Last week, a personally anticipated game had a demo appear on Xbox Live. The game was Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, and the demo, unfortunately, was a disappointment, going some way toward dampening my interest in the title.
Among the issues were awful sensitivity problems, a complete lack of AI and a look and feel that just screamed "PlayStation 2 launch title." Spark Unlimited is well aware that most people felt let down by the demo experience and has written a blog post assuring that the critical reaction was taken on board and that the issues have since been addressed:
Optimized targeting and movement: Optional control settings have been refined to alleviate sluggishness in the slowest setting and the 'on ice' feeling at the faster settings. Also, a user-defined soft lock has been added which means that controls can be set so once an enemy is hit with a bullet the crosshair will ‘stick’ to the target.
Refined AI behavior: The dynamic intelligence and pathfinding for enemies has also been enhanced. The 'hot point' based system should add to Turning Point’s replay experience.
Ammo levels and grappling optimized: Up until final submissions, the team has been listening to playtest feedback and doing everything possible to create a ‘civilian at war’ feeling. The end result is an experience more visceral than the demo, relying less on repeated ammo refills, and more on the grappling and the hand-to-hand combat.
Final Mip-mapping and texture levels: The art team has also been able to further optimize lighting, textures, and effects throughout the title.
I really hope that Turning Point will eventually be a good game, because the actual premise is rock solid and the potential is there for an amazing experience. Sadly, if there wasn't any great amount of user interest before, the shoddy demo is going to have killed any amount of hype this may have received. It's going to take a lot to get gamers to invest faith in this one, but I really hope Spark pulls it off.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
11:12 AM on 01.29.2008
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Actually, I'm bored of FPS for now. Just make it a racing game or Phoenix Wright.
The posting says that the demo code was finalized "several months" ago so it's entirely possible they've addressed a lot of the issues.
I'll probably still give the game a rent because I didn't think the demo was THAT bad but most people are just going to completely write the game off now. I'm aware that most demos are builds from like 6 months to a year ago and aren't indicative of the state of the game right now.
But that begs the question, why create a demo for a trade show, go back to work on the game for 6 months (the period where most polishing is done on a game) and then release that old demo which demonstrates none of that work, right before the game's release?
When a game is only a month away, the consumer is going to assume that it is pretty much the final product. In that case they should have just released the demo 6 months ago. Either make a new demo that shows the new work you've done or don't do a demo at all.
THEY CAN'T FUCK THIS UP! I want this game to be good.
SEGA
I'll still give it a shot.
Not just the demos...but the actual games as well
Oh, and anybody notice the part in the demo where the Nazis figured out how to melt steel with fire, and used it to make a building collapse?
I can't remember the last good Sega game that was released. The games they release feel like demos and the demos...I have no idea what those are.
side note: did anybody notice the glitch when you walk into the room after putting out the fire? You shoot the guy on the ground from the door and he dies, then as you walk closer he instantly is standing up and goes through a death animation ending in the invisible bike position. killed myself, went back to the point, did the exact same thing.
What they were saying is that the complaints people had about the demo had already been fixed in newer builds before the demo was even released.
From what they said on their blog, I would say the demo that everyone played is at least 3 months old.
long story short seems like a bargin bin pick up to me when we hit the dry gaming spell
It tells you how to interpret the demo.
unfortunately, as the old saying goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression and that demo was it. I still may grab it depending on how the reviews pan out.
Unless someone forgot to turn off the Suck variable before compiling the code for the demo, the game's gonna be pretty bad. Remember guys:
int suck = 0;
int fun = 1;
Never forget those two lines in your code.