edgecrusher said:

Tried to get into it a million times, thinking I must be nuts 

 You are correct there

edgecrusher said:

Not to mention, there were plenty of better MP shooters anyway. As a package, none of these games ever came close to offering what even Goldeneye, and especially Perfect Dark, did......on the fucking N64.

 You bring up a good point, but to be honest most current day shooters do not match PD64 either, content wise. Perfect Dark was a beast plain and simple, it had everything!

gamingeek said:

TMNT Wii details:

 Yeah, I saw it! I hate the art, but in-game it looks alright!

edgecrusher said:

Other than that, they made Second Sight, which didn't do anything for me. Pretty average action/adventure game. And we all know how great Haze turned out to be. They have done nothing in the past 8 years to make me think they're a top class developer. Can't say I'll miss them.

Another small developer who put their eggs in the PS3 basket.

I liked TS2, but the 3rd felt a bit, sort of easy, retro and too linear. I still hold PD64, Goldeneye and Halo 1 in higher regard than most FPS though. Free Radical were supposedly doing the next Star Wars battlefront game as well as TS4.  

edgecrusher said:

Punk, dude Halo 3 looks way better than a Wii game. Especially when it comes to special effects, and a big clear draw distance. I have seen nothing on Wii that comes close to Halo 3.

But then again, I think Halo's 1 and 2 also look better than most of Wii's games.

What Wii games are you judging Halo 1 and 2 against? Shit man, if you compare it to shovelware and junk I can see where you are coming from, otherwise measuring those two games up against the best looking Wii games there is no contest. But then you are still playing on an HDTV? Does your TV have the Bravia engine 2 BTW? That may be why you said the picture looks good.  

http://www.sonyinsider.com/2008/11/20/confused-about-bravia-engine/

BRAVIA ENGINE™ 2 TECHNOLOGY

The BRAVIA Engine 2 is a display engine that controls the turning on and off of the individual detail points - the pixels. It is the brain of the display controlling the basics of contrast, color, brightness and motion, which are actually more important to the performance of the panel than its resolution.

There are three versions of BRAVIA Engine 2:
BRAVIA Engine 2 (52XBR7)
BRAVIA Engine 2 EX (40XBR7)
BRAVIA Engine 2 PRO (70XBR7)

But don’t let that confuse you – the video processing functions and the benefits remain the same. The big difference between each of them is the addition of an exclusive Sony technology called Digital Reality Creation Multi-function (DRC-MF).

Digital Reality Creation technology essentially enhances video signals making them sharper and clearer. There are two variations of DRC-MF technology. In the BRAVIA Engine EX circuit (in the 40XBR7), DRC-MFv1 works with 480i (standard definition) video sources.

In the BRAVIA Engine PRO circuit (70XBR7), DRC-MFv3 goes a few steps further by processing ALL video signals. That’s right - 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i and 1080p! Details in images, textures in plants and fabrics, and computer graphics all benefit from DRC-MFv3 technology.

edgecrusher said:

GODMODE ENABLED!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tJ1TrVv3hI

Such an amazing game. I used to come home from work and play that until 3am for the first 2 months it was out. Stopped me from playing Majora's Mask for awhile. Crazy how far ahead Dreamcast was in terms of online.

Quake III Arena was an awesome game. Better than most modern multiplayer FPS, IMO. I played that game on both PC and Dreamcast.

Isn't it getting re-released on Xbox Live and DS soon? I vaguely remember reading about that a while back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHj_wIjYxYA

Yeah, I'll just go back to Quake 3...

Iga_Bobovic said:

edgecrusher said:

^What kind of game is that supposed to be?

 Like Brawl, you would hate it

 Edge, it's been in development for a year and comes out end of 2009, made by ex-Smash Bros and Team Ninja developers - published by Ubisoft. It promises to beat brawls online modes. It's like Brawl but with the Turtles cast. Seriously, going up against a huge nintendo franchise on the same system may not be a smart move. If they had just modelled everyone after the 80s series. If only. 

Then I could pulverize Iga as Hobo 80s Shredder. 

Yes I tried Haze. I had high hopes for that one, I thought they were going for a more Perfect Darkish game. But no, they were going for a pile of dung in game form, and succeeded. Very generic, didn't stand out in any way.

I'm hearing Free Radical is officially done. Confirmed? Maybe they'll go crawling back to Rareware.

edgecrusher said:

Yes I tried Haze. I had high hopes for that one, I thought they were going for a more Perfect Darkish game. But no, they were going for a pile of dung in game form, and succeeded. Very generic, didn't stand out in any way.

I'm hearing Free Radical is officially done. Confirmed? Maybe they'll go crawling back to Rareware.

 Pile of dung in game form? I think the funniest thing I heard was that it actually outputs in 480p Standard definition and just lets the PS3 upscale it. What?! 

It seems like the story is true, other industry sites are reporting it as well as local UK newspapers. 

This is from Edge online:

A source close to staff at Free Radical Design told Edge on Thursday that the developer has shut its doors--and changed the locks--just before the Christmas holiday.

"Staff arrived for work this morning to find the locks had been changed and notices on the doors advising them to attend a meeting at a nearby Novotel [a hotel chain] at 12 noon today," said the source, who preferred anonymity and worked with Free Radical in better times. "Heavy duty security staff was patrolling the buildings."

"...I think they're all a bit shell-shocked."

The studio employed around 150-200 staff, the tipster said. "After the poor reviews of Haze and subsequent loss of a contract with LucasArts, [Free Radical was] struggling to find publishers to back the long-awaited TimeSplitters 4 and other smaller projects and were left with no choice but to pull the plug."

Free Radical was founded in 1999 by former Rare developers including David Doak, Steve Ellis, Graeme Norgate and Karl Hilton, who created games including Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark. Free Radical also created the aforementioned TimeSplitters series of games.

The independent studio had a publishing deal with LucasArts on the unannounced Star Wars Battlefront III, a deal that fell through in October after about two years of development, the source said. "[Free Radical] was relying on Lucas for further contracts which had been promised in some sort of exclusivity deal. Obviously that all went down the pan."

Perhaps the worst news for fans of the studio is the demise of TimeSplitters 4. "They had already started working on TimeSplitters 4, and had been for over a year, but due to the failure of Haze and the deal falling through with Lucas, they couldn't get a publisher to back them. They had a last ditch attempt last week down South somewhere, but it came to nothing so I think that was the last hope."

The source claimed that the company "didn't treat their staff well at all." Rumors of a closure were circulating within the company for "a few weeks."

"People have been leaving in droves due to lack of security, poor treatment of staff, better offers and guaranteed work from other local developers such as Monumental Games and one in Derby whose name escapes me [Rebellion and Core Design both have Derby locations--ed.]."

Doak reportedly "officially" left the company early this month, and Ellis has set up another company called Pumpkin Beach, which already has a placeholder website registered under his name. The two are reportedly working on this project together and will "hand pick" Free Radical staff to join them.

The source also said that despite the looming closure, the company still held a big Christmas party last week and gave staff a week's pay as a Christmas bonus.

Attempts to contact Free Radical have been unsuccessful.

After the meeting

Later on Thursday, our source updated us with more inside information from the Free Radical staff meeting that took place at a hotel near the studio. Apparently, Free Radical knew the urgency of its situation six months ago.

Co-founder Ellis was "visibly upset" when he talked to the staff, the source said. "[He] told staff how very sorry he was and they'd been doing all they could, working flat-out to either find a publisher or a buyer over the past six months, but no offers were made. There have been several visits to the States, but to no avail."

About 20 staff members were offered positions with Ellis' new venture, Pumpkin Beach, while the rest of the employees were told in a separate room that they would be laid off.

Staff had reportedly been paid to the end of December, but are not expected to receive any further compensation "as there was nothing left to give."

Reps from U.K. game makers Codemasters and Monumental Games were at the hotel after the meeting asking for CVs and applications from former Free Radical staffers.

gamingeek said:

No I've noticed that too. Some games are almost letting shaders and high definition do the work for them, others are awesomesauce. Mass Effect is crazy, apart from the slight screen tearing.

Well F5, they made Rebel Strike, then went quiet for a couple of years, then one big game since the GC and they are on the edge of closing? Pachter made a good point, in that it was a winner take all market on HD systems and given the cost of these games, you are seeing people getting in trouble. EA went out of their way to make a couple of big original games and compared to the usual licenced crap they haven't been huge succeses and now they are losing money. It's almost like you have one flop and you're out if you are an independent. Publishers have a broader range and can make up for losses on some products with gains in others. But what was it? I posted a story in a thread that said something like only 10% of games make a profit.

That's because they do. Some developers just can't afford to truly make next generation character or inainamte object models so they just beef up the textures and let middleware do the rest.

Wait Free Radical now? So let me get this straight these developers had ONE bomb in their entire career and they are being forced to close down? And this was due to what again? Them not being big or expereinced enough to handle huge teams and cost? Wow just wow. I ugesss Patcher was actually right about something. I've also stated that HD consoles only seem to have God-like software sales because they are more condensed.

TMNT Wii - Ugh why couldn't they do Warioland type sprites?

BREAKING NEWS:

Miyamoto-san was just seen taking a sushi-filled Japanese dump on Free Radical's doorstep, muttering "this is what happens when you leave Rare while we still own, then form Radicals Free and give most support to Sony".

He then pulled up his pants without wiping, and walked away quickly.

More as it breaks.