Jeremiah Hisel | Goozernation
With the recent news of Team Bondi's demise, selling off assets, and acquisition by KMM I thought I would list a few game companies we've lost over the years, along with their most received games.
Westwood Studios, Pandemic Studios, and Clover Studio, among others, had a lot going for them back in the day, but here we are.
Psygnosis is one of them for me. I sure miss some Wipeout, but would not be surprised if it's handed off to another studio. *Fingers Crossed*
The list is missing NeverSoft, I miss them so much, and I feel they don't get the credit they deserve.
They created an open world western game years before Red Dead Redemption, they made a great 3D Spiderman game, one of the first ever good 3D superhero games. And of course the Pro Skater franchise, where many other developers attempted to make their own 'extreme sports' games, but all failed in comparison to what NeverSoft offered.
Then Activision had to shut them down so they could be apart of the endless Call of Duty workforce. What a shame.
NeverSoft is definitely missing, and missed! The western game you mentioned is Gun. And what an amazing game it was.
The open world truly was remarkable for its time. I still remember riding to places being a Joy!
That list hit hard. Some really good names and games there.
It’s just not right that so many gem studios end up in closure.
I was sad about volition and visceral. Yes the saints row reboot sucked but I was holding out hope of a remake of the first two. And I loved visceral for the dead space games.
Seeing Clover Studio up there, takes me back to Viewtiful Joe 1 an 2. Love them so much on GameCube, we really need a remake of both games and also Viewtiful Joe 3 on Switch 2. This needs to happen.😞
Fallout is turning 25 years old today, and Gameover celebrates the classic series with this retrospective that reflects on how the series started, where it has been, and where it might be heading.
Fallout 1 is close to my heart, not only because I experienced it close to its release, but for the weird, still serious tone it had. I was immersed in the world and the first post-apocalyptic games I really liked. Still, can't and won't recommend it to anyone today. Too clunky and technically outdated. F1 should get a Wasteland 2/3 like remake.
I loved the themes and writing in Fallout: New Vegas, the execution of them though was underwhelming to me, mostly because of the limitation they had to work with both time and hardware related. This game also screams for a proper remake.
Fallout 4 was disappointing to me at first, especially how the factions are handled, too many generic MMO like missions and the whole third act which should have been changed/expanded. But still it's my most played Fallout after they added Survival Mode to it, the gameplay and the world is becoming much more intense. Garbage collecting and weapon upgrades make a difference, especially in the first 30 levels. Settlements also become a real save heaven, so after bigger missions/explorations I like to wind down with improving my nearby settlement.
So as of today, Fallout 1/New Vegas and Fallout 4 are my favorites in the franchise.
I played 1 and 2 back-to-back a couple of years ago for the first time. Fallout 1 was good but it was so weirdly content-barren. You had this huge map with almost nothing to see. 2 delivered a ton more content, characters, world-building, and more, despite being made within a year after 1, I think? But you are right, Fallout 1 has a distinctly different tone compared to the rest of the franchise. The combat... didn't age well in both of these games, but I think they are still worth trying.
I actually enjoy the combat system more in the earlier games. Just a nice revamp wouldve been fine. I do enjoy new fallouts and its still one of my fav series but fps eh
Fallout 2 ramped up a lot more content and improved with the QoL features, with a lot more people involved this time. The core team of Fallout 1 leaving early in production (they formed their own company Troika) might show the lack of direction of the game.
It had interesting ideas and themes in some areas (Den, Broken Hills, Vault City, NCR, Sierra Army Depot), but their work were seemingly tainted by some mouthbreathing edgelords in their team. There was rarely an area which hadn't some (for me) stupid things in it. There seems to be a designer which had an overabundance on what ran last night on his tv (Frank Horrigan, Xenomorphs, Scientology Celebs, Clinton Sex-Scandal, Ghost Stories...), the single idea guy who added intelligent animals to all areas and another guy who just added (partly) edgy jokes/joke characters everywhere.
The regression of humans to tribals within 80 years after the bombs fell didn't make sense to me. The existence of G.E.C.K. and what it does was too far out for me. I hate the idea that vaults were all experiments (as if people wouldn't become weird or conflicts heating up there by default) which became a staple of the series from now on. But on the other hand I loved quests and interactions which span between areas, that you can revisit areas from F1, how they handled Super Mutants (expect for magician Super Mutant Melchior) and Goris was at least cool asf.
So I don't hate F2, but the more I had think about it, the more it drops in my personal ranking. Every dumb idea people knock Bethesda for has roots in Fallout 2, except maybe for Mole Miners and Scorchbeasts.
Black Isle Studios has confirmed that Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 is coming to PC and Switch this year.
It's crazy to see a full list of them because then it really sets in. We've been losing really great game studios since 2000, and it just keeps getting worse. Did any of them on the list shock you?
...does this mean no Baldur's Gate 3? Darn cliffhangers...
Clover should have been on that list....
Frontlines fuels of war?! That game was a turd in digital form.
Missing.
-Realtime worlds
-Grin
-Ensemble(Thank you micro$oft :()
-Free radical(If they had only made timesplitters 4 instead of haze they would still be independant instead of making tagged on mp for crysis 2)