I registered for the forum specifically to write this post.

I drove across town immediately after work and purchased Hunted: The Demon's Forge on its release date. I have a friend that I play online PS3 games with constantly, and we'd been watching this game since we first heard about it months ago. We were interested in the game because it's designed for two-player gaming. We were hooked, and for good reason. This is an awesome game.

However.

We purchased Borderlands for nearly the same reason. Another really great game, the online experience was ruined for PS3 users by a near total inability to use voice chat in the game. The developer got a lot of heat from PS3 users about that, and a look back in the publisher's forum reveals a near total lack of response as far as actually trying to fix the problem. Voice chat in Borderlands was never fixed for PS3 users, and a solution was never offered. After a one play-through in single-player mode, I shelved the game for good.

Fast forward to now. After installing the game, I was very excited all the way up until I saw the Gamespy logo during startup. My thoughts immediately went to my experience with Borderlands, but I figured that, by now, they had at gotten it together. I figured wrong. Immediately upon connecting with my buddy for our first online session in Hunted, not only did we experience issues with communications, the issues were practically identical to the issues we had with Borderlands. After 10 minutes of play wherein communication was nearly impossible, we both got booted from our session. We reconnected and started our session again - thankfully where we left off - but communications were never improved and gameplay ended again after another 15-20 minutes. Disgusted, I called my friend and told him we'd deal with it later. I shut down my PS3 for the night.

Judging from this section of the forum, it looks like our situation is not unique. Other users have even brought up Gamespy in general and Borderlands in specific. As it stands now, it really looks like Gamespy ruined another otherwise great game for PS3 users with unusable voice chat. I would like to note that it reflects poorly on Bethesda and InExile that they chose to involve Gamespy in the development of Hunted, and doubly so that these issued were not specifically targeted and rooted out before Hunted was released. It should also be noted that it is highly unlikely that I will be an early adopter of any game - Bethesda or otherwise - that has the Gamespy logo on it. I'll wait until I can confirm full game functionality (which is, let's face it, the problem here: the game does not work) before I drop my money. It is disheartening to think that Gamespy is involved in the coming Oblivion project.

Now that I've said all that, I'll say this: what is Bethesda going to do to solve this problem? Can I expect a Bethesda admin to chime in, acknowledge the problem, and assure PS3 users that a solution is in the works (along with regular updates as to the progress of the solution)? Or will we see the same problem swept under the rug like we did with Borderlands? I really do hope for a speedy solution; Bethesda has a long history with some of the greatest games on any platform in their catalog. I would like to see Hunted among those games.



-speakertweaker

Same here.

Voicechat in this game is atrocious. It kills me that this game was touted as co-op as it should be, but they can't get voicechat right. I mean, take Dead Nation, for example. It came out WITHOUT voicechat, the developers for that game ADDED voicechat, and the price - $14.99. Here, I paid $60 (and even pre-ordered!) for horrible voicechat.

I loaded up this game again today and it sounded even worse. Something needs to be done about it.

Yes I agree! Voice chat was so horrible I had to sell my game back. This co-op experience felt more like work than fun.

I'm reminded of the Festivus Airing of the Grievances...

Gamespy's voicechat... YOU DISAPPOINTED ME!

Well, here we are, three weeks later, and still not so much as a blip on the radar from the developers. Well, thanks a lot, Bethesda. I am going home, packing this game up, grabbing the receipt, and returning the game as faulty. I'd use the money to buy another game, but I just got InFamous 2. I'll probably use the money toward the Blu-rays of The Lord of the Rings.

That stinks, too. What a waste of a good game. I'll be paying much closer attention to future Bethesda releases.



-speakertweaker

I haven't played this game since, like, day 2 of it being released, because of the voicechat issues. So, thanks.