing with Bethesda games, they cleanly swept it under the rug. Of course the crew can't encounter every error, but most of the crew has already taken the time to play 2 of the 3 versions of this specific game. Why does the PS3 version completely get ignored?

@thebazel said:

@Dagbiker said:

@thebazel said:

Alert the press - the 360 version of Skyrim has some texture issues. Front page stuff.

PS3 version can literally not be played after a certain point, yet there is zero attention to this issue other than a post on GAF. I don't understand how gaming media completely ignore a developer releasing a game on a system that is undeniably a broken product. People who buy the PS3 version of the game are investing in a time bomb that will eventually stop working as advertised once the save files reach a certain size. Now, sure, rumors say that the new patch will most likely address this issue. But this game was released on 11.11.11. Not everyone is a gaming forum frequenter. There are probably plenty of consumers buying the PS3 version having no idea that there will come a time where their version of the game will simply stop working the way it's supposed to. So why doesn't this issue get attention?

There's a great article over at CG about this issue - http://www.cgmonthly.com/about/articles/item/19419-the-bethesda-dilemma-ps3-owners-are-second-class-citizens.html but that seems to be about it.

Also, shouldn't this type of absolutely game breaking type stuff be addressed in reviews? Why don't sites, including this one, properly review every version of a game before slapping 5 stars on it. It might be 5 stars on PC, but it sure ain't on PS3. That HAS to be taken into consideration, whether it be a separate version review or at least brought up in GOTY discussions. Just because it works on the system a majority of US gamers own, doesn't mean that's the only bar you can hold it to.

Thoughts?

Brad, and the giantbomb crew, play the game on the system the dev send it to them on, ie the 360. if he didn't mention the error he probably didn't encounter it. you, or rather, i don't expect them to encounter every error that every player might encounter. I'm not trying to belittle your problem, i understand that you probably read the review, bought the game based on the review, and now cant play the game. even if he did play the ps3 version after he played the 360 version he probably would not have played for long enough for his save to be corrupted

If you read the article I posted, you'll see media who specifically requested the PS3 version were "mistakenly" sent a 360 version. This issue is not a new thing with Bethesda games, they cleanly swept it under the rug. Of course the crew can't encounter every error, but most of the crew has already taken the time to play 2 of the 3 versions of this specific game. Why does the PS3 version completely get ignored?

I dont know, maybe the bombcrew haven't seen this particular news item, i didnt even know this was a problem until just a few minutes ago. but i doubt the last thing they would do is "sweep" it under the rug. I was just telling you why it wasn't addressed in the review, like you asked.

The truth is that many outlets HAVE been reporting it, the Escapist is the first that comes to mind. Plus, i have been constantly seeing and hearing about the issues all over the place. 
 
Also just want to point out that I have clocked about 41 hours on Skyrim (on PS3), save file is 6.5 MB, and have had no issues with lag and the like... yet... and hopefully do not at all. The only issues I had was a hard lock-up when I was barely 10 hours in. Now, I am not saying the problem doesn't exist, I am sure it does, and thus I am bewildered at how some people suffer from it and some don't.  So when I hear people saying it is unplayable I am getting slightly pissed off, in my experience it has been far from unplayable and has been a joy. Nevertheless, I hope the patch helps with a lot of people's games.
 
Also, IGN did a survey which is interesting reading about how many people on PS3 Skyrim are having issues, but I can't be bothered putting the link up. It shows that basically a certain percentage are having issues, and a certain percentage is not having issues.

@Spoonman671 said:

@Dagbiker said:

@thebazel said:

Alert the press - the 360 version of Skyrim has some texture issues. Front page stuff.

PS3 version can literally not be played after a certain point, yet there is zero attention to this issue other than a post on GAF. I don't understand how gaming media completely ignore a developer releasing a game on a system that is undeniably a broken product. People who buy the PS3 version of the game are investing in a time bomb that will eventually stop working as advertised once the save files reach a certain size. Now, sure, rumors say that the new patch will most likely address this issue. But this game was released on 11.11.11. Not everyone is a gaming forum frequenter. There are probably plenty of consumers buying the PS3 version having no idea that there will come a time where their version of the game will simply stop working the way it's supposed to. So why doesn't this issue get attention?

There's a great article over at CG about this issue - http://www.cgmonthly.com/about/articles/item/19419-the-bethesda-dilemma-ps3-owners-are-second-class-citizens.html but that seems to be about it.

Also, shouldn't this type of absolutely game breaking type stuff be addressed in reviews? Why don't sites, including this one, properly review every version of a game before slapping 5 stars on it. It might be 5 stars on PC, but it sure ain't on PS3. That HAS to be taken into consideration, whether it be a separate version review or at least brought up in GOTY discussions. Just because it works on the system a majority of US gamers own, doesn't mean that's the only bar you can hold it to.

Thoughts?

Brad, and the giantbomb crew, play the game on the system the dev send it to them on, ie the 360. if he didn't mention the error he probably didn't encounter it. you, or rather, i don't expect them to encounter every error that every player might encounter. I'm not trying to belittle your problem, i understand that you probably read the review, bought the game based on the review, and now cant play the game. even if he did play the ps3 version after he played the 360 version he probably would not have played for long enough for his save to be corrupted

They don't have to personally experience an issue with a game in order to report on it. It's quite a widespread problem, and seriously impacts the overall experience of the game.

I was addressing his fourth paragraph, where he asks why it wasn't addressed in the review.

You're right it hasn't been covered as much. Although I think Gamesradar did a piece on why this isn't a good thing.  
 
http://www.gamesradar.com/high-horse-broken-ps3-skyrim-was-inevitable-inexcusable-and-may-be-your-fault/

Thanks for showing me some sites I didn't know about and their coverage. Glad to see this issue isn't as completely unknown as I thought. Still, it's frustrating thinking about how many years Bethesda has gotten away with this. Fackin Fallout. I just hope Bethesda FINALLY patches this up..

@thebazel: My save file is 12 mb big now, it has a ton of hours on it, and all I'm experiencing is some frame rate stuff after about 4+ hours of play, but nothing I would call game breaking. Also if you restart the game it fixes it for another few hours. Is it lame? Yes. Should it have been ironed out before they shipped it? Yes. Is it "game breaking"? No. Have they already said the patch that lands next week will address the issue? Yes.

@thebazel said:

Thanks for showing me some sites I didn't know about and their coverage. Glad to see this issue isn't as completely unknown as I thought. Still, it's frustrating thinking about how many years Bethesda has gotten away with this. Fackin Fallout. I just hope Bethesda FINALLY patches this up..

They mentioned that it's getting fixed in their next patch which is due out sometime in the next week or so since it's already been sent to Sony for cert. I haven't personally run into the problem yet, but I'm definitely getting nervous as my save file slowly builds in size.

The Skyrim review was up the day before the game was released. Giant Bomb was sent 360 copies. If you wanted Brad to review the PS3 version on top of that (and in that sense, the PC version) long enough to experience this issue, that would have been an additional 30-60 hours of work (30 for one copy, 60 for both - and a typical work week is 40 hours.) The review wouldn't have been posted for another week or two, rendering it almost useless, and a reviewer would have been unavailable for 1-2 weeks in the busiest month of the industry. That's why they don't "properly review every version of a game before slapping 5 stars on it." Because it's ludicrous.

Now I'm not demeaning your issue. It's huge. But pinning the GB crew up against the wall for it seems like you're spitting your poison in the wrong direction. Remember, this is an issue that appears after an extended period of play, so it's only really starting to show itself now. It would be easy for a journalist to miss this if they're reviewing games, focusing on content, and trying to get their Game of the Year awards situated. Not to mention Thanksgiving just happened. I would expect this to blow up very soon, especially once people get back to work on Monday.

If this is indeed a persisting problem from one of the PS3 Fallout games, than the blame goes to Bethesda, for not fixing the issue and not sending PS3 review copies.

It's a Bethesda game. Crippling bugs are par for the course.

People should be more angry about how ugly this PS3 port is.
http://www.lensoftruth.com/head2head-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-analysis/

I've seen plenty of articles written about Skyrim's PS3 issues :\
 
IGN even polled its readers to see how many PS3 players were experiencing issues with their game.

@awesomeusername: Man...those console versions are messed up...

Makes me feel better about the PC just having weird KB and M issues and optimization problems. But Lens of Truth isn't usually the smartest group of cats on the internet, but the one thing that irked me the most out of that articles was this

One issue that the 360 does seem to have in image quality would be texture streaming, which is something that is present on both the PS3 and PC as well.

Like how do they just drop that information and not include their PC specs or their set-up?

They just feel like dropping that for shits and giggles while they point at flaws in two ugly versions of a game? I haven't had that problem whatsoever. It's just really bad fact checking.

I don't think many reviewers played it on the PS3.  360 review copies were probably much more common?  I have no idea, just a guess.  And if you have the option for the review might as well do the PC version, right?

My file is close to 10k, haven't noticed any problems.

There's also the fact that this isn't an issue that 100% of users are having. I've never had flat-out crippling lag, I'm well into the game, playing on PS3. I've had slight lag in towns after *many* hours of play time, but a reset instantly fixes that too. To those that do have it, sure, it's awful, especially when it breaks quests and things like that, but it seems more like 30% of the people are having it, not everyone who owns a PS3 copy, I don't think it's necessary that every gaming media outlet freak out about it. I've found some coverage of it particularly childish and uninformed, so I was surprised that IGN took an even handed approach with a simple poll.

@awesomeusername: Man...those console versions are messed up...

Makes me feel better about the PC just having weird KB and M issues and optimization problems. But Lens of Truth isn't usually the smartest group of cats on the internet, but the one thing that irked me the most out of that articles was this

One issue that the 360 does seem to have in image quality would be texture streaming, which is something that is present on both the PS3 and PC as well.

Like how do they just drop that information and not include their PC specs or their set-up?

They just feel like dropping that for shits and giggles while they point at flaws in two ugly versions of a game? I haven't had that problem whatsoever. It's just really bad fact checking.

There's also the fact that this isn't an issue that 100% of users are having. I've never had flat-out crippling lag, I'm well into the game, playing on PS3. I've had slight lag in towns after *many* hours of play time, but a reset instantly fixes that too. To those that do have it, sure, it's awful, especially when it breaks quests and things like that, but it seems more like 30% of the people are having it, not everyone who owns a PS3 copy, I don't think it's necessary that every gaming media outlet freak out about it. I've found some coverage of it particularly childish and uninformed, so I was surprised that IGN took an even handed approach with a simple poll.

Because it's getting fixed soon. No point in being dramatic about it now. I mean yeah, I can't even step foot in Whiterun without it going to 1FPS, but still. But at least I've got my Daedric Armor.

Worry not, I'm not spitting poison or trying to crucify Brad. But it's frustrating when all you hear from these guys is OMG THIS GAME SO GOOD BTW WE ONLY PLAY 360 AND PC. Some people listening to their coverage and conversations who own the PS3 version are simply scratching their heads. At the very least you'd want the problem to be acknowledged, just like how quickly the oh so horrible texture issue was addressed. You have people in this very thread admitting they hadn't even heard of the issue.

And par for the course is ridiculous when people pay $60 for this product. This is the type of stuff that should be class action lawsuit-ed, not Battlefield 1943.

Because it's getting fixed soon. No point in being dramatic about it now. I mean yeah, I can't even step foot in Whiterun without it going to 1FPS, but still. But at least I've got my Daedric Armor.

I have had some issues later on in the game, but it is still a five star game.

this thread reminded me of why i promised myself after oblivion that i wouldn't play the next ES game until patches and modders had a few months with the game. this just reinforces my thinking.

@Dagbiker said:

@thebazel Your saying that you think a problem that is being adressed in the next patch is a valid class action lawsuit, but false advertising is not. Ok.

Sigh. I'm saying one is an added bonus to the already working product you paid $60 for. The other one the product you paid $60 for itself doesn't work.

@Metric_Outlaw said:

Its those damn lizard men in congress!!

In part this

Also because the Xbox and PC are the dominant platforms for this game and they tailor their content to fit the numbers.

That really sucks. Hopefully they get this resolved asap. I really hate it when Devs only put effort into one platform.

Honestly I don't ANY PS3 users on the forum I mod with this problem and myself as well as some friends haven't encountered any lag or framerate problems.

Considering how crapy fallout 3 and especially Oblivion was, this bug is relatively minor

Most sites have only been able to try the 360 version. But gamesradar won't stop talking about the PS3 issues, so that's at least one site.

yeah....ps3 framerate on my 40+ hour save file is pretty terrible in spots.

not all the time, but enough to bum me out.

Been working on alternate characters until they patch it, which is hopefully soon.

I bought a ps3 after having to go through 4 360s dying on me, but man I miss getting the slightly more polished version of stuff....

@Metric_Outlaw said:

Its those damn lizard men in congress!!

THEY DON'T WANT US TO KNOW THE TRUTH.

I'm not even sure what the issues are, so just to be safe I've stopped playing and will not start again until the patch.

Yeah... the PS3 version is kinda the red-headed step child, sucks but sadly it's become the norm, Cant be like Valve, where companies, actually give a shit about the PS3 version.

But reading this, I was thinking about getting Skyrim and I was talking with a friend about this, it's insane how much stuff we put up with as gamers. A this point we just go, "it's an open world game" it's gonna be some jank, but you dont really see this out of other forms of media. Movies are never released until they are fully edited and music is never released until it's all the way finished.

Maybe if they took an extra few months to work on the game, maybe it wouldn't have so many facepalm worthy problems... or maybe not, you never know.

<J Walter Weatherman> And that's why you never buy a Bethesda product at launch. </J Walter Weatherman>

@OneManX said:

Yeah... the PS3 version is kinda the red-headed step child, sucks but sadly it's become the norm, Cant be like Valve, where companies, actually give a shit about the PS3 version.

But reading this, I was thinking about getting Skyrim and I was talking with a friend about this, it's insane how much stuff we put up with as gamers. A this point we just go, "it's an open world game" it's gonna be some jank, but you dont really see this out of other forms of media. Movies are never released until they are fully edited and music is never released until it's all the way finished.

Maybe if they took an extra few months to work on the game, maybe it wouldn't have so many facepalm worthy problems... or maybe not, you never know.

You do see this in movies, have you never seen a film with gaping plot holes, thats jank right there. also valve only cared about Ps3 users when they realized they could get every one who bought the ps3 version of their game to sign up for Steam.

@OneManX said:

Yeah... the PS3 version is kinda the red-headed step child, sucks but sadly it's become the norm, Cant be like Valve, where companies, actually give a shit about the PS3 version.

But reading this, I was thinking about getting Skyrim and I was talking with a friend about this, it's insane how much stuff we put up with as gamers. A this point we just go, "it's an open world game" it's gonna be some jank, but you dont really see this out of other forms of media. Movies are never released until they are fully edited and music is never released until it's all the way finished.

Maybe if they took an extra few months to work on the game, maybe it wouldn't have so many facepalm worthy problems... or maybe not, you never know.

It's a weird norm, though. I guess here, in the US, 360 has about 10 million more players, but worldwide PS3 and 360 are separated by about 3 million, both around 50. Games on 360 like MW3 sell huge because of marketing pushes, but they still get about 70% of that from PS3 sales. It's a significant part of the sell-through.

The point of all this economic mumbo jumbo is PS3 should be getting equal coverage and equal play time. Not just to fulfill my personal needs, but to cater to a major audience and show respect for the industry as a whole. We all agree fanboyism is a rank and sad state of affairs so why encourage it, be you developers or journalists?

I would be a Skyrim customer right now if this bull shit didn't exist. How many other sales are Bethesda missing? Worse, how many ignorant people are buying a dysfunctional product without knowing it? You're right. Video game players accept way more faulty products than consumers of any other media. If a game freezes, I have to play that part again and hope that's not a consistent thing. If it is, I beg for a patch. If a movie freezes consistently, somethings fucked and I get a new copy. It's called consumer rights.

Bravo for as many websites as possible willing to report grievances for any game, no matter how big and for what system.