Fav developer thread

[AM64]

Soulcalibur USED to be good... SC1 and SC2 were great... SC3 was absolutely terrible, and in comparison to SC3, SC4 is a good game. But its still a far cry from what SC1 and SC2 were.. Soulcalibur Legends is a joke too.

Tekken USED to be good (I never liked it)... but Tekken 4 was a total wash to the point that the entire T4 staff was sent off to make other games (namely SC3/SC4). And from what I am hearing, Tekken 6 is terrible... and Death by Degrees as atrocious.

Xenosaga sucked from what I have heard. Xenogears was good, as it was made when Square was still developing software (now they are a publisher, and only develop FF and KH); but Xenosaga was shit compared to that. You forget, it was planned for 5 games, and was cancelled after 3 because it was so bad...

Tales WAS a great series... my favorite RPG series of all time... Tales of Phantasia is my absolute favorite RPG of all time. Tales of Destiny, Tales of Destiny 2, Tales of Eternia, Tales of Legendia... these are all great games. But Tales of Symphonia? Pure shit. Tales of the Abyss? Worst Tales game ever made. Tales of Vesperia looks like a carbon copy clone of Abyss; so I have no interest in that either.

I can understand your opinion on Soulcalibur and Tekken. Though I am freaking tired of people saying how great the old SC games were and how much the new ones suck, I can respect that opinion. And even though Xenosaga is personally one of my favorite game series of all time (Any part of Xenosaga 1, 2, or 3> Disc 2 of Xenogears), I recognize that it had its flaws. But Tales? I've played thousands of hours of RPGs, and I cannot even fathom how "Pure shit" is the best you can give ToS. You're entitled to your opinion, but I'm just curious why you thought this game was so bad.

 

[AshnardZero]

Hehe, not to poke at Jaxel too much, I can't full heartedly agree on your SC3 opinion. It was a damn good game. One of the best in the entire series, dare I say. Why? Production quality was the best in the whole series. In other words, it was the prettiest in show, besides some iffy character models. It had decent CAC, several modes (including the now defunct Tournament and Chronicles), several awesome museum pieces, amazing music and levels, and a story mode that could be developed into something great if it were to make it back in the sequels. What made it bad? The terrible balancing, so unfortunately, it's the Soul Series black sheep. What I wouldn't do for an arcade addition with online enabled for PSN...

Honestly, I believe SC1 and 2 to be a bit lacking compared to Soul Blade. Yes, the fighting system in SC1 was such a huge leap in the right direction, which is what launched the series to where it is now. Presentation wise, it was very...blah. I give the museum credit it for the fan art and back story pics, but the intro movie and endings were just dull. SC2 was worse, as the Museum was just practically gone, the endings somehow got worse (ONE unique picture along with the stock character art? Come on...). The intro and Destined Battle scenes, however, were great. Plus, that Inferno battle is just epic.

On topic, I do suggest anyone who hasn't played Viewtiful Joe or Okami, go pick them up in your local game store's bargain bin. You'll be happy you did!

 

[wuben213]

Diablo 2 was my main game for years and years (4~5) and what Blizzard did for that game was amazing (and sometimes terrible). However, the amount of patches it received (with .10 being a MAJOR makeover, basically remaking the entire game) was amazing.

In addition, the online service was great (ruined partially by bots at times) and the fanbase it required was great.

I cannot comment on WoW, WC or SC since I never played those games seriously. What they did for Diablo was pure gold, I'd say.

I used to have Nintendo on a pedestal, but ever since the Wii was released they have been so disappointing it makes me cry. Microsoft on the other hand has done great things, with XBL and the price cuts in the 360 being their prime selling points. You can't really give them credit for the "Age of ..." series, but those are fantastic as well.

Other than that, I rarely take a good look on developers. I hardly know which games are made by which people. Not until recently I discovered that SC and tekken were made by the same developers. Maybe 'cause I only played SC2 and T3.

 

[Jaxel]

I used to have Nintendo on a pedestal, but ever since the Wii was released they have been so disappointing it makes me cry. Microsoft on the other hand has done great things, with XBL and the price cuts in the 360 being their prime selling points. You can't really give them credit for the "Age of ..." series, but those are fantastic as well.

You should have been disappointed with Nintendo since the N64 era... N64 was bad, the GameCube was bad, and now the Wii is bad. Nintendo was good during the SNES era, now they are a joke...

As for Microsoft... you do know they just announced that they are closing Ensemble Studios (the people who do the Age of Empires series) right? Which doesnt make sense to me. Normally, you close a studio, after they FAIL. Ensemble has been making nothing but good games, and they are soon going to release Halo Wars... Shouldn't Microsoft wait for Halo Wars to bomb, before they shut Ensemble down? They aren't just closing Ensemble down, they are laying everyone off.

 

[wuben213]

I disagree on the N64 being bad. Maybe because I was still 10~11 when it came out and was amazed by Mario 64 and all the other goodies that came out on it. Not sure how I would look at it right now, but for me: those were awesome days.

The gamecube was not that special, I agree, but they still managed to get some decent games out of it, unlike the Wii. I never owned one; my budget only allowed one console, which was the Xbox.

Of course I know ES was shut down just recently. It hit the Age community in the face.. hard. They did say that they would continue the Age series though. An Age of Mythology 2 would be one of the announcements that would rock my gaming world. Like Diablo 3 a while back: that shit was wicked.