firehawk12
Subete no aware
Man, this makes you wonder if something like this happened with the canceled(?) Brothers in Arms game.
Oh snap!They made the terrible mistake of not including a loot system to hide how boring the game is.
They made the terrible mistake of not including a loot system to hide how boring the game is.
Also, don't forget that Randy (and no doubt some other Gearbox members) actually worked on Duke 3D back in the day. They were more than mere fans.They saved Duke Nukem Forever because they were big fans of the franchise and didn't want to see the years of effort put into the game go to waste. The game was 90% completed by the time they rescued it IIRC, and the game ended up being profitable so it wasn't that bad of an investment.
As for Aliens most people here seem to think that Gearbox took Sega for a ride and used money on the game to develop Borderlands 2 instead. The damage Gearbox took to their reputation over Aliens is probably made up by the success of Borderlands 2, so I doubt Gearbox minds much as long as Sega doesn't sue their ass off.
They made the terrible mistake of not including a loot system to hide how boring the game is.
This makes the incredible claim that a notable amount of people are going to buy Aliens: Colonial Marines.Gearbox has lost any goodwill they had made on the Boarderland franchise. Their next title will be a tough sell.
Gearbox has lost any goodwill they had made on the Boarderland franchise. Their next title will be a tough sell.
They made the terrible mistake of not including a loot system to hide how boring the game is.
The campaigns pacing, level design and the general controls feel so much like Duke Nukem Forever, that I believe Gearbox had a bigger hand in both than many actually think.
Wasn't even aware this game came out until I saw that patch note mural in the other thread. Also weren't they hyping up the Wii-U version extensively only to have it delayed? Is this the beta?
They made the terrible mistake of not including a loot system to hide how boring the game is.
They made the terrible mistake of not including a loot system to hide how boring the game is.
Dammmmmn.
But even if they included that, the loot would be terrible and show how bad the loot system AND game is though!
They made the terrible mistake of not including a loot system to hide how boring the game is.
Gearbox has lost any goodwill they had made on the Boarderland franchise. Their next title will be a tough sell.
This makes the incredible claim that a notable amount of people are going to buy Aliens: Colonial Marines.
Duke Nukem Forever (...) ended up being profitable so it wasn't that bad of an investment.
First off, due to me breaking NDA, I can't provide any proof that I'm not just talking out of my ass. But I figure you'd be interested in hearing what I have to say regardless. I've been on the project for around a year and a half, so some of the following are things I've heard from more senior guys.
Pecan (the internal codename for ACM) has a pretty long history. SEGA, GBX and 20th Century FOX came to an agreement to produce an Aliens game around 6 years ago, after which SEGA almost immediately announced it, long before Pecan had even started production. The game has been in active development in the past, only to be shelved in favor of another project (Borderlands, Duke, etc), and each time it was resumed it would undergo a major content overhaul.
SEGA, naturally, wasn't super pleased about the delays, but GBX got away with it for a long time and the contract between SEGA and GBX kept getting augmented to push the projected release further and further back. The last time it was resumed, GBX outsourced a good portion of the game to outside companies. Initially, the plan was for TimeGate to take the majority of campaign, GBX would take MP, Demiurge and Nerve would handle DLC and various other focused tasks. This decision was made mostly so that most of the developers at GBX could continue working on Borderlands 2, while a small group of LDs, coders and designers dealt with Pecan.
Somehow the schedules for Pecan and Borderlands 2 managed to line up and GBX realized that there was no fucking way they could cert and ship two titles at the same time. Additionally, campaign (which was being developed by TimeGate) was extremely far behind, even as Pecan's Beta deadline got closer and closer. In April or May (can't remember which), Pecan was supposed to hit beta, but GBX instead came to an agreement with SEGA that they would push the release date back one more time, buying GBX around 9 mos extension.
About 5 of those 9 months went to shipping BL2. In that time, TimeGate managed to scrap together 85% of the campaign, but once Borderlands 2 shipped and GBX turned its attention to Pecan, it became pretty apparent that what had been made was in a pretty horrid state. Campaign didn't make much sense, the boss fights weren't implemented, PS3 was way over memory, etcetcetc. GBX was pretty unhappy with TG's work, and some of Campaign maps were just completely redesigned from scratch. There were some last minute feature requests, most notably female marines, and the general consensus among GBX devs was that there was no way this game was going to be good by ship. There just wasn't enough time.
Considering that SEGA was pretty close to taking legal action against GBX, asking for an extension wasn't an option, and so Pecan crash-landed through certification and shipping. Features that were planned were oversimplified, or shoved in (a good example of this are challenges, which are in an incredibly illogical order). Issues that didn't cause 100% blockers were generally ignored, with the exception of absolutely horrible problems. This isn't because GBX didn't care, mind you. At a certain point, they couldn't risk changing ANYTHING that might cause them to fail certification or break some other system. And so, the product you see is what you get.
Beyond gameplay, the story has been raised as an issue several times. I can't really comment without feeling bad beyond saying that the script was approved by 20th Century FOX, and that the rush to throw a playable product together came at the cost of the story. Campaign does a pretty bad job of explaining a lot of the questions raised at the start of the game, and so hopefully there will be DLC to flesh that out a bit better.
I'll answer some questions, but I have to run soon, so it may take a while for responses.
More fresh rumors in this story. A supposed employee, has opened a thread in reddit about this mess.
http://www.reddit.com/r/LV426/comments/18ewf4/a_lot_of_you_are_rightfully_upset_at_the_final/
More fresh rumors in this story. A supposed employee, has opened a thread in reddit about this mess.
http://www.reddit.com/r/LV426/comments/18ewf4/a_lot_of_you_are_rightfully_upset_at_the_final/
More fresh rumors in this story. A supposed employee, has opened a thread in reddit about this mess.
http://www.reddit.com/r/LV426/comments/18ewf4/a_lot_of_you_are_rightfully_upset_at_the_final/
They made the terrible mistake of not including a loot system to hide how boring the game is.
They made the terrible mistake of not including a loot system to hide how boring the game is.
This isn't because GBX didn't care, mind you.
In April or May (can't remember which), Pecan was supposed to hit beta, but GBX instead came to an agreement with SEGA that they would push the release date back one more time, buying GBX around 9 mos extension. About 5 of those 9 months went to shipping BL2
While I have no idea about the terms of the contract between Gearbox and Sega, I have to wonder if Gearbox failed to exercise a standard of due care in its performance of the contract and therefore can be held held liable for monetary damages by Sega.
Borderlands 1 was a fluke and mostly blew up because it released at the right time. Nothing else they've made since then shows that these guys are AAA developers
More fresh rumors in this story. A supposed employee, has opened a thread in reddit about this mess.
http://www.reddit.com/r/LV426/comments/18ewf4/a_lot_of_you_are_rightfully_upset_at_the_final/
Actually the fucking nails-on-a-chalkboard voice of the toaster on wheels is the only thing that kept me awake as long as I managed, so I'd vote that for this game they should have just had Bill Paxton yelling unfunny jokes at max volume into a can of beans every 30 seconds.
More fresh rumors in this story. A supposed employee, has opened a thread in reddit about this mess.
http://www.reddit.com/r/LV426/comments/18ewf4/a_lot_of_you_are_rightfully_upset_at_the_final/
Additionally, campaign (which was being developed by TimeGate) was extremely far behind,
GBX was pretty unhappy with TG's work,
Considering that SEGA was pretty close to taking legal action against GBX, asking for an extension wasn't an option, and so Pecan crash-landed through certification and shipping.
They made the terrible mistake of not including a loot system to hide how boring the game is.
More fresh rumors in this story. A supposed employee, has opened a thread in reddit about this mess.
http://www.reddit.com/r/LV426/comments/18ewf4/a_lot_of_you_are_rightfully_upset_at_the_final/
Two thoughts:And yet here we are, having SEGA confirm that Gearbox worked on the single-player (w/ TimeGate supporting).