In celebration of Valentine's Day in Russia (well...2/15 local date), we have the following:
My wife got me this for Valentine's Day:
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Quote from LiVinGHeLLYeah.. this is why I preordered the game. I feel like I have been Dead Island-ed. =[
My thoughts exactly. I preordered after I saw that demo, too. I mean, it was gameplay, not a trailer, so I thought "ok...this is awesome. I'm in." At the time I had a stack of BestBuy gift cards so I used some to preorder...in other words because it was through BestBuy online it won't get to my house until Feb 18. (Seriously, BB, wtf?) So I don't even have the game yet and I'm already thinking of taking it back unopened and exchanging it for other games.
But...instead I plan to rent it for a day (if possible) just to test it out myself first. I keep coming back to this thread hoping somehow it's all a big mistake and the game is actually blowing people away. 
In any event that post Dux linked on gearbox's forums is interesting and plausible about how they outsourced a lot of the campaign and it this was the result.
If all true, interesting lesson about what you can get from outsourcing. Managing multiple big teams/titles at once is really complicated and maybe GBX was just really ambitious, though FOX and Sega involvement may have made it worse. If FOX has final approval on a script then that does tie your hands.
Anyway, I am still loving Borderlands 2 (happy customer here) so I haven't lost faith in GBX, just hope that whatever they do next doesn't turn out this way.
That's also one of the most effective kickstarter videos out there.
Probably will be stuck in meetings for 2 days straight...again.
Damn Izuno, for me making me try again
You have a lot of great picks to which I can only add the following:
Excellent choices of your own!
Aliens - yep...it was such an inspiration to the games industry we all owe a lot to it. Cameron at his finest
Apocalypse Now - best cinematography in a war era movie. It's not the action that makes this movie awesome, but rather the notions it explores.
Fight Club - dark humor at its finest. Great soundtrack
LotR Trilogy - It captured the essence of fanboy fantasy elves and dwarves and etc. and made it accessible to the masses. Lots of people took this excitement into playing World of Warcraft. I salute you, Peter Jackson. Sweet music too.
Inception - Nolan manspooges his snow fort assault in final act all over the screen. Totally unnecessary yet totally necessary all the same. BWWWWWAAAAAHHHH at it's finest, too. This movie forced most people to watch it more than once to understand wtf was going on. Each time you watch it you like it a little more. Otherwise a cool take on the idea around dreams coming alive.
The Dark Knight - for one reason only: Heath Ledger's Joker. Worthy of the Oscar the performance received. Carried a movie that otherwise was full of plot holes. Some nice BWWWAHHHH too.
Raiders of the Lost Ark - it's at the level of archetype in modern film now
The Ice Storm - little known drama set in 1970s stuffy Connecticut suburbia where parents swing and preteens / teens explore drugs and sexuality. Excellent performances and awesome use of subtlety.
Buffalo 66 - another small indy film...this movie DEFINES the moment of personal transformation. Amazingly well done
E.T. - yeah, kind of a kiddie movie, but it inspired a generation of young boys to just get some balls and go for something in life. Elliot basically took on "the authority" and saved E.T. and found his courage in the process
Ghostbusters - the best comedy of all time. It's both hilarious and really really creepy at the same time.
Empire Strikes Back - Let's face it, the best Star Wars movie of all.
Star Trek: Wrath of Khan - KHAAAAAAAAAN! On so many levels this movie is all sorts of badass. Shatner at his ass kickingly finest. Everything you want in a Star Trek film and no purple bazooka or melting Romulans other crap in the TNG movies which were 89% shit (First Contact was ok)
forgot..
Saving Private Ryan - in a way, considered a cliche today but the games industry was clearly inspired by it. Working on DoD and CoD, everyone had seen SPR a bunch of times, poured over footage and had intellectual discussions on what worked/didn't work about the film and how that could serve as inspiration for game design and art direction. Not everyone loves it but it helped spawn a successful wave of WWII gaming. I had never seen a war movie like it before.
Now we're talking.
Quote from duxhttp://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/24/new…y-on-the-colon/
Well that's a relief.
Indeed.
Quote from marksafaik that trailer came straight from Gearbox - Sega marketing didn't even know it existed before it came out ...
Really? Cognitive dissonance here. Sorry Gearbox, but if that's true you can do better. I still am pretty excited for the game and that trailer won't deter me.
Is it possible someone in the marketing department at Sega, else a creative agency employed by Sega, made that trailer? Is it possible this piece of shit voice acting / writing for that trailer, and yes, it was piece of shit worthy, was not written/directed by Gearbox?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Less is the new more.
Goodness....this man is brilliant.
a decent writeup on the collapse here:
Sony had an event at the Santa Monica studio in December which was 95% about God of War: Ascension. I only got to play the multiplayer, but I have to say it was much more fun than I had expected and better than the 30 seconds I played at E3 last year. I don't think it will be as "big" as past God of War games simply because we're late in the cycle and PS4/Orbis/whatever is being announced soon...still... i'm looking forward to it and if you like God of War games this is a must own in my opinion.
King Theoden says: "So......it begins."
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I had to write up some high level analysis for some suits on all this...so take this with a massive grain of salt but:
Enough has been said about what brought THQ to this fate. When a major publisher like THQ goes out of business they own a lot intellectual property that may not make sense to own as a whole but can be more valuable split off into individual properties. Therefore it is worth analyzing who bought what and whether they got a bargain in the process.
THQ acquired Relic in 2004 for $10 million. At the time Relic was best known for the Homeworld series, but under THQ they have focused on Warhammer and Company of Heroes real-time strategy (RTS) games mainly for the PC. Sega Sammy’s $26 million acquisition of Relic should prove to be a nice fit with the Total War RTS franchises from Creative Assembly. Relic’s main upcoming game, Company of Heroes 2, is a sequel to their 2006 hit Company of Heroes and looks to do well with PC gamers. The best parts of the acquisition is Relic’s reputation with fans, its technology and other franchises with good followings, such as Dawn of War and the dormant Homeworld. Basically this is a play for Sega Sammy to target core PC gamers.
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Volition sold for $22.3 million.
Volition was acquired by THQ in 2000 for $19 million. They initially focused on getting THQ into the core gaming market with the first-person shooter (FPS) Red Faction series and the role-playing Summoner series, both for multiple platforms. However, the main value in German publisher group Koch Media GmbH’s $22.3 million acquisition of Champaign, Illinois developer Volition is in the Saint’s Row franchise, once dubbed a GTA San Andreas knockoff. Saints Row has a loyal and growing fan base that should easily result in sales of over 3 million units if the game lives up to expectations. Saints Row 4 is currently in development and could potentially release later in 2013 though that is far from certain this early in the year. The latest version in the Red Faction series was a big disappointment in 2011.
Koch’s other acquisitions focused around specific game properties in development. The $5.9 million pickup of the Metro series was somewhat of a good geographic fit given Koch is headquartered in Germany and Metro developer 4AGames, founded by former S.T.A.L.K.E.R. developers, is in the Ukraine. Despite some loyal fans, first-person shooting game Metro 2033 was not a huge hit upon release in 2010. However, the franchise does show some potential for growth, given the first game was under marketed and fairly positively reviewed. In addition it appears that the second game in the franchise should launch in the first half of this year.
Take-Two’s $10.9 million pickup of Turtle Rock Studios’ Evolve speaks highly of this unknown game as the publisher has talked repeatedly about its strategy to bring only high quality, edgy original or internal IP to market. THQ’s bankruptcy filings projected sales for the title at 4 million units, implying it is an AAA console title, and given the developer’s work on Valve games Left 4 Dead 2 and Counter-Strike: Source, it’s highly likely this game will be an ambitious shooter with robust online features. If Take Two can improve upon the game quality and marketing, it’s possible the game could actually beat THQ’s projections. If Evolve’s sales evolves the way THQ forecasted it means Take-Two got itself a deal.
Ubisoft may have been the most successful of the bidders with getting all of THQ’s Montreal assets for just $2.5 million, despite the potentially awkward situation this creates with studio head Patrice Desilets who actually left Ubisoft Montreal in 2010 while Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood was still in development. Beyond THQ’s Montreal studio, the biggest value pickup in the entire auction process could be Ubisoft $3.3 million acquisition of South Park: Stick of Truth from developer Obsidian Entertainment in Irvine, Calif. While not all of the developer’s past RPG games have been huge hits, it has had some good traction in sequeling IP it did not originate, such Star Wars: KOTOR 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout: New Vegas and Dungeon Siege III. Stick of Truth looks to be its biggest game yet. Direct involvement of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone (all writing and voice acting) appears to have added massive credibility and authenticity to fans of both the TV and RPG gamers in general.
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Crytek picked up Homefront 2 for the equivalent of 136,000 Big Macs.
If any acquisition could be a sleeper hit it might be Crytek’s $500k acquisition of Homefront 2, a game the German mega studio had been tasked by THQ to develop anyway. The game is the sequel to THQ’s 2011 Homefront developed by defunct Kaos Studios of New York City. Homefront had a strong premise of a near future North Korean invasion of the United States in a nod to the film Red Dawn (the original from 1984) whose director consulted on the project. While the game had serviceable multiplayer, the game was very buggy, had story, pacing, writing, graphics and 'heavy handedness' issues and many critics felt ended abruptly when it finally all came together. This was a tough lesson for THQ, as developing a shooter to compete with the likes of Call of Duty or Battlefield in very expensive New York City proved too costly. Despite its long list of flaws, worldwide sales eventually finished around two million units begging the question of how well the title might have done under better circumstances. Given Crytek’s pedigree in the shooter genre based upon the Crytek game engine, and the fact that they now own the IP as well, it could prove to be a rather successful project.
