The PC Game Patch
PC games have always been in a unique situation because they can be patched much more easily than console titles.  If there’s a major bug in a Nintendo 64 cartridge, it’s nearly impossible to fix the error without significant cost to the developer.  On the other hand, a PC game can easily be patched no matter how severe (or obscure) the bug.  Because of these realities,  it seems that most PC games at least have one post-release patch, often needed to correct major bugs…and now it seems major gameplay anomalies too.

For instance, take Tiberian Sun, Westwood’s Command and Conquer game that needed to be patched last year to fix a huge balance error between the Nod Artillery and GDI forces.  To Westwood’s credit, it patched the game and fixed the problem.  

A similar gameplay issue came up a few weeks ago in Vampire: The Masquerade.  Players were shocked the game didn’t include a “save anywhere” option.  Developer Nihilistic listened and went back to add the "save anywhere" option in the newly released patch.   

The same goes for Daikatana – in the first patch, Ion Storm removed the need to use save gems in the game due to negative player feedback.  (Of course, we should also mention that the Daikatana patch weighed in at a shocking 44 megabytes, compared to Vampire’s 2.5 megs!).

Overall, it’s nice to see developers are listening to user feedback and tailoring their games to the tastes of the masses.  But at the same time, I find it hard to believe that a lot of these gameplay issues couldn’t have been found in pre-release testing and through the use of focus groups.  After all, there’s nothing like the feeling of buying a game for $50 and then having to wait a month for a patch to fix a gameplay flaw that renders a game unfair.