Metareview: Crysis 3

Do you really think Crysis 3's Prophet cares what a bunch of reviewers think of his game? Yeah, the guy in the multi-million-dollar Nanosuit is going to waste his time reading the opinions of some people on the Internet. Come on!

But if you're not Prophet then why not take a quick glance at what those other reviewers had to say? And don't forget to read our review too, you scallywag!

·         Game Informer (85/100): "This impressive graphical fidelity takes a serious hit in the transition to multiplayer. Though Crysis 3 has some of the better-designed maps in the series, the muddied textures are a far cry from the jaw-dropping visuals of the single-player campaign, especially on consoles."

·         IGN (85/100): "It's not quite a next generation experience come early, but it's a superbly controlled, tightly paced and tactically flexible shooter with a satisfyingly focused story, and an excellent way to tie up the Crysis series... for now."

·         Destructoid (75/100): "Crysis 3 attempts to strike a balance between Crysis and Crysis 2, but in doing so manages to lose a little bit of what made each game appealing. The result is a title that doesn't truly match the open-ended excitement of the first game nor the revelatory empowerment of the second, yet manages to provide enough of both to at least tantalize, even if it doesn't completely satisfy."

·         GamesRadar (70/100): "A gratifying shooter experience. Even though the campaign is on the shorter side, there are a few visual hiccups, and some of the enemy AI is unbalanced, those small gripes get overshadowed by Crysis 3's tactical gameplay, beautiful environments, and superb online multiplayer. While not treading new ground for the FPS genre, Crysis 3 is a solid shooter."

·         VideoGamer (60/100): "By the end of the game I was bored silly, and considering the scope of what was going on that shouldn't have been the case. Sadly, bar a few exceptions – a Jurassic Park-style hunting section in long grass, an open-ended assault on Ceph AA emplacements – I'd rinsed and repeated the same thing so much that I couldn't care less."

Source: Joystiq

Vigil Games Lead Combat Designer stands up, says goodbye

Vigil Games Lead Combat Designer Ben Cureton and the rest of the Vigil staff cleaned out the office today, after Vigil was left untouched at THQ's auction. Vigil was shuttered, and as per THQ's letter to employees, everyone working there was laid off. In a post on NeoGAF, Cureton compared the scene in the office to a silent warzone.

"The walls look bare," he wrote. "It's quiet. The seats are empty."

Vigil Games, the studio behind Darksiders 2, was working on something calledCrawler, a project we first heard about in THQ's December bankruptcy filing. After two months working on Crawler, Cureton was convinced that it would blow people's minds.

"I knew, without a shadow of the doubt, that the project we were working on (Codenamed: Crawler) was going to blow people away. In fact, it did blow people away. We did, in two months, what many companies haven't done in a year. The pride of knowing that no one was doing anything like us was so satisfying, it kept us coming to work and giving 100 percent every single day, even through the dark times."

Today was one of those dark times. Cureton was taken aback when he didn't find Vigil's name on the list of purchased properties.

"Maybe you can imagine what it feels like when you read the list of who bought what only to discover your name is not on the list," he said. "Why? Did we do something wrong? Were we not good enough? Were we not worth 'anything?' Imagine that."

In the end, Cureton thanked fans of the Darksiders series and promised to continue making games, having already worked in the industry 20 years.

"In closing, I can only say thank you to the fans of Vigil games," Cureton said. "Your support means more than you can imagine. Your feedback (both positive and negative) gave us long-lasting insight that we will all take with us, wherever we may go. You are the reason we made Darksiders 1 and 2... and you are the reason we will continue to make games.

Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2013/01/23/vigil-games-lead-combat-designer-stands-up-says-goodbye/