Evolve’s Big Alpha Testing a Success Despite Issues

This past Halloween weekend Turtle Rock Studios released their “Big Alpha” testing for those who had pre-ordered Evolve. It was a weekend of highs and some lows for the company, but overall, it appears that Big Alpha was a success.

The testing began October 30th for Xbox One users and October 31st for PC and PS4 users. It started well for Xbox players with only some issues with server overloads, but not surprising given the number of people attempting to play all at once. The real issues arose for PC and PS4 players. The PC version had issues with matchmaking in the beginning, but Turtle Rock Studios was quick to respond with a patch. After that initial glitch, PC players were ready for hunting season. PS4 players were the odd man out this weekend. There were conflicts between the Big Alpha and the PlayStation Network update that occurred right before the testing weekend; as such, Turtle Rock Studios decided to postpone the PS4 testing until they resolved the issue. This morning, the studio posted news that testing would officially open for PS4 players and testing for all platforms would be extended until November 4th. Good news for every Evolve player!

Turtle Rock Studios’ Big Alpha testing went well. IGN’s Marty Sliva had a blast testing the game this weekend, playing for nearly twelve hours straight. Most players did not have complaints about actual gameplay. In fact, the majority of the complaints were with launching the game and waiting for matchmaking. There were several complaints of the game black screening after the opening and most players had issues with long waits for matchmaking. Turtle Rock Studios did a great job handling the arising issues and addressing concerns. They released regular updates to players and were constantly monitoring online play. One look at their twitter feed from this past weekend confirms this. Considering the fact that this game still has four months until launch, Evolve looks super polished. It is refreshing to see a proactive studio looking to head off any future bugs or concerns. I look forward to hunting season opening February 10th, 2015.