XboxOz360 looks at a dozen upcoming games that are taking the creative risk of setting their story in environments that are foreign to most gamer's eyes. Will these new environments make, or break, these games?
Titles studied after the jump include Alone in the Dark, Highlander, Resident Evil 5, Far Cry 2, Alan Wake, Too Human, Theseis, Crusaders, Lego Indiana Jones, HYDROPHOBIA, The Crossing, Edge of Twilight and The Outsider.
Alone in the Dark developer Pieces Interactive has been hit with layoffs a month after its release, as per the latest information.
That genuinely, genuinely sucks. The reboot has clear flaws, but it really felt like a solid first step for this team to receive *greater* investment.
That's standard. Teams are together for a Project, after its done some..and sometimes most devs are fired until the next Project is in the works and people are needed again. Only the core members stay in the time between the hot phase of the game development.
What’s annoying is people don’t understand how contractors work, either. All of this is uninformed knee-jerk reactions without any understanding of how employment works in this industry. There are key developers and staff that stay with a studio/publisher, but often times it’s a hire per project and then seeking new employment for a project. That’s how it’s always been…
That's a fair point too. I would say that in light of its tepid critical/commercial response and ongoing mass layoffs across the industry I think it's understandable for fans to worry about the longer-term implications. We'll see how it plays out in the future.
VGChartz's Lee Mehr: "In one sense, it feels strange to even think Pieces Interactive had big shoes to fill with this series' legacy. Given what's come before, did it really? And yet, even when considering the last two flops over a two-decade span, there's still something about Alone in the Dark emblazoned on a title screen that carries a sense of revered history. In that respect, perhaps this reboot's best accomplishment is in honoring that spirit through its inventive world. It's also fair to emphasize knocks against its survival-horror design, some puzzle-solving, and so on; it certainly won't be considered a trendsetter like the 1992 classic. Still, the amount of goodwill wedded to its brighter qualities makes for something that dawdles the line between unfortunately-flawed and impressively-enticing."
The new Alone in the Dark remake doesn't do anything especially noteworthy, but that doesn't mean it's bad. It's just... cromulent.
Usually I'd disagree about posting .wordpress blogs but it's an interesting read with little evidence of bias.
Not only new interesting environments, but more interactive, destructible environments. Nothing worse than when you shoot a lamp and it seems to be made of bullet-proof glass. I'm not saying everything should be able to be destroyed but the environment has to seem alive and somewhat realistic.
I also think more games should have NPCs around that aren't there just to shoot with or at you.