Bully patch now on Live, but does it fix anything?

by Ross Miller { Mar 20th 2008 at 6:27PM }

A patch for Bully: Scholarship Edition has been released on Xbox Live in lieu of the "broad worldwide announcement" expected today. But what does it fix? We don't know for sure, and various readers have reported the technical problems are either not fixed at all or in some cases worse. We've contacted Rockstar for more information. If you've downloaded the patch yourself, feel free to give your impressions below.

[Thanks, Mark]

Tags: breakingnews, bully, patch, rockstar, rockstar games, rockstargames

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Curtis the Claw: Brawl Code 1075-0441-3284 @ Mar 20th 2008 6:30PM

Since installation of this I've only had the game freeze twice in an hour! Way to go Rockstar!

Co @ Mar 20th 2008 11:14PM

Goodness... First the hardware breaks, now the software breaks!

Firebomb 87 @ Mar 21st 2008 10:21AM

You guys also need to remember, this IS a port to a game originally made for 7 year old hardware. Glitches are bound to happen, certification or not. How many original Xbox game really work perfectly on the 360? None. They all have at least one glitch, though many too minor to mention.

Curtis the Claw: Brawl Code 1075-0441-3284 @ Mar 21st 2008 1:05PM

Well Rockstar needs to also remember that I am a paying customer and that if they couldn't port it right then they shouldn't have released it. I mean really, I can understand a few glitches here and there but this game is beyond that. Just read peoples comments on what has been happening to them! Then Rockstar releases a patch that just makes it worse! They either didn't test this game at all or they already knew about all the bugs but figured they could just fix it later. Hopefully they don't do this with GTA IV, can you imagine getting home and putting it in to play only to have it freeze on you with in the first couple of minutes?

Count Noobula @ Mar 20th 2008 6:54PM

Why is it that 360 shit always seems broken? I am a 360 owner, so don't call me a Sony fanboy or something, or a hater. But it just always seems to be the headline of xbox 360 stuff is either hardware failure, or some game not working. Maybe its just my imagination.

Nick the Hero of Canton @ Mar 20th 2008 6:56PM

I'd blame R*, not Microsoft.

qbix @ Mar 20th 2008 7:12PM

Yeah, but to be fair the 360 is also where the patches arrive promptly (most of the time). I do agree that developers should invest more time QCing their games before going gold. Extra features and content probably goes in towards the end of the development cycle, so bugs are bound to exist, but they also have to stick to release dates.

I wonder how it would be like if games just showed up on retail shelves without warning.

Marty @ Mar 20th 2008 7:30PM

Aside from the typical RRoD stuff, I'm not really sure what else "always seems to be broken."

SneezyPorcupine @ Mar 20th 2008 8:05PM

What is weird is that whether you want to blame Microsoft or not, they definitely have a part of the blame. Microsoft ALWAYS puts the games that are gonna be released on its system through a certification process. So you can't tell me that they did not catch bugs like this during that period!! I don't know about you guys but I'd much rather wait for the game to come out polished rather than deal with this shat when they decide to turn a blind eye to issues like this.

Like how are they helping themselves at all releasing a game that freezes so often, or fails to load the gamesaves properly? In the end the game ends up getting bad reviews and selling bad simply due to word of mouth.

And this is also apparent in some pretty major titles such as Mass Effect, where the image shreds if you move the camera too quickly, and what was their solution to that? Their solution was to set "film grain" as the game setting default so that not all pixels are constantly drawn and at the same time leaving the game looking ugly as hell. But if it wasn't for the pure genius of Mass Effect's story it wouldn't be my favorite game.

quickshade @ Mar 20th 2008 8:58PM

it's not MS job to make sure the game is bug free and work fine. MS test to make sure it works on Live, doesn't crash the xbox 360 and that you can complete the game.

Nick the Hero of Canton @ Mar 20th 2008 6:57PM

Nick the Hero of Canton is really glad he waiting to buy this game.

Shmil @ Mar 20th 2008 11:38PM

das shmildis von also likes to refer to himself in 3rd person, it makes das shmildis von feel important

shag1379 @ Mar 21st 2008 12:34AM

I can see this game going to a discount price very soon with all of the problems they have had.

bloodwolf @ Mar 21st 2008 8:53AM

I know :/ And I paid 34.99

EMaster @ Mar 20th 2008 7:14PM

The audio started being choppy in parts now thanks to the fucking patch. Wow.... just wow.

bloodwolf @ Mar 20th 2008 7:25PM

It's worse, fps dips more than before and I have bad audio glitches.. :(

Matt B @ Mar 20th 2008 7:40PM

PS2 & wii moar powerful than 360 confirmed.

A @ Mar 20th 2008 11:22PM

lol

i don't know why you're downgraded- that was hilarious.

Replica23 @ Mar 21st 2008 5:59AM

Probably 'cause those people have at least once commented in a negative manner on PS3 ports of 360 games, and now the 360 cannot handle a PS2 product. Of course the truth is that a bad port is a bad port is a bad port, period. 360 users are just lucky they get a lot of lead or co development.

For their sake I hope this problem is remedied soon.

theBIGd @ Mar 20th 2008 7:49PM

uhm...yeah everything from glitching, lights flickering, game pausing(freezing). I had absolutely no problems with my game before this damn patch. :(

Bretters @ Mar 20th 2008 7:55PM

I haven't had any more freezing, but I have some audio problems now (choppiness while things on screen are being rendered, mostly).

Raide @ Mar 20th 2008 7:56PM

I honestly haven't had a problem with Bully. The audio wasn't choppy for me, and I didn't have any framerate dips at all. Keep in mind I got a new 360 Elite last month, so maybe they were serious when they meant old hardware.

The only problem I did have, however, was losing track of time and five hours later, the game would freeze with me begrudging the fact I didn't save but two hours ago.

Demaar @ Mar 20th 2008 8:22PM

Wow... glitches made WORSE by a patch? I gotta say that even though it's Rockstar's fault, I think it's definitely something that's genuinely got them baffled...

chacho89 @ Mar 20th 2008 8:48PM

OMG I cant believe that the Wii came on top for once, I guess there is a first time for everything.

Max Headroom @ Mar 20th 2008 8:52PM

I'm glad I have a Wii.

SneezyPorcupine @ Mar 20th 2008 9:25PM

Okay but you cant tell me that during their certification of the stuff that u mentioned, the game didn't crash on them once...dood the game crashes on me about 3 or 4 times in an hour of playing. And I can bet that their certification process is longer than an hour, or at least I hope so...

Seishino @ Mar 20th 2008 10:47PM

It's possible this is related to other things going on, such as variations in retail hardware, the presence of other content on the user's hard drive, accidentally shipping a pre-release version, or plain old fashioned voodoo.

MS is pretty devoted in their QA process. I've never seen them ship a disk with a known crash. Which is not to say that they find them all, but that the people in their certification department do work hard and adhere to their standards when an issue arises. You can fault them for any issues that they may have missed, but you'd have a hard time proving a lack of integrity.

ChooChooCharlie (Brawl: 1504-5357-9285) @ Mar 20th 2008 9:40PM

I'm sorry all this happened to you downloaders of the patch.

Thanks for posting about your troubles and giving a forewarning, though. By doing so, you're saving me and probably several others from the same headaches.

Chris @ Mar 20th 2008 9:42PM

for me the game crashed a lot the 1st two hours of the game (like, total time accumulated on a save file), but once I got past the two hour mark in my save game time I simply stopped having crashes.

Aj Collins @ Mar 20th 2008 11:54PM

The game works fine for me now. To the people that are getting problems, I'm starting to think this is all a Microsoft problem. If the game is STILL crashing and the patch was able to pass Microsoft certification, something isn't right.

refinedsugar @ Mar 21st 2008 12:03AM

Yay another Bully 360 news bit and still a lack of people realizing Rockstar didn't do the port, Mad Doc Software did and they don't exactly have a winning record ... but hey, don't let my logic get in the way of mass idiotic complaining.

Paquitito @ Mar 21st 2008 8:44AM

I hardly call people complaining that they spent $50 on a less-than-stellar release full of bugs idiotic. Contingent on income, $50 can be weeks of allowance or a dent in a paycheck.

Regardless to which company did the port, R* owns the project. Do you think that if the game was without bugs and was receiving critical acclaim that R* would say, "no, no, no...it is not us who should get the credit. We owe it all to Mad Doc Software." Likewise, if it ever came down to handing out refunds, I highly doubt that they'll task that to Mad Doc.

Bottom line - R* owns the game, so it's R*'s problem to get it rectified. The bugs should have been caught in the many passes of QA, which is actually PRIOR to beta testing, and R* staff was more than likely involved in the project management and had to give final sign-off (scope verification) anyway. If R*, approved a buggy product that Mad Doc ported, then shame on R*. If they didn't know about the bugs since Mad Doc ported, then that was horrible project management, so again, shame on R*.

True Valk @ Mar 21st 2008 4:43PM

Well I don't know if anyone else had this problem but I had NO problems before the update and now that I had it installed I've had 3 freezes, random graphical stuttering and wierd sound clips playing at random times. If a patch is supposed to take something working and break it, then job well done Rockstar.

yomachaser @ Mar 21st 2008 3:53PM

I wonder if the fact that the Wii (by it's very structure) not allowing patches forces devs to actually pay more attention in testing.

It's either that or appealing to the Wii audience was the higher priority for Rockstar.

Nick @ Mar 22nd 2008 1:17AM

Thanks Rockstar, I have this game and before I downloaded the patch the only problem was random freezing, now instead of random freezing, it freezes every couple of hours, the audio lags (extremely bad) and the graphics twitch and spaz out. Thanks!

Leroy @ Mar 22nd 2008 1:00PM

Before the patch I was having no audio problems but getting tons of freezes (about 1 every 25 minutes or so)...Since downloading the patch, IVE HAD ZERO FREEZES in about 2 hours straight of gameplay, but now I have some audio issues...Ill take the trade, the freezes are the worst....and now that seems to be fixed..thank god.

DJDarkBoy @ Mar 23rd 2008 10:36AM

I bought Bully two days before the patch, not knowing there was an issue. Played it once, got stuck just after the chick needing here chocolate's retrieved intro area. Played it again, froze at same place. Took it back to the store, they told me of the issue. I waited for the patch, loaded it and game froze just after breaking into the locker. I never made it past anything in the 'opening' stuff because of the freezes. Thankfully, the store gave me my money back, no questions. I was really looking forward to this title. I don't pick sides on which is a better system, I just love games and mostly choose my system by available titles of genres I most like. Bully was sadly on PS2 and I couldn't swing buy another system and a game to play it. This was a less than quality product issued way too soon. Do they not test it on every type of 360 they over? Or do they just do pawn shop testing: "Hey, the intro screen shows up. It works!"

PaladinXII @ Mar 23rd 2008 3:31PM

I, too, continue to experience freezing issues post-patch. I can't even return this game as Gamestop won't take it back opened. It amazes me that software manufacturers can ship broken product with impunity.

K @ Mar 26th 2008 11:24PM

Do you guys know how to delete updates? You go to the dashboard, you arrow over to the SYSTEM tab. Go down to memory. Highlight your mem card or harddrive. Click on it. When is says format or rename, do NEITHER. Hit X X LB (left shoulder button, not trigger) RB X X. It will delete all updates, but leave your game save data, videos, pics, etc alone.

Aeon Prower @ Apr 2nd 2008 8:30AM

Guys.... Remeber that Glitches and bugs are a everyday thing with EVERY game not just this one. I remeber when I bought Saints Row it had that crash and glitch problem and it happens ALOT. But I don't get bothered or anything because it is a everyday happening. So when I buy Bully for the 360 I'll expect it to react like Saints Row did I donot have or own Xbox Live and I'm notas lucky as you guys with newer models. But I can deal and some of you guys can do the same.