Haze writer responds to review score Comments by Robert Purchese

"I'd hate to be in their shoes I really would."

Well maybe they ought to have made a better game then. That sounds really callous but beleive you me, six months from now when all the "guy in a funny helmet and opaque visor" shooters are finally out and rotting in pre-owned hell (Dark Void, Haze, Dead Space etc. etc. etc.) nobody will remember this shit.

"With the amount of FPS games out there, Haze had to offer something new to get a good review score in general, which it doesn't seem to do"

I only played it very briefly and not too involved (and on a sunny moment so I didn't see too much on the screen, was all rather dark) but the nectar mechanic (using it so see enemies in the jungle, risk of overdose, etc.) seemed rather new for an FPS. Can't remember a shooter with something similar.

Didn't like the quality of in-game story telling. What's in the demo was rather poor, especially the part with the pilot.

The Nectar effect where it makes enemies easier to spot is essentially the same as the heat vision effect used in other games only less confusing so it's not really a new addition as such. Didn't Far Cry on the Xbox and 360 also have a similar effect when you switched to the Predator mode, included speeded up movement, etc.?

There was some terrible shooter on the Original XBox as well that had drug mechanics - Contagion? Outbreak? something medicalish anyway. By jiminy it was terrible though.

Hahaha, shit game. All those morons hyped up for something that really is actually just bad, MGS4 is just around the corner so get over it!

My impression from the demo wasn't favourable - the same old FPS stuff dressed up in vaguely different clothing. Hopefully this'll mean the end of the constant touting of this game on Eurogamer... ;o)

Goldeneye is still an amazing game... get my N64 out from time to time to blast through Dam and Facility. Awesome.

@Darren

I'm not really trying to put a positive spin on a 4 score to ensure I feel better about the game, it was more to try and point out that I don't think anybody truly expected this game to be anything other than average...although, I know when it was first mentioned it was heralded as far more than an average FPS. People just know better now don't they; a poorly received demo, and first reviews giving a low score are a shame, especially for the team who created the game as you rightly point out.

As you mention you didn't play the demo and think it was a poor game, and that was the point I was trying to justify, a 4 rated game will not be terrible, it will be below average of course, but if Haze sucked as many balls as people seem to think/expect, then it would have garnered a 2 or 3 rating surely?

I can't say I was too impressed with the demo. I'll be giving it a miss.

By the way, if anyone's wondering what they spent all that development time doing:

http://kotaku.com/5009874/over-nine-minu...

what a crap game, i got the demo and the graphics are rather shit to say the least and the chatter oh my god who wrote this a 16 year old? makes me regret my buying of the ps3 (also you know it's crap when even the developers put an embargo on the review untill its released they know it's crap!) so much for exclusive - what did these guys do on the golden eye team? make the tea?.


And to the guy at the start who said golden eye was rubbish, you poor fool, it was ground breaking for it's day and with 4 playes was something else- i bet you prefered rise of the robots huh?? idiot....


@yossain i want the 9 mins of my life back - i wanted to sppon out my eyes that was sooo bad....

"six months from now when all the "guy in a funny helmet and opaque visor" shooters are finally out and rotting in pre-owned hell (Dark Void, Haze, Dead Space etc. etc. etc.) nobody will remember this shit. "

I for one hope Dead Space doesn't end of this way, I still have some good expectations for this title left, especially after seeing the latest game trailer....but that's not to say it won't end up as a stinking pile of tenuous shooter dirge. Fingers crossed though, I'm still hopeful...still so very hopeful :)

Rob Yescombe has been putting himself in the camera (well, on things like Gamer.TV) for months now trumpeting on about Haze.

Rob Yescombe is a colossal tool, and it's hilarious that going by that IGN review he's almost single-handedly ruined the game. I can't remember ever seeing a review spend so much time slagging off the plot, dialogue and scripting. Free Radical had an excellent track record with FPS games, until this muppet arrived.

4.5/10 for a generic halo ripoff?




bit generous isn't it?

"The Nectar effect where it makes enemies easier to spot is essentially the same as the heat vision effect used in other games only less confusing so it's not really a new addition as such."

That's a bit like saying that a rocket launcher is essentially the same as the pistol... ;)

Who cares didnt really look that good to begin with, shame timesplitters 2 was great fun.

Well, in a project this size I doubt one single person is responsible for how good OR bad it is.

However, if Rob-blokie ends up getting an ego check, based on the footage I watched of him, that wouldn't be necessarily a bad thing.

@nick_f,
That gif is superb, love it! I hope you don't mind me saving it lol.
Onto the score issue, I think if Haze had been released a year earlier, the reviews would have been a lot more positive. Since Bioshock and COD4 came out, I feel the bar has been raised somewhat and mediocre shooters just aren't going to cut it anymore.

@mikeck - I *HAVE* played the Haze demo though, several times in fact, although I admit I wasn't initially impressed by it at all but realised after a few more goes that it perhaps isn't all that bad, just a bit uninspired. That doesn't make it a sub-par game though.

4.5/10 ? LAWL

The bad thing is that this game can't even be used as a PS3 exclusive anymore since it sounds a bit bad to bring up such a bad rated game. Though i really didn't expect it to be that bad. It could still be a 7 though I dont care about PS3 games honestly. It's just odd cause this game looked mor promising than that faky crappy Ressistance 2.

"Haze the next Halo beater, thats what they said"

Who did?

"@mikeck - I *HAVE* played the Haze demo though, several times in fact, although I admit I wasn't initially impressed by it at all but realised after a few more goes that it perhaps isn't all that bad, just a bit uninspired. That doesn't make it a sub-par game though".

I know you have played it...I realise that the line I wrote could be taken the other way though - "As you mention you didn't play the demo and think it was a poor game" - the emphasis I didn't convey to you was that I know you played the demo and didn't think it was a bad game.

Uninspired doesn't of course mean a game is instantly bad, but when you have other games in the same genre that really make a DAMN good job of it, it does mean games like Haze won't come off as well as they may have previously.

I love Goldeneye on the N64

Yescombe - Shortest innings :D

I loveD Goldeneye on the N64 until I went back to play it recently. We are all spoilt by our dual analogues!

I've played Haze and it never really grabbed me. It just seemed like a dull, linear version of Crysis. I presume that jungle was used for the demo level. Bad call.

"Anyway, 4 isn't terrible is it? If we take 5 as an 'okay' or 'average' game, then a 4 puts it just below that, so more like a 'below average game but has some merits in there somewhere' maybe? "

5 isn't average. Even the most average games seem to do better than that. You'd be looking at a 6/7 out of 10 average if this had flown low on the radar of attention. Unless it really is that awful.

5/10 *is* average though, that's the criteria Eurogamer, gamesTM and Edge use when reviewing games.

Well I thought it looked really good.

There was no evidence of the visual issues in the demo was he playing the correct game?

Hyped yet disappointing game gets positive review in an OFFICIAL PS3 magazine you say? Unheard of.
Also saying your FPS was liked by the Japanese is meaningless. Nice try though guys.

I remember a cover of OPSM a while back, saying "Haze: How Free Radical will make PS3 Invincible".

That Sony Defense Force site is a joke, right?... Right?

hmmmm not seen spartancog on this comments thread yet... he was saying in the haze thread how this game would RULE THE WORLD

probably sobbing in a quiet corner now though...

Razorus: GE was a great game that I enjoyed a lot but if you where used to pc fps games you would have some perspective.

To all the bitter, hurt and hiding fanboys who do not want to comment in this thread, be patient, as Too Human will be out in a few months.

10+ minutes of annoying getting-to-know-the-controls intros in computer games...

Just give me an option to jump into the game ffs!

HAZE was hyped by Sony as a AAA title, again PS3 has failed to deliver!

@thewolfiv

"And to the guy at the start who said golden eye was rubbish, you poor fool, it was ground breaking for it's day and with 4 playes was something else- i bet you prefered rise of the robots huh?? idiot...."

I think what you mean is, it was groundbreaking for a console game. After a while on it, I was more than happy to go back to my 16 player Quake 2 LAN sessions, on my OpenGL card, using a keyboard and mouse. That was groundbreaking.

Also, it may well have been groundbreaking for its day, as a console game, but in 2008 a re-hashed version would be fucking mediocre.

Take the rose-tinted glasses off, look at COD4 and tell me that a re-release of Goldeneye would even come close...

Seriously, you all need to get a grip.

@george i never said remake it, did you read my post? it was revolutionary at the time story and controls, i think you missed the point....

Reading every stupid fanboy comment (regardless of kind), am I one of the few that's actually genuinly sad that the game didn't turn out well? I wanted the game to be good, not because it's a PS3 game but because it's the successor of Timesplitters, which I really liked.

"I think what you mean is, it was groundbreaking for a console game. After a while on it, I was more than happy to go back to my 16 player Quake 2 LAN sessions, on my OpenGL card, using a keyboard and mouse. That was groundbreaking. "

Rubbish. I owned a PC at the same time and GE was better than anything on it. Including Half Life, Quake or UT. Simply had more fun with it.

IMO of course ;).

@lambtron

"Rubbish. I owned a PC at the same time and GE was better than anything on it. Including Half Life, Quake or UT. Simply had more fun with it. IMO of course ;)"

Yep, Goldeneye N64 was simply miles ahead of Half Life PC and LAN based multiplayer Quake 2 sessions.

/rollseyes


@thewolfiv

"@george i never said remake it, did you read my post? it was revolutionary at the time story and controls, i think you missed the point...."

And I never said you did. I simply commented on that aspect because of the amount of posters here, drooling over the prospect of a remake.

Plus, again, it may have been revolutionary at the time with story and controls but only in context of it being a console game. The PC games library in that genre, at that time, was simply leagues ahead.

All IMO of course.

OnlyMe wrote: "I wanted the game to be good, not because it's a PS3 game but because it's the successor of Timesplitters, which I really liked."

Yes, it's a shame the game isn't as good as many hoped. After Timesplitters, I too expected much more from Free Radical. :|

Still, it can happen even to the best devs, so hopefully their next game will be a return to form.

I thought the demo was a lot better than a 4.5. This review smells a bit, i'm not saying it's the best game or anything but thats worse than conflict: denied ops. Did anyone play the conflict: denied ops demo? Can anyone say that haze was worse?

I'm a bit dubious about that score after playing the demo. I thought it would probably turn out to be around a 7, depending on how well the story came together.

Wow, I wonder what happened at FRD. What the heck were they doing all this time?

Regardless of review scores or how good the game is i predict Haze will sell well. Most people buy games by looking at the boxes and the shiny displays in the shop.

Not played the demo yet (I should do really). Actually, I'll download it and give it a go before saying any more!

Well, its a shame. Alot of people worked hard on this game and it just didnt work out unfortunatly. Even though I thought the design was a bit silly, I still thought it could have been a decent blast. I was also hoping it might eventually make it to the 360...4 player co op would have been great.

Who gives a fuck? Goldeneye is absolutely dire by today's standards.