I don't ask for much from the gaming industry. I sat through the death of the arcades, I endure the unending popularity of the wii, I drown in scores of pompous adolecents gumming up online play, and I've accepted the fact that a truly creative game only comes along once a year. It all paints an elaborate picture of the entropic suck thats consuming my beloved hobby and by some herculean effort I've learned to live with it. But goddamnit; If this game sucks, someone is going to have to pay.
I implore you Eidos / DC / Rocksteady / any god that will listen. Hulk did it. Spiderman did it twice. The Xmen? They've done it a couple times. This is Batman's chance. All Batman's done right in 30 years of digital game development is some crummy beat'm ups, crap fatalities and a playful romp through legoland. Please please please please please let this game be good.
Please?!
-F.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
This whole Battlefront III thing.
First off, digest this;
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/946/946024p1.html
Long story short, the third row iphone blurry cam footage circulated the net about a week ago and was championed by fans of the Battlefront series. Shortly thereafter, Star Wars fans in general got a chubby because apparently we just can't get enough of having our hopes and dreams and fond memories of the series shit upon. Now the entire internet community is up in arms because the EVIL CORPORATE GAMES INDUSTRY HATE MACHINE put a bullet in the brainpan of the developer who made it all happen.
Now, I'm a little bit late to the party. I remember reading something about a Battlefront III footage last week on some site or blog or twitter or something, but I passed over it. Why? Because the Battlefront series is so so at best. I don't think there's a Star Wars fanboy in the world that wouldn't admit that star wars as a whole is tired, but a series of half cooked over the shoulder shooters that do nothing but retread the same tired territory that other games have done far better has never been the solution.
You see, a new game, with a new story, with new characters (See: The Force Unleashed) is interesting, even if a little flawed. Mowing down storm troopers with rebels, jedi, clones, or even other storm troopers for the thousandth time is not. Who cares about a game that just barely pulls together the shootey, adventurey, flyey, forcey excitement of Star Wars when so many others have done it so much better, lately? X-Wing? Rogue Anything? Dark Forces? KOTOR? Any of these games ring a bell?
So you can understand how I may have glossed over the news that there was some footage of yet another shoulder mounted trip down desert ice planet coruscant memory lane. But then a trusted associate of mine pointed me to said footage and said I had to look at it, and so I did. And you know what? I'm not impressed. I've jumped around the net now a couple times, read a few impressions of it, and the only thing it appears to do that hasn't been done before (outside of allow people to play as Jar Jar and an Ewok, for some reason) is the ground to space to orbit free form thing. Now, don't get me wrong. That is in fact awesome. But does it change the fact that the rest of the trailer looks as boring as that series has led us to be?
Mindless running around in open spaces shooting / forcing at whatever with a variety identically playing characters. Boring ship to ship combat that makes Star Fox all range mode look like . . well, Star Wars oughta look. And a really well laid out jedi fight segment that looks like a cinema at best, and a quick time event at worst. I mean honestly people. These are the guys who made HAZE. You could argue in favor of Timesplitters. Those are actually moderately entertaining, but HAZE. . . really.
Don't get me wrong. I love hating the machine, I especially like fighting for games that get killed by "the man." But this wasn't going to be some grand redemption for a metric truckload of terrible Star Wars games. This was going to be another reminder that Vista sucks a big one because you can't run real dos games (X-Wing series) or N64 emulators (Rogue Squadron) on it.
You want to know what really excited me about this footage? This;
I am evil obi wan!
I am evil obi wan!
Sure, it wasn't going to be the main plot of the thing. Hell it was probably just going to be an extra that got chucked on the obligatory behind the scenes dvd of cutting room crap you would have much rather played than what was actually in the game, but at least it was something interesting. And thats a sad thing to say, considering its just the old "take a real good guy, and make him bad play". I don't care. Thats how lame star wars was.
You want to know what the best part about Force Unleashed was? Being able to run around the star wars planets, using star wars powers, with star wars music, without running into Han Solo or Chewie or goddamned Yoda for the seven hundredth time. I mean, does the entire Long Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far Far Away revolve around the action of a group of about 10 people?
Bah, I digress. The point is. Don't cry for this game, because it was going to disappoint you anyway.
-F.
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/946/946024p1.html
Long story short, the third row iphone blurry cam footage circulated the net about a week ago and was championed by fans of the Battlefront series. Shortly thereafter, Star Wars fans in general got a chubby because apparently we just can't get enough of having our hopes and dreams and fond memories of the series shit upon. Now the entire internet community is up in arms because the EVIL CORPORATE GAMES INDUSTRY HATE MACHINE put a bullet in the brainpan of the developer who made it all happen.
Now, I'm a little bit late to the party. I remember reading something about a Battlefront III footage last week on some site or blog or twitter or something, but I passed over it. Why? Because the Battlefront series is so so at best. I don't think there's a Star Wars fanboy in the world that wouldn't admit that star wars as a whole is tired, but a series of half cooked over the shoulder shooters that do nothing but retread the same tired territory that other games have done far better has never been the solution.
You see, a new game, with a new story, with new characters (See: The Force Unleashed) is interesting, even if a little flawed. Mowing down storm troopers with rebels, jedi, clones, or even other storm troopers for the thousandth time is not. Who cares about a game that just barely pulls together the shootey, adventurey, flyey, forcey excitement of Star Wars when so many others have done it so much better, lately? X-Wing? Rogue Anything? Dark Forces? KOTOR? Any of these games ring a bell?
So you can understand how I may have glossed over the news that there was some footage of yet another shoulder mounted trip down desert ice planet coruscant memory lane. But then a trusted associate of mine pointed me to said footage and said I had to look at it, and so I did. And you know what? I'm not impressed. I've jumped around the net now a couple times, read a few impressions of it, and the only thing it appears to do that hasn't been done before (outside of allow people to play as Jar Jar and an Ewok, for some reason) is the ground to space to orbit free form thing. Now, don't get me wrong. That is in fact awesome. But does it change the fact that the rest of the trailer looks as boring as that series has led us to be?
Mindless running around in open spaces shooting / forcing at whatever with a variety identically playing characters. Boring ship to ship combat that makes Star Fox all range mode look like . . well, Star Wars oughta look. And a really well laid out jedi fight segment that looks like a cinema at best, and a quick time event at worst. I mean honestly people. These are the guys who made HAZE. You could argue in favor of Timesplitters. Those are actually moderately entertaining, but HAZE. . . really.
Don't get me wrong. I love hating the machine, I especially like fighting for games that get killed by "the man." But this wasn't going to be some grand redemption for a metric truckload of terrible Star Wars games. This was going to be another reminder that Vista sucks a big one because you can't run real dos games (X-Wing series) or N64 emulators (Rogue Squadron) on it.
You want to know what really excited me about this footage? This;
I am evil obi wan!
I am evil obi wan!
Sure, it wasn't going to be the main plot of the thing. Hell it was probably just going to be an extra that got chucked on the obligatory behind the scenes dvd of cutting room crap you would have much rather played than what was actually in the game, but at least it was something interesting. And thats a sad thing to say, considering its just the old "take a real good guy, and make him bad play". I don't care. Thats how lame star wars was.
You want to know what the best part about Force Unleashed was? Being able to run around the star wars planets, using star wars powers, with star wars music, without running into Han Solo or Chewie or goddamned Yoda for the seven hundredth time. I mean, does the entire Long Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far Far Away revolve around the action of a group of about 10 people?
Bah, I digress. The point is. Don't cry for this game, because it was going to disappoint you anyway.
-F.
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