Turns out nobody remembers Calling All Cars after all

[Howard Alan Treesong]

http://kotaku.com/5448262/rip-calling-all-cars-online-2007+2010

"I'd say she had a good run online, but she really didn't," Jaffe laments on his personal blog. "With the exception of the first few hours when the game hit PSN, there were never more than 3-5 people playing at a time. Until tonite, that is, when a handful of loyal CAC supporters came out to say their goodbyes."

...

"The biggest one being a lack of stickiness," he writes. "Even playing tonite after 3 very, very fun matches full of shouting and overtimes and comebacks, I was done. I didn't want to play anymore." He also lays blame on the game's mechanics (lack of defense, lack of team-based play), the abandoned "XXX rated vibe" and the $10 asking price for a $500-600 console.

JAFFE'D

[demi]

Told ya so. Evilbore #1

[MCD]

no one remember david jaffe

[The Fake Shemp]

who the fuck is david jaffe

[Howard Alan Treesong]

We should put Evilbore on PSN, we have higher concurrency than Calling All Cars.

[The Fake Shemp]

"I guess we just didn't know what the hell kind of game was expected of us, truth be told," Jaffe writes.

A good one?

[The Fake Shemp]

In typical Jaffe fashion, I can't wait for someone to take the idea and make a far superior sequel without his involvement.

[demi]

Updated front page with this important news

[dark1x]

People are really hard on this game, but it's not bad at all.  A fun little game with solid 1080p/60 fps visuals.  What's to hate?

[Raban]

I almost forgot about this phrase completely. I always smiled when I came to EB and say "Does anybody even remember Calling All Cars?"

Yeah the game was pretty mediocre.

[Saint Cornelius]

I always wanted to play it. What, is it going offline?

edit: okay, I read the fucking link. Is bandwidth / server space at such a premium that games can't be left online for more than three years?

[The Fake Shemp]

People are really hard on this game, but it's not bad at all.  A fun little game with solid 1080p/60 fps visuals.  What's to hate?

sry jaffe u cant fool us

[The Fake Shemp]

 

[Howard Alan Treesong]

not allowed in the building, stay home Jaffe, seriously leave us alone so we can do some work, it's not us it's you

[ananus]

lair
warhawk
resistance
motorstorm
heavenly sword
uncharted
white knight chronicles
calling all cars

year of the ps3

[Howard Alan Treesong]

the best "working remotely" industry stories are those involving Brad McQuaid. BOY HOWDY

spoiler (click to show/hide)

"I know we told you to 'take a powder,' Brad, but this?!"

[close]

[Bebpo]

honestly CaC is a good game.  I can hate Jaffe but I can't hate CaC.  If you're playing with 3 other friends it's a good little party game.

[The Fake Shemp]

That's the EverQuest guy, right?

[Bebpo]

lair
motorstorm
heavenly sword
white knight chronicles

year of the ps3

fixed

The rest were good games and it's not as if X360 and Wii haven't had their 1st party stinkers.  PDZ anyone?  Too Human?

[Howard Alan Treesong]

That's the EverQuest guy, right?

yes, also Vanguard

he has a great post-mortem on his personal blog about how everyone else messed up Vanguard

[The Fake Shemp]

Yeah, I remember all the stories about Vanguard. That guy is mental.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Vanguard is still being played! Brad redeemed.

Ironically enough, by 3-5 people at a time.

[duckman2000]

Might help if they released demos. $10 obviously isn't a whole lot of money, but a demo would have helped.

[The Fake Shemp]

I'm reading the post-mortem and the comments are hysterical. The second comment on the second part is:

Are you going to address your rampant drug abuse or are you strictly the victim here?

[dark1x]

fixed
The rest were good games and it's not as if X360 and Wii haven't had their 1st party stinkers.  PDZ anyone?  Too Human?

They definitely came a long way from the original XBOX days.

Remember Azurik, Kakuto Chojin, Nightcaster, Sneakers, Blood Wake, Brute Force, Grabbed by the Goulies, Blinx, and Sudeki?  Aside from PDZ, Too Human, and N3 I can't really think of many BAD first party 360 games.  Impressive!

[The Fake Shemp]

I remember the hype behind and the inevitable backlash for Brute Force. Good times.

[duckman2000]

Brute Force was truly a victim of hype, though. It wasn't great or anything, but it had an awesome campy feel to it that I think would have been a lot more appreciated if people weren't talking it up like some kind of successor to the Halo throne. There was a scene where you had to murder down goblinmutants rushing you through the undergrowth, and that was gaming gold.

And the 360 still doesn't have a racer like Rallisport. Understandable since DICE was bought out and the games never really sold anyway, but it's sad that MS has published four tarmac racers, and no off-road stuff. Hell, I'd even take a Quantum Redshift over another Forza. 

[dark1x]

I remember the hype behind and the inevitable backlash for Brute Force. Good times.

I really hated that game.  The minor connection to Bungie (they apparently had something to do with tweaking the controls) had the hype train going full steam.

I popped that sucker in just a couple of months ago for kicks and it's definitely terrible.  The level design could not possibly have been worse and is what I believe killed it.   Those character designs are pretty terrible as well.  Not even slightly appealing.

[duckman2000]

I popped that sucker in just a couple of months ago for kicks and it's definitely terrible.  The level design could not possibly have been worse and is what I believe killed it.   Those character designs are pretty terrible as well.  Not even slightly appealing.

Nah, it's campy fun. Once the camp factor hits you, the character designs become awesome.

But, I might not feel as generous if I was playing it now.

[cool breeze]

fixed
The rest were good games and it's not as if X360 and Wii haven't had their 1st party stinkers.  PDZ anyone?  Too Human?

They definitely came a long way from the original XBOX days.

Remember Azurik, Kakuto Chojin, Nightcaster, Sneakers, Blood Wake, Brute Force, Grabbed by the Goulies, Blinx, and Sudeki?  Aside from PDZ, Too Human, and N3 I can't really think of many BAD first party 360 games.  Impressive!

I had a friend who bought Blood Wake to look at the water lol

Brute Force was pretty bad.  I only tried the co-op play of it as the lizard guy and it was a snore.  For some reason my friend was convinced Bungie made Brute Force.

[demi]

Is this old Xbox talk? Time to break out ol' Modded

[cool breeze]

If it is, I want Otogi 3 on 360

[The Fake Shemp]

I'd just like to say that Patel makes the best gaming threads.

[duckman2000]

Quantum Redshift really taught me to hate Hilary Goldstein. Motherfucker docked it for being too challenging, and then some interview comes out in which the developer, now disbanded, talks about the plans for the sequel and how sales but also poor critical reception was to blame for the lack of said sequel. I want to punch Hilary right in the teeth for that one.

[Stoney Mason]

Critical recption in and of itself never stops a game from being made. Sales do.


See Kane and Lynch 2 or Army of Two 40th Day.

[The Fake Shemp]

Or anything David Jaffe will never get to make now

[duckman2000]

Heartland actually looked cool, and that cancellation was apparently not even his fault. I haven't heard anything good about the dude though, mostly stuff about him acting like royalty while visiting Incog.

[Stoney Mason]

The one that sort of strikes me is the hype train for Fat Princess. That was insane.

Now no one ever mentions that game. It feels like it was released 3 years ago instead of in July of last year.

[cool breeze]

That's what happens when the concept sounds incredible, but the final product is a bore.  When it was 2D Zelda meets Team Fortress 2, I was excited.  When I tried the beta and got bored within minutes, I lost all interest.  It's a bit like Scribblenauts, except not nearly as bad.

[Raban]

That's what happens when the concept sounds incredible, but the final product is a bore.  When it was 2D Zelda meets Team Fortress 2, I was excited.  When I tried the beta and got bored within minutes, I lost all interest.  It's a bit like Scribblenauts, except not nearly as bad.

My God, Scribblenauts. I had already started to ignore GAF's hypetrain for good by then, but buying that game made me never believe anything the GAF hive-mind ever says anymore. I don't even VISIT that site anymore.

[Sho Nuff]

Perhaps you should add "and make sure your married All-Stars aren't openly banging one another in the office, creating a horrible atmosphere for your other employees".  And maybe add "and don't let your own drug habit become so bad you steal prescription pills from your own employees, again creating a horrible work-place environment".  I'm just saying.

Or do you learn to tolerate that sort of behavior because these people are so, ahem, talented?
Monday, July 13, 2009 - 08:20 AM

Some angry ex employees posting.

Kudos to him he didnt delete these messages.

Shit they are gone now. Do you have any more, those are great

Also, Who the F steals perscription pills? Oh boy, some Propecia, I'ma get high off that

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Perhaps you should add "and make sure your married All-Stars aren't openly banging one another in the office, creating a horrible atmosphere for your other employees".  And maybe add "and don't let your own drug habit become so bad you steal prescription pills from your own employees, again creating a horrible work-place environment".  I'm just saying.

Or do you learn to tolerate that sort of behavior because these people are so, ahem, talented?
Monday, July 13, 2009 - 08:20 AM

Some angry ex employees posting.

Kudos to him he didnt delete these messages.

Shit they are gone now. Do you have any more, those are great

They're still up:

http://www.bradmcquaid.com/Brad_McQuaid/Blog/Blog.html

I can neither confirm nor deny the comments from former employees are totally hilarious

[drew]

Shit they are gone now. Do you have any more, those are great

Also, Who the F steals perscription pills? Oh boy, some Propecia, I'ma get high off that

there are plenty of prescription pills that you can get a AAA high off of

[Sho Nuff]

Perhaps you should add "and make sure your married All-Stars aren't openly banging one another in the office, creating a horrible atmosphere for your other employees".  And maybe add "and don't let your own drug habit become so bad you steal prescription pills from your own employees, again creating a horrible work-place environment".  I'm just saying.

Or do you learn to tolerate that sort of behavior because these people are so, ahem, talented?
Monday, July 13, 2009 - 08:20 AM

Some angry ex employees posting.

Kudos to him he didnt delete these messages.

Shit they are gone now. Do you have any more, those are great

They're still up:

http://www.bradmcquaid.com/Brad_McQuaid/Blog/Blog.html

I can neither confirm nor deny the comments from former employees are totally hilarious

Oh oh oh McQuaid -- I thought it was Jaffe. Reading now

[Purple Filth]

That's what happens when the concept sounds incredible, but the final product is a bore.  When it was 2D Zelda meets Team Fortress 2, I was excited.  When I tried the beta and got bored within minutes, I lost all interest.  It's a bit like Scribblenauts, except not nearly as bad.

My God, Scribblenauts. I had already started to ignore GAF's hypetrain for good by then, but buying that game made me never believe anything the GAF hive-mind ever says anymore. I don't even VISIT that site anymore.

Agreed, that game was fucking garbage.

One of the few "GAF hype" that was epic shit (Resistance 2 was another).

[drew]

Agreed, that game was fucking garbage.

One of the many "GAF hype" that was epic shit (Resistance 2 was another).

fixed

[OptimoPeach]

Also, Who the F steals perscription pills? Oh boy, some Propecia, I'ma get high off that

What? Recreational use of pharms is probably more widespread than just about every illicit drug aside from weed.

edit: lol @ the front page update

[Purple Filth]

Agreed, that game was fucking garbage.

One of the many "GAF hype" that was epic shit (Resistance 2 was another).

fixed

while true there are a few that the hype was so overwhelming and the game was utter shit.

it was fucking embarassing, hence my first statement.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

GAF hype goes into overdrive whenever someone from the developer is a member there or if GAF is involved somehow.

See: Scribblenauts, a piece of shit game that got hyped to hell because developers (or was it publishers?  i don't know/care) were on GAF during its development.  Same goes for Book of Eli but that is OT.  Calling All Cars got hyped too much because Jaffe posts there and seems to rock their little nerd worlds ("Wow, Jaffe said he is going to fuck your mother!" )

[Raban]

In defence of the Scribblenauts hype, the idea did sound pretty fucking cool.  No one really thought past the idea much.

The game would've been mega-hyped with or without Jackson around.  There just would have been considerably less dick-sucking.

This is half of the reason I bought the game. The idea is brilliant, the execution is some of the worst ever

[Stoney Mason]

There is inherently nothing wrong with an individual getting "hyped" or excited for a potential game. (Although my excitement generally stems from the previous quality of work from a dev)

Where it goes wrong is when suddenly people go from being cautiously optimistic to OMG GOTY! FUCK YEAH! SPREAD FUD ABOUT COMPETING GAMES AND EVANGELIZE THIS ONE IN EVERY THREAD about said game.

[cool breeze]

In defence of the Scribblenauts hype, the idea did sound pretty fucking cool.  No one really thought past the idea much.

The game would've been mega-hyped with or without Jackson around.  There just would have been considerably less dick-sucking.

I remember saying the same stuff when it was shown at E3 and before, but I thought the idea would be good enough to carry whatever poor game they threw in to support it.  For all the items in the game, nothing felt unique; everything just felt like the same item with a pallet swap.  Honestly, I still might have enjoyed it a bit despite the mountain of problems if it wasn't for the controls.  I'm honestly baffled that, to my knowledge not a single person, including those who write about games for a living, questioned all the problems or controls when they played it at E3.

My other big reason for being skeptical is that the developer hasn't made a good game despite each games having a neat idea, like drawn to life or that tower defense one.

[Stoney Mason]

I'm honestly baffled that, to my knowledge not a single person, including those who write about games for a living, questioned all the problems or controls when they played it at E3.

They claim that the "vertical slice" they were shown was perfect and didn't have the issues. I've seen them start using that excuse for a lot of games now. 

I can't comment since I haven't played Scribblenauts so I don't know how bad the issues are.

[cool breeze]

I thought about that, but that would need to be one small ass slice to hide the problems.  It would have needed to be "write down something and watch it appear" only to hide the problems of the game (still wouldn't hide the janky and ugly look it had), and that wasn't the case because videos from E3 showed levels being played and them moving, which would be a red flag right away.  Or maybe the dev made a build that wasn't completely awful for E3, then downgraded it for the final release.

[Stoney Mason]

Gaming "journalism" is mostly awful but the most awful part of it, has always been "preview" coverage where they feel they can't critcize or mention any of the flaws they have seen because "they all have time to be fixed".

I understand that it is somewhat different to cover a game in the preview stage because often they are legit fucked at that stage but then the correct approach isn't to then only state the most positive coverage possible and offer nothing critical.

[cool breeze]

I remember the story about how previews of Uncharted 1 mentioned that the shooting mechanic was funky and took way too many shots to kill the average enemy.  Despite all the people who still said the same thing about the final game, it was allegedly much better than it once was.  Nice thing about video games is that you can have previews and input before the final product is shipped, either in the form of betas or press getting hands on.  Having said that, I don't know how much I'd listen to a game writer about how to design games.  Everything would be piss easy, have multiplayer, and be super cinematic.

[Stoney Mason]

Sometimes the writers want to say something but their editors cut them off at the pass.  I know it happened to me pretty often.

The larger problem is that nearly all gaming coverage is of the "breathless OMG" sort which is sort of written to excite the target demo and often the writers or editors are part of that target demo so they fall into the same trap. Perhaps that sort of thing is mandated by editors to remain on friendly terms with publishers or perhaps its a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Then on the other side you have the sort of Tom Chick types who are annoying and consciously trying to fill the void of let's be different to be different just to be a reaction against mainstream coverage which is also wrong.

Its hard to find just good gaming journalism that is fair and balanced and can be praiseworthy and critical because that is what actual gamers do. They know nothing is perfect and yet they still find great enjoyment in certain aspects and things. Giant Bomb isn't perfect and has plenty of flaws but they probably come the closest for me in currently filling that objective.

[Purple Filth]

Sometimes the writers want to say something but their editors cut them off at the pass.  I know it happened to me pretty often.

The larger problem is that nearly all gaming coverage is of the "breathless OMG" sort which is sort of written to excite the target demo and often the writers or editors are part of that target demo so they fall into the same trap. Perhaps that sort of thing is mandated by editors to remain on friendly terms with publishers or perhaps its a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Then on the other side you have the sort of Tom Chick types who are annoying and consciously trying to fill the void of let's be different to be different just to be a reaction against mainstream coverage which is also wrong.

Its hard to find just good gaming journalism that is fair and balanced and can be praiseworthy and critical because that is what actual gamers do. They know nothing is perfect and yet they still find great enjoyment in certain aspects and things. Giant Bomb isn't perfect and has plenty of flaws but they probably come the closest for me in currently filling that objective.

Agreed.

They are the only guys i could think of when i was reading your post although as you said they ain't perfect.

Gerstmann said that he thought video game websites had become too focused on the business side of games, and that game news had become "stale" in the process. "We want to get out there and talk about games, because we like games…and it seems like there's an audience out there, and they like games…and their needs aren't being met by what's out there right now."

Tom chick comes off as an annoying asshole who is trying so hard to be different from others (though its awesome for fanboy bait  ). Hes as bad as that other dude who does those crazy negative reviews but nowhere as funny.

[Stoney Mason]

Which is also the problem with GAF on the gaming side. The site has become about everything but actual game discussion. And when it is about the games, it's generally either solely in the possession of fanboys or people trolling the fanboys.

There is a place for blog news of the day type reporting but it pretty much has come to dominate gaming journalism when gaming journalism should ideally mostly be about actual game talk of the games themselves.

[Raban]

The only games reviews I pay attention to are Zero Punctuation and Action Button. ZP is more for comedy aspects, I read AB if I want 10 pages of awesome prose about the state of video games.