20°

Which PC devs have gotten console game design right so far?

With the 360 attracting its fair share of former and current PC devs, xboxer takes a look at how successful their first endeavors in next-gen console land have been.

Epic Games- Gears of War

Epic Games managed to translate their gameplay over brilliantly to the 360. The fast-paced and frenetic gameplay of the Unreal series is in evidence here, with the game dumping you straight into the combat. The cover system and the weapons map out fantastically to the 360 controller, making the cover system feel natural and intuitive. OK, so the game was basically providing us with the same thirty seconds of fun over and over again. But that's not a million miles away from what they did on the PC beforehand. Not revolutionary perhaps, but a real blast and executed to console perfection.

led10906669d ago

dunno after playing crysis gears was just ok i mean its nothing special dosent bring anything new to the table...same with crysis actually the 2 games are quite similar in the sense that both of them are not revolutionary....but crysis is evolutionary its just amazing at what it does

Lex Luthor6668d ago

Are monilith the one that do No one lives forever on pc? (might be mistaken)
Loved that game.

Lord Cheese6668d ago

anyone remember Shogo: Mobile Armor Division? That was a monolith game - used the same engine as blood 2 - it was superb - an fps where you played as a battlemech! AWESOME!

RuffledLays6668d ago (Edited 6668d ago )

Yes, Gears of War actually got its inspiration from a lot of games, but as far as control design goes, Epic did a great job with. Sure its annoying when snagging on cover while Roadie running, but apart from that, the overall job was fantastic.

Even Valve seems to have done a good job on The Orange Box with the 360. Pity EA had to do the PS3 version and cause so many problems.

Same goes for Infinity Ward's job with CoD4.

And yes Monolith handled the NOLF and the FEAR series. All good games except for Contract JACK and Extraction Point. Let's hope Project Origin doesn't screw up as bad as Perseus Mandate.

mesh16668d ago

epic are not great devs tbh gers of war is for the casual player bioware/2k/sk/ have nailed next gen eprfectly with games that actually are brilliant

120°

Next ‘BioShock’ Game Changes Leaders After Development Turmoil

The fourth game in the ‘BioShock’ series has been in development for more than a decade

Read Full Story >>
bloomberg.com
toxic-inferno212d ago

Bioshock is one of my favourites franchises. I love all 3 games and have played each several times. I even have a room in my house that is loosely decorated around the theme of Bioshock (with a Lighthouse, coral models and postcards styled as though they are from both Rapture and Columbus).

And yet I am going to find it extremely difficult to get even remotely excited about any future episode in the series after all the problems this has had in its development cycle.

Leave the franchise alone. Remaster them again if you have to. Then put whatever talent you have to use on something brand new.

Furesis212d ago

Since ken levine isn't involved i'm not surprised what's going on. i'm more excited for his next game which looks like bioshock. Yet he still works under take2 and they are making bioshock 4 without him, strange situation.

toxic-inferno212d ago

Yes. Judas. Looks brilliant, but it's one of those games that seems to never have had a release date. Instead it's had release windows that keep getting pushed back.

Once it's ready, I'll be there for it though. Ken Levine is an excellent developer.

I get the feeling he dissolved Irrational Games simply so that 2k couldn't tell him what to do. It seems it will pay off, but I feel sorry for those who worked as part of Irrational before it was dissolved, who hadn't independently made a name for themselves.

ActualWhiteMan212d ago

He didn’t even want to make 2, that’s why they did it without him.

Rebel_Scum212d ago

tbh it wouldnt be a Bioshock game without development hell. They all had it.

Michiel1989212d ago

bioshock 2 was 2.5 years after 1, so much of a development hell it was......

-Foxtrot212d ago

"Remaster them again if you have to"

Well apparently they were doing a remake but that got cancelled

Relientk77212d ago

It sucks this game is in development hell because I love BioShock and would love a 4th game. I hope it turns out great, but I guess we'll see.

P_Bomb212d ago

Love Bioshock. It’s too bad what’s going on. At least we have Judas.

Yui_Suzumiya212d ago (Edited 212d ago )

It's been in development hell since 2014. This is nothing new. It saddens me because it's one of my favorite series. At this point, Judas may end up releasing first.

BABI-PANGPANG212d ago

Bioshock 4 (if it ever comes out) will probably still look and play like a Bioshock game, but without Kevin, it might miss that spark that made the originals so special. Honestly, Judas might end up feeling more like the real spiritual successor.

260°

Gears Of War Creator Urges Devs To Make Single-Player Games Amid EA's Live Service Focus

Gears of War's creator has spoken out against the trend of turning established franchises into live services, urging developers to focus on single-player experiences.

Relientk77389d ago

I agree with Cliff for once.

Single player games > GaaS

JEECE389d ago

Too bad he didn't have this opinion when he chased trends with Lawbreakers. Or when he chased trends with Radical Heights.

Popsicle389d ago (Edited 389d ago )

He learned from the mistake or he wouldn’t be advocating for more single player experiences. I find this refreshing in a world where we often see people so stubborn that they tend to double down on a mistake which results in making things even worse. Seriously, good for him!

JEECE389d ago

@Popsicle

Oh for sure, better late than never. And better to somewhat own up to your mistakes, rather than just blaming your release window, or advertising partners, or gamers lol.

anast388d ago

@Popsicle

Of course we will never know his intentions, but it's hard to believe he is just a naive agent that is learning from his mistakes.

-Foxtrot389d ago

He could have done one himself after Gears of War but he did Lawbreakers…look how that turned out.

RaidenBlack389d ago

Not converting Jawbreakers into F2P was the final nail in the CliffyB coffin.

Knushwood Butt389d ago

Jawbreakers would have been a better name! Heck, I might just go and trademark that right now.

BISHOP-BRASIL389d ago

@Knushwood

Aren't those a kind of candy already?

coolbeans389d ago

You're missing the point. His studio's short lifespan is what *inspired* him to make this comment in the first place.

-Foxtrot389d ago

Oh I know the point...I'm just stating the obvious and how stupid he was in the beginning to jump on a trend he had no real experience in. A first person hero shooter with heavy GaaS elements is a lot different than the multiplayer in Gears of War.

He'd have been better creating something like Gears of War again, a great single player story and a good online mode.

coolbeans389d ago

-"A first person hero shooter with heavy GaaS elements is a lot different than the multiplayer in Gears of War."

I mean... you're kinda muddying terms when Gears has always had a strong multiplayer component. Even if I grant you that, Cliffy B started cementing himself at Epic with Unreal Tournament, which was among the earliest shooter series to have "proto-GaaS elements" (downloadable maps, cosmetics, special editions that bundle stuff together). Lawbreakers and Radical Heights (were it finished) weren't major career shifts to him like they would be for, say, Fumito Ueda.

Regardless of that, it's still kinda useless to state the obvious when CliffyB himself made his comments with the benefit of hindsight already.

389d ago
CrimsonWing69389d ago (Edited 389d ago )

Look, these a-hole publishers can do this, in fact I want them to, so they can f*ck around and find out and fail hard scaring away everyone else from doing this live service push.

This industry is run by some of the dumbest corporate pieces of sh*t I’ve ever seen. They spend stupid amount of money with literally nothing that stands out from games from the previous generation (look at Arkham Knight to the $200 mill Suicide Squad comparison vids), you’re overpaying devs, and you focus on games as a service to milk consumers that a lot of them grew up off traditional games. We’re not idiots, we sniff this sh*t out and won’t touch it.

So, what’s your answer to not getting a ROI? Raise game prices and double down on GaaS so you can suck your consumers dry. That model only works for some games and even then how in hell do you expect it to work with multiple games!? They’re ruining the damn hobby with this corporate greed.

Cut back on dev budgets, cut back on how much your staff is getting paid, until sales for games bring in a profit. That’s the answer and make some games that feel like there’s passion behind them, not some cookie cut up game that feels like the entire existence behind it is to offer as little as it can with repetitive bullsh*t and selling off all this content throughout its life. It’s gross.

anast388d ago

I agree with every point here.

Redemption-64388d ago

Games do bring in a profit, it's the greed that is killing the industry. Here is a fact, live service games overall make more, significantly more money than single player games

What you should be asking is executives not wanting continuous growth or firing them. Saying devs should be fired when those who are fitting the bills and setting unrealistic expectations would make things worse. What do y9u think would happen if they released say, 30 single player games and over half of them fail? You are going after the wrong crowd.

DankSinatra389d ago

About time he learned. I guess he finally stopped blaming everyone else and took accountability for his mistakes and realized that people really don't care that much for trends or live service.

Show all comments (24)
850°

Report: Gears of War Trilogy Collection Will Be Multiplatform and Available on PS5 Day One

A new rumor suggests that the Gears of War Trilogy Collection is real, with it launching on the PS5 day one with Xbox and PC.

LG_Fox_Brazil395d ago

Yeah, I can totally see that happening. My only doubt is if they are going to announce that at the same time as the Hallo Collection or if they will try to distance both announcements to try to ease the pain

helicoptergirl395d ago

This same insider was correct about Forza Horizon 5. So this might be true. But I heard rumors are the Halo:MCC is the next big one to be announced. We'll see I guess

DefenderOfDoom2394d ago

I am hoping Halo:MCC comes to PlayStation .

Cacabunga394d ago

Someone check on Obscure Observer please

piroh395d ago

They should announce dedicated showcase for all Playstation ports, it would be less painful for their fanbase.

Anyway thank you Team Xbox and Phil i will support the games.

Profchaos395d ago

Phil should wear a crash t shirt to that

Profchaos395d ago

I see them being in the same year but halo coming alongside ns2 and if e day is early next year gears collection could come at Christmas time

The_Blue395d ago

Ease the pain? You do know these people won't even entertain us irl, ironic 😭

1Victor395d ago

NOOOOOOOOOOOO screamed an obscured observer from across the room the street.
Well I’ll check it out DAY 1 🤣 I hope the do a good job porting it and don’t have issues like MCC did when it first launched on s/x🤷🏿

Mr_cheese395d ago (Edited 395d ago )

This will be cool

TheEroica394d ago (Edited 394d ago )

Ease the pain? Pain for who? Lol. More games on more platforms is a gamer friendly approach. Locking games behind hardware is archaic and lame... Let's not turn into corporate stooges.

TheEroica394d ago

4 corporate suits voted me down. Shame. Pro gamer all the way.

+ Show (5) more repliesLast reply 394d ago
Lightning77395d ago

I remember talking about this with someone on the forums and they made some good points. Like what exactly are these old games doing at the moment? They pushed the hardware and did everything they needed to do for that platform at the time. Now in MS case even their new games are gonna be day and date but if we're taking about old games. Those games are just sitting their not doing anything anymore. When you port the old stuff to another console, that game has life again and move few more units and a new audience.

As I said Xbox is different because their stuff is inching closer and closer to be day and date. Though both Xbox and PS have old games that are just sitting around when they could have new audiences and breathe new life into the older exclusives.

Terry_B395d ago

Just imagine how well collections of older Nintendo games would sell on pc, xbox and playstation...

NotoriousWhiz394d ago

I honestly don't expect Nintendo to gain much from releasing their games on 3rd party consoles. People are conditioned to buy Nintendo games on Nintendo hardware. Once that changes, Nintendo will probably lose out on revenue as people pass on their underpowered console to wait for their game to release on a superior console. Tons of people only have a Switch for exclusives, and those exclusives sell better than most games on the other platforms and Nintendo is able to pocket the bulk of that revenue since it is their game on their console.

Profchaos394d ago

Not very considering rom packs have been eaily accessible for years now it's only really GameCube and above you need to pick and choose because the game size is fairly large and the Wii IMO didn't emulate well considering the motion controls.

So as incredible as they are I doubt they would sell unless they are overhauling them somehow but then again I wouldn't want to see them overhauled but that's just me I still play the NES version of Mario 3 over the SNES all stars version as a example because I think it looks better.

394d ago
Sonic1881394d ago

All you had to say was Microsoft is a third party publisher now

Lightning77394d ago

Huh? They clearly are what are you trying to get at?

rlow1394d ago

That still makes and releases a console…..which knocks them out of the third party club…..nice try

Sonic1881394d ago

@rlow1

A third-party publisher that still releases a console? Sure, whatever makes you sleep at night. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what they're trying to do.

generic-user-name394d ago

The Series X/S backwards compatibility to their old classics was one of the last few selling points for those consoles.

RaidenBlack395d ago

Finally Gears 2 & 3 coming to PC !

neutralgamer1992395d ago (Edited 395d ago )

Exactly I also hope we get a fable collection since fable 2 never came to Pc

I hope we also get gears of war 4 on Pc too since only gears 5 is on steam along with tactics

ninjabutt13394d ago

Gears 4 is already on pc, maybe not in steam but its in xbox app

394d ago
isarai395d ago

Where's the goalposts gonna go now? 😀🫳🍿

helicoptergirl395d ago

Get an obscure person to bend over and then I'll show you :)

Chevalier394d ago

They're too busy crying in a corner and being served crow again though. Pretty sure everything is going to voicemail.

goken394d ago

@helicoptergirl
Normally with articles like this the person you mentioned is usually obscured from observation 🤣

Profchaos395d ago

Revenue same as always Microsoft don't care about community it's reputation and they've never been worried about losing loyal customers if you recall the Kinect era they abandoned the hardcore entirely to pursue the hardcore gamers grandma

Outside_ofthe_Box395d ago

"Where's the goalposts gonna go now?"

"It's just old games sitting around doing nothing! Might as well get money from it and a new audience you can use to potentially make it exclusive again for next gen for them to be enticed to jump ship!"

~New goalpost

395d ago
Outside_ofthe_Box394d ago (Edited 394d ago )

"Eventually Sony will likely be forced to do the same"

Is that you begging for games that you once bashed in the past? Too funny, things must be dry in your land.

Chevalier394d ago

"aren’t selling as much as Xbox - and the answer will be that they are on less platforms."

No they won't because Xbox doesn't announce sales numbers at all. So how would they compare these sales? What idiotic logic. These shareholders going to pull numbers out their backside?!

thorstein394d ago

Why doesn't he just use the one account. How many N4G tabs does he have open with different accounts?

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 394d ago
neutralgamer1992395d ago

Why do you need goalposts? More gamers will get to play games. Phil said it few days ago again no game has any red line around it. Seriously man it's gaming and your choice of plastic box makes no difference

It's 2025 enjoy gaming on any platform. We should be celebrating how the Biggest gaming publisher is allowing their games to be played on all platforms but how can we get that when some people feel the need to take victory laps

395d ago
Chevalier394d ago

Well hate to say we told you so. But we called this happening as soon as we saw these big purchases and falling sales, but, a whole slew of people said this would NEVER happen. Goalpost keep moving too as if it's some weird flex.

thorstein394d ago (Edited 394d ago )

TBH, Forza, the Indiana Jones game, the next Elder Scrolls, and I hope Fable will make it over. I'm excited about those.

I don't think MS going the Sega route would be a bad thing. Nintendo and Sony are making good hardware. There's no reason to not make profit off of that.

But the goalposts moving is in reference to people who constantly approve and post disingenuous stories that they scream are true.

For instance, "you can build a comparable PC to a PS pro for $700," conveniently leaving off the OS. Or, "Sony delisted HD2 in 170 countries" when in reality, it was 170 regions of which SteamDB lists as having over 3000 regions.

neutralgamer1992394d ago

Chevalier

What is this with we. Yes most of us saw this coming and all I am saying is it's a great thing for gamers on all platforms. We should be celebrating the fact amazing games will be available to all of us instead of taking some victory lap because of a plastic box

Chevalier393d ago

"What is this with we. Yes most of us saw this coming and all I am saying is it's a great thing for gamers on all platforms. We should be celebrating the fact amazing games will be available to all of us instead of taking some victory lap because of a plastic box"

Cool and it should be celebrated. But this idiotic narrative is that it was done for us as consumers needs to die.

Lots of idiots trying to reframe this when they literally argued that this would NEVER happen when we said yes it will because Gamepass isn't profitable and sales losses all round and add in lower hardware sales and it was obvious

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 393d ago
1Victor395d ago

@isarai: “ Where's the goalposts gonna go now? 😀🫳🍿”
.
The goal post is going home crawl into the shower open the flow and start crying while rocking back and forward i obscured by the darkness of the room.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 393d ago
helicoptergirl395d ago

I haven't played any oif these games either. Will buy and go through the campgains for sure. They a co-op correct? Hope so

Yui_Suzumiya394d ago

They're amazing. If you ever played Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine then you already have an idea how they play.

Show all comments (113)