To a certain extent, sure. But in the event that Naughty Dog had never made their earlier games, I wouldn't disagree with someone that said they never made a bad game. I personally find stuff like Uncharted and TLOU to be the antethesis of enjoyment, but I can appreciate the fact that they are well crafted.
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Developers who have never made a bad game
- Thread starter Phediuk
- Start date
Retro Studios released the greatest game ever in Metroid Prime as their first release, and have stayed extremely high-quality. All of their crappy "early developer growing pain" titles were cancelled before making Prime.
While I love Naughty Dog, I can't count them because of their early games, whereas Retro absolutely fits the bill.
While I love Naughty Dog, I can't count them because of their early games, whereas Retro absolutely fits the bill.
Also I'm sure their early PC/NES games prior to Final Fantasy weren't all that good.
Peanut Butter
Member
Infinity Ward
Treyarch
Bethesda Game Studios
Rockstar
Treyarch
Bethesda Game Studios
Rockstar
This was on PSP?
Quite possibly one of the worst PSP games I've played.
Metroid Prime 2 is basically Prime on steroids and it's amazing.
SirNinja
Member
Black Isle would probably be my answer.
...is no longer a valid point, now that the AH is forever gone. The game has been awesome ever since 2.0.
Blizzard is kind of a tricky answer to the OP's question, actually. Most of their games started out mediocre-to-good, but they all eventually received several substantial patches that made the games excellent. Diablo II is probably the biggest example of that. That game was plagued with a number of issues and bad gameplay decisions at launch, but hardly anyone remembers because they overhauled the entire game through a series of great updates.
Diablo III's auction house was probably the closest Blizzard ever got to "bad". But, again, that point has been invalid for months now.
...which was also awesome, sorry. Been playing through it just this week and it still holds up 10 years later.
...is no longer a valid point, now that the AH is forever gone. The game has been awesome ever since 2.0.
Blizzard is kind of a tricky answer to the OP's question, actually. Most of their games started out mediocre-to-good, but they all eventually received several substantial patches that made the games excellent. Diablo II is probably the biggest example of that. That game was plagued with a number of issues and bad gameplay decisions at launch, but hardly anyone remembers because they overhauled the entire game through a series of great updates.
Diablo III's auction house was probably the closest Blizzard ever got to "bad". But, again, that point has been invalid for months now.
...which was also awesome, sorry. Been playing through it just this week and it still holds up 10 years later.
Laieon
Member
Even if it was still valid, I'd still argue that at the of the day, D3's combat is more enjoyable than any other ARPG. It just feels really, really good.
thoseAREmySHOES
Member
Blizzard and Camelot Software.
While that's a point worth keeping in mind I do get the impression we're trying to track a developer through thick and thin, and they had made stuff pre-Way of the Warrior anyway. Maybe if they were Naughty Dog-in-name-only from Crash onwards I could fully agree to that, but we did have the two founding members stay through to the end of the PS2 era, so it was probably more a gradual shift like I assume most developers such as Bungie went through.
The initial release was below average. Not SH Collection travesty, but ZoE1 had some performance hiccups and ZoE2 couldn't keep up with the PS2's fps and even had the graphics messed up some. Hexadrive's port on the other hand is a shining example of what ports can and should be, and so the PS3 version went from worst version to definitive version.
EDIT: And yeah, companies with few games are REALLY easy to list, kinda feels like cheating if it's technically true. Look at Yacht games, not a single bad game! And only one good game.
ThatsMytrunks
Member
You're so wrong it makes me want to vomit. ODST was my favorite in the series. It told a small, focused story in the middle of a larger epic, created new, likeable characters, and improved on Halo 3's mechanics. And let's not forget that awesome, moody soundtrack.
We might have gotten a decent Myth 3 instead of what we got (different dev.). That is a series that really really needs to be revisited.
Ultimadrago
Member
I'm more surprised people are listing Obsidian.
IrishNinja
Member
man, for being what it was - a first time portable entry (i dont think acid counts) - i dug PO just fine, except for the retcons it created with Yeager. plus of course did things better but it wasn't bad by me, and not nearlyt eh disappointment that 4 was - granted it kinda felt like a sidequest compared to say Peace Walker.
eh i just think they're newjacks who prolly started in the PS3 era for the most part
see this here is another great candidate, surprised i'm not seeing smilebit named more often here
Valve didn't even develop more than half of this list.
Yup, American Nightmare is the worst they did, but only because its repetitiveness didn't work as well as intended. Still a fun romp.
Darkangel
Member
I can't think of many that have NEVER developed a bad game, but off the top of my head:
Retro Studios:
Retro Studios:
- Metroid Prime
- Metroid Prime 2: Echos
- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
- Metroid Prime Trilogy
- Donkey Kong Country Returns
- Donkey Kong Country Returns: Tropical Freeze
- Death Rally
- Max Payne
- Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
- Alan Wake
- Alan Wake's American Nightmare
- Basically every good music game
Head.spawn
Junior Member
Naughty Dog is disqualified.
I still remember Rings of Power and the only redeeming factor for that turd IMO, was the naked lady code.
I still remember Rings of Power and the only redeeming factor for that turd IMO, was the naked lady code.
Fallout-with-swords
Banned
This thread is impossible because it's all opinion based. That said, Alan Wake sucks.
Team ICO hasn't made very many games or released any in awhile but their games have been quality IMO.
Prototype Viktor
Member
Red Dead Revolver
I agree. I also think the Max Payne games were boring as hell to play. So as you can imagine, I don't think much of Remedy.
Technically Team ICO is just one of the teams at SCEJ, and overall, those guys have made more than their share of shit, believe me.
State of Emergency 1 and 2 also.
CadetMahoney
Member
Definitely not Naughty Dog.
JordanN
Banned
Kirby Air Ride.
A shame since it had a great UI and is the only open world kirby game. But it literally uses one button.
Fixed. (It wasn't THAT good, but I liked it.)
Uncharted 1 is pretty trash tier.
I'm going with Blizzard and Valve. Bioware used to be on the list, but not anymore.
Schweinehund
Member
Valve had ricochet, but I don't consider that "bad", just not a game I was into.
Valve & Blizzard (thought D3 was garbage but it isn't bad/awful) are the two developers that coe to mind. I've also enjoyed Bioware (same deal with DA2, less than great but still not bad). Rocksteady seems to be on a good path as well, Urban chaos was seemingly recieved well.
Bad for me would be something below 60 on a 100 scale.
Schweinehund
Member
Yes, a couple of their games are average, but I find that Raven Software has put out a consistently decent line of games, to the point where I pretty much know I'll enjoy a new game by them:
Raven software very good, sad to see they're a COD factory now. Hexen and JK are easily in my top 20 list of favorite games.
jhmtehgamr20xx
Banned
Who are their sources? And if one of them's GameFan, their grade is already one letter too high (love that magazine anyway).
In any case it's certainly aged much worst than any of their other games, but that's to be expected with what it was trying to emulate.
I think I can co-sign on this one.
I don't know. I found that while the overall story is less interesting than Alan Wake, the gameplay itself (especially the gunplay) is way better and more than makes up for it. Shooting stuff in that game was a lot more satisfying and a bit reminiscent of the Max Payne games. The only issue I have is that the reload animations are shit (the magazines stay in the weapons for the whole animation and Alan just magically warps a new magazine inside the existing one).
TreasureHunterG
Banned
Disagree. Both Bioshock games are amazing, have a very high Metacritic score and, despite the haters, which are minority, a huge legion of fans. Subjective opinions doesn't make games bad by any means.
Answering the thread:
Clover
Nintendo EAD
KojiPro
Naughty Dog
Platinum
Hyperactivity
Banned
Good thing there are like 10 Nintendo EADs, iirc, only one did those both
Yoda
Member
Kragga's didn't come out for a month or two after launch if memory serves correctly. Rift had a much smaller development budget and had a much more fleshed out endgame than SWTOR did. The crappy engine made the game feel less fluid, but if were talking about design choices I'd say the the carbon copy classes (BH --> Trooper, etc) was more egregious than choosing an unproven engine.
City Trials mang. Literally the saving grace of that game (And the basis for Smash Run in SSB4 3DS). It also introduced the menu style of all further Sakurai games.
Quite possibly one of the worst PSP games I've played.
i loved this game
PseudoViper
Member
Alpha Protocol was good too!
entremet
Member
Isn't Air Ride like super expensive now too? Game has a weird cult following now.
The Death and Return of Superman as well as Justice League Task Force were awful, sorry
This may be true, Oni is still crap.
This. I found my copy of Pirates (2004 version) and am giving that a replay.
Such a good game.
Though Civilization V at launch was iffy for me. So much missing stuff compared to earlier entries.
Firaxis is arguable. Civ4 and Civ5 upon release weren't that great. Both needed massive tweaks (usually by expansion) before they're actually good.
Pegasus Actual
Member
Vince Zampella