Irrational Games shutting down

[chestburster]

In before Randy Pitchfraud and his Gearbox goons get to make Bioshock 3.

Fuck.

Pseudo "highbrow art" and Redneck hillbilly crass "humor"

Which is worse and why?

 

[Siel]

Sums up pretty much how shit Irrational became over the years.

 

[DeepOcean]

In before Randy Pitchfraud and his Gearbox goons get to make Bioshock 3.

Fuck.

Pseudo "highbrow art" and Redneck hillbilly crass "humor"

Which is worse and why?

Between on rails "highbrow art" and open Redneck hillbilly crass "humor" with some level design. I choose the second option.

 

[WalmartJesus]

It sucks for the people that got laid off ..but as the saying goes:

 

[Caim]

Now there's only one thing that can be done: get these people back together and kickstart the long-awaited SWAT 5.

enhanced

... huh, I have peace with that as well.

 

[sexbad?]

In before Randy Pitchfraud and his Gearbox goons get to make Bioshock 3.

Fuck.

Pseudo "highbrow art" and Redneck hillbilly crass "humor"

Which is worse and why?

Borderlands 2 doesn't have redneck hillbilly crass humor in it.

 

[chestburster]

Borderlands 2 doesn't have redneck hillbilly crass humor in it.

If a game uses words such as "bonerfart" for its "humor" and you don't consider it crass or hillbilly-ish, then please enlighten me what you think is hillbilly humor.

Also, the lead writer came from Arizona. Can't be a more redneck state than that.

 

[Shadenuat]

Trying to imagine these people, maybe young people, getting their supposed "dream" jobs in game design in "artsy" studio, just to be layed off with a push of a button (or a few letters) for a group of picked elders. Sucks to be a vidya game developer?
How about splitting teams? Obsidian now works on AAA and niche projects, people flowing from one to another as they finish their jobs. Bioware has multiple, almost independent studios too.
How about selling the company to some big dad and then doing the move? So at least other ppl would be employed.
Or maybe promoting someone to a director and making another team?
Bioshock was a huge game with huge budget, there must be hundreds of people there?

Guess I'm just not in a mood to gloat.
Eh, but still...

Spoiler

good

fucking

riddance

 

[evdk]

Borderlands 2 doesn't have redneck hillbilly crass humor in it.

If a game uses words such as "bonerfart" for its "humor" and you don't consider it crass or hillbilly-ish, then please enlighten me what you think is hillbilly humor.

Also, the lead writer came from Arizona. Can't be a more redneck state than that.

The joke was that the word is retarded and Hammerlock is a lot less sophisticated than what he plays at.

 

[Roguey]

I actually still liked the first Bioshock, it was 2...that sucked.

 

[chestburster]

The joke was that the word is retarded and Hammerlock is a lot less sophisticated than what he plays at.

Seems to me that the whole cast of BL2 are all retarded (save the token nigger, who is expectedly killed mid-game).

If the "humor" comes entirely from watching retarded characters doing retarded shit, then such humor is pretty crass to me. No different from going to a zoo and laughing at monkeys.

 

[sexbad?]

Borderlands 2 doesn't have redneck hillbilly crass humor in it.

If a game uses words such as "bonerfart" for its "humor" and you don't consider it crass or hillbilly-ish, then please enlighten me what you think is hillbilly humor.

Also, the lead writer came from Arizona. Can't be a more redneck state than that.

Have you heard three quarters of the lines in that game? It's all some 4chan/reddit/tumblr abomination. BL1 actually realized that its characters were hicks and managed to provide some hick jokes.

 

[chestburster]

It's all some 4chan/reddit/tumblr abomination.

OK I'm not American. To me, any retarded White American is a hillbilly redneck, even when they live in cities and use internet.

 

[sexbad?]

It's all some 4chan/reddit/tumblr abomination.

OK I'm not American. To me, any retarded White American is a hillbilly redneck, even when they live in cities and use internet.

In America the words "hillbilly," "redneck" and "hick" are much more often used to refer to people from southern or midwestern states who live with less than average contact with society and drink beer and shoot varmints and watch NAAAAAASCAAAAAR. Borderlands 2 is about OMG QUIRKY high-pitched robots and teenagers from fucking Hartford who think words like "badassitude" are the epitome of humor.

 

[CSM]

I liked all parts of the Bioshock series. I hope they let the series be instead of making shitty sequels. That first story dlc for Bioshock Infinite was already pretty bad.

 

[CSM]

SO, I'm confused, did he just close down a studio and potentially force people to lose their jobs?

Seems to me like he wanted to quit, and start a new studio. But 2k offered to make him a new studio under their umbrella. 2k is then closing the old studio that delivered a single game in seven year which didn't have huge blockbuster sales to justify either its size or the length they spent on the game.

 

[Dexter]

I actually still liked the first Bioshock, it was 2...that sucked.

Not sure where the problem is, the first Bioshock was sufficiently "Open World"-y in its Level design to give me that System Shock 2 feeling of discovery and had just about the right amount of environments (from creepy to interesting to beautiful) to the right amount of gameplay (hacking, puzzles, preparing for fights by setting traps and whatnot, upgrade system and non-dumbed down Plasmid/Weapon system with a lot of variation) and innovation in technology (especially all the water and shadow stuff) to feel new and interesting.

Bioshock 2 came too late (3 years later) to still seem fresh, impressive or interesting and was just a bunch of "Me too" moments by a mediocre secondary studio that was also recently released from its misery after delivering another mediocre game, the characters, events and levels were less interesting as far as I can remember, they had the me-too "Big Sister" and barely changed much of anything regarding gameplay or setting, if anything they made it worse. I guess the few "Big Daddy"-related levels were interesting enough but overall it was too little too late and I remember getting bored with it.

I believe I've "defended" the first game more in-depth in the long thread if you want more to about and I stand by it:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-bioshock-infinite.69869/page-12#post-2408157
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-bioshock-infinite.69869/page-65#post-2580865

 

[Clockwork Knight]

If the "humor" comes entirely from watching retarded characters doing retarded shit, then such humor is pretty crass to me. No different from going to a zoo and laughing at monkeys.

But is it art funny?

 

[RK47]

 

[DeepOcean]

Why people are assuming that take-two wanted those people to begin with? Ken Lavine could just had said: "Fuck it I gonna do something better with my life." and Take two just decided to fire the rest because they didn't had anything better to do with them or simply Take Two already planned to close Irrational . This is the first time I see people calling their boss a douchebag for quitting.

 

[ColCol]

ShawnElliott ‏@ShawnElliott now

On the same day that I was laid off, I will learn whether we're having a girl or a boy. Bam!

 

[CSM]

Why do people think it was Levine that fired those people? Does Levine hold a position of power in 2k?

Edit: People do realize that Irrational Games is just a subsidiary of 2K Games, right?

 

[tuluse]

Why do people think it was Levine that fired those people? Does Levine hold a position of power in 2k?

Edit: People do realize that Irrational Games is just a subsidiary of 2K Games, right?

Maybe it's the letter he wrote himself.

I need to refocus my energy on a smaller team with a flatter structure and a more direct relationship with gamers. In many ways, it will be a return to how we started: a small team making games for the core gaming audience.

I am winding down Irrational Games as you know it.

 

[retardation]

He himself is not winding down anything, have you all become retarded suddenly? How many studios were disbanded because its creative director is tired of a particular franchise? That's right, none. He's just trying to save his career as a writer with this letter.

 

[Darth Roxor]

An uncompromising man with a vision. I like this.

It's obvious that he already put everything he had to say in Bioshock. Good that he doesn't want to feed the gold chicken

Another visionary runs away from the necessity to create AAA titles for the masses... I'm eagerly awaiting more

It looks like my favourite developer wants to prove something to someone :C Eh, I hope they don't screw up my beloved BioShock, because that would only leave ME as a game that I will wait for always and forever

I can understand the guy, nothing is as it used to be. After some 17 years of interacting with the fps-rpg genre from SS2 to Infinite, he needed to take a deep breath. I personally wish him all the best, we'll probably still hear more about him