Failures of 2008: Devil May Cry 4, Splinter Cell Conviction and Haze?
The class of 2007 learnt a pretty good lesson, too much hype results in a fundamentally flawed game. Rarely has there been a case that a game that has been running on a million shots of morphine, been able to cross the line of both critical acclaim and sales, with the year ending the buzz has already started on the lineup of 2008.
The original Devil May Cry sold millions to the PS2, after DMC’s initial screening at E3, MGS 2 was not the only game people wanted to play. Dante was pegged to be the next big avatar next to Snake and Max Payne. The game was launched and proved to be a big hit. Next year the developers decided to make another game starring Dante but this game hardly proved to be different from its predecessor and bombed. The team came back one last time on the PS2 to revamp Dante in DMC 3 and proved that with necessary and radically cool changes in gameplay, the audience would still yearn for Dante.
Production for DMC 4 started off with a bang and then Capcom decided to give gamers a bigger bang by announcing the title for the “Dead (Now) Rising” Xbox 360. The game’s officially in production since the announcement of the PS3 and by the looks of it the game might just go down the alley as 2008’s biggest disappointment.
Looking at a whole lotta stuff from the game it seems, the gameplay is almost coherent with its predecessor DMC 3 with most of the styles remaining the same, slashing through demon hordes collecting orbs and moving on, straight simple gameplay. The problem however comes when the camera still remains fixed creating obscure angles, a huge problem associated with the series. Come on Capcom why can’t we see the environment with our eyes? The game scores points on style that looks absolutely similar to DMC 3 with most of the animations are carried forward form its pervious games.
In addition to this, the game seems to have too many loading screens, within a span of 2 battles there are almost 5 loading screens. You enter an area, witness a cutscene (game loads), finish off the enemy, head to a door which opens (loads) witness a cutscene (loads) finish the battle move to another door nearby (loads) and plays a cutscene. This might just be a tad bit irritating since they are supposed to be working with super computers now aren’t they. Plus the whole idea of two heroes has never worked, it just seems the players get pissed off when there are more than two characters to control, Halo 2, MGS 2, DMC 2 (Lucia and Dante) are classic examples.
Moving onto Haze, the game did have me all pumped up when it was initially announced. Combine the words Free Radical with a FPS and I go weak on my knees. A mature Halo is what they called the game, but from what it looks this game might just become the saddest FPS in the company’s golden legacy. The AI really looks shoddy throughout; the environment looks huge but seemingly empty, visuals are average, which should be taken into notice since Killzone 2 is also being developed for the same platform, and the whole concept of “nectar” seems annoying than helpful. I saw so many battles with the use of nectar and it seems the “Drug” kills the word shooter out of a FPS, its more like watching two snails run a marathon.
Splinter Cell: Conviction seems like a carbon copy of Assassin’s Creed which is probably one of the reasons why they delayed it till next year. Now with the failure of Assassin’s Creed this game seems to be treading risky waters. The whole idea of stripping Sam out of all his gear and putting him in a open-ended environment may not be such a good idea, especially if most Microsoft honchos think that Sam is their answer to Solid Snake.
-Neelesh Mukherjee
Really intresting article, really tells the truth about some hyped game. I must say this site give really good info and features.
this article is so bad…i dont even want to go into details and waste my time
Neelesh, dude. This has got to be the most confusing write-up I’ve ever seen you put up, and thats taking into the consideration of the press release crap Gameguru.in regurgitates on a daily basis.
First of all, your comment about Assassin’s Creed about being a failure is pure misleading. Of course, the technical faults can’t be ignored, but weren’t you the one saying in one of your previous articles that you’d reserve your “final verdict on the game, for I still feel this game does have revolutionary standards to live up to.” Now it’s suddenly a failure to you? Also, looking from a sales point of view: AC sold well, it hasn’t even been a week yet and it’s nearly cross the 1 million mark. And that’s taking into consideration that it’s a new IP, while Splinter Cell is clearly not.
Then you mention that having “same old, same old” in DMC4 doesn’t make sense, yet you blast that new Splinter Cell for being a clone of another game while trying to deviate its own formula. Seriously, what mindset are you trying to speak from? This is plain contradictory, and above all else: NONE OF THESE GAMES are even released yet. The fact you mention about loading time issues in DMC4 while it’s probably still a way’s off is conflicting in itself.
And hype doesn’t sell? Tell that to scores of people who devoured on Halo 3, BioShock, Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed (again!), The Orange Box, Guitar Hero, God of War 2, Super Mario Galaxy… And that’s just for 2007!
Some valid points here, but let’s wait for the games to arrive in their finished (hopefully polished) form before we condemn them!
i am sure a lot of thought went into the article but i don’t know how anyone could call a game “dissappointing” without even fully playing it. The game hasn’t even been released yet.
Very flawed view on a lot of stuff. I’ll agree that DMC4 should have a free to control camera, but it never really bothered me that much in DMC1/3 (2 doesn’t exist.)
Your points about Haze are just repetitions of what I’ve been saying to my one and only Sony Fanboy friend. It’s a mediocre shooter with a mediocre gimmick. It’s been done to hell, it’s a Halo clone, woop dee doo.
While I agree with you that Conviction looks “meh” at best currently, the fact that you called Assassin’s Creed a failure single handedly removes any hope in me believing that you know what you’re talking about.
The game might be repetitive to some(I like it myself, I do wish there was more to do though) but it is in no way a failure. Financially, it outsold Call of Duty 4 in its first week on both the 360 and the PS3. Graphically it looks better than 98% of all games ever created, story wise, and presentation wise it is a shining beacon, and it even introduces a new fighting engine, that while somewhat plain, IS Different, and IS a breath of fresh air.
Assassins creed did not fail u dumb fu*k
Yes, Assasin’s Creed a huge failure. You must me some serious half assed type of guru to make the ascertation, idiot!
“Next year the developers decided to make another game starring Dante but this game hardly proved to be different from its predecessor and bombed.”
Uhh, this is NOT why DMC2 was so poorly received. Rather, it was due to it being VERY different from DMC1. The changes that were made felt like an overall regression to the gameplay of the DMC series. Not to mention DMC2 was incredibly easy and short too.
DMC3 took what DMC1 did right and improved upon it.
How do you consider Assassins Creed to be a failure? I mean, sure, you might not like it… but the game already sold a million copies shortly after its release.
omg, dude u have no sense wat u r sayin “…failure of assassin’s creed..”
check ur sources before u post dude. its only a week since its release and has great reviews all over.
u cant call a game, a failure within ten days of release, this aint bollywood mate.
what a badly written article,DMC 2 didn’t bomb because it was too similar to DMC1,it bombed due to the fact that it lacked everything that made the original great.
moran
DMC2 flopped because it was too similar to DMC1? lmfao. It was infact quite the opposite. DMC2 did everything opposite of DMC1, worse gameplay, crap story, etc, making it an unworthy title. DMC3 took the reign and scored 9+ on many websites. DMC4 is the best bits of DMC1 and DMC3, so how can it possibly flop if it consists of the best elements of the series? It will quite infact score the same, if not, higher than DMC1 and DMC3.
I dont know why you are criticising a game, because you couldnt make a game half as good as the games you are criticising anyway, making you a complete retard.
i do not agree completely with the above article but one thing is for sure that GAMEPLAY is the most important thing that is most makes a game truly epic just like sony’s god of war and it became a legend
it is better to wait for the games to release than to predict the future of the games
i do not agree completely with the above article but one thing is for sure that GAMEPLAY is the most important thing that is most makes a game truly epic just like sony’s god of war and it became a legend
Wow Failed article of 07′. To me it look like you did this:
-Found some games that everyone was talking about.
-Found some things that you personally didn’t like about them.
-Wrote a article about how they may suck before anyone got their hands on a full version of these games.
……..yep….good effort, but IMO this article was a big waste of time.
Assassin’s Creed – Bought the Collector’s Edition on launch, it was fun, but the glitches, screen tearing and crashes were quite annoying. I still played through and conquered it. But, honestly, I think Uncharted had me far more engrossed in the storyline. It definitely didn’t live up to the hype of what I’d heard about it.
Haze – This game is going to rock, plain and simple. Those who’ve done no research into it, may think it’s a gimmicky Halo rip-off, but those of us who’ve been camped out on the Haze forums @ Ubisoft, know differently. Comparing Halo to Haze is a ridiculous statement, and honestly, we’ve dealt with many many threads regarding this comparison. Haze actually has something new to add, and if you don’t like it, don’t get it, it’s that simple. I, however, know that the folks at Rare who created Goldeneye 64, and Perfect Dark, and Timesplitters etc… have a proven pedigree for knowing how to serve up a SICK FPS, and since those same folks from Rare, are the ones currently employed at Free Radical…well, I’m definitely looking forward to this game. And, by the way, again, for those who’ve never actually done any research, like the poster of this article apparently. _ALL_ demo’s, screen shots, and game footage, are MONTHS old, at this time. The demo you saw, was the same demo from what early/mid this year? Do you take these things into account when writing? Or just write the first thing that comes to mind? Either way, I believe in FRD and what they’ve delivered before, and I’m actually encouraged that they delayed Haze further, because I want them to put as much polish on it as possible.
Gears of War – Never played it, but my friend downloaded it for the PC, and guess what, he said it sucked, yep, your precious gears of war ate shit, and why? Per Nate (he’s currently playing Crysis, so stow your GoW and Halo BS elsewhere), what really turned him off, was having to unload many many many rounds into your opponent, as opposed to being able to perform head shots et al. Whether that’s true or not, I don’t know, but as I said, he’s playing Crysis now, so there’s really no comparison at all between any of these games and Crysis.
Halo Franchise – You know, I honestly wish I’d actually gotten into playing Halo, but being equally honest, I was already far to enmeshed with the Medal of Honor series, Unreal, and Soldier of Fortune. I played Halo once or twice, but it felt so much like Unreal, I just said meh, I’ll keep playing Unreal.
DMC4 – No idea, it looks like fun. And I will most likely buy it.
All in all, I think alot of people really need to stop with the PS3/Xbox 360 comparisons. I mean, wow, look, a console that’s been out for 2 years has more exclusive games than a console that’s been out 1 year…holy crap, that’s just ludicrous, stop the presses! Seriously, PS3 will have some amazing titles coming out in 2008, and it really comes down to what your preference is. If you want my opinion – Failures of 2008 = Gaming Media, you guys are pretty messed up in my opinion. Start taking yourselves back to the oldschool of ‘journalistic integrity’, you know, researching your subject and actually getting facts together, and then actually using the facts, rather than drawing conclusions from the magic eightball. Anyway, 2008 is gonna rock for PS3, gimme some GT5!
This was a wasted 10 minutes of my time…..
cold
i so love this game
Reviews for DMC4 are out.
Looks like this fool was wrong, it’s a hit.
did any of you know that devil may cry 3 was before the first if not you are really dumb devil may cry 4 is amazing i bought the special edition it was only a few puonds more but who cares its an amazing game haze i wouldnt really know because i dont really care about that game and splinter cell i personally enjoyed the other games but ya never know this time i might not enjoy it but hey im gunna buy it anyways and how can gears of war be crap you idiot so many people play it and whats wrong with taking so many shots to die if it was just 1 shot and u died it would be stupid the only 1 shot weapons are torque bow sniper and boom shot thats if you get a direct hit wich many people can and how can devil may cry not exist consodering u can buy it in game stores retard i personally like dmc2 i like them all and by the way everyone has there own taste in games so dont try and tell me that this game is great buy it if i dont like the look of it i wont buy it so stfu and personally assassins creed was awsome for the first 2 hours then got boring dont get me wrong it is a great game but it just gets boring after awhile.
Whoever took the time to type this article is a failure! Devil May Cry 4 is beautiful. There is nothing wrong with the game. Splinter Cell Conviction isn’t even out, you dum fuck. Neither is Haze.