A Game Freezes or Glitches
E3. The biggest stage in the video game industry’s calendar. Millions of people have tuned in around the world to watch the big reveals and demos of the next year’s hottest games. After a dramatically delivered overview of the demo we’re about to watch, the lights dim, and the game’s logo flashes up on the screen. The audience shifts to the edge of their seats in anticipation. It’s a loading screen, right? … Right?
Wrong! The game has completely borked it. The RNG gods of E3 have frowned down on the lowly developer this day, as they do their best to laugh off the brief technical hitch while they frantically smash reset buttons off-stage. It flickers back to life, and we eventually get to see what we’ve been waiting for, but the framerate is bouncing around more than a four-year-old in a bouncy castle whose just downed a six-pack of Red Bull.
As much as we hope that every demo, trailer, and various tidbits of the press conferences go down without a hitch, there always, unfortunately, seems to be one. Be it Assassin’s Creed IV, Battlefield 4, or Peter Moore’s tragic pause incident during the Rock Band reveal all those years ago.
