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[SkyMasterson]

I can't wait to get this game.....for $10.

 

[scitek]

I see that the game is probably awful, and Dyack has brought a lot of scrutiny to himself personally, but I still don't agree with the way the Joystiq article is just so disrespectful and goes right after him like that. Is it trying to be funny or just hateful? I can't really tell.

 

[sixteen-bit]

I can't wait to get this game.....for $10.

The reviews are giving me second thoughts.

 

[LightofRohan]

My brother actually worked on the marketing of this game (not in a personal way, I wont be specific) and they actually knew from the very beginning that this game was going to be complete shit. So when they came to my bros company to work on (something) they literally said; "This game is not very good. But we want to trick people with our marketing to make it seem like it's Mass Effect but with Xmen characters." Was shocked how abrupt they were. At least they knew what they were workin with.

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

My brother actually worked on the marketing of this game (not in a personal way, I wont be specific) and they actually knew from the very beginning that this game was going to be complete shit. So when they came to my bros company to work on (something) they literally said; "This game is not very good. But we want to trick people with our marketing to make it seem like it's Mass Effect but with Xmen characters." Was shocked how abrupt they were. At least they knew what they were workin with.

Who are "they"?

 

[scitek]

I would honestly love to know the story behind this game's development.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Canada was giving us money so we had to make something.

 

[The Mana Legend]

This is one of the only games I've ever seen that has had as much press as it has, but has absolutely NO interest from a single damn person. It's amazing how little interest this game has. Usually there's like a hand full of people interested...But not with this. SK, you suck.

 

[bubnbob]

My brother actually worked on the marketing of this game (not in a personal way, I wont be specific) and they actually knew from the very beginning that this game was going to be complete shit. So when they came to my bros company to work on (something) they literally said; "This game is not very good. But we want to trick people with our marketing to make it seem like it's Mass Effect but with Xmen characters." Was shocked how abrupt they were. At least they knew what they were workin with.

Cool, I believe you.

 

[MC Safety]

Who are "they"?

They are Activision.

Game companies are staffed by smart, experienced gamers. As part of the process, publishers also farm out preliminary reviews to consultants, so they know exactly what to expect when reviews roll in -- and this, of course, helps shape the marketing.

Destiny is disappointing. Beyond being an extended beat-'em-up, it does not capture the feeling of being a superhero. Characters acquire powers in a piecemeal fashion, so you can have elements of, say, Northstar combined with Iceman combined with Juggernaut combined with Psylocke. If you're playing as a mutant, well, it's pretty stupid to gain superpowers by collecting junk.

And, of course, there are platforming scenes which are absolutely dumb. Even the big, football-player dude can hop around like he's Nightcrawler.

 

[Tallshortman]

I hope the Canadians are proud of themselves for funding this shit.

 

[Lothars]

I hope the Canadians are proud of themselves for funding this shit.

Meh I don't really care honestly there are tons of great games that come out of canada so one like this doesn't affect me one bit.

 

[codhand]

 

[Absoludacrous]

So will this game be the end of Silicon Knights?

UE3 confirmed?

While the game is probably ass, I really wish people would stop quoting images from some dudes broken, probably pirated copy.

 

[Nairume]

While the game is probably ass, I really wish people would stop quoting images from some dudes broken, probably pirated copy.

The game *is* ass. There is no "probably" about it. That the game is so buggy that his copy didn't even load the textures is a lot simpler explanation than blaming piracy.

 

[codhand]

Yeah can't we all just peaceably trash smth 4 once?

 

[eek5]

The game *is* ass. There is no "probably" about it. That the game is so buggy that his copy didn't even load the textures is a lot simpler explanation than blaming piracy.

Scroll up. I didn't have any issues loading textures.

 

[codhand]

"its concision almost comes back around to being a virtue, because at least you can quickly move onto something more pleasurable, like selling X-Men Destiny to a stupid friend you hate, or burying a beloved family pet. " -Joystiq

Yikes

 

[Nairume]

Scroll up. I didn't have any issues loading textures.

I am aware. My point is that the game is poorly made enough to where it is easier to assume that it wouldn't load textures for him even if you didn't have that problem.

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

I hope the Canadians are proud of themselves for funding this shit.

Really? REALLY?

I hope the Americans are proud of themselves for funding what's going on in Guantanamo and the bailout of Chrysler and GM.

You need to get a fucking grip.

The best part is that you probably haven't even played the game.

 

[eek5]

I am aware. My point is that the game is poorly made enough to where it is easier to assume that it wouldn't load textures for him even if you didn't have that problem.

The game *is* ass. There is no "probably" about it. That the game is so buggy that his copy didn't even load the textures is a lot simpler explanation than blaming piracy.

I don't get it. The game doesn't look good even with textures loaded, I'll give you that. It feels rushed, the dialogue and story aren't great but buggy? The only bugs I encountered were some environmental barrier issues and clipping into the ground on a ground stomp against a specific enemy that had a bubble shield. I didn't experience any texture pop-in in my entire gameplay. I don't know how the wii version is but I'd classify my 360 experience as a solidly average experience.

 

[Cromulent_Word]

I hope the Canadians are proud of themselves for funding this shit.

Not to defend SK, but this was an Activision funded project, and certainly has nothing to do with any money they received from the Ontario gov't.

 

[codhand]

"A solidly average experience," but from Silicon Knights, who many regard highly even after Too Human, and Activision, the deepest-pocketed publisher of them all. Solidly average does not cut it; especially not this year.

 

[Count of Monte Sawed-Off]

Really? REALLY?

I hope the Americans are proud of themselves for funding what's going on in Guantanamo and the bailout of Chrysler and GM.

You need to get a fucking grip.

The best part is that you probably haven't even played the game.

Dyack?

 

[codhand]

Dyack?

hahahaha

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

I don't get it. The game doesn't look good even with textures loaded, I'll give you that. It feels rushed, the dialogue and story aren't great but buggy? The only bugs I encountered were some environmental barrier issues and clipping into the ground on a ground stomp against a specific enemy that had a bubble shield. I didn't experience any texture pop-in in my entire gameplay. I don't know how the wii version is but I'd classify my 360 experience as a solidly average experience.

You're forgetting the mad-on that the particularly enlightened of GAF have for anything remotely related to Silicon Knights.

Dyack?

See? It's great they didn't release this game the week that Modern Warfare is released. Then we wouldn't have a chance to read brilliant posts like this one.

Average = DOOM for Silcon Knights

A Joystiq review (a site that is normally met with scorn) is now the new baseline for which we judge games...or maybe just Silicon Knights games?

I haven't even had a chance to play my copy yet and already I can see it's NOT going to be as bad as this thread is making it out to be. Can't say I'm a huge fan of "mediocre" or "rushed" games and that is seemingly what this game is. It's hard not to choke on all the hyperbole in here.

 

[LightofRohan]

Who are "they"?

I'm assuming Activisions marketing department, maybe even Silicone. But even before it was announced I was hearing it was going to be crap.

 

[codhand]

This game looks like an App, how's that?

 

[ShockingAlberto]

Really? REALLY?

I hope the Americans are proud of themselves for funding what's going on in Guantanamo and the bailout of Chrysler and GM.

Technically the Chinese probably funded that.

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

I'm assuming Activisions marketing department, maybe even Silicone. But even before it was announced I was hearing it was going to be crap.

It makes more sense that it's Activision. I don't see Silicon Knights being so bold as to go to marketing and say, "Hey. We know this is poor. We want you to sell it as Mass Effect with an X-Men license."

They have whole teams of guys that are paid to make lemonade out of lemons.

Technically the Chinese probably funded that.

Doesn't count. They fund everything. You're breathing their air right now...

 

[eek5]

"A solidly average experience," but from Silicon Knights, who many regard highly even after Too Human, and Activision, the deepest-pocketed publisher of them all. Solidly average does not cut it; especially not this year.

I think you're missing the point. I think the game is average and a poor value at retail but a decent rental. What makes it average isn't that it was buggy though because my 1.5x playthroughs were completely solid outside of very minor things. Stuff like characters disappearing, textures not loading, textures popping in, enemies disappearing, game freezes, lost saves, quests that weren't able to be completed, broken dialogue, etc. didn't play any role in making the game average for me. There are some good games held back by bugs, this isn't one of them. I get that you guys don't like SK and have a hardon for hating this game for whatever reason but quoting screencaps from a compressed video that doesn't represent what the game actually looks like and claiming it is "so buggy" is just pathetic.

The game isn't a 10/10 but you don't exactly have to make shit up to prove that it isn't...

 

[codhand]

Well, apparently this game was made in the Fudge dept, instead of the Lemonade one.

Dyack and Co. did not come correct, plain and simple, Too Human was the not the fluke, Eternal Darkness was.

If it's a rental, it looks like it will fall in my GF cue somewhere behind, Spiderman SD, Spiderman Edge, Marvel Ult All, Wolverine for a second time, or any of the wealth of Good licensed comic book games already out or on the horizon.

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

Stuff like characters disappearing, textures not loading, textures popping in, enemies disappearing, game freezes, lost saves, quests that weren't able to be completed, broken dialogue, etc.

This is S.O.P. for Silcon Knights games.

I loved Too Human but there was definitely some hinky shit going on at times.

Their QA process is in dire need of an overhaul.

 

[eek5]

This is S.O.P. for Silcon Knights games.

I loved Too Human but there was definitely some hinky shit going on at times.

Their QA process is in dire need of an overhaul.

I think you misread that. I experienced none of those issues.

 

[quinntendopower]

it's dyack

it's silicon knights

what, exactly wasn't going to make this game shit?

 

[scitek]

You're forgetting the mad-on that the particularly enlightened of GAF have for anything remotely related to Silicon Knights.

Are you aware of GAF's history with Dennis Dyack? There's a particular dislike for the man here that he personally brought upon himself. Of any place on the net, this is not the place to go if you want to see any of Dyack's future projects given a fair shake.

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

I think you misread that. I experienced none of those issues.

Oh!

Then I definitely misread that...sorry. : /

Well, apparently this game was made in the Fudge dept, instead of the Lemonade one.

Dyack and Co. did not come correct, plain and simple, Too Human was the not the fluke, Eternal Darkness was.

Kain was solid, as was Twin Snakes.

Eternal Darkness...well...It was certainly creative and innovative at parts. Not one of my favourite games but still strong.

Too Human could have been something really great but development drama seemed to bring it all down.

I don't know what happened with Xmen. It seems like it was simply churned out to satisfy some sort of contractual agreement. Aren't Silicon Knights working on something else altogether? I've heard/read that somewhere.

Are you aware of GAF's history with Dennis Dyack? There's a particular dislike for the man here that he personally brought upon himself. Of any place on the net, this is not the place to go if you want to see any of Dyack's future projects given a fair shake.

Oh ho...

I was here for all of that. It was a complete fiasco. Some people on GAF seem to think it's

GAF 1 : Dyack 0

Like they somehow played a role in every review score below 8/10 that Too Human got.

Dyack acted like a boob. Now? He doesn't seem to be, or atleast he's keeping his boobery off of podcasts and Playboy.

The boobery does not warrant the hate and spite.

 

[SkyMasterson]

Not to defend SK, but this was an Activision funded project, and certainly has nothing to do with any money they received from the Ontario gov't.

Well in a way, you can blame Canada, since their funding kept Silicon Knights running.



Edit: Holy shit I need to lay off the crack. How did I miss that last part.

 

[Shiggy]

I would honestly love to know the story behind this game's development.

2004: SK wins contract with Microsoft Games Studios for Too Human
2005: SK wins contract with Sega for an open-world horror title called The Box (later called The Ritualist)
2006: Too Human should've been finished in December
2007: The Box should've been finished by now but gets an extended development period until November 2008
2008: THQ acquires all rights regarding The Ritualist in August, won't be finished that year at all; Too Human 1 gets released and fails commercially and critically - MGS cancels all DLC and sequels
2009: THQ gets into financial troubles, cancels The Ritualist. SK starts to work on a prototype that later becomes X-Men Destiny (at the end of 2009). In addition, some staff does outsourcing on THQ's Darksiders. That's not all, another prototype called Siren in the Maelstrom is done, but no publisher is interested. All costs of Siren are paid by Canadian organisations/taxpayers.

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

Well in a way, you can blame Canada, since their funding kept Silicon Knights running.

You're dim.

Don't breed.

 

[watership]

I hope the Canadians are proud of themselves for funding this shit.

Canada supports game development. Don't worry, games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Mass Effect 2 or Assassin's Creed Brotherhood will still come out, and even those developers receive Canadian subsidies.

 

[~Devil Trigger~]

Wait...

So Surge can just a bunch of other Mutant powers?

So basically the gameplay is not designed around the Mutant thing, they just made a generic action RPG with X-Men skin...

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

2004: SK wins contract with Microsoft Games Studios for Too Human
2005: SK wins contract with Sega for an open-world horror title called The Box (later called The Ritualist)
2006: Too Human should've been finished in December
2007: The Box should've been finished by now but gets an extended development period until November 2008
2008: THQ acquires all rights regarding The Ritualist in August, won't be finished that year at all; Too Human 1 gets released and fails commercially and critically - MGS cancels all DLC and sequels
2009: THQ gets into financial troubles, cancels The Ritualist. SK starts to work on a prototype that later becomes X-Men Destiny (at the end of 2009). In addition, some staff does outsourcing on THQ's Darksiders. That's not all, another prototype called Siren in the Maelstrom is done, but no publisher is interested. All costs of Siren are paid by Canadian organisations/taxpayers.

THAT'S interesting.

Where did you find all of this out?

 

[Shiggy]

It gets better:

Emma Frost costume code

Apparently not a single person on the internet has gotten this code to work properly. I thought maybe someone from the dev team might have a clue what is going wrong and would like to give some insight.

Julian Spillane, Silicon Knights:

I've heard of a few people having troubles but then succeeding trying again later. I think it's a roll-out issue with the servers, maybe? We'll reach out to Activision for some more clarity but for now just keep trying and it should work.

 

[Doodis]

I wonder how much of this game's suckiness was due to constrained timeline? Does anyone know how long this has been in development?

Seems like if it was such a heaping pile, they would have extended the development. Did I read somewhere that Activision loses the X-Men license if they didn't release the game this year or something to that effect?

Not that I'm defending Silicon Knights, but you'd think they'd really need to knock their next release out of the park after the tepid response to Too Human.

2004: SK wins contract with Microsoft Games Studios for Too Human
2005: SK wins contract with Sega for an open-world horror title called The Box (later called The Ritualist)
2006: Too Human should've been finished in December
2007: The Box should've been finished by now but gets an extended development period until November 2008
2008: THQ acquires all rights regarding The Ritualist in August, won't be finished that year at all; Too Human 1 gets released and fails commercially and critically - MGS cancels all DLC and sequels
2009: THQ gets into financial troubles, cancels The Ritualist. SK starts to work on a prototype that later becomes X-Men Destiny (at the end of 2009). In addition, some staff does outsourcing on THQ's Darksiders. That's not all, another prototype called Siren in the Maelstrom is done, but no publisher is interested. All costs of Siren are paid by Canadian organisations/taxpayers.

Ouch. That does not paint a pretty picture. I still love Too Human but have pretty much given up hope on any sequels.

 

[scitek]

Oh ho...

I was here for all of that. It was a complete fiasco. Some people on GAF seem to think it's

GAF 1 : Dyack 0

Like they somehow played a role in every review score below 8/10 that Too Human got.

Dyack acted like a boob. Now? He doesn't seem to be, or atleast he's keeping his boobery off of podcasts and Playboy.

The boobery does not warrant the hate and spite.

I don't disagree, but it's kind of hilarious to see someone with an ego such as his get their comeuppance. From what I can see, the game doesn't look flat-out awful -- I like mindless beat-em-ups like it -- but anything short of greatness isn't going to draw anything but an "LOL" out of a good number of people here.

 

[Neuromancer]

Thanks for the overview, Shiggy.

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

I wonder how much of this game's suckiness was due to constrained timeline? Does anyone know how long this has been in development?

Seems like if it was such a heaping pile, they would have extended the development. Did I read somewhere that Activision loses the X-Men license if they didn't release the game this year or something to that effect?

Not that I'm defending Silicon Knights, but you'd think they'd really need to knock their next release out of the park after the tepid response to Too Human.

This.

They're not THAT bad of a developer. Something went awry.


In before "rawr UNREAL engine! fuck you Epic!"

 

[Shiggy]

I wonder how much of this game's suckiness was due to constrained timeline? Does anyone know how long this has been in development?

Seems like if it was such a heaping pile, they would have extended the development. Did I read somewhere that Activision loses the X-Men license if they didn't release the game this year or something to that effect?

Not that I'm defending Silicon Knights, but you'd think they'd really need to knock their next release out of the park after the tepid response to Too Human.

The prototype was started in early 2009, the deal was struck in fall 2009. I think they were hoping for a 2012 release...

Ouch. That does not paint a pretty picture. I still love Too Human but have pretty much given up hope on any sequels.

It looks like turnover rates have increased since this game was started.

 

[scitek]

This.

They're not THAT bad of a developer. Something went awry.


In before "rawr UNREAL engine! fuck you Epic!"

It's probably more that they just had to work on something to feed their families, and this was it. I doubt anyone at SK really had a lot of love for this project.

Like I said, I get the spite for Dyack and all, and I get the game's probably average-to-bad, but the way the Joystiq review was written just doesn't sit well with me. It's one thing on forums, but another from a "professional" outlet.