Bear in mind Gamespot was playing an early demo where they only got up to the first boss, so who knows what the rest of the game will be like? Also, if I'm not mistaken, they did mention that there was a bit of travelling involved in getting to the first boss, so it won't be just boss fight after boss fight. At least I hope not:-)
I think it goes further than this. Creativity in a game by itself does not automatically imply that the game will not sell. Rather, publishers sell "creative" titles as higher risk, therefore the likelihood of a hit is lower.
Beyond Good and Evil, as you mentioned, was an excellent title that did not sell well. And yet, everyone I've ever introduced it to (a pool of perhaps 8 people, gamers and non-gamers) were amazed by it.
Unforunately for BGOE, the publisher (Ubisoft) was releasing two "risky" titles in the same month: this one and the recent Prince of Persia remake (Sands of Time, not Warrior Within). They opted to put 90% of their marketing money into PoP (a tiny bit less risky because it was not a completely new license), and literally were relying on "word of mouth" to sell BGOE, which obviously failed. Had Ubisoft put more marketing into BGOE, I honestly believe it would have been a hit.
Related article on Gamespy from Tim Schafer's recent presentation. My favorite quote:
What disturbed him the most was this actual quote from an executive at a large publisher: "This is really great. This is creative. It's too bad people aren't going for creative stuff right now."
They were definitely at the last E3, and I walked through their booth, largely unimpressed by what I saw.
They were demoing a few games, but beyond puzzle-type games the only thing I saw mildly interesting was UT2K4 (or maybe 2K3, unsure), which, of course, I'd rather play on a PC. They also had this keyboard+mouse stylized controller which looked ok, but as far as I could tell, was not wireless.
It's a pretty big mystery to me who they think their target audience is. Not moi, for sure. At least I got a free T-Shirt that has the Phantom logo and says "I believe". I'm guessing it'll be good for a few laughs in a couple years.
Yeah -- after playing both ICO and PoP, IMHO, it definitely feels like several moments in PoP were inspired from ICO (I could swear there was a bridge-lowering puzzle that was extremely similar).
Either way, both are great games, but ICO had a "feel" that stayed with me. If you liked PoP, you should definitely check out ICO (although PoP's combat system, of course, was better than ICO's).
I've played this (well, ok, watched someone play it). It is indeed very "new-agey", and mostly consists of Shockwave-driven screens of nice 3DS MAX renders that reminded me of Myst.
The finger monitors do work -- usually involve controlling your heartrate and breathing to do things like make on-screen objects move (lighting a fire, juggling balls, etc). It's actually somewhat neat, when you see it. As pointed out, this isn't monitoring brainwave patterns, but is another form of biofeedback.
I can't honestly say much about the actual game-aspect of the game itself. It seemed Myst-like, with some video-filmed actors composited into the rendered scenes. There was a certain amount of cheese-factor, but if you forgave that, it was clear a fair amount of work went into it.
As a game developer, I can't say that this'll take off. But it's not really intended for gamers anyway -- it's more for those who want to experiment with biofeedback in an interesting setting, and at this, it seems to succeed.
Yep. I worked on a game which was being published by EA, but done at a third party development studio. EA specifically told us that our company logo would not be on the box, or shown at the title-screen of the game (this was part of the contract). The reasoning was that EA wants the consumer to think that the game comes solely from EA -- it's a branding thing. At least we did get credit (by name) in the end-game credits.
Personally, I think it's stupid, since it's often just a logo. But for a publisher like EA, its usually a take-it-or-leave-it kind of deal, and smaller dev houses sometimes can't bargin these sort of details.
Generally speaking, only hard-core gamers are aware of the large number of smaller dev houses doing games. Developers aren't always in it for the glory though.
Absolutely agree with the suggestion for fewer mini-games. I understand where they were going with this (variety in gameplay to mix things up), but I could have done without the driving mini-game when I was looking for pure platformer action.
I'm probably alone in this, but as for 3D platformers on the PS2, I enjoyed Maximo more than the original R&C, Sly Cooper or Jak. All of them were well done and enjoyable, but I guess I liked Maximo's fairly "pure platformer" approach, and the character was semi-familiar.
However, I have to agree with another poster that Mario64 was one of the best 3D platformers of all time.
It's somewhat elitist and "OWNED", but you can say the same sort of thing about other online games. Sometimes it takes a company that's in it for the money to make a solid entertainment product. Other times, this fails horribly. Haven't tried There, so I can't say where they're headed.
As for an open 3D worlds system, it's a fine idea, but would require a lot of focused work (far more than, say, creating a MUD or the like). VRML collapsed under the weight of 'too many cooks', although X3D is alive and kicking. Even with X3D, a great client application, and serious server hardware, it would still take a large number of "clever hackers" to maintain a "open 3D world" system.
Wait, I don't understand -- Maya is already available on Linux. We use it at the studio I work for. As far as the GPL thing goes, it's somewhat unlikely, given that Alias/Wavefront wouldn't have much income if they went that route...there's a fair amount of proprietary stuff in Maya.
The DVD lasers fail after about 9 months to a year
You know, I've heard this before, and I don't doubt it's largely true -- the PS2 in general has a flimsy feel to it.
But here's the exception to the rule I guess. I've had my PS2 for over 2 years. The same one. It's even been knocked around a bit (used to stand it on its end, stopped doing that). And, it still works flawlessly on DVDs and games, and I use it pretty regularly. Of course, as soon as I type this, it'll probably stop working.
If you're talking about the boss that forms a giant running man out of cubes, yep, he was pretty cool. However, IMHO, it's mainly because of the area you fight him in (running through 'corridors') -- he makes another appearance in level 5, but since it's an enclosed space, it's not as cool (again, IMHO).
In DOOM II, you have to use the noclip cheat to actually know that it's Romero's head you're shooting, as I recall. Otherwise, it's just some hole in the wall/giant demon face.
Yep. It was a "bonus" stage I believe where you got a certain amount of time to destroy the car. Afterwards, there was a short sequence that used one of the standard bad guys who came from off-screen right, "dropped" to his knees and was theoretically saying "Oh my car". Oddly, I always thought he was saying "Oh my God". Goes to show how bad the sound quality was I guess.
Slashdot Mirror
here
Bear in mind Gamespot was playing an early demo where they only got up to the first boss, so who knows what the rest of the game will be like? Also, if I'm not mistaken, they did mention that there was a bit of travelling involved in getting to the first boss, so it won't be just boss fight after boss fight. At least I hope not :-)
Will they get The Rock to grow his hair out and play John Romero? Yikes.
I think it goes further than this. Creativity in a game by itself does not automatically imply that the game will not sell. Rather, publishers sell "creative" titles as higher risk, therefore the likelihood of a hit is lower.
Beyond Good and Evil, as you mentioned, was an excellent title that did not sell well. And yet, everyone I've ever introduced it to (a pool of perhaps 8 people, gamers and non-gamers) were amazed by it.
Unforunately for BGOE, the publisher (Ubisoft) was releasing two "risky" titles in the same month: this one and the recent Prince of Persia remake (Sands of Time, not Warrior Within). They opted to put 90% of their marketing money into PoP (a tiny bit less risky because it was not a completely new license), and literally were relying on "word of mouth" to sell BGOE, which obviously failed. Had Ubisoft put more marketing into BGOE, I honestly believe it would have been a hit.
Related article on Gamespy from Tim Schafer's recent presentation. My favorite quote:
What disturbed him the most was this actual quote from an executive at a large publisher: "This is really great. This is creative. It's too bad people aren't going for creative stuff right now."
They were definitely at the last E3, and I walked through their booth, largely unimpressed by what I saw.
They were demoing a few games, but beyond puzzle-type games the only thing I saw mildly interesting was UT2K4 (or maybe 2K3, unsure), which, of course, I'd rather play on a PC. They also had this keyboard+mouse stylized controller which looked ok, but as far as I could tell, was not wireless.
It's a pretty big mystery to me who they think their target audience is. Not moi, for sure. At least I got a free T-Shirt that has the Phantom logo and says "I believe". I'm guessing it'll be good for a few laughs in a couple years.
This has apparently been dismissed as a false rumor from Bungie themselves.
Yeah -- after playing both ICO and PoP, IMHO, it definitely feels like several moments in PoP were inspired from ICO (I could swear there was a bridge-lowering puzzle that was extremely similar).
Either way, both are great games, but ICO had a "feel" that stayed with me. If you liked PoP, you should definitely check out ICO (although PoP's combat system, of course, was better than ICO's).
I've played this (well, ok, watched someone play it). It is indeed very "new-agey", and mostly consists of Shockwave-driven screens of nice 3DS MAX renders that reminded me of Myst.
The finger monitors do work -- usually involve controlling your heartrate and breathing to do things like make on-screen objects move (lighting a fire, juggling balls, etc). It's actually somewhat neat, when you see it. As pointed out, this isn't monitoring brainwave patterns, but is another form of biofeedback.
I can't honestly say much about the actual game-aspect of the game itself. It seemed Myst-like, with some video-filmed actors composited into the rendered scenes. There was a certain amount of cheese-factor, but if you forgave that, it was clear a fair amount of work went into it.
As a game developer, I can't say that this'll take off. But it's not really intended for gamers anyway -- it's more for those who want to experiment with biofeedback in an interesting setting, and at this, it seems to succeed.
Yep. I worked on a game which was being published by EA, but done at a third party development studio. EA specifically told us that our company logo would not be on the box, or shown at the title-screen of the game (this was part of the contract). The reasoning was that EA wants the consumer to think that the game comes solely from EA -- it's a branding thing. At least we did get credit (by name) in the end-game credits.
Personally, I think it's stupid, since it's often just a logo. But for a publisher like EA, its usually a take-it-or-leave-it kind of deal, and smaller dev houses sometimes can't bargin these sort of details.
Generally speaking, only hard-core gamers are aware of the large number of smaller dev houses doing games. Developers aren't always in it for the glory though.
Absolutely agree with the suggestion for fewer mini-games. I understand where they were going with this (variety in gameplay to mix things up), but I could have done without the driving mini-game when I was looking for pure platformer action.
I've found non-gamers treat games like Virtua Tennis like a electronic form of ping-pong. Simple, yet addictive.
Very true. In fact, GBA games currently come in small boxes, that most folks I know toss immediately.
NDL's GameBryo is the "next generation" of NetImmerse. Take a gander at the following interview for some info.
I've got an old SS10 that's working but otherwise useless (only 32MB of RAM) that should get disposed of properly. Any suggestions?
I'm probably alone in this, but as for 3D platformers on the PS2, I enjoyed Maximo more than the original R&C, Sly Cooper or Jak. All of them were well done and enjoyable, but I guess I liked Maximo's fairly "pure platformer" approach, and the character was semi-familiar.
However, I have to agree with another poster that Mario64 was one of the best 3D platformers of all time.
Jumpin Jesus on a pogo stick!! I just notice that Elite didn't even make the list. I call shenannigans on this whole thing!!
I agree -- now the whole list is suspect.
It's somewhat elitist and "OWNED", but you can say the same sort of thing about other online games. Sometimes it takes a company that's in it for the money to make a solid entertainment product. Other times, this fails horribly. Haven't tried There, so I can't say where they're headed.
As for an open 3D worlds system, it's a fine idea, but would require a lot of focused work (far more than, say, creating a MUD or the like). VRML collapsed under the weight of 'too many cooks', although X3D is alive and kicking. Even with X3D, a great client application, and serious server hardware, it would still take a large number of "clever hackers" to maintain a "open 3D world" system.
Wait, I don't understand -- Maya is already available on Linux. We use it at the studio I work for. As far as the GPL thing goes, it's somewhat unlikely, given that Alias/Wavefront wouldn't have much income if they went that route...there's a fair amount of proprietary stuff in Maya.
I own one, and yes, in fact, PS2Linux is pretty slow. Not something you want to try running Mozilla on.
It's really more for game developer hobbyists.
The DVD lasers fail after about 9 months to a year
You know, I've heard this before, and I don't doubt it's largely true -- the PS2 in general has a flimsy feel to it.
But here's the exception to the rule I guess. I've had my PS2 for over 2 years. The same one. It's even been knocked around a bit (used to stand it on its end, stopped doing that). And, it still works flawlessly on DVDs and games, and I use it pretty regularly. Of course, as soon as I type this, it'll probably stop working.
Sadly, I think Blizzard (well, ok, Nihilistic, with Blizzard providing 'executive' support) is only releasing this one on consoles.
If you're talking about the boss that forms a giant running man out of cubes, yep, he was pretty cool. However, IMHO, it's mainly because of the area you fight him in (running through 'corridors') -- he makes another appearance in level 5, but since it's an enclosed space, it's not as cool (again, IMHO).
In DOOM II, you have to use the noclip cheat to actually know that it's Romero's head you're shooting, as I recall. Otherwise, it's just some hole in the wall/giant demon face.
Yep. It was a "bonus" stage I believe where you got a certain amount of time to destroy the car. Afterwards, there was a short sequence that used one of the standard bad guys who came from off-screen right, "dropped" to his knees and was theoretically saying "Oh my car". Oddly, I always thought he was saying "Oh my God". Goes to show how bad the sound quality was I guess.
if you like fiction based on arcade machines that never existed?