C&C Labs News Wire

— Tuesday, June 17, 2008 —

Posted By: Mike at 1:55:10 PM ET

Kane's Wrath Patch on the Horizon

Nearly 3 months after Kane's Wrath was shipped, it appears we almost have a first patch available for the C&C 3 expansion. APOC has posted an update about the patch on the Official Forums, detailing a number of exploit fixes and balance changes. If all goes as planned, we might be fortunate enough to see it released the week of June 23rd (next week).

In particular, I want to highlight the sheer number of desync bugs that the development team has fixed:

  • Fixed a desync that occurs when a Nod ally attempts to create a Decoy army of a Mechapede.
  • Fixed a desync that occurs when creating a free-for-all 8 player game with 6 brutal AI.
  • Fixed a desync that occurs when playing a 6 player game with 4 AIs after both human players have been eliminated and are spectating the match.
  • Fixed a desync that occurs when playing against a brutal AI with 2 players on level Unfair Advantage.
  • Fixed a desync that occurs when playing with 2 players against a Brutal Black Hand AI on the map Unfair Advantage.
  • Fixed a desync when 2 players use Black Hand vs GDI on the map Tournament Arena.
  • Fixed a desync that occurs when engaging Firehawks with Seekers
  • Fixed a desync when Venoms attack a Plasma Missile Battery that is detecting an invisible unit

It is fairly clear why this patch has taken so long. These desyncs occur under fairly obscure scenarios, which makes them tough to track down. On the one hand, I wish to laud the developers for their diligence -- 8 unique desync scenarios have been fixed!

But on the other hand, Command & Conquer fans should demand better than this. Kane's Wrath should have never been released with this many crippling bugs. These desyncs don't just cripple online play -- I've had them happen on LAN matches as well. This begs the question: did anyone test the game?

And with the desyncs being so widespread, online players be warned: the developers have probably missed a scenario or two.  I doubt that this patch will be the final nail in the desyncs' coffin.

As a C&C fan, I would have much prefered for this game to have been delayed these 3 months, rather than suffer with a broken product for all that time. Decision makers at EA: take notice.

Last edited by Mike on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 6:01:51 PM.

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