Driver Renegade sucks

Ohh man... I knew I would wring the fun out of Driver Renegade sooner rather than later, and like whatever car I use in the game, I've basically slammed into a brick wall of frustration.

I just can't get over how badly the cars handle and the game plays. I am SO ANGRY at the developers, I personally want to go up to whoever programmed this game and KICK THEM IN THE NUTS. It's *that bad*.

Everyone involved in the gameplay of this title should NEVER be allowed to work in the video game industry ever again. This was made from pure apathy and cutting corners. It's a complete travesty & an embarrassment.

There is no sense of speed. You have this turbo boost-- apparently it is a Rage Meter-- that's supposed to give you a nitro-like burst of speed. It does NOTHING. I've literally been neck & neck with the last place AI car and holding down the nitro doesn't vault me forward one bit. It makes no difference.

If you clip something, you WILL spin out. There's no way not to, no matter what you do. Because players LOVE having NO CONTROL over their gameplay. That alone should have had everyone involved with this game fired and their work scrapped well before it hit the shelf.


I remember when I finished Driver '76, I wanted to thank the developers for the game. It was published by Ubisoft but developed by Sumo Digital. Sure it was a blatant rip-off of Grand Theft Auto, but it was still fun despite its' flaws. But the developers of Driver Renegade should be fired, and whatever ins-house studio disbanded. As far as I can tell Driver Renegade was developed in-house by Ubisoft. Does Ubisoft have NO pride, they just skate by on the bare minimum when they develop games themselves? They've published some awesome handheld games, Lumines for PSP being a notable example. But I think that most, if not all,  of the best ones were developed by outside companies.


I hate you whoever programmed Driver Renegade, put together this shit game. I hate myself for buying it and supporting this kind of shovelware.




later
don

Counter Force - shovelware

So I popped Counter Force into my Wii last night.

Yikes.

I expected bad. But this is *bad* bad..... I thought it might at least be fun in an arcadey way.... the problem is that it's pretty hard to even see the enemy to shoot at. And then there are collisions with the backgrounds.... overall I can't tell when I'm being hit or what. It's just a big mess.

from Wikipedia:

The term "shovelware" has more recently been used in a more general sense by video game reviewers to indicate any product of disappointingly low quality due to a lack of time and effort by the developers. The Nintendo Wii and DS have often been criticized for having many shovelware titles, with producers hoping to make money with the large success of the consoles at the expense of creating quality games.

I feel bad for paying money for such obvious shovelware. I know that we should not be supporting the making of crappy, quick cash-grabs of broken games, especially for the Wii as it's drowning in shovelware as it is.... those of us who know better have a MORAL OBLIGATION to try to stop the support of shovelware as best we can. Usually this only means voting with our wallets & not buying that crap.

I noticed a lot of shovelware comes from one particular publisher, Conspiracy Games. Check out their roster of games.... EVERY ONE is a shovelware title. They're all the ones I see in the bargain bins at Wal-Marts and other big box stores.... they're usually seductively-priced at under $20.00. I bought Counter Force for $10.00.. and I STILL paid too much. Because honestly, how low of a price is low enough for a crappy game? There is no price low enough.

I can't help but compare Counter Force to another quick & dirty title, Star Trek: Conquest. That game also has limited modes & production values; there's no 2 player, and really not much more than the basic game. But despite it's low production values, Star Trek: Conquest is just dumb fun. I'm going to give Counter Force a bit more play, but I doubt I'll really warm to it. May as well use it as a coaster.



later
don