Top 10 Broken Promises in Games

Paging Derek Smart... Oh dear.

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Oh boy, Greg Burke is back with the Top 10 Broken Promises in the games industry. Buckle up, Shackers because this one is going to hit close to home. Please take a look and be sure to let us know what you think in the comments section.

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Shack Staff stories are a collective effort with multiple staff members contributing. Many of our lists often involve entires from several editors, and our weekly Shack Chat is something we all contribute to as a group. 

From The Chatty
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    September 16, 2016 4:20 PM

    Shack Staff posted a new article, Top 10 Broken Promises in Games

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      September 16, 2016 4:30 PM

      The DNF section is NWS.

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      September 16, 2016 4:31 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 16, 2016 4:34 PM

      Is No Man's Sky in this list?

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      September 16, 2016 4:35 PM

      Is Fallout 4 in this list?

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      September 16, 2016 4:35 PM

      Is SPORE in this list?

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      September 16, 2016 4:37 PM

      Is halo 2 on the list? it was supposed to be on earth, dammit

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        September 16, 2016 4:51 PM

        Negative. Halo, the 3rd person squad game for Macs powered by NVIDIA was also absent from the list.

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      September 16, 2016 5:00 PM

      [deleted]

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        September 16, 2016 5:02 PM

        [deleted]

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        September 16, 2016 5:09 PM

        talking about the style, not the release date.

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        September 16, 2016 5:17 PM

        The guy also says that DNF failed because of the overwhelming number of broken promises over the years without specifying a single one!

        At least in his derivative take on Daikatana he mentioned the ad, though I'm unsure why he suggested why "the game made a lot of promises and nearly broke all of them." Uh, no it didn't. It wasn't a good game, but it didn't ship without promised features.

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          September 16, 2016 6:48 PM

          [deleted]

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          September 16, 2016 7:57 PM

          i honestly didnt play the game past the first couple levels i think. i tried to look for an interview with some "promises" and found this video i remember seeing way back when: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy8YThhaAxg

          i didnt remember how cringe worthy the camera angles of romero and especially stevie case were lol

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          September 16, 2016 8:47 PM

          This seems to be getting more and more common as we get younger game journalists. They either don't confirm their facts when it comes to older stuff, or they are misinformed and ignorant. Neither of which end up looking very good to people who actually remember the facts.

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      September 16, 2016 5:01 PM

      Sixteen and a half minutes? Ain't nobody got time for that! Also, please repeat the name of the game very shortly after starting to talk about it. If I'm not paying 100% attention I don't know that I want to pay attention to a certain game you're talking about. Sometimes the name wasn't even mentioned at all.

      Interesting to see what people think about the video though, seems like there were some obvious things left out, like Spore.

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        September 16, 2016 5:22 PM

        The first 9 items are only 10 minutes long before it becomes a read of part of a Derek Smart article with some random Forbes blogger mixed in.

        Though it probably would have been a better list had it used the 16 minutes to focus on the first 9, as a few of them were practically just a title drop with no real elaboration.

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      September 16, 2016 5:15 PM

      The next top ten list you should be "Top 10 Spergiest Sperglord Topics."

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      September 16, 2016 5:16 PM

      NMS ahead of duke nukem, daikatana and colonial marines. That’s rough.

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      September 16, 2016 5:40 PM

      Love the clip from Clifford, good sir.

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      September 16, 2016 5:41 PM

      Lol as a Starcitizen backer I just have to say this video is the bullshit, they are making a $5mil game with over $120mil budget, 300 staff across studios around the world with A class actors and are trying to do things that were thought to be technically impossible. They are making not 1 but 2 games a single player and a multiplayer persistant universe. The single player is kept closly underwraps to not spoil the story and is much closer to release than the PU is. The gamescom demo blew everyone away showing off new tech and development speed for PU will increase once the single player is released. They have most of the staff that developed the original crytek engine working for them in Germany. Most backers are happy for them to take as much time as needed to make the best game possible. and development will continue long after the game is released. There are over 1.5 million backers and the game is one of the largest crowd funded things ever with no signs of slowing down. Go back to some of their first videos where you see them working out of a small cramped office, where they had no mo-cap or sound studio... they had nothing and have made the game into what it is today. An estimated release date for a game is not a firm promise and shouldn't be taken as such, there are lots of technical hurdles that they had to overcome such as physics inside and outside of ships, 64 bit precision allowing maps larger than 8km, planetary landing.. creating their own patching system... all while having to hire new staff buy new equipment and get them up to speed with the project. What you are playing now is alpha which is rarely released to the public in the games industry. If you don't like alpha's then come back when the beta is ready and the game is more polished with more features.

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        September 16, 2016 5:58 PM

        Derek Dumb supporter.......

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        September 16, 2016 6:09 PM

        There's a reason that alphas have historically not been sold to the public.

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        September 16, 2016 6:32 PM

        You realize that this video is about Broken Promises in games, right? They're two years late and they're no longer making the game that they originally promised to Kickstarter Backers.

        The fact that they've received so much money post Kickstarter is why this is worthy of the attention. It's mind-boggling that so much money is flooding into them while backers wait for the release.

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          September 16, 2016 6:34 PM

          Here is where someone links the video that shows the community voted to... keep going...

          The promises moved because people wanted it to.

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            September 16, 2016 6:36 PM

            I'm just baffled by it. Baffled!

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          September 17, 2016 9:24 AM

          Eh if delays are going to be counted the list of games is a mile long. TF2 was announced years before it actually saw release and they completely changed the style of the game.

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      September 16, 2016 5:57 PM

      What we are building here, is a giant kitty-litter box. The players will be grit covered turds or cakes of urine and sand. $60.

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      September 16, 2016 6:15 PM

      So, Greg, if the #1 choice is not you personal opinion, what is your #1?

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        September 16, 2016 9:03 PM

        Dragon Age 2, they promised an epic adventure. Instead i got to find rings people lost as a main quest line lol

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          September 16, 2016 11:57 PM

          Makes me think of Anachronox, as it was supposed to be about a PI being given a pity job, by the owner of the bar you live above, to find the lost key to the basement.

          But then it got all screwed up and somehow became a planet hopping epic relating to nothing less than the origins and fate of the universe itself.

          Oh well, at least you could still play cloned arcade games in your office.

          Also it gave us the term TACO: Totally Arbitrary Collectible Object which if nothing else should be a worthwhile legacy.

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          September 17, 2016 3:51 AM

          No doubt that DA2 was disappointing.

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          September 17, 2016 9:29 AM

          Should have gone with that honestly. It's better to have your own opinion in it and there are a lot of legitimate criticisms when it comes to how EA handled DA2. That game wreaked of rushed development. Mass Effect 3 is another good example of a broken promise in terms of how badly they botched the ending to that trilogy particularly considering your past decisions were ultimately rendered meaningless.

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      September 16, 2016 6:20 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 16, 2016 6:35 PM

      I thought of another broken promise game: Team Fortress 2!

      I still have the Game Pro that had the Gabe Newell interview where he claimed that it'd have commanders that'd direct the troops, tanks, and realistic graphics. Look at those polygons! https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/File:Tf2oldstlye.jpg

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      September 16, 2016 6:43 PM

      where's hellgate london?

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      September 16, 2016 7:55 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 16, 2016 8:15 PM

      You're missing Metal Gear Solid 2 and Resident Evil 2.

      Also, name devs should start pinky swearing with gamers.

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        September 16, 2016 8:35 PM

        What broken promises did those games have?

        If by RE2 you mean RE1.5, the early version of RE2 with Eliza Walker the bilker chick? I'm guessing you mean the stuff mentioned in that alpha, like clothes being able to change the amount of inventory, damage, etc, that you can take on?

        What about MGS2 was a broken promise? Having Solid Snake as the main (playable) character?

        Not trying to be an ass, just curious as to what you think was broken promises in those games.

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          September 16, 2016 8:42 PM

          I'm convinced that I'd MGS2 came out today, the backlash would be worse than No Man's Sky.

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            September 16, 2016 8:57 PM

            [deleted]

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            September 17, 2016 9:40 AM

            Maybe. Spoilers, but you dont even play as Big Boss in MGSV, despite what the game was presented as. Plus the story was a mangled unfinished mess. Just looking at those two things, MGSV is a worse game than MGS2, yet it pulled in multiple GOTY nods.

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          September 16, 2016 9:00 PM

          [deleted]

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      September 16, 2016 9:22 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 16, 2016 9:41 PM

      [deleted]

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        September 17, 2016 9:42 AM

        Yeah its biggest failing definitely centered around poor level design also it was a buggy mess at launch.

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      September 16, 2016 10:00 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 16, 2016 10:19 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 16, 2016 11:49 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 17, 2016 1:21 AM

      I guess this was a huge success? At 2250+ views the video has 5-10 times as many views as most Shacknews Top 10 lists and nearly 20 times as many views as the average video in the channel. Plus there's something like 10-15 times as many comments on Youtube page, and while it would take more work to guesstimate for shack threads, it's clearly more than usual here as well. Talk about an improvement in engagement.

      In just 9 hours, excluding explosive outliers like the We Happy Few thing and Job Simulator, this is already one of the most viewed and commented upon videos in the entire Shacknews Youtube library.

      Good, bad, who cares? As we've learned many times, any attention is good attention for long term brand recognition.

      I guess congratulations to y'all, Greg "Did it for Shacknews!"

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        September 17, 2016 1:24 AM

        Yeah, that's the disappointing thing. Controversy sells and it's why all news sites are pretty much shit these days.

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          September 17, 2016 1:53 AM

          Also, I don't have any stake in Star Citizen and really don't care if it fails or succeeds at this point. But I know enough about it to know that if you cite Derek Smart as your source for SC being fucked up then you're going to bring out the wolves. If that was the intention, well... ok... I guess. It worked. Not sure that's the kind of reputation you really want to be going for, though.

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        September 17, 2016 1:45 AM

        [deleted]

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        September 17, 2016 1:47 AM

        Thanks

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        September 17, 2016 5:02 AM

        Burke asked us for a list in a thread about a week ago, and even in that week we had a huge argument about how SC really can't be judged until it either gets released or cancelled on broken promises outside of the missed release dates.

        And then he goes and uses the weakest evidence possible to support his opinion of SC being #1.

        He couldn't even be bothered to go out and give us the evidence in video format of the promises broken by the developers except for that NMS bullshit video (isn't that from Angry Joe's video?)

        What piss poor content this is

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          September 17, 2016 7:55 AM

          Any way, any how, to get clicks. Sensationalist bullshit at its finest.

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        September 17, 2016 6:11 AM

        Not to mention it is the most commented on thread on the chatty right now, and I'm pretty sure it's one of the most commented on shack news created threads in a while.

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      September 17, 2016 7:43 AM

      Here's the thread in case people want to see the beginning of this when everyone except Valcan told him it was a stupid idea. You can see how well articulated his opinion is.

      http://www.shacknews.com/chatty?id=35368951

      And Greg - one day you're going to want to look back on your work with pride. Not just about the number of hits you got or how many jimmies you rustled, but pride in actually having put out high quality, well executed content. Just something to think about.

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        September 17, 2016 8:38 AM

        Sure thing! :)

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          September 17, 2016 9:18 AM

          Like, as a writer, don't you think that your points should fit with your thesis? You introduce the video by saying that these are games that had things that were expected, but were missing on arrival. Don't you think said game would have to arrive to fit your criteria? If your criteria is "hasn't shipped yet" then wouldn't hundreds of games fit that?

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      September 17, 2016 9:16 AM

      I wasn't a big fan of this video, sorry.
      I felt it was pretty sloppily put together with bad transitioning and was missing a bunch of more relevant content that's been mentioned in above posts.
      I feel that #1 is a cop out, and sounds more like a personal opinion even though explicitly stated as not one. And I'm not even a SC supporter...

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      September 17, 2016 9:37 AM

      This video is not good.

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      September 17, 2016 9:43 AM

      Given the disclaimer before your #1 pick, it seems you correctly anticipated the reaction to this list :-p

      Oh, but I agree with the majority of this thread and the previous thread that you should probably leave unreleased (that haven't been canceled) games off this kind of list unless you want to talk about release date promises.

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        September 17, 2016 9:51 AM

        Yeah until it's released or the wheels come off is the better approach. Plus not building an argument around Derek Smart. A guy that has an established history of over promising, making false claims, and releasing terrible games.

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          September 17, 2016 9:54 AM

          Eh, I don't really care who he sources. It's about the arguments, not the sources. If you disagree with what Smart says fine say why, but don't just attack the guy. For the record, I think most of his arguments are 90% strawman with 10% actual concern. I just want the discussion to be about Star Citizen rather than some guy who may or may not know what he's talking about.

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            September 17, 2016 10:01 AM

            Problem is when it's a source that holds zero credibility and building arguments around that. I do think there are legitimate concerns in terms of Star Citizen. But I think it damages credibility to build around someone with an obvious axe to grind.

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            September 17, 2016 2:58 PM

            Smart has been proven to be wrong in almost everything he says about SC, and still Greg used him as his main source. Unbelievable.

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      September 17, 2016 9:56 AM

      [deleted]

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        September 17, 2016 10:07 AM

        10: Black & White - main concern was promised clever AI was not at all a clever AI
        9: Fable - main concern was hype >>>>>> reality. Binary choices rather than shades of gray.
        8: Brink - main concern was that the hyped movement system was not at all new or interesting
        7: APB - main concern was that it overpromised and never delivered. "painfully bad" game. released unfinished
        6: Daikatana - main concern was that their marketing announcements didn't make it to the game. like different time periods
        5: Aliens: Colonial Marines - main concern is that it was released in beta state. bad graphics, AI, missing features from trailers
        4: Watch Dogs - "world seemed dead, graphics nothing like e3 trailer, and the world was just bland" doesn't really go into it other than that
        3: DNF - "90s game released in 2006" just says that there were tons of broken promises, no specifics
        2: No Man's Sky - main concern was lack of multiplayer at launch. shows clips of promises that aren't true (that one from angry joe)
        1: Star Citizen - see rest of this thread lol


        Honorably mention was Spore due to game footage used in the beginning of the video.

        I used individual spoiler tags to make your laziness a little harder because fuck you :).

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          September 17, 2016 10:20 AM

          [deleted]

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            September 17, 2016 10:31 AM

            I disagree. But I also think that you should either try it out or wait for it to come out before forming an opinion.

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      September 17, 2016 2:57 PM

      That list is bullshit, just plain bad clickbait. This is just cementing my distaste for going anywhere else than the chatty on this site.

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        September 17, 2016 7:07 PM

        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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