Romero's New Gig 113
Eurogamer is reporting on John Romero's newest endeavor, a studio designing a Massive game. Slipgate Ironworks is currently hiring, to work on ... a game. From the article: "The site doesn't offer many clues to the game's nature (although it does reveal that it will include weapons. And animation. And light!), but we do know from Romero's public comments that it will be ready 'when it's done' and isn't down for a 2007 release as some reports have speculated." I'm sure it will be up to the standards of Mr. Romero's numerous other good works.
zombies? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:zombies? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:zombies? (Score:2)
Re:zombies? (Score:1)
Re:zombies? (Score:2)
Instead of different "zones" which have the same game play going on, each zone could be in a different state of time after the "plague" started. Once all the "survivors" were dead you would re-start the zone.
Re:zombies? (Score:2)
That game was enough to make a person want to gag themself with a daikatana...sharp end first.
Let's all hope in unison that whatever game he DOES make bears NO resemblance to that festival of tragety.
Rockstars! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:3, Interesting)
What about Half Life's gravity gun? What about Black's art style? What about Prey's... EVERYTHING?
Yeah, there are only so many ways you can shoot a guy in the crotch, but FPS is the (second?) best selling genre on PC so people aren't getting tired of the genre yet.
Then again, I never thought I'd find fairly good shooters boring, but somehow paying $5 each for Operation Snowblind and Pariah felt like I got over
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:2)
It's funny you should mention Prey... I'm not sure that anything about the game really qualifies as "new" anymore. The original game was proposed over ten years ago, and the "Native American guy gets abducted and must kick ass" angle has been intact since 1996 [apogeegames.com].
There were non-interactive demos at E3 in 1997 which showed off
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:2)
Only because you haven't played it yet! Between the portals and the antigravity walkways there is TONS of new strategy and life in this shooter in terms of blasting and puzzle solving. You really have to see these features to understand the gravity (yuk yuk) of these design additions. I'm not much on multiplayer games but I might try a deathmatch or two just to try out the mechanics.
Also, not that it's new per se, the voice acting is really excellent in this ga
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:2)
Well... yeah, except for the fact that I have. The demo, that is. I don't play, online or otherwise, as much as I used to since becoming a father, but I downloaded the demo for Prey to give it a shot. I found the dialogue to be incredibly obnoxious - I actually took extra care not to let my wife (who was an anthropolgy major in college) hear any of the audio, not just because the squishy flesh-rending sounds would bother her, but because the script is so lame. At lea
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:2)
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:2)
Not really. Halo was a medicore FPS but the only semi-decent one on xbox. If you have a platform/console userbase of several hundreds thousands of users and release only one reasonably good game of given genre, it must be a commercial success. Assuming every third user of XBox wants to play some FPS, for every third xbox a copy of Halo will be sold. Simply be
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:1)
On top of that, I'm really starting to get sick of all the high and mighty "I'm a PC gamer and I know everything, if a FPS doesn't have mouse+keyboard it sucks"
Bottom line is the game sold xboxes for a reason.
I mean, this generation is making me feel more and more like retiring from 'hardcore gaming' entirely. Maybe I could get some extra work done, or force my transcript to be less ugly. . .
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:2)
I don't deny it's a good game. But is it the best FPS you played ever? Didn't you play better ones on PC? Halo wasn't revolutionary, but still was one of quite a few. But best from the xbox ones, and as result very hyped by xbox fanboys who have no idea about games outside xbox, it gathered more credit than it deserved. It's a 9/10 game, not 11/10 one. It didn't change the world of gaming overall, but opened the world of FPS to consoles.
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:2, Insightful)
If you want to judge it on the main arc alone then you might be able to stretch that ~25 hours is short. Add one guild and then it's probably closer to 50 hours. . . and that's IF you don't actually play the game, just grinding through it.
To be fair though, the leveling of the enemies in the game is completely retarded. E
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:2)
Heh, I was announced unofficial God of Oblivion. I played it more than I wanted... Usually totally screwing both combat (just cheaty uber spells and items) and questlines (completed them all once, only DB and main were
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:2)
If I was a master mage, and was expecting trouble, I'd wear the heaviest armor I could get my hands on (and further enhance it with magic), and then basically act as a tank, bombarding the enemy from the distance
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:2)
The point is in the levelling system: Skills are everything. Levels are a handicap. The higher your level, the harder the game, but there's few if any profits from gaining levels. You gain levels from gaining "class skills".
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:2)
That's awesome.
I guess you've never played Tribes 2. Clipping people with the Shrike is so fun.
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:2)
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:2)
I guess you've never played Battlezone [wikipedia.org] ?-)
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:2, Insightful)
Flamebait?
I mean, that's a pretty broad generalization. That's basically saying that "only puzzle games will be any good from here on out".
Riiiight.
Personally, I think there is plenty of innovation left in combat games. I mean, the Wii sword fighting game seems to be a step in a new direction.
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:2)
So there are two genres: Combat and Puzzle. And nothing else.
What about strategy that aims at avoiding conflict? Simulators? Good old-fashioned non-combat arcades? Role-playing that leave combat as last resort instead of filler for 90% of content? Stealth games that prohibit fight (Thief, difficulty: hard)? "natural disaster" environment adventures? A game of espionage, if you draw your gun, you're screwed?
And puzzles aren't that bad either. A good puzzle-based surv
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:2)
First off, new and good don't necessarily go hand in hand. I've played a lot of games that weren't exactly new, but were plenty of fun.
Secondly, I'm still pretty impressed by how much tweeks in a formula can change the gameing experience in an fu
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:3, Insightful)
Gravity gun wasn't really a weapon. I mean, how often were you using it as a weapon when you had a choice? Even in Ravenholm which was designed with gravity gun in mind, a shotgun was much better. Gravity gun was a great tool that allowed for lots of fun in the game, but usage as a weapon was just its minor perk. Bullet time is another
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:3, Interesting)
This is a real problem in almost any entertainment medium. People have been complaining about this in movies and music for decades. In those mediums, the answer is underground or indy films/music. Luckily, we have something of an easier fix in gaming.
This problem with gaming is almost exclusively present in single-player, or cooperat
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:2)
But if ammo was less scarce (or just top limits of ammo capacity were higher, so that you could carry every piece of ammo you find, or at least all the smaller ones - aaargh, magnum, crossbow!) would you keep using it? It was the game artificially forcing you to use a sucky weapons to conserve ammo for better ones. Admit it: Grav gun as a weapon usually sucks. Quite a few puzzles were cool, and effects of the grav
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:1)
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:2)
In other news, every new invention was created by 1850 and the patent office has been summarily shut down.
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:2)
Corrected.
Later on the old technology has been recycled and improved on to use as a part of modern machinery (steam turbines in nuclear power plants for example), but no more revolutionary steam-based inventions were made. People moved on to gasoline, electricity, electronics. Steam technology still has its small niche but it's a margin.
Interesting to note: (Score:1)
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:1)
Re:Already losing interest. (Score:2)
Same old sucky games will keep being released and same idiots will keep buying them, while players who look for something better will be left out in the cold.
Being based on history, the, um, stages of the game, will also be based on battles which took--actually took place in ancient Japan.
So here's this giant enemy crab, and you...attack its weak point for massive damage.
Yes. There are people who will love this game.
Someone had to say it.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Someone had to say it.. (Score:2)
Re:Someone had to say it.. (Score:1)
Re:Someone had to say it.. (Score:2)
But look at his long, girly hair! I would love to be his bitch!
News at 11 (Score:1)
When it's done (Score:1)
A game that will be ready "when it's done"?!
Oh....kind of like Duke Nukem Forever! Well, I guess we'll never see this mysterious new hit. Too bad. I had my hopes up for a second, there.
Re:When it's done (Score:2, Insightful)
Romero failed miserably at Ion Storm, and apparently had some fun in the cell-phone gaming industry.. remember this guy was fired from id Software after Quake 1 was out. Romero is a higher-profile, attention whoring fella, but Carmack is the real brains and that's why id Software still cranks out blockbuster engines while Romero's endeavors ha
But the question is ... (Score:2, Funny)
I can't be the only one... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I can't be the only one... (Score:1)
Clearly I spend too much time on a competing site. (Score:2)
Re:I can't be the only one... (Score:1)
Re:There can be only one! (Score:2)
Re:I can't be the only one... (Score:2)
Let me guess: this game is going to be a FPS where you shoot (un)dead things.
And it's going to stink. And it's going to be late.
he's still making games? (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, he's still making games... (Score:3, Informative)
suitable for gaming like he thought it would be. When the money didn't
come in quite like he'd hoped for, Monkeystone was put largely bed
(The site's still there and you can download the PocketPC and PC demos
of the titles he did ship under the Monkeystone name, but there's no
product info under the products tab, nor any way to buy the titles
at this time from the site...)- you can still get the Linux iteration
of Hyperspace Delivery Boy fro
other good works? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:other good works? (Score:2)
To be fair, nothing can ever equal Doom in FPS games. There had never been anything quite like it; that's why it hit so hard. Every FSP game afterward has been just a gradual evolution, not a true revolution; that's why they don't pack the punch Doom did, even if some of them are as good or better.
There will be games that hit like Doom, but that's because they'll be revolutionary, not just evolutionary. And they won't be sharew
Re:other good works? (Score:1)
Wasn't Daikatana released when it was done, too? (Score:1)
"Numerous other good works" (Score:4, Interesting)
What, like Doom, Quake, & Wolfenstein 3D? I don't understand why it's so amazingly popular to bash Romero. Sure, Daikatana wasn't great, but neither was Will Wright's SimHealth [wikipedia.org] -- and no one bashes Will.
It's not like Daikatana was this epic disaster. It was hyped, it had truly terrible advertising ("make you his bitch...," what were they thinking?), and sales were pretty pathetic, but it did make enough to cover the cost of production. So, technically, Daikatana has been more of a hit than, say, the XBox. It's time we all jumped off the "John-Romero-sucks" bandwagon.
Re:"Numerous other good works" (Score:2, Funny)
Re:"Numerous other good works" (Score:2)
No it isn't. (Score:3, Funny)
People hate him for more than just daikatana, they hate him for every aspect of ion storm. They ha
mod parent up! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:mod parent up! (Score:1, Flamebait)
Not entirely (Score:5, Insightful)
But the real cost was not money but the fact that Romero lost the respect of his customers. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Who is going to buy Daikatana 2? For that matter any ION Storm game or any Romero game?
Daikatana was Romero's project and it sucked donkey balls as a game. I only downloaded it and still felt ripped off. It was so bad that it can't be believed.
Now the difference with Will Wright is that he A: never was going to make us his bitch and B had other successfull games. Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein 3D are not Romero games. In fact judging by the turd that Daikatana was and that Romero has produced nothing else worth while it may be claimed that these ID games became successes despite Romero's involvement, not because.
Play Daikatana. I dare you to disagree that it is bad. Selling an overhyped game however isn't hard, there are always suckers lured in by advertising who are not warned by bad reviews and word of mouth. But the proof is simple. In an industry of sequels there is no Daikatana 2. How many success games have there been without a sequel?
Re:Not entirely (Score:2)
You mean games like Deus Ex, Deus Ex: Invisible War, and Thief: Deadly Shadows? And Anarchronox was critically acclaimed, even if it didn't sell well.
Not everything to come out of Ion Storm was a joke, though Eidos killed off the studio. As for successful games without a sequel? How about Starcraft? And before you mention Brood Wars, it was an expansion pack, not a sequel.
Re:Not entirely (Score:2)
Re:Not entirely (Score:1)
Few come to mind. Starcraft, Ultima Online, Tron 2.0, Alpha Centauri, Chronicles of Riddick, Diablo 2, and Dark Age of Camelot just off the top of my head.
Oh okay (Score:2)
Ultima Online is an MMO and so is Dark Age of Camelot. MMO's that still run don't offcourse get a sequel, they get expansion packs. MMO sequels are a bad idea because you are canabalizing your own audience.
Alpha Centauri is Civilization in space. It got its sequel with Civ 4.
Diablo 2 is offcourse a sequel itself. Also the company behind it has been rather busy. The same excuse also applies
Re:Oh okay (Score:1)
Tron2.0 was set up as a sequel to the movie - set in the vaguely present day you played (IIRC) the son of Jeff Bridge's character in the movie and really didn't do as well as I thought it deserved - I personally really enjoyed it and graphically it was phenominal - there are certainly no movie-based reasons they couldn't do a sequel.
Ditto Chronicles of Riddick - this was set in Butcher Bay (where Riddick got his eyes done) so is very much a prequel to both movies and broke cannon within 30seconds of the g
Re:Oh okay (Score:1)
Re:Not entirely (Score:2)
Doom, Quake, & Wolfenstein 3D? (Score:2)
Daikatana sold only because of hype, and sales virtually stopped after everyone heard how horrible
Re:Doom, Quake, & Wolfenstein 3D? (Score:2)
Well, besides Quake 3 Arena, but how hard is it to design an MP-only FPS once you've got the engine developed? Especially one as streamlined as Q3A was.
Rob
Re:Doom, Quake, & Wolfenstein 3D? (Score:2)
Although, Quake 2 and Doom 3 aren't so bad. In fact, I think Doom 3 is terribly underrated by a lot of people. It's actually quite an immersive game.
But OTOH, id has concentrated on making game engines, not games. So even discounting Quake 2, which was mediocre, and Doom 3, which was too little too late, it's not quite comparing apples to apples. At least id has done a lot of good, useful work. There's a whole slew of fantastic games that were developed using id's engines
SimHealth? (Score:2)
Re:SimHealth? (Score:2)
Re:SimHealth? (Score:2)
Re:"Numerous other good works" (Score:2)
I can see it now... (Score:3, Funny)
Every month or so, we'll get small updates.
Then it will be within a year of release, and the updates will become more frequent.
Then finally when release is only 4 months away, it will be revealed.
Every magazine will be covered with headlines about...
Daikatana Online!
Re:I can see it now... (Score:2)
Massive? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Massive? (Score:2, Interesting)
You know, Romero was a good designer. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:You know, Romero was a good designer. (Score:2, Informative)
I have nothing against Romero at all and agree with your post. I feel bad for the guy because he gets such loads o
Rock On!!! (Score:1)
Where do I sign up? (Score:1)
Re:Where do I sign up? (Score:1)
Romero, who? (Score:2)
In other news, (as long as we're dwelling on the irrelevant)
I hear the drummer for Modern English has a new solo album out.
Obligatory link (Score:2)
Eh? (Score:1)
It will include weapons, it says. I doubt this. Weapons will most likely be cut out of the design document on the first review. They didn't need weapons in Doom or Qua---uh, well, they didn't contribute to the storyline at all which is what those games were all about.
High Hopes (Score:1)
John Romer is... (Score:1)
Level design (Score:1)
Daikatana Online! (Score:2)
artists (Score:1)
Of course there will be bitches! (Score:2)
"zomg, they nerfed bitches!"
"53 JRB LFG!"
"wtf, ironworks hates bitches!"
"LF1M Badly Lit Office Corridor just need bitch and gtg"
etc...
Re:I want the list of investors... (Score:2)