CliffyB wants to make a PC exclusive arena shooter

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Balton

The Beast of Worship
Mar 6, 2001
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But the last thing I need is some mid-level marketing guy telling me that 'well, traditionally, this doesn't sell well, so we're concerned,'

HA!
Does that also show us who's to blame for trying to market UT2k3; 4; 3 as a sports game?
 

Wormbo

Administrator
Staff member
Jun 4, 2001
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a lot of these kids playing Call of Duty, I don't think they know what a proper arena shooter is.
Yes, but probably because companies didn't really try to release and properly market them in the last 10 years. Hint hint, CliffyB: You had your chance already.
 

DarkED

The Great Oppression
Mar 19, 2006
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I'll believe it when I see it. And even then, I'll still think it's just a marketing ploy to get himself back into the industry after leaving Epic.

How much you want to bet that this game will start life as a PC exclusive and end up being a console exclusive before the dev cycle is over?
 
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Selerox

COR AD COR LOQVITVR
Nov 12, 1999
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Great, maps full of static meshes then?

Is anyone, anyone, going to take this seriously? I think the chance was had, and UT2003 and UT3 poisoned any chance of him ever having any credibility in the genre.

I honestly, genuinely don't think enough players care enough about the genre to make this a success. I'll have to be truly phenomenal to tempt players back to the genre, and will need to be polished and stable like no game of recent times has been. Because no-one is willing to give bad development a second chance, especially after the last UT releases (which this title will be judged against).

It'll also need a rock solid set of peripheral features with it. Stuff like in-built streaming, demo capture and competitive tools are essential for a new release. If this doesn't have those, it'll fail.
 

Zur

surrealistic mad cow
Jul 8, 2002
11,708
8
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How about making a first person porno game (FPPG) ? It could star Ron Jeremy.
 

Zur

surrealistic mad cow
Jul 8, 2002
11,708
8
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It could include a pornostar vs pornostar (PvP) mode, coop (gangbang ?), CTF (c*ck to f*y), TDM (team dildo match) and dom (d*** on mouth).
 
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.altan

Tomorrow
Dec 22, 2001
1,336
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I'll go for it if Mark Rein is, as canon would have him, the one to personally leak the demo to the media. The code name should be nothing other than "Lake Dome."
 

moonflyer

Member
Jun 2, 2003
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Yes yes yes, time to bring back arena shooter!!!
But of course not just another UT copycat, not that I don't want one, just I think we need some original and creative stuff to really deliver next-gen to the public, which is the only way this genre can relive glory days again.
 

Arcturus

Not From Bloody Starcraft
Jan 23, 2000
1,506
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Totally Not Korhal IV
I say bring it on. CliffyB has said some douchey things during his Gears of War days, but PC games is where he started out so he obviously has some affection for it. I guess we'll see. The trouble is, seasoned veterans of the genre are so fucking anal-retentive that it'll be almost impossible to actually please the niche audience he'll be aiming for. So good luck with that, I guess.
 

DarkED

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Mar 19, 2006
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I say bring it on. CliffyB has said some douchey things during his Gears of War days, but PC games is where he started out so he obviously has some affection for it. I guess we'll see. The trouble is, seasoned veterans of the genre are so fucking anal-retentive that it'll be almost impossible to actually please the niche audience he'll be aiming for. So good luck with that, I guess.

CliffyB was saying douchey things in the UE 1 era. War. War never changes...

To be fair, most of them have been playing Quake Live, Nexuiz, Open Arena, Alien Arena, and other Quake-style arena shooters for the last 5-10 years. UT was a better game than Q3A at release, but looking back now I'd say that Quake's style won the arena war. Maybe a new UT-style shooter could do well right now. I doubt it, but maybe.

In any case, he's going to have his hands full dealing with user backlash. No matter what kind of game it is, there's always going to be some piece of the market that just doesn't like it.
 
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Rambowjo

Das Protoss
Aug 3, 2005
5,073
5
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CliffyB seems pretty interested in Oculus, having initially invested money in it, and actively tweeting about how amazing their current prototypes are. I think we can expect a game that makes great use of virtual reality mechanics.
That said, the last attempt we had at a traditional shooter was Tribes: Ascend. TA was amazing and had loads of potential, but failed due to the developers. I could probably write a 10 page essay about what Hi-Rez did wrong.

Is anyone, anyone, going to take this seriously? I think the chance was had, and UT2003 and UT3 poisoned any chance of him ever having any credibility in the genre.

I honestly, genuinely don't think enough players care enough about the genre to make this a success. I'll have to be truly phenomenal to tempt players back to the genre, and will need to be polished and stable like no game of recent times has been. Because no-one is willing to give bad development a second chance, especially after the last UT releases (which this title will be judged against).

It'll also need a rock solid set of peripheral features with it. Stuff like in-built streaming, demo capture and competitive tools are essential for a new release. If this doesn't have those, it'll fail.

Don't worry, they'll integrate with Gamespy to support all these great features!
 
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Selerox

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Nov 12, 1999
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TCN4/Thumper + Sawed-Off Showgun

That said, the last attempt we had at a traditional shooter was Tribes: Ascend. TA was amazing and had loads of potential, but failed due to the developers. I could probably write a 10 page essay about what Hi-Rez did wrong.

Don't get me started. I spent pretty much all of last summer playing it (CAH and TDM mostly) and I loved it. But it was very, very obvious, even back then, that Hi-Rez genuinely didn't care.

I'd be very, very reluctant to touch anything they do in the future.
 

TWD

Cute and Cuddly
Aug 2, 2000
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I'd love to hear why Tribes Ascend failed tbh. I have it a good try when it went public, but gave up after flying around aimlessly for a few hours and never being able to accomplish anything.

Judging how competent CliffyB would be is hard. You can't really blame UT2003's failings on him. However, that Bulletstorm disaster is all his.
 

DarkED

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Mar 19, 2006
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Judging how competent CliffyB would be is hard. You can't really blame UT2003's failings on him.

Yeah. UT2003 being a sub-par game was the result of an entire team of people. At least they turned the franchise around with UT2004. It's a shame the same can't be said for UT3.

However, that Bulletstorm disaster is all his.

Definitely. This article nicely sums up the way I feel about Bulletstorm:

http://www.criticalgamer.co.uk/2011/07/28/bulletstorm-didnt-sell-well-good/
 

Crotale

_________________________ _______________
Jan 20, 2008
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Definitely. This article nicely sums up the way I feel about Bulletstorm:

http://www.criticalgamer.co.uk/2011/07/28/bulletstorm-didnt-sell-well-good/

I suppose that guy didn't like GTA, Saints Row or Borderlands games, either. I guess that guy missed the memo that games are also played because they are fun, not just because they are "enlightening" or whatever. What did this idiot expect the game to be, Heavy Rain?

Says it all that he was happy the game didn't sell well. Oh, but it's okay that CoD games continue to be topsellers even though there isn't much that changes between versions to warrant a purchase of each iteration.

Bulletstorm was a short game and had little to no replay value, but so do a lot of popular games. The first Halo was tedious and boring through most of the game, yet that series continues to do well just based on name recognition.
 

DarkED

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Mar 19, 2006
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I suppose that guy didn't like GTA, Saints Row or Borderlands games, either. I guess that guy missed the memo that games are also played because they are fun, not just because they are "enlightening" or whatever. What did this idiot expect the game to be, Heavy Rain?

No, but Bulletstorm definitely appealed to the 14-year-olds with it's humor and the article writer was pretty spot-on about that. You can't deny it. It wasn't as cringe-worthy as DNF was, but it was pretty bad.

Says it all that he was happy the game didn't sell well. Oh, but it's okay that CoD games continue to be topsellers even though there isn't much that changes between versions to warrant a purchase of each iteration.

Did you even read the article? (Obviously not.) The guy even said that CoD was part of the cancer that is killing gaming, but that was a problem for another article to discuss.
 

UBerserker

old EPIC GAMES
Jan 20, 2008
4,798
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It wasn't as cringe-worthy as DNF was, but it was pretty bad.

I had a little but very good time with Bulletstorm gameplay-wise.

Might looking forward to this, then it's not like there aren't any non-shitty FPS games coming soon anyway. Arena shooters are dead.
 
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DarkED

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I had a little good time with Bulletstorm gameplay-wise.

I found that the gameplay was pretty generic. It was easy and the QTEs/scripted play sequences weren't all that interesting.

I was mainly referring to the 8th-grade-level humor in the game, as was the article I posted. Games like Bulletstorm like to assume that all of us are 13 years old and will still laugh at dick and fart jokes.