Joe,
Heavy Gear did poorly because people had the impression that ATVI rushed the product out the door in an unfinished/unpolished state with a lot of bugs. Well, I bought it, I played it, I enjoyed it a lot.
Yes, I think that a lot of these gripes were fair...Multiplayer with me crashed a lot, it was often difficult to tell which gears you were actually targeting since they all sort of look the same but are scaled up/down in size, the action was too quick to get the feeling like you
were piloting a lumbering behemoth, some evidence that they rushed it...the main screen showing a gear was a 2D model...poorly drawn...looked cheesy.
Looking back, I guess that Heavy Gear hurt ATVI. A lot of people swore that they would never buy another ATVI game again. I have relayed that message to ATVI mgmt so hopefully they will focus more on quality assurance....BZ had bugs, but from what I can tell, most of them were linked to inadequate/old hardware drivers and not really ATVI's fault.
The screenshots for Heavy Gear II look nice although not great...yet. As I mentioned before, it requires a 3D board....maybe by Christmas, I'll be ready for a Voodoo II... I hope that the next 8 months bring great things and I will be eagerly waiting its release. I think that Heavy Gear II will be a much better release than the original. You can quote me on that! :)
Happy Easter/Passover/holiday/weekend!!!
Tom
Tom |
