Right now there are a plethora of great games out. I mean really great
games. Virtua Fighter 4, GTA3, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Blood
Omen 2, Halo, Dead or Alive 3, Gran Turismo 3 A spec, NOLF. The number
of stellar titles is phenomenal. However, there are still some titles
out there that just make you scratch your head and wonder how the hell did
that get put out? This happened A LOT back in the last era of consoles. Perfect
Weapon, ID4, Agile Warrior, Criticom, Spot Goes to Hollywood, and the list
goes on…
Any of these ring a bell? Probably not, although a couple might stick
out. Hey hey, Need for Speed II anyone? Although I must give EA
credit…NFSIII was a huge improvement. But honestly it makes you wonder
who the hell tested these games. Do they have some gorilla with a controller
taped to his hands testing these games? Some of these games controls
may actually having you believe that and soon you’ll be saying, “I can’t play
this game because I have opposable thumbs.” It’s just irritating that
some companies have the audacity to release this proverbial crap to the general
public. I really feel that it is indeed a slap in the face to our self-respect
and intelligence as gamers. Some companies think that, “Hey, if it’s
in a nice pretty package everyone will buy no matter how it plays. We’ll
just put some CG on the back so they think the graphics look like that and
sell millions of copies. HELLO?! Ever heard of Blockbuster??? Apparently
not. As a fellow gamer I just can’t stand to see games that are even
worse than crap released although they are fun to make fun of. The best
review I ever read was hands down Next Generation’s review of Independence
Day by Fox Interactive. Oh man was that ever a beautiful literary display
of criticism.
So let this be a clue to all the game developers out there. Test the
games before they go on the market and by all means if the game needs more
time, adjust the time schedule to allow for the proper corrections to be made. It
really is bad to play a game that just feels like it has been rushed. Take
the time to make the product as perfect as possible. I’m pretty sure
that I speak for most gamers when I say that I would rather have a game’s release
date pushed back then to have it come out on time but feel rushed. I
am aware that pushing back the release and doing more product testing costs
more money and the suits only care about profits but chew on this for a minute. A
company has to decide whether to release a game they’ve been developing and
the deadline for launch is really close but the game isn’t finished.
The company has to decide whether they want to release the game on schedule
and release an unfinished, rushed, shoddy product, or push back the release
date to polish everything up and make it a solid title. If the company
decides to launch on the scheduled date and releases it to the general public,
the quality of the game will show. All the magazines that play it and
rate it will be able to tell it feels rush and incomplete. There’s no
doubt that they won’t factor this all into their rating of the game. Especially
if it’s a game that has been hyped up people will be very jaded and disappointed. Word
of mouth spreads very quickly.
Come on people, you’ve all heard rumors in high school so you know how fast
information spreads, especially with the Internet. Now if the company
decides to push the games release date back, it will cost more money but common
sense says that a solid finished game sells better. If there ever was
a great example of this it was the Resident Evil series. I remember them
being pushed back a year from the original release date. Think the RE
games would have sold as well if Capcom just rushed the second half of the
game and just released it on time? Doubtful….very doubtful.
In case you want to read the article printed in the Next-Generation I’ve put
it below with the Next Gen issue number and all the necessary information. Again
this article isn’t my work. I am just reprinting it in praise to the
literary genius that is this writer/reviewer.
Next Generation Volume 3 Issue 29 May 1997
Independence Day offers the player a chance to fly real fighter jets
like the F-15 Eagle and prototypes like the YF-23 over cities such as Washington,
New York, Paris, Moscow, Tokyo, Oahu, and Las Vegas – all the while fending
off alien invaders. It’s also based on the blockbuster movie Independence
Day. Sounds like a can’t miss right?
Boy, are you wrong. The graphics are average at best, and the sloppy
control makes playing the game a chore. Perhaps even worse are the
poor level designs; 14 of the 15 missions have the player speeding through
a generic city (besides one or two recognizable buildings in each location,
the environments are very similar) underneath an alien mothership, while
trying to destroy fixed targets and avoid enemy fire. The draw-in
is horrendous and makes identifying targets and enemies difficult. In
fact, it’s so hard to see what’s happening on the screen that the only
thing worth watching is the radar, which is still confusing.
The only thing more tedious than the one-player game is the two-player
game, in which two players (via split-screen or link cable) fly in circles
until the words “target locked” appear on the screen. At that point,
both players press fire, and the first one to hit wins. If any of
this sounds like fun or you’re collecting ID4 paraphernalia, then pick
this game up. Otherwise, Warhawk from SingleTrac is what this game
should have been.
