If I can't say Bioware, then Bethesda Game Studios. Fallout 4 was good but I was sad to see it's RPG elements watered down (no lvl cap, only four vague dialogue choices, almost everything being solved by guns). Then throw 76 on top of that...
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YOUR Most Disappointing Developers (Not Bioware Edition)
- Thread starter Video Games Are Dumb
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I don't know. But I'd be surprise if very many people, especially key people, from those times are still there.
Dare i say Rockstar? I get that their games are masterfully crafted and RDR2 is one of the best games of the last 10 years but really they made 1 game this gen. On top of no single player DLC really sucks after the amazing DLC we got for GTA 4 and RDR1.
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No that's valid. I love Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us but your perspective makes total and complete sense. They really don't make light, fun games anymore. Crash Team Racing feels like a totally different planet than The Last of Us Part 2
yeah, I imagine most of those people bailed around Condemned 1 or 2
Rockstar Games. One game that I didn't liked in a whole generation.
Not their choice.
DICE went from being the studio behind my favorite game of all time (Mirror's Edge) and my favorite shooter franchise that wasn't named Halo to a shambling corpse that trots out half-baked products with terrible post-launch support and little community interaction except for the time that Reddit ethered them so bad that it prompted them to wake up for a few months and get one of their flagship titles in order solely because it also happens to be one of the biggest intellectual properties in the world owned by the biggest company in the galaxy.
Compile Heart for me.
They have the bones for interesting games, with their interesting premises, really fun character designs and attempts at engaging Turn-based battle systems, but their games are an absolute masterwork in tedium. Battles that very quickly sink into repetitive grinding, dialogue that is often both incredibly pointless and incredibly long-winded and a constant, persistent effort to shoehorn in generic fanservice on generic anime models means that no matter how interested in their games I get, I'm always turned off because I know it'll be the same mediocre drivel in the end.
They also routinely hire Melissa Fahn, my favorite VA, so it makes me sad that I hate playing their games.
They have the bones for interesting games, with their interesting premises, really fun character designs and attempts at engaging Turn-based battle systems, but their games are an absolute masterwork in tedium. Battles that very quickly sink into repetitive grinding, dialogue that is often both incredibly pointless and incredibly long-winded and a constant, persistent effort to shoehorn in generic fanservice on generic anime models means that no matter how interested in their games I get, I'm always turned off because I know it'll be the same mediocre drivel in the end.
They also routinely hire Melissa Fahn, my favorite VA, so it makes me sad that I hate playing their games.
Hard for me to hate Bethesda when the 10-year cycle they're now adopting between sequels benefits mod developers like myself so much. Beyond Skyrim wouldn't really be possible without it. Too many modders would jump ship to TES6 to sustain it. And as much I despise 76, I think FO4 was still fairly good, and tackled one their biggest issues since Morrowind (guilds/factions being irrelevant to the main story, more like separate self-contained side quests, and you can be master of them all without consequence). I have high hopes for Starfield because I think a lot of Bethesda's core team was working on that, not 76. They didn't leave their character artists twiddling their thumbs for three years while they just recycled Fallout 4's character models and animations in 76 for example.
My vote would have to go to Blizzard. WoW has been handled pretty terribly of late (for end game at least) leaning too heavily into gambling tricks, ignoring the new player experience, and dumbing down too many systems. Blizzcon had two terrible years in a row, first with Diablo mobile ("you have phones, right..?") and then with the "sorry-not-sorry" for Hong Kong last year. D4 is also World of Diablo in all but name, and while they could pull it off... their latest output doesn't give me hope, and too many developers fall into the MMO tropes of "this is how MMOs have always done it, so this is how it should always be done." I'm fully expecting to be doing quests where the NPC acts like I'm the sole hero and the only person they've seen in days, while half a dozen other players are running to-and-fro blasting skills off their hotbars as mobs melt around us. And until an MMO developer has the bright idea to phase in other players only when they're off definite benefit to the situation (world bosses, group events, public dungeons) and keeps the vast majority of the world solo so there's no fighting over resources, mobs, and general immersion issues, I'll always be wary of devs trying to shoe-horn MMO elements into traditionally solo or invite-only games. For the most part, it makes the game worse. See The Elder Scrolls Online with its constantly respawning mobs and "wait don't kill that boss before I tag it" issues...
My vote would have to go to Blizzard. WoW has been handled pretty terribly of late (for end game at least) leaning too heavily into gambling tricks, ignoring the new player experience, and dumbing down too many systems. Blizzcon had two terrible years in a row, first with Diablo mobile ("you have phones, right..?") and then with the "sorry-not-sorry" for Hong Kong last year. D4 is also World of Diablo in all but name, and while they could pull it off... their latest output doesn't give me hope, and too many developers fall into the MMO tropes of "this is how MMOs have always done it, so this is how it should always be done." I'm fully expecting to be doing quests where the NPC acts like I'm the sole hero and the only person they've seen in days, while half a dozen other players are running to-and-fro blasting skills off their hotbars as mobs melt around us. And until an MMO developer has the bright idea to phase in other players only when they're off definite benefit to the situation (world bosses, group events, public dungeons) and keeps the vast majority of the world solo so there's no fighting over resources, mobs, and general immersion issues, I'll always be wary of devs trying to shoe-horn MMO elements into traditionally solo or invite-only games. For the most part, it makes the game worse. See The Elder Scrolls Online with its constantly respawning mobs and "wait don't kill that boss before I tag it" issues...
its Bethesda for me
I put them on a pedestal. It was a mistake.
This generation has moved them from among my absolute favorite developers to among casual developers who release the same product over and over. They're recycling at an epic level. Ill wait for the announcement of ES6 and Starfield EXPECTING to be disappointed. They did their fans dirty this generation.
I put them on a pedestal. It was a mistake.
This generation has moved them from among my absolute favorite developers to among casual developers who release the same product over and over. They're recycling at an epic level. Ill wait for the announcement of ES6 and Starfield EXPECTING to be disappointed. They did their fans dirty this generation.
Campo Santo
I have a lot problems with their debut, Firewatch, but it showed a lot of potential for this new team. The developer has put their new project on hold for an unknown amount of time to work on other Valve projects like Half-Life and DOTA. I'm honestly wondering if we'll ever see it completed. Months of work on their own baby has been put aside to feed other Valve kids.
I have a lot problems with their debut, Firewatch, but it showed a lot of potential for this new team. The developer has put their new project on hold for an unknown amount of time to work on other Valve projects like Half-Life and DOTA. I'm honestly wondering if we'll ever see it completed. Months of work on their own baby has been put aside to feed other Valve kids.
Square after FFVII has been disappointment after disappointment with just the bare minimum of actually good games to prevent me from completely writing them off for about a decade. They somehow maximized the total amount of disappointment they could extract from me.
Great choice.
Its a shame that Konami is so uninterested in making revival of their beloved IPs
When they have so many big IPs like Castlevania, Metal Gear, Silent Hills and do nothing with them. Smaller IPs (yet still great) like Suikoden have little hopes of coming back.
Bethesda Game Studios for me, I really have far less faith in their upcoming games as a result...
Gamefreak is probably my single most disappointing developer ever. I can't think of a series with as much squandered potential as Pokemon, at this point
I would say Maxis. The Sims 4 makes serious regressions to the people simulator formula that, at least to me, results in vapid, shallow, and uncompelling gameplay. The building tools are pretty nice as are many of the Sims creator tools, but the object selection, Sim interaction, and goal-oriented gameplay leave much to be desired.
Oh snap. I take back my answer, definitely Gamefreak here as well!
Camelot - They used to make outstanding RPGs and have now turned into a Mario Sports studio (and tbh I think their sports titles peaked in the GCN/GBA era). They did Dark Dawn in 2010 but now a decade straight without an RPG from them has me personally disappointed =/
how much of this is on nintendo, as the publisher, though?
In recent memory, Grezzo/Nintendo for the Link's Awakening remake.
The former for turning out such a poorly optimized title with no foreseeable fix, and the latter for letting it happen.
The former for turning out such a poorly optimized title with no foreseeable fix, and the latter for letting it happen.
Gamefreak blew it
Other devs sucked too, but I'm not a huge enough fan to care (Beth, 343 has a chance for redemption, Rockstar for delaying PC ever fucking time, Blizzard - never been a big fan, but they are hard to ignore how much they have been fucking up, Nintendo for their lack luster releases this year - seriously what comes after animal crossing from Nintendo?, and Square, but Ived been disappointed in square since FF13 sooo)
Other devs sucked too, but I'm not a huge enough fan to care (Beth, 343 has a chance for redemption, Rockstar for delaying PC ever fucking time, Blizzard - never been a big fan, but they are hard to ignore how much they have been fucking up, Nintendo for their lack luster releases this year - seriously what comes after animal crossing from Nintendo?, and Square, but Ived been disappointed in square since FF13 sooo)
Kinda Obsidian
New Vegas is probably still my favorite game and nothing they've done since has even come close to it. Pillars of Eternity and Tyranny were fine, I played some of both and enjoyed them, and I'm sure Pillars of Eternity II is probably better than them, but I just do not care for any sort of pirate theme. Then came The Outer Worlds and with all the signs pointing to that being a spiritual successor to New Vegas I was pretty damn excited. Until I played it and it had basically nothing of what I loved about New Vegas. The writing was generic, the combat serviceable, the dialogue options never spoke to me, and it overall just felt like such a vanilla experience. Maybe they'll finally follow up on New Vegas now that they are with Microsoft, but we'll see.
New Vegas is probably still my favorite game and nothing they've done since has even come close to it. Pillars of Eternity and Tyranny were fine, I played some of both and enjoyed them, and I'm sure Pillars of Eternity II is probably better than them, but I just do not care for any sort of pirate theme. Then came The Outer Worlds and with all the signs pointing to that being a spiritual successor to New Vegas I was pretty damn excited. Until I played it and it had basically nothing of what I loved about New Vegas. The writing was generic, the combat serviceable, the dialogue options never spoke to me, and it overall just felt like such a vanilla experience. Maybe they'll finally follow up on New Vegas now that they are with Microsoft, but we'll see.
Can we talk about Choice Provisions here? Runner 2 was one of the best games of last generation, and their Runner stuff in general was excellent.
Then, Tharsis came out and that was...okay.
Then Runner3 came out and it was actively shitty to the point that it actually bummed me out. It was such a bad game. I know this team can do dope shit. I want them to do more dope shit.
While I'm here, I also feel like Netherrealm really booted it with MK11, especially coming off how good MKX and Injustice 2 both were, but I am not so disappointed that I've lost hype for Injustice 3.
Then, Tharsis came out and that was...okay.
Then Runner3 came out and it was actively shitty to the point that it actually bummed me out. It was such a bad game. I know this team can do dope shit. I want them to do more dope shit.
While I'm here, I also feel like Netherrealm really booted it with MK11, especially coming off how good MKX and Injustice 2 both were, but I am not so disappointed that I've lost hype for Injustice 3.
DICE
I've had a rocky relationship with DICE. Battlefield 3 was incredible and really drew me into the FPS genre more than any other game. That game specifically landed me at Battlefieldo and subsequently MP1ST (back when it was under different management) because of how passionate I was for the game and it's community.
I've worked with and made quite a few friends who work(ed) at DICE, and it's really made me wonder how this dev studio is so INCREDIBLY mismanaged.
and it's not like they are mismanaged to a degree that they can't make games, it's to a degree that they start with a great idea, implement it, but then when it is delivered, it's an absolute mess.
Battlefield 3 had so much balance issues early in its life and eventually we at BFO lead the infamous Battlefield Blackout because the developer response was non existent.
Battlefield 4 broken for months and then after it's prime was fixed and expanded on by a support studio to a point that you wondered why was DICE LA the support studio and not the main team. Who the hell was managing that place so well?
Battlefield 1 was great, had some DLC issues but I don't remember any big issues.
battlefield 5 is still a complete shit show.
now I don't blame the developers. I blame the managers. The shot callers. The established precedents for Battlefield that prevents communication and justification of why things are the way that they are.
It's every installment. What the hell is going on there? It feels so bad. You have such a great concept and it is constantly marred by the fact that the concept never feels fully realized and cooked through. You're a great chef who plating undercooked reverse seared steak.
I want DICE to be better but man it's such a pattern I don't have faith in them.
and the worst part is that the community managers and devs who interact with the community in some form or another just get shit on and they can never say why it's the way that it is.
I've had a rocky relationship with DICE. Battlefield 3 was incredible and really drew me into the FPS genre more than any other game. That game specifically landed me at Battlefieldo and subsequently MP1ST (back when it was under different management) because of how passionate I was for the game and it's community.
I've worked with and made quite a few friends who work(ed) at DICE, and it's really made me wonder how this dev studio is so INCREDIBLY mismanaged.
and it's not like they are mismanaged to a degree that they can't make games, it's to a degree that they start with a great idea, implement it, but then when it is delivered, it's an absolute mess.
Battlefield 3 had so much balance issues early in its life and eventually we at BFO lead the infamous Battlefield Blackout because the developer response was non existent.
Battlefield 4 broken for months and then after it's prime was fixed and expanded on by a support studio to a point that you wondered why was DICE LA the support studio and not the main team. Who the hell was managing that place so well?
Battlefield 1 was great, had some DLC issues but I don't remember any big issues.
battlefield 5 is still a complete shit show.
now I don't blame the developers. I blame the managers. The shot callers. The established precedents for Battlefield that prevents communication and justification of why things are the way that they are.
It's every installment. What the hell is going on there? It feels so bad. You have such a great concept and it is constantly marred by the fact that the concept never feels fully realized and cooked through. You're a great chef who plating undercooked reverse seared steak.
I want DICE to be better but man it's such a pattern I don't have faith in them.
and the worst part is that the community managers and devs who interact with the community in some form or another just get shit on and they can never say why it's the way that it is.
I don't see them ever returning to make Valley of the Gods to be honest. If only Valve had acquired them after that game released so at least we could have got it first.
Sega I guess. They have some amazing IPs, especially thinking back to the roster of Dreamcast games and they've done very little to really reignite them in this modern age. Jet Set Radio would still be cool, Shenmue could now be a sustainable episodic style series drip feeding us chapters and at nothing like the expense it was back in the day thanks to modern tools etc (think Life is Strange with the full Shenmue story a shame Sega seem to forget their past).
Do people still confuse Bethesda Games Studios with Bethesda the publisher because Todd Howard gets no credit for Doom(2016) or Prey......he can have all the credit for Fallout '76 though.
I understand your feelings 100% and while it might be dissapointing that there is no JAK 4 or something similiar I would still encourage you to try Last of Us.
I hated idea of this game. It was so banale, but every journalist praised it because of it's A D U L T and E M O T H I O N A L story.
But go without expectation and it is very well made game, and gameplay is not boring third person shooter like many games last gen. Story is in many ways cliche but actor performance is great and it comes out genuine.
Valve, but, are they even eligible for such a mention? From Half Life 2 to Artifact.
SEGA and Konami are certainly up there though.
SEGA and Konami are certainly up there though.
Dice with battlefield V and the shitshow that is it's post release support.
Change the TTK around christmas, undo it because of the community response. Do it again one year later.
1 year later cheating is still rampant.
They clearly lacked the time and/or manpower to support the game release yet wasted the little they had on a battleroyal mode now completely left for dead ( unsurprising since they never made it free... ), then working on a 5v5 game mode they gave up on before it even got released.
Community is so desesperate we are the one who actually ask them to reheat their content and for example use their battleroyal content/asset to make us "low effort" content for the other big game modes. Yet their only attempt was reussing those assets for that dead 5v5 mode.
Bugs, bugs, bugs, as in things like an invisible soldier bug which lasted for weeks.
Some very very very stupid assignements for weapons.
Some even stupider UI design decision.
Also can we speak about the decision to make community games not reward ToW ?
Change the TTK around christmas, undo it because of the community response. Do it again one year later.
1 year later cheating is still rampant.
They clearly lacked the time and/or manpower to support the game release yet wasted the little they had on a battleroyal mode now completely left for dead ( unsurprising since they never made it free... ), then working on a 5v5 game mode they gave up on before it even got released.
Community is so desesperate we are the one who actually ask them to reheat their content and for example use their battleroyal content/asset to make us "low effort" content for the other big game modes. Yet their only attempt was reussing those assets for that dead 5v5 mode.
Is no longer true, weapons unlock are now also part of the real world money circle.
Bugs, bugs, bugs, as in things like an invisible soldier bug which lasted for weeks.
Some very very very stupid assignements for weapons.
Some even stupider UI design decision.
Also can we speak about the decision to make community games not reward ToW ?
Also ten times this.
i think everyone mentioning bethesa is referring to bethesda game studios, not publishing
Probably Level 5. They had some great titles early on like Dark Cloud 1 & 2, Jeanne D'Arc, and Rogue Galaxy. Even stuff they did on the next gen weren't too bad like Dragon Quest 9 and to lesser extend White Knight Chronicles. But they ignore all these games and just do pokemon ripoffs like Yokai Watch or Ni No.
its Square, nothing else comes close
level 5 :/
i was about to reply DQ11, but then remembered they didn't make that, damn...
level 5 :/
Game Freak
They've had how many years to build(not necessarily evolve) their formula but they largely phone it in when it comes to exploration, plot/writing, and adding features to their games and have little to show for it. Exploration and plot is rehashed, and new features they add are almost never in the sequels(see: Secret bases, the Underground, etc.) I'll give them props for constantly improving on the battle system from a competitive perspective but that's really about it.
God I wish Genius Sorority was still making spinoff like their GC games
They've had how many years to build(not necessarily evolve) their formula but they largely phone it in when it comes to exploration, plot/writing, and adding features to their games and have little to show for it. Exploration and plot is rehashed, and new features they add are almost never in the sequels(see: Secret bases, the Underground, etc.) I'll give them props for constantly improving on the battle system from a competitive perspective but that's really about it.
God I wish Genius Sorority was still making spinoff like their GC games
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Oh shit, I forgot Harmonix. The Beatles Rock Band is one of my favorite games of all time. Life changing, really. Can't say enough good things. I adored their PS2 output as well and Rock Band Blitz was a cute little side project. And I really did enjoy the Kinect exclusive Fantasia game.
But man, what the fuck happened? First it was that shooter that never came out, followed by toys, and a fairly lame reboot of Amplitude, and a crummy sequel to Rock Band? You wouldn't know it but they've put out at least three projects a year since 2014. A real and very sad fall from grace.
But man, what the fuck happened? First it was that shooter that never came out, followed by toys, and a fairly lame reboot of Amplitude, and a crummy sequel to Rock Band? You wouldn't know it but they've put out at least three projects a year since 2014. A real and very sad fall from grace.
I know you said not bioware, but i genuinley cant think of another game dev whom i loved whose fallen so far from grace. Mass Effect is my favorite trilogy of games of all time and ive replayed them more times then i can count over the last 12 years. Dragon age orgins was great, while 2 wasnt as great, i still greatly enjoyed it more than say, mass effect andromeda, and inquisition kicks ass. But between andromeda being a sham of a mass effect game and anthem offering very little of value, i just cant get over how dissapointing they have become. I want them to go back to making games like the mass effect trilogy, kotor, and even inquisition. But they seem like they are locked in to this service games future so i dont see what they could offer me anymore.
Rockstar
My favourite developer last gen and while i enjoyed RDR 2 it still was only 1 game and had major flaws.
Sega
Don´t get me wrong, Yakuza is great but apart from that there isn´t coming much from Sega these days. No Vanquish 2, Binary Domain 2, Sega Rally, Crazy Taxi, Virtua Tennis, Panzer Dragoon etc.
My favourite developer last gen and while i enjoyed RDR 2 it still was only 1 game and had major flaws.
Sega
Don´t get me wrong, Yakuza is great but apart from that there isn´t coming much from Sega these days. No Vanquish 2, Binary Domain 2, Sega Rally, Crazy Taxi, Virtua Tennis, Panzer Dragoon etc.
I mean, they can both be shits on different levels. Bethesda Studios continue to shag the corpse of the Fallout franchise, and Bethesda corporate have been responsible for various horrible behaviours.
& no Mania 2. Absolute madness.
Man, I'm trying to think of the last time I cared about a Level-5 project...
Maybe during the Guild01/Time Travelers period (2012-2013ish ?)
I'm going to go with Capcom. Yes, they have absolutely come around in a big way. However, they are still often not great with communication, and I care a great deal about the games they make, so they are more capable of disappointing me.
Square is a strong contender, as they haven't put out a genuinely good Final Fantasy is well over a decade.
Otherwise, it would be Bethesda Game Studios, as they consistently shit the bed. However, they have been complete and utter garbage for so long that I have a hard time seeing what they do as "disappointing". It is just who they are as a developer at this point.
Good pick, that one. They were supposed to be the chosen ones...
Square is a strong contender, as they haven't put out a genuinely good Final Fantasy is well over a decade.
Otherwise, it would be Bethesda Game Studios, as they consistently shit the bed. However, they have been complete and utter garbage for so long that I have a hard time seeing what they do as "disappointing". It is just who they are as a developer at this point.
Good pick, that one. They were supposed to be the chosen ones...
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