Vagary.TV examines the history of Gearbox Software through its review scores and looks at the troubled development of Aliens: Colonial Marines.
Is Gearbox Software a great studio? With a remarkable 46 point spread between their highest and lowest scores, there's certainly a question. Out of 10 games and 9 pieces of DLC, Aliens ranks as the worst software they've ever released, followed by Duke Nukem. Their other games review middling to much better. So what went wrong and, in a time of rampant studio closures and thousands of lost jobs, can we really consider Gearbox a hit-maker?
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....sorry, couldn't resist.
It may have just been one person's great idea and the rest of the studio just rode the wave.
they basically didn't have anything to do with it..
http://www.onlysp.com/2013/...
http://n4g.com/news/1172216...
Gearbox DID have the majority to do with it.
If not, they need to stop outsourcing their stuff
At last people realise!
Gearbox is the most overrated company in the business. FACT!
No matter how uncomfortable it is to admit it, the gaming industry needs EA.
At one point I agree EA was lacking but they have come back very strong.....I don't see anyone complaining about Dead Space 3..... Lately EA has been actually improving on their games , one of my biggest issues from EA in the past shoveling out games with little to no improvements.
While EA isn't perfect, they are a much better company than Capcom or Activision and as Calm said the gaming industry would be very hurt without EA's presence
Claptrap beat box time!
Even if they did outsource part of the game, it's still their game, which they probably didn't bother playing or doing any QA.
Borderlands is amazing and Borderlands 2 is just ok. The only thing that stops B2 from being a complete disappointment is Anthony Burch and his humor.
Classes are pointless now that everyone can wield any weapon.
There's two for you...shall I continue?
You could still level up sniper rifles with Lilleth and eventually make her as good as Mordecai. It just maybe wasn't practical because she didn't get bonuses from her skill tree.
Some of the areas in BL2 were confusing though. And the way the maps were drawn made it hard to work out where to go.
WHo are they trying to fool here? I was stupid enough to pre purchase the game on steam purely because it has xenomorphs but that is where my stupidity ends.
Two amazingly fun games (some of the best I've played) with awesome DLC done right, that's enough for me to consider Gearbox a great developer. I wont say they're the greatest, but they definitely are great in my opinion.
I did the first couple of missions.
The game is no way near as bad as the reviews said.
There were moments when I was in a dark area with all the Alien gunk on the walls with steam blasting at some points, with my motion tracker out then all of a sudden it goes OFF! I start getting chills, as I see this solid white mark on my tracker coming towards me and then I just see this Alien running towards me on the ceiling and I fire with my Pulse rifle.
The tense situation, the sound of the environment during these moments, the tracker going off, the sound of the pulse rifle, made me feel like I was watching Aliens, but PLAYING it. AWESOME.
But then I started fighting soldiers more then Aliens which sucked.
Like I said - Not as bad as the reviews make it out to be. Some of the moments I had like above were amazing and just wondering through the dark areas just waiting for it to go off, not knowing what to expect.
Not sure what it's like after Mission 2, fighting soldiers is a bummer, though still enjoying it.
So far 7/10 - If I continue fighting more soldiers and great moments like above start to diminish during the game, that will lower to perhaps 6/10
Absolutely right.
"The tense situation, the sound of the environment during these moments, the tracker going off, the sound of the pulse rifle, made me feel like I was watching Aliens, but PLAYING it. AWESOME."
Yeah I think they mostly nailed the atmosphere and it really saves the game in my opinion.
"But then I started fighting soldiers more then Aliens which sucked."
True, and there are other sections where you fight soldiers, but overall you'll kill far more aliens than people.
"So far 7/10"
My score as well. A patch or two might bump it up to as high as 8. People expected too much I guess, but the really low scores are truly ridiculous. Want to see a game that deserves these kinds of scores? Play Blacklight: Area 51
You can only say the game isn't as bad as the reviews until you've finished the game.
Some games start well and end bad, others have a few decent moments but are brought down with poor gameplay that permeates the experience.
Play the game some more. You can beat it in five hours. After the first mission, things go downhill quick. Very front loaded game.
if i was going to put my name on some work of mine that a fellow co-worker did for example, you better believe im double checking his work since we both become responsible at that point. this is no different. in fact this is even more important because gearbox had a reputation as a quality dev to uphold, you lose that and you lose a lot