aspro73 said:As Halo Wars begins to come out I have to ask a couple of questions.
- What percentage of people who buy tihs game will have seizures when they realize that it is not an FPS. For previous example of what can happen read the user reviews for Scarface for the PSP, which was a real time strategy game. Scarface was a brilliant game on the big consoles and was on the PSP as well, but many a thug was perplexed by the change-up when they loaded up their UMD.
- Microsoft told Ensemble Studios that they'd be shut down on completion of the game. What does that say about Microsoft's confidence in this being a game that is good enough to support a franchise? Secondly, this game MUST have some of the most amazing and most profane easter eggs in the history of gaming given that everyone working on it knew they were going to be fired anyway.
- Can it be any good? I'm thinking it's goning to confound those not familiar with RTS and be too light for anyone who enjoys RTS.
LOL, good point.
Dude I've been saying this from the start: Xbots will be scooping this game up expecting a shooter and be like WTF? I made a joke about it selling 3 million on day 1, and then 2 million being returned the next day one time.
Moreover, WHY make a console RTS instead of a PC game? Ensemble had a great track record and some very popular games on PC, so why not let them play their strength? And, why shut down arguably your best studio? Why didn't MS let them go like Bungie and become independent?
edgecrusher said:aspro73 said:As Halo Wars begins to come out I have to ask a couple of questions.
- What percentage of people who buy tihs game will have seizures when they realize that it is not an FPS. For previous example of what can happen read the user reviews for Scarface for the PSP, which was a real time strategy game. Scarface was a brilliant game on the big consoles and was on the PSP as well, but many a thug was perplexed by the change-up when they loaded up their UMD.
- Microsoft told Ensemble Studios that they'd be shut down on completion of the game. What does that say about Microsoft's confidence in this being a game that is good enough to support a franchise? Secondly, this game MUST have some of the most amazing and most profane easter eggs in the history of gaming given that everyone working on it knew they were going to be fired anyway.
- Can it be any good? I'm thinking it's goning to confound those not familiar with RTS and be too light for anyone who enjoys RTS.
LOL, good point.
Dude I've been saying this from the start: Xbots will be scooping this game up expecting a shooter and be like WTF? I made a joke about it selling 3 million on day 1, and then 2 million being returned the next day one time.
Moreover, WHY make a console RTS instead of a PC game? Ensemble had a great track record and some very popular games on PC, so why not let them play their strength? And, why shut down arguably your best studio? Why didn't MS let them go like Bungie and become independent?
Indeed. I cannot wait for the flood of people buying it and immediately returning it because they couldn't shoot people.
Archangel is interested.
Scarface was a what on PSP? What?
What what? What?
I don't know the reasoning behind MS shutting down Ensemble, given their successful track record with the Age... franchise, but by giving the demo a spin or two, I can easily see this game breaking a million.
aspro73 said:As Halo Wars begins to come out I have to ask a couple of questions.
- What percentage of people who buy tihs game will have seizures when they realize that it is not an FPS. For previous example of what can happen read the user reviews for Scarface for the PSP, which was a real time strategy game. Scarface was a brilliant game on the big consoles and was on the PSP as well, but many a thug was perplexed by the change-up when they loaded up their UMD.
Wow, I never thought about that, and it's unfortunately a very realistic* scenario.
I'm expecting to play Halo Wars as a good rent, and nothing more. I like the simple unit spamming gameplay of older C&C games that it'll provide, but once the novelty of me owning face with Halo character wears off, there won't be much reason for me to play it.
EDIT: * Well, sort of. Xbox users have been provided with the Halo Wars demo, which I imagine is a lot easier to access than any Scarface demo, if there ever was one.
Listen to Iced Earth and play Doom
gamingeek said:Archangel is interested.
Scarface was a what on PSP? What?
What what? What?
Yeah and I own it. It's a solid game.
For those of you who have not followed the link to scarface PSP reviews I'd really encourage it. The confusion and rage is genuinly entertaining.
As for HW being good or not, since it is from Ensemble I am sure that it is going to be a worthwhile experience, I'm not casting judgment on the content or quality of the game itself, just putting out there the likely public reaction to it.
Well if the demo is any indication I think this should be a great game. Ensemble seem to have done an excellent job bringing an RTS game to the 360 as well as doing the Halo brand justice. I don't know why they closed Ensemble and it is a shame but I think getting a team like them to bring an RTS game to the 360 made a lot of sense actually because it helps their console get more variety in quality games.
aspro73 said:gamingeek said:Archangel is interested.
Scarface was a what on PSP? What?
What what? What?
Yeah and I own it. It's a solid game.
For those of you who have not followed the link to scarface PSP reviews I'd really encourage it. The confusion and rage is genuinly entertaining.
As for HW being good or not, since it is from Ensemble I am sure that it is going to be a worthwhile experience, I'm not casting judgment on the content or quality of the game itself, just putting out there the likely public reaction to it.
"this game sucked. it was like playing a board game by myself"
Interesting:
Bungie wasn't keen on the idea of Halo Wars, Ensemble Studios founder Tony Goodman has told GamesIndustry.biz. Goodman noted that the game that became Halo Wars originally had nothing to do with Halo at all, but Microsoft felt that a strategy game would have a better chance of succeeding on its console with the Halo branding. The shift put the game "back about a year in development, and I think it never quite turned out the same," he said. Microsoft had assumed, according to Goodman, that the studio could simply "paint over" what it had already created with Halo characters, vehicles and environments.
Furthermore, Goodman added that the entire project never sat well with Bungie, the studio that created Halo in the first place. "Another problem was that Bungie was never up for it," he said, recalling that the studio considered Halo Wars a "whoring out" of its franchise.
Halo Wars became the last game that Ensemble Studios would ever produce, with the developer's former staff offering different accounts as to why it went under. The game went on to break a million in sales, and the staff went on to form several new studios, including Goodman's Robot Entertainment, which took stewardship of Halo Wars and went on to create both Hero Academy and Orcs Must Die. Goodman recently left Robot to form new mobile studio PeopleFun. - Joystiq
==-=-
READ FIRST: I liked Halo Wars. I am copying these user reviews over because I found them to be humorous, not because I agree with them.
Some of the user reviews: (not quite what I anticipated, these guys seems to have known it was an RTS).
Ensemble Studios is garbage. This game is such crap that I have to assume that Ensemble took lessons from the failed Japanese games of old. In their short sightedness, they've made a game that is literally pointless.
Next:
Concept: put a bad name to the franchise by trying to make the halo game into a third person strategy game and fail in almost every way it really isn't even a strategy since there's no strategy involved is more of a money squeeze to get out of the fans of the franchise and disappoint them in almost every way
My favorite
i was not interested in it at all the story made no since and a lot of people dislike strategy games and its even worse that its a halo game.The company that made halo wars put the halo series a step back from when it was very popular and i am so happy that halo reach came out or no body would buy halo ever again.So next time bungie don't ever make a next halo strategy game again or your business would be ruined.So that's the end of my review hope you all liked it because i tried my best to make you all understand why the game was boring ok so its dieyie signing out piece............................................................
"including Goodman's Robot Entertainment, which took stewardship of Halo Wars and went on to create both Hero Academy and Orcs Must Die."
Interesting.
It's been around since 2008-06-21 at least.Dvader said:This site has been around since 2009, holy shit
It begun here: The Blog that Gamespot didn't want you to read
December 2007
Then the Gamingeek Weekly Blog was birthed here:
A New Weekly Feature For This Blog: TESTING 1,2,3
Posted: April 16, 2008
Yodariquo, miraculously hacked 1ups code in the comments section to give us a sexier look and does everything here to give us a slice of the internet to call our own.
I know, I was just reading that earlier. WTF? How did this guy ever get a job in games journalism?
lol. I remember reading that blog back in the day before it got taken down. I was so with you. I think you and I were two of the only people to really love Fire Emblem over there and that review was a steaming pile of horse manure. Ahhh memories.
Can't believe they deleted my reviews. Funny stuff but it was Gertsmangate like a week later or something.
As Halo Wars begins to come out I have to ask a couple of questions.