Any "good", strong game companies/developers livin

[Heresiarch]

Not counting indie of course because no one gives a shit about them. If it's not indie it tend to be corrupted sooner or later.

Back on topic: the only one I can think of right now is Firaxis and Sid Meier.

All the other companies/developers more or less all fell in the mud. Bioware goes all XTREME with grimdarkgritty-kiddy stuff. Not mention it's EA's slave now.

Will Wright and Maxis does nothing but pumping out the Sims expansions leeching in endless money from all the poor sods who doesn't have a life. A real one anyway.

Bethsoft killed the RPG genre by giving it a gigantic CONSOLETARDIZATION brand and make them a massive success thus make all the kiddies born after the 90s think that "Oblivion is the best rpg" and "Fallout 3 revived Fallout oh how I wish the old Fallouts are so much fun like the new Fallout 3".

Peter "Complete Batshit" Molyneux made a perfect example how crazy a guy who used to have excellent taste at game design can become over the years.

Some other guys who are not completely corrupted but nonetheless declining:

Blizzard, it loves WOW more than anything and is willing to kill the complete Warcraft franchise by letting millions of mmorpgers kill all the heroes in it. And Diablo 3 has rainbows.

Relic ditched the good old balanced RTS for RPG elements. Is that decline or incline?

Creative Assembly has becoming more and more like a brand milking machine.

Ubi is becoming more and more like EA a la rape machine.

The list can go on and on but I'll stop. I think some others are still surviving like Obsidian and Paradox but their power is far from to be a match to the declined ones.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Piranha Bytes? They have a solid track record with the only being G3, but they managed to repent with Risen.

Although I guess I wouldn't call them superstrong either.

 

[Luzur]

well, there is always...there is....uhm...

fuck, i cant think of any good dev house left actually.

most of the company names i knew that stood for a good game is dead now.

 

[Phage]

Depending on how Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 end up, I might have to disagree with you on Blizzard.

Also, if you like FPS, then I believe Valve fits your criteria.

As for RPG developers, then no, they are all dead.

 

[Markman]

CDProjekt?

 

[entertainer]

Bohemia and Tripwire are p good

 

[I.C. Wiener]

Platinum games.
Dobule fine, although they really need to hire a better gameplay designer.
Ice-Pick Lodge.
Rocksteady studios.
Valve, if you ignore the parts that suck.
Those guys who made Penumbra.
Nintendo is at about 70% of their best output right now.

I know you'll all disagree but I thought ME2 was the best game BW ever made. Mostly because everything else was boring. Fuck you all.

Also, Peter Molyneux was never any good, you have to remember he's made a career out of putting his name on other people's work. Don't give him any credit.

 

[Sceptic]

Valve, if you ignore the parts that suck.

Enlighten me. Where are the parts that don't suck?

 

[Humanophage]

Paradox Interactive

Katauri Interactive (King's Bounty, Space Rangers 1 and 2)

Firaxis Games

Wargaming.net

 

[Sovard]

Stardock:

WindowBlinds, CursorFXPlus, Aquarium Desktop, Tweak7, etc.

You just can't argue with a track record like that.

Oh and that Elemental screen saver they're working on just might re-energize the Wisconsin development scene.

 

[Volourn]

BIO, OBS, EA.

'Nough said.

 

[entertainer]

BIO, OBS, EA.

'Nough said.

Bullshit.

 

[Phelot]

Those guys who made Penumbra.

I'm really looking forward to their new game, Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Looks like it'll be a lot of fun not to mention scary as fuck.

A note about Maxis. I can't help but mourn for them. It seems like I spent a good portion of my childhood as the mayor of a virtual city. I actually enjoyed SimCity 4, especially since you could finally create a worthwhile small town. It's a shame it didn't do well and I wish they'd make another one.

 

[X40c]

There aren't any really outstanding larger game developers around anymore.
Piranha Bytes having just sold Gothic and after the hurdle with Gothic 3, only just recovered some lost ground with Risen, which wasn't really that earth-shattering either. Risen was simply Gothic without the serious design flaws and bugs. I wish they had at least tried to imitate a decent TPS combat system like, say, Assassin's Creed.
With MotB Obsidian seems like the RPG game company with the most hopeful future, but developing a FO3 expansion and a FPS isn't exactly what I would like to see.
Ubisoft isn't actually doing that badly. Looking past the EA-ness, corporate shit and a mountain of DRM, I actually liked Assassin's Creed 2, decent story(if too linear), good combat(if a little console-twitch-y) and entertaining(if a little repetitive still). If it weren't for the mountain of ifs and buts I might even like Ubisoft a bit.
Relic should stop trying to milk WH40k, damn it, and make a new Homeworld sequel already! Company of Heroes was nice, but Dawn of War doesn't hold a candle to Homeworld.
Creative Assembly is like a old dog that not only is unable to learn new tricks, but is forgetting how to perform old ones. Until they come up with something that doesn't have Total War in its title, I think I'm just gonna start ignoring them.
Paradox is becoming more like a heartless, faceless multinational every day. It seems their importance lies more in publishing low-budget titles, than developing good strategy titles themselves these days.
Stardock is a hopeful beacon in the darkness. I'm really looking forward to Elemental and no matter what the hivemind says, I liked GalCiv 2 damn it. Its about time they stopped making expansions and come up with something new, tough.

Honorable mention: Bay 12. This, essentially one-man show, is basically beating the whole gaming industry in my eyes. Most contemporary games don't hold a candle to Dwarf Fortress(and yes, I'm a DF fanboy and proud of it).

Also: the Indie Dev scene, however so small, its probably given me more than ten times the satisfaction than all the large title I have played put together.

 

[LazyD]

There aren't any really outstanding larger game developers around anymore.
Piranha Bytes having just sold Gothic and after the hurdle with Gothic 3, only just recovered some lost ground with Risen, which wasn't really that earth-shattering either. Risen was simply Gothic without the serious design flaws and bugs. I wish they had at least tried to imitate a decent TPS combat system like, say, Assassin's Creed.
.

Rlly??

 

[Darth Roxor]

There aren't any really outstanding larger game developers around anymore.
Piranha Bytes having just sold Gothic and after the hurdle with Gothic 3, only just recovered some lost ground with Risen, which wasn't really that earth-shattering either. Risen was simply Gothic without the serious design flaws and bugs. I wish they had at least tried to imitate a decent TPS combat system like, say, Assassin's Creed.
.

Rlly??

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Valve. The one video game company I completely like nowadays.

 

[deshields538]

A few of my favourite devs are in decline right now, especially Creative Assembly. Empire and Napoleon not only sucked but they've made the game harder to mod through some of the patches for them which cripples attempts by the very large Total War mod community from salvaging anything from these games. I'm not expecting much good from them in the future.

Relic turned to shit too with Dawn of War 2 but they've managed to pull themselves out of the filth a bit with Chaos Rising. If they include Imperial Guard in a new expansion and seriously rethink the entire multiplayer part of the game then I might be able to forgive them.

I'm on the fence right now with Obsidian. I'm not sure what to think of Alpha Protocol sometimes but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

As for devs I'm very much liking at the minute it includes Tripwire Interactive. I got Killing Floor and Red Orchestra off steam and I've been having a lot of fun with both of them. I'm looking forward to the Red Orchestra sequel, Heroes of Stalingrad, right now.

I've been a long time of Firaxis and they didn't disappoint with Civ 4 so I'm looking forward to Civ 5 right now. Hopefully hexagons will be great!

Stardock and CDprojekt would be other firm favourites assuming Stardock are still against draconian DRM and Elemental War of Magic turns out to be as awesome as it sounds. Witcher 2 should be good but I've yet to even finish the first.

 

[Krash]

Paradox is becoming more like a heartless, faceless multinational every day. It seems their importance lies more in publishing low-budget titles, than developing good strategy titles themselves these days.

lol



Oh right, you were being serious, nevermind

 

[MetalCraze]

Paradox, PB, Firaxis and BIS are fairly OK these days, except they share the common problem - they just continue to remake their original game again and again.
I would still of course play their games, but something new is mandatory.

 

[Hobo Elf]

An interesting thing I've noticed is that western companies are more likely to go belly up as opposed to Japanese companies. I'm not that well versed in Jappo companies, but the only big company flop that I can remember happening in Japan recently was Square being on the verge of going bankrupt, but they survived by merging with Enix. Then again I suppose that can be viewed as a death as well. Square-Enix has done nothing but shit.

 

[X40c]

There aren't any really outstanding larger game developers around anymore.
Piranha Bytes having just sold Gothic and after the hurdle with Gothic 3, only just recovered some lost ground with Risen, which wasn't really that earth-shattering either. Risen was simply Gothic without the serious design flaws and bugs. I wish they had at least tried to imitate a decent TPS combat system like, say, Assassin's Creed.
.

Rlly??

In comparison to Risen's rather bland combat system, I'd say that AS atleast keeps combat interesting.
Risen has the same problem as Gothic 3 in my view. They both rely on spamming quick attacks and spells(ranged weapons seem broken to me, since they are slow and require you to keep a distance).
AS at least keeps it interesting with counter attacks, varied animation, differentiated weapons and special attacks. Of course AS has alot of problems as well. Like combat with multiple enemies comes down to ten guys waiting on the sidelines while you finish them off one by one and the difficulty is way too low at times.
If these flaws were to be fixed and a RPG system would be built into it, I'd say it would make a good TPS RPG combat system. Unlike Risen's which I found to be rather boring and unimaginative. Piranha Bytes really hasn't improved their combat system much since the original Gothic. Risen was a good opportunity for them to try something a new and evolve.

Paradox is becoming more like a heartless, faceless multinational every day. It seems their importance lies more in publishing low-budget titles, than developing good strategy titles themselves these days.

lol



Oh right, you were being serious, nevermind

What? Am I wrong?
EU III was basically a sequel-remake of an old title for milking money. Very little besides 3D graphics was added. HoI 3 was a similar sequel, but with more innovation to be fair, but on the other hand, with way more flaws as well. Both were old franchises and nothing revolutionary. Together with all the expansions and essentially DLC they've been spewing out, I'd say they're starting to become like EA or some other larger companies. Unable to innovate and constantly milking old ideas for money, rushing games to the market and producing add-ons.
That said, I have to say, I'm moderately excited to see them developing Victoria 2 and publishing smaller titles like Mount&Blade is a boon to the gaming scene.

I've been a long time of Firaxis and they didn't disappoint with Civ 4 so I'm looking forward to Civ 5 right now. Hopefully hexagons will be great

Fraxis isn't the worst company on the gaming scene, but TBH Civ 4 wasn't really all that it could be. I for one miss ZoC, combat could be better and I've got no love for some of the added clutter like religions and corporations. That said, I like that they took the resource system a bit forward and the added moddability is a boon.
I'm still on the fence with Civ 5. Though hexagons are a good idea, but I think that until I see the release version I'm not going to pass a final judgment.
Fraxis is good for what it is I guess. It doesn't really innovate much and its Colonization remake was a disappointment. Also: make a damn Alpha Centauri-esque game already!

 

[Phelot]

AS at least keeps it interesting with counter attacks, varied animation, differentiated weapons and special attacks. Of course AS has alot of problems as well. Like combat with multiple enemies comes down to ten guys waiting on the sidelines while you finish them off one by one and the difficulty is way too low at times.

Risen has counter attacks IIRC.

Varied animation? I hardly consider this a feature when it's still the same attack. I haven't played AS so I can't be sure of that, but I suspect it's like The Witcher's acrobatic ballet dancing that, in the end, doesn't mean anything. I felt Risens no flash, no frills attacks to be refreshing. It didn't need crazy shit flying around and the camera to shake when a powerful blow was landed.

I will say that Risen does have issues with it's weapons. The axe is over powered and the whole perk allowing two handed weapons to be one handed is pretty lame, especially considering the need for a shield.

 

[Big Nose George]

Its borderline moronic to like corporations.
Developers try to make you believe that they are not.

 

[Joghurt]

Well Bohemia comes to mind. They don't give a shit about consoles and ArmA2 is not dumbed down OFP...it's actually the same as OFP gameplaywise. They don't care about about making the game accessible probably because most of the money they get comes from military because of their VBS shit.

Paradox, PB, Firaxis and BIS are fairly OK these days, except they share the common problem - they just continue to remake their original game again and again.
I would still of course play their games, but something new is mandatory.

Well BIS are making Carrier Command. I know it's a remake, but still it's a new project for them. I haven't played the original so I don't know what that game is all about but let's hope it's something worth our time.