Game Developers you love/hate?

[JakubK666]

Personally my favorites are EPIC for UT Series along with GoW and Unreal Engine which is the best looking console engine.Period.



My second one is Valve for producing High-Quality games and having huge balls in order to release five 10/10 games for a price of one.
It's a shame that The Orange Box never received any GOTY's as Half-Life series has depth that neither Halo or Cod will ever have.



I also have loads of respect for Blizzard due to the fact that no matter how many times their games get delayed, (Four years since WoW was announced, god knows how long they were making this game for) I'm still certain every single one of their games will be a masterpiece. I literally danced around my room when I've read about Activison Blizzard.




EA is the one I truly hate. I despise them with all my heart. I hate how they rush their games.Their buggy titles. How they release the same fucking sports game every year!

Just look at Mass Effect. I can't believe it was made by the same guys that did KOTOR,NWN and Baldur's Gate.KOTOR was one of the best RPG's ever made. While Mass Effect's storyline is a lot better(yet no video game will ever beat the story twist in KOTOR) the so-called variety of side-quests are the same three fucking quests with slightly modified setting. Every single side-quest from KOTOR was unique and interesting(anybody remember the Missing Robot on Dantooine?)and didn't require you to do the same thing over again.And don't get me started on ME combat. I had a lot more fun with the D20 Combat System of KOTOR.

That is why I hate EA. For what they did to Bioware and Mass Effect. For what they're doing to many other franchises and developers. EA are the modern Borgs, assimilating developers and forcing them to release rushed, shitty games.

 

[GenHellspawn]

EA: Nintendo's Apprentice

 

[Choukou]

Valve,no question. They're just brilliant, and it's all down to the way they run the development! 'Right, it's time to work on Half-Life 2: Episode 3. Uh...you! Aaaand...you! And one more...you! Get cracking on this section! Everyone else, it's teatime!' It's a brilliant system that obviously works

I used to like Blizzard, and I still do to some extent. I'm looking forward to Starcraft II (even though I wasn't a massive fan of the first and I suck at RTS games), Diablo 2 + expansion were absolutely epic. Warcraft III had a great storyline. I played WoW for a good part of 2 years. But it's just the way they designed WoW that really got me, grind grind and more grind, you have to lose your life if you want to get anywhere good in that game. I am looking forwardto what Activision Blizzard have in store for us though

I also DESPISE EA for their game-churning machine mechanics. But good news, I read that an old producer or something is back in the business *trying* to change their ways and has already delayed 2 titles to 2009 for further polish to ensure they're A-star games. There's always time for anyone to repent their sins! xD

 

[tendo82]

Relic

 

[OneHP]

I both love and hate NCSoft (based on playing 'Lineage ][' on and off for a long time).

On one hand they have the most incredibly beautiful graphic design including characters, mobs, weapons, terrain, architecture nothing ugly in their games whatsoever, brilliant open PvP systems where you are practically never safe and great community surrounding their games as well.

However employing GMs that only use automated answers, never ever listening to anyone but the Korean market, being poor at balancing and having ridiculous grind curves all counts against them in a big way.

 

[Nugoo]

Maxis, Westwood, and BioWare, before they all joined Borg, and Square-Enix forever and always.

EDIT: Nippon Ichi

 

[GenHellspawn]

Westwood

R.I.P.

 

[gibboss28]

The main Developers for me are... (and whey..first post...Howdy! ^^)

Westwood studios - Dune 2, and the C&C series

Blizzard Entertainment - The warcraft series (this doesn't include WoW though, I play it but they've screwed up their own lore to it), Diablo 1 and 2, and Starcraft

Bullfrog Productions - Dungeon Keeper 1, Populous & Theme Hospital

Valve - The half life series, Portal, Team Fortress 2

The one company i despise like quite a few others it seems. But its mainly for me they brought out bullfrog, and then stopped making dungeon keeper... that is still the best game i have ever played in my life. xD

 

[miawallace]

Is it just me or is there a massive time management problem in the game industry? It's gotten to the point where repeated delays on a game's release are seen as a good thing, because it suggests that it won't be released full of bugs.

How hard is it to accurately estimate the time it will take to develop a game, add on six months or so in case of things going badly wrong, and then getting it out on time in a finished state? Every other industry manages it most of the time.

 

[Cooper42]

Love: Introversion
Valve (obv.)

Previously:
Bullfrog. (Lionhead and MuckyFoot never reached the pinnacles of syndicate and dungeon keeper.)

Hate:
Activision - either as publisher or developer - have done nothing I truly liked. (Yes, that includes CoD).
Exception maybe Quake (only because it was Quake though... And, even then, it wasn't /quite/ quake)
and Guitar Hero (though pants to them for rinsing it EA stylie and getting all uppity about old GH controllers and rock band)

 

[InsanityManifest]

Love Red Storm Ent./Ubisoft/Tom Clancy

Red Storm Entertainment broke ground with the Rainbow Six series, which I love to death. Even after they were bought out by Ubisoft, the Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, and Splinter Cell games have always managed to innovate or at least make things fun.

I like Tom Clancy's (Ubisoft's) newest approach to gaming which is to streamline games, taking away the clunky/monotonous nature of most FPS/Strategy/Tactical games.

They do need to take a few pages from Infinity Ward and create more sympathetic characters though. CoD4 was able to deliver an story experience that I feel Ubi games try to shoot for but always come short (ex. Assassin's Creed). In RS:Vegas, I honestly didn't give a crap about the two guys that get kidnapped in the prologue of the game. With CoD4 my adrenaline was pumping as I tried save that downed helicopter pilot (she only had about a paragraph of dialogue in the WHOLE GAME!). Ubisoft knows how to make good games, they just seem to have gotten a little lazy with the last few releases.

The developer I hate...With a passion. Left Behind Games.

The only title they have is that one mediocre strategy game which is about converting people or killing them. It reminded me of Command & Conquer, but in a half-assed pansy way. The company is basically a front for selling propaganda to teens in the guise of games. Most gamers know a good game when they see one though, and gladly the company lost around $30 million as of 2006. The company however is still pushing for a sequel though...Even signed on with Big Huge Games (Rise of Nations)...A developer has shouldn't be pushing political agendas onto kids. Games are for fun, not indoctrination.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Relic.

 

[Nugoo]

I feel I should explain my love for Maxis. It actually didn't occur to me that people would think that I liked them for The Sims. Not that I dislike The Sims, it's a great game.
The first one.
Without any expansion packs.

I'm getting off topic. I love Maxis because of SimCity 2000 and SimCity 4... and SimCopter and Streets of SimCity, not because they're good games, but because of how they tie into SimCity 2000.

Also, Khell, EA does, in fact, make games. That's how we still get games with the Maxis brand.

 

[Akirasfriend]

Some of my personal favourites as they come to me, in no particular order:
Psygnosis (Discworld games, other things which I can't remember at 2AM)
LucasArts (Sam & Max, Day of the Tentacle - I've never played Monkey Island, but I'm assured it's marvellous)
Valve (For the Half-life series and its spin-offs)
HAL Laboratory (With the game which consumed so many months of me and my best friend's life, Super Smash Bros.)
Rockstar - various studios (The GTA series, Manhunt and Canis Canem Edit/Bully)
Naughty Dog (Crash bandicoot and Jak and Daxter, the greatest platformers sans plumbers)
NanaOn-Sha (For creating Parappa and Vibri, and pioneering rhythm action)
Grasshopper Manufacture (SUDA51 - ya gotta love him for Killer7 and the upcoming potential that is Kurayami)

I'm in too good of a mood to list any developers I hate. I'm going to bed. :3

 

[Jare]

EA Sports?

 

[VMerken]

Love:
-----------
(1) Wherever Shinji Mikami and Hideki Kamiya are. Used to be Capcom, then Clover, then Seeds, now PlatinumGames. Between the two, things such as Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, Devil May Cry, God Hand, Viewtiful Joe and Okami blossomed. I consider these games as the best of their kind in their respective genre.

(2) Squaresoft, as they released gems such as Xenogears, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, Parasite Eve and Einhander.

(3) Konami: Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, Snatcher, Castlevania and Contra. Need I say more?

(4) Black Isle + Interplay (and Troika later on): they brought us Bard's Tale, Wasteland, Fallout, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines and Planescape: Torment. Yes, lots of text in these but wow, how great those lots are!

 

[EittilDratsab]

love:

Blizzard for the Warcraft games
Valve for the Half Life games
Bungie for creating many new community tools for their fans
Epic- created a lovely engine (Unreal) and gave me some great games (GoW, UT3)

Hate:

Infinity Ward- COD4 WON GOTY, WTF?
EA- holy hell do something new

 

[jaisimar_chelsea]

LOVE
*valve-keep releasing games with depth without the need to upgrade ur pc
*IW-same as valve
*id-doom baby doom(quake and now rage)
*epic-only becoz of unreal(the very first one)
*crytek-2 words-----photo realistic games, even though the gameplay is not groundbreaking but i kinda like sandbox games
*special mention-those developers that made the max payne series(i cant remember the name)
HATE
*those developers that keep making those stupid sports games every year with no change in actual gameplay
*treyarch-they keep ruining the COD franchise