http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-dead-rising-3-patch?utm_source=eurogamer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=net-daily


TL:DR

So, just what kind of improvement - if any - does the mammoth 13GB patch bring to the table? Initial observations during our two gameplay sessions yield few signs of any game-changing differences: we still see performance being similarly impacted in heated gameplay moments, or in locations packed with detail as we speed through zombie-filled city locations in fast cars. Our pre- and post-patch analysis video shows low frame-rates of around 22fps when alpha effects and a large number of enemies come into play both before and after we updated the game.

In some scenes we actually see the pre-patched game put out slightly higher metrics, but this simply reflects variances in gameplay between our two test runs. Overall, it's hard to see where exactly the improvements in performance have been made, suggesting that the optimisations are rather more subtle than we were hoping for. In the first two to three levels at least, there are no obviously noticeable signs of the smoother experience promised by Capcom Vancouver, and a close look at the game's real-time cinematics reveals almost completely identical frame-rates in exact like-for-like scenes, where the rendering load is very closely duplicated on repeat playthroughs. Clearly, cinematics alone won't be engaging many of the game's sub-systems, but it does suggest that the core rendering engine hasn't seen any fundamental upgrades, as sudden drops in frame-rate occur at exactly the same moments.

The thing I heard is that it's largely an update to support upcoming DLC and multiplayer features. Popped on Kotaku the other day in relation to the legal protections between consumers and internet providers being eliminated, and relating to limits in downloading. It's a massive download to be sure.

13 GB... couldn't one download about half the gOg catalog for that much bandwidth?

Wow... and to think I was annoyed at Bioshock Infinite's recent 2 gig patch...

Data for the future DLCs. It could also be lazy devs, like not using compression at all or whatever.

Welcome to the future, where optimization and compression are optional!

On a more serious note, that kind of behavior is stupid. Even as much as I loathe what the XBONE stands for, if I had to code for it, I'd make sure to compress and optimize it.

Barely 15 years ago, a 30 MB patch was considered ridiculously huge. It's only a matter of time before it becomes the norm.

The Witcher 2 alone is about that big, I think. But sure, you could download a few dozen of the smaller/ medium sized games. ( And most likely would get more fun out of those, compared to these questionable Xbone shenanigans. )

Seems the times when consoles actually offered advantages over PC gaming ( convenience, reliability, "DRM free" ) are long gone. Makes me wonder why people even bother with them any more. Personally not interested in most of the new consoles. :/

Somehow that game doesn't look very interesting to begin with... ,_,

A 13GB patch is ridiculous. Capcom screwed up big time.

Certainly seems like it. How big is the game itself anyway? I don't know about these "next-gen" console games, but for most current games 13GB would equal to the size of the entire game, or at least a significant portion of it.

For that matter, since patches have to be stored locally ( along with potential game installations ), how big is the default HDD of the new XBox? Seems like it might fill up quickly, if publishers/developers make a habit of these practices.

You have 362 GB available, so this patch uses up 3.6% of your hard drive capacity, which is indeed ridiculous. Also, through my current internet connection it would take over three and a half hours to download the patch.

This sort of thing is fairly common, actually - I think that I had to download about 10 GB in total when updating StarCraft 2 a year and a half ago. The downloaded data doesn't actually take up much extra space on your hard drive - in almost all cases, it's simply replacing an existing file in your installation. From what I gather, this is because most assets in modern video games are packed (packaged? wrapped?) into a handful of big files for whatever reason, and simply replacing the old with the new is easier than trying to add new stuff directly.