Fuse (New game by Insomniac)

Billy Idol said:
I have the solution for their dilemma: Just keep it in the Resistance Universe? Would be the best thing, they already have alien technology in this universe , lots of possibilities for side stories and although familiar to gamers lots of freedom in designing the world!

People should give me money to make games! But I would probably donate all that money to the GOW team, instead of deving my super secret InsectWar: Buzzation (a Battlefield clone but instead of stupid US and RU soldiers and tanks, I'd replace them by different insects, which naturally have different abilities and strength and weaknesses).
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If you go to Kickstarter with this idea I will throw all my life savings at you without a second thought (well... maybe not, but I would at least cheer you on ;-)). lol

Re Fuse, I didn't actually think the original artstyle for Overstrike was appealing at all. In fact I was very dissappointed by it. I thought it looked a bit silly and generic, even with its comical style. For me it needed to have as strong visual theme that underpins everything from the lighting, colour pallette, and overall artistic design. Overstrike didn't have that, and Fuse doesn't seem to either. Both concepts seem like a confused mishmash of colour and generic mech and sci-fi design. There's nothing distinctive about either for me.

To butress the point, I'll present examples of what i mean... Games with consistent and distinctive art styles are: Halo, Uncharted, Killzone, Mass Effect, Deus EX3, Assassin's Creed, Gears, God of War, GTA, RDR, TF2, Pokemon, Resisdent Evil, Borderlands etc etc...

Notice a theme? Yes, they are all popular high selling games. Whether you might personally like the artstyles of those games yourself, its undeniable that these games have very unique and visually distinctive aesthetics. You could look at a screenshot and instantly know that it's from either one of those games. Neither Overstrike nor Fuse have this.

Still however, It's an insomniac game. So I will get it, and I know that it will have a nice feel, gameplay and a great SP narrative. In the end visual aesthetic is not everything there is to a game. It is however very important for the saleablility of a new IP, and it's unfortunate that Insomniac couldn't come up with something visually striking, consistent and distinctive enough to appeal to publisher and public perception, without provoking such fervent backlash to change it.
 
Shifty Geezer said:
Yeah, it must be hard. They haven't done so well this gen, and it feels they keep finding themselves on the end fo some harsh complaining. However, some of that is because they changed their way of doing thing...

Ted Price how to make a great games
That is, R2 changed from R1 to 'another sci-fi shooter clone like the popular ones'. Without consistency and their niche, they alienated pretty much everyone one way or another over their three games. ;)
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This just reminded me of something. Usually the only time you want to mess around too much with game design and features for sequels is if the previous game/games didn't do well enough and you need to try to attract different types of gamers or just get a new type of gamer period.

If your game is successful, the last thing you ever want to do is change it too much. Halo, Gears, God of War and now Borderlands basically just give you more of the same with small variations. Because that's what people want and demand. If you change it too much then people won't buy it because it's no longer what they want.

The last thing you want to do is change things too much and risk giving consumers something they don't want (Overlord 2 or Dragon Age 2, for example :().

Going back to Fuse. I think it's somewhat similar. You show your product with a certain look or feature set, and then change it before you're done and you're going to potentially alienate the people that were drawn to what you initially presented. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Borderlands, for example, completely turned me off to the game when they changed to the comic book style. I hated it. I loved the original Mad Max dirty post apoc. look. I hated the colorful cartoony new look. I still HATE the look, but the gameplay was enough to get me addicted despite the horrible horrible (IMO) art direction for the game.

I have to wonder if Fuse will be able to survive that change. If the gameplay is good enough, I believe it will. But we won't know that until it is released.

This is one reason why I wish games were developed like they were back in the 80's and 90's. Where most of the time you didn't know much about a game until about a month or two before it's release. Or in the 80's and early 90's you wouldn't even know anything about a game until you saw it in the store. :)

Regards,
SB
 
Wynix said:
I hope that this game does not bomb, but with how little traction it has had with core gamers and how generic it looks i have a bad feeling that it will.
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Why do you care if it bombs or not? Do you have any special relation with Insomniac?
 
tuna said:
Why do you care if it bombs or not? Do you have any special relation with Insomniac?
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Exactly! I hope the game is good: asymmetric co-op is a good start. Mixed with crazy weapons a la Insomniac sounds like a good base for fun gaming! I just wished they'd go all multiplat and had a PC version...
 
tuna said:
Why do you care if it bombs or not? Do you have any special relation with Insomniac?
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I guess because Insomniac were known for producing great titles but they've been struggling somewhat this gen. Resistance didn't have the impact and draw of previous Insomniac games as I understand it, and it didn't have the technical excellence either. Now Insomniac have a lot riding on this game, but interest seems fairly low at present. Other sci-fi shooters have bombed. There's certainly concern for a long-standing and respected developer needing a boost coupled to a game that's had more than its fair share of criticism from gamers.
 
Wynix said:
I hope that this game does not bomb, but with how little traction it has had with core gamers and how generic it looks i have a bad feeling that it will.

Also EA partners just does not seem to support their games with advertising good enough.
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Well, I'm not want to be rude, but I have the suspect will bomb almost surely. It appears quite anonimous to my eyes, not sure how can catch the masses interest.
 
Shifty Geezer said:
I guess because Insomniac were known for producing great titles but they've been struggling somewhat this gen. Resistance didn't have the impact and draw of previous Insomniac games as I understand it, and it didn't have the technical excellence either. Now Insomniac have a lot riding on this game, but interest seems fairly low at present. Other sci-fi shooters have bombed. There's certainly concern for a long-standing and respected developer needing a boost coupled to a game that's had more than its fair share of criticism from gamers.
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If Insomniac has gone shite (which I think it has) they deserve to be punished both critically and commercially. This might hurt Ted Price's wallet and people might lose their jobs, but if I wanted to give money to charity I would not give it to Insomniac.

But other people are of course free to do that if they want to.
 
I loved coop in R2, would have paid a ton of money for new coop levels.

This game, well, maybe, have not seen any "real" gameplay, so not really sure.
Also this is more like 4 coop campaign right? Not the same style of coop as in R2?
 
tuna said:
If Insomniac has gone shite (which I think it has) they deserve to be punished both critically and commercially. This might hurt Ted Price's wallet and people might lose their jobs, but if I wanted to give money to charity I would not give it to Insomniac.

But other people are of course free to do that if they want to.
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It's not about charity. Wynix's comment implies a hope or belief that the game is good and deserves to do well, coupled with a concern that that might not play out, because not every deserving game is a financial success. If Fuse is a superb game, fabulously executed, but gets overlooked because of the art style, that'd be unfair reaction to the game.

Hence, "I hope it doesn't bomb," means, "I hope it's a good game up to Insomniac's previous best efforts and they deserve success and find success, " and not, "regardless what the game is like, I hope people go out and buy it anyway because Insomniac deserves people's money because they're an old studio who made Spyro."
 
Shifty Geezer said:
It's not about charity. Wynix's comment implies a hope or belief that the game is good and deserves to do well, coupled with a concern that that might not play out, because not every deserving game is a financial success. If Fuse is a superb game, fabulously executed, but gets overlooked because of the art style, that'd be unfair reaction to the game.

Hence, "I hope it doesn't bomb," means, "I hope it's a good game up to Insomniac's previous best efforts and they deserve success and find success, " and not, "regardless what the game is like, I hope people go out and buy it anyway because Insomniac deserves people's money because they're an old studio who made Spyro."
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Can you read Wynix' mind?
 
I had fun with Insomniac games - Resistance series especially , so i'll have an open mind about this one , hope it's good .
But i 'm not seeing a lot of interest from others , nor it is advertised a lot ...
 
Billy Idol said:
I think that release a game demo hurts the actual game in most if not all cases. So imo, Insomniac better not release a demo to max sales.
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A demo isn't always beneficial, but in this case I think it is. It's a new IP. It's also being released on 360 where they have little to no existing fans. On PS3 they have to compete with The Last of Us. And like all games published under this deal with EA it's going to receive very little advertising. Without a demo the game is going to have very little visibility. It doesn't have to be a big demo. Just show that the game is worth buying.
 
Cornsnake said:
A demo isn't always beneficial, but in this case I think it is. It's a new IP. It's also being released on 360 where they have little to no existing fans. On PS3 they have to compete with The Last of Us. And like all games published under this deal with EA it's going to receive very little advertising. Without a demo the game is going to have very little visibility. It doesn't have to be a big demo. Just show that the game is worth buying.
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But with respect to (positive) PR you always have the problem that the nay sayers are way louder and more active than the yay sayers, at least in my experience while observing gaming forums! I guess that this applies to nearly every game out there. For instance, look at the Last of Us PAX thread at Neogaf...people go crazy seeing the off screen footage about the gameplay...without actually playing the game, creating a super negative perception of the actual game.

Keep your game under disclosure as long as possible, a la GTA, to maximize curiousity of people and to maximize sales. In my opinion this is the right way to go, although as a gamer...I always prefer having a demo :)
 
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