# The Buggiest Game You've Ever Played **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [July 11, 2009, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-buggiest-game-youve-ever-played/502660 "2009-07-11T08:01:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-buggiest-game-youve-ever-played/502660/61 "2009-07-13T15:30:30Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Anybody ever play DungeonKeeper? The game where you are the bad guys and try to kill off and torture all the good guys? I loved the female demon that was the one that cracked the whip =) Yeah, this is it for me. DK and DKII were great, but crashed on a whim. Sometimes you could play for hours, sometimes it would crash on the menu. I actually managed to finish both games, but it took a long time and lot of not snapping the disk in half from frustration. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-buggiest-game-youve-ever-played/502660/62 "2009-07-13T15:56:51Z")
> [@Just\_Some\_Guy](#): > > I can’t remember any specific bugs about Frontier: First Encounters (that would be the third game in the Elite series). I do remember it had a tendency to crash a lot. It stands out in my mind because years after playing it I worked with a member of the testing team at a non-game industry job and he apologized to me for it. That’s the only apology I’ve every gotten for shipping a game in an unfinished state. You would think that 11 years (between _Elite_ and _Frontier: First Encounters_) would be enough time to get the game working properly. > [@Dead\_Badger](#): > > Knights of the Old Republic. Never has a game forced me into such a ludicrous save-game management strategy. It was practically a minigame in itself, ensuring that the inevitable crashes didn’t annihilate hours of play. Weird. KOTOR hardly ever crashed on me. KOTOR 2 was horrible- not for actual bugs, but for all the shit that was never properly implemented, leading you to search for things for hours based on clues that they forgot to edit out of the dialogue. > [@Jihi](#): > > Trust us, _Big Rigs_ deserves it’s reputation. 😛 I picked up a used copy at EB yesterday for $1. I can’t wait. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-buggiest-game-youve-ever-played/502660/63 "2009-07-13T16:44:57Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I picked up a used copy at EB yesterday for $1. I can’t wait. 😃 Make sure you post and let us know what it’s like. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-buggiest-game-youve-ever-played/502660/64 "2009-07-13T16:45:50Z")
If you don’t hear from me after this evening, it means the shitty collision detection made my brain crash. Send help. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/57b2e6/32.png) [@Quasimodal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodal)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-buggiest-game-youve-ever-played/502660/65 "2009-07-13T16:48:26Z")
Ultima IX was a joke when it was first released. If you saved your game while poisoned as I recall it messed up the file. There were lots of framerate and crashing problems. Even when it was fixed, they couldn’t save the game. One of my biggest video game letdowns. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-buggiest-game-youve-ever-played/502660/66 "2009-07-13T21:11:27Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > You would think that 11 years (between _Elite_ and _Frontier: First Encounters_) would be enough time to get the game working properly. Don’t forget there was Elite 2: Frontier between those. As I recall it had its own share of bugs, though. > [@](#): > > I picked up a used copy at EB yesterday for $1. I can’t wait. 😃 Tell me about it. I knew the game had a reputation for being the worst but everyone is really selling it in this thread. I’m adding it to my next bulk game purchase. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-buggiest-game-youve-ever-played/502660/67 "2009-07-13T21:13:27Z")
If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s hard to imagine how anything could be worse. There’s a YouTube video where a reviewer drives his rig over a mountain and it _takes off_, flying through a void of blue sky with no land in sight. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-buggiest-game-youve-ever-played/502660/68 "2009-07-13T21:15:59Z")
Not having played Big Rig, my nomination still goes to the classic **Masters of Magic** , whose AI customarily evacuated cities and placed their armies one square outside their cities, so you could just march right in and take them at least half the time. (Granted, then they’d attack you but you could be the defender.) This bug was unforgivable because MoM had a good mix between individual character development and tech tree research, and a really great twist on a Civilization-like explore-and-grow map (two overlapping worlds with portals in between,) so it would have been in my top 5 for favorite computer game ever otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-buggiest-game-youve-ever-played/502660/69 "2009-07-13T22:46:50Z")
> [@Tixenfleaz](#): > > /Hijack/. I signed up for a free trial of **WWII:Online** and thought that it was the internet version of a practical joke. > > One year later and I’m still playing it. Sometimes obsessively. > > It’s more of a strategy game than an FPS, but it’s worth giving the free trial a chance if you’re bored with the stuff you’re playing now. FX (or lack of same) doesn’t really bother me, and I grok the need to keep the frames up, so that’s not really an issue. I’m basically a navy guy (air comes second, grunt work a distant 3rd), and am essentially disappointed that they’ve moved so bloody slow on getting a truly dynamic naval engine working, and that things are still focused in France (no Russian/Med fronts, much less Pacific). If I signed up for anything it probably would be Aces High!, as I flew Air Warrior off and on from 1989-2000. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-buggiest-game-youve-ever-played/502660/70 "2009-07-13T22:48:28Z")
> [@Meeko](#): > > **Wow. I am so going to go do this.** But, A dozen games, Chronos? I always wanted to just sit down and play 1000 rounds of Scorch, but, well, I think my patience ended around round 8. But yeah, I guess the game did not escape bug free. I knew about using the fuel tank (The mountain climbing) glitch, but, that was the only one I ever knew about. > > What I liked about Scorch, is that you could edit the “Talk Files”, so that your own messages could appear above the tanks. There’s a 3D version out there (no time to provide a link-gotta leave apt. for a bit), but somehow it lacks the manic charm of the 2D board. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-buggiest-game-youve-ever-played/502660/71 "2009-07-13T23:37:12Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > There’s a 3D version out there (no time to provide a link-gotta leave apt. for a bit), but somehow it lacks the manic charm of the 2D board. Yep. Much in the way that Worms wasn’t as fun when it went 3D. (I’ve never been sure if Worms was inspired by Scorched Earth. They’re both obviously outgrowths of the artillery games that have existed almost as long as there have been computer games but Worms and Scorched both have the same kind of manic craziness…) ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-buggiest-game-youve-ever-played/502660/72 "2009-07-14T23:37:40Z")
**Magic the Gathering Online**. Most of the individual card bugs have been fixed, but the actual client-server interactions are hopeless. The game is constantly laggy, crashy, display-buggy, etc. Whenever a new set is released, it’s practically unplayable because the servers can’t handle the load. And this is after 7 years of continual development. You’d think they would have figured it out by now. ---
**Author:** ![Tixenfleaz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9a140/32.png) [@Tixenfleaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tixenfleaz)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-buggiest-game-youve-ever-played/502660/73 "2009-07-15T01:29:26Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > I’m basically a navy guy (air comes second, grunt work a distant 3rd), and am essentially disappointed that they’ve moved so bloody slow on getting a truly dynamic naval engine working, and that things are still focused in France (no Russian/Med fronts, much less Pacific). True. The naval portion defines the phrase “tacked on”, as the biggest ships are destroyers, and they seem to be little more than tanks w/ extra guns. A dedicated online naval game would be a nice change, though I’m curious as to how it could be implemented. WWII:Online just opened a Chinese server. Hopefully the added income will lead to new fronts and updated gameplay. As for the OP? Another vote for **Outpost.** I still can’t believe that my beloved Sierra did me like that. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-buggiest-game-youve-ever-played/502660/74 "2009-07-15T03:54:04Z")
> [@Quasimodal](#): > > Even when it was fixed, they couldn’t save the game. One of my biggest video game letdowns. I know. I didn’t even play Ultima 1-8, but I had huge expectations for this game. It was horrendous. You would kill enemies. Gold would fall out(even out of rats), but you got nothing in terms of character growth. And the stores sold NOTHING of worth, so money was useless. ---
**Author:** ![mrpayday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@mrpayday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrpayday)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-buggiest-game-youve-ever-played/502660/75 "2009-07-15T10:06:35Z")
Well Daggerfall, Morrrowind still had the fall through the floor bug. Andrew Ettinghausen’s Rugby League was full of bugs, one being a kick for goal hitting the post and bouncing into touch, but amazingly giving what i believe to be the correct ruling, a tap kick to the kicking side. And it was impossible to play an 80 minute game without a crash. Jagged Alliance 2 had a situation where the last soldier would retreat off the map, but be stuck in limbo where you could see him but not shoot him. All these games were great fun, so you notice all the bugs rather than a crap game you play twice and never see the bugs. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-buggiest-game-youve-ever-played/502660/76 "2009-07-15T13:01:33Z")
> [@mrpayday](#): > > Jagged Alliance 2 had a situation where the last soldier would retreat off the map, but be stuck in limbo where you could see him but not shoot him. I had that one in Fallout 2 - worse so, even. The last Wanamingo down the Redding mine either spawned or fled through a wall. I could see him walking around inside the rock, whenever I came near the turn-by-turn combat started, it’d flee from me as fast as it could… still inside the wall. And I couldn’t finish the quest. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-buggiest-game-youve-ever-played/502660/77 "2009-07-15T14:50:15Z")
If you attacked him first, you wouldn’t have to worry about your sequence, and you could have tossed grenades at him until he asploded- the splash damage kills things which are behind (or inside) walls, thankfully. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-buggiest-game-youve-ever-played/502660.md?page=3)