Oh, Bethesda.

No one expected The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to come out of the gate perfect, as the kinds of games Bethesda crafts are prone to having what might call...jank. Fortunately, the games themselves are so terrific that it’s (mostly) excusable. It’s when the company goes to address the remaining issues and makes things worse that causes the real headaches.

Version 1.2 arrived this week, addressing texture issues on Xbox 360, save problems on PlayStation 3 and other miscellaneous problems on those platforms, plus PC. It also broke a bunch of things, including making dragons fly backward and eliminating magic resistances.

You’ll be waiting another week or so until those things are addressed, as revealed on the official Bethsda blog. The fix will come to PC first, then arrive on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as the manufacturers approve it.

“We want to thank everyone reading this for playing our game and supporting all it tries to do,” said the company.

Bethesda is promising “regular” updates to the game in the coming months, both to address glitches and reported balance problems and exploits. There will apparently be “a lot” of these.

“We’ve also realized that with the millions upon millions of people playing Skyrim, we need to treat our updates with greater care,” added the company. “If we get too aggressive trying to fix a minor issue, we run a risk of breaking something larger in a game like this.”

One of the rubs there is how Bethesda is sorting what issues are being addressed immediately. “Quest and balance” issues are data, not code, and those will be “rolling out in a huge way” in...er, January. Patience?

Also coming in January, however, are the official modification tools.

Oh, Bethesda.

No one expected The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to come out of the gate perfect, as the kinds of games Bethesda crafts are prone to having what might call...jank. Fortunately, the games themselves are so terrific that it’s (mostly) excusable. It’s when the company goes to address the remaining issues and makes things worse that causes the real headaches.

Version 1.2 arrived this week, addressing texture issues on Xbox 360, save problems on PlayStation 3 and other miscellaneous problems on those platforms, plus PC. It also broke a bunch of things, including making dragons fly backward and eliminating magic resistances.

You’ll be waiting another week or so until those things are addressed, as revealed on the official Bethsda blog. The fix will come to PC first, then arrive on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as the manufacturers approve it.

“We want to thank everyone reading this for playing our game and supporting all it tries to do,” said the company.

Bethesda is promising “regular” updates to the game in the coming months, both to address glitches and reported balance problems and exploits. There will apparently be “a lot” of these.

“We’ve also realized that with the millions upon millions of people playing Skyrim, we need to treat our updates with greater care,” added the company. “If we get too aggressive trying to fix a minor issue, we run a risk of breaking something larger in a game like this.”

One of the rubs there is how Bethesda is sorting what issues are being addressed immediately. “Quest and balance” issues are data, not code, and those will be “rolling out in a huge way” in...er, January. Patience?

Also coming in January, however, are the official modification tools.

So the dragons won't fly anymore? What?

Fuckin A. At least they acknowledge this last patch was rushed.

They may not produce immaculate code but Bethesda is a pretty cool company.

thank you based todd

Yay

Dragons will no longer be able to back that thing up? Since when is that considered a bug?

@gladspooky: They'll fly correctly now. After that patch they all flew backwards.

@PlasmaBeam44 said:

@gladspooky: They'll fly correctly now. After that patch they all flew backwards.

At first it said "Skyrim's Flying Dragons Should Disappear Next Week." Guess they patched this article, too.

So when will there ever be a "right time" to buy this for PC?

Am I the only one who's seen 100% forward-facing dragons since the patch, or is the issue sporadic?

Patrick, you might want to report more on the mod tools. The "Steam Workshop" aspect is very unique and exciting, and could offer up a whole new world of easy modding.

I don't understand how you can hate a company that pushes hardware limitations as well as Bethesda does. Theyve created a brilliant experience on aged consoles, so they have earned as many breaks like these as they need.

Kill all the dragons you can, because next week they're ALL disappearing! Not that anyone cares about the main story anyway.

No one expected the Backwards Flying Dragons Should Disappear Next Week to come out of the gate perfect, as the kinds of writings Patrick crafts are prone to having what might call...jank. Fortunately, the articles themselves are so terrific that it’s (mostly) excusable.

Haven't played the game myself since the patch. I hope it's not broken, as I'm planning to spend the weekend playing it.

So hey, this is update no. 6 on my experience with Skyrim:

-PC version 1.1 with automatic steam updates turned off

-40 hours in

-Tons of mods

-Still no bugs

Basically what I'm saying is, fuck anyone who plays this game on a console because you really should've known better. I'm using a Xbox 360 controller btw.

@morningthief said:

Am I the only one who's seen 100% forward-facing dragons since the patch, or is the issue sporadic?

your not the only one i have yet to see any dragons fly backwards since the patch all that i have meet flew as they did before the patch also I still don't get lag on my PS3 version either, maybe the bugs only seem to effect some people or just very random i dunno.

@A_Deep_Mushroom said:

So when will there ever be a "right time" to buy this for PC?

If you wait long enough, the GOTY edition probably wont have that many bugs.

@Daiphyer: heh, that's pretty good.

Still love this game, jankiness and all. It's so good

Kinda feel bad for them, but GOD i love their games so it's ok in my book, few games I can spend 60+ hours in nowadays so they get a pass from me

@paulunga said:

So hey, this is update no. 6 on my experience with Skyrim:

-PC version 1.1 with automatic steam updates turned off

-40 hours in

-Tons of mods

-Still no bugs

Basically what I'm saying is, fuck anyone who plays this game on a console because you really should've known better. I'm using a Xbox 360 controller btw.

Are you going to buy me a PC that runs this game? Oh man, that's so nice of you. BTW, my Xbox 360 version is running just fine thank you.

Anyone else finding physical damage/resistance to be as wonky as magical damage/resistance at times? I was running a dungeon last night and got totally obliterated by a few arrows from some high level mobs, only to reload and have them dealing a fraction of the damage next time I fought them.

Not sure if it's luck of what they spawned with or what, but the enemies randomly go from no damage to tons of damage at times, even with full Daedric armor and heavy armor perks.

@ObiKwiet said:

@A_Deep_Mushroom said:

So when will there ever be a "right time" to buy this for PC?

If you wait long enough, the GOTY edition probably wont have that many bugs.

Thats how I buy every Bethesda game, come with all the DLC too. Also the mods are really mature by that point.

I could play another week offline. It just kinda annoys me when I get achievements and they will never show the date I got them.

@morningthief: Me too, and I just finished the main quest where there is a moment of upwards of 6 dragons flying around - all forwards.

@StingingVelvet said:

Patrick, you might want to report more on the mod tools. The "Steam Workshop" aspect is very unique and exciting, and could offer up a whole new world of easy modding.

seconded

@paulunga said:

So hey, this is update no. 6 on my experience with Skyrim:

-PC version 1.1 with automatic steam updates turned off

-40 hours in

-Tons of mods

-Still no bugs

Basically what I'm saying is, fuck anyone who plays this game on a console because you really should've known better. I'm using a Xbox 360 controller btw.

You're right. I should have invested $1000 in a computer capable of running the game well instead of paying $60 for the 360 version, which by the way runs just fine. Silly me! You'd think I would have known better.

I wish I'd heard before I patched.

I was playing the game with it uninstalled, and having zero problems on my 360. Patch comes and I install it. Load times are somewhat better, but magic resistances don't exist anymore. This isn't a small thing, even if it's a bit under the surface. Especially for a pure mage like my guy who leans heavily on Conjuration.

At least I've not seen backwards flying dragons or anything else broken. And they finally cleaned the dozen dragon skeletons off the lawn of the College of Winterhold, which is nice. Gave a bad impression to the new students!

You can actually downgrade to 1.1 on 360... just download the file (it is available on the internet) and copy it to a usb memory drive (the same way you can also apply a 360 firmware update without the console itself being online)

You´ll have to clear the cache first, but it works. A shame you have to do stuff like this on a console.. but hey, who expected a bug free product from Bethesda?

Guess I'll continue denying the patch and playing offline until then...

@Voxel said:

@paulunga said:

So hey, this is update no. 6 on my experience with Skyrim:

-PC version 1.1 with automatic steam updates turned off

-40 hours in

-Tons of mods

-Still no bugs

Basically what I'm saying is, fuck anyone who plays this game on a console because you really should've known better. I'm using a Xbox 360 controller btw.

You're right. I should have invested $1000 in a computer capable of running the game well instead of paying $60 for the 360 version, which by the way runs just fine. Silly me! You'd think I would have known better.

lololol $1000 he says

shouldnt hold my breath that the next patch will fix the problem i'm having with progressing through the main quest.

So no magical resistances are not a major bug? How is that? What the hell am I supposed to do with my mage?

Waiting till january for mod tools sucks balls. I remember when they came with the on the goddamn disk at launch.

Also a week is a long time to wait for something like this, this should be one of those overnight patches that addresses the material right away.

@Voxel said:

@paulunga said:

So hey, this is update no. 6 on my experience with Skyrim:

-PC version 1.1 with automatic steam updates turned off

-40 hours in

-Tons of mods

-Still no bugs

Basically what I'm saying is, fuck anyone who plays this game on a console because you really should've known better. I'm using a Xbox 360 controller btw.

You're right. I should have invested $1000 in a computer capable of running the game well instead of paying $60 for the 360 version, which by the way runs just fine. Silly me! You'd think I would have known better.

Skyrim doesnt require $1000 to run on a PC if it can run on 6 or 7 year old hardware like the xbox360.

The texture issue is still a thing on the x360, even after the patch. It's been 2 god damn weeks, fix it already Bethesda!

Basically what I'm saying is, fuck anyone who plays this game on a console because you really should've known better. I'm using a Xbox 360 controller btw.

Fuck you too.

@Voxel said:

@paulunga said:

So hey, this is update no. 6 on my experience with Skyrim:

-PC version 1.1 with automatic steam updates turned off

-40 hours in

-Tons of mods

-Still no bugs

Basically what I'm saying is, fuck anyone who plays this game on a console because you really should've known better. I'm using a Xbox 360 controller btw.

You're right. I should have invested $1000 in a computer capable of running the game well instead of paying $60 for the 360 version, which by the way runs just fine. Silly me! You'd think I would have known better.

1000$ for a computer to play a game that runs in DX9? Maybe if the tower was solid gold...

@Claude said:

@paulunga said:

So hey, this is update no. 6 on my experience with Skyrim:

-PC version 1.1 with automatic steam updates turned off

-40 hours in

-Tons of mods

-Still no bugs

Basically what I'm saying is, fuck anyone who plays this game on a console because you really should've known better. I'm using a Xbox 360 controller btw.

Are you going to buy me a PC that runs this game? Oh man, that's so nice of you. BTW, my Xbox 360 version is running just fine thank you.

I second what Claude said.

A patch to fix a patch. GG, Bethesda.

backwards dragons is not a glitch its too f***ing funny

@gesi1223 said:

@Voxel said:

@paulunga said:

So hey, this is update no. 6 on my experience with Skyrim:

-PC version 1.1 with automatic steam updates turned off

-40 hours in

-Tons of mods

-Still no bugs

Basically what I'm saying is, fuck anyone who plays this game on a console because you really should've known better. I'm using a Xbox 360 controller btw.

You're right. I should have invested $1000 in a computer capable of running the game well instead of paying $60 for the 360 version, which by the way runs just fine. Silly me! You'd think I would have known better.

Skyrim doesnt require $1000 to run on a PC if it can run on 6 or 7 year old hardware like the xbox360.

Not to mention Skyrim is still using the Gamebryo engine. It's just renamed the Creation engine by Bethesda this go round.

"'We want to thank everyone reading this for playing our game and supporting all it tries to do,' said the company."

The key word here is "tries."

Backwards dragons should not have happened in the first place.
 
Quality motherfucking assurance departments are good things.

@Daiphyer said:

No one expected the Backwards Flying Dragons Should Disappear Next Week to come out of the gate perfect, as the kinds of writings Patrick crafts are prone to having what might call...jank. Fortunately, the articles themselves are so terrific that it’s (mostly) excusable.

Yeah, I think he needs someone to proofread his articles (again). Lot's of janky sentences and spelling errors.

so whose taking bets on what the next patch will fuck up? I want to put money on flying giants.

Where's my official clean dirt from the white women's mod?

@adoggz said:

so whose taking bets on what the next patch will fuck up? I want to put money on flying giants.

If those fought flying backwards dragons, then this would be my GOTY guaranteed. The only thing that could make it better is if one of them used lasers...

I'm like 50 hours in on the Xbox 360 and it only locked up once so I'm lucky I guess .I did stop playing for a few days until the patch came out and its broken even more now thats funny lol. Even though this game is fucked its still my favourite game this year weird that .