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Heavy Rain, BioShock 2 Delayed
Quantic Dream has announced that their much-anticipated thriller Heavy Rain is being pushed back to 2010. Co-CEO Guillaume de Fondaumiere said that the game is on-time and on-budget, but also that they don't want it to come out at the same time as many other high-profile games. "Most publishers today realize that it's not ideal to release a new IP or a new genre just before Christmas. It's a very crowded place to be, and certain games need more space to live their life. Everybody at working on the project, both at Quantic and Sony, believe this is the right time." Meanwhile, Take-Two announced that BioShock 2 would be delayed as well, backing off from their October 30th EU release date and saying it will come out during the "first half of calendar 2010."
Isn't really going to be less crowded. Maybe if they wait till late 2010...
Bioshock was not that good of a game. It removed the best parts of System Shock, consolised the gameplay and removed any challenge to the player.
Bioshock had no replay value as both choices you could have made led to exactly the same ending. There was no need to ever alter your style of play as you could carry every weapon and every power in the game at once and there were two or three over powered attacks which made it pointless to use anything else, not that it mattered as you simply just couldn't die no matter what you did. 2K completely removed any RPG elements and dumbed down the FPS elements in order to make the game accessable to consoles. If Bioshock 1 is any indication on how Bioshock 2 will turn out I'm not holding my breath for it.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
All this anticipation must be hard on a company. What with so many people wanting to buy the product, it's a tough business trying to keep them at bay until the time is right. No sense in releasing on time. It's much better to release later so that people have already spent their Christmas money. After all, if those customers are playing other games and have less money, it means that they are more likely to buy this much anticipated game.
Nothing like giving your competitors a chance to gain a foothold. Nosiree. On time and on budget! Delaying release to maximize customer demand. The logic is foolproof!
Maybe Quantic Dream will find some time to put some actual gameplay into Heavy Rain now. From what they've shown so far it's Dragon's Lair without the skill or excitement.
Honestly, folks, if I want to watch a movie, I'll watch a movie. And it probably won't have excruciatingly bad actors that you have to prod every few seconds to make them say their next line. Well, unless Keanu Reeves is in it.
A rushed game will be bad forever.
Take the time to get it right, and it will /suck less/.
Please, before all the bitching and moaning, remember - what would you prefer? A good game, or a rushed game?
I thought it was a decent game; good graphics, excellent atmosphere and really well choreographed scenes & story telling. I've not played System Shock 2, but you can't deny it was good fun. Playing it the 2nd time round is worth doing too; noticing stuff that's explained later on is good fun too - a bit like watching The Matrix the 2nd time round; suddenly everything's much clearer.
throw new NoSignatureException();
It's a well-established and much storied fact that any game, no matter how good, can get totally fucked by the Christmas rush. Pick up a back issue of MCV or Edge and you'll find plenty of rueful developers and publishers discussing how their hundred-million-dollar project simply did not sell because the top three slots were occupied by that year's EA Sports titles and a new GTA. Essentially, the game has to sell within a three month window, and if that window is occupied by six must-haves already, then everything is screwed. Even the must haves are screwed because only a small minority of gamers head out and buy a half-dozen titles in a single quarter. It becomes a lottery. No long tail exists for games retail, so once that chaotic launch window has passed, those games are off the shelves and it's all over.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
They have delayed BioShock 2 so they can actually put some interactive parts in this time. The first game was so much on rails it wasn't even funny.
It was a good looking game, and not having played system shock I didn't miss anything. The story line was quite cool, the maps were interesting and expansive. Yes it was short, but I appreciated that it didn't have a lot of the bugs and quirks I'm used to seeing in games. So I think your lack of ignorance is getting in the way of you forming an objective opinion about this game without comparing to others like it. Does every game have to build on and improve other games, or can it just be good on its own?
The interesting thing is that the big moral dilemma makes no practical difference to the game.
If you side with Werhner then you get to appoint yourself Lord of the Pitt in Ashur's place. Werhner doesn't mind, he even volunteers to keep the slaves in line so you don't need to worry about the day-to-day running of the place. You get the same perk either way, and the same benefits.
The only difference is in what the two say. Ashur tells you how in a generation there'll be no more slaves, but for now the slaves are necessary. With Werhner, the slaves may be technicallt free workers, but they still live and work in the same conditions, and are kept in line as brutally as ever, Kind of "meet the new boss, same as the old boss".
I suppose it all comes down to who you trust. Personally, I'm inclined to think both Ashur and Werhner are sincere, but I'm inclined to side with Ashur, who not only seems the more competent of the two but also lacks the bitter, vindictive streak that shows up in Werhner and Medea
Still, all things considered, the choice is about as one-dimensional, and as meaningless as that concerning the little sisters in Bioshock. I do think the Pitt's moral dilemma was far better executed than the one in Bioshock. I just couldn't really tell you why.
Not disagreeing with anything you wrote - just musing, really.
Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!