Itchin’ for a Glitchin’ – Glitches are Out of Control

One thing that is inevitable in technology is the glitch. There is nothing worse than being screwed over by a glitch in a game like being stuck in a wall or items going missing. It is even worse when it is a game-breaking glitch.We throw controllers.  We smash keyboards.  We go on killing sprees (well, in our mind anyway).  Sometimes glitches work in our favor, like duplicating a one of a kind item, or finding cheap ways to farm money.  Moments like those make some players sleep better at night.

However, when did the industry decide it was okay to release a game with multiple obvious glitches.  Most people don’t need to surf YouTube to see them for themselves.  In recent days, I, as well as many, have been noticing a blitzkrieg of glitches in games.

What a fight! Nothing like watching two guys have seizures in the cage.

I’m not naïve enough to try to make anyone believe that we didn’t have glitches before the new wave of entertainment systems and video game companies (I stated so above). We climbed up the sides of walls in Double Dragon.  Grand Theft Auto 3 gave us the flying tank.  Tiger Woods walked on water in Tiger Woods ’08 (I guess when he was telling his mistresses to call him God, he meant Jesus).  Glitches have always been there.

It’s one thing to look for glitches.  Most games have many glitches that you’d never come across unless you tried to find them.  It’s another to be seeing them a few times a game in your first play through.

Nothing like seeing a character’s inner beauty…

Dragon Age: Origins is a glitch train wreck.  In a single play through of the game, which I enjoyed, were five obvious glitches that I remember without giving it much thought. I saw a floating Halla (which is just a white elk. You’re not fooling us Bioware). Character’s mouths would move but no audio would emit my amazing television. Enemies that I just defeated with status effects (such as being frozen) still on them as they talked to me post-fight.  Marks over NPCs heads would not disappear after quests were finished.  And, my personal favorite, characters were missing during dialogue.  In the last glitch mentioned, they turn into the visible man, or woman in the case of Wynne, Morrigan, Leliana and Alistair (Nope, not a typo on the Alistair part).

Glitches are becoming as abundant as soiled diapers in a nursing home.  The only difference is, instead of nurses and help having to deal with Grandpa Alfred’s crap filled Depends, you have to sit in the stink that makes your mouth dry and your eyes water.

Now, games can be patched and glitches can be fixed overtime. This is a great new feature consoles have never had before this generation of systems. The problem is that the companies creating the games are abusing this feature the way most of us abuse free samples being given out at the mall—walking by the free sample basket over and over again, pretending like we hadn’t gotten the sample before.

Game-breaking glitch in Fallout: New Vegas

I eagerly await future games like Metal Gear Solid: Rising, but not at the expense of Raiden’s arm disappearing during cut scenes, or enemies getting stuck under the world map, leaving me unable to finish a part of the game (Thank you Red Dead Redemption). When Little Big Planet 2 was change from a November 2010 release date to January 18, 2011 it hurt inside, but knowing the game comes out as a better product makes it all worth it. Take more time to get the games done if need be. Quality over quantity.

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