Gearbox: Black "sh*ts on everyone else's games" but "can't finish his own"

GamerZines writes:

Whilst today brought details of Stuart Black leaving Codemasters ahead of the launch of his latest title, Bodycount, the news has been immediately met with criticism from those within the industry.

[Chuk5]

Black is always going on about how everyone else's games are boring. How does this guy think he is? Good for you gearbox.

[maawdawg]

Exactly, the only way this could have been better is if they made that comment so it was said by Claptrap in one of his video rants.

[PhilipLarkin]

Finished off with...

"Ohh, check me out, I'm dancin'! Everyone look, I'm dancing!"

[Kerrby]

Haha oh snap! Eat it Black.

[HammockGames]

Black was overall just an OK game at best.

What I remember: Cool guns.

What I don't remember: Anything else. Totally forgettable. And what good is shooting stuff if you totally lose interest?

[deafwing]

... has begun.

Man I wonder if he saw this coming? He could have just gotten back together with his original team who did "Black" for PS2 and did the sequel; the game ended on a cliff hanger. This new IP, though spiritual, won't do well with his comments (no matter how much online media twists what he says).

[Halochampian]

Why are you talking about the game??

The story is about the Stuart Black from Codemasters.

Black was made by Criterion

[Halochampian]

Ok so i had to do a little research. Although it was criterion games who made it, He was the co-creator of it.

But I do love how people disagreed and never took the time to say that.

[deafwing]

... it's all good .. lol
but yea, Stuart Black ... was one of the creators of "Black"
+bubble

[BeaArthur]

Agree 100%. All the sh!t talking this guy does and he rolls out before his titles drops. Pussy. Wouldn't matter to me either way because Bodycount doesn't look at all impressive.

[wicko]

I agree, I was excited after hearing that he was working on this game, then I saw the gameplay. zzzzz...

[Kleptic]

development wise, this industry no longer has room for guys like this. Arguably the first to start running their mouth like this was John Romero in the late 90's...where he left iD in the Seinfeld sense; was on top of the world and couldn't do a whole lot better with the available assets at that time...iD released Quake II not long after his departure, which was unanimously declared a great game, but not nearly as ground breaking as the original Quake (as Quake was the first full 3D fps)...and also lacked a 'feel' that seems to have come from Romero's development input...Romero seemed fully aware of this, and stopped at nothing to tell everyone how awesome his next game would be...and any fps fan of 'normal' age remembers daikatana, and the marketing campaign surrounding it...with the end result being as forgettable as a game can get...

this is the same thing...10 years later...only with a developer with no where NEAR the pedigree of Romero...

You can say Cliffy B and David Jaffe do this stuff all the time...but they still deliver awesome games...Black is more like itagaki...spouting shit left and right, getting some attention for a decent game or two...but still overall just being an arrogant prick that has no business shooting his mouth off in the first place...how awesome was NG2 supposed to be?...better than any action game ever made, at least according to him...and it was nearly a full generation behind what we all expected...

all we want is for developers to shut up...make great games...and still be quiet about it...they are not doing us any favors...we are paying through the teeth already for new software...we are doing THEM the favor...Bulletstorm looks like another average multiplat, and by average I am considering how much the bar has been raised this generation by 'multiplats'...if it was 2004, this game would look absolutely awesome...but now tons of multiplat fps games release each year...for the same amount of money...and from developers that will sit back and let their software speak for itself...

[The Lazy One]

To be far, if it weren't for the retarded camera NG2 would have been many degrees better.

[Kleptic]

^^agreed...should have specified I wasn't saying NG2 was a terrible game...just WAY under what we were told to expect; straight from Itagaki's mouth...I disliked the game much more because of him being a douche, but still played through it...He made a lot of statements about how NG2 would define action games and this and that...yet it has core mechanic problems that were fixed over 10 years ago in other platform/action titles...

had it been made by a humble developer...a lot of my dislike for it was forgivable...but its definitely far from the crowning achievement we were told it would be...

[maawdawg]

Kleptic, that issue is the exact thing that took away any enjoyment I could have had from the Fable series. Molyneaux's prattling on about it being amazing and the promises (that he never delivered on) built the games up so much they could only be a disappointment, when compared to the game we were told to expect.

It is the same kind of thing that happened for most people with Too Human, due to Denis Dyack's over-hyping of the game before it released. Sometimes developers do more harm to their own products than anyone else possibly could.

[DeadlyFire]

They showed the game way to early. EGO engine gave us Operation Flashpoint 2 right? Have you looked at that game's graphics? Bodycount still has alot of potential to look alot better.

[PhilipLarkin]

Knew it. Read quite a few of his interviews in OPM, and always seemed like a more volatile Jaffe; he'll slag off others, promote his own, then when he realizes it isn't going well, jumps ship.

Good riddance.

Oh, and Gearbox? Now get back to another BIA. Please. Please? Please.

[SnuggleBandit]

Jaffe just gets a lot of attention cause he is a great gamer developer. Never heard him make statements like this guy has.

[HarryM]

Well said, Gearbox.

[OneSneakyMofo]

Can talk the talk, but can't walk the walk.

[chak_]

And gearbox can't code a proper PC version of borderlands, online play was messed up for months, 50 FOV and such ! And did he forgot all the brother in arms?

Wasn't these guy critizing steam also?

I think he should shut up too.

[maawdawg]

Randy Pitchford was the one talking about Steam, and he wasn't really criticizing or bashing Steam or Valve, just pointing out a fact that the platform and developers using it could be a victim with conflict of interest since the people who run it also design software that competes with theirs. That was way overblown anyway.

This is a completely different person, Mikey Neumann, making this comment. It just so happens they are part of the same company. I don't see how a different person's previous comments should reflect on the other's at all.

[likedamaster]

Messed up FOV or not, I had no problem with Borderlands on PC. Well, besides the console-like menus it ran quite well. Bioshock 2 FOV, on the other hand, did bother me.

CABALLOTE -steam

[Alos88]

He should have stayed on until the project was finished at least.

[user9422077]

"He will see out his design role until October and, through the transition period, will continue to work with the talented development team that will take the game through to completion."

You have to read the story, these sites only make titles purely for hits.

[Gamester101]

Chin up Black.

[EliteAssass1n]

i'm so happy other developers are taking shots at him!!

[mastiffchild]

Why? you want them ALL to act like babies? Truth is, even if he DID start all this Gearbox themselves haven't got an entirely great record of their employees not talking smack when they shouldn't about other people and their games-also, if their own games aren't perfect(and Borderlands was nowhere near perfect)then they definitely shouldn't say anything either.

Sure, Black should never havew said what he did but we don't know how or why he's come to be leaving and with Neumann entering i to this it begs the question "who is the bigger fool? the fool or the fool who follows him?". If we're truly honest it's our hobby and our industry looking like t's run by kiddies that's doing the damage and by sinking to Black's level this has just made it seem an even more widespread type of behaviour within gaming and it looks bad for all of us. Devs have been acting like bigger tools than ever this gen(T10 are still champs of the DB for me, mind, but it's getting close thesedays when even Zipper have come out with some bollox!)and, sadly, it leaves us all looking a bit more stupid if I'm perfectly honest.

[Roper316]

Couldn't agree more with what Gearbox is saying. this Jackass reminds me of the total tools over @ just turned ten, talking crap about other peoples games instead of just worrying about their own. It made me not buy Forza 3 and I am at the point where I won't buy Body count either if he doesn't just STFU already and just worry about his own game.

[gcolley]

i think you are taking this industry too serious. don't not buy a game because the publisher is a tool, buy it second hand. this way YOU don't miss out on a cool game but they miss out on your money. forza 3 is a shame to miss.

[bjornbear]

i see high bodycount at bargain bin!

[Awesome_Face]

Sounds like polyphony digital if you ask me

[shwiggity]

i think you meant turn10 buddy...PD promotes their own, but they don't rip on the competition cause they don't have anything to be afraid of

[PotNoodle]

When do you ever see PD ever slagging off anyone elses games? In fact, when do you ever see them even talking about other games?

[xTHRASHx]

I have spoken to the developer Mikey and his further take on it is quite interesting and I shall post a news article on N4G soon pertaining to that.

Also, Gearbox did not say this. It is an employees personal opinion.

[xTHRASHx]

http://n4g.com/news/567100/...

[N4BmpS]

Isn't Stuart Black the same dude that went around criticizing KZ2, MW2 and Halo?

[Spenok]

Yep.

[ILLINOIS]

Bodycount looks like garbage. They should of made Black 2 for the Ps3.

[ATi_Elite]

Stuart Black has nothing to do with:

Halo
Killzone
Half Life
Battlefield
Resistance
Stalker
Arma 2
Call of Duty
Gears of War
Doom
Metroid

So he is MR. Irrelevant in my book as far as FPS go

PS bodycount will suck and that's why he left.