nicked on 10/11/2015 at 20:46
Ha, gotcha with the clickbait title!
Come, pour yourself a drink and sit morosely in the corner with me, as I ask you: what is your biggest "I wish it had turned out differently" from gaming history? What games were almost perfect but fell short? What underrated games failed to sell and slipped into obscurity? What cancelled game do you most regret never having played? What development studio could have changed the world if they'd got some extra funding instead of the axe?
The obvious one around these parts is the woeful tale of Looking Glass Studios - if they'd stuck around we'd have got Deep Cover, more Thief, and the potential for who knows how many excellent immersive sims...
Another one that I'll pour a glass to is the flawed gem (rough diamond?) of Far Cry 2, and how Ubisoft learned all the wrong lessons from it and have just been pumping out cookie cutter generic games ever since.
So along those lines, what'll you be drowning your sorrows to?
Starker on 10/11/2015 at 20:55
Fall of Troika.
Pyrian on 10/11/2015 at 21:08
Invisible War. "Hey, I've got an idea. Why don't we scale back our tech ambitions to fit our big, awesome levels instead of cramming and splitting our levels to fit into our crappy tech?"
nicked on 10/11/2015 at 21:20
Aw man yeah, I always think about Deadly Shadows as a disappointment, and forget about it's crappier twin.
Jason Moyer on 10/11/2015 at 21:54
Deadly Shadows and Invisible War. While I rate both of them highly, partially because they're ok games but mostly because of the series they belong to, the technical clusterfuck present in both games is ridiculous. I'm not talking about controversial design decisions either like the removal of ammo types or rope arrows, as that's stuff I can largely live with. Whether it's the small levels present in both, the broken physics in IW, or the hilariously inept way they implemented body awareness in TDS, the piss-poor engine they put together just seems more and more pathetic as time marches on.
Otherwise, I'd say Troika's ability to make games that were almost good but ultimately crap was a tragedy. They nearly got there with Bloodlines, but all three of their games had amazing potential that was dragged down by not only poor tech but also puzzling design decisions.
Yakoob on 10/11/2015 at 22:27
Quote Posted by nicked
The obvious one around these parts is the woeful tale of Looking Glass Studios
Quote Posted by Starker
Fall of Troika.
I just had a sad discussion with another fellow dev that I am a dinosaur. You know, a guy who likes the immersive, overly-complex, elaborate games of old. The guy who hates mobile games for the transparent time-wasting-money-spending skinner boxes that they are.
So is the new casual movement the greatest tragedy? I feel admitting that says more about my ignorance/arrogance than it does about the gaming industry. If anything, it's good we have more variety, and it's not the industry's fault that 99% of people are not hardcore gamers like us here.
Renault on 10/11/2015 at 22:42
Pretty much anything that John Romero was a part of, post Doom. Quake was originally supposed to be a much deeper game, with RPG elements and more fantasy themed. Well, at least we got Heretic and Hexen. And Daitkatana...let's not go there.
Also, the company that created Dark Corners of the Earth ended up going under, and they apparently had 2 more sequels in the works. Bummer.
Plus, Aliens Colonial Marines.
unn_atropos on 11/11/2015 at 01:01
- Outcast 2 was cancelled (and will most likely never be made, though there seemed to be hope last year)
- Trespasser was not the game it could have been
- Beyond Good And Evil 2 is in announcement/cancel (or ancel^^) hell. I hate this year long yes...Noooo. Maybe....marketing blurb. Announce it or declare it dead officially! Everything else is shitty behaviour!!
- Tron 2.0 sourcecode wasn't released. The people who have it couldn't care less...
- I liked Urban Chaos by Mucky Foot, but the sequel never happened due to the company shutting down in 2003. The game had some rough (very at times) corners, but I liked the characters, the atmosphere and the gameplay, and would have liked to see what direction the sequel could have taken.
- Pyro Studios makes mobile games now. Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines and the addon Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty are a amazing. I also played Commando 2 but it wasn't the same and so I never checked the following game(s). I desperately need some new old-school Commandos mission packs. There are some good fan made ones like Strike in Narrow Path though.
froghawk on 11/11/2015 at 01:23
The lack of Anachronox sequels (that wonderful game ends on a huge cliffhanger) and Prey 2 (never played the first one but the sequel looked special) also come to mind.
Vae on 11/11/2015 at 01:32
NuThief.