Shadowrun

Kimona has updated an earlier announcement to include new information about the second title update.

TITLE UPDATE #2 CONTENTS:

Vista Only:
1)  Fixed some user interface issues on the dedicated server administrator console.
2)  Fixed some user interface issues on the Live menus.
3)  Silver players will now show up on the recently played player list of Gold players.
4)  Fixed a hard lock that could occur under certain conditions when accepting a game invite.

Vista and 360:
1)  Implemented improvements to matchmaking.  We expect a 200-300% improvement in wait times. We’ve also added clearer status messaging.
2)  Improved sync times.  When a new player joins a game, the synching wait will be reduced.
3)  Made changes to improve party system.  Parties should be split less now, and when splitting is absolutely necessary, we attempt to regroup the party later.
4)  Changed some of the achievement descriptions to make goals clearer.
5)  Improved bot AI.

This is an overview of the changes.  We’ll post a full list when the update is closer to release.

The update is currently undergoing the Microsoft certification process which typically takes 2-3 weeks to complete. Hopefully that means we’ll have a full list of improvements and changes in the very near future.

As promised, the second update is much meatier and should help alleviate many gamer’s frustrations. A 200-300% improvement in wait times? That’s pretty impressive. The party-splitting issue was a topic of hot debate just after release, but many players later agreed that the problem was not as bad as initially perceived. Hopefully this update will settle that issue as well.

If you don’t see everything you wanted on this list, don’t fret just yet. This is only an overview of changes for the second update. I expect to see at least one more patch coming down the line in the relatively near future. How else does FASA plan on giving the victors their spoils? Perhaps they will bundle the new bot names in with other fixes.