Malleus on 18/11/2009 at 13:03
Pandemic, huh? The only games I played from them were the Full Spectrum Warrior games, which were nothing short of awesome IMO. Only problem is that they abandoned the franchise about the moment the second one was released and it was left with serious, even game breaking bugs. I had to ask for a completed profile to be able to finish it. It was still great though.
Eldron on 18/11/2009 at 13:06
Quote Posted by Malf
Eldron, just to say, Bionic Commando is one of my favourite games this year.
While people complained about radiation, the difficulty of the swing mechanics and it not being an open-world game, I'd like to think I saw where you guys were coming from with the game.
It's a very literal translation of the 2D game into a 3D environment, with restricted, linear levels, and gameplay that requires concentration from the player.
In addition, criticism of the ludicrous story is facile I find; after all, this is a Bionic Commando game, where everything is fantastical in the first place. It's not meant to make sense, it's just meant to be gloriously bombastic and silly.
I only have a couple of criticisms:
In-game advertising was intrusive.
I was disappointed that there weren't any challenge rooms, especially after the tutorials which recalled the look and feel of Re-armed's challenge rooms.
And it's a shame the map wasn't reproduced allowing for easier replay of particularly great levels while retaining rewards. Level select felt like a half-implemented feature.
I'm guessing a lot of this was down to the pressures you mentioned.
its probably those things you'd go back to as a developer in a sequel and fix up, if we could've, gone back to the areas that just didn't work good, and make them better.
it did lack some of the extra polish that for example rearmed had, the small details that made it stand out a bit extra, challenge rooms for example.
EvaUnit02 on 18/11/2009 at 13:17
I was very disappointed that Rearmed only had local co-op, no online play. That being said, the final product was one of the most awesome games of 2008.
I recently played through Wanted: Weapons of Fate (PC) and had quite a bit of fun with that. Excellent bargain bin calibre title. Polished game with some enjoyable mechanics. Too bad that it was very short.
What I played of Terminator Salvation was dreadful though. Bad visuals and animations, unpolished mechanics and patheticly made in-game cutscenes (they looked like something out of a 1998 Monolith FPS).
Shadowcat on 18/11/2009 at 15:45
Sorry to see the Battlezone devs go down. (Sad that we haven't had very much else like Battlezone since then, too.)
Jason Moyer on 18/11/2009 at 17:28
They made Battlezone? Or are you thinking of Ballistics?
Malleus on 18/11/2009 at 17:29
They made Battlezone II (in 1999), actually. EDIT: I mean Pandemic.
Jason Moyer on 18/11/2009 at 17:32
Pandemic closed down?
I'm confused.
Edit: Oh, shit, nevermind, I guess they did. Bummer, I liked most of their games.
Phatose on 18/11/2009 at 18:26
You know what the problem is here?
Indie Studios is a very large category. By it's nature, there is very little hype except based on quality of the game. So chances are, even if most indie games suck very, very badly, you will never hear about them.
So, somehow we end up imagining Indie Developers are some kind of folk-heroes, producing high quality imaginative titles on a limited budget. The reality is that a few are doing that, and we hear about them - but the vast majority of the useless fuckers are making garbage that never gets mentioned.
Perhaps we should be upset about the few Indie Dev houses we know produced titles we liked but went under anyway, and not mourn the entire category as if those houses were representative of the entire group. Cause they ain't.
gunsmoke on 18/11/2009 at 19:55
Quote Posted by Aerothorn
Yeah, saw that. Bummer. Admittedly, this probably had a lot to do with the fact that Mercenaries 2 was expected to sell a bajillion copies and then everyone hated it.
Of course, the only games of theirs I every played were Mercenaries (which was decent) and Destroy All Humans (which...had issues).
Full Spectrum Warrior/Ten Hammers, MechWarrior 2, Star Wars:Battlefront 1-2 were all impressive.
That said, I need a copy of the 2 Full Spectrum Warrior games for Xbox or possibly PC. Anyone selling? Those were extremely innovative. Removing direct control from the player in a military shooter was an extremely bold move. Extremely bold. It just happened to work in this case. Not sure if it sold well, but they reviewed in the 8's and were were generally well received by the public.
Mercenaries 1 borders on amazing. It took GTA out of the fucking city and gave a military setting with a 'ripped from the headlines' storyline. Being able to destroy nearly every single solitary thing in the world with gorgeous explosion effects was unheard of for that gen. Especially the lil' ol' PS2. The Xbox version was beautiful, and it is a shame the GameCube version was cancelled. That was a genre sorely under-represented on that console.
I have Destroy All Humans 1 for Xbox 1. Meh. I couldn't play it more than a couple hours before it got monotonous. Maybe I should try it again. I paid a lot for it, and would like to get some sort I had HIGH hopes for it. It sounded amazingly fresh, what with the GTA-styled open world and missions, set in the '50s (complete with the Aliens and their technology being modeled after the Sci-Fi trends of the day), and the humor. I have never played the sequel, and know next to nothing about it. I have heard that the FURTHER sequels (like the 360 and Wii games) are getting worse with each iteration, though I believe they were developed by a different developer.
N'Al on 18/11/2009 at 20:29
As I mentioned above, the Pandemic-developed Destroy All Humans 2 is great. Fixes pretty much everything that made DAH 1 meh. Well worth a look.
