The Kametsu Informer: Issue 6

[† Emotional Outlet]

Then you're very lucky! Fact is, I see more bug reports about the game than I do reports of people saying their game runs perfectly.

 

I just think it's incredibly disingenuous to try to pass off the game as being relatively bug-free when it is notorious for being buggy. Not to mention some of those bugs, like the car bug, cannot be seen unless you specifically look for it.

 

The game is stable enough, but for a lot of us, that stability doesn't come straight out of the box.

[Pinkie Pie]

either you're lucky on a Mary Sue level or just not noticing it, because even in my heavily modded TS2 game I get dumb bugs and I know hardcore TS3 simmers that share screenies of their on bugginess. EA isn't kind to any gamers who buy their product, especially the simming ones.

[Alice]

I guess I'm either very luckily or the bugs just haven't been enough to bother my game at all.

[† poetictragedy]

SimsGoneWrong is one of my favorite Tumblr blogs to peruse. The screenshots there are priceless.

 

My biggest issue with the Sims is when the game crashes on me. I think it has to do with running multiple EPs on a basic laptop; it just can't keep up. I haven't gotten many other weird bugs than that. Y'know, other than the occasional townie looking wonky and sims swimming through the floor.

[Alice]

SimsGoneWrong is one of my favorite Tumblr blogs to peruse. The screenshots there are priceless.

 

My biggest issue with the Sims is when the game crashes on me. I think it has to do with running multiple EPs on a basic laptop; it just can't keep up. I haven't gotten many other weird bugs than that. Y'know, other than the occasional townie looking wonky and sims swimming through the floor.

 

You're same crashing definitely sounds like the game is too much for your computer.  Mine has also had that problem...before my new one.  On my new one I had to clean out my temporary files by holding the windows key on my keyboard and the r button at the same time and then typing %TEMP% in the box.  Just deleting all I could in that folder had fixed it once when it was shutting down my computer.  The other time it did it I had to uninstall EVERYTHING Sims related to get it to work only to find out that my game didn't like me running in custom content from the exchange or other sites.

 

If neither of those work it is a graphical issue.  With the new expansions the game has become more and more demanding on graphics.  I imagine this latest one, Island Paradise, will be even more demanding with having the ability to go under water.  I'm picking my up after my doc appointment...so I'll let you know how it goes.

 

Mine love getting stuck in fountains and once a Sim got stuck in the staircase.

[† Emotional Outlet]

I would say having to completely reinstall the game is a pretty big issue and not something I've had to do with any other PC game I've played. My basic point was the game is not perfect, there are a lot of headaches that go with it, and it's disingenuous to act otherwise.

 

I rarely play the premade towns, they're all basically bug hell. I could barely play Bridgeport, what with all the elevators everywhere getting stuck and Sims amassing at one building only to stay there forever and pee themselves to death. Because of my bad experience with Bridgeport, I avoid using elevators altogether.

 

Virtually no piece of software is completely bug or glitch free--how can there be? Trying to test for every possible configuration and possibility is almost impossible unless you got tons of money, time, and effort to throw at it. As it is, the Sims is not a life support program (though sometimes I like to think it is), so there's no need to test it as heavily as, say, space shuttle software.

 

There are bugs you wouldn't know existed in the game unless you went looking for it. I mean, how many memory leaks does this game even have? Is this some sort of sick way of ensuring I don't spend all night playing the Sims?

 

I've had corrupted saves. I've had the game hang while I was saving. I have to save every twenty minutes just in case today is the day my game decides to CTD within the first five minutes of gameplay. Sometimes I don't even get to the hood before it CTD. It'll kind of load and then YOLO to my desktop.

 

If there weren't bugs that affected gameplay, they'd never have reason to release patches. And those patches wouldn't come with a list of bugs they claim to have squashed. And there definitely wouldn't be reports of those bugs still existing even with the latest patch.

 

And just look at the official Sims forum and how many posts they have in Technical Discussions vice the other subfora. The only one that surpasses it in topic count is General Discussion.

[Alice]

I would say having to completely reinstall the game is a pretty big issue and not something I've had to do with any other PC game I've played. My basic point was the game is not perfect, there are a lot of headaches that go with it, and it's disingenuous to act otherwise.

 

I rarely play the premade towns, they're all basically bug hell. I could barely play Bridgeport, what with all the elevators everywhere getting stuck and Sims amassing at one building only to stay there forever and pee themselves to death. Because of my bad experience with Bridgeport, I avoid using elevators altogether.

 

Virtually no piece of software is completely bug or glitch free--how can there be? Trying to test for every possible configuration and possibility is almost impossible unless you got tons of money, time, and effort to throw at it. As it is, the Sims is not a life support program (though sometimes I like to think it is), so there's no need to test it as heavily as, say, space shuttle software.

 

There are bugs you wouldn't know existed in the game unless you went looking for it. I mean, how many memory leaks does this game even have? Is this some sort of sick way of ensuring I don't spend all night playing the Sims?

 

I've had corrupted saves. I've had the game hang while I was saving. I have to save every twenty minutes just in case today is the day my game decides to CTD within the first five minutes of gameplay. Sometimes I don't even get to the hood before it CTD. It'll kind of load and then YOLO to my desktop.

 

If there weren't bugs that affected gameplay, they'd never have reason to release patches. And those patches wouldn't come with a list of bugs they claim to have squashed. And there definitely wouldn't be reports of those bugs still existing even with the latest patch.

 

And just look at the official Sims forum and how many posts they have in Technical Discussions vice the other subfora. The only one that surpasses it in topic count is General Discussion.

 

I rarely reinstall my games.  That is usually a last resort and half the time it doesn't fix anything.  It's one of those I won't ask for help unless I try everything I know.

 

I've never experienced the bugs you have.  I have all the premade towns and play them all at some point.  The only reason I don't play some of them is because I always prefer playing my favorites.  I've definitely never experience the elevator bug.  I'm playing Bridgeport right now with my vampire and she lives in an penthouse.  So the elevator is the only thing in or out, unless you have the cheats on like I do...then I teleport because I don't like taking the time to travel half the time.

 

My main problems I've ever had with my Sims game...are because my computer's graphics can't handle it or my cpu is starting to overheat.  Both of which isn't the games fault.  I honestly can't believe it that you have so many problems with you game...and yet I've never had all the bugs you have.  Like the mailbox one you said earlier...never had that problem.  I get loads of mail but it never bugs up or anything.  Always able to delete everything.   Not saying you don't have these problems.  I just can't believe the game could be so buggy.  I must be just really fortunate that my game runs so very well.  I very rarely have problems with it.

 

The only thing beside my Sims wanting to get stuck in a fountain [a built one not the ones you can buy], is trying to run custom content that is not actual store content but player made content.  My game gets real bugged down if I try to run player made custom content, but that is something easily avoided so I don't have to worry about that one.

Edited June 25, 2013 by ∂яεαмεя

[Pinkie Pie]

clearly both me and eo are just making it up and no one else but us has ever had issues of any kind of with it. if you honestly think that ts3 was a finished product when it was released, you're very gravely mistaken. EA doesn't give even one single iota of a motherfucker about the quality of their product, and is more than willing to make you pay out the nose for their shit. That's why PSMBD is so popular.

Edited June 25, 2013 by Pinkie Pie

[Dark_Angel13]

clearly both me and eo are just making it up and no one else but us has ever had issues of any kind of with it. if you honestly think that ts3 was a finished product when it was released, you're very gravely mistaken. EA doesn't give even one single iota of a motherfucker about the quality of their product, and is more than willing to make you pay out the nose for their shit. That's why PSMBD is so popular.

 

Damn straight you're both making it up! My sims are supposed to phase in and out of walls and jump across the level. Oh wait they're not. I just wanted to jump in here to say straight up that I've played every sims game to date, maybe not all the expansions but as soon as it has the word Sims in the title you know it's gonna have bugs, just like every other game on the planet!

[† Emotional Outlet]

It is irrefutable the game has memory leaks. From what Java tells me, there isn't really anything that can be done about this due to the nature of the game and how it's set up.

 

It is irrefutable the game has bugs. Every bit of software does.

 

It is irrefutable there are issues in the game that are not preventable without third party mods. This is because the game is poorly designed.

 

The premade towns are also irrefutably bugged in some way. Whether you're aware of this depends on how deeply you go into the game. The hoods are playable, but that doesn't mean there aren't problems with how it's set up. Why do you think there are fixed versions of the premade hoods? Genetics are broken, relationships are broken, routing is broken. Who knows what else is broken, but I'm pretty sure you didn't get a different copy of the game where all of these issues are fixed.

 

And even if you go into a premade hood and do deleteAllCharacters, that can make your game even worse unless you know how to fix all the garbage it left behind.

 

Whether you encounter problems depends heavily on your play style. If you play for less than an hour at a time, you won't run into as many issues as someone who plays for eight hours straight. If you spend most of your time in CAS and building houses, you won't run into as many issues as someone who uses nigh every gameplay feature regularly.

 

My play style means I'm at it for hours on end. I don't spend a lot of time in CAS or building/designing houses. My computer well exceeds the recommended specs for this game (it's not even that taxing of a game, it's just poorly designed).

 

If you don't experience bugs, that's great. Like I said, you are very fortunate. But to act like this is typical of the game is dishonest and sugarcoating the reality.

 

The game is stable enough. It would be endlessly hilarious if they released a Sims game that was unplayable from the box (oh wait). And I enjoy the Sims--if I didn't, I wouldn't have played the serious for over a decade and I wouldn't have sunk so many hours into it despite all the bugs.

 

My point is the game isn't perfect. There are some serious issues with it that aren't rare at all. To say otherwise is incredibly dishonest and misleading.

 

And, again, the upside is a lot of these issues can be fixed with third party mods. I really dislike the attitude that mods break your game and make it worse somehow, that if there's a problem with the game, it must be your hardware or a mod or a bit of custom content. There are people who play straight up vanilla with powerful rigs and still have issues. That's just the reality of it.

ETA: And to put it further into perspective--I've played Skyrim on the XBox for hours on end with zero issues. I spent an entire weekend running the game into the ground. No bugs. Nothing.

 

My roommate, when he plays the exact same game on the exact same system, has the game crash within ten minutes of starting it up. He has had more issues and problems with the game that I have never experienced in my marathon gaming sessions. Games are just buggy and it's not always predictable or easily reproduced.

[Alice]

I never claimed the game was perfect or that it is regular to have no bugs.  But never has ever told me they had bugs until now.  I don't read their forums, because I've no need to.  I don't use fix patches...[i didn't even know there was such a things].  I already agree that I must be very lucky that my game doesn't seem to have all the problems you guys are talking about.  I'm not denying any of that, it just surprised me to hear of any of these problems because its the first I've heard of them.  World Adventure...I heard that expansion was "hell" and had huge bugs, so I never got that one, but I never heard complaints on the rest of it.  That is just me, thou.  I'm sure plenty have tons a bugs and there are some that don't  I've seen plenty of buggy games.  Some people are very luck not to have there games bug out.  I only play the Sims 3 so I'm very happy it behaves enough for me to not notice hardly any bugs, except a couple.

Edited June 25, 2013 by ∂яεαмεя

[† Emotional Outlet]

I suppose if you don't visit a Sims community regularly, you probably wouldn't hear about these issues. People don't report these issues just to the official site, they talk about it all over the Sims community. On Tumblr, on LiveJournal, individual fora, even Facebook and Twitter.

 

When I made the initial statement about the game being buggy, you replied that you've never really experienced bugs in your game ("My Sims 3 game as never really been buggy" and "I've honestly never experienced any game-related bugs" in a later post), even though your subsequent posts indicate that you have experienced several bugs and at least one that was bad enough to warrant re-installing the game. I also pointed out that several of these bugs are not noticeable unless you go looking for them, like the memory leaks and rampant car spawning.

 

I brought forth evidence that the game is buggy beyond World Adventures, which you continued to deny because you personally have not had any of those issues (even though, again, you have indicated otherwise in your posts). You say you can't agree with me that the game is buggy despite evidence stating otherwise.

 

Ergo, you are giving the impression that, because you have never experienced these bugs, the game is not buggy or the bugs are negligible. I am trying to tell you that it is buggy and that these problems are not negligible, and it is not something that I alone have experienced.

[Alice]

The re-installing wasn't so much game related as it was computer related.  Some files had disappeared, or my computer simply wasn't letting it boot.  Most of my bugs came from player created content.  I never denied you having bugs or anyone else for that matter.  I did not once say others did not have bugs.  I just never had those bugs myself and found it surprising.  I stated that most of my problems were from my computer and I also stated the only bugs I've experience, which is Sims getting stuck in fountains/stairs and player created content.  Those are the only bugs I've seen first hand. 

 

I've already found my first bug in the Island Paradise...which is when the house boat is riding it tends to "skip"...if that is the right word for it.  Anyways, I'm just going to drop it because my side is apparently not coming off the way I intended.  So I'll leave it be at this point and just not say anymore.  Sorry that what I said came of the wrong way.  I was trying to write it in the best possible way as to not get misunderstood, but it seems I've failed in that matter.  I apologize for the inconvenience.

Edited June 25, 2013 by ∂яεαмεя

[† Emotional Outlet]

When you said you "can't agree with me" that the game is buggy, it very much seemed like you were dismissing the reality of the game being buggy because you personally have not experienced these bugs.

 

You said you never experienced the elevator bug or the car bug or a memory leak or anything I stated, and that somehow is meant to... what? Discredit my assertion that the game is buggy? Even though I have evidence? Even though I know people have gone into the code itself and found issues? Just because you can't believe it? Just because you've never experienced it firsthand?

 

"I honestly can't believe it that you have so many problems with you game"

 

I suppose you later acknowledged that every game experience is different, but it really makes no sense to disbelieve me after I pointed out all of those issues. For what reason would I lie about any of this? What do I have to gain from telling people the game is buggy?

 

I just. There is a ton of stuff I've never experienced firsthand. I've never climbed Mount Everest. I've never gone skiing. But if someone who has done these things tells me about them, it'd be pretty ridic to say, "I can't believe that. I don't think I can agree with you about Mount Everest being cold because I've never experienced it."

[Alice]

[EDIT]

You know what, just forget it.  Its a lose lose situation.  I give up even trying.

Edited June 25, 2013 by ∂яεαмεя

[Dark_Angel13]

I think giving up was the best thing you could've done right there, now back to newsletter conversation. I'll be uploading a few entries soon since I'm finally on holidays =)