Either way, they are/were a really capable team and at least technically I truly believe they could make the best on any given platform. There are many things they could have done better from working on game play mechanics more to exploiting their ground-breaking technologies through distributing it to other developers, but it will be a great loss. I really wonder what was happening with the Wii title they were supposedly making and if it really was a Nintendo franchise.
Factor 5 has apparently closed down
- Thread starter Megadrive1988
- Start date
It was a bad game, but by far one of the most advanced games in terms of lighting/geometry at the time and some of the cut-scenes were very cinematic; it wasn't the limit of the system by any means, that's not what I meant. I think Factor had the capabilities to push hardware in exciting ways no matter what system, given time I think there would have been spectacles that we would look back on in the future. Of course, we will never know now.
Fair enough.
Lair comment
It is not nice to hear that Factor 5 closed down, but what I do not understand is that someone like Julian Eggebrecht, who was an reviewer on german mags for years, could release such an average game (altough in a fantastic package -the soundtrack of Lair is one of the best ever for a video game).
Maybe they should have released a few small games on PSN etc. (Turrican/Mega Turrican remake
) instead.
But when I see that Assassins Creed was hyped up to the sky (in my opinion those two games are about the same average games wrapped up in a neat package) and earned quite some money and a following, I think Factor 5 should've taken marketing lessons from Ubisoft and Mrs Raymond and things would've been quite different...
Cheers...
It is not nice to hear that Factor 5 closed down, but what I do not understand is that someone like Julian Eggebrecht, who was an reviewer on german mags for years, could release such an average game (altough in a fantastic package -the soundtrack of Lair is one of the best ever for a video game).
Maybe they should have released a few small games on PSN etc. (Turrican/Mega Turrican remake
) instead.But when I see that Assassins Creed was hyped up to the sky (in my opinion those two games are about the same average games wrapped up in a neat package) and earned quite some money and a following, I think Factor 5 should've taken marketing lessons from Ubisoft and Mrs Raymond and things would've been quite different...
Cheers...
Rogue Leader was a fun game IMO, it also sold very well, as did Rebel Strike.
Agreed. Asides from the great technology, I actually enjoyed those games. I always wished for a 4th title, where they would really go to town on the huge space battle experience and introduce online functionality. Of course, not forgetting the customary tech demo
Iron Tiger
Regular
I enjoyed Rogue Leader (and to a lesser degree, Rebel Strike) but I always found the controls and animations to be a bit stiff. They moved nothing like the flight games and sims I'd played before. I think if Factor 5 felt their Rogue Squadron work was too restrictive and they were looking to explore new flight dynamics, they could have simply re-worked their space shooters to be more realistic and believable. I could believe that the snow speeders with their repulsor engines would have jerky controls like that, but every other craft which had thrusters should have moved like a thrust-driven aircraft. Hell, they wouldn't even have to give up motion controls, because they certainly work for Warhawk.
I find it hard to think that no one told them along the way that the controls for Lair sucked, and should at least be redefinable or make motion-control optional. There's enough buttons on the controller that they could have scrapped the gestures and stuck the special maneuvers on buttons, leaving the SIXAXIS to just steer. It doesn't have to be the worst thing in the world to fly a dragon with the SIXAXIS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZhulwCLAP4
I find it hard to think that no one told them along the way that the controls for Lair sucked, and should at least be redefinable or make motion-control optional. There's enough buttons on the controller that they could have scrapped the gestures and stuck the special maneuvers on buttons, leaving the SIXAXIS to just steer. It doesn't have to be the worst thing in the world to fly a dragon with the SIXAXIS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZhulwCLAP4
Sony paid for the game. They would have paid for more, had it not ended up a disaster.
Paid exclusive. What didn't make sense is making a terrible exclusive game and expecting that Sony would still want to fund you.
To be somewhat fair, I still believe that Lair was the result of F5 being overly ambitious, perhaps the same way Konami and Kojima were expecting too much from the PS3 hardware based on Sony's claims.
Now when F5 realized that they just can't get the game to work and tried to get more money from Sony to restart, they've been denied. So they had 1, maybe 1.5 years to put together something from what they've had, which is why they've been forced to go back to Rouge Squadron style gameplay with a few fantasy gimmicks and a lot of annoying changes.
This also explains the ugly graphics, the low resolution (960*1080 with 2xAA and a framebuffer scaling trick AFAIK) and the general lack of polish in every part of a game that was supposedly in development for at least 3 years.
Kojima on the other hand wasn't that far ahead with MGS4 and had enough time to rethink his concept and rescale the engine and assets. Konami probably gave him all the resources he wanted, too.
Now when F5 realized that they just can't get the game to work and tried to get more money from Sony to restart, they've been denied. So they had 1, maybe 1.5 years to put together something from what they've had, which is why they've been forced to go back to Rouge Squadron style gameplay with a few fantasy gimmicks and a lot of annoying changes.
This also explains the ugly graphics, the low resolution (960*1080 with 2xAA and a framebuffer scaling trick AFAIK) and the general lack of polish in every part of a game that was supposedly in development for at least 3 years.
Kojima on the other hand wasn't that far ahead with MGS4 and had enough time to rethink his concept and rescale the engine and assets. Konami probably gave him all the resources he wanted, too.
A seasoned developer shouldn't have bet everything on some loose PR claims. The tech specs were there on paper to read, bar some details like clock speeds (tough we don't know what was being suggested way before the console was revealed at E3 '05). The real issue was writing for the hardware and working within the confines of the system architecture, which is never easy even on less eclectic designs.
Lair was the wrong product, poorly executed and damaged with crazy PR. Sony may be responsible in part for the poor execution, if we deem a major priority of a console design is to be a doddle to write for (a matter for the Development Issues thread, and the Next-gen System discussion seems to reflect a change in attitudes towards ease-of-development, perhaps), but even then, wasn't Eggbricht saying he could code anything?
Lair was the wrong product, poorly executed and damaged with crazy PR. Sony may be responsible in part for the poor execution, if we deem a major priority of a console design is to be a doddle to write for (a matter for the Development Issues thread, and the Next-gen System discussion seems to reflect a change in attitudes towards ease-of-development, perhaps), but even then, wasn't Eggbricht saying he could code anything?
Not to mention issues that weren't even code related, like not allowing control schemes that didn't use the sixaxis. It was a full-on disaster that later on with the controls patch became just a technical disaster (apparently).
If Factor 5 imploded like this with one PS3 game after a history of above average games on at least 3 other consoles, I think it undeniably says something about the quality of the PS3's hardware. Sega Saturn-esque development problems come to mind.
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That's not the history at all.
Well, thanks for being so descriptive there Obonicus.
I don't particularly yearn for their old games either, but they were certainly not garbage. Let's call them overhyped average games then. IGN64 and IGN Cube in particular hyped their games as if they were some of the best entertainment to be had.
Lair, however, is garbage apparently.
Even if their games were not all that great, their tech usually was. There's no arguing that they really knew how to make a game look (and sound) superb on Gamecube and N64.
I don't particularly yearn for their old games either, but they were certainly not garbage. Let's call them overhyped average games then. IGN64 and IGN Cube in particular hyped their games as if they were some of the best entertainment to be had.
Lair, however, is garbage apparently.
Even if their games were not all that great, their tech usually was. There's no arguing that they really knew how to make a game look (and sound) superb on Gamecube and N64.
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Nah... the project failed because not enough people liked the game.
It has its high points (Beautiful 7.1 music, 1080p scaled, physics-based water, grand scale, seamless flight + land movement, gigantic monsters, etc.), but the game was buggy and incomplete. Many also hated the controls although I personally prefer it to Warhawk's scheme. Overall, people found it frustrating to play (No radar, abrupt cutscenes). Because of the tow-line to trip some giant AT-AT like monsters, some people mocked it as a Rogue Leader rip-off.
They may have bitten off more than they could chew.
