9. Updates Should Not Break Games
Youd be surprised how often this happens. In Skyrim, it seems like every time an update begins to download, Im cringing in advance at what its potentially going to inadvertently f*ck up next. Updates for Skyrim have made Dragons fly backwards, theyve caused lag and memory issues, theyve caused textures to display as solid colour; you name it, its happened to Skyrim. If youre a PS3 player in particular then theres a good chance youll know exactly what Im talking about. Bethesda keep trying to fix the issues with patches, which then present different issues that require patch fixes, which cause further problems that requiring more tinkering. Its probably about as vicious a circle can get before it actually bites your finger off. Skyrim is an incredible game, and I suppose to a certain extent you can forgive Bethesda for struggling to cope with the sheer size and depth of their own monstrous creation, but still, for the player these patchfix updates are almost as worrying and frustrating as the issues theyre trying to fix. I understand fixing a a broken game is difficult, but being a surgeon is difficult too and if a surgeon inadvertently gave me AIDS while he operated on me, I'd sue his ass as soon as I woke up. So by that logic, its really not kosher to release game updates that effectively do just that.
Offenders: Skyrim, Battlefield 3, DC Universe Online