Zero Punctuation: Syndicate

[Woodsey]

Ahh, Dad's left nut. Those were the days.

 

[lumpenprole]

Ah yes, the urge to violate an old property in the belief that negative name recognition is better than none.

Or what I call 'The Shadowrun Stratagem'

 

[vrbtny]

"Flooding their headsets with Nickelback songs until they commit suicide."

Suddenly I want this game, and then to mod on a sound effect of everytime the suicide ability is used, play Nickelback songs in the background.

It was masochistically awesome.

 

[Draconalis]

I imagine that I'll hear something like, from 4:54 on, if the X-com FPS ever gets reviewed.

 

[synobal]

Heh well this could of been more critical but ya what can you do? He is pretty much right about how baffling EA is slapping on the syndicate name, on something that is simply a generic shooter.

 

[Xanthious]

Good to hear Brain Cox is still getting work. Was able to meet him on a couple of occasions and one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet. Even have a Super Troopers DVD he signed. Sad to hear it's in a bad remake of a game that was really decent 20 years ago.

 

[putowtin]

"you know I'm my day, syndicate was a very good game!"
"Shut up grandma!"

Ahh kids these days!

 

[targren]

The end summed these reboots up quite nicely.

You mean the part of about the target audience being the ones who would either not know about the original, or just not have been the ones who liked it?

I've wondered that myself. Do these marketroids honestly expect nostalgia to carry them through beyond the first sucker with a web show getting tricked, then making enough noise to warn his contemporaries of the scam?

I'm seriously curious. Do they actually promote this sort of "thinking" to the soulless hordes going for marketing degrees?

 

[Sabrestar]

Excellent arguments, a good summation of Why This Never Needed To Be Made.

Just wanted to note that this was the first time the under-credits animation sequence made me bust out laughing. Well played, Yahtzee.

 

[Urh]

I actually remember thinking way back in my youth that a Syndicate FPS would be the greatest thing ever. When I heard that it was actually being made, my heart sank. More proof that dreams shouldn't always necessarily come true...

 

[VladG]

Actually thought about giving this game a try, but dear lord I've *never* seen such horrible lighting and lens flare effects. Not only does it have the horrific console FoV, but about 20% of that space is completely obstructed most of the time by the weirdest lateral lens flare I've ever seen. It's literally the first game to give me a headache playing it for less than 20 minutes (and I've gone on 10hour gaming marathons without any problems)

 

[Swifteye]

...ah well. Every review for this game I see makes me slightly less mad that it got banned in Australia. Speaking of which.... Yaaahtzeee wheree'd you get yoour cooppy from? Sneaky bugger.

Probably at GAMETRADERS ROBINA, just like SSBB.

"You wont endure yourself to me by offering to rape my mom for 50 bucks!"

Endear*

friad not. Yathzee said gametraders robina sank like the SS not profitable enough.

 

[Renegrade]

I like the part around five minutes where he describes the two groups who might be interested in this title.

It's spot on. I'm part of the latter "setting the publisher's office on fire" group. I expect a re-imaging of a game to improve it, flesh it out, etc. Not dumb it down.

The people in the former "too young to remember it" group won't give a damn about any of that, so EA might as well just give it another name that doesn't involve any licensing issues.

I'm glad the X-Com shooter got pushed back and (hopefully) replaced with a more appropriate remake. If they go ahead with the shooter in the long run, they should ditch all the X-Com references. A clean slate would give them more creative freedom in the shooter, and avoid angering those of us who remember the old strategic game. Heck, if it works out under it's own franchise, that's another franchise for gamers to enjoy, and the publisher to sell.

Why can't more re-imagings be like Battlezone (1998) or Battlezone II? (problems with bugs and forward compatibility aside)

 

[MonkeyPunch]

See this has always been my question/gripe with this game.
Why bother slapping the Syndicate name on it when it's got mostly bugger all to do with it and doesn't at all rely on anything in the actual Syndicate universe.

I would wager that the game would have actually done fractionally better if it hadn't had the Syndicate name as people wouldn't have drawn comparisons.
But someone along the way decided that having a little bit of online controversy (they full-well knew it was going to happen) was free advertising and so took the name just for that I should imagine.

Wouldn't touch this game with a ten foot gauss gun.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

It looked boring since it was announced. So far nothing has changed that would make me change my mind about this game.

 

[Hristo Petrov]

I'm still waiting for some genius to remake Crusader No Remorse/Regret

 

[TheUnbeholden]

I guess EA is self aware of them actually being a soulless corporation, except they're not a megaglobal corporation... though they wish they where.

Regardless of what streamlined turds they have released, nobody gives a game the same name as one released before it, without being branded grade A assholes. They give new meaning to
Triple A...
Aesthetics
Arrogance
Assholes

 

[Realitycrash]

I remember it fondly.I was eight years old, and I was reading a gaming-magazine. I saw Syndicate, and intrigued, I downloaded the demo. Within half an hour, I was jumping up and down, clinging to my dad proclaiming "Daaad, if you buy it for me, I'll NEVER WANT ANOTHER GAME AGAIN!" (I remember saying these words. I remember it clearly).

Well, how the hell is Syndicate supposed to stand up against my expectations?