We present to you the most prestigious game prize of Runet and calculate the failures of 2013.

In all cultural spheres there are anti-aircraft, but for some reason there is no gaming industry. We correct the situation and present you the most prestigious game award – "Arrow in the Knee"! In 2013, many deserved it, but we tried to single out the largest from a large flow of failures. We sympathize with the winners and we really hope that they will not receive more from us to “arrow on the knee”.

Aliens: Colonial Marines Many waited for a very long time. Gearbox Software was once noted not too successful resuscitation Duke Nukem Forever , So no one prophesied success. Nevertheless, Randy Pichford said a lot of loud words, and trailers inspired optimism.

The game was originally aimed primarily at the connoisseurs of the famous universe of “strangers” – this was followed by both the words of Pichford and from the diaries of the developers who promised “everything like in the movie”. The worst thing, perhaps, is that the filmmakers recognized the Colonial Marines canonical: that is, yes, the events of the game, as it were, officially happened between the second and third parts of the film.

And well, the game would be simply poor -quality (and everything is poorly done in it), but they mocked the feelings of fans over the feelings of https://playojo-gb-casino.co.uk/ the feelings! As a result of an idiotic embarrassment, the Hicks Corporal suddenly came to life, new ones were added to the usual species of xenomorphs, which are contrary to all logic, and the places of combat glory Ellen Ripley left simply empty decorations. Following a story addition, which only added a situation of bitter comicism.

Someone Aliens: Colonial Marines even liked it, but certainly not to the one who was designed for-not fans of "strangers". A few months later, the developers corrected part of the shortcomings: AI from the stupid turned into simply stupid, and outwardly the game began to correspond to what was shown in trailers, but it did not become much better. Patches weighed more than ten gigabytes and reached only on a PC, and on the consoles everything remained as it was.

And everything would be fine, but the insult of fans cannot be washed away by any patches, alas.

Relic's seasoned strategic craftsmen took up a suspiciously good matter-to show the second world from the point of view of the Soviet people-winning. Too good to be true. The most unbiased researcher still stumbles upon a quagmire of misinformation and lies about those years, and Canadians would hardly be able to rise above overseas stereotypes.

So it happened. Company of Heroes 2 – This is an excellent, dynamic RTS with impressive graphics, but with … a very ambiguous plot.

With a completely serious face, Relic scriptwriters relish all the wildest stories about the Soviet army. Assault on machine gun points with unarmed soldiers – there is. Destruction of civilians during the retreat -. Throwing their Nazis is not a question. Shoot the allied Poles in the back – but how. Naturally, a kaleidoscope of horrors of war: Chekists with a directive to shoot retreating, execution for the timely initiative and t.p. What is not here is genuine heroism, exploits and selflessness. The only case when the valor and courage was shown was ended with the fact that the NKVD officer shot at the hero.

The result was, as they say on the network, "a little predictable". Popular “reviewers” ​​inflated a wave of indignation into the largest scandal associated with games in Russia, and angry players – many of them did not even play the object of hatred – rushed to sign petitions about the ban on sales in Russia. The publisher lost the requirements, but it was too late: the fuss in the burrows attracted the attention of the government, which immediately gathered to introduce control over the content of foreign fun and organize the production of domestic, correct, products.

For the overwhelming provocation – the silver "arrow in the knee".

The main secret of a good marketer is the ability to masterfully hide the flaws of the product. It is a pity when the reception silently approved by society degrades to banal deception.

The launch of the new Simcity not just a flurry caused – no! – A whole typhoon of negative reviews from lovers to build cities. The initial occasion for the rebellion was known long before the release: the link to the online. That is, no matter how much you want to build a megalopolis of your dreams in proud loneliness, you will still be connected to the server and driven into the area where other mayor are erected by settlements. According to EA, the game engine simply does not allow you to play without the Internet – they say, the data is stored on the server, transport movements and so on are also processed there.

It was a careless lie. A few days after the release of the game, unknown Kulibin using a soldering iron, islands and such a grandmother “unlearned” his copy of Simcity to connect to the server-and nothing broke down. In addition to saving. That is, the only offline version limiter is the preservation, not the vital details of the code. As a result, Maxis promised to save players from online slavery. In theory, you can close your eyes on it – with the Internet in a civilized world, everything seems to be fine ..

But you can not forgive the catastrophe with the servers that happened on the day of the Simcity launch. The most unsuccessful could not get into the game for several days, and those who hit were faced with constant kickbacks, non -working functions, and communication problems between cities. Only the launch of Diablo III fell out more. But even a cataclysm with servers did not put an end to these vicissitudes.

In the end, exhausted buyers fell into the long -awaited game. Hooray? Almost. Simcity turned out to be very, very notable, although it was clamped in the close framework of territorial restriction. Well, okay, then we will rejoice at the Glassbox system, which forces every human person to live and work like a real layman!

But Shish. There is no simulation of life here. Curious players have experimentally proved that the townspeople at the wheel rush to the whole crowd to the nearest free dwelling, and if the beds are over there, then the next one, and so on. Similarly with work. That is, the conditional Mr. Jones is settled every morning for a new job and returns to the new house every evening.

Having discovered this sad fact, we tried to put up with him. Nonsense, hamsters and there are hamsters. But the game itself did not reconcile, because the hamsters did not know another road to the goal, except for the shortest. In the young city, this is not very noticeable, but the chic millionaire begins to die from endless traffic jams in unexpected places, when multi -lane bypass roads are empty nearby. Ten police outfits could have been chasing one thief for hours, standing with him in a traffic jam. Together.

Dota 2 This year was noted not only by the most important tournament of International, but also with a loud scandal around the celebration of Halloween. Or rather, around the absence of such. The Diretide game holiday, which was planned as an annual event, did not take place, and all the attempts of players to find out what, when, when and why, came across a corporate response Valve – Silence and mysterious smiles.

It usually worked, but this time the community for some reason did not come to the idea of ​​“they are silent-it means they know what they are doing” and continued to demand explanations. A harmless call “Give Diretide” (give DIRETIDE), accompanied by a funny emoticon, rolled out of the forums and literally overwhelmed the Internet. Enraged players unproved to demand a holiday from Valve, from Volvo, from Barack Obama and from Prime Minister Malaysia. The user rating "Dota" on Metacritic is still hanging out in the region of six points – rose from the three, to which it was pulled from nine. The universal hysteria did not last long, but it was very difficult not to hear it.

The presence of an aggressive crowd of fans indirectly confirmed that Dota became a real sport. Only the honor of this behavior did not do its participants anyway. Especially in the part where the obscenity letters of the community managers and threats to break all the bones forum figures went.

But it did not decorate Valve even more. To smooth out indignation, they did not do it. Although the problem was not even in the abolition of Diretide-people simply enjoyed the complete lack of visible contact with the developers. And the simplest “Guys, sorry, there would be no holiday” could have enough for folk rage to be limited to angry spitting under the feet in the comments on the news.

However, everything ended well. The players have talked and calmed down, Valve opened the veil of radio abbess, and “Volvo”, they say, made a good advertisement, politely responding to the demands of fans. World. Friendship. And a wooden arrow in the knee of Valve community managers-and the Komiunity Provocators of Dota, which is already there.

Journalist Marcus Beer can rightfully claim the title of “bastard of the year”-because of his unpleasant statements addressed to Phil Fish, the creator Fez, The development of the second part of the game was stopped forever. Phil Fish as a true Creator turned out to be a very vulnerable person and could not stand the constant ridicule and submarines addressed to him. Fortunately, Fish did not take his life with life because of someone else's slander-no, he just left the industry, slamming the door loudly.

And the occasion for the submarines from the side of the bir, if you figure it out, was funny-Fish and the comrades (Jonathan Blow, author Braid, also reacted to his lunges to his address much more calmly) did not criticize the new Microsoft policy regarding indie -developers. Bir expected from Fish an “adequate reaction to an important event for the industry” – it is true that he meant by this, still a mystery. It was necessary to arrange a rally in front of Microsoft's office? Solemnly burn your disk with licensed windows? Collect a thousand signatures in another online petition? Refuse to develop on consoles in general and make a game for opensor systems, on which there are three and a half cripples sitting? The people are silent.

Neither the intercession of Cliff Blazhinsky, nor the support of ordinary players could make up Phil Fisha. Truly, evil languages ​​are worse than a pistol-not everyone will decide to abandon the work of his whole life because of caustic, but inexperienced remarks. We wish you good luck in his new undertakings outside the gaming industry – with such a subtle mental organization, it will really come in handy, because who knows what other bira marms will meet him along the way.

Not so long ago, the editorial office asked a very emotional question: “What the hell did Beyond: Two Souls Such low grades?!"

Everything is quite simple. Over the past year, if not more, David Cage visited many stands and said about the same thing everywhere: “I will make a work of art at once for all ages, and you continue to make toys for children”. These words sounded insulting. Meanwhile, expectations grew exponentially. The final result simply did not correspond to them, and if Cage behaved like, say, Jenov Chen before starting Journey (quieter than water, lower than grass), everything would be much calmer.

Yes, David Cage is a good director. He perfectly puts the scenes, knows how to pull the desired string, knows how to turn on epic music when necessary. But he is not a writer.

Here is a simple example – Stephen King and one of his last books "11/22/63". The story of how a person moves to America of the sixties to kill Kennedy killer and prevent the Vietnamese war. Yes, this is fiction. Yes, there are full of “cranberries” (strange Russian words and vague ideas about Russia), but King describes America of those years so that you believe him. As if he himself visited the wonderful era where the beer was tasty and milk was natural. King knows what kind of soda they drank then, in what language different segments of the population communicated, how specific cities of that time looked, on what cars they drove and loved to dance at school parties. Finally, King knows who is Oswald (the alleged killer of Kennedy), knows where he lived and what he did, what he looked like, with whom he talked and what he could think about. The writer talked with the elderly agents of the special services, revised the sea of ​​documentary films, went around all the places of action and re -read a ton of books. Stephen King studied the material, and did not sit on his chair evenly, biting a pencil.

Alas, with all its advantages, Beond: Two Souls did not live up to expectations. Instead of a large work “For all”, a series of plot sketches turned out, devoid of depths, an interesting plot and – almost – gameplay. But the worst thing is that Cage obviously drew inspiration in popular films of the past and nowhere else. And the writer who writes about what does not know is … Oxymoron.

Everyone is beautiful Kickstarter service. What kind of people he did not have time to accept in his kind arms, what ideas only did not surge on his pages. Here is Chris Taylor with his studio Gas Powered Games this year did not fail to look at the light. And the creators did not come empty -handed Dungeon Siege And Supreme Commander , And with the new concept of an “evolutionary role -player with RTS elements” – Wildman. And for the seed, they asked users of the resource for $ 1,100,000. But either the concept of the game did not play, or the Christmas season influenced … and there were enough competitors on the same site. In a word, in the end, the funds dripped into the studio wallet not as actively as Taylor hoped. The campaign had to turn off.

First, the head of the studio hoped to restart her with new forces and ideas, but after a couple of days it became known about large -scale dismissals at Gas Powered Games. As it turned out, Wildman was the last rescue circle of the studio. Natural tragedy began with subsequent hysteria and absorption. The very next day after the completion of the fundraising campaign, Taylor spoke at the Casual Connect Europe conference and told what he was thinking about the future of the service: “Kickstarter begins to get rid of himself. Now it's just a game game. This is a very hard market that looks like a lottery. Only one who works seven days a week for twelve hours, and is ready to boast of many years of experience in the industry can achieve success. Imagine that you arrived in Hollywood and said that you want to make a movie. Keep in mind that James Cameron himself will be your competitor ".

One thing is incomprehensible: if the studio was on the verge of collapse even before the ambitious Wildman, why blame the service, passing in passing through their own fans, due to the expectations that were not met?

After some time, a few remaining composition of the developers migrated under the wing Wargaming.Net. And I want to believe that there is Chris Taylor, work is waiting for work to liking.

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Of course, the anti -aircraft “arrow in the knee” is essentially not serious, but in every joke there is a share of truth. We are in "Gambling.ru "we love the game with all our souls and believe in the industry. And we understand that without breaking eggs, you can’t cook an omelet. It remains only to quote the folk wisdom “Smart Learns on other people's mistakes” and hope that these turmoil will become a useful lesson.