3 of the Current Most Frustrating Developers

September 8th, 2007

A while back I wrote up an article about three recent positives in the gaming industry. I’ve decided to resurrect this theme with 3 of the Current Most Frustrating Developers. In the last 2 weeks I have noticed how tragically pathetic some of these developers have been. Here’s what I have noticed:

Cruis’n:: Midway

A few weeks ago when the Games Convention over in Leipzig was going on Midway tried to steal the thunder away from some of these highly anticipated titles at the show by showcasing new screens to the hotly anticipated Cruis’n game. What they showed amazed everyone, allow the screens to do it justice:

cruisin wii midway

cruisin wii midway

How I have compressed them actually makes them look slightly better, click here to see them in full view

Yes folks, these are actual screenshots from the game. If you thought that developers couldn’t make Wii titles look any worse than they currently do then think again. This tripe thankfully did not go unnoticed, when questioned about the appalling screenshots Midway apparently stated that they were focusing on the gameplay over the graphics. Yeah nice one, like we are gonna fall for that trick, Midway.

Just for my own amusement, here are some comparison shots between the new title and the arcade games:

crusin usa n64

crusin n64

Factor 5:: Lair

Here’s the thing, I don’t want to pay out Factor 5 because their anticipated title was a complete flop. Stuff like this happens all the time and it wouldn’t be fair of me to do so. What I am going to talk about is how they tried to soften the blow.

Factor 5’s Julian Eggebrecht(Director of Lair) recently spoke to IGN about how the game was cursed from the beginning. The excuses don’t end there though, I found the following quotes very amusing:

“That is exactly the kick of creating a first-year game: exploring the not-yet-finished hardware and growing the technology while the hardware is coming together. I think both Rogue Leader and Lair gave a good stab at poking into the depths of the systems for such early titles, and from that you have a second-generation growth opportunity that surpasses most developers that jump onto the bandwagon later.”

I love how he tries to relate Rogue Leader and Lair. Unfortunately for him Rouge Leader was an awesome title, made in a shorter time limit with technology that was much more advanced than the previous generation’s technology. If they were having problems with developing the title with unfinished hardware…infact why would he even make an excuse about that? He(or his team) decided to develop on incomplete hardware, so they can suffer the consequences.

lair ps3

“The Sixaxis motion control itself feels a lot more organic and free-form than the rigid controls of other flight games and does much better for casual players, as we saw in focus tests. It does seem to alienate some reviewers who are at the top of the hardcore crowd and seem to have a passionate hate for all things motion, be it Wii Sports with sometimes absurdly low scores for what might become the defining game of this generation, or Lair as their newest poster child of evil. It’s an unfortunate development that, if the players themselves listen too much to the motion-hatred message, will divide the gaming community. Our potential for growth as an art form for the mainstream is in the easier-to-access control schemes that might be less precise but a lot of fun.”

I love how he marvels over Wii Sports after some of his previous comments on the Wii. Its also great how he tries(once again) to pair his game with a game that actually got it right. I mean seriously, check out those absurdly low scores on Wii Sports. Just awful.

Boogie|| PS2 & DS

Boogie is EA’s latest cash cow for the Wii. After they pledge their dedication to being one of the best developers for the system I can’t help but be sorely disappointed by the lack of solid gameplay. I am even more frustrated that they are pursuing this franchise and bringing it to the PS2 and DS. The trailer for the DS version doesn’t actually look half bad but the same can be said for the Wii trailers.

I have been meaning to get this issue off my chest for a while but it only continued to build up over the few weeks that I have taken to write this post. Please express your frustration in a commentable form if you wish.

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Cubed3 and Nibris Ownage by NeoGAF

September 2nd, 2007

This little event happened a few days ago and I was really interested in it because I have been a follower of the Cubed3 website almost since it started. Basically the story goes something like this:

Nintendo news website Cubed3 had been recieving a lot of exclusive details from (Wii and DS exclusive developer) Nibris over the last few months. All of this exclusive content came in the form of interviews, concept art and even music files from one of the games. We had seen a little bit of gameplay from one of the titles in the form of a rough off screen YouTube video and even that was a bit dodgy.

Anyways one of the staff members of C3 had recieved some new concept art and details from Nibris about (another) new game that they had announced. Now it should be noted that at this stage this new title(for the DS) was the about the 6th game that this company had announced. So Cubed3 posted up the ‘Exclusive’ and then the staff member who posted that article posted a new thread about it over at NeoGAF forums. Obviously wanting hits and the cred for the site.

The NeoGaffers(I can call you guys that, right?) pointed out that we still have seen practically no gameplay of any of Nibris’ 6 or so titles. Now here is where it gets interesting. One of the forum members noticed that this same concept art(for this new title) was on a deviantART page from someone posting their own Silent Hill fanart.

So something was up and those cluey NeoGaffers couldn’t let it go. The C3 staff member sent a few emails back and forth between Nibris while the Gaffers continued to snoop around and ask questions to the artist.

It was soon discovered that this artwork was done by the artist a while back and was used for a guide to what Nibris wanted their new game to look like(couldn’t they have just played Silent Hill?). The artisthad been given the all clear to post his work on dA by his boss and did so. Once the NeoGaffers questioned him about the whole ordeal he didn’t seem to happy about it. Stating that:

Hey, thanks for being aware. There must have been some misunderstanding. Generally I work with Nibris doing concept art for Sadness and ROTR. Those three pics Nibris used in their NDS game promo I gave to Nibris only as a sample of my gallery and in what atmosphere I would see a horror game for the NDS to look like. I don’t really know why Nibris or Cubed3 released those artworks without my authorization, because they were intended for intranet only. Seems like one big shit :/Overall, nothing bad happened, I’ll try to straighten out some people. Cubed3 should write an apology soon. Thanks again

As for Cubed3 and Nibris well Nibris told Cubed3 through a bunch of vague emails that this image was in a private folder and sholdn’t have been sent to them. So Cubed3 took the article down and replaced it with the following article. Trying to clear up the situation.Unfortunately despite how this event has damaged the reputation of this site is seems as though they are still interested in continuing in being Nibris private media outlet. I think that this is pretty shameful really. What about you readers? Do you think that the site should ditch Nibris?

Well thats the story, if you are interested in knowing how it all unfolded then click the following link to view the thread.Ironically just today I finally recieved my confirmation email for the site’s forum registration. The thing is I registered at the start of the year. 🙁

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