Legendary Game Maker Peter Molyneux Talks Regrets and What's Next

I know you're just being a shit but populous and theme park at least, and I'd include magic carpet syndicate and dungeon keeper as games deserving that sort of praise as well.
Really though his 'legend' for most people starts with black and white, where the cracks really started to appear and people started to know him as the crazy man with a plan that couldn't possibly have worked.
I've always felt the problem is that in the eaerly days it was possible to extend the scope of gaming to include his ideas (at least to some extent) in a way that kept people happy with what he produced. Later games as a technology had gotten so big that trying to do things they way he does just became impossible, but people still believed in him because of how much of a powerhouse he was in the old days.

interactive.org/special_awards/
You're close enough.

Legendarily bad, just like John Romero, maybe.

I'm tired of hearing about whether video games have a Citizen Kane yet. Do video games have a The Room yet?

Sure, Big Rigs for example.

Never played Populous and Theme Park, but Dungeon Keeper is a terribly designed game that predicates on foreknowledge and trial-and-error to complete many stages and fails to properly reward skill. I'm not seeing the "legend", sorry.

Ride to Hell Retribution is pretty horrible too.

The so-bad-it's-good phenomenon is very difficult to replicate in a video game. A bad game is an unpleasant experience all around due to the interactivity demands.

You're being overly harsh now. Just because you don't personally enjoy the game doesn't mean it's badly designed. I can't remember having any trial-and-error frustrations with it.

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Woah, a professional game reviewer posts on hatechan!

There is no way to predict some of the things the game throws at you, the all-seeing eye is insufficient. You simply die and then try the level over again now knowing what to do to prepare.

Nah, not really. Not any more so than other games from the same period. Sure it doesn't hold your hand as tightly as modern games but that's only a good thing if you ask me.

There's nothing the game throws at a well-prepared player that can't be overcome. People used to complain the difficulty was way too low, actually.

The difficulty is all over the place due to the aforementioned foreknowledge shit, but yeah once you know what a level has in store for you it's basically a cakewalk. I'll give you an example I can actually recall from memory. One of the levels in the expansion has you start in an area where the goal is to survive an early initial invasion by digging enemies. Of course, this isn't communicated to the player at all and the way they learn it is by being invaded and defeated the first time. The next time around, you make sure to reinforce your walls from the area the is trying to dig in through and it becomes a cake walk. This is quite frankly bad game design.

Is your complaint about the expansion, or Dungeon Keeper?

Oh fucking boy.

Another example is at various stages of the game very powerful enemies will drop in from the ceiling (often prompted by simply entering a particular room) and kick your shit in quickly if you having trained countermeasures. How is the player supposed to prepare for this? How were they supposed to know "this is a don't-explore level, you should sit on your ass and train first" when they've been taught to run around looking for resources in most of the other levels?

Bad game design. Dungeon Keeper has some cool ideas that could well have been made into a very interesting real-time strategy game, but it was handled by an inept developer who simply made it into a type of grindy trial-and-error RPG where the tactical and strategic decision-making simply amounts to knowing what to expect.

I mean, sometimes you can guess when a room is probably a trap and avoid it, but the cues for this sort of trap are very inconsistent. How is the player to develop the skill of recognizing traps when their tells are inconsistent? Bad game design.

I don't think you can go back and play the games and understand what it was like to play them at the time. Of the games I mentioned dungeon keeper is the one I liked least personally so I'm not going to defend it, but at that time and in that place when the games I mentioned came out they were a big fucking deals and were genuinely amazing to play.
We can look back and say 'populous was simplistic, dungeon keeper had bad design, magic carpet was a fucking shitshow all around' (OG theme park is still one of my favorite games for all that it lacked a true sense of progression or goals) but it was a different time in games and I think that for the early days of gaming he could be considered one of the greats.
He's a garbage fire these days and I wouldn't give him money under any circumstance of course, but I don't think that nullifies what he was in the market as it was back then

You're not meant to just prop up some walls then forget about it in hopes it's a map that lets you get away with playing like shit. Or at least to realize you're doing something wrong when your weakness at strategy games is causing 'random' deaths all the time and change your ways.
You're complaining about having to balance defense and exploration, yet lamenting it wasn't an RTS? You'd get destroyed in an RTS with that attitude.

Very well, but true legends make timeless classics.

At least, he is admitting that his overhyping is a negative.

Many legends make products of their time. Like Beatles and Elvis. Shit by modern standards but back then it was pretty rad.

Who?

Did that turd flop I hope so it always looked cringy as fuck

"legendary kike" is more like it.

Fuck off

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I don't get why everyone hates this guy. I have good memories on Fable.

I wish that we could just eliminate all marketing. No trailers, no E3. You just walk into the gamestore one Friday and look at the "new releases" section.

Smart people look at demos. If you are a retard that falls for trailers, that's your problem. Go ahead, buy games blind. Shitty devs deserve that money more than you do.

The first fable game is one of the few games I replayed several times. I went full blown autistic and even tried doing those unobtainable quests at the beginning where you fight a snow troll or some shit. I was so hyped for fable 2 and it was somewhat of a letdown in some aspects, but still enjoyable. I didn't even touch fable 3.

People think Todd's lies are bad, this guy is an even bigger ruse master.

Ass Effect Autism, or that one pirate game that got a remaster and was still laughably bad.

Whatever happened to the guy who won the prize to become a "god" in Moneymoux's next game?

more like legendary ass maker

forgot to sage

I'd say Bound by Flame. It's actually a decent action game but the writing puts the room to shame.

Terrain deformation in Magic Carpet was nifty. It's a pity the framerate is shit. I remember playing in red/blue glasses as something that blew my mind as a kid. I wonder if it would work with a modern 3D headset now. The second game wasn't as boring because of repetitive gameplay as the first.

"Not sure"

He got nothing, seriously.

This sounds like such a cuck tale.

Everyone rightfully shitting on him for his newer garbage games but his older stuff was really good.
I dunno about "legendary", but if he had died in an accident in 2007 he would have been remembered as someone who was only involved with good products.

I think his games when he was at Bullfrog may qualify as legendary to some people, it was when he founded Lionhead when he slowly started to become mediocre and then crap.

NTR confirmed!

It's because Molyneus, much like Spector, is a talentless hack and idea guy that can't do anything worthwhile without a team of talented and dedicated people to transform his ramblings into actual gameplay.

It never came out. The whole thing was a scam.

More like legendary hack.

>I worked with his wife on all three of the Fable games, incredibly closely
so he fucked her?

didn't he retire after not finishing that not-godus game? It's always the same story with this guy
Thank fuck he doesn't have that much of a following, we've got enough battered wife syndrome victims as it is with sonic team.

nice-oh meem

I am heavily disabled and was 13 when it came out and played it without needing to restart a Level once.
Maybe you just suck or are even more retarded then I am.

That's not actually the complaint if you try reading.

This kind of sums up the modern times.
Everything good goes to shit, and those that made it shit get the credit for it ever being good.

Fallout was never good.

why did you have to remind me

Smart people look at YT gameplay videos.

This fucking bullshit of announcing a game two years at some show is beyond me. Its almost as if the hype is more important than the game.

Nice argument, fag.

Peter Molyneux lost his luster for me way back when he made Black & White, a game that was supposed to have revolutionary AI and an entirely new approach to the god game genre.

It was broken, fundamentally unplayable shit.

The sequel was even more broken shit.

And thus did I learn the hard way about trusting game reviewers.

The PDF doesn't actually say that; it however, says that he was "integral to the creative development". Yeah. Integral in fucking destroying it.

Can you name a more shallow, buggy, and unfinished set of RPGs from the late '90s? I sure can't.

fishing pole.bmp

You know that you can easily move goal posts and deny things with that kind of question. Besides, the burden is with you to prove your point.

Honestly, both of the original Fallouts are bad. The action economy is completely broken in both–you get one action per round. It's not too bad at the beginning, but when you get six or seven enemies on screen, it really starts to slow down. It gets even worse if you start taking party members.

On top of that, the first game feels like a beta build. A full quarter of the skills are outright useless, Charisma does nothing, ammo choice is meaningless, gun and armor progression is shit, power armor is autowin, and Agility is hands down the best stat in the game no matter your build.

The sequel fixes a lot of the engine problems, but is inundated with topical pop culture humor mixed with nerd humor that would get you banned outright from /tg/. It's also about ten hours too long, has a painfully bad final boss, and has bugs out the ass. You thought Fallout 3 was bad? You thought New Vegas was buggy? You ain't seen nothing yet- half the endings don't work right due to bugs, your only car can just fucking vanish, inventory items can disappear, and multiple sections of the game will cause it to crash (this is especially bad in San Francisco).

Also, both games have the worst inventory screens I've ever had the displeasure to deal with.

Also very shallow character progression (especially in the first game, gaining exp is pointless beyond a few level-ups to get that one stat you're interested in boosted), and the games have that fantastically shitty critical hit system that encourages savescumming.

Molyneux embodies the maxim "Give a man a reputation as an early riser, and he can sleep 'til noon." He's "legendary" because people repeat what other people say. He can show up with the most bullshit non-game and people really still give him the time of day.

Yep. And I bought it because IGN gave it a 10/10 iirc :^)

Why does this stupid fucking argument need to appear everywhere? Make a "Fallout was never good" general or something.

He was Todd Howard before Todd Howard, shows how bad vidya got.

Well at least there's a bright side.

The skills were never designed around balance. It was designed to be straight forward.
Low Charisma leads to a lot of problems. Power Armor is a rare item near the end of the game.
Only if you plan to solve everything with violence.
Not half and I think some of those are just plain cut content.
If you abandon it in the world map or got it stolen in New Reno (you can get it back).
I didn't encounter that or did you mean the kids stealing from you?
It never really happen to me.

Not really. You can't save in the middle of battles in FO2 and doing that in FO1 corrupts saves.

Fucking hell, I remember blind pirating that and it being one of the most mind numbing things I've ever installed. No idea it was even Molyneux. I swear machine learning could cobble together a better facsimile of what makes a video game a game.

You kidding? That game could've fueled LOL threads for years to come.

lol, Yes really. Whether or not you can save in the middle of battles has no bearing. You better save before you trek to that military base because a super mutant can give you instant game over and no amount of armor or endurance can prevent it.

He didn't say he'd retire. He just stopped doing interviews to hype up a game because of how many times it backfired on him. That's why you probably didn't even hear that his latest game the Trail game out when it was released.

Speaking of god game creators, where the hell has Will Wright disappeared to? He just stopped making games since releasing Spore.

I think he's somehow involved with Second Life or last I recall at least.

He had nothing to do with that. You're probably thinking of that Project Milo shit they pulled when the Kinect was coming out.

Limbo of The Lost?

Nah, he was on with Linden Labs last I recall. Check a look.

Talking about Will Wright here if you're confused.

Fable was a painful letdown, no one expected the game to be a series of linear corridors where customization was literally sliders and flags that change absolutely nothing with the story.

It could be summarized as a uninspired jrpg with plenty optional cosmetics.

Nevermind then.

JRPG's, even the uninspired ones, tend to have better combat than Fable.

I guess we just forget things here.

i have mixed feeling about this

YOU AIN'T NUTHIN' BUT A HOUND DOG

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>>>/suicide/

I miss used game shops. Just some fucking TVs, dude behind the counter to ask to pull out whatever game to try for like five minutes on and off and you inevitably leave with something. It's real dumb no actual retail situation like that ever came to be.

He got to be a part of the direction team for a game that failed. A completely pointless prize that lead nowhere.

Have a (you). You deserve it for that exceptional display of SHIT TASTE.

There's a few stores here in Alabama called "Player 2" that's exactly like this. I've only ever seen 3 of them in my life but they've been around for well over 20 years so they must be doing something right.

They're probably just staying in business by virtue of their clever name.

Load of shit, you don't stay in business that long because of millenial retrofags. The ones I recall were in strip malls long after other shit had become empty storefronts. It's not even a gimmick, you try and probably buy something. Beats the hell out of having to deal with returns and reshelfing.

Come to think of it, it's probably DmC. The gameplay (medium equivalent to cinematography) is forgettably poor to mediocre, but the story and dialogue is so outrageously bad that it's infinitely quotable for all the wrong reasons. It's not something that you're supposed to laugh with, like MGR:R. It takes itself completely seriously, and is unaware of how utterly ridiculous it is. And the protagonist is the director.

Old Capcom (not Ninja Theory) games in general have a history of hilariously bad acting, but they usually get a pass since their gameplay was good, and the acting is a fault of the translation company. DmC was meant to be consumed as it was.
youtube.com/watch?v=JrQgeF7MW-0
youtube.com/watch?v=pmMispgpUs0
youtube.com/watch?v=vtTfptkUgj0

Elvis is campy and you can't do anything about that.

I think you nailed it. That's probably the closest from a technical and writing standpoint too. I think going into slav games may be cheating, nothing that unintentionally bad and particularly up its own ass.

Nailed it. The room was shot fairly well.

?

Deadly Premonition?

There are a lot of weird slav games that come off like an alien made them, kind of like The Room, but it's usually down to just bargain translation. There's also a ton of point & click FMV games that could be in the running but I think user hit it right on. The only problem being, does anyone PLAY DmC like people WATCH The Room. I think that's the only sticking point.

I'd say it's more the equivalent of the 90's American Godzilla movie. Both high budget projects that completely missed the appeal of the franchise. I'll give you the director and writer being completely up his own ass thinking he's making TRUE ART, though.

On the other hand, I don't see legions of film critics defending either of those movies or bitching at people years later for not liking shitty movies

Hell, some TellTale games may be in the running, or Life is Strange. Life is Strange has that alien quality and you could just play through it out of morbid curiosity. DmC is probably the most video game example, as a lot of that shit is just laughing at the choices don't matter moments.

Now we need a mod that turns El Donte into Tommy Wiseau.

Considering Life is Dranks, did a lot of people just rate it ironically? I didn't think that thing had a huge budget for marketing. Oh, that's right, the first one was free. It's curious because most of the early episodes have no ratings while the later ones have a meager showing but obviously after they made some money.

Molyneux is starting to look a lot like Takemiya Masaki 9d

There are people who believe it's a true masterpiece. Unironically good.

It was published by Square Enix.

I wonder if there are statistics on that, I could see pubescent females maybe falling for it, or numales on puberty blockers. None of those are what I would consider people.

If you take into account the initial episode before free and likely shitposted on, the future pay gated episodes only gathered a drop in the bucket in way of ratings, at least going by Steam.

I never forget the mark of SE. I still recall most of the budget was low for it but that's probably just paid marketing. Considering how the fucking thing sounds worse than a Spaghetti Western.

Women and soycucks with low T would like it since it is made with them in mind.

I have a roommate who plays this crap unironically. I'm not so sure it counts.

And I can't find any activation codes online, either. What kind of hoops did one have to jump through just to get a fucking chicken suit? If it was just a code, it should be out there, somewhere.

Looks like BOTW

house of the dead?

He may be a pretentious douche now but I cannot dislike any man that had any involvement with this gem of a game right here.

He killed any chance for a Dungeon Keeper 3 though. It kind of cancels out.

I can't even count the number of people I used to have positive feelings for, who I've completely dropped due to CURRENT YEAR shit. And reminder the mobile game exists.

I'm not really as salty about that anymore since we have War for the Overworld, Dungeons 2 and 3 and a new Evil Genius game coming up on the horizon.

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I didn't know about that. In my opinion, War of the Overworld was a disappointment though. Also, have to admit, has a point and some nice trips.

The fact that so many books still name the Beatles as "the greatest or most significant or most influential" rock band ever only tells you how far rock music still is from becoming a serious art

ftfy

Indeed, the Japanese game industry is a lot better than Western gaming these days. You could even say this is why the Japanese game industry is superior.

Great game is made by a team of people. One team member slaps his name all over it. 'I MADE IT, I'M WHAT MADE IT GREAT' he proclaims. All the gaming media people eat it up 'OMG HE IS A GAMING GENIUS MESSIAH'.
Our gaming genius is on his own now without his old team and surprisingly he makes complete garbage (or mediocre shit at best if his unlucky publisher puts shitload of money into polishing the turd they got).
It happened so many times it's getting really tiring.

Space in No Man's Sky is just an illusion. You can't actually fly outside a solar system… so you can't fly between them. You can't even fly to the sun within a solar system. Did they ever get those portals working?

Any shitty game with fun glitches.

After watching embed related, I doubt it. There's only one way to play DmC correctly.

But why?

BIG RIGS OVER THE ROAD RACING
ABOVE THE ROAD, UNDER THE ROAD; WHO KNOWS?

You mean overrated reddit hipster shit?

Life is Strange

It did.

Isn't save scumming suppose to mean abusing the save system to get better results?

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me, you can't get fooled again.