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[COCKLES]

Select the developers that have most improved this year with their output.

Most Improved:- MIDWAY


Psi-Ops, The Suffering, MK Deception & Area 51 and Unreal Champ 2 to come. Midway are on a roll this year after a couple of pretty lame years. I love the way Midway put lots of extra features on their discs, especially MKD which is jam packed with extra stuff.

 

[Pimpbaa]

The Suffering and Unreal Champ 2 weren't develped by midway. I'd say some others in that list weren't either. They are more of a publisher than a developer.

 

[Prince of Space]

nvm.

 

[DrLazy]

this year... Never mind.

 

[MarkRyan]

Acclaim's and Interplay's disappearances were improvements, I'd say.

 

[jonhuz]

From Software. Master's of the xbox.

 

[GDJustin]

naughty dog. Jak trilogy>Crash trilogy.

All of ubisoft's in-house publishers.

 

[Matlock]

Psi-Ops
The Suffering
Area 51
NBA Ballers
Midway Arcade Treasures 1/2
Mortal Kombat Deception
Shadow Hearts: Covenant

All good titles! All from Midway!

Shock? Awe? Yes.

 

[Renegade]

Atari, whoever that is.

 

[Funky Papa]

From Software. Master's of the xbox.

I'm still bitter because nobody is interested on bringing Thousand Land here :_(

 

[shpankey]

Ubisoft

High Voltage Software

 

[BenT]

From is a good one.

Also consider THQ. Just look at how they started back in the 16-bit days. Tragedy.

 

[Insertia]

Ubisoft

Sony

EA

 

[Pedigree Chum]

Pandemic

 

[The Bookerman]

Atari, whoever that is.

Atari.....


Enter the matrix and Driver are improvements?

Over what?

 

[DarienA]

Easily Midway IMO.

 

[Brandon F]

Treasure. They sure did suck over the past couple years(yes, I would even lump S&P into that group), but lately they seem to be back on track in a big way.

EAD is losing steam on the opposite spectrum.

 

[jiggle]

Level-5.

edit: didn't see it saids this year either.

For this year, I would say Nautilus/Sacnoth, and the improvement they brought to Shadow Hearts 2. Although I wonder how many original members of Sacnoth because it's such a big improvement...

 

[Solid]

Silicon Knights

Edit: Ops, didn't see it was about this year...

 

[Fixed2BeBroken]

This year?!

hmm....have to say the team that Does Otogi 2. They are also working on that Kick ass Mech game right?

whats the name of that shit?

I WOULDVE said Ubisoft if it just wasnt for this year......but this year Ubisoft didnt improve that much cause they improved so much LAST year.

 

[Funky Papa]

This year?!

hmm....have to say the team that Does Otogi 2. They are also working on that Kick ass Mech game right?

whats the name of that shit?

The game? Metal Wolf Chaos. It is being developed by From Software, a company that has come from generic japanese developer to style powerhouse. I never gave a toss about them till Otogi, really.

 

[Crispy]

For this year, I would say Nautilus/Sacnoth, and the improvement they brought to Shadow Hearts 2. Although I wonder how many original members of Sacnoth because it's such a big improvement...

Yeah I wonder about that too, they have improved a lot though. Especially if you compare SH2 with koudelka on the PSX, now that was a tough game to really enjoy.

 

[element]

Pandemic

correct answer!

 

[LakeEarth]

Select the developers that have most improved this year with their output.

Most Improved:- MIDWAY


Psi-Ops, The Suffering, MK Deception & Area 51 and Unreal Champ 2 to come. Midway are on a roll this year after a couple of pretty lame years. I love the way Midway put lots of extra features on their discs, especially MKD which is jam packed with extra stuff.

Sad thing is this usually happens when a big publisher is about to go under. Same thing happened in 96 with Acclaim. What happened? They started releasing quality games .... for about 2 years. Once out of the woods, they started releasing trash again. And you see where that got them.

 

[Lyte Edge]

I agree about Midway, but there's just one thing.

They're just a publisher.

 

[disabledHeliocentric]

My picks:
Team Ninja
Starbreeze
Insomniac
Ubisoft Montreal

 

[lexi]

Ubisoft. Enough said.

 

[Scrow]

Who wants to make a spin-off thread about what developer has gotten worse?

I'd say Rare, but they're coming back with the CBFD remake.

To stay on topic, I'd agree that Midway have made leaps and bounds in the right direction. Ubisoft as runnerup.

 

[Lyte Edge]

Who wants to make a spin-off thread about what developer has gotten worse?

Nintendo.

::runs::

 

[radios shipping overview]

This doesn't apply to this year, but: Nippon Ichi Software. They started off doing crap like Jigsaw Madness (NA title) and other faceless PSX games, then found a toehold with Puppet Princess/Rhapsody, which is absolutely dire if you look past the art and characters. They've steadily improved since then (getting better with each part of the Marl series that never came here), eventually hitting their stride with SRPGs in La Pucelle. Each successive game from them has been more finely tuned and has delved deeper into their niche.

Also not just this year: From Software. Man, what a success story. Just looking at the succession of the King's Field series shows how much this company has improved, and their Xbox software shows the sense of style that they've developed in addition to their incremental experimentation and improvement.

 

[DDayton]

Hasn't NST gotten better?

 

[radios shipping overview]

n/m.

 

[Bishman]

Ubi Soft.

 

[Speevy]

Uh...EAD?