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None more Black, says Criterion News
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by
Ellie Gibson
Criterion has popped a cap in the ass of rumours it is working on a sequel to Black, the first-person shooter released for PS2 and Xbox in 2006.
The studio is better known for producing the Burnout series, and Black was its first contribution to the shooter genre. Judging by comments in the latest issue of D-Pad magazine (as spotted by Videogaming247) it could be Criterion's last.
"Sorry to disappoint you, but as we've mentioned many times on our podcast we're not looking at making another Black game any time soon," said Craig Sullivan, lead designer on Burnout Paradise. Nobody listens to podcasts, Craig.
"Although the rumours never seem to go away and we still get a lot of letters from fans, we're honestly not working on that game at the moment. I doubt the rumours will go away though," he added.
Course, he's not saying Criterion will never do another Black game. But with two years since the last game was released and still no sequel being considered, let alone developed, it's looking more and more unlikely. A shame, seeing as the first one was rather good.
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Comments: 1-36 of 36 in total
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I had a go on Black the other day, after playing MOH: Heroes 2 on the Wii and I have to say that the excellent control system on MOH is a breath of fresh air once you go back to something like Black... its a pity that Eurogamer couldn't bear this in mind with its 5/10 review.
Also Black had a rubbish checkpoint system, the game was good in parts though.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 13/02/08 @ 10:11
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Triggerhappytel
13/02/08 @ 10:18
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I'd rather see more Black than yet another Burnout. I'm surprised they're not making another - the first definitely exceeded a million sales, although I don't know final sales figures. I thought it was good, but there were loads of ways in which it could have been improved, and I was looking forward to a sequel's announcement some time soon :(
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Shame. Black was great. A sequel wouldn't really have to deviate massively from the original's style to still be good - if they just tidied up the story side of things a little bit and maybe gave us a couple more levels, I'd definitely put it on my wish list.
Burnout... I kind of feel it's been *done* now and they should move on. Sadly, I can't see that happening when each new installment still sells so well. Looks like I'll have to add this to Beyond Good & Evil in my list of games that really, really should get a sequel if only misguided publishers would open their eyes to how great they were. |
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monkie_king
13/02/08 @ 10:47
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As BadBoyBonner says, there's really no need for another Black, since CoD4 is essentially the same thing done far, far better. When you disregard the then-impressive graphical sheen, it was actually a pretty hollow and rudimentary game. Very short too, artificially stretched out by unskippable cutscenes and checkpoints 20 minutes apart (some of that goes for CoD4 too, of course).
It did sell fairly well, but Burnout does far better, so economically they should concentrate on increasing their Burnout production exclusively. |
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BillyBrush
13/02/08 @ 10:51
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I have a solution to your Black needs
Just open the window and listen to a couple of pneumatic drills digging up the road |
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monkie_king
13/02/08 @ 10:54
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it's funny, because it's true.
/empties M16 clip into enemy's chest from 20 meters /reloads /empties another clip /resorts to headshot |
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Triggerhappytel
13/02/08 @ 11:13
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@ monkie_king
Fair enough, CoD4 is a better game than Black, but given Black was Criterion's first real effort at anything other than a racing game it was an incredibly solid effort. If they took the first game's faults into consideration (pacing issues, tough enemies, lack of variety, no multiplayer, etc) and delivered a sequel on PS360 - given their prowess for technical excellence - I think it could be a stunning game. Would love to see it happen one day. |
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kangarootoo
13/02/08 @ 12:50
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@monkie_king
"/empties M16 clip into enemy's chest from 20 meters /reloads /empties another clip /resorts to headshot" That actually summed up my experience of Black perfectly. The gun crazy game style and destructible scenery positively encouraged you to hose the environment will bullets in a hollywood stylee, but enemies left standing when the dust settles doesn't make you feel like much of an action hero. More enemies with weaker stats would have been an improvement imo. I agree with other commenters though, Black was a great effort for a studio not used to producing FPS games. |
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monkie_king
13/02/08 @ 12:57
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It was a great first effort, but it was also deeply flawed. A lot of reviews concluded along the lines of "promising stuff, the inevitable sequel is going to be great!"
From Criterion's point of view, though, the FPS market is so congested and competitive, with many well-established franchises, they'd need to pour a lot of resource into making Black2 a standout title, and even if it was very good it wouldn't necessarily do all that well commercially (it wouldn't really sell on its name alone). The FPS bar is set very high. Whereas Burnout is pretty much a license to print money, it's low-risk commercially and a guaranteed chart-topper. |
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@Freek
"Shame they don't even mention why they aren't doing a follow up." They were working on Black 2 for quite a while - at least 12 months - but apparently had very little to show for it so the plug was pulled from higher up. Most of the Black2 staff had already been poached for Burnout 5/Paradise as that was having problems and needed more staff (B5 should have been out March '07 but ended up 10 months late). So now most of the Black team have dispersed - a lot of people were laid off at EA at the start of Dec'07 and quite a few have left to work elsewhere - so even if they do eventually go back to it it'll be mainly a new development team. |
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The thing I hate most about Black (apart from shooting out the lights in the forest level, only for the pool of light to remain on the road regardless!), is the way you can only ever hit the enemy with one bullet at a time, as you have to wait for the being hit with a bullet animation reaction cycle to complete, before the hit detection would register another hit from a bullet.
Really spoils the game for me personally... |
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Sir_TimAlot
13/02/08 @ 14:32
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lol @ Ariondax
haha theres no doubt you used to work at EA UK, in QA i'm gonna guess, and was on Burnout Paradise as well around that time. You may have even worked for me on my team before i quit. hmmmmmm you may have even been a dev contractor, "Who are you" - (arnie accent)
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 13/02/08 @ 14:36
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kangarootoo
13/02/08 @ 15:10
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"as you have to wait for the being hit with a bullet animation reaction cycle to complete, before the hit detection would register another hit from a bullet"
When you say "hit detectyion", surely that was just the animation reaction (which is a bit shoddy) rather than damage detection (which would be an appaling bug). |
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@ Sir_TimAlot
"haha theres no doubt you used to work at EA UK" ??? Don't know what gives you the idea I work for EA now or indeed ever. Let's just say I know people and have good contacts :) "Who are you" - (arnie accent) Ah...that would be telling... Shame that there's no 'Black2' on the way though...despite it's faults I kinda liked the first one. |
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PlugMonkey
13/02/08 @ 17:13
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"Who are you" - (arnie accent)
Ah...that would be telling... You do realise it says who you are in your profile... |
Comments: 1-36 of 36 in total
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