Bad News about "The Fall" - it's buggier than a ro

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 1:27 am

This per RPGDot:

Silver Style has announced at the official German 'The Fall' website that all customers who bought the game from Amazon are going to receive a EUR 5,00 refund. Additionally, the price of the game has been reduced by the same margin so the retail version no longer costs EUR 44.99 at Amazon but EUR 39.99 instead. Reason: Technical difficulties with the game. It seems like it's got massive issues. Silver Style has promised to release more patches ASAP.

http://www.rpgdot.com/index.php

Damn, I was looking forward to this one. Well, I guess it's up to our German friends to betatest this one for us. But this has to be pretty bad - I've not heard of a rebate or price drop due to a crappy release. But rebate/price drop or not, publicity like this has to kill them. Wonder what sales will be like now?

Grifman

D.A.Lewis · Post by **D.A.Lewis** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 4:31 am

I'm figurin' by the time it gets here or gets an English translation most of the bugs will be taken care of. So, what me worry???

Fitzy · Post by **Fitzy** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 10:33 am

D.A.Lewis wrote:I'm figurin' by the time it gets here or gets an English translation most of the bugs will be taken care of. So, what me worry???

Does it have an English publisher yet? If not will the poor release make it harder to find one?

Dhruin · Post by **Dhruin** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 9:50 pm

A quick note. We modified the newsbit with some new information:

Update: We don't know why SSE listed technical difficulties on their German site as the main reason for the price drop but we believe confusion over Amazon.de orders is probably a major factor. A few days ago SSE announced that Amazon.de would be shipping the game early enough to arrive this last Wedesday. This implied that ordering from Amazon.de was the way to go for those who wanted the game as early as possible. As it turned out, Amazon shipped several orders one or two days later than expected, while many retailers broke the official street date, offering the game earlier and at a slightly lower price.

The refund for Amazon customers can be seen as a gesture for the community members who ordered at Amazon after SSE´s announcement.

There's no signed English publisher but the implication seems to be a publisher is more or less "lined up".

JayG · Post by **JayG** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 7:00 pm

It's also Starforce. I had huge doubts about this game, but because both Restricted Area and Kult were awful I was going to give it a chance. I almost brought it last week, but couldn't find it. Looks like the days of Divine Divinity, Arx Fatilis and Gothic are long gone. Another awful European RPG to add to the pile of offal we seem to keep producing. (Beyond Divinity, I'm looking at you)

Alefroth · Post by **Alefroth** » Sun Nov 21, 2004 2:19 am

Nobody's asked what a ro is yet. I must know, what is a ro?

Ale

none · Post by **none** » Sun Nov 21, 2004 5:43 am

you know, i've been thinking on this and the best i can come up with is "room full of bugs". or maybe a "ro...cket full of bugs". no, no! a "rowboat full of bugs".

ok, it's late. i apologize.

bluefugue · Post by **bluefugue** » Sun Nov 21, 2004 8:50 am

Alefroth wrote:Nobody's asked what a ro is yet. I must know, what is a ro?

Ale

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Sun Nov 21, 2004 10:48 am

Alefroth wrote:Nobody's asked what a ro is yet. I must know, what is a ro?

Ale

Hehehe, it truncated my titlel - it was supposed to be "buggier than a roach motel"

Grifman

JayG · Post by **JayG** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 9:19 am

I hate to admit this, but I did spend a little too much time trying to figure out what a 'ro' was. I figured it was some internetspeak that I'd to bluff to. I'm just glad I reread this thread before starting my many RO threads.

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 8:02 pm

JayG wrote:I hate to admit this, but I did spend a little too much time trying to figure out what a 'ro' was. I figured it was some internetspeak that I'd to bluff to. I'm just glad I reread this thread before starting my many RO threads.

LOL, hehehe. Maybe I should have just coined a new term, heck maybe I will. From now on any new game that is buggy is a "ro", short for a roach hotel. Come on, catch the wave and start the trend

Grifman

Gorath · Post by **Gorath** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 3:32 pm

The first reviews are coming in.

PC Action: 83%
PC Games: 84%

Both print mags.

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 5:39 pm

Good, then maybe there is hope after all. I am really wanting this game to be a good one.

Grifman

JayG · Post by **JayG** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 6:29 pm

But both (at least I assume so with PC action as it tends to have the same promotions as PC Games) publications have had a huge advertising campaign running the last 3 months pushing this game and it's 100 best points, so I'd be very distrustful of any reviews they post. I'd wait to see what Gamestar says.

The comments on RPGDot are pretty negative, at least when the comments actually load. The site seems to take a long time for me to load.

Gorath, have you or anyone else on RPGDot played the game? What's the general opinion from the staff?

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 10:42 am

Went to the Enlish forum for The Fall, where some German game owners have been nice enough to share their impressions - when they could get the game to run that is

Here's the scoop:

1) Apparently Silverstyle didn't get much help from the publisher on compatibility, which appears to be the main bug problem. So it was outsourced to another company, Silverstyle being a small shop. And apparently that company obviously badly screwed up.

2) However, comments about the game once it runs are fairly positive. Lots of varied quests, combat is decent, graphic are ok, not great, but I think we can tell that from the screenshots.

So overall, I think there is hope for this game once it gets to the US.

Grifman

Dhruin · Post by **Dhruin** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 6:38 pm

I've fallen a little behind because most of the commentary is in German and their forums are falling over everywhere but Silver Style self-published in Germany, so I would think they have to bear the main brunt of the responsibility, even if they outsourced the testing.

Still, I hope it all comes together in the end.

Gorath · Post by **Gorath** » Fri Nov 26, 2004 2:16 am

JayG wrote:But both (at least I assume so with PC action as it tends to have the same promotions as PC Games) publications have had a huge advertising campaign running the last 3 months pushing this game and it's 100 best points, so I'd be very distrustful of any reviews they post.

Yes, at least PC Games had a massive ad campaign for The Fall. Both mags belong together, so I´m also a bit sceptical about their reviews.

I'd wait to see what Gamestar says.

This is no solution. The Gamestar will most probably write a negative review because PCG and PCA got all the headlines, because they didn´t get an early review copy and because writing fair reviews about "smaller games" isn´t part of their concept.
It will take a weeks before it becomes clear how good or bad the game really is.

Gorath, have you or anyone else on RPGDot played the game? What's the general opinion from the staff?

Myrthos played it for an hour at the GC. This doesn´t really count. Our review copy didn´t arrive yet and none of us bought it so far, so we obviously don´t have an opinion.

Some random points (forum talk and the 2 reviews):
-story seems to be excellent
-quests also
-world & NPCs too ; it seems all 3 elements are at least on one level with Gothic 2, according to the reviews.
-combat is similar to KotOR, but not as spectacular
-graphics are mediocre
-music is very good
-German voice acting is flawed, they probably screwed up the technical side
-length: ~50 hours
-heavy technical problems -> both PCA and PCG say The Fall would have gotten a clearly better rating if it had shipped without serious bugs.
-4 patches during the first week
-additional (add-on) content will be patched into the main game
-inventory is unconvincing
-the balance between PC and party ("walking inventories") doesn´t really work. This will be addressed.
-mod tools were on the CDs
-The Fall entered the charts at position 8, behind Vampire but ahead of the 2nd SpellForce add-on.

JayG · Post by **JayG** » Fri Nov 26, 2004 12:31 pm

Thanks Gorath, it actually sounds quite promising. I'll wait for the English version though. Not too bothered about poor graphics, as a Might and magic fan they were never top priority.

CeeKay · Post by **CeeKay** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 12:18 pm

I hear it's so buggy it reformats your HD and then a bunch of German Nihlists run into your room and threaten you with an agitated marmot.

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 12:40 pm

CeeKay wrote:I hear it's so buggy it reformats your HD and then a bunch of German Nihlists run into your room and threaten you with an agitated marmot.

Do you mean Dieter from Saturday Night Live?

Grifman

Suitably Ironic Moniker · Sun Nov 28, 2004 12:45 pm

Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos.

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 3:49 pm

Suitably Ironic Moniker wrote:Fuck me.

Sorry, that's not even an option. You'll have to do that yourself.

Grifman

bluefugue · Post by **bluefugue** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 6:19 pm

I am the walrus?

Gorath · Post by **Gorath** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 12:40 pm

The first independent review at WithinGames:

graphics: 8.0
sound: 7.0
controls: 8.5
depth: 9.0
MP: -

Overall: 7.0/10

-> 1.5 points subtracted for the "lousy technical implementation". The reviewer encountered many bugs.