RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS

[Cultist]

2K Marin, the studio behind The Bureau: XCom Declassified, has reportedly laid off the majority of its staff and may be effectively closed down.

2K Games has confirmed a decision to "reallocate creative resources" at 2K Marin, which worked extensively on BioShock Infinite and most recently developed The Bureau: XCom Declassified. "We can confirm staff reductions at 2K Marin. While these were difficult decisions, we regularly evaluate our development efforts and have decided to reallocate creative resources," the company said in a statement to Polygon. "Our goal to create world-class videogame titles remains unchanged."

The number of employees affected by the layoffs hasn't been revealed but a source said that a majority of the team has been cut and that the only ones remaining are slated to join the new 2K studio headed by Rod Fergusson, the former Gears of War executive producer who left Epic Games to join Irrational as the vice-president of development in August 2012, but then left that studio in April of this year, shortly after the release of BioShock Infinite. Another source claimed that 2K Marin has been closed down completely.

Such is the fate of studios who turn their games into call of duty garbage.

Edited October 18, 2013 by Cultist

[Nonek]

It's rather an interesting topic popularity isn't it? One could well argue that popularity is to be opposed at all costs if our history is anything to go by, what with religious crusades, slavery, facism and institutionalised sexism all being extremely popular in their day. Personally I don't believe it's that simple, I don't believe that popularity frees anything of criticism, I don't believe that one must oppose the popular at all costs, instead I would rather use discernment and moderation in judging each individual aspect. Some may call it nit-picking, I prefer to think of it as thoroughness.

 

In the end I believe that a balanced view is the fertile breeding ground of advancement. Wandered a bit off topic what?

[WorstUsernameEver]

Look, I'm not a huge fan of Fallout 3, but I hope you're not seriously comparing a mainstream game to insitutionalised sexism and fascism.

[Nonek]

No it's far worse!

 

Only joshing, been up with the little ones all night (flu you know) so i'm rambling a bit trying to stay awake.

 

Edit: To clarify I don't believe popularity negates criticism, nor do I believe Mr Ocelot should trust anything but his own judgement.

Edited October 18, 2013 by Nonek

[Humanoid]

The game I would compare Fallout 3 to is Super Mario Bros 2. Not a terrible game as such, but only superficially related to the rest of the series.

 

I argue this because I feel what Bethesda did was to create a pretty dang reasonable post-apocalyptic gameworld, while incorporating elements of Fallout lore without really understanding how it all fits together. I've posted some of this before somewhere here, so I'm repeating myself somewhat, but for example, the world they built feels like one fairly recently devastated by the bombs, and would have been a good setting for such a game story. But as a sequel to Fallout 2 they had to shove the timeline further into the future, to the point where the devastation no longer felt fitting to the backstory given. This hurt the game. They took MacGuffin-like concepts like water purification and the GECK, and shoehorned them into their story. While nods to previous games are not unwelcome, tributes are better presented as side-plots or even easter-eggs, rather than something that takes over the entire plot. This hurt the game. And the old timey-time stuff - well in the end it's pretty irrelevant. It's put in there almost as an afterthought, and while I don't think it's necessarily bad, it's hardly something that makes the game either.

 

In the end I think in that, in terms of the product at least, it was a bit of a lose-lose. Old-time Fallout fans can with some justification rail against a good portion of what Bethesda has done to the property. But the opposite is also true - in trying to keep at least some elements of Fallout into their post-apocalyptic game, they made a game that wasn't as good as it could, and indeed probably should have been. There's some damn good world-building in Fallout 3, with lovely little subtle environmental touches. But they're elements that needed no context, and that would have worked just as well, if not better, under its own, new title. If I was to present this viewpoint as a troll, I would say "hurr durr, that stupid Fallout stuff ruined Bethesda's game."

 

I've heard the plotting of Fallout 3 be described as what one would expect of a Fallout fanfiction, and I don't think that's unreasonable.

[Lexx]

 

Indeed, Fallout 3 is a really ****ty Fallout game and pretty mediocre here and there, but it made a truckton of money... sadly.

 

No money, no New Vegas, etcetera etcetera you know the song.

 

So what? It's not like Bethesda "saved" Fallout, as many people claim it to be. If it wouldn't have been Bethesda, then someone else. Who knows, maybe it would have been better / more true to the original, maybe not, etc.

[Guest Slinky]

 

 

Indeed, Fallout 3 is a really ****ty Fallout game and pretty mediocre here and there, but it made a truckton of money... sadly.

 

No money, no New Vegas, etcetera etcetera you know the song.

 

So what? It's not like Bethesda "saved" Fallout, as many people claim it to be. If it wouldn't have been Bethesda, then someone else. Who knows, maybe it would have been better / more true to the original, maybe not, etc.

 

Maybes and ifs. All I know after bethesda bought the IP there has been at least one very good Fallout game as clear majority would agree, and many think there has been two good games.

 

That is what we have and it sure could be far worse.

[Lexx]

Well, after looking at Skyrim I can at least say for sure that Fallout 4 will be a bad Fallout game again. It will have a big game world, nice graphics, and lots of shallow writing.

Edited October 18, 2013 by Lexx

[Keyrock]

The game I would compare Fallout 3 to is Super Mario Bros 2. Not a terrible game as such, but only superficially related to the rest of the series.

That's a high compliment in my book.  Despite simply being a reskinned Doki Doki Panic, I consider Super Mario Bros. 2 to be an excellent game and worthy of wearing the Mario name.

 

As for Fallout 3, I enjoyed it.  I'm not one of those people that yells "It's not isometric?  Kill it!  Kill it with fire!".  I thought the transition to first person shooter-ish perspective was handled pretty well and the game was enjoyable, even if it didn't truly feel like a Fallout game.  Bethesda just doesn't have an intimate understanding of what makes a Fallout game a Fallout game, hence why Fallout New Vegas was so vastly superior.  Not to mention that Bethesda's writing skills are decidedly mediocre, even when it comes to the IP they created themselves.  Still, they have a knack for creating big, fun playgrounds for us to play in, and they managed to capture just enough of Fallout's dark humor that it at least sort of resembled its namesake.

[Rosbjerg]

Well, after looking at Skyrim I can at least say for sure that Fallout 4 will be a bad Fallout game again. It will have a big game world, nice graphics, and lots of shallow writing.

 

Luckily for you Wasteland 2 is gonna be more down your alley.

[Undecaf]

As for Fallout 3, I enjoyed it.  I'm not one of those people that yells "It's not isometric?  Kill it!  Kill it with fire!".

 

 

Considering all of Fallout 3's other troubles, the transition from ISO to FPP is (relatively) one of the smaller problems. Cutting down the mechanics (as opposed to adopting and enhancing) and streamlining the **** out of everything is the real problem.

[NOK222]

I'm looking forward to post apocalyptic Bauw-stun. 

 

"Park the Cah in Hahvahd Yard" 

[HoonDing]

FO4 protagonist will be an android escaped from MIT (the Institute) and there will be two factions, one pro-android and one pro-Institute.

 

World map will include entire SE part of Massachusetts + DLC set in Cape Cod similar to Point Lookout.

[pmp10]

 

As for Fallout 3, I enjoyed it.  I'm not one of those people that yells "It's not isometric?  Kill it!  Kill it with fire!".

 

 

Considering all of Fallout 3's other troubles, the transition from ISO to FPP is (relatively) one of the smaller problems. Cutting down the mechanics (as opposed to adopting and enhancing) and streamlining the **** out of everything is the real problem.

Why do people praise X-Com remake to high heavens then?

Appealing to wider audience is sadly a natural progression of the medium.

The line should be drawn at preserving the experience.

[entrerix]

FO4 protagonist will be an android escaped from MIT (the Institute) and there will be two factions, one pro-android and one pro-Institute.

 

World map will include entire SE part of Massachusetts + DLC set in Cape Cod similar to Point Lookout.

 

i'd play that.  and pay full price too (and buy all the dlc)

 

anything to increase the odds of beth giving fallout 4.5 to obsidian

[Fighter]

If you own Batman: AC on Steam your vanilla version was upgraded to GOTY for free when GFWL was removed.

[HoonDing]

anything to increase the odds of beth giving fallout 4.5 to obsidian

 

After the NV Metacritic nerdrage and Prey 2 débâcle, I think Bethesda is done with external development studios. They already have enough internal studios who can develop spin-offs of their own main games if necessary, especially Arkane, MachineGames and Tango.

Edited October 18, 2013 by Drudanae

[Blodhemn]

I'm definetly looking forward to Machine Games' Wolfenstein. As far as I'm concerned, that small team set the standard for game pacing with Riddick.

[entrerix]

 

anything to increase the odds of beth giving fallout 4.5 to obsidian

 

After the NV Metacritic nerdrage and Prey 2 débâcle, I think Bethesda is done with external development studios. They already have enough internal studios who can develop spin-offs of their own main games if necessary, especially Arkane, MachineGames and Tango.

 

 

 

sadface.

[Katphood]

I thought the transition to first person shooter-ish perspective was handled pretty well

No iron sights, no deal. I tried a few mods to fix this but they were terrible.

Edited October 19, 2013 by Astiaks

[Keyrock]

I never quite understood the zealotry toward iron sights.  Then again, I'm only a casual FPS gamer at best, and not a gun buff, so I guess it's just not in my wheelhouse. 

[babaganoosh13]

FO4 protagonist will be an android escaped from MIT (the Institute) and there will be two factions, one pro-android and one pro-Institute.

 

World map will include entire SE part of Massachusetts + DLC set in Cape Cod similar to Point Lookout.

That is exactly what I'm expecting from them. Just making it Fallout: Blade Runner seems incredibly lazy to me, but apparently since a bunch of the Looking Glass people went over to Bethesda years back, stuff like lore has apparently taken a back seat (see vocal pre-Morrowind fan.)

 

I'm hoping they surprise me in a good way.

[Serrano]

I never quite understood the zealotry toward iron sights.  Then again, I'm only a casual FPS gamer at best, and not a gun buff, so I guess it's just not in my wheelhouse. 

 

I think iron sights are one of those subtle things that you don't really notice until they're missing, but no probably not worth making a fuss over, there are plenty of good shooters without iron sights. When I started playing in Nvidia 3d though, iron sights and scopes went from being a minor graphical effect to being a pretty big deal. The sights are one the things that really pop out of the screen so in games like Battlefield 3 and Metro when you look down a sight it really seems like you're looking down a tube and the rest of you vision rather than just being black has that sense of being blocked out by depth and it feels much more like a real action and a real thing than it did before 3d. 

Edited October 19, 2013 by Serrano

[AwesomeOcelot]

I hate iron sights, when you shoot in reality your vision, eye movement, ability to move your head means you're not tunnelled down a scope or barrel like you're using a remote turret with a camera, the best representation is to not have iron sights. Of course on console FPS your FOV is so narrow in the first place your vision is already tunnelled quite a bit so people don't mind. Scopes are for zoom.

[Serrano]

I misspoke, sorry, I've never handled a real gun and even before you mentioned it I did assume there were differences to really doing it and doing it a game. That said, with the 3d glasses, when you look down a scope or iron sight the visual feedback you get makes it look much more substantial that just looking at a flat monitor, you get more of a sense of being in the game and it's hard to properly describe but it's definitely a cool experience. 

Edited October 19, 2013 by Serrano