The worst development this gen is...

Ah, the HD gaming generation. It's ushered in many great developments, and standardised some great features for console gaming. From simple, underrated pleasures like wireless controllers that can also be used for switching your console on and off, to bigger developments like making online multiplayer a standard console experience- there's a lot to like about what's happened this gen.

There's also however, one major and worrying development that has become almost the norm now with major game releases- and that's patching. In theory, the ability to patch a game and iron out a bug or two missed during development and testing should be a welcome development. This is, afterall, what patches have traditionally done in the PC gaming world. But what is happening now is plain for all to see- big games are being sold unfinished, and are being 'patched' to completion post their retail release.

Early 'day-one' purchasers more than often are the true beta testers- angrily jumping online to the games' official forums, complaining, pointing out issues that should have been picked up prior to release. It's often now that games are vastly different at launch than they are a few months later. It's so prevalent that I don't even need to give examples for anyone to know what I'm talking about- and why I think it's so detrimental to gaming.

It's getting to the point where the games we buy, with our hard earned money, simply aren't finished products anymore. Games are supposed to be fun, enjoyable experiences where you can escape from your day-to-day realities and enjoy a fantasy world for just a little while. However, instead gaming on these unfinished releases turns into little more than a tester where you wonder why features are missing, performance stutters, and end up doing the developers job for them- find the flaws the prevent the game from being fun. It impugns the integrity of developers and publishers, and mostly it just sours gamers from the hobby they love.

We deserve more as gamers. We loyally purchase games for our favourite consoles hoping for great experiences after being promised the best, only to find on launch day that game we've been looking forward to for so long doesn't work properly and is full of bugs and holes. Enough is enough!