How NOT to have a game launch

So, unless you’ve been living under a rock the past few years you’re probably well aware of GTA5. Last night the game launched on PC to a resounding FLOP.

While a lot of people were able to get into the game just fine, a huge chunk were not, especially those of us that bought from digital stores other than Steam. I personally got mine from GMG since it had 25% off, but as a result I was given a Rockstar Social Club key, not a steam key.

Usually i don’t have a problem with this, I’m not one of Gaben’s idol worshipers. However on this occasion it’s been an absolute nightmare. From the outset there was issues, first with just downloading the launcher you needed to install the game. Next i had a 32hour download, on a 75mb connection. Through out the download the average speed was around 100kb/s a few peaks to my full speed, now and then. I’ve never had a game take this long to download. Reminded me of being back in the dark ages on a 56k modem trying to download a 200mb anime episode!

Then it finally finished downloading, only to have to download 2 patches, which added another 8hours to the wait. for a 400mb patch. Seriously Rockstar? You claim to be AAA but you can’t even deliver your game timely.

As you’d expect the steam forums erupted in complaints, and unexpectedly, Rockstar responded by deleting posts and issuing bans. Which was a dumb idea on their part since all it did was push the complaints onto the reviews section.

I’ve now downloaded it four times on 3 different rigs, that’s a wasted 240gb of data, and it still isn’t working.

Sad thing is everyone but Rockstar knows what the problem is (or R* just refuse to acknowledge it). They’re using a gimped type of emule for their downloader. One of the things they got rid of (apparently) is MD5 checking, which is used to validate downloads. Given the constant breaks in downloading the files are getting corrupted and there’s no way to verify them

Personally I’ve given up on trying to get it to work. I’ve uninstalled and thrown it in the trash can. Demanded my refund from GMG on the grounds the damn thing is unfit for purchase. If they refuse (which they will, cause screw the customer!) I’ll have to get the bank to recover it.

My advice for this game is to either ignore it for a few months, or pick it up on steam, which does appear to have less issues, though is not free from them.