Haze, despite it’s pre-release hype was not a good game. Anybody who says anything contrary is blinded, bound and gagged by their inner fanboy. Mildly entertaining, the PS3 exclusive was pretty much universally panned – the general reasons cited for it’s lacklustre reception being poor writing, shoddy combat and unrealised badly-executed ambitions. According to the developers - then known as Free Radical – the problems with the game stem from problems with the PS3 itself.
"(Haze) had a lot of development issues which meant it wasn’t the game it should have been," explains Free Radical’s Karl Hilton. "A lot of them were technical issues. The PS3 is a powerful machine but a difficult one to get the best out of. We spent more time trying get the game running properly and less time to design the game properly."
Ok, by now we all know that the PS3 is a bastard to program for. We get it. And these are the guys that made Timesplitters, so they do know how to make a good game – but blaming the console because almost everything from your game – the story, the pacing, the dull levels and cruddy game mechanics, not to mention the the godawful voice acting – sucked seems like incredible scapegoating. If Haze didn’t have co-op, it wouldn’t have even been worth playing.
I’m so tired of developer excuses when it comes to PS3 games – Why can’t any of them stop making excuses promise that they’ll try harder?
Oh wait, they did! Free Radical was acquired by the house that built Crysis and is now known as Crytek UK. Karl Hilton went on to say that “I don’t think we’ve seen the best out of the PS3 at all, and I definitely think one of the best things about Crytek and the CryEngine is that we’re now in the best position to get the most out of the hardware.â€
Can we get Timesplitters 4 on CryEngine 3? Please?
Last Updated: August 13, 2009
Strife Lives
August 13, 2009 at 13:03
Is it a bastard to program for? This exclusive game? What? Uncharted?KZ2?GT Prologue? Huh? These guys suck. . . .plain and simple.look at Fight Night Round4. . .perfect on both. . .
easy
August 13, 2009 at 13:57
well apparently unchartered/kz2/gt don’t count because they exclusives (still not sold on the reasoning).
i only played the game a couple months ago, and didn’t think it was a terrible game… not that i thought it was brilliant either. graphically it was ok, but the story was pretty lame (cliched concept badly executed imo) and they game play was so-so but nowhere near the worst i’ve played.
so i’m not sure how the ps3 can be directly attributed to it being below par, although i can sympathise if they struggled with developing it on the ps3. not a valid excuse though.
sony really needs to pay attention to these claims whether or not they are justified. it will eventually hurt them.
kab123
August 13, 2009 at 16:03
I blame apartheid.
Someone
August 13, 2009 at 17:39
I blame cake.
Strife Lives
August 13, 2009 at 21:13
meh,blame swine flu