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[ymmv]

I never had any interest for this game anyway, but I do find it annoying that people still act as if games with more realistic art styles are somehow less "childish" than others.

From what I've seen, even the most dark, gritty, and photorealistic games have some sort of "goofiness" to them when it comes to how characters look, move around, and interact. Have we not come far enough in video games that players will put the "this game looks like it's for kids" thing behind them? All games are rooted in childlike fantastical desires so there's less and less reason to find cartoonish games less appealing than realistic ones.

It's a very bad thing that focus groups are asking for more games that...look more like other games. If it has guns then it has to be some variant of Gears, COD, or Mass Effect. Give me a break. It's as if games like TF2 don't exist or something.

Gamers who get caught up on this shit really need to just let it go already.

Adult gamers will probably feel this way. Unfortunately 12 year olds desperately want to feel mature and hated the fuck out of the original Overstrike look... (And Insomniac took those criticisms very, very serious)

 

[kassatsu]

a glimpse into the far flung future of probably this time next year

 

[Ploid 3.0]

He's ditching Mt Dew Livewire for the maximum orange.

 

[Always-honest]

can ya'll feel where this is going?

i can.

Yep. I feel sad for Insomniac devs.

 

[Toppot]

Man the hate in here is high =/

It's an ok boxart, in-line with what you would expect from a third party game. It is a serious downgrade from the creative approach of Resistance 3 but that is a pretty god-tier box art.

We will see what the EU box art is like I guess.

Hi-rez artwork for people.

 

[Raziel]

its not good, though not so bad to deserve the massive dogpile.

 

[Frankenstrat]

a glimpse into the far flung future of probably this time next year

 

[ttocs]

Kind of looks like that guys knee is either about to explode or it has some kind of weapon attached to it. If it's the latter and knees of all the playable characters have little nukes attached to them - count me in!

 

[Demon Lizardman]

Me going to art college and having a class about color, this is fucking terrible, there is no contrast to the warm colors, it needs a blue of some sort to make it easier on the eyes. I bet anyone could do that in Photoshop, what a disgrace to Insomniac, learn your goddamn colors whoever made this.

 

[Concept17]

I LIKE that there is no blue. So tired of blue-orange everything.

Thats about all I like. Really confused with Insomniac. Not sure whether to blame EA, or just remain confused.

It would be great if the game turned out to be fun though.

 

[Levyne]

a glimpse into the far flung future of probably this time next year

I love how it's sorta subtly has an overlapped sticker indicating it wouldn't sell even at the previous clearance price.

Maybe that was obvious but it's a great touch, lol.

 

[alr1ght]

 

[Gorillaz]

a glimpse into the far flung future of probably this time next year

Damn I thought this thread was cold blooded but damn this is even colder.

 

[methane47]

a glimpse into the far flung future of probably this time next year

DAyyaammm thats Cold hearted..

But wow Insomniac has fallen soo fast

 

[Concept17]

Here I gave it some blue.

 

[Castcoder]

You guys take this too seriously. This is a light-hearted joke.

 

[ymmv]

Fuse has been making headlines all over the gaming world. A few headlines from googling "insomniac fuse" news postings from the past 24 hours.

Gamerevolution: Insomniac Reveals Official Box Art For Fuse

After totally winning me over with Resistance 3's box art, Insomniac Games has decided to break my heart by going with a cover for Fuse that leaves much to be desired. It looks generic, boring and far too orange. Plus, it really clashes with Xbox 360's green case and logo.

Gamrreview: Fuse Box Art Unveiled

Behold! The world's most generic, unmemorable box art, courtesy of EA and Insomniac's upcoming third-person shooter Fuse.

vg247: Fuse boxart chops everyone’s heads off

As magazine covers teased recently, the boxart for Insomniac’s latest effort puts me in mind of holiday snaps taken by my elderly aunts.

Stickskills.com: ‘Fuse’ box art now in the wild

This box art is unattractive. I know, this is a news post and not an opinion piece, but someone had to say it. Why cut off their heads? Look for Fuse, and its gross cover, on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 March 2013.

Lazygamer: Look at FUSE’s boring box art

I’m not usually one for posting about Box art, because that’s barely news. I can’t avoid it this time, because the released box art for Insomiac’s FUSE – once called Overstrike – makes my point for me.

Notice anything? Yup, their heads are all chopped off – removing any semblance of personality from the main characters, just as the new, more serious and wholly uninspired art direction rips all the personality from what looked to be a charming action romp in Overstrike.

They’re a faceless bunch of drones – and based on the cover, I’d imagine it to be little more than a poor Mass effect rip-off. The change in direction came about because the developers – and the people in suits – actually give a damned what 12 year old gamers think – and those gamers though Overstrike looked too childish.

*************************:

Insomniac’s next game after Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault, Fuse, will be out sometime in spring 2013 and the final box art for the game has now been released.
As you can see, it is covered almost entirely in orange and characters in the game only have bottom halves of their faces. By no one having access to their eyes, it could be really cool for us to play a game where we can’t even see the world in front of us!

Or it’s just a weirdly designed box art.

Kotaku: Before Or After: Which Fuse Box Cover Do You Like Better?

Egamer.co.za: Fuse Has Some Terrible Boxart

thegamingliberty: Where’s the rest of your face? FUSE box art surfaces. Hates eye contact

Cinemablend: Fuse Box Art Has Faceless Heroes

Thesixthaxis.com: Insomniac’s Fuse Gets Rather Bland Boxart

 

[Jocchan]

EDIT: Whoa. Should have refreshed my tab.

 

[Raonak]

Goddammit. watched the original overstrike trailer for the first time.

that looked so much better that what it's become. It had that trademark insomniac look and humour. the fuze trailer looked generic as shit. Could've mistaken it for any other team based shooter. Looked good though, but original concept was far better imo.

I feel the cutting off the heads is symbolic to what happened to the game.

fuck EA. fuck focus groups.

 

[Ploid 3.0]

Me going to art college and having a class about color, this is fucking terrible, there is no contrast to the warm colors, it needs a blue of some sort to make it easier on the eyes. I bet anyone could do that in Photoshop, what a disgrace to Insomniac, learn your goddamn colors whoever made this.

Someone added the complementary color to complete the orange + blue movie art/cover meme like thing.

FTFY.

 

[Spierek]

FTFY.

And now it actually does look better, even if it's the usual blue/orange combo.

 

[TwoDurans]

I have no idea

The gameplay I saw didn't look bad, or even THAT generic. It even had some novel mechanics that reminded me of Resistance 2's co-op, which was pretty damn unique, actually

I mean I'm not really hyped for this game or anything, it seems disappointing after the last Ratchet masterpiece and the underrated R3, but the negative reaction seems insanely overblown

Even this box art is like... it's not good but I've seen much worse stuff get more or less forgotten instead of dogpiled

Sadly it seems like IG can't win with Gaf in this case. EA's going after the dudebro shooter market with Fuse, which is pissing off most of Gaf (who play dudebro shooters and then when they're finished bitch about dudebro shooters). Insomniac has put as much of their usual style and flair into this game as they can, but they will always be beholden to the people that pay the bills and in this case it's EA. (whom I'll remind you completely botched the new MoH game by cutting Danger Close's budget in half and pushed their schedule up to hit Q3 '12 instead of Q2 '13.)

 

[Goldrusher]

Me going to art college and having a class about color, this is fucking terrible, there is no contrast to the warm colors, it needs a blue of some sort to make it easier on the eyes. I bet anyone could do that in Photoshop, what a disgrace to Insomniac, learn your goddamn colors whoever made this.

You had an art school class that taught you this crap?

 

[Vyse The Legend]

How many more bombs can Insomniac take? They're an amazingly talented studio, and I would hate to see them go under. But, ever since Resistance 2, they've been putting out bombas regularly. Something has to give.

 

[Skidd]

even if it's the usual blue/orange combo.

Well, blue is orange's complementary color. Not much to choose from and have it look good.

 

[Ploid 3.0]

I haven't played a dude bro shooter in a long time. I've been playing on PC lately and I hate using mouse and keyboard. I nearly accepted a free copy of COD Black Ops 2 ps3 from a family member though.

 

[inky]

You had an art school class that taught you this crap?

I'm guessing it taught him color theory, which involves a bit more than "blue & orange are complementary colors"

 

[Raging Spaniard]

You had an art school class that taught you this crap?

Well, blue and orange do go well together. Thats a fact. You post all those covers because its a cliche/internet meme now, and most of those covers are bad with or without proper color coordination (The Batman one is great, for instance)

 

[AuthenticM]

Focus groups.


To be fair Overstrike is a pretty generic name as well.

It is, but at least it's not bad.

 

[LightOfTruth]

This thread is amazing.

But yeah, the cover says it all.

 

[Rolf NB]

Is this "Damaged Goods |OT| of I Hate You Because You Made Exclusives For The Enemy", or do you people just generally hate good games?

 

[CartridgeBlower]

There's so many more of those orange blue combos, too. Just a couple off the top of my head are the poster for the movie The Change-Up, and the case for L.A. Noir.

I gather there's probably 50 or so in total.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

a glimpse into the far flung future of probably this time next year

At least someone loves it

Ya'll too much man, holy shit :lol

 

[BackwardsSuggestions]

This was so pretty. Granted, still orange but...

 

[jediyoshi]

You had an art school class that taught you this crap?

You may want to preface that stating whether you think it actually looks bad or is just overused, bit of a distinction between the meme there.

 

[Lime]

 

I'll take 10 copies!

 

[Ploid 3.0]

Is this "Damaged Goods |OT| of I Hate You Because You Made Exclusives For The Enemy", or do you people just generally hate good games?

They showed us Overstrike, got us hyped for the reveal of Overstrike, and gave us FUSE, showed us the newly toned down characters, all looking like they are wearing the same clothes and it looks bland to the eyes. I really hope the more you progress the crazier the colors get, like how the alien tech starts showing up more in Resistance. I actually wish this was on PC too since we could try to mod it to our liking (skyrim 100 mods thread).

 

[Kafel]

perfect boxart for this game I've heard little but didn't interest me at all

 

[HyperCubed4]

perfect boxart for this game I've heard little but didn't interest me at all

I'd say that the cover art matches the tone of the game, to be honest.

Spoiler

the joke is that the cover art looks bland and unoriginal

 

[PowderedToast]

Fuse has been making headlines all over the gaming world. A few headlines from googling "insomniac fuse" news postings from the past 24 hours.

remember when these sites made fun of COD and BF3 for their generic boxart too? o yeah they didnt. media only does it when it's a fucking meme

 

[Waaghals]

Is there a PC version of this? Thought it looked pretty good gameplay wise.

Actually I might pick it up for 360, or PS3 either way..... whichever is best.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

Is there a PC version of this? Thought it looked pretty good gameplay wise.

PS360 only.

 

[Takao]

 

Was "Genetically Modified Crops" too on the nose?

 

[BurnOutBrighter]

Someone added the complementary color to complete the orange + blue movie art/cover meme like thing.

Here I gave it some blue.

These are actually better, the blue adds depth to the image.

 

[Slermy]

so you are telling me I should purchase the digital version on PSN for $19.99?

I've been tempted to for a while... :/

Yes, I enjoyed it, but remember that while there is action, it's a platformer first and foremost.

I loved R2's Co op, and one of the main reasons I haven't played R3 yet is because it ditched the R2 style Co op. I'm looking forward to this game but it seems like the co op won't be like R2's. I mean it don't seem like you will own your characters, you join other people's games and take control of the characters they aren't possessing. It seem like each play through resets levels and upgrades gained.

The thing I liked about R2 and wanted to be expanded in a later Insomniac game was the upgrades and selection of gear and weapons, making it closer to a fps rpg 8 player co op. I've been waiting for RPG games to not only be a MMORPG or SP RPG and add the ability to play with friends, at least fill out a 4 player party. White Knight did this and I liked it for what it was. Borderlands came out after R2 and pretty much did what I want but the classes didn't seem to work together like R2's. In this it seem like they will but everyone is sharing characters. It also seem like it's just story mode where you will be playing co op. Here's hoping that there will be some challenge mode where you pick the class you want and keep them for yourself.

I'm looking forward to this game for the gameplay.

You should check out Sacred 2. 4-player RPG.

 

[ReaperXL7]

remember when these sites made fun of COD and BF3 for their generic boxart too? o yeah they didnt. media only does it when it's a fucking meme

Or it could be that people expect better from insomniac, I can't speak for everyone, and I fully admit that I have not played the game obviously, but in the original trailer for overstrike I thought it looked fun, unique, and something came from insomniac, something id pick up easily.

Now any drive I had to buy this game has slowly vanished with all the new information I see about it. Looking at that cover if I did not know what it was I would assume it to be a spinoff of mass effect, gears of war, spec ops, or a dozen other third person shooters I have already played and am tired of.

For all I know the game could come out and be the best thing insomniac has ever made, but at this juncture it just looks like everything I thought look at all interesting about it has been replaced with what EA feels is as safe as can be, when the odds are that everything that has been changed could easily hurt it more then help it as many will see it on the shelf and assume they have already played it before.

 

[Coolwhip]

They were so worried this game still had character that they even cut their heads?

 

[Kurdel]

I wonder if all these orange and blue boxes and posters were designed by well intentionned dogs...

 

[Akainu]

Do we think about orange juice that much?

*pants tighten*

n...no.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

I never had any interest for this game anyway, but I do find it annoying that people still act as if games with more realistic art styles are somehow less "childish" than others.

From what I've seen, even the most dark, gritty, and photorealistic games have some sort of "goofiness" to them when it comes to how characters look, move around, and interact. Have we not come far enough in video games that players will put the "this game looks like it's for kids" thing behind them? All games are rooted in childlike fantastical desires so there's less and less reason to find cartoonish games less appealing than realistic ones. As time goes on, games strive to be more real but still end up looking "animated" and artificial anyway.

It's a very bad thing that focus groups are asking for more games that...look more like other games. If it has guns then it has to be some variant of Gears, COD, or Mass Effect, right? Give me a break. It's as if games like Team Fortress 2 don't exist or something.

Gamers who get caught up on this shit really need to just let it go already.

I mean, that's the thing, though: there IS no "right" way. For every COD that sells 8 figures, there's others of that exact same art direction that faceplants. For every wildly colorful artsy game, there's others that are reviled as ugly and gauche (love that word).

The fact they're jumping into the former as if it's a liscence to print money is the real issue. The fact this idea came exaclty from focus group interaction makes it worse, with no faith in the ideas or ability to come up with new ones that will work better. Like I've said, the customers in video games should be listened to, but never obeyed (or given the idea that they are/are to be obeyed). Focus groups, who are outside even that circle, should have even more scrutiny of their opinions before one goes to retool a look/mechanic, or even if any retooling is necessary at all.