Splinter Cell: Double Agent

Look at the state of the GameCube version:

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oh jesus that's horrific D:

wow...i'm playing the 360 version again last few days...sooooo much better looking.

Quote from Section_Ei8ht

the PC version sucks. Its buggy as hell and unplayable.

I kinda feel that every single game from UBI (with a TC logo on it) for PC is waaay to buggy and very dully since it's probably just a port. Vegas is a great example of how to kill a fanbase with a poor port.

That's what I've read in a couple of reviews and all over the ubisoft forums; seems like people are really pissed that ubisoft did such a poor job of porting over a game that owes its fame to the PC. And there's a hell of a lot of bugs and they are all down to a shoddy port, I still can't believe they were in such a rush to get the game out that they didn't test it properly; is this down to time constraints, budget, or just apathy? I would really love to know because it's shocking that people have to pay for something in it's alpha stages

Does it really owe its fame to the PC? I always associate the Splinter Cell games with the Xbox first and foremost. Not that that is an excuse for a shoddy port, of course.

The first SC was out on the PC and was ported to the consoles from there, afaik.

Quote from Rick_D

The first SC was out on the PC and was ported to the consoles from there, afaik.

I think it was an Xbox exclusive for a while before it was ported elsewhere...

It was on the Xbox first, but they seemed to take the PC market a lot more seriously back with the original and it felt like it was at home on the system. Sounds like they've slowly realised that the console audience is more worthy of their efforts, which is sadly true.

It saddens me that DA got such a crappy port, because the other SC games are pretty good on the PC. I hope they take more time with the next one, and show that they care about pc owners as well.

I just talked to the former lead level designer of the current gen multiplayer part of SCDA, he is working at IO today. It was quite interesting to hear actually.

Turns out that more than 600 people spread out over 4 studios worked on SCDA. The development was split up in a current gen part and a next gen part which were _totally_ seperate. Yep you heard right, no sharing of story, assets, code - anything.

For the next gen version the 360 was lead target and for the current gen version the ps 2 was. For the current gen version it gets even worse though, as the multiplayer component there did not even use the same engine as the sp component!

Sounds like a totally crazy project to me. Like how on earth do they expect a project with 600 people on the payroll to ever break even?!

Quote from Zacker

I just talked to the former lead level designer of the current gen multiplayer part of SCDA, he is working at IO today. It was quite interesting to hear actually.Turns out that more than 600 people spread out over 4 studios worked on SCDA. The development was split up in a current gen part and a next gen part which were _totally_ seperate. Yep you heard right, no sharing of story, assets, code - anything.

For the next gen version the 360 was lead target and for the current gen version the ps 2 was. For the current gen version it gets even worse though, as the multiplayer component there did not even use the same engine as the sp component!

Sounds like a totally crazy project to me. Like how on earth do they expect a project with 600 people on the payroll to ever break even?!

If you'd take a headcount of the "cheap labour" IOI has working for them, I bet you'd reach the same number

That makes a lot of sense Zacker, after looking at the credits and some of the in-game graphics options it really doesn't surprise me.

You can either choose a 'standard' graphical setting, or a 'next gen' graphical setting. The custom settings basically let you change anisotropic filtering and resolution. It's lame, leaves' the in-between PC owner shit out of luck, luckily my PC managed to run it all pretty smooth on 'next gen'.

And for so much work, and 10 gigs (10 gigs for god's sake!) I finished it in under a weekend. That's a really shitty deal - I would rather have had a whole game in the 'standard' setting but with an extra 3 or 4 missions. Sure the textures looked great (you'd expect them to if they take up so much space) and some of the effects on the Fisher character were really nice, but the gameplay was what kept me playing for a weekend, not the fact that I could make out the tiny details on his bald-spot or the textures that didn't repeat very obviously.

I just feel kinda let down by the whole experience, it seems the final mission was very rushed, probably due to budget and time constraints. It was kinda like the 'Hitman: Blood Money' final mission where you come out of your 'coma' and kill everyone - except the SCDA level seemed to comprise of a small boat where you walked two foot, hid for two minutes then ran forward and completed the mission.

I'm only glad I didn't pay full price for this because it seems like there's so many shoddy elements gone into it and it really shows in the final product. And it could have been such a good game, I mean above and beyond and Metal Gear: Solid. Unfortunately they focused on the wrong areas or didn't focus enough; who knows. I'll be uninstalling it tonight and carrying on with 'Hitman: Contracts' anyway

So playing on "next gen" and current gen is basicly 2 different versions of the game?

Quote from Skjalg

If you'd take a headcount of the "cheap labour" IOI has working for them, I bet you'd reach the same number

Haha while we have increased the amount amount of outsourcing, then we are still talking <50 chinamen assigned to our projects:)

in theory - i tried playing hitman, and I just can't anymore, splinter cell has spoiled me. it looks fantastic, plays amazingly and it just works really well.

it's a pity it has a lot of problems with bugs (that have been there since it was released and have gotten worse with patches, apparently) and it's just so damn short.