IGN reviews Haze

[CurseoftheGods]

Mondain fails... horribly.

[Mupepe]

He thinks Bioshock is like one of the worst games ever.  His opinion has been void for a while

[Joe Molotov]

Let's not be too hasty guys, Italian PSM gave it a 9! Let's see what Play Magazine has to say.

[Tieno]

Who is Tom Chick?

And yeah, apparent tech issues aside, it seems like FRD plain doesn't have what it takes to make the transition from goofy kill-em-down FPS to a serious-minded "critical eye on the horrors and media exploitation of war" type of shooter in a graceful manner. Even disregarding the IGN review, the demo suggested as much. Still, these guys should at least be capable of designing fun (if dumb) multi-player stuff in their sleep, so I don't know what in the hell went wrong here.

Oh well, back to dreaming about what could have been with Heartland, hadn't it been ditched by the bigwigs.

Do you think David "I made God of War" Jaffe would have been capable of doing that? I agree with you that a serious minded critical shooter is very hard to pull off.

[abrader]

I dunno - I just tried the demo and rather liked it...I may buy it yet.....

Hopefully it wont end up becoming the 2nd game I exile from my collection this year.

[cool breeze]

I didn't think the demo was that bad.  Even graphically it didn't seem like it deserved a sub-5 score; although some of the videos from that western map looked worse than PS2 graphically, so maybe that jungle was the best part.  I didn't find it insultingly horrible to play like I did the Timeshift demo or Red Steel.

I hope it bombs just enough so it doesn't get a sequel, but not so much to the point where Timesplitters 4 needs to be on the Wii.

[Pharmacy]

I didn't think the demo was that bad.  Even graphically it didn't seem like it deserved a sub-5 score; although some of the videos from that western map looked worse than PS2 graphically, so maybe that jungle was the best part.  I didn't find it insultingly horrible to play like I did the Timeshift demo or Red Steel.

I hope it bombs just enough so it doesn't get a sequel, but not so much to the point where Timesplitters 4 needs to be on the Wii.

its not gonna bomb, this has been high on the pre-order charts ever since it was announced

[duckman2000]

Do you think David "I made God of War" Jaffe would have been capable of doing that? I agree with you that a serious minded critical shooter is very hard to pull off.

From what I know about it, it was certainly going in the right direction.

[Mr. Gundam]

The demo was the epitome of generic, I didn't expect anything else out of the full version.

[duckman2000]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=11254465&postcount=228

Someone should remind this guy of Eurogamer's Resistance review fuck up.

edit: omg, there are elitist Wiiners dogging on Gears of War's game design in that thread. 

[Howard Alan Treesong]

well, at least GameStop will sell it to you for free for a week

[Mondain]

damn they didn't have it at the rental store so I'll have to check back in like two days

this review makes no sense, the gameplay elements, controls, enemies were AT LEAST up to par with the run-of-the-mill shooters that you see nowadays based on the demo, such paltry scores are reserved for games which have severe issues

and Tom Chick, who'd trust a guy who think Deus Ex is a turd and who gave like 87% to Azurik Rise of Peratia 

it's seemingly not to par with Free Radical's legacy which is disappointing for a FR fan like me but I'm still just as impatient to play it for some fun lighthearted shooter action, plus I want to check the story and the humor out

[Darunia]

6.0 Gamespot

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/haze/review.html

[Oblivion]

Year of the PS3 still going strong.

[duckman2000]

well, at least GameStop will sell it to you for free for a week

I thought that deal was off?

Year of the PS3 still going strong.

Recycled GAFish garbage commentary still going strong

[Flannel Boy]

Year of the PS3 still going strong.

Recycled GAFish garbage commentary still going strong

Year of the PS3 apologist still going strong 

[Bildi]

I didn't really expect that.  I haven't been keeping up with the game though, maybe others saw it a mile away.

[duckman2000]

I didn't really expect that.  I haven't been keeping up with the game though, maybe others saw it a mile away.

Well, I think it could really only go two ways; either they'd nail the concepts they were reportedly shooting for, or it'd be a spectacular failure. Seems as if it's the latter, which is a shame, although in hindsight I guess placing bets on FRD to pull it off wasn't so well advised. I'm really surprised that the multi-player isn't up to par though.

[Great Rumbler]

X-Play gave Haze 2/5.

[Darunia]

giant bomb 2/5

Haze attempts to deal with the concept of wartime propaganda and how troop morale is the most important thing an army can have. But it does it in such a blatant way that it’s hard to care about the point the game’s story is trying to make. Tack on a short campaign, dull weapons, lame enemy artificial intelligence, and lackluster multiplayer options and you’re left with a game that occasionally looks nice, but not much else.

http://www.giantbomb.com/2008/05/20/winners-dont-use-drugs/

[Smooth Groove]

Year of the PS3 still going strong.

Recycled GAFish garbage commentary still going strong

Year of the PS3 apologist still going strong 

Nice to see you earning your keep as an Icon. 

[duckman2000]

X-Play gave Haze 2/5.

Ahaha, really? And that's not even part of the "snowball effect".

[Smooth Groove]

The shitty graphics are probably the main reason for the low scores so far.  FPS is the premiere genre for flashy graphics and Haze is just not up to par in that area. 

[duckman2000]

The graphics in the demo didn't seem that terrible though, with the things that were pretty bad being leveraged against the pretty good (explosions and smoke effects seemed pretty good to me, as did the rebel character models). It certainly didn't look great by any stretch, but with for example IGN (yes, I'm treating the site as an entity) typically being batshit insane in its generosity when rating graphics quality, it's hard to believe that this qualifies as a whole point below par. I guess the visual bugs must have been plentiful, and the demo area was specifically tuned for the demonstration task. For example, the IGN review complains about tearing. I don't recall seeing any of that in the demo, so did they just turn v-sync off in the review code?

And what in the hell exactly makes for a "generic" texture? A brick wall looking like brick? It seems like it'd make more sense to complain about a setting that calls for common texture work, if that's what they mean. As this is IGN, I'm not convinced that the term is being used properly in the first place. It's about on par with Duhglass Perry and his "multiple textures" comment.

On that topic though, I'm very tempted to resurrect my Haze forum account and bump up an old thread where the project lead links to a Haze and Crysis comparison. But I think there are enough fresh wounds and salt to go around without me adding to it.

[AdmiralViscen]

(Image removed from quote.)

[duckman2000]

That's a brilliant GIF. I'm sure even the beaten and bloodied FRD dudes can get a chuckle out of that.

[duckman2000]

By the way, can someone with NeoGAF posting abilities remind the backtracking little Judas here that before he tries to wash his hands on this and hide behind others in order to avoid the flames, he should probably change his fucking avatar?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=11261267&postcount=917

[Smooth Groove]

By the way, can someone with NeoGAF posting abilities remind the backtracking little Judas here that before he tries to wash his hands on this and hide behind others in order to avoid the flames, he should probably change his fucking avatar?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=11261267&postcount=917

What a weasel!  As if he isn't a fanboy that thinks every PS3 exclusive will be fuck awesome while every 360 exclusive will suck. 

The graphics in the demo didn't seem that terrible though,

It's really hard to look past the sub-HD resolution.  There's such a Hazy look to everything. 

[duckman2000]

I suppose (and yes, I see what you did there), but a few recent games that have received higher scores in graphic quality would probably have benefited from limited detail and visibility, so that doesn't hold up that well. Still, the graphics quality certainly doesn't seem to justify the drop in resolution, I agree with that.

[Smooth Groove]

Since playing almost everything at 1920x1200 with at least 4x anti-aliasing on my PC, I haven't really cared much about graphics on consoles. 

Everything on consoles just looks kinda low tech and murky. 

[duckman2000]

Since playing almost everything at 1920x1200 with at least 4x anti-aliasing on my PC, I haven't really cared much about graphics on consoles. 

Everything on consoles just looks kinda low tech and murky. 

I can agree with that. Recently, Uncharted stood out a bit as it felt like a game and visual presentation designed specifically to look good within the boundaries of the console in mind. Of course, the odd bits of screen tearing tainted that image a bit, but generally it felt just right for the system, and as such impressive in its own right. Haze looks like something you'd find on PC, only on low settings. Not the best approach.

[AdmiralViscen]

By the way, can someone with NeoGAF posting abilities remind the backtracking little Judas here that before he tries to wash his hands on this and hide behind others in order to avoid the flames, he should probably change his fucking avatar?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=11261267&postcount=917

Wow, what a cool young dude.

I'd love to hear him explain how he's either not a hypocrite or a total shill, but I lack an account.

[Tieno]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=11263743&postcount=944

yeah, no one thought it would be great....

You forgot to point out the avatar.

edit: ah Darunia did it! good job!

[abrader]

after playing the demo and reading the shyt on ign and gamespot - I have decided that im still going to pick this up tomorrow and see for myself.

I am weary - but I have enjoyed other 6.0 shooters such as Jericho and generally like to play something different.

I >hope< i like it.

[Pharmacy]

yeah im gonna be a hypocrite and not buy haze until i can find it used for a cheaper price

dunno what to buy when i trade gta4 in now

[abrader]

I am weary - but I have enjoyed other 6.0 shooters such as Jericho and generally like to play something different.

erm.... isn't the whole complaint that it's totally -not- different?

I hear ya - but when i read reviewers writing shyt like this...

It's fitting that Haze's gameplay would embrace such extremes, because its entire fiction is built around shallow absolutes. One faction embodies unlikeable and unredeeming lowbrow sensibilities without a hint of irony; the other embraces its ethical, sympathetic cause with angelically high morals. This is a shooter both easy to love and easy to hate, and you'll probably find yourself feeling both emotions within moments of each other.

I cant really take the bitches seriously and am convinced its just more writing from overweight early 20's cubicle brats.

Having said that - when the general opinion across the board is low, it doesnt look good.

[Darunia]

edit: ah Darunia did it! good job!

edited it too for emphasis

[Mondain]

I'm also persuaded that most voiceovers and the seemingly immature story parts are just a PARODY, as if it were Starship Troopers, but yet reviewers and most people take it seriously

[Mondain]

but yet reviewers and most people take it seriously

that might have something to do with the developers saying it was a mature take/view on war.

So yeah, i think it's just bad rather than parody

it's mostly parody intertwined with seriousness

[crimsondynamics]

Power of CELL
rendering fire effects like it was some Riva TNT bitch

You are being generous.

The first Nvidia graphics card was the NV1 which launched only 13 years ago.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

*snicker*

[close]

[Mupepe]

but yet reviewers and most people take it seriously

that might have something to do with the developers saying it was a mature take/view on war.

So yeah, i think it's just bad rather than parody

it's mostly parody intertwined with seriousness

It sounds like an easy cop out for "you thought it was terrible!?  that part was the parody!  trick's on you!  we're actually geniuses!"

[AdmiralViscen]

but yet reviewers and most people take it seriously

that might have something to do with the developers saying it was a mature take/view on war.

So yeah, i think it's just bad rather than parody

it's mostly parody intertwined with seriousness

Explain the gameplay now.

[dark1x]

Since playing almost everything at 1920x1200 with at least 4x anti-aliasing on my PC, I haven't really cared much about graphics on consoles. 

Everything on consoles just looks kinda low tech and murky. 

Resolution is overrated.

I much prefer using a high quality CRT monitor with a less demanding resolution (1280x720 in letterbox or 1280x960 are perfectly reasonable).  Resolution has a massive impact on performance in many cases.  Bumping Crysis up to 1920x1200, for instance, would completely destroy the performance of the game with the visual settings I'm using.  I'd always prefer to drop resolution before touching the details.

Of course, if you're stuck with an LCD, anything other than the native resolution is going to look like shit.  1280x720 on a CRT monitor looks much smoother than 1920x1200 on an LCD.  It's not as sharp, but it feels so much richer (plus you don't have blurring issues).

[duckman2000]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=11263743&postcount=944

yeah, no one thought it would be great....

Awesome work

[Brehvolution]

Oh gawd.... I can't stand the whole thing.... and it's not just for this game. The whole " haha, your game sucks!" *points fingers, snickers, epenis enlargement* stand is so juvenile..... so elementary school playground little girl cheer leading.

The whole division of gamers now days. It's like gaming is a religoun and software is the scripture. And like all religoun, differences in scripture is the difference between the believers and the infidels. So fucking sad.

[dark1x]

Oh gawd.... I can't stand the whole thing.... and it's not just for this game. The whole " haha, your game sucks!" *points fingers, snickers, epenis enlargement* stand is so juvenile..... so elementary school playground little girl cheer leading.

The whole division of gamers now days. It's like gaming is a religoun and software is the scripture. And like all religoun, differences in scripture is the difference between the believers and the infidels. So fucking sad.

I kind of agree with that.  It's one thing to discuss while you dislike something, but it's another to basically dance and sing on the grave of something that didn't turn out well.  I feel bad for the guys that worked on this game.  People seem genuinely happy that the game is of poor quality.

Haze is not hugely hyped by most people.  There are some people who were optimistic about the game, no doubt, but it's not as if most people were expecting this to become the next Halo.  Games such as Blacksite, TimeShift, Jericho, and the like did not receive anywhere NEAR this much negative attention.  I suppose its marketing campaign was bound to draw more attention, but it's out of control.

[hyp]

Resolution is overrated.

lowering your standards these days? 

[hyp]

Borys

[dark1x]

Games such as Blacksite, TimeShift, Jericho, and the like did not receive anywhere NEAR this much negative attention. 

hooooold on there, none of those games are made by anyone of the standing as Free Radical.

I have no idea why everyone feels they have to back track on this one so heavily. I'm somewhat sick of seeing people say "well, no one expected this to be good anyways" - yup... no one expected the makers of Timesplitters to make a good FPS....

Blacksite involved Harvey Smith and quite a few people from Ion Storm.  They worked on Deus Ex and Invisible War.  IW was incredibly disappointing as a sequel, but it was still a solid game while DX is one of my favorites.  If anything, their pedigree was much more significant to me than that of Free Radical.

I mean, I never enjoyed the TimeSplitters games and I detest Goldeneye.  No reason to be excited by it.  Blacksite wasn't actually all that bad in the end either (at least on the PC).  It had some positive aspects to it, but felt buggy and unfinished.  

lowering your standards these days?  

If your gaming display is an LCD it is YOU that is lowering your standards.  My standards have not budged.  I've never been a resolution whore and always feel that lowering resolution should be done before anything else.  This has nothing to do with Haze, really, but rather the comment that 1920x1200 is "the only way to play".

No matter what game you can enjoy on those two clown PCs you can enjoy the same game at much higher resoultion (at least 4x more), framerate and GFX quality on a PC provided the game gets ported.

How can you underrate that?

...because it doesn't make a huge difference?  A high quality CRT displaying 1280x720 will produce an image superior to an LCD displaying 1920x1080.  When driving a PC game at 720p, it becomes easy for nearly every game to run at 60 fps without ANY slowdown.  Even Crysis can run smoothly with maximum detail.  

I'd imagine that, in most cases, people gaming at 1920x1200 with 4x AA are not seeing a flawless 60 fps.  You know, the type of framerate that NEVER budges.  I can run games at high resolutions and still achieve playable framerates that generally reach 60, but the additional slowdown that occurs simply isn't worth it.

Again, my argument has nothing to do with the PS3.  If a PC version of a game is available, I'm generally going to select it.  I much prefer playing on the PC.  I'm simply getting a laugh out of people who believe they have "high standards" and then turn around and use an LCD.  What a joke.

[MrAngryFace]

Man the SDF Recon Squad is in full force this morning

[dark1x]

Man the SDF Recon Squad is in full force this morning

Consider me the NSDTDF (non shitty display technology defense force)...

LCD buyers are ruining the market for display enthusiasts.

[MrAngryFace]

Between you and Duckman2000 all I see is sony fandom!

[dark1x]

Between you and Duckman2000 all I see is sony fandom!

Oh?  Where am I defending Sony in this thread?

Someone commented on PC gaming at 1920x1200 at 4x AA and I responded to it.  Nothing to do with Haze.

Secondly, I did comment on the fact that I feel somewhat bad for the amount of shit Free Radical is getting.

I have no intention of purchasing Haze and am not defending it nor its use of ultra low resolutions.  You need to read the thread before making assumptions.  My resolution discussion is unrelated to Haze.

[Pharmacy]

[dark1x]

I was talking about console ports, not Crysis. You yourself should know (and You KNOW it) that most of the console ports behave REALLY amazing on high-end PCs and playing them @ 1080p, 60fps is NOT OUT OF QUESTION.

In general, this is reasonably true, but I've found that 1080p does introduce slowdown on my rig.  For instance, Lost Planet and DiRT both hold 60 fps at all times in 720p mode (with 4x AA) while 1080p results in slowdown at various points.  They'll both still generally hit 60 fps, but it becomes a slightly unstable 60 fps.  Of course, since I use a CRT, such a high resolutions become worthless anyways.  720p looks incredible.  Seriously.

Also, a lot of console ports do not properly support AA (UE3 games, mainly).

Also please reply to my post about Haze.

Oh, I see.  Yes, I believe Haze deserves some shit for failing to deliver.  I'm simply disturbed by just how vicious people are towards the game.  I feel bad for the guys that spent years working on it even if they didn't exactly deliver a great game.  Their punishment for failure will be poor sales anyways.

[crimsondynamics]

If there's one thing I hate about flatscreen HDTVs is the native resolution bs. CRTs never had to suffer poor iq due to non-native resolutions. In that sense, I'd agree I'd also prefer to drop my resolution instead of features and quality. (I hope the oft-rumored laser tv will eliminate this native resolution bs.)

Having said that, my CRT died on me a few months back, and they don't even sell the suckers around where I live anymore, so that puts me square in the LCD camp. And you know what? Playing anything on non-native resolution simply sucks when you're less than three feet away from the screen; it's either blur-o-rama or jaggy city. I guess sometimes you are forced to lower your expectations. I looked literally all day for a decent CRT but no dice. LCDs? Everywhere. Take your pick.

1920x1080 isn't the only way to play it; it's the stupid mantra the PS3 PR mouthpieces tried to convince us with. Of course, with a console that can't push those resolutions in actual gameplay I'm not sure what the hell they were blathering about anyway.

And while on a PC there are some games where you will get hiccups here and there on 1920x1080, plus the odd game (Crysis) that won't run decently at those resolutions unless you lower the iq, the fact remains that this generation's consoles (and especially the PS3 for talking the talk but unable to walk the walk) hardly can get by without hiccups at much lower resolutions.

Seriously, the PS3 has been a major letdown, ever since Sony started saying "1000x more powerful than your PC" and the only way to game is "beyond HD" - and completely failed to live up to the hype they themselves generated. Bollocks. It can hardly handle 720p. At this rate, if Crysis were ever released for the PS3 at High quality iq levels, it'd have to run at the Wii's 480p to achieve 30fps.

But it's a great Blu-ray player and an excellent DVD scaler, I'll give it that.

[hyp]

personally, i can't stand LCDs either -- especially when playing something as shitty looking as the wii.  i've since bought a 50" 1080p plasma and i don't think i can go back.  for a while i've wanted to buy a 16:9 Flat CRT HDTV just for gaming (and to improve the IQ of the wii) but it seems like even those are becoming extinct.  the drawback of those is the weight and size.  even the 32" version is over 100lbs if i recall. 

[Smooth Groove]

There isn't even a console today that can play COD4 at the lowest HD resolution.  lol

[dark1x]

Anyway dark1x to furhter prove my point about ABSOLUTE PC superiority when it comes to playing multiplatform games (for a HEFTY price, though):

Those benchmarks just don't work, however.  They list average numbers.  When I benchmark at high resolutions I also get similar numbers.  It's about slowdown.

Lower resolutions generally mean that you will be able to achieve 60 fps without EVER encountering ANY slowdown.  At 1080p, slowdown begins to creep in.  Some ports can't even manage that (Assassin's Creed).  AC is the type of port that I can't enjoy as holding 60 fps seems difficult, yet it constantly jumps around.  If they provided a 30 fps lock, that would help.

What's up with those COD4 numbers?  I mean, there is no reason why a 9800 in SLI should EVER drop below 60 fps, but there it is.  That type of slowdown IS bothersome.  On my 8800GT I can achieve a 100% flawless 60 fps in 1360x768, but at 1080p, slowdown begins to occur regularly enough.

UE3 ports are also less impressive than they should be.  For instance, Bioshock mostly runs at 60 fps, but for some reason, there are times when the framerate drops.  It's distracting and strange.  Then you have Gears of War which has awful stuttering while moving through certain areas (even with 4gb ram + ultra fast HDD).  It's a bug in the game, not the PC.  Other games such as Blacksite have slowdown while Turok adds loading screens (console versions were streamed).  Stranglehold is jaggy as hell and won't use AA at all (no DX10 option available).  So, yeah, UE3 PC ports have been generally disappointing.

[Pharmacy]

holy lord thats amazing borys, i wanna get back into pc gaming big time

out of curiousity, what sort of exclusives does pc have that stand up consoles? i know multiplat titles are superior, m&k is a huge plus oh and STALKER but what else????

oh and no pay to play games, mmo's etc