Tag: Criterion

Need for Speed: Most Wanted

Criterion Games are developing the new Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012).  That’s all as I need to know.  Here Criterion, have my wallet.  It’s yours.

To be honest Criterion had me at Burnout 2: Point of Impact (2002), so trusting them to serve up another sublime racing game is pretty easy, and who can forget Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010)?  Superb.

Let’s not forget though that as far as big releases go, Criterion Games have put their ‘Burnout’ IP on ice for the foreseeable future and are continuing moonlighting under the ‘Need for Speed’ brand.  I honestly don’t have a problem with this as long as the top-notch quality racing games keep coming.

However Joystiq seems to have an interesting theory: ‘Need for Speed: Most Wanted is a secret return to Paradise‘.  Well-worth a read.  See also: Need for Speed: Most Wanted- Official site.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012) will be released across the EU on 2 November 2012.  I can’t wait!

Back on the streets with Burnout Paradise

I have to admit that I’ve had a fairly intense love/hate relationship with the whole Burnout franchise.  When times were good, Burnout was a sumptuous slice of gaming heaven.  When times were bad, Burnout was just another game I couldn’t be bothered playing.  It all started with the original Burnout on the PS2.  If I recall, I thought at the time that it was a steaming pile of… well, rubbish.  Burnout 2: Point of Impact though, changed everything.  In my mind it was perfect: the graphics were the best I’d seen in a racing game since Gran Turismo and the gameplay was spot-on.

I dabbled with Burnout 3: Takedown on the original Xbox and found it to be great fun, but the gaming experience didn’t feel as pure as its predecessor.  After that, I totally skipped the next instalments in the series, Burnout: Revenge and Burnout: Dominator (which was not even developed by Criterion).  You see, Burnout had got rid of the gameplay feature that gave its name; the burnout.  In Burnout 2: Point of impact, you could drain your boost meter without stopping which would cause the meter to refill, meaning that as long as you didn’t crash, you could chain as many boosts together as you wanted.  It melted your eyes.

Continue reading Back on the streets with Burnout Paradise

A golden opportunity for Codemasters

I feel that Codemasters are missing out on a golden opportunity.  How so?  I’m referring to Trophy support and downloadable content; what I’m on about will all become clear very soon.

Codemasters are driving game veterans, having developed the Collin McRae Rally series over a number of years now.  They followed up their great series with the launch of DiRT on the PS3.  Then the subsequent development and launch of Race Driver: GRID- essentially the latest game in the TOCA Touring Car series, was a stroke of genius.  I’m only guessing here, but GRID surely reached a large audience.  I was a gamer that had played the TOCA Touring Car games and didn’t particularly like them, but GRID changed that. The visuals, the style, and the sublime handling.  Hey, I liked the handling! (some people would argue the handling was lumpy).

What has made things turn sour for PS3 users, is the fact that GRID won’t be patched to retrospectively support Trophies.  Everything’s been quiet on the GRID front for months, and then a mysterious downloadable content pack is available to purchase on the PlayStation Store.  It’s called the “8-ball pack“, and for £6.29 you get 8 cars.  Yup, for all that money, you just get that.  Let’s have a look what the competition have done…

Criterion Games, the developers of Burnout Paradise, have toiled away at and released Trophy support, and numerous downloadable content packs (all free!), and are only going to charge for their next pack because it adds a whole new island to the game.  It is probably even in the territory of an expansion pack.

This is why I don’t get this comment:

We’re currently not planning to retrospectively support PSN trophies – it’s not a trivial thing to add to a game.

Source.

This is where I believe that Codemasters have missed a golden opportunity.  The fans want Trophies, and the developers want a return on investment (ROI), so why don’t they patch the game for trophies, chuck a couple of cars in to sweeten the deal, then offer the pack up for purchase on the PlayStation Store?

You may think I’m making a big deal out of this, especially because there are many games out there that were released before Trophies came out and haven’t been patched such as Resistance: Fall of Man, The Orange Box, and many more.  But none of those games have just had a downloadable content pack released!  If they’re willing to develop new content packs, then why not Trophy support?

Sure, there will be a development team working on DiRT 2, but GRID is a franchise now in it’s own right and they could have kept interest in the game for far longer than they have done, just by following Criterion’s example.  But I digress.  I’ll conclude by admitting that the main reason I’m so upset about this is that GRID is one of my favourite games, and I’m just irritated by the attitude of the developers in this case.

Burnout Bikes Gameplay Unveiled

Burnout Bikes Gameplay Unveiled– On PlayStation.Blog.  Choice quote: “We want you to know that if you buy Burnout Paradise, you buy much more than the disk we shipped back in January.”  I hear ya’ loud and clear!  I’m seriously considering investing in Burnout Paradise now that I know there is so much cool content constantly being added.  Free!

Burnout Paradise becomes a PSN download this Fall

Burnout Paradise becomes a PSN download this Fall– Cool, the PlayStation Store could do with more full PS3 games (that go to retail stores as boxed versions) as digital distribution is the way forward.  Seriously, what’s the harm in doing both?  Warhawk and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue are great examples.

Criterion defend their new baby

I thought I’d give my own take on this story as I have played Burnout right from the beginning and have some good memories from past games in the series.  I’d just like to mention before I go any further, that I have 1) read Criterion’s response, and 2) played the demo in question.

The gist is that players have taken the Burnout Paradise demo for a spin (on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 I believe) and (more or less) universally condemned it.  Kokatu’s rather nicely-worded article ‘Criterion Responds To Burnout Paradise Criticism‘ reveals a rather more accurate summery:

‘The Burnout Team have written a rather grumbly Christmas card to fans who have found one too many things to complain about in the demo version of Burnout Paradise.’

I still think that’s putting it mildly.  The Burnout Team are probably hacked off that they’ve spent so much time and effort on Burnout Paradise, only to have a fair amount of criticism levelled at their beloved.  When reading Criterion’s response I get the overwhelming feeling of despise for the critical gamer out there.  People have good reason- as consumers (in the UK anyway), next gen games cost £40-50 which is no pocket change.  Gamers are more critical than ever these days with good reason.

Next you will see how Criterion gets this totally wrong, and so here’s a choice quote from the Burnout Team themselves:

As to those who can proclaim from a taste of the demo that Burnout 2 was the best game (always nice to see all those Gamecube owners on the internet who haven’t played the game since B2! ) or that B3 is the better game – again, I can only smile. Those of us who have made the games dearly love those games but we’re confident that if you love those games too then you will love Paradise.

And therein I think, lies the problem.  All the Burnout games that have preceded Paradise have gone along the path of evolution- creating a better game with minor changes for the best.  Burnout was the ultimate in arcade racing in my opinion.  However Paradise seems to have taken the revolution approach- starting from scratch, and offering a completely revamped experience.  Whilst this is no bad thing, gamers that have followed the series from the beginning do not like such a great change.

I also totally agree with what Matt Brett has to say on this matter in his post ‘Burnout Paridise, a great franchise ruined‘.  Whilst gamers brand-new to the franchise will love it, it is fundamentally different to what most of us have known and enjoyed playing.