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Will RARE ever get back to its glory days?

I truly hope that Rare blows us away with whatever it is they've been working on for the past few years,
Haven't they been working on Kinect Sports?


as I am so over hearing "Rare is dead, everyone left". Does GAF believe that companies forever employ the same people? It sure seems that way. The whole "it's just a name now" is silly too. Guess what, you could say the same for nearly any company that has been operating for 20+ years (28 in the case of Rare).

The key people that made the classics (I'm thinking SNES/N64) no longer work there. It's just a name.
 
The demise of Rare is greatly exaggerated...

wait til they announce everything they've been working on for the past 3 years before you judge them.

Or we could judge them for the last three years of output and suggest they have to turn it around to get back the glory of the old days.

You have some insider information?
 
They can turn Rare into a great studio if they hire the right staff and give them enough resources, but the people who made the games that made Rare famous are gone. Microsoft returning Rare to thier glory would be no different from them establishing a brand new studio with big talent and great ideas.
 
Rareware VS Rare (output over similar time period)

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Back to the way they were? No, that ship has sailed. Can they become a great studio again with their new talent. Sure.
 
Rareware VS Rare (output over similar time period)

NXDxwnY.jpg
Even though I still want a proper Banjo-Threeie, Nuts & Bolts is one of the secret best games of this generation. Highly original, beautiful, a ton of fun and I honestly I sort of see it as the Old Rare's final farewell before the onslaught of Kinect stuff hit.

but of course since it's not a platformer it's actually really shit
 
You forgot 4 games man.

I think he was trying to compare the output of Rare between a five year time span. 1997 - 2001 compared to 2008 - 2013. But Rare did actually release Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise two months before the release of Nuts and Bolts, as well as a Viva Piñata game for the Nintendo DS too.
 
I think he was trying to compare the output of Rare between a five year time span. !997 - 2001 compared to 2008 - 2013. But Rare did actually release Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradisetwo months before the release of Nuts and Bolts, as well as a Viva Piñata game for the Nintendo DS too.
Then again we're also missing like 6 GameBoy/Color games as well as Blast Corps and Mickey's Speedway on the top row. Even then, the time period from their last non Kinect game until their 720 title is longer.

TBH I just want JFG on XBLA
 
Then again we're also missing like 6 GameBoy/Color games as well as Blast Corps and Mickey's Speedway on the top row. Even then, the time period from their last non Kinect game until their 720 title is longer.

TBH I just want JFG on XBLA

Yeah, it's really quite depressing. Though Rare did also do some behind the scene things for Microsof, like create the Avatars. But that shift from Banjo and Viva Piñata is a heart breaker. Even though some people consider Kinect Sports to be a good game, It's just not the type of game you really want to see Rare develop in the long haul.

Hopefully the Durango will look more promising. .. I also want to see a new Blast Corps. BTW...
 
A bit OT, but Retro needs to step up production in order to be considered a current-day Rare. One title every 3 years is too slow for a studio of their caliber.
 
Seeing how Microsoft pretty much assembled an A-Team to work on Halo games (343 Industries), I don't quite understand why they haven't tried to repair or completely rebuild Rare since they have a lot of great IP's under their belt.
 
Seriously, this is verging on pathetic.
The Rare you are talking about no longer exists. I wouldn't be surprised if any of the original staff are still at the company. Microsoft are going to continue down the path they are on with 360. Sure, they may produce some core games for the first couple of years(to get the hardcore on board) and then Rare are back to making casual tripe.

The Rare that you crave doesn't exist anymore and haven't for quite some time.
 
Sadly not.

That being said, do yourself a favour and give Viva Piñata a shot. It still has a lot of charm in it.

In fact, I would buy the next Microsoft system if they were to release a Proper Viva Piñata game for it.
 
I had the weirdest dream last night.

Rare unveiled their newest game, an fps that looked like a cross between Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. The demo was, for the most part, pretty standard.
Nice enviroments, some shooting and a few gadgets.

It wasn't untill the end that I realised that both the player character and the main enemy in the game were cats, and that the player character was working for Dr. Claw(from Inspector Gadget).
 
N64 games were over-rated because it was slim pickings and a lot of die-hard Nintendo press were upset at how the PSX had taken over where Nintendo once reigned.

This isn't true at all. I had a Playstation and no FPS on it came anywhere near Goldeneye. Banjo Kazooie is still to this day one of the best and most complex 3D platformers ever made. Conker's Bad Fur Day got a far inferior port on the Xbox and was critically acclaimed and said to be one of the best games the system got that year. There was nothing "overrated" about Rare. They were a platformer/FPS Squaresoft. I agree though that there was some hivemind attitude going on in the press, and it is hardly uncommon with underdog systems (the Dreamcast and PSP are the two basketcase examples of this), but those games on that list are still talked about and even played to this day for a reason.

You could make a similar thread about Nintendo at this point. They also have been on a decline since the N64.

I have a high end PC where I play all the latest and greatest games and I'd say about half of my top ten games this gen are Nintendo games. Nintendo is at their high point now not in the Nintendo 64 days. Actually outside of the Super Mario 64, the two Zeldas, Smash Bros., and Pokemon they were kind of mediocre then. I mean Mario Kart 64 was a unplayable mess, Yoshi's Island's sequel was horrible, the Nintendo 64 Pokemon games were literally just tech demos, it took them until the very end of the systems lifespan to release a RPG, and their game releases were less frequent than now despite using less detailed assets.
 
This isn't true at all. I had a Playstation and no FPS on it came anywhere near Goldeneye. Banjo Kazooie is still to this day one of the best and most complex 3D platformers ever made. Conker's Bad Fur Day got a far inferior port on the Xbox and was critically acclaimed and said to be one of the best games the system got that year. There was nothing "overrated" about Rare. They were a platformer/FPS Squaresoft. I agree though that there was some hivemind attitude going on in the press, and it is hardly uncommon with underdog systems (the Dreamcast and PSP are the two basketcase examples of this), but those games on that list are still talked about and even played to this day for a reason.

You'll see this happen on all Nintendo partners, you'll even hear how some crappy game by some other dev is somehow better...

I have a high end PC where I play all the latest and greatest games and I'd say about half of my top ten games this gen are Nintendo games. Nintendo is at their high point now not in the Nintendo 64 days. Actually outside of the Super Mario 64, the two Zeldas, Smash Bros., and Pokemon they were kind of mediocre then. I mean Mario Kart 64 was a unplayable mess, Yoshi's Island's sequel was horrible, the Nintendo 64 Pokemon games were literally just tech demos, it took them until the very end of the systems lifespan to release a RPG, and their game releases were less frequent than now despite using less detailed assets.

Yeah but
il%20bivio%20del%20villaggio%20copia.jpg
 
I think the problem with DK64, and to that extent Banjo-Tooie, is that at some point the developers would have to realize when they're putting too much into a game. I think this is less evident in DK64 than Banjo-Tooie though, because the levels aren't as spread out and there are far less factors to consider most of the time (DK64 only requires you to have the right Kong and move while BT factors Mumbo, transformations, cross-level connectivity, Chuggy, fucking Grunty Industries etc). Despite that, it's a game that's kind of hard to generally revisit if you don't have a nostalgic investment because due to the somewhat slow tempo, getting lost and a bunch of back-and-forths it takes ages to get things done.

I didn't mind these things the first time around because it was a big adventure but nowadays I really see why people look down upon these games. They can get rather repetitive.

Seems like they knew their time was coming up and crammed as much as possible into their games :P

DK64 was the biggest game I've ever played and I loved every second of it. The graphics were pretty mindblowing and I thought the atmosphere was absolutely amazing.

Anyone remember the boss battles in the rain? Lightning, thunder, darkness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jIh_szguNM

Great atmosphere.
 
Rareware VS Rare (output over similar time period)

NXDxwnY.jpg

To be fair, with today's development and budgets, they'd never be able to output at N64 pace.

It is amazing how quiet they've been the past few years though, with only the two Kinect Sports games to show for themselves. Especially given the size of Rare. It's like Mattrick shut everything down and started them from scratch when he got on board. But it also means they must be working on at least a couple of next-gen titles.
 
rare could be great one day again, but it won't be because of the people that made them great to begin with...

in my fantasy world, all the old rareware greats who have left the company; the free radical folks, martin hollis, grant kirkhope, etc. etc. would come together one more time and form a company with that old rareware sense of humor and edge that their mid-to-late 90's games had. and just to add icing on that cake, the stampers come back to lead it.

then we could have awesome comparisons between this company and rare today.
imagine: rareware vs. newRare. oh the threads.

but in reality. i'd settle for grant kirkhope composing music for DKCR2.
 
Seriously, this is verging on pathetic.
The Rare you are talking about no longer exists. I wouldn't be surprised if any of the original staff are still at the company. Microsoft are going to continue down the path they are on with 360. Sure, they may produce some core games for the first couple of years(to get the hardcore on board) and then Rare are back to making casual tripe.

The Rare that you crave doesn't exist anymore and haven't for quite some time.

Read the thread?
 
I hope MS is getting smarter to let Rare doing what they want.
I contribute to this thread by restart playing Kameo since the last time (2005).
I hope Rare can redeem them self with Xbox next.
 
If you read some articles linked in this thread you can see nothing of Rare is left standing. The founders are gone, the key people are gone and more importantly the entire company culture that made great games possible in the glory days is changed by MS. So yes, just a name left. And even the logo got changed :(
 
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