Games they should have spent that extra time on?

[Jenova65]

KOTOR II obviously, I think Lucasarts should have given Obsidian the time they needed to complete the game!

 

[Jasper Jeffs]

The Saboteur.
Prototype.
Mercenaries 2.
FarCry 2.
Fable 2.
Two Worlds (I enjoyed it, but it could've been a lot better.)
Shaun White Snowboarding.
To some extent Army of Two. I liked it, but Army of Two: The 40th Day should've been the first, but you've gotta make mistakes to fix them, unless you predicted them and countered them before they were made; which they didn't!

 

[Acaroid]

From personal opinion, What games do you think they should have spent a bit more time creating, fixing, playtesting?

I think the real question is

"what games do you think they spent enough time playtesting before they let it out into the public"

because seriously, almost all games arnt play tested enough!!

But mine would be anything from the battlecruiser series, if anyone has played any of these, you will know.

 

[Evil Tim]

because seriously, almost all games arnt play tested enough!

Just because the QA department finds a problem doesn't mean the devs are actually going to fix it.

 

[thiosk]

Outpost.

Trade didn't work, research didn't work, the monorail didn't work, victory didn't work.

It just didn't work.

But i love it.

 

[Darmort]

Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic II, Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins (Xbox version), Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Star Wars: Empires at War: Forces of Corruption, Gears of War 2, Dawn of War II.
All of them could have used another 1-4 months of debugging, story adding, better balancing, graphical glitch fixing or just general tweaking to the things wrong with them.

 

[lodo_bear]

Clayfighter 63 1/3. Brilliant, hilarious, and not even half finished. Even the Sculptor's cut was incomplete.

 

[dududf]

Half Life 2 Ep 2, I wouldn't have said no to a longer campaign, as I beat it in under 4 hours...(on hard of course, AND doing the Little Rocket Man achievement at the same time.)

Okay, Little Rocket Man on hard on the first run? That's insane. Congratulations.

I would have to disagree with you on spending more time on it. It's episodic, so meant to be only about 4 hours, and was priced accordingly. It's just Valve are bloody slow.

I'd also argue that Ep 2 is the finest game in the series. I was somewhat unimpressed with Half-Life 2. Yeah, it was a good game but not quite the messianic shooter that had been claimed. Ep 1 was a step down (although steps back UP if you play on Hard, the extra difficulty ramps the tension up) but Ep 2 was excellent. All the things that reviews praised in HL2, the pacing, the set pieces, the characters, the mix of vehicles/shooting/puzzles was there and I absolutely loved it. It's a shame most people seem to have glossed over Ep2 due to TF2 and Portal. Which I think is the biggest praise I can give to Portal. The small little gimmicky puzzle game completely obscures the hugely anticipated latest entry in a mighty game series.

Also, whole-heartedly seconding KotOR II. I do however disagree on a minor point. The game did not have a bad ending. The game did not have an ENDING. It just stopped.

Still doesn't change that with the huge time span inbetween episodes, I'd like a bit more meat (even at a increased cost).

AS to the little rocket gnome, I just decided to return to the game last night to do that achievement as a part of my thread on most annoying/hard achievements, and I beat it under 4 hours... woulda been under 3 hours, but at several "Gnome shortcut" zones, the game glitched out or I missed my grav gun shot and didn't notice (Example of glitch, where you're Healing Alyx, I placed the gnome next to the Elevator door, only to have it slip through on my way up (I saw it fall down past us) or missing, would be when you're getting the car, immediatly after you save Alyx, you shoot the gnome to the bridge, I shot the gnome assumed it landed fought to the bridge did the puzzle and found that the gnome was below me (in an insta death area) or hell, when escaping from the Helicopter in the car, the damn helicopters down thrust kept forcing the gnome out of the car, forcing me to get out of the car, dodge fire from the heli, and looking for the ****ing gnome.) If none of those hardships happened, I could have easily beaten it in 2 and a half hours.

Oh yeah but on the game itself, I fucking LOVED it, I'm denying the pure bliss I had whilst playing it, I'm just wishing it was a longer experience. They NAILED the atmosphere, case and point, remember the level from which you had to defend the single vortigaunt from the Antlion attacks?

Yeah, the music, and the tension in that level was AMAZING.

I loved the game, just wished it was longer,regardless of price increase.

 

[TotallyFake]

I loved the game, just wished it was longer,regardless of price increase.

But...if they spent longer on it, wouldn't that just the situation worse by delaying it even more?

Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic II, Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins (Xbox version), Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Star Wars: Empires at War: Forces of Corruption, Gears of War 2, Dawn of War II.
All of them could have used another 1-4 months of debugging, story adding, better balancing, graphical glitch fixing or just general tweaking to the things wrong with them.

That's a fairly comprehensive list, other than Mass Effect there's nothing that I recognise as badly needing extra time. Yes, more polish is always nice, but not always necessary. And why Neverwinter Nights? They patched and updated the heck out of it, so again it's not like there were any large gaps in it.

 

[FolkLikePanda]

I think Fable II, not make it so buggy and sticky and improve the graphics.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Prototype, KoToR II, probably some others

 

[Danpascooch]

Dead Rising, there were a few tiny mistakes that caused some major annoyances

 

[dududf]

I loved the game, just wished it was longer,regardless of price increase.

But...if they spent longer on it, wouldn't that just the situation worse by delaying it even more?

Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic II, Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins (Xbox version), Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Star Wars: Empires at War: Forces of Corruption, Gears of War 2, Dawn of War II.
All of them could have used another 1-4 months of debugging, story adding, better balancing, graphical glitch fixing or just general tweaking to the things wrong with them.

That's a fairly comprehensive list, other than Mass Effect there's nothing that I recognise as badly needing extra time. Yes, more polish is always nice, but not always necessary. And why Neverwinter Nights? They patched and updated the heck out of it, so again it's not like there were any large gaps in it.

Then obviously I'll wait longer.

*Que "Duh"*

 

[War Chief Will]

Viking:Battle for Asgard.

I felt when playing it contained alot of elements that could of made it a decent hack n' slash/RPG but due to bugs, glitches and unploisment it just basically played like a nice smelling, shinyish looking turd.

Fun but tedious.

 

[hazabaza1]

Most Bethesda games. Cut out the bugs, sort out the dialogue system, and stop making us fall in tiny crevices that we can't get out of, and you can turn excellent games into fantastically excellent games.

 

[squid5580]

All of them. Seriously all of them. If they don't need more time to fix anything that means everything is perfect.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

Spoiler

Would this imply that at the end of SotC Wander becomes a false god? It's a good story and all, but there are a lot of unresolved plot points. Almost intentionally so, I suspect.

I think it's the basis of Dormin's backstory; he was already a God when his physical presence was split apart, he himself left as a lonely voice in a singularly immense temple that reaches up to the heavens. I wouldn't say he's a false deity [there's clearly nothing false about his power] nor necessarily even an evil one; notice how he never even attempts to deceive Wander and doesn't explain more about the bargain simply because the boy doesn't care what it involves.

Spoiler

The canon regarding the ending is that Ico is a descendant of Wander; I took it that Wander was only ever a vessel for Dormin's power [much as the Colossi were just earth, rock and sand] rather than becoming Dormin, since Dormin speaks of "borrowing" his body rather than it becoming him.

Spoiler

I suppose that begs the question of whether or not there is a hero or villain to this story. Is Dormin a villain? He's just being who he is. Is Wander a hero? He betrays his tribe and destroys ancient guardians for love of a girl, the sort of which (love, that is) is never properly defined. If there is a hero, it's probably the village elder who chases after Wander and fixes his mistake, although even then I'm not sure what was so bad about letting Dormin roam wherever. I can't remember whether or not Dormin's ultimate intentions were ever made known. I suppose the assumption is that Dormin is evil because he was imprisoned, but he doesn't seem like the sort of god who wants to destroy the world.

Another thought I just had is maybe the aggressiveness of the Colossi corresponds to the amount of Dormin's power they absorbed? Or maybe they're like totems, and representative of the animal spirit they are supposed to resemble. Although then I'm curious to know why a worm is one of the most aggressive colossi.

So many plot points left unresolved.

It's Faustian Deal: The Game.

 

[Evil Tim]

Spoiler

I suppose that begs the question of whether or not there is a hero or villain to this story. Is Dormin a villain? He's just being who he is. Is Wander a hero? He betrays his tribe and destroys ancient guardians for love of a girl, the sort of which (love, that is) is never properly defined. If there is a hero, it's probably the village elder who chases after Wander and fixes his mistake, although even then I'm not sure what was so bad about letting Dormin roam wherever.

Spoiler

It seems to be an issue of faiths; as with Christianity turning old pagan gods into aspects of Satan, perhaps Eamon's religion regards Dormin as a devil needing to be sealed away at any cost, or simply seeks to maintain the status quo. The story is fairly neutral in moral terms, which is one of the reasons it works so well. We never know whether what Wander did was right or wrong, only that what he did was something he believed in to the point he would endure anything to see it through to the bitter end; even to the point he didn't care what that end was if it would save the life of someone precious to him.

Spoiler

Another thought I just had is maybe the aggressiveness of the Colossi corresponds to the amount of Dormin's power they absorbed? Or maybe they're like totems, and representative of the animal spirit they are supposed to resemble. Although then I'm curious to know why a worm is one of the most aggressive colossi.

Spoiler

I always thought of the Colossi as representing aspects of Dormin, with their size corresponding to how strong those aspects were; the tiny Colossi represent impulses or passions, which a creature like Dormin would barely have, while Phalanx, which never even attacks you, could be seen as contemplation or wisdom. The last, the towering, nightmarish figure of Malus, literally smolders with hate; your final battle therefore with the very personification of Dormin's anger at those who did this to him.