Hopefully they don't go the way of Activision and GH3. THis better be fixed sooon because glitches can be fun for so long.

Older 360s? Hmm.

I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one, because Rockstar really are a great company who clearly love games for the sake of games, in my opinion.

So it sounds like an issue that only affects older 360 hardware revisions? I can believe that, though what I can't believe is Microsoft's certification process being so slack as to allow that to pass by.

i smell recall :P

@karmakid: ... TOTAL Recall!

Seems at least like they really are sorry. Ah well, im sure they'll make it up to the people who bought this. Just hang in there guys.

Why do a recall? The 360 can go online and has a Hard-Drive (except for the Arcade version but that shouldn't exist anyways so I'm not counting that) A patch via X-Box Live will do the trick, and no disc returns needed.

I'll take Rockstar's word on this though.

...nice that they seem sorry, but how the hell did it slip out this badly in the first place?

See all you Playstation haters who make it out like the PS3 is the one at fault for all the bad ports. The 360 is capable of getting bad ports, too. And this is a port of a PS2 game. Very weird, but yeah, I hope that this makes people realize that just because a port doesn't work out doesn't mean it's the fault of the system.

Have to give Rockstar the benefit of the doubt here. Hopefully fixing this doesn't cause them too many headaches.

@KaneRobot: Maybe they didn't test it on old consoles. I don't think I saw this when I skimmed through IGN's rather positive review of the game either.

@baked ham: Thank you! Even PC games can suffer from Xbox ports, even though the hardware requirements are much higher than other games of better quality.

I'll give Rockstar the benefit of the doubt. They are a fantastic company and I'm sure they'd never let anything like this slip if they knew.

@baked ham: Wait, I just read the press release. They're saying that this problem is only on older 360s? So it is the hardware's fault? That's really really REALLY weird. Why would the hardware of older model 360's be cauing this kind of behavior? I thought all 360's were the same except for power comsumption (and thus heat generation and ventilation)... What could be causing older generation 360's to be unable to play this game without glitching?

@baked ham: Um, did you read anything in the post? It is 100% the fault of the system. OLD 360's specifically.

i don't see any reason that they would need to rush a port of a game from almost 2 years ago. i don't think anyone was waiting with bated breath and i doubt this game was meant to figure heavily in their bottom line, so i'm inclined to actually believe them on this one. if it's region free and they fix these things up, i may pick the game up.

God bless Costanza. And McWhertor too.

@baked ham: Nice try, but these seem more like genuine technical issues than having framerate issues because the hardware architecture is all zany. Rockstar did not intend for the game to go out this way - stuff like those EA games and Orange Box on the PS3 were not followed by a "we're sorry" from the companies putting them out.

Of course the 360 is "capable" of getting bad ports, but citing this as an example (and I can see you were anxious to be able to say that) is pretty misguided.

This bit of news just brought a smile to teachers in the U.S., Canada, Britain, Australia, South Korea, the Caribbean and Jack Thompson.

@ChaosBahamut: Not every 360 owner has broadband internet. And if you're a 360 owner who doesn't have broadband internet, what sort of game are you going to buy for the system? That's right! Single player games. Like...Bully, almost.

I need to pick this game up, god I do love gamefly. I do give rockstar some credit in trying to rectify the situation. I am wondering though if they have any old consoles in the studio to test on, it seems now days that studios are looking for the newest hardware they can get their hands on and forgetting the original release equipment.

Sounds like someone asked for a faaavorrr...

@Foggynotion: Um, do you believe everything companies say about their products? I bought my machine less than six months ago; it has the new graphics chip.

@Foggynotion: I corrected myself, if you didn't notice. Saying "Hey, I actually decided to read the press release... blahblablah"

Yeah. Still, my point resonates. And this isn't really the hardware's fault. It's something else's fault. The capability of the machine is identical, so it's not like it's the fault of the architecture for making the game unplayable. It must be heat generation that's causing glitching. Either that, or Rockstar is full of shit. Because why would a port of a PS2 game cause so much heat that systems glitch up? The whole thing has me so confused & umcomfortable I don't know what to do! I was actually interested in playing Bully for the first time, but I guess I'll have to pass on it for now.

@backflip10019: Kudos to Costanza!

Sombody is getting fired.

@KaneRobot: Well my Mass Effect froze and glitched on my a few times. Other people never reported problems with that. I was playing a brand new 360 that I just got right before Mass Effect came out, and it was manufactured in September 2007. Why did I have issues with it, but not everybody had issues?

I almost find it hard to believe and accept that this problem is only on older machines. How would they even know that, for one?

Sigh and i'm still waiting for an NTSC-J release to actually play it. I mean GTA4 got approved here, Rockstar, can't you bring Bully too?

@baked ham: The Wii version is fine.

I also imagine the 360 version is basically alright and this is just another example of the internet getting all uppity like with the Bioshock aspect ratio and the pre-beta Halo 3 lack-of-anti-aliasing.

Rockstar: Boo Microsoft, somehow there are older 360's that actually work?

@KaneRobot: Hmm. I was anxious? I wasn't anxious to say anything. I wasn't misguided either. But it did pop into my head to say, thus I said it. I don't take it back either. But, um... does anybody find it odd that the "older 360s" are being blamed here? I think it's a cop-out. It was a bad port and OF COURSE they're not going to admit that.

@dowingba: You could be right. I didnt play this game, and for all I know I could play it and have no hitches whatsoever. That'd be cool.

Hmm - Well, I'm glad I didn't pick it up today as I intended - I guess I'll wait this out. Still need to finish Vice City Stories first anyway...

@Lezard: @slomo788: @Foggynotion:

This doesn't make sense. Dev kits *are* old X360s. A lot of them date back to before production models even. Test kits are pretty much identical to Rev 1 hardware. In fact, they are engineered to be. It's not like their Xenon kits are all brand-new falcon boards.

I now opt out of this discussion, because I just realized how totally irrelevent to me it is. I have not played the game, I won't anytime soon, and I don't particularly care if it was a good port, bad port, or the fault of the 360 that this doesnt work, or the fault of Rockstar, or the fault of EA that their games aren't as good on PS3 as 360, or the fault of the PS3, or whatever. None of it is important. From what Ive gathered, the PS3 and 360 are both capable of running beautiful games, but apparantly the PS3 is hard to develop for, the older 360s are wonky, and no developer is perfect. That explains everything!

There are many third-party companies I respect, but the one I respect the most is Rockstar. Who else would make a statement THE SAME DAY that they received the email? Rockstar would, Rockstar would...

@baked ham: I posted it a minute after you. Wouldn't have called you out if I saw you next post. I've just been noticing a lot of people posting who don't even bother to read the article. McWhertor works hard dammit, best read his prose.

@Campion: I clearly don't. Look right above to see why I even bothered in the first place. But to be honest, Rockstar is one of the few companies that has earned my trust. Rockstar and Enron.

Lets hope they fix it. Bully for 360 looks great, and I'd hate to have to settle for the PS2 version, even if that is probably the most balanced and lovingly crafted version.

I'm waiting before I plunk down cash.

@ludwigk: From what the article says, the game has problems on some old 360 models. The Rockstar guy also said that he's sorry that the glitches made it through their testing process. I think it's pretty safe to assume that they didn't test the old models, or didn't test them properly. Logic 101.

Well, I'm just glad that they're aware of the situation and hopefully they're working on some kind of plan to rectify this issue.

I plan on getting my hands on this game as soon as I get my... 4th new 360.

I just wish Insomniac gave a crap about Ratchet & Clank Future's bugs.

I'm inclined to believe that they didn't push out this product before all bugs were adressed, and that these issues are new to their QA people. rockstar has always put a lot of effort into maintaining a high level of quality, despite a few minor bugs (clipping etc) in past gta titles. the ps2 version of bully was pretty solid. hope they can figure this out.

You know what? I believe them. Bout time we heard some honesty from a video game company.

Explains why the intro movie looked choppy and had tearing and the lockup I experienced about an hour in. lol

Glad to hear it's at least identified as an issue.

Hmm...why would it only effect when played on older 360s? Certainly they're just as poweful as new ones...and Bully's hardly Oblivion...how odd.

Well I have to disagree with his statement 'It appears that some older 360s are experiencing framerate issues, freezes and other problems.' I have a Halo 3 Edition less than 6 months old and it has the same issues my buds are. So wouldn't it be easier to say most 360's are affected? Hopefully we will have a solution soon.

i thought the intro seemed kinda skippy...

Corporate sabotoge by EA to lower the companie's value in preparation for their takeover!

I have a 2 month old elite... same problems. Old 360s my lily white arse.

@Dimipapa: The intro is skippy on the Wii version as well. There are also plenty of other bugs. But those are all the regular "GTA" bugs we've all grown accustomed to over the years. I'm pretty sure the 360 problems are more severe than the odd framerate skip.

PS: go back and play GTA3. I don't think that game ever holds a framerate for a whole second without skipping.

I'm sorry to be so blunt but What the Fuck is with these companies.

NEVER in your QA? Really? Maybe your QA Dept. could use a bit of an upgrade. I hear there's a certain company out there looking to invest. Pathetic.

This is happening to brand new 360s as well. This game runs like crap on my friends 4 week old Elite.

It really says something about Rockstar that I actually believe them. I don't know about the old 360s thing... that doesn't make much sense, but it's entirely possible that something really odd just went wrong at the tail end of the process. Maybe their master image had some data corruption or something.

It's not a problem with old 360s. Both my near new 360 at home AND the newer one at work exhibit these problems. NOT an old 360 problem.

I think you guys are forgetting one thing...

Older hardware doesn't mean pre-heat issue fixes, it could mean something as simple as the DVD drive in the machine. If you look at multiple Xbox 360 machines, you will notice they will likely all have different DVD trays. I have had 4 at home (An Elite and an Arcade at the moment, one Elite that went back for repair, and one Premium I sold when I bought my first Elite). Each of the 4 machines have had a completely different tray... and notably, the Elite I got back from MS (after my first one red ringed) has a much worse drive than my original... it seems to run into problems on a near daily basis... I've started a countdown until it dies...

anyway, just something to keep in mind.

B

BS! I tried Bully in my Elite and my Halo Edition 360. It was complete rubbish on both.

The 1up reveiw actully picked up one these issues, unlike most.
[www.1up.com]
"Perhaps worst of all, we had several instances where the game froze midmission, and since you can't save at any moment it sometimes necessitated replaying a significant amount of the game."

I believe Rockstar will pull through on this. They're good for it.

is the Wii version having the same problems?

I was thinking about picking up Bully this weekend. I guess I will wait until this gets sorted out. I have faith in Rockstar though and I expect them to release an update over live to fix the issue.

I'll have to put off buying the game until the issues are fixed.

Hopefully they'll be fixed soon

"We would never shove anything out the door." Did anyone other than me play manhunt 2?

The fact that this QA issue is coming up a few weeks before GTAIV hits worry anyone else?

New or old systems this could be a giant issue with such a complex game.

Older 360's having framerate issues? My 360 is three weeks old and it's having them...

Fixplzthku.

Well, for those of us who already have the game, we now have to sit back and wait for a fix. Oh joy. Well at least RS is fessing up and doing something about it. It's just annoying to go out, buy their product, and then find out it's bugged with bugs that QA should have easily caught.

@ehlien: Something I was completely unaware of, thank you for pointing this out. I'll have to look for it.

"We would never shove anything out the door - we never have and never will."

so Manhunt 2 was "as intented"??

Anyone else notice that mlb2k8, also published by 2k, is also having problems with framerate issues and freezing. I can't help but wonder if there isn't something in their actual manufacturing process that is causing some 2k games to have these kinds of issues. This is obviously wild speculation and probably not the issue but it gave me pause when thinking about it.

R* would never lie to us gamers, no never.

[kotaku.com]

Well playing it on a launch 360 with no issues. Lucky I guess?

Waiting for it to come in from Amazon... Wii Edition. Let's see HOW plagued

Almost picked it up today. Think I'll wait a bit!

Good PR a month before GTA, no? Hope they don't have issues there too!

The game runs awesomely on my 2-year old 360 so bullhonky.

@lionkitten: It doesn't seem to be a problem that's hitting everyone, either that or we don't all demand a ridiculously unhuman calibur out of our games like others. I've had the game for 2 days and I'm about 25% into the game without any issues.

@iamspoo: Yes, just like GTA4 came out October 16, 2007.

Wow, I am usually a Rockstar fanboy; however, the sheer amount of BS that this statement reeks of is gonna need a Costco size bottle of Febreeze to clear up. I have a brand-spankin'-new 360 elite, less than a week old, and I immediately noticed serious framerate problems and sound glitches.

Hmm ok. Well I have a Halo 360 so I might be fine...

@ChaosBahamut: If MS won't allow developers to release a game that assumes the HD is there, why would they allow a fix to assume that?

@Lemming To The Sea: Why hello there, Mr. SingleDataPoint! I was wondering when you'd show up!

Well, I have a brand new 360 elite and I just had the game freeze on me not more than an hour ago so either I'm the exception or the problems are not limited to "older" consoles.

@baked ham: teere will be a patch too fix this problem im sure..is there a patch too fix the 30 fps for ps3 madden08??

It's not limited to old 360's as I experience the audio glitches on a box manufactured 7/2007

around the clock means, whenever time is sweet.

@ludwigk "This doesn't make sense. Dev kits *are* old X360s. A lot of them date back to before production models even. Test kits are pretty much identical to Rev 1 hardware. In fact, they are engineered to be. It's not like their Xenon kits are all brand-new falcon boards.":

My old X360 devkit was the old harware, but it RROD some time ago. The devkit I've had for the last 6 months is not a Falcon but is the new motherboard (the one with HDMI and extra heatsink) - so it is quite different than my first one...

@mva5580: Ah, blame it on QA. I love ignorant people

Haha...this is the same great Rockstar that claimed Hot Coffee was a user-hack and not code hidden in the game?

@baked ham: Yep all bad ports are bad programing!

But of course xbox fans will go "LALALALALALA"

@SaintWaldo:

Completely relevant point. I can't stand MS still not admitting that the next-gen consoles are better and NEED those HDDs and they got the entire idea wrong and to just freaking phase out Xbox Arcade already!

@DefDealer:

That was basic PR 101. NEVER start off by admitting the culprit is really you.

THIS however, is just bullshit QA. Seriously, HOW could these issues get pass them!

...and GTAIV gets delayed due to the recent enlightenment.

I'm sure they'll fix it. R* has never done me wrong. On a side note, kiss a guy 20 times to get 20 Points? They really took that idea and ran with it. The thing is, I know I will be going OVER THE RAINBOW (clever R*) before I'm done with the game :)

Not concerned. I've completed the PS2 version without many glitches and I guess I'll leave it at that, despite the burning desire to achieve achievements. This game better be selling for 5 dollars or less if it can't even compete with the last-gen PS2 version.

well i have an xbox 360 halo edition and the game freezes, i change the disc to my other xbox 360 elite and it freezes too, they are both new from october 2007, its not the xbox its rockstar.

i hope rockstar fix this freezes.

How ironic, I ordered this game thinking it'd be a one-up to the ps2 version, which I thought was plagued with some bad textures and choppy frame rate here and there, which is why i sold it as soon as I heard of a 360 port coming. Guess I wont be opening my sealed copy of bully til this is fixed, which I hope is soon.

@baked ham:
Microsoft is actually known for releasing really glitched out hardware for their early products. My computer teacher once spoken to a representative and stated that their unofficial policy is "release ASAP. Worry about the bugs later"

which you have to admit has a ring of truth. I mean just look at the Vista.

Then again maybe it is on R* part. I mean anything can cause this issue.

Anyone got a copy of the PAL version and know whether it affects it too?

Also: my girlfriend is a teacher, and she's looking forward to playing it.

Do companies even bother playing their own games anymore?

Mind you the box says 'Enhanced Graphics'. Umm where? It really doesn't look that much different from my PS2 version. You would have thought that putting it on next gen systems, they would have given it close to next gen graphics. Alas, I guess they engine they were using could not do such.