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[Charmed]

I would have to say Fallout 3, by the original developers. I still consider the fallout series to be the best CRPG out there. The over-the-top violence just added to the enjoyment -- that and outhouses exploding :P

Speaking of all these cancelled games and developers going under, I cannot understand how it is that almost every single developer I have admired have all gone defunct. Black Isle, Looking Glass Studios, Troika, Blizzard North ... the list goes on.

I just recently finished Thief 1 and oh what a great game.

Could someone please explain to me how a developer like LGS can make such great games as Thief & System Shock and die, yet a company like id (great engines always) makes the same game, just with a new engine, but no gameplay that draws you into the story (do id games actually have stories?), no interesting story twists, just basically linear & repetitive gameplay and never seems to die off?

I look at almost all of the developers I have mentioned and a few I cannot remember at this moment and something stands out above all other developers. For these developers it would seem creating games is an art, not a business. They didn't create their masterpieces for the sole purpose of funds, it was to leave a lasting impression on the gamer.

At least we can always count on them breaking away to form new companies, but I am sadly forgetting who is who anymore with developers jumping ships so many times due to the publishers.

Anyone know where the Black Isle, Troika, LGS guys went to?

[Blood-Pigggy]

They cancelled Warcraft Adventures because they said "The game showed potential, but was ultimatly scrapped because of a slow progress and so far mediocre results."

Besides if they went on with that, no Warcraft 3.


I completely forgot about the cancellation of The Lost! That was looking so damn awesome, I mean people were clammoring for it, then they cancelled the whole project.

(Oh and for those who are dissapointed over the cancellation of Fallout 3, it wasn't really canceled, right have been sold to Bethseda and they're currently working on a sequel, they promise to retain the feel and most of the features of the older games.)

Edit: Blizzard North? Are you insane? Don't say defunct when it's your opinion, jeez, in my views they have been doing amazing, untill the deserting of one of Blizzard's offices in California,

The reason id is popular because it makes good games for the public, period. Everyone knows them, and their products are fun and no one needs anymore reason to play.

The Black Isle guys are mostly off gaming for awhile, as far as I've heard, only a few have headed off to major companies. Seems they wanted some talented workers.

[Tulac]

I read somewhere that they postponed the longest journey sequel again, let's hope that it won't be cancelled...

[Blood-Pigggy]

Really?
Oh crap.
I'm so waiting for it to come out.
And if it is cancelled then I will scream very loudly.

[Stroggy]

Originally posted by Tulac@Sep 1 2005, 01:31 AM
I read somewhere that they postponed the longest journey sequel again, let's hope that it won't be cancelled...

I don't think Dreamfall will be cancelled. Most likely they've postponed it since they know it would get drowned out by the big releases in their previously announced launchdate. I'm pretty sure Tornquist would have hinted towards serious problems in his blog, but he mostly states:

More time equals a better and more polished game, and a spring release date will hopefully spell - fingers crossed - increased sales. Releasing the game in November, we would have drowned in the hype and hoopla surrounding the Xbox 360 and higher profile titles with ginormous marketing budgets.

It all boils down to marketing, and if they would release it during the holiday season they would loose a big market. Their aim is to also have action-adventure players (people who liked Thief and such games) buy the game, not just the rather limited adventuregamers group. And they'd have a hard time getting their games noticed with big Xbox 360's advertisements blocking it out.

As far as I know they're just finishing it up now and are (hopefully) going to use those extra months to gear up advertisement for the game. It's high time a quality adventuregame (wishful thinking on my part here) gets attention... maybe it could convince other companies like EA thate there is money to be made out of adventuregames... of coarse they'd (EA) probably ruin it again afterwards...

[Galadrin]

Originally posted by Charmed@Aug 31 2005, 09:59 PM
Could someone please explain to me how a developer like LGS can make such great games as Thief & System Shock and die, yet a company like id (great engines always) makes the same game, just with a new engine, but no gameplay that draws you into the story (do id games actually have stories?), no interesting story twists, just basically linear & repetitive gameplay and never seems to die off?

Marketing and engine licenses. Thief, despite being a FANTASTIC game, has never sold well, it required too much thought. "Whaddya mean I can't kill anyone?"

[efthimios]

Thankfuly for adventure gamers there are other companies that make such games, like the adventure company.

[Jumjalum]

Originally posted by Tulac@Aug 28 2005, 01:52 PM
Baldur's gate 3, if they ever had plans on making it...

Black Isle were very far into production on Baldur's Gate 3 - The Black Hound when Interplay aborted it, it never made it as far as an an official announcement since there was a dispute over the BG license, which Interplay eventually lost. I was so looking forward to playing this game, the story sounded great, it was going to have very deep character development and a large list of PST-style factions. I'll try and link to an FAQ if I can find one still up.

Edit - I can't find the FAQ I was thinking of but there is a lot of info at RPG codex including the pretty cool box art they had. Click Me

[gorkur]

Last Ninja 4.

Being a C64 fanatic I'm a big fan of LN1&2 so the news of LN3 being canned were very dissapointing. I also thought it was bad that Turrican 3D was cancelled.

About the whole Sam & Max/Full Throttle issue, I'm not really sure I would have bought the sequels since I really don't like the 3D approach. Adventure gaming graphics reached it's peak with Monkey Island 3's cartoony graphics and I truly think Lucas Arts should have stuck to that approach in MI4, which both in terms of looks and playability was by far the worst MI game ever and the only one that didn't hold my attention from beginning to end. I fear that Sam and Max 2 and Full Throttle 2 would share the same dreaded fate that MI4 suffered from.

Just my two cents.

[Jumjalum]

Here's a crapload of information about the cancelled BG3 game, which was codenamed Jefferson.

Jefferson FAQ