Free Radical lost the plot?

Mafro wrote:Aren't Free Radical also doing the next Star Wars Battlefront game?

Allegedly.

And Timesplitters 4 for Wii, also allegedly.

I liked the way people were like, 'man, I was really looking forward to that game, what a disappointment'. There were a few.

Someone should do an investigative article on why developers like Free Radical and Sucker Punch, to name two out of a dozen, go from creating Timesplitters and Sly Racoon; two individually creative fun games they have an interest in making, to Haze and inFAMOUS, two predictably generic games where you play as either a space marine or 'a real person who suddenly starts developing super powers'. Don't tell me Haze was terrible because the hundred or so making it lost the will to live half way through???!!!

Fine, it's obvious, but what's going on?

samoza wrote:I think they have a 10 year old attitude to gaming.

I think that could be called a good thing.

I think it is partly to do with the amount of time and money it takes creating state of the art graphics, if that doesn't sap your will to live then I don't know what will.

Free Radical is a cancer on the games industry.

Haze always looked bad from some of the earliest previews but I am hoping Timesplitters 4 will see them come back to form.

Cuttooth wrote:Free Radical is a cancer on the games industry.

Bit harsh. So far I'm counting one stumble, hardly enough to brand them a cancer.

Cuttooth wrote:Free Radical is a cancer on the games industry.

Haze always looked bad from some of the earliest previews but I am hoping Timesplitters 4 will see them come back to form.

That sounds a little harsh to be honest. It does not make sense to call them Cancer and then hope that TS4 is good. While Haze was not critically acclaimed, it was far from rubbish but everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Personally I cannot wait to see what they do with TS4. Go shotgun monkeys!

Banjo wrote:I think it is partly to do with the amount of time and money it takes creating state of the art graphics, if that doesn't sap your will to live then I don't know what will.

Ubi Soft Management?

It's weird that when Rare were producing games that were inferior to their previous games Free Radical were dishing out some cracking software and now Rare are back in fine form whilst Free Radical have one of the biggest disappointments of this gen on their hands.

suzzopher wrote:It's weird that when Rare were producing games that were inferior to their previous games Free Radical were dishing out some cracking software and now Rare are back in fine form whilst Free Radical have one of the biggest disappointments of this gen on their hands.

Free Radical was created by people who used to work for Rare, right?

Banjo wrote:

suzzopher wrote:It's weird that when Rare were producing games that were inferior to their previous games Free Radical were dishing out some cracking software and now Rare are back in fine form whilst Free Radical have one of the biggest disappointments of this gen on their hands.

Free Radical was created by people who used to work for Rare, right?

Of course, many of them have probably since moved on.

Alvin Flummux wrote:

Banjo wrote:

suzzopher wrote:It's weird that when Rare were producing games that were inferior to their previous games Free Radical were dishing out some cracking software and now Rare are back in fine form whilst Free Radical have one of the biggest disappointments of this gen on their hands.

Free Radical was created by people who used to work for Rare, right?

Of course, many of them have probably since moved on.

Is/was Free Radical full of so many ex Rare people?

I read a pretty big Rare interview that was posted a month or so ago, and one of the Rare guys essentially dismissed this claim that the best of Rare went to Free Radical. They've still got some of the original guys working on Banjo i think he said.

Codename 47 wrote:I read a pretty big Rare interview that was posted a month or so ago, and one of the Rare guys essentially dismissed this claim that the best of Rare went to Free Radical. They've still got some of the original guys working on Banjo i think he said.

I don't think the Banjo team left Rare for Free Radical, just some of the GoldenEye team but I'm not sure how many (though about a third of that team is still at Rare today).

Garth wrote:

Codename 47 wrote:I read a pretty big Rare interview that was posted a month or so ago, and one of the Rare guys essentially dismissed this claim that the best of Rare went to Free Radical. They've still got some of the original guys working on Banjo i think he said.

I don't think the Banjo team left Rare for Free Radical, just some of the GoldenEye team but I'm not sure how many (though about a third of that team is still at Rare today).

That's still a fair chunk of the original team.

I'm sure Free Radical will be back on form with Timesplitters 4 but i honestly believe that it'll be Perfect Dark 2 that really puts Rare back on the amp. The two Viva Pinata games have got everyone talking about Rare again(in a good way) and i think Perfect Dark 2 will officially seal their status as being "back".

I very much doubt the team were very big, seeing as only two of them had worked on a game before, and that Free Radical had around 30 people working on PS2 games. 5 of them came to Free Radical - leaves a lot of new staff, especially now there is over 100.

Did some of the GoldenEye team also end up at Zoonami, or was that just Martin Hollis?

Project Zero
GoldenEye-killer/Halo-killer/Gears-killer/The Conduit-killer
2009
Believe.

Steve wrote:

Slayerx wrote:I just wasted an hour of my life playing Haze and I want it back.

The game lacked everything a game needs it left me feeling frustrated and empty.

The game just made no sense you saw set pieces in cut-scenes a mile away and the boring cut scenes couldn't be skipped I don't think I've ever felt so let down how can they justify the years spent making this broken empty game?

With all the bad press it got, I´m surprised you bothered with it...

Free copy so thought I would see whats its like, no wonder FHM are giving it away with subscription deals

Alvin Flummux wrote:

Banjo wrote:

suzzopher wrote:It's weird that when Rare were producing games that were inferior to their previous games Free Radical were dishing out some cracking software and now Rare are back in fine form whilst Free Radical have one of the biggest disappointments of this gen on their hands.

Free Radical was created by people who used to work for Rare, right?

Of course, many of them have probably since moved on.

The four Rare guys who founded Free Radical are still working at Free Radical. They've got top tier jobs, they really have no reason to move on.

Rare have said that the majority (or it might have even been all) the original Kazooie and Tooie team are working on Nuts and Bolts. Perfect Dark had strange credits, so it's hard to know who did what in that, but it seems a good few of the names also appear on the Perfect Dark Zero credits, so it seems Rare hasn't changed that much over the years.