I noticed the game didn't start freezing until i reached Arcadia, odd. I figured the 360 couldn't handle all the different colors, etc. Then i thought it had to be the game, something as simple as a "defective" disk. I guess it goes alittle deeper than that gentlemen. Well the upside to this is that Target will take it back. The down side is i want to finish the damn game, but if it's going to give me problem the rest of the way forget it. I'll try the cache clear first.
I don't know whether there was a new update or not but I've tried it again with both my Xbox 360s and BioShock now appear to work fine on both of them.
Regarding the cache though: how difficult would it be for developers to automatically clear the cache as part of the game's loading sequence? Or better still, why can't Microsoft add automatic cache clearing as part of the Xbox 360's boot sequence and when you return to the dashboard after playing a game? It seems such a stupidly easy thing to fix yet Oblivion and BioShock both required you to do it manually!!!
Nope, that doesn't fix it. We have one machine that glitches every new game and every saved file regardless of clearing the GAME cache or the XBox cache. Our other 360 does not, both played fine for a day after the update.Originally Posted by irrationallevine
We have experienced both the "pause every footstep" and the "pause every 10 seconds" issues.
Neither cache clearing method fixes it. The game is unplayable from scratch, as are all of the saves.
I was pulling my hair out thinking I was heading towards another ring of death encounter with the month of no xBox invovled. Thankfully I checked the forums. This work-around does work for me, I just do it every time I play BioShock. It's tedious as hell (and annoying when you forget), but it does work.
Hopefully there will be a patch soonish that will actually provide a solution and not just a work around, but untill then, good job with this :tu:
It will eventually happen, because it seems to be unrelated to the other "fixes." What we ended up doing was deleting a bunch of old saves and moving our current saves to a 512 card. No problems yet. We'll see. Oh, and we DID NOT reinstall the update. No thanks!
Good luck everyone reading this.
Scratch what I wrote in the first paragraph... I played the game twice over the weekend on the same 360. On Saturday, the game was hitching annoyingly so I removed the patch. On Sunday, I decided to try the patch again and apart from two minor judders the game worked fine and I was able to complete it. It would seem to me that there is something wrong with this update and/or it's related to the 360's HDD cache.
Apart from the odd non-textured brown corpse and the out-of-synch subtitles (which should have been picked up during testing as it affects the PC and 360 versions!), I've been able to play the game mostly without problems, mainly thanks to owning two 360s. If I didn't know about the cache clearing trick and had been forced to play the game on my new 360 then I might not have been so impressed with the game!
Whatever, this game was magnificent, a true classic in every sense of the word and it's a game I fully intend replaying, hopefully with fixed subtitles and an updated patch that doesn't stutter on either of my 360s!
I was saying to my rather uninterested wife a couple of days ago that Bioshock was one of the best games I had played in years. I was quite happy with myself, having found myself submerged (no pun intended) in gameplay into the early hours of the morning- not wanting to leave it alone.
I have been so frustrated however, that the game is obviuosly affected by a glitch of some kind. I have been reading through these forums with all these grand ideas on how to remedy the problem, but to no avail. My game is freezing/pausing every couple of seconds, just a small pause, but a pause.
I have tried clearing the cache, tried this, tried that. Nope.
As previuosly stated by another- I am shocked (no pun) that 2K would have released this game with such a glitch attached. Its almost criminal- to allow a game that clearly isnt performing as it should be on the market. Its like selling stale fish. The most anoying part of this episode is that it is a bloody good game- and the desire to continue is compounded by the fact that it is not playable with this bug.
Boycott 2K!
Yours- disappointed Montie.
Success!!
Turns out the cache dump works wonders on system. Since then i havent had a glitch or freeze thanks 2k.
Well, after reading the first few pages and taking the advice to clear the cache, this is what has happened to me:
1) It deleted some of my saves and set me back a good 2 hours.
2) It fixed nothing. It actually skips worse than it did before.
This is really frustrating, mainly because I've been trying to go back and get all the achievements, and now I don't know if I've gotten all the tape recordings, the research photos, etc. Clearing the cache really bit me in the rear. I'm willing to believe that this stems from the update that I downloaded from XBox live. I was going through my 2nd time around and it was working fine and I installed the update right before Fort Frolic. Ever since then, it has been awful and skips more than I care for it to. I haven't read the last 4 or so pages, so if it has been fixed, great, but judging from the last page it doesn't seem like it is.
That being said, BioShock is one of the best games I've played thus far on my 360. Bravo on a great game, boo-hiss for this glitch and advice that has given me a setback
Came here on search after getting hitches in Fort Frolic (a quarter-second pause every second and a half or so, which went away by the end of the level). I saved while the hitches were going on, and after they went away. Any time I loaded the "hitch save", I got hitches. Any time I loaded the later save, I didn't get them.
I cleared caches, both BioShock's method and X360 maintenance. No effect (the hitch save still hitched, the smooth save still ran smooth).
I copied the saves to a memory card, turned the X360 off, detached the HDD, and restarted. Rejected the update. Ran the game. No effect (hitch save still hitched, smooth save still smooth).
I turned the X360 off and on and restarted the game. Accepted the update. No effect (hitch still hitch, smooth still smooth).
I can only conclude that it's a game bug of some sort probably related to object management and garbage collection.
I have a gadget (Action Replay) for backing up my saves to PC. I could upload the glitching one to 2K if y'all would like to debug with it.
Hans
I hope they sort this out for those of us who can't get rid of this issue, I cleared the cache countless times and bioshock on my new elite is a ma absolute mess
gutted
I have the stuttering issue every other second. I'm almost finished with Fort Frolic (it started about half-way through). I've tried clearing caches both ways, and am now playing without the update - still stutters. I'm going to try and play through and see if it clears. Also, I've noticed 2 doors in the frozen poseidon tunnels stay open - not sure if that's related.
...update
Hector Rodriguez may be the key. It started for me when I first encountered him, and now as soon as I killed him, the stuttering cleared.
I'm having the same exact issue as you stated. The game ran completely perfectly until I encountered Hector in the bar. The game started hitching for about 1/2 second, every 3-4 seconds, IMMEDIATELY after I saw him. I've just killed him, and it hasn't gone away, it's actually gotten a little worse over time. I've reloaded my saved game from before I met him, and it works perfectly; no hitches, freezes, glitches... nothing. It also appears that any and all saves after his encounter are affected by this problem.
As soon as I go into that room behind the stage and come out to encounter Hector, the game starts hitching and doesn't quit. I managed to kill him, though I wasted much ammo trying to hit him while simultaneously battling the stuttering hitches.
I hoped it would go away after I got rid of him, but it didn't. This is only my first play through, and I'm almost afraid to keep going. This kind of thing will completely ruin a game for me. I've tried clearing the cache (LB+RB during loading) multiple times with absolutely no effect. So far this has been one of my favorite games of all time (I've played tons of games, and own 17 game consoles, so saying this was one of my favorites is a big statement for me). But this kind of problem makes the game unplayable, and I can't just "play through it". I'd rather not play it at all than be completely frustrated with it for the rest of the game.
Please tell me there is some kind of patch in the works. The people at 2K MUST know that there are still problems (some actually caused by their update). Why is nothing being done about this? I wish someone from 2K would say something on this thread to reassure those of us that are experiencing these problems.
It may also be that I was playing the game after clearing the cache and not applying the update patch. It could be both something to do with the patch and with Hector appearing. Hopefully 2k are working on a fix. I'm not applying the previous patch to the game until there is an update on here about a fix.
Good luck.
it got terrible for me in fort frolic too - i killed hector and nothing change... i refuse to play the game until this is addressed
the update has rendered our game a eractic random mess of tech problems.
Theres alot of us in the same boat who can't sort this out, they have to release a update to fix this instead of boasting the 1.5million sales figure and a sequel
I've now also tried running the maintenance on the XBOX 360 HDD, which is supposed to clear all cache and game updates. After I ran that I went back into the game, and opted NOT to run the update. I loaded up my latest save and and the hitching is still there. It's gotten much worse over time, since it first started with my encounter with Hector. It now hitches for about 1/2 second, every second.
So as I'm trying to play I get; -pause- . . . -pause- . . . -pause- . . . -pause- . . . every second this happens. The game is nowhere near playable in this state. I can hardly navigate through the rooms, let alone try to attack anything. I don't know if the patch caused this problem or not... what I do know is that it certainly didn't fix anything. That's for sure.
It's nice to know that they're boasting about their 1.5 million sales of this game, when people who bought it can't even play it. This is the kind of thing that drives people to piracy. If there is a chance the game might not even work, and there is no priority put behind fixing it, why bother paying for it. If someone doesn't take care of the major issues with this game, they can be sure to count 1 less sale for all their future releases.
Thank you! Thank you! I haven't had a pause or whatever since!
I just installed the patch today after coming back from vacation.
After a few minutes of play the 360 completely locks up. I have to reboot in order to do anything. Clearing the cache makes no difference.
Bioshock is completely unplayable, which is a shame.
2K, When is the patch for the patch going to be released?
Ok. Last update. Hitching is GONE.
It appears that the problem for me WAS with Hector. As soon as I saw him, the game started hitching. The person that I thought I already killed in one of my previous posts wasn't Hector, it was one of the other people you need to photograph. I finally found Hector and killed him. The hitching IMMEDIATELY stopped as soon as he drew his last breath.I was lucky that he was walking all over the security systems and turrets I hacked, because I don't think I would have been able to kill him very easily with the way my game was playing.
I don't know what actually happened to cause this problem with Hector. Maybe his character started some memory loop/glitch in the system, and was glitching every second until his character was dead. The only other thing I noticed, was that as soon as you meet him, the dramatic music starts to play and doesn't go back to normaly until you apparently kill him. Probably has nothing to do with it, but I thought I'd mention it.
So, to anyone else who has this problem when Hector appears, do yourself a favor and go nuts all over him until he's dead. Because if the glitch is the same as mine (glitch disappears when he's dead), you'll want to get rid of him ASAP.
I'd still like to know why there are no members of 2K trying to help people in this thread... very dissapointing.
Check out my thread on the "hitching" when it pops up on the forum. I think I've figured out why it does it.
Thread title is "360 graphics "hitching"".
Basically I think its an issue with the multi-part goal Finish Cohen's Masterpiece. If you attempt to kill one rodriguez (the nitro splicer) and let him get away, then start killing the other 3 guys the graphics start to hitch every couple of seconds. If you are experiencing the hitching problem, finish killing all four guys (I'd start with rodriguez because of precedence) and it should stop as soon as the last one is dead. I think the goal is causing too much info to be loaded into the cache so the graphics start taking a beating, dunno for sure though. Check this possiblity out and let me know how it turns out.
regardless tho, mine and many others have been left with a game that is practically unplayable, mine freezes, crashes and the texture take a week to load it. Its a complete mess and I've tried absolutly everything.
Its been a waste of £50 and it I wanted this much trouble I'd have bought the pc version. The fact 2K can't even be arsed to atleast release a small statement agknowledging theres a problem speaks wonders.
Sad thing is after my first 360 broke last year I sold everything xbox then reluctantly bought the elite just for bioshock, I feel like a right twat now. I'm very close to selling my copy of the game as I can't see a fix anythime soon if they're not even accepting theres a problem....
I've just exchanged my October 2006 built premium Xbox 360 for a new one with HDMI built in July 2007. It has a BenQ DVD drive. When I play BioShock on it, I'm again getting minor but annoying hitches and everytime a Big Daddy appears on screen the framerate drops horribly with the whole game feeling treacly and running in slow-motion. Why does this happen? It never happened prior to the patch on either of my previous Xbox 360s.
yea, i think it might be caused by an overloading of info into the HD cache. im curious though as to whether this might be fixable if you were to free up some space on your hard drive (im currently getting the delayed texture loading glitch) so i will experiment with it tonight (have not patched bioshock because im too afraid it wont run afterwords)
I have a 120 GB HDD drive with around 84 GB free so if that isn't enough to run BioShock smoothly then there's something seriously, seriously wrong with this "update" (or downgrade as I like to call it!). On my old 20 GB HDD with less than 2 GB free the game ran perfectly with no issues of any kind for the 20 odd hours I played it. Then this downgrade came along and made the game run inconsistently, something it works fine, other times it hitches and slowdowns to the point where it makes Two Worlds look amazingly smooth!!!
This issue really needs fixing, the developers have basically turned a superb £50 game into a flawed £20 budget title...
Hey everyone, just thought I'd throw in my two cents.
I tried the RB+LB fix and lo and behold, as many have experienced, it didn't work. The game still stuttered every 15 seconds or so.
However, I am a bit of an excessive saver (seriously its ridiculous, I have twenty or so saves in Arcadia alone and probably possibly 100 or more overall), so I deleted about 12 of the most recent ones (not the ten most recent, i left about three from the last 15 or so).
This, through some unexplained voodoo, has solved the stuttering (as well as significantly sped up the loading of the save/load screens.)
If you are normal and only have a handful of save games, this may be completely irrelevant and i wouldn't suggest you delete all your saves, but for those people whose save habits test the boundaries, it could well be a contributing factor.
This may or may not be helpful for people, I just thought I would put it out there. Good luck.
I'd say that was a coincidence myself as whether you have 1,000 save games or one shouldn't make any difference to the running of the game, only perhaps slow down the access to the load or save screen whenever you go to it.
I'm having erratic performance since the update, sometimes the game runs fine with the odd minor hitch and other times, like the last I played it, it was hitching every time I came across a splicer and the framerate was dropping to unplayable levels when a Big Daddy appeared onscreen. As I keep saying this didn't happen AT ALL prior to the update.
R+L button worked for me. I played this game through twice, no problems. My son has started playing it, and it had the hiccups every 15-30 seconds. Tried the R+L button trickand it fixed it. If clearing the cache is all that is needed, why the heck haven't 2K released a patch that just clears the cache every time the game is booted, and every time you load a new level? That is a pretty easy fix for what seems to be the majority of people experiencing stuttering issues.
Thanks for that as it helped me resolve my issues however AFTER deleting the saves THEN I cleared the cache using the XX LB RB XX method.
I would recommend others try the same.
Cheers dude.
Because it's not just BioShock's cache; the HDD cache applies to all games you've run with the HDD attached. Also, it doesn't just cache information loaded from the DVD-ROM, but also stores any updates downloaded from Xbox Live, and all original Xbox compatibility files.
Were they to do as you suggested, they'd be forcing every other game to load data from DVD-ROM rather than the cache. What's worse, every game you have that's been patched or updated (including BioShock) would have to redownload its patch or update from Xbox Live when you played it. And just to top it off, any original Xbox games that have become supported for compatibility since the Xbox 360's launch would also have to redownload their compatibility files to be playable.
Here's a real-world example, to make this concrete: I was having the hitch problem at Fort Frolic. I cleared the cache (which didn't help). Today I put in Black (an original Xbox game). It wouldn't play until I redownloaded the compatibility update from Xbox Live. I also put in Oblivion. It needed to redownload its patches before it would be safe to play.
This is why clearing the HDD cache is considered a last resort, requiring special undocumented operations (LB+RB in BioShock, or XX LB RB XX in the system memory menu) to execute.
And you want this to happen every time BioShock runs, and every time you change levels?
Hans
I was having the same problem with the hitching, for me it started just before Fort FRolic and was hitching every 2 seconds or so. I cleared the cache both ways,(from the dashboard and in the game which didn't help a single bit! Next I tried an older save(I only have two) and voila no hitching. I dunno maybe the save games get corrupted or something.
Jajuka was spot on!
I read Jajuka's post aobut Fort Frolic and the syptoms he/she was getting. When I made my pervious post I couldnt quite remember when the hitching had started, but was well p**sed off about it all.
Anyway, after reading Jajuka's post I thought I'd continue Fort Frolic with the 2 second time lapse- hey presto- (minor spoiler) as soon as I killed the last of the four chappies - the hitching stopped almost instantly. I am now on the next level with NO Problems whatsoever.
All nice and rosie?
Well actually- no. I still cant beleive that this micky mouse company '2K' haven't bothered to address what I consider a huge defect in their program/game. It clearly isnt working as it should be, and the game testers should be sacked- or beaten - or both.
I wont buy another 2K game in the future- because I am not sure whether the same issue might arise. All they had to do- was post a message- email a few of us- or do something to reassure us that they are/were aware of the problem, and have it in hand. But no- silence is their method.
To sum up- if you're hitching every 1-2 seconds- in Fort Frolic- PLAY ON (as best as you can) and all will get better.
To be honest - all of this has kind of spolied the game for me - as I didnt play it for over a week and I have been so frustrated over not being able to play it.
Thanks Jajuka!
Montie
the only problem with this though in my case is that my game still hitches even after I did what Jajuka said to do so this "fix" is only for few people.
Good luck.
Montie
yes unfortunately the game was still hitching after I beat the entire level and was still hitching when I beat the game, the only time it didn't was when I fought the last boss...after that I've cleared the HD cache and so this next time I play through will be the moment of truth for me.
Good luck.
Montie
Dear Ken Levine,
Would you kindly recreate a thread to answer our questions about Bioshock's storyline?
Congratulations on the game being such a commercial success, its probably time to get to work on the sequel/expansion!
Best Regards,
PrivateJoker
I am experiencing the same problem. I just plan to take my game back to walmart as a defective product from the manufacture and get my money back!!
yeah I've had enough now I was playing through again and got to arcadia and big suprise the game started freezing again this is earlier than the first time I played through the game, and yes I have cleared the cache both of the game itself and that of the hard drive I've even deleted all of my old saves but to no avail. This game is a very wonderful game graphic wise and storyline wise it's just sad that I have to stop playing this game because 2K is just sitting on their asses not even acknowledging that the game has a problem. As far as I am concerned I will not be buying any 2K game in the future because if this is the way they treat just one game how would they possibly treat more. I think that 2k and EA should partner up seeing how they're both lazy with game maintenance.
Below is an email I sent to 2K customer support and their reply! It would appear that the customer support team are not aware of the hitching problems as they dont actualy refer to it, and gave me a long list of potential remedies!
My favourites are:
Dont use solvents on the play disc!
Make sure your unit is plugged in!!!!
I especially like the last line which says "STATUS - SOLVED"
LOL
Anyway- I've given up. Mine is running OK now after Fort Frolic (see previuos post)- but I cant be bothered to finish the game now. Fed up.
Montie
Subject
When are you going to sort out BIOSHOCK then?
Discussion Thread
Response (Overflow UK 4) 20/09/2007 02.54 PM
Hello Matt,
Steps for troubleshooting for Xbox 360...
1. Make sure all of your appropriate connections are functioning (Power cables and AV cables are all fully attached)
2. Make sure your game disc is free of dust and/or scratches. To clean the disc:
*Hold the disc by the edges without touching the surface with your fingers.
*Clean the disc with a soft cloth, lightly wiping from the center outwards.
*Do not use solvents or chemicals to clean the disc.
*Try to play the game again.
3. Try changing the video mode for the graphics on the xbox360. Try loading the xbox360 without the disk. Then from the tabs goto the "System" tab --> "Console Settings" --> "Display" --> "Screen format". Change this over to normal mode for me then try the game again.
4. Make sure the Time Setting on your Xbox360 is set to today's date.
5. Remove all unnecessary peripherals, and then test to see whether the problem still occurs.
6. Try clearing out the xbox360 cache folder on the hard drive. To do this turn on the xbox360 without the game inside to load the dashboard. From here make sure your controller is working and you can move around the menu. Place in the game disk and hold down the A button. Keep this button held until the game starts to load up past the intro screen.
7. If you have internet access, we suggest logging onto the internet to see if there is any patches or updates for the game. It will appear on screen if there is an update for the game when you connect online.
8. If your using a normal TV, try changing the PAL settings. Try loading the xbox360 without the disk. Then from the tabs goto the "System" tab --> "Console Settings" --> "Display" --> "PAL settings". Change this over from the current PAL setting to the other setting in use.
Customer 10/09/2007 04.56 PM
Hello kind Sir/Madam,
Silence is golden.....
Just kind of wondering when you were going to sort out your issue with the X360 version of Bioshock. Anytime soon?
Great game - but annoying beyond words that you have released this with such an issue. I will certainly think before buying anymore 2K games in the future and I am making a point of telling everyone I know of this.
Will you be bothered to respond?
I wonder.
Matt
Question Reference No070910-000286
Product Level 1: Microsoft Xbox 360
Product Level 2: BioShock
Date Created: 10/09/2007 04.56 PM
Last Updated: 20/09/2007 02.54 PM
Status: Solved
Please be sure to delete all previous correspondence when replying. This will help us to process your response in a more timely and efficient manner.
Kind Regards,
2K Games Technical Support
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