G-pinions

Even with all the product testing and bug scanning, some games still get released that have game killing glitches. When you're dealing with a tight schedule and millions of lines of code, things like this happen from time to time. What's interesting to me is how two major American publishers are handling this issue. Both Electronic Arts and Activision, the two biggest publishers in the US, released an important title with a game killing bug imbedded within. Only one publisher has actually done something about it, though. I'm sure you can guess which by just looking at the title of this post, but I am going to string out the suspense for at least one more paragraph.

I know there aren't many sports fans who read this site, and even less who own a PSP, so this may come as news to you: the PSP version of Madden '06 is riddled with bugs. The most damaging was a little problem that caused the system to crash randomly during Franchise mode. For those who don't play Madden, let me explain the importance of Franchise mode for a second - it's the most crucial feature in the title. By far. If you own Madden and you're not in Franchise mode, you're most likely in the options menu or waiting for the game to load. So the fact that this game crashed in what can be considered the only real mode, erasing any progress you made, is devastating.

Moving from war on the field to war on land, Call of Duty 2 for the X360 also had a huge bug in it. Because of a clash with the operating system, this most evil of titles will randomly delete your save if it decides you're having too much fun. Generally, this happens two thirds of the way through the adventure and is usually caused because your profile was loaded at the wrong time.

Clearly, both of these problems are huge.

Activision responded to this issue - one that Nick has suffered through as well as many people not associated with G-Pinions - by essentially giving players the finger. If your game has crashed and destroyed all your progress, you can go to Activision's website and download a level select code. Yes, this will let you continue at the last level you played, but, unfortunately, your actual progress will not be restored. If you were going for achievements, which most X360 gamers seem to enjoy, you're simply out of luck. You can either start a boycotting campaign against this ultra lame corporation until you get results or start up a different campaign, one that is located in the game itself (like the always diligent Nick has) and just pretend the Nazi's are really Activision employees. I'm sure you can guess what I would have done if I owned this silly war title.

Electronic Arts, on the other hand, a company I have bashed countless times through the years, is actually trying to rectify this issue for its faithful consumers. (Side note: EA and Nintendo probably have the most diehard followers of any company. How weird is that?) They heard about the problems in the new Madden title, checked it out for themselves, and decided to actually fix it. Yay! Any PSP owner who has had their game inexplicably crash on them can just swap out their crappy, broken Madden for a brand-spanking, bug-free version.

I am surprised with the hypocrisy of gamers sometimes. People are generally indifferent towards Activision and tend to love Call of Duty (people love war...) so when this horrible bug surfaced people complained a little and moved on. If it had happened in Final Fantasy or Perfect Dark, franchises with many fans but a lot of active detractors, you would never have heard the end of it. People obviously complained a lot about the problems in the PSP Madden, but there are so many EA haters out there I can't imagine this story about EA's generosity will get much publicity.