Bioware post-EA took a major slide, but remember Mass Effect was an action game first. It wasn't supposed to have the depth of Baldur's Gate.
Overrated: Bioware. Bioware big time. Most all bioware games I've played are on the surface deep, but ultimately are *very* shallow. Case in point is the conversation system in Mass Effect games, which gives the illusion of choice but in reality doesn't allow any real choice, and so ends up just being busywork.
Overrated: Gas Powered Games and Lionhead Studios: both companies weren't able to provide a single game that is not boring by its stereotypes, shallowness and a very minimalistic game options (Fable trilogy for example is a very linear and shallow thing, with all this marriage, property stuff being only a cosmetic thing that doesn't affect the game play at all) offering no diversity or any advanced options to choose from when it comes to their "rpg elements".
And Molyneux has a big mouth full of promises of how something will be awesome and original, yet he always delivers the same underwhelming experience.
It's hard to choose an underrated company for me. Most of my favourites are non-existant. One of the things I don't like about indie retro is, that they do not realize that back then, when the "retro" they follow was born, it was something that broadened and deepened the genres, adding new possibilities and new ways of a video game experience. Yet most of these indie games are just parasiting on the concept that was fresh 15-20 years ago, but are actually not pushing the genre anywhere now. + Writing isn't as strong as it was back then.
And one more thing about Blizzard. I am not a fanboy, but you may dislike their games, I can understand that (even I don't like all their stuff), but they are always able to publish polished material, not something half-baked (even though I don't know about D3, I've never tried it) in both concept and design and this is a rare commodity in this industry full of bugs, glitches, poor ideas and half-made concepts. And even if it doesn't look like it, since they aim for the mainstream audience, they still put a little bit of innovation in their games which is not always a good thing, but it's there.
I'm gonna toss out Stardock as Underrated. They put out very good games and in my experience, have unmatched customer service.
Consider the story of Elemental: so much hype and released way too early as a huge buggy dud. The first real disaster for them. But rather than just step away and ignore that game, they worked on it for another 2 years, turned it into Fallen Enchantress and now Legendary Heroes, and on top of that, gave both of these away free to anyone that bought the original Elemental.
I haven't heard of anything like that from any other studio.
don't think Blizzard is overrated anymore except by Blizzard fanatics
think most people have been seeing Blizzard's decrease in game quality
I think Blizzard is just cursed by its past release of superior games
if Diablo 3 or SC2 were released by a previously unknown developer, the games would be much more well received and the flaws of the games would be more tolerated / accepted
I disagree completely. Say what you will about Blizzard now, but IMHO they were the best at what they were doing 9-10 years ago and prior to that. WC III and TFT were such great games, I wasted many nights playing them - and I still find WC3 more enjoyable than SC2 because of the dynamics that heroes added. The lore was also amazing. I remember reading through the entire WC III manual just to catch up on the story, and what a great story it was.
I don't think they can even do a RTS follow-up to WC3 anymore, all of the most interesting villains from the warcraft universe are dead now thanks to world of warcraft.
No...the game stagnated because of Microsoft not bungie. Trust me there is a reason bungie left Microsoft. They could have asked to stay but did not. Most of the engine and mechanics came from bungie. There were a few employees who stayed on to continue working on it before halo 4 released. Bungie wanted to diversify and try different things, Microsoft just wanted to keep pumping out halo. For proof just look at what Microsoft did to Rare.
Haha very very true.
I'm not even sure why MS wanted Halo 4 so bad. Bungie working on a new series would have gained the EXACT same following Halo would regardless of what it was. Game developer talent is stifled by this silly "Pump out the franchise" thing because we're in a sequel day and age where no one wants to take risks.
If the market demanded more innovation we'd see better more interesting things come out. Instead, everyone will hop on a sequel even if it's the 10th one. TV Shows, Movies, Games, all suffer from this. Music kind of does too, except with music, we recycle the artists to keep things "new and hip!"
The guys at ID are technical geniuses who can't make a good game in the modern era. The days of arena shooters are over at this point. That is about all they know. They blundered with Rage by using ultra low resolution textures that by any standard looked horrible. The technical aspects of their engine and mega textures in general is sound, implementing it into a game without it looking terrible is another thing.
As true as this is, there comes a point when innovation cannot grow beyond a small percent, because when everything has been tried or done, there is no place to go that will be "new". And we are not far off from such a point.
Yep...I think traditional RPGs can have a comeback with the right game.
Actually a lot of the better games are basically updates and refreshes of older games.
Imagine how awesome it would be if games like FF IV/FF VI were made for PS4 level console graphics, extended with extra side stories and more along with voice actors and so on.
Some games could definitely make a comeback. But at this time, games just are not innovated period anymore.
Oh look yet another FPS. . .
Or Syndicate, goddamnit! No--not that recent crap. REAL Syndicate.
Bioware post-EA took a major slide, but remember Mass Effect was an action game first. It wasn't supposed to have the depth of Baldur's Gate.
No, Mass Effect was not an action game first. In fact, most ME fans complain that ME2 streamlined it too much..
Seriously, you think Supreme Commander was "boring," shallow and minimalistic? Far from it, compared very well to Total Annihilation. Dungeon Siege was great as a "Diablo" clone. I do have the non-original Fable games as some of the worst I've played.
Outside of TA, SC and DS (all the first in their "series,") they've been misses. Then again, TA:K was made after Taylor left Cavedog, DS2 was done by Lambert and was the last DS game made by GPG.
I put Talor at the same place I put American McGee - great designers who have awesome concepts that are either hit or miss. When they miss, it's not by much - and when they hit it, they hit big.
I'd place CD Projekt Red in the underrated category. I think that being PC-centric has just kept them off the gaming-at-large radar.