How come there is practically no decent licenced games? We have seen 007, Terminator, Transformers and many others. The licences often do not come bigger (Star Wars) but the games that they create are empty and often devoid of any fun. What exactly is the problem here?
It could be said that it is the smaller developers that tend to get these games and as such they cannot make anything better. If this is the case then why not give them to someone truly deserving?
I know it is hard to make games and also that the big houses still can make pure crap (Army of Two:Devils Cartel and Aliens: Colostomy Bag spring to mind) but you have already written scripts or characters which only need to be fleshed out. It has been tried in two directions as well. some have decided to follow the film almost scene by scene while others have tried to use the characters in a unique side story. But it all of what has appeared they have been terrible.
I refuse to mention games where they do not get the original voice cast... just stupid.
There are some incredibly clever people in the games and film industries and to be fair they are both as useless as one another bringing the material to the other side. Most film adaptations have been pointless wastes of my life. But why can they not come up with something better?
How can you mess up an Aliens game? Really? You have a small squad, put them in a corner and throw wave after wave of enemies at them with almost no visibility. But no you have well lit rooms and they have a few enemies all running straight into your gun sights. Now take a game like Dead Space... Input Aliens and bang here is the greatest Aliens game ever made... Simple. They come out of the walls, floor, behind you and often when you have no way to defend yourself. But the makers of the actual licensed games get it completely wrong.
It has become a joke in gaming to see a licensed game coming out. Everyone expects them to be pointless. But its awful when it is a piece of material that you actually respect and even worse when you cannot understand why it is so terrible. I played Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic back on the Xbox and it literally blew my mind. It was well written, had good supporting cast, graphically was good and it honestly made me feel like my character was a Jedi badass. But then comes games such as Kinect Star Wars... You can tell a game is crap when most reviews say the best thing in the game is..... The Dancing Mode.
The makers of that game should hang themselves for making that shameful game.
I really do not think that games should be made to launch with a film. A tie in game is often the weakest as it often follows the films story. So they have to wait for bits of the film to have been made before they can code that section. this means it is often rushed which equals crap. It is often better in my opinion to make a side story or just use the Universe that the film is in. That is why the Knights of the Old Republic was good. It was not Luke and Han etc, it was another Jedi. A unique story but you knew what he was capable of.
007 must have done other missions that were not films? Why not do his first mission and what set him apart from the other 00's. Origin story or something. The universe will be the same and the character but there is a larger scope. I do not think people would be interested in a side story of say 006 but I think there is still more room than to make terrible tie in games. To a degree this is what was done in the famous Goldeneye game on the N64. It was not launched at the same time as the film and was not a scene by scene of the film. I cannot see why this game is loved as much as it was. For me it is average but it is not terrible.
If you look at some of the games we have today that have got licenses which are done well (Batman Arkham Asylum) then they sell in huge numbers and will honestly go of forever. Arkham City sold many more than the first game and was amazingly good. It evolved itself and now is the benchmark that all other licenses are measured against.
Again this game was not linked to the film but stood to the side. It helped having voices from the TV cast as it did link in but it was a unique story and played to the games strengths.
I want to see developers try making games that link to huge film franchises. But they need to be made in the correct way. The game is only ready when it is ready. not so it can be launched alongside a film. It should be made for gaming sake and not to cash in on a movie. I am hoping that EA can resurrect the Stars Wars games and that other people can get hold of a decent licence and do something good with it. You can see how a game can be used right and wrong by looking at Telltale Games 'The Walking Dead' and then playing 'The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct'
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