Video game company blunders

[Vostok 7]

Daikatana wasn't Carmack it was Romero... they used a modified Quake II engine but that it sucked is hardly Carmack's fault.

I was speaking to the thread as a whole, as in "Video game company blunders".

Vostok 7

[eugimon]

I was speaking to the thread as a whole, as in "Video game company blunders".

Vostok 7

oooooh... well then, carry on sir, carry on.

[Vostok 7]

oooooh... well then, carry on sir, carry on.

I remember that fiasco well. Anyone remember all the interviews with Romero and *ahem* crew (if you can call a playboy bunny a "crew" ) and how Daikatana was going to kick everyone's collective arses and Romero was going to make everyone his beyotch.

Ahhh, good times, good times.

And of course, now there's Duke Nukem. Vaporware as vaporware could be, and yet still manages to surface every now and then.

Vostok 7

[Wanzerfan]

Daikatana wasn't Carmack it was Romero... they used a modified Quake II engine but that it sucked is hardly Carmack's fault.

It also didn't help Daikatana any when almost the entire development team bailed on John Romero and went on to make KISS' Psycho Circus. That was a blunder of epic proportions.

[eugimon]

It also didn't help Daikatana any when almost the entire development team bailed on John Romero and went on to make KISS' Psycho Circus. That was a blunder of epic proportions.

it all starts with the name... when you're game is called, "big sword" you know failure awaits.

[Vostok 7]

It also didn't help Daikatana any when almost the entire development team bailed on John Romero and went on to make KISS' Psycho Circus. That was a blunder of epic proportions.

Not like that was a game of the century either, though

Vostok 7

[Radd]

I also think Nintendo canceling the Virtual Boy was another blunder.

I once heard that Gunpei Yokoi wanted to design a virtual reality home console to replace the SNES. Nintendo approved the project, but then continually cut resources to Gunpei's project and then began making unreasonable demands, such as making it a portable system. The end product was not at all what Gunpei Yokoi had wanted to make, but a product of trying to meet these demands without the necessary support from Nintendo. When it bombed, he was the one to take the fall.

No idea how much truth there is to that, I've never been able to find any sources to corroborate that story with.

[Cent]

Pfft. What about Duke Nukem Forever?

[eugimon]

Pfft. What about Duke Nukem Forever?

it's not a blunder, it's just truth in advertising.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Looking through my SMS collection in the garage reminded me of Sega's decision to not release Phantasy Star Generations 1&2 for the PS2 in the U.S. I would've loved to play those remakes in English.

[JB0]

Carmack says Rage runs 60 fps on the 360 and 20-30 on the PS3... if Carmack is having problems getting the PS3 to reach parity with the 360...

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/07/30/edge-rag...o-30fps-on-ps3/

I'd actually left out a note about the PS3's CPU being somewhat odd, given it devotes so much silicon to work that has to be transferred to a different set of RAM before it can be used. CPU can only work on main RAM, and anything you're sending to the display has to be in graphics RAM. Transfering data between sets of RAM takes time.

It'd make MUCH more sense in a unified architecture like the 360 has, where the CPU has access to the same data the GPU has, and you can more easily split the work between them.

Was worried I was ALREADY making the issue too convoluted, and I wasn't entirely confident in my evaluation of the situation.

I bow before an actual developer's evaluation of the situation, though.

[Wanzerfan]

it's not a blunder, it's just truth in advertising.

I agree, it not a blunder. The game just gets constantly pushed back because of other projects that come down the pike.

I think the guys are waiting for the creation of the fourth Unreal engine if you ask me .

[F-ZeroOne]

*gasp* the traditional $50 threshold has been broken! Its kinda about time that happened though, even though I'm not happy about it either. The prices for everything else were rising, so it wasn't going to be long before PC games had to take a hit too.

No, effin' is the fact that price will translate directly into 55 to 60 UK pounds...

Edited August 1, 2009 by F-ZeroOne

[Wanzerfan]

Here's another blunder.

Activision releasing True Crime New York City when they did. Damed thing had a fatal bug in it where you had to throw a bad guy off a cargo container during one of the story missions, and the game didn't recognize the button input.

Edit: I'm talking about the X-Box Collector's edition.

Edited August 1, 2009 by Wanzerfan

[wolfx]

Here's another blunder.

Activision releasing True Crime New York City when they did. Damed thing had a fatal bug in it where you had to throw a bad guy off a cargo container during one of the story missions, and the game didn't recognize the button input.

Edit: I'm talking about the X-Box Collector's edition.

No playtest much?

[Chronocidal]

Speaking of playtesting.. I'd say HAWX falls under the "Play-test? What is play-test?" category, especially the pc version.

"Please press the ESC key to continue..."

[Wanzerfan]

No playtest much?

I guess not.

Here's another playtest blunder. It seems that David Jaffe and company forgot to playtest the Hades section of the first game, making those spinning blades tougher than they should've been. They got a lot of e-mails regarding the subject (I learned that fact on X-Play).

The stage was frustrating, but not unpassable.

[wolfx]

I guess not.

Here's another playtest blunder. It seems that David Jaffe and company forgot to playtest the Hades section of the first game, making those spinning blades tougher than they should've been. They got a lot of e-mails regarding the subject (I learned that fact on X-Play).

The stage was frustrating, but not unpassable.

I'm assuming you're talking about God Of War.....and yes it was tough but not unpassable. I don't know why people would complain about the difficulty and blame it on lack of playtesting though. Are today's gamers unwilling to have some challenge in their games? I for one felt the GoW series is almost excellent.

The only thing about the series that i'm unhappy about is the uselessness of the upgrades to the Chains of Olympus. The combos are flashy at best but they take too long to execute, cannot be cancelled (to dodge enemy attacks mid combo) and most of the later enemies block your attacks making it useless. I just use the normal square square triangle or triangle triangle square combos, and find them more effective.

[DJ Loe Kee]

the supply lines mission from gta san andreas is a major blunder. you have to fly the plane perfectly to complete the mission and make it back to the base with gas left. but that is impossible to do. you have to enable the faster gameplay cheat 3-4 times so that the plane flies faster while barely using the any gas in order to complete it. rockstar made that mission easier in later versions of the game so that you don't have to use a cheat in order to beat that mission. so if you have an older version than you are s.o.l.

[aerocombatpilot]

NAMCO!!!! FOR NOT GIVING PS3 OWNERS ACE COMBAT 6!!!!!!!

[Ghost Train]

NAMCO!!!! FOR NOT GIVING PS3 OWNERS ACE COMBAT 6!!!!!!!

You didn't miss anything. The single-player campaign was pretty trite and had the exact same story as pretty much every AC as far as I could remember . The visuals were pretty though, but for the first next-gen AC imo it was lacking in originality.

[Chronocidal]

Yeah.. lack of any sense storywise, and an utter lack of aircraft variety made it pretty mediocre, in spite of the pretty pictures.

Well, that, and they gave the uberplane what essentially amounted to an Itano Circus launcher. Fun in single player for a few laughs and achievements, but it completely borked multiplayer to the point where the plane isn't even allowed.

[Dangard Ace]

I'm assuming you're talking about God Of War.....and yes it was tough but not unpassable. I don't know why people would complain about the difficulty and blame it on lack of playtesting though. Are today's gamers unwilling to have some challenge in their games? I for one felt the GoW series is almost excellent.

The only thing about the series that i'm unhappy about is the uselessness of the upgrades to the Chains of Olympus. The combos are flashy at best but they take too long to execute, cannot be cancelled (to dodge enemy attacks mid combo) and most of the later enemies block your attacks making it useless. I just use the normal square square triangle or triangle triangle square combos, and find them more effective.

I found the spinning spike towers pretty easy....

GoW: CoO. My only bitch is God Mode on the dock with that giant monster thing(been so long since I played it I forgot what it was) chasing you. It can two hit kill you....and I never passed it on God Mode.

[anime52k8]

Well, that, and they gave the uberplane what essentially amounted to an Itano Circus launcher. Fun in single player for a few laughs and achievements, but it completely borked multiplayer to the point where the plane isn't even allowed.

I never understood why everyone has this perception that the CFA-44 is somehow "band from multilayer because it broke the game." The CFA-44 was always allowed, and it was always restricted to using the railgun only. you never see anyone use the CFA-44 because the CFA sucks in multi, the rail gun is just about useless against real players and the high-G stall made it just about impossible to avoid incoming missile fire.

Really it wouldn't have made a difference if the ADMM was allowed anyways, all anyone ever does is fly the F-22 and spam QAAM's for the entire match.

[Keith]

I never understood why everyone has this perception that the CFA-44 is somehow "band from multilayer because it broke the game." The CFA-44 was always allowed, and it was always restricted to using the railgun only. you never see anyone use the CFA-44 because the CFA sucks in multi, the rail gun is just about useless against real players and the high-G stall made it just about impossible to avoid incoming missile fire.

Really it wouldn't have made a difference if the ADMM was allowed anyways, all anyone ever does is fly the F-22 and spam QAAM's for the entire match.

Which is why we need a PS3 minimum 16 player multiplayer Macross Ace/Ultimate Frontier style game. Damn Sony for not including an online wifi feature that works like adhoc (as of yet, I've only seen MG:PO pull one off), and for not brigning over adhoc party to the U.S. so we can play it with no/less lag.

[taksraven]

I'm sure that some people would argue that "Custer's Revenge" as a video game was a bit of a mistake. But then again, in this instance, I think that the entire company, Mystique, was a mistake.

Taksraven

[NSJ23]

the supply lines mission from gta san andreas is a major blunder. you have to fly the plane perfectly to complete the mission and make it back to the base with gas left. but that is impossible to do. you have to enable the faster gameplay cheat 3-4 times so that the plane flies faster while barely using the any gas in order to complete it. rockstar made that mission easier in later versions of the game so that you don't have to use a cheat in order to beat that mission. so if you have an older version than you are s.o.l.

Ok, i didn't know that, but i do know i completed that mission without the cheat.

[Lindem Herz]

Ok, i didn't know that, but i do know i completed that mission without the cheat.

Ditto here. I've never had to cheat to pass any GTA mission in my life...

(but after the storyline is over, I'll happily spawn a Harrier and go to town )

[RD Blade]

I was sorely disappointed with the one major flaw in Street Fighter 4. The replay value drops considerably with its multiplayer lobbies...which are limited to only 2 players. Even 3 player lobbies would be a vast improvement.

[Wanzerfan]

I'm assuming you're talking about God Of War.....and yes it was tough but not unpassable. I don't know why people would complain about the difficulty and blame it on lack of playtesting though. Are today's gamers unwilling to have some challenge in their games? I for one felt the GoW series is almost excellent.

The only thing about the series that i'm unhappy about is the uselessness of the upgrades to the Chains of Olympus. The combos are flashy at best but they take too long to execute, cannot be cancelled (to dodge enemy attacks mid combo) and most of the later enemies block your attacks making it useless. I just use the normal square square triangle or triangle triangle square combos, and find them more effective.

Yes, I'm talking about God of War.

I also do have the first incarnation of San Andraes, and the Supply Lines Mission does suck balls. No matter how I try, I seem to run out of fuel right before I land. That was an epic blunder in playtesting.

[RD Blade]

Has anybody mentioned Microsoft's extremely high failure rate with its Xbox 360? The so-called "red ring of death" plagued the initial release of the 360. Every person I know with a 360 has had the RROD. The problem is caused by a certain type of solder used in the main board that reacts poorly over time to heat. Microsoft then modified the 360 to run cooler, rather than switching to a less troublesome solder.

Guess what? Even with the newer 360's (identified by an HDMI port on the back) the red ring problem is slowly starting to crop up again. Hope everbody's still under warranty.

[mikeszekely]

Has anybody mentioned Microsoft's extremely high failure rate with its Xbox 360? The so-called "red ring of death" plagued the initial release of the 360. Every person I know with a 360 has had the RROD. The problem is caused by a certain type of solder used in the main board that reacts poorly over time to heat. Microsoft then modified the 360 to run cooler, rather than switching to a less troublesome solder.

Guess what? Even with the newer 360's (identified by an HDMI port on the back) the red ring problem is slowly starting to crop up again. Hope everbody's still under warranty.

If we're going to mention that (which, surprisingly hasn't affected me... yet), we might as well talk about the ol' "Disc Read Error" issue on the PlayStation 2 (which did affect me once) or the Wii24Connect causing the Wii's GPU to overheat (which also affected me).

[eugimon]

I thought I came down with it... had the 3 rings, graphic glitches but apparently it was because I hadn't updated the 360 since the UI update a while back...

[Ghost Train]

The Red Ring of Ring of Death has cost Microsoft 1 Billion USD. Too lazy to link a source, saw it on the news this morning . I'm on my second unit atm, and thus far no problems yet, with the exception of an occasionally jamming disc tray.

My PS2 though celebrates its 8th year anniversary this summer, never had any problems. A lot of fond memories, got it while I was still an undergrad scrapped a lot of pennies for it. I don't think I'll ever sell it, there are still quite a few games I want to play, like finish off Xenosaga part 2/3. The only problem is that it looks like crap on HD screens

[mikeszekely]

I already brought it up in the PS3 thread, but it's definitely a blunder.

In-game ads doubling WipEout HD load times.