Haze Comments by Kristan Reed

Timesplitters 4 please, and don't fuck it up.

@malteaserhead - Yeah I realise that but I wonder if Free Radical spent so much time gettng the game to run on the PS3 that they didn't have the time to tweak and refine the gameplay and other stuff like A.I.? Perhaps Ubisoft, fed up of the delays, forced the game out before it was finished? It wouldn't be that first time that's happened. I mean the fact that the game runs at 1024x576 at just 30 frames per seconds and has awful PS2 quality textures (worse actually than the six year old Halo on the Xbox!) is perhaps the most telling of all IMO. The developers claim that they sacrificed resolution to ensure the game ran smoothly which is surely bull when you look at Call of Duty 4, which not only runs at twice the framerate but also runs at a slightly higher resolution and has better textures and effects by far. Even on the PS3.

I love going back in time in the news pieces and in the forum thread and reading some of the hype FRD were spouting about this game being revolutionary.

such a shame.

What we also have to bear in mind is that games these days are big business and costs millions of pounds to make. So to bring out something under par can sink a company. Which may mean no TS4.

"The developers claim that they sacrificed resolution to ensure the game ran smoothly which is surely bull when you look at Call of Duty 4..."

You only have to look at Haze to tell it's a BS claim from the developers. Haze does not run at solid 30 fps. Still jerky and choppy at times.

I wonder if swam will comment on this...

anyway, i can see BWOOSHHH becoming something of an internet phenomenom

Craptacular.

*stands by for 'gold' comments*

lollyoutloud

The irony of it all is that for years now we've heard how FRD is composed of former goldeneye members and how rare have lost all the talent.
Yet PDZ ended up being a better game than this. O_O

>""The fact that the creative forces behind this moribund excuse for a blockbuster feel that it is BAFTA-worthy has to be one of the most tragically comic examples of self-delusion we've ever witnessed."

Administering! "

I can't believe people missed this joke.
I think the "nectar administration" has the potential to be a long-running joke, especially for sony fanboys in denail.

"Consoles killed the FPS"

Wrong. Halo 3 and Orange box (360 version ) proves thats not true.

Sounds about right - Yet another game that promised so much and delivered so little.

Edit: Actually to be fair, I got very, very tired of the FPS genre a few years ago and it would have taken a lot for this game to impress me. FPS appear to be quite lazy games to develop, all of them look similar at first glance and few offer anything in the way of innovation.

I think despite the debalce that is Haze, I still have respect for FRD and would certainly look on a new Timesplitters game favourably. I'd wait for the reviews to come in before buying, obviously, but I'd still say that - along with Black - the Timesplitters games were the best console FPSs of the last generation.

Hopefully that PS3 exclusive deal will have secured them a decent amount of cash so that even if Haze flops commercially (not necessarily a given, despite the critical panning) they'll still be able to carry on making games.

"MGS 4 had better be darn good...the PS 3 simply has to win this console war...and i pray it does..."
swam?!?
...
Apologie?!?
......
WHO???

Oh God please let Yahtzee review this next Wednesday :)

that's gotta sting, but i agree after the demo i stopped playing 5 mins in, i do love the fact the Yescombe guy said even golden eye got a 4 in some reviews trying to justify it's shitty-ness stop the nectar man it aint doing you no favours.

I bet they will do a sequel even with these 'killer' reviews.....

so..... PS3 exclusive is it, what a shame for me and my Xbox to miss this one :-)

Bah, what a disappointment.

I wonder if they will port it? Wonder if they have PC/360 builds of this ready to fire out later in the year.

"Consoles killed the FPS"

then

"Wrong. Halo 3 and Orange box (360 version ) proves thats not true. "

Halo 3 without the multiplayer is as generic as it gets. Trust me, PC gamers are not in the least bit sore that game is Xbox-exclusive. As for Orange Box - any one who can't see that it's a PC game(s) through and through is deluding themselves.

"MEGAowch" indeed.

@ lavalant, what do you mean? It's as good as Conker, but no better ;)

Such a shame.

Why oh why did I pre-order this one. Seriously though, forgetting the fanboyism, this is hugely dissapointing. The biggest problem though is the future of Free Radical. Can we really now be looking forward to their next project(s) without wondering if their up to the task? Remember Haze is a poor game, not because of the technical limitations of the PS3, but because of poor design and programming. Sony must be fuming, especially if they had money invested.

"MGS 4 had better be darn good...the PS 3 simply has to win this console war..
and i pray it does... "

If the PS3 wins the console war. The loosers are the consumers ( PS3 owners). Most sales doesnt equal being best.

All readers on this site should know that 360 is the superior console by now. MGS4 is probably gonne be very good though. It would have been even better on the 360 though.

even GoldenEye got a 4/10 when it first came out..

"even GoldenEye got a 4/10 when it first came out.. "

That 'rumour' was debunked earlier in the week.

"The fact that the creative forces behind this moribund excuse for a blockbuster feel that it is BAFTA-worthy has to be one of the most tragically comic examples of self-delusion we've ever witnessed."

thats some ether right there 0_0

Where's Nekotcha when you need him...

"any one who can't see that it's a PC game(s) through and through is deluding themselves"

Its a PC game yes, Its just as good on the 360 so whats the problem. I didnt state that there arent many fantastic FPS games on the PC, i just didnt agree that this isnt the case on consoles (360) . Regarding Wii and PS3 thats a different matter.

@ kissthestick

Nectar, not ether but nectar.

@Killerbee - The thing is though that the critical mauling that Haze is getting could affect confidence in TimeSplitters 4 and if Haze flops then it may not even get made. TimeSplitters almost looks like a fluke as Second Sight wasn't very well received either and now Haze. Maybe Free Radical should have just stuck to making TimeSplitters games where they can get away with cheesy dialogue and weak plots?

So you think this is worse than Blacksite, Jericho, Turok, Medal of Honor Airborne, Timeshift and The Darkness.

GoldenEye has an average of 95% and Haze has 55% so far so i think its not in place to compare them at all.

So when's Haze 2 out then? :)

As good as Wits & Wagers, better than Iron Man.

Demo faile, so not surprised by this score. Resistance 2 failure forthcoming.

@Darren - Maybe different people worked on each game. I imagine that FRD is a fairly sizable company with more than one group of people working on one game at any point in time. I know that my company (no games coders) has several teams. Some are, arguably, much better than others, but they all come under the same company name.

Only played the demos of Turok and Conflict Denied Ops... utter TOSH both of them.

What is interesting about this is that the concept as described over a year ago was excellent. I remember being told about how the super-saccharine vision of conflict that Nectar gave you, was replaced by a totally horrific and bloodthirsty vision of war as it really is, when you're either "off Nectar" or switch sides.

So what happened? There's no real contrast besides the lack of superhuman abilities and slightly less annoying companions.

Major kudos to you by the way, Kristan, as it must have been tempting to cut FRD a break since they're British and we like UK-based devs. However, given the promises made, you've treated this bizarrely insulting end product exactly as it deserves.

Let's just hope that FRD can bounce back from this troubled project, as I wouldn't want to see one of the more promising dev houses from times past go to the wall.

"I actually feel a bit sorry for FRD, that was really one of the harshest reviews I've ever read."

I would start looking for a new job. I heard Uwe Boll is looking for talented script writers ;)

the concept of dosing up, having everything in bright colours and not seeing any dead bodys. with some happy teletubby tune could have been a brilliant parody on the fps gengre... but this is just horrible :P

On the positive side this game has outsold Turning Point 4-to-1 in my local store.

Haze 4 copies, Turning Point 1. ;)

"even GoldenEye got a 4/10 when it first came out.. "

That 'rumour' was debunked earlier in the week.

Actually, it did get 2/5 in Empire magazine, which equates to that score. In a one paragraph review. Written by someone who clearly hadn't played it. So the comparison was mildly disingenuous.

Consoles killed the FPS, or something. Seems things when drastically down hill when they got popular on them though.

This. You're really surprised that we're regressing back to Doom? In a climate like this, I'm not. Not that I'm claiming this is actually good or anything, but this whole description of rubbish AI, limited world design, immensely irritating repetition and hosts of gameplay features that make everything too easy seems strangely familiar, in that it's applicable to almost every FPS I've played since the world decided consoles for FPS was the way to go. Multiplayer and technical problems aside, looking purely at the singleplayer aspect, what astounds me is that people laud the likes of COD4 (thinks: shall I mention Halo too? Naah, better not) but slate this, given COD4 was linear and brown, very repetitive and far too easy (unless you turned on the magic enemies that know where you are all the time, a.k.a. hard mode).

http://www.yourlocalhero.net/downloads/i...

I give the fanboys in this thread a 4/10.

Must try harder!

lol, and it still got a 4/10 after all that bashing?

sounds more like a 2/10 imo

Shit FPS shocker!!!
Bears Woods Pope Catholic etc

another crap PS3 game, Sony really do have an excellent marketing/pr department to be able to keep shifting PS3's with such a woeful range of games available.

I don't know if you're being deliberatley provocative disc but the Darkness was a superb game.

@ disc - I've never understood your obsession with MoH Airborne. Having picked it up cheap I have to say its a fairly well-made FPS. Fair enough its yet again set in WWII but its a fairly fun, well-polished game.

If you seriously think Haze is better than this (going from the demo) then I suspect you've been at the nectar too ;).