You need to look at the companies you just listed.
The best game developers...
- Thread starter riddler
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You need to look at the companies you just listed.
Valve,
Firaxis, (Civ etc..)
The Creative Assembly, (Total War)
Paradox Interactive, (EU, HOI, Still very close to the community)
Maxis, (for Sim city and hopefully spore)
I would have said Blizzard, before WoW turned them into money w****s.
Firaxis, (Civ etc..)
The Creative Assembly, (Total War)
Paradox Interactive, (EU, HOI, Still very close to the community)
Maxis, (for Sim city and hopefully spore)
I would have said Blizzard, before WoW turned them into money w****s.
Soldato
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nothing wrong with sequels when they innovate mate. If you can name a studio that wouldnt do them id like to hear it. games from these studios have blown people away - half life ep 1 + 2 are boring.
when i look at oblivion or COD 4 i can see where the time and effort has gone - when i look at half lifes episods i just think they have produced the same game again with very few new ideas. portal was great but it was a budget production - we need to see something with a new story from valve an new franchise - and i feel this point is made doubly when we realise how much money Valve has.
Half life is done now.
the only question you need to ask is this: what impact have the half life episodes had in comparrison to the latest games by these companies?.
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Personally I think Episode 2 was excellent. Imo, the best part of the HL2 series. Episode 1 was ok, but it was just more of the same.
Maybe to you, but to others it blew them away. That's why it has a Metacritic score of 96, and has won god knows how many game awards.
Even though I love CoD4, I don't see where the innovation is, pretty much just a mod for CoD2. The MP is excellent though, and that is why it is a highly rated game. But if you look at the latest Valve release, the next episode in the Half Life series, with an excellent story. TF2 arguable the best MP game released last year and Portal easily the best game of last year. Then you look at Oblivion and I think most people would argree they took a step back with Oblivion, to make it friendly for console players (nothing wrong with that, but it's not reallly inovation).
Compare this to the innovation with Steam. The games coming out this year, Left 4 Dead, The Crossing, adding match making features on all their MP games. And the excellent mod support they offer.
This is when you start to see how good Valve are.
Half Life is far from over.
Half Life is far from over.
It isn't, but I wish it was.
I loved the Half Life series, I think it's an excellent fps. But at this point, I'm bored silly of the Half Life IP. Just how far are they gonna stretch it? The G-Man stepping in at the last minute to save the day to churn out another expansion/episode is old.
It's like watching Lost, the tv series -- only with that, it's still mildly compelling. Just end Half Life already and create another flagship title, away from Gordon, away from the G-Man and away from the Black Mesa setting. Give us the conclusion and stop milking it.
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Its easy for everyone to think of the big developers but I am surprised no one has mentioned some of the smaller ones such as Introversion.
Currently working on their 4th game but the other 3 are original and fun. I still go back and play Uplink and Darwinia now. Never a big fan of Defcom though.
Currently working on their 4th game but the other 3 are original and fun. I still go back and play Uplink and Darwinia now. Never a big fan of Defcom though.
Soldato
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haha EA in this thread is hilarious, last good game they made was James Pond on the megadrive.
Soldato
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Maybe to you, but to others it blew them away. That's why it has a Metacritic score of 96, and has won god knows how many game awards.
Even though I love CoD4, I don't see where the innovation is, pretty much just a mod for CoD2. The MP is excellent though, and that is why it is a highly rated game. But if you look at the latest Valve release, the next episode in the Half Life series, with an excellent story. TF2 arguable the best MP game released last year and Portal easily the best game of last year. Then you look at Oblivion and I think most people would argree they took a step back with Oblivion, to make it friendly for console players (nothing wrong with that, but it's not reallly inovation).
Compare this to the innovation with Steam. The games coming out this year, Left 4 Dead, The Crossing, adding match making features on all their MP games. And the excellent mod support they offer.
This is when you start to see how good Valve are.
Half Life is far from over.
err i think it was pretty obvious that I mean Half life was old/boring when i said it was done
I'm being totally honest when i say that i genuinely believe much of the praise for the half life franchise is a mixture of nostalgia of HL1/fear of going against the grain and fanboyism. There is nothing really in the half life 2 franchise that should blow anyone away and stretcing it out into HL" epidsodes is a money spinning insult. ep2 got 9/10 in most places but i failt to see why though it is better than ep1. I accept though that this is my opinion and nothing more but thats why we are here. I was looking forward to HL2 as much as anyone but when i played it I was bored and no one has been able to explain why it is so great - nice physics engine and good breeding aside
steam is irrelevent - we're talking about innovative game development.
MP is not the sole reason why COD 4 is a highly rated game it has one fo the best stories in recent years and has received unreserved praise from...basically everyone - it has had a huge impact far greater then ep2 and that was my point. when you look at the size of IF in comparrison to Valve it makes it even more impressive.
When you look at Oblivion and the experience/size/scope along with the mod community you can see the enormous impact it has had and where all the dev time went - people still love oblivion and replay it after all these years. you may think it has been dumbed down, as i do, but its still a very special game indeed.
as has been said above - I know we havent seen the last of HL but i wish we had - time to move on. Jesus even portal was set in the Hlaf life world for goodness sake.
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I'm being totally honest when i say that i genuinely believe much of the praise for the half life franchise is a mixture of nostalgia of HL1/fear of going against the grain and fanboyism. There is nothing really in the half life 2 franchise that should blow anyone away. ep2 got 9/10 in most places but i failt to see why though it is better than ep1. I accept though that this is my opinion and nothing more but thats why we are here. I was looking forward to HL2 as much as anyone but when i played it I was bored and no one has been able to explain why it is so great - nice physics engine and good breeding aside
steam is irrelevent - we're talking about innovative game development.
MP is not the sole reason why COD 4 is a highly rated game it has one fo the best stories in recent years and has received unreserved praise from...basically everyone - it has had a huge impact far greater then ep2 and that was my point. when you look at the size of IF in comparrison to Valve it makes it even more impressive.
When you look at Oblivion and the experience/size/scope along with the mod community you can see the enormous impact it has had and where all the dev time went - people still love oblivion and replay it after all these years. you may think it has been dumbed down, as i do, but its still a very special game indeed.
as has been said above - I know we havent seen the last of HL but i wish we had - time to move on.
Well we're talking about innovation, and while you might not find the HL2 story intresting (I know I do). You can't argue that HL2 didn't push the bounderies of game innovation with the graphics, mavity gun, facial animation, character animation, speech and so on.
I think Steam should be included in as well, because it offers a way for devs to make sure everyone is using the latest build of their game. And now with the other features like friend lists, community features to arrange games, in-game speech (not just for Valve games) it definitely adds to the experience of using their products.
I know what you're saying about CoD4 and Oblivion as well, both amazing games. But I just do see the innovation. Oblivion wasn't the biggest world they'd made, didn't have as many characters or side quests. It only really pushed the graphics, which you'd expect from any next-gen game these days.