Game patch - what is it?

Of course, every gamer would like that the computer game he is acquiring is already completely completed and ready for use. However, unfortunately, such a result can not be achieved by all companies involved in development. Naturally, they do not leave everything as it is - they are constantly engaged in correcting errors. In this they are helped by special patches, which the users can then download for free. In this article, you will learn about the patch: what it is, what they are and how to use them. It is clear that with time everything changes, accordingly, the form of submission of patches also does not remain the same, but the essence remains always the same. And you should know about what the patch is.

Developing a game

Many gamers, when they are playing in another big project, do not even think about what he went through before he got into their hands. If you want to know about the patch, what it is, how to use it and why it is needed, you need to understand how computer games are created. Naturally, the whole process will not be described here, because it is incredibly long and versatile. Moreover, most of it is not vital for this issue. The most necessary thing you should know is the testing stage. When the development of the game ends, a ready and playable project is sent to alpha testing. Here, professional testers check the performance of the game, point out the shortcomings and problems that are corrected before the game is released. After this, beta testing begins, which can be open or closed. Here gamers themselves test the game and tell developers what is wrong with it - depending on the type of testing, the project is in the public domain, or a certain group of people is given the opportunity to test it. And after that final refinements and corrections are made - and the project goes on sale. However, even such an attentive and meticulous multilevel check is not always able to detect all the minuses, that's why there is such a thing as a patch. What it is? In this article, you will learn everything about patches.

What is a patch?

So now you can imagine how the game is tested, but why do you need a patch? What it is? As experts in English can easily understand, the patch is a "patch" for the game, a small program that installs into the game and fixes certain moments in it. Unfortunately, even the most multilevel check can not detect all the errors that are contained in the game - they pop up only after the release. It is here that the patch comes into force, the developers collect information about what errors are still present in the game, develop a patch for them and provide it for free download. Thus, players do not have to pay again for the version without errors - they can "patch" the already existing game. However, what are the patches? After all, there are a variety of options.

Standard patch

If you know that for a game that you have on hand, there are certain patches that you should install, you need to understand what these patches can be. The most common patch is an archive containing the necessary files, which you can copy into the game folder in accordance with the instructions contained in the same archive. However, not always developers make gamers do everything themselves - sometimes you can use a special patch program. You just need to launch it, select the game you need to patch, then select the patch that you want to install - and that's it. Fifa patches are most often released in this form, because this series is very popular and has been around for a long time, so the patcher program does not change over time, and gamers can safely patch any version of every game in the series.

Cumulative patches

Separately, we should talk about cumulative patches. For example, they very often can meet for the game "Stalker" - patches of this kind contain at once a few patches that were published earlier. So, instead of downloading each patch separately and installing them one at a time, you can download a cumulative patch that will contain all the changes to the previous patches, which is incredibly convenient.

How to patch the game?

In most cases gamers use special platforms for games, such as "Steam". There you can configure your client so that all updates that go out for the game are installed automatically. This is a very useful feature, but, unfortunately, not all games are in "Steam", so you have to learn the patch panel. As it was said before, it is possible to understand this process very simply. There are only two options: either you download the archive and transfer the files from it to the folder with the game, or you open the patch panel and specify only the path to the game and the patch, and the program does everything for you.