Patch for buggy Bully on 360 coming next week
by Scott Jon Siegel 
{ Mar 7th 2008 at 5:30PM }
The patch will likely fix the audio glitches, framerate stutters, and full-on crashes that have plagued the 360 version, yet have been entirely absent from the Wii version. It is unknown at this time whether Rockstar also intends to offer a disc replacement plan for 360 owners without access to Live (similar to Activision's replacement plan for Guitar Hero III on the Wii). We'll let you know when the buggy Bully patch is finally made available.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
RaZZoR @ Mar 7th 2008 5:37PM
Good for R*. That was a pretty quick reaction on their part. I just hope the same issue doesn't plague GTAIV.
Curtis the Claw Game Master V2 @ Mar 7th 2008 5:45PM
"Good for R*."
No, not good for Rockstar. They released a product full of bugs. Hopefully they actually decide to test GTA4 before they burn it on discs and send it out.
LaughingTarget @ Mar 7th 2008 5:52PM
Yet everyone ignores it in high profile titles and hands out glowing reviews despite having the same flaws in this title. See Mass Effect for further details. R* lacked the foresight to media blitz this thing out the behind so they wouldn't have to worry about fixing the game.
Curtis the Claw Game Master V2 @ Mar 7th 2008 6:01PM
The only other game I've had crash on me was Mass Effect, and it was only once. I stopped playing this game after it crashed the 5th time.
lvl99ultrathug @ Mar 8th 2008 7:47PM
Shit, after that 5-month delay they better have tested GTAIV!
DMeisterJ @ Mar 7th 2008 5:37PM
Yeah, they need to.
It's a port of a two year old game, to stronger hardware, how hard could it be?
NoHitHair @ Mar 7th 2008 5:41PM
We should be thanking them for having enough ethics to not only admit the problem, but jump on a fix as soon as possible. Not only that, unlike most companies who release a cookie-cutter statement through a dry PR rep, Rockstar became very apologetic.
Everyone makes mistakes. It's how we react to them that defines us. Rockstar has shown an enormous amount of class.
Curtis the Claw Game Master V2 @ Mar 7th 2008 5:59PM
"We should be thanking them "
Alright then.
Thank you Rockstar for releasing a game you clearly didn't test. It's kind of cool, it's like I work for you when I find all these bugs and report them to you! It's also comforting to know that although I can't play it now, I can play it a couple of weeks later once you guys have fixed all the problems I've found! Thanks for being so cool Rockstar, you really do make my dreams of being a game tester come true!
NoHitHair @ Mar 7th 2008 6:05PM
Everyone give Curtis a hand - he is the first human being to never make a single mistake.
Unfortunately, Mr. Perfection, the rest of us do make mistakes. We can't quite live up to your diefic standards and thus, we are forced to deal with them. I know, we're not like you, the flawless gem that God took extra time with, and because of that all we can rely on is our reaction to the mistakes we make.
I know my speech is likely an invisible shadow in the effervescent glow of your defectless form, but please try to understand our side.
Curtis the Claw Game Master V2 @ Mar 7th 2008 6:17PM
I could care less if a game has a few bugs here and there or even if it crashes on me a couple times, the point is their entire testing department for this game obviously never tried the game! It's hilarious that you think we should thank them for putting out complete unplayable garbage. There is no way this would have got by a whole testing team, they had to have known about it and released it anyway. They knew people would complain about all the bugs and crashes but they didn't care, they just figured they would release a patch later to fix it all. This doesn't have anything to do with being perfect, I'm no where near perfect and I could care less if the games I play are perfect or not, but when the game has as many bugs and crashes as this does then it's a problem.
Markez @ Mar 7th 2008 6:23PM
Get off your soapbox you twit. Props though, it is amazing to see such a pompous post, and not only that, but to use the term 'deific' and then proceed to misspell it. Hell somebody give me a plus for that barb.
Bully was a really fun game although I lost interest after awhile and never bothered to beat it. Altho I have happened to notice that has now occurred with a handful of games that I've purchased that my roommate finishes in a week or so after I get it. That bum. His life all but disappeared when I recommended that he might enjoy the full version of Puzzle Quest off XBox Live.
When I played through Mass Effect I never encountered a single bug throughout, although a friend ran into a few. I've read it's a similar situation with this game...
NoHitHair @ Mar 7th 2008 6:27PM
You're right - that's a problem. But what the hell else do you expect after the issue has been identified? Do you want them to travel through time and stop it before it happens?
Their reaction could've been parallel to the endless corporations covering-their-asses speech; they could've delayed endlessly any reaction whatsoever; they could've blamed Microsoft. The list goes on and on and ALL those excuses have been thrust into the media's hands repeatedly.
Do they deserve no praise for apologizing and acting swiftly? When your friends screw up, do you act this same way to them? Rockstar is clearly trying. Obviously somewhere along the lines of porting the game to the 360, mistakes were made. But owning up to and rectifying those mistakes is not something to ignore, it's important and admirable, not to mention highly unusual.
NoHitHair @ Mar 7th 2008 6:29PM
Markez-
I know, big words. They're difficult to understand - do you want me to make it easier for you?
Me find word. It called "deific". It in DIC-SHUN-AIR-EE. You look up. Try d-i-c-t-i-o-n-a-r-y-.-c-o-m.
Curtis the Claw Game Master V2 @ Mar 7th 2008 6:33PM
"Do you want them to travel through time and stop it before it happens?"
No, I want them to try testing their game before they release it. Either they didn't test their game at all, or they did test it and already knew about this. My guess is that they already knew about it and had this little "apology" written up months in advance. I mean really, how else could such obvious bugs get by?
Curtis the Claw Game Master V2 @ Mar 7th 2008 6:35PM
"Me find word. It called "deific". It in DIC-SHUN-AIR-EE. You look up. Try d-i-c-t-i-o-n-a-r-y-.-c-o-m."
Obviously you failed to read the dictionary since you spelled it wrong in the first post you used it in.
Shmil @ Mar 7th 2008 6:39PM
no hit hair get off your fucking high horse
do you know what rockstar's original response was? oh those must be old xbox 360's, the bugs do not occur in the new xbox 360's
rockstar is the type of company to blame something else first before they find out all of the facts and then apologize, yes i'm glad they are apologizing but this was far too big of a mistake to have been made
Curtis the Claw Game Master V2 @ Mar 7th 2008 5:43PM
How do things like this even happen? Was their whole testing department just screwing off? I can understand a little bugs here and there but to have this many serious bugs is just pathetic.
kinshadow @ Mar 7th 2008 5:44PM
They were probably too busy killing hookers.
Curtis the Claw Game Master V2 @ Mar 7th 2008 5:48PM
My guess is the testers each had their assigned areas and when it came time to report to their supervisor they just said, "Ya everything works great, can we go play some more GTA4?"
Curtis the Claw Game Master V2 @ Mar 7th 2008 5:44PM
"Good for R*."
No, not good for Rockstar. They released a product full of bugs. Hopefully they actually decide to test GTA4 before they burn it on discs and send it out.
Quentin @ Mar 7th 2008 5:47PM
You do have to give Rockstar credit for swiftly handling this situation. Many other publishers would wait forever to do something like this.
License to ill @ Mar 7th 2008 5:53PM
Its a crappy PS2 port how much investment do you really think they put into the game, Team A is working on GTA4 while team F worked on bully...
havs @ Mar 7th 2008 6:04PM
they said before that they believe the crashes were due to older hardware because they said they never encountered issues during QA.
so, in short, its the 360s fault for sucking and just being a computer and not a real video game console.
tons of games have had bugs and crashes, oblivion, guitar hero 2, halo 3
but go ahead, blame rockstar :)
Pointz @ Mar 7th 2008 6:16PM
Maybe R* might of just thought because they can patch it later, they can send it out in any old state. It's not fair on the consumer.
Has the Wii version got any known major bugs?
havs @ Mar 7th 2008 6:34PM
the wii doesn't need to worry because all wiis are the same, there aren't 5 different motherboards and overheating problems. when you work on pc you have to make sure it works on many configs, but you SHOULDN'T have to worry about that on a console. that is the ENTIRE POINT of having a console in the first place
Shmil @ Mar 7th 2008 6:42PM
actually R* has discovered that the bugs occur in new xboxes as well so its not the 360's fault but rather the software of the game
havs @ Mar 7th 2008 7:01PM
oh, alright, but if they never found gamebreaking bugs then they must have a crappy testing team because games like halo 3 which were made by microsoft ruin hard drives as did forza motorsport 2 and rockstar openly admits they need to fix it right away rather than much later in the case of red rings, or NEVER in the case of DISC-SCRATCHING systems which everybody has because they still haven't put a stabilizer in the dvd drive and THEY STILL want to advertise the system standing upright, but if the system gets so much as tapped while its running consider yourself s.o.l. because microsoft still won't do anything for you. 60 bucks down the drain. CONSIDER IT A BLESSING that rockstar does anything to make their game work on that broken system.
pkpk523 @ Mar 7th 2008 6:27PM
yes, some credit for acting quickly, but not much. Really should've been caught during the testing phase rather than after. Look, it's a 2 year old port of an only so-so game that could've easily been done on the PS2 or original XBox, even the PSP. If you're gonna put it on a next-gen system, not only should it not have additional bugs, it should address and correct any concerns the original had. 360 needs and deserves more than this.
Paquitito @ Mar 7th 2008 8:18PM
Patch definitely needed for this. Aside from the less than stellar control of Jimmy's action, it locked on me more than once, including the first time inserted the disc into my 360, and I have one of the latest versions of the 360 that came out.
Ryan P. @ Mar 7th 2008 8:39PM
I have the Wii version and it's not completely bug free. My whole system froze walking around the narrow alley way behind the boys dorm. But nothing since then . All though my Wii makes so much noise on the game. Like the disc is always being read like crazy.
Glitches aside, i have to say this game kills me, it's so funny. I think it didn't sell well because it's really making fun of teenagers. And teenagers don't have the best sense of humor about being teenagers, allot of kids probably thought it was condescending.
Or maybe you don't need a high-school simulator when your currently in high school. Like there's no escapism there.
Props for Rockstar Vancouver.
honkyjesusownsu @ Mar 7th 2008 9:49PM
I have had major probs with freezes.
Nothing else.
Saneless @ Mar 7th 2008 9:47PM
I'm glad they fixed their mistake. It's not "old xboxes" it's "A lot of xboxes" because even new ones are busted.
I'd like to play this, so it'll be cool once it's working right.
refinedsugar @ Mar 7th 2008 10:40PM
Bravo to all you twits still going on about nothing. Hello Mad Doc Software ported Bully to the 360, Rockstar had nothing to do with it. Wake the fuck up already.
Steve @ Mar 8th 2008 3:55AM
Bully
Swagman @ Mar 8th 2008 2:59PM
You know, I sit here and I read endless posts about how this game is supposed to be so buggy, and how Rockstar "obviously never tested the game" and a whole bunch of BS along those lines, yet I have a copy and it has never once so much as hiccuped a missing frame, much less all the problems people keep going on about.
And then I checked around to the half dozen forums I visit and no one seems to have any of the problems either. So then I check at the Gamestop I purchased my copy of Bully from. They are the busiest Gamestop in the whole state, they sold hundreds of copies of the game, surely they would have had irate customers return with complaints. Not one. Nada. Zero, Zilch. Goose egg.
Honestly, outside of a few reports I keep seeing pop up around the interwebs, this problem does not even exist. But people are treating it like it's the second coming of the RRoD. Were I to guess the actual percentage of Bully owners affected by the problem, less than 1% would be my guess. But despite that, there are people in places like this, most of whom do not even own the game, who are bitching their heads off like it's the end of the world.
Not that any of that exonerates Rockstar Games of their responsibility to fix the problem - it does not. But if we are going to start treating every little glitch on the market as if it were the RRoD, we are going to be in for a rude awakening - most games have glitches, and it's been that way as long as I have been playing games (for almost 30 years).
For the less than 1% of you negatively affected by this situation, I do feel your pain. But know this as you actively do all you can to attempt vilifying Rockstar Games. Even though it's very likely only 1% of Bully owners affected, they have gone out of their way to apologize and bring a fix to the problem. No other game company I know in recent memory has ever gone and stuck their neck like that for a measly 1% of their userbase. If you have the problem, take the game back to your retailer and get it exchanged - almost every retailer still does exchanges on opened games for the exact same game, free of charge. If a simple game exchange will fix the problem, then your problem is solved that easily and all your bitching online was a waste of my time and your energy. If it does not, then the patch will be here in a few more days, so your problem is still solved. Either way, it sure as hell beats having a company know there is a problem, know for years there is a problem and still do nothing to fix that problem: Microsoft (Xbox 360) and Sony (PS1 and PS2). count your blessings Rockstar is not out looking to give gamers the shaft and enjoy your game once you get a fixed copy. Honestly, in life, in real life, what more could you reasonably ask for under the situation?
hvnlysoldr @ Mar 13th 2008 3:02AM
Bulls*** (not really)
CAP @ Mar 17th 2008 1:29PM
Hey swagman, I'll testify that this problem is legit. I have a launch Xbox 360 and have been proud/lucky that I have avoided the RRoD but now I am hosed because of this game. My system freezes up just seconds or minutes after booting up no matter what game is in there and that never happened til I put Bully in. The load times were awful by the way, maybe that's just the old system. So I hope this patch comes quickly and it works because it turned my 360 into a useless paper weight.
Thanks R* & M$!
It will be interesting to see just how long the patch takes to come out. It's been a week. I doubt Microsoft can get a patch through their certification process in a week.
Yeah, I'm jaded.
dom @ Mar 16th 2008 11:59AM
I read about the problems at release and when I was in Blockbuster it was available for rent; it had been a week so I though I was OK. Should have known better. Got it home, it didn't offer to get a patch, I played for an hour and had done about 4 missions since saving and bam. Done. Locked up. No dashboard. Nothing. I went to bed. Next time, I'll save more. It is a fun game so far.