So, I bought Myst 3: Exile...

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
1

…and I am so freaking disappointed. My best friend and I play these kinds of games together and we loved Myst and Riven and have been looking forward to this for a long time.

Yesterday we tried to install it on my PC which exceeds the requirements listed on the box. It installed fine, but when we tried to launch it we got a failure in M3.exe, so I made a trip to UBIsoft’s support page. It turns out that there are a whole host of graphics cards that are not supported yet, the patch is coming “soon”. Of course I have one of those cards, so I’m screwed.

Fortunately, this game is supposed to run on Mac too. My friend has a G3, which also meets or exceeds all of the requirements for the game, so we drove 20 miles back to her house, which sucks because I did not want to only play my game there, but you do what you gotta do.

We installed the game and it started ok. During the opening movie with Atrus the sound was choppy, so we killed it and checked the readme. There’s something about turning off Virtual Memory to fix the sound. We did that and restarted the game. The sound in the first movie was a bit better, so we continued into the game and were taken to the first age. The first thing there is another movie with Catherine.

Again, the sound was so choppy it’s almost useless, the gameplay was ridiculously slow, and the first thing we tried to zoom in on crashed the game with an “unable to find JPEG” error message. We rebooted the machine, and it did the exact same thing.

I used to be a test lead in a game QA lab. I know what it takes to test something like this, and I know that all games are released with bugs, but this is beyond awful. I can’t imagine who thought that releasing this POS was a good idea. It is literally unplayable on most machines.

I thought about throwing this one in the Pit, but decided that maybe more unsuspecting consumers would see it here.

2

Wow. Good to know. Thanks.

3

slackergirl, I’ve got Myst 3, too, and I’ve had no problems so far. Like your friend, I’m on a G3 Mac.

I suggest you check out the Myst 3 forums at the Riven Guild board. Let’s just say you’re not alone with your problems and disappointment. I checked out the threads there just days before I got my copy, so I was aware of the problems the game had before I even installed it. (Made me nervous as hell, but at least I knew, you know?)

I do know a patch is available on CD (it seems to be a revised version of Disc 1), and I think most, if not all, of the fixes are for PC only. The only two Mac issues being addressed that I know of are some OpenGL problems, and the rearranged icons problem.

For your friend: This is a MacFixit forum thread on Myst 3 troubleshooting. I also recommend she read MacFixit’s coverage of Myst 3’s problems.

Frankly, given the number of problems and compatibility issues, UbiSoft should have held up on releasing the game until those problems were resolved. But the game had already been delayed once (it was supposed to have come out in early April), so they were probably afraid that another delay would hurt sales or something. Guess they’d rather have us have problems than have sales suffer. :rolleyes:

I do hope a fix comes out that addresses the problems you’re having. I’ve enjoyed the game so far and I think it’d be a shame for you to miss out on it. Good luck to you.

4

This might help.

Good luck!

5

Thanks everyone.

I forgot to put in the OP that I did download the patch on the support site. Unfortunately, it doesn’t address the M3.exe crash, and the CD version doesn’t include that fix yet either.

I will pass the Mac info on to my friend, it would be nice if we could play it somewhere.

6

Just wanted to note that the patch DMC linked to is for PCs only; all you can download from there is an .exe file. MacFixit confirms that UbiSoft has yet to release any patches for the Mac.

7

slackergirl, I have the exact same problem with M3.exe. I really wanted to play that game!

The site says that there should be a patch soon, but do you have any idea what that means? Next week? Next month?

8

It’s long, but worth the read folks.

The best part is that the software is clearly defective, yet you can only get another copy of the same game, not your money back.

They asked me how much their pages helped me with the problem. Every issue I looked at got a 0%. Then they asked for my feed back. They did not say “Do you have a tech support question?”. That was another mistake on their part. You do need to be specific when doing tech support. Their email to me, after a bit of removals. They only used one of my suggestions too.

Remember I did not request help from them! It was labeled suggestion! I really like the last bit of my suggestion involving the Black Hole.

Please note the time for the first patch to show up for the problem they responded to.

I feel sorry for all you others that have one of the items on the large list of incompatable hardware. They never replied to the comment where I told them they needed to update system requirements to include all the hardware that it doesn’t run on. They never mentioned where I asked them why people had to pay them about $50 to get a program in alpha stage.

Start of email…

 Product: Other

Sub-Product: Website
Category: Suggestion
Contact: My email here
Date Created: 05/09/2001 11:11 PM
Last Updated: 05/15/2001 12:18 PM

Recently you requested personal assistance from our on-line support
center. Below is a summary of your request and our response.

If we do not hear from you within 48 hours we will assume your issue
has been resolved.

Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.
Subject

Site Feedback

Suggested Answer

At 05/15/2001 12:17 PM we wrote - The patch is available at http://www.Myst3.com
Red Storm Entertainment Technical Support cannot and will not provide support to users who choose to use violent, threatening, or otherwise abusive language in their requests for Technical Support. You must understand that we are here to help you find solutions to your problems. Please remember that this often requires your assistance as well. If you feel that your problem has not been handled in a timely, courteous, and professional manner, please ask that your incident be transferred to the Technical Support Manager for further review.

Simply put, if you continue to take an adversarial role in seeking a solution from our Technical Support Staff, we will refuse you technical support.

Question

Your Myst III is a total nightmare. Thank’s a lot for releasing it in Beta or even Alpha stage. I can’t set the CD rom lower. My hard drives use up through I:. The only operating systems that could do that are not supported by you. This software will be going back in the next few days, if I can’t run it, because you idiots don’t support a drive over the letter H, and need to access CD1 to start the program. This game is bringing back the memories of Unreal, it took them one year to finally get a working patch to a game they released way to soon. That was the last game I bought from them, and your future is looking just as bright as a Black Hole.

 Product: Other

Sub-Product: Website
Category: Suggestion
Contact: My email here
Date Created: 05/09/2001 11:11 PM
Last Updated: 05/15/2001 12:18 PM
Elapsed Time: 0 Minutes
Status: Solved

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Ignorance and apathy, I don’t know and I don’t care.

9

There was a story about this on Slashdot recently.

It really burns me that they can get away with this sort of thing. Especially since the local software stores DON’T allow returns.

I especially enjoyed the bit about the copy protection scheme causing the game to fail on a large number of cd-rom models. Classy.

10

<blinks in surprise at the outpouring of vitriol>

Wow, I guess I got lucky–the game ran fine on my machine (P2, 300MHz, Win98, Matrox M2 video, Creative cdrom) right out of the box. Possibly the fact that I’ve scavenged an insane amount of RAM for it helped.

I was a little disappointed in the game itself, though. The graphics were beautiful, but not as sweeping as I’d hoped. The freelook was nice, but the game was still picky about where you had to click to go places. The main thing I was disappointed with, though, was the difficulty of the puzzles–they just weren’t as challenging as the previous two games. Remember Riven, where you had to deduce the D’ni numbering system? There’s nothing that interesting in Exile; the puzzles are mostly more mechanical (although I use that term loosely) in nature.

I do like the soundtrack, though–I’ve got it running on my computer here at work right now.

11

The freelook thing and the full install option are by far the best features of the game. (Which is kinda sad, really, since although they contribute to the game’s experience, they are not central to the game itself.)

HD, um, do you really think your remarks constitute a “suggestion”? Because, to be perfectly honest, the only way I get any suggestions out of them is if I rephrase everything. I think you would have gotten a more sympathetic and helpful response if you hadn’t included some things, such as the “you idiots” stab and the threat to no longer buy their products. I assure you, I share your disappointment in the game, but IMHO, that wasn’t the best way to handle your complaint.

12

AudreyK:

I wasn’t solisting them for any help or response. I was given them a suggestion. I do mean it when I said this was the last time I purchase software with their name on it. I don’t need their help, the software runs with the patches they release or it doesn’t. There are thousands of people currently reporting all the same problems. Most of the problems still being not solved. There are enough releases of software, that you can purchase something of the same genere. The only software I always had to buy was Zork, because nobody did stories like them.

13

Ubisoft just released the patch that fixes the M3.exe problem. Woohoo!

http://www.ubisoft.com

14

Groovy!

Thanks for the update Ooner. Unfortunately my copy of the game is still at my friend’s house. Let me know how it works for you.

I hope to be playing by Friday.

15

Oh, good. Here’s hoping you’ll be Mysting the weekend away. :slight_smile:

Did you get the regular or collector’s edition?

16

She got the regular.

17

Ah. Thanks. Got the CE myself.

Anybody want my pewter squee?

[sub]God, that souds soooo dirty.[/sub]