Trespasser-How did it change this much?
Andrew Stein
Squadren demo, so I thought I'd amuse myself posting to the newsgroups.
I was looking through December's issue of PC Gamer,and they give a brief
previews of what they considered top 50 games coming out for Xmas
shopping season, and their brief blurb of Trespasser is pretty much the
sum of every preview I ever read on it....
Vol. 5 No. 12 pg 139 December
" Trespasser's lead programmer, Seamus Blackley, is a true physics
guru. His work on the original Flight Unlimited from Looking glass was
heralded as revolutionary with perfect flight modeling and amazing
visuals. Now he's looking to carry his experience into the first-person
action genre with Trespasser, the latest title from Dreamworks
Interactive.
Trespasser is set shortly after the events that occurred in the
Jurassic Park sequel The Lost Wold, with the player, (a girl called
Jane, voiced by Minnie Driver) stuck on the menacinv Site B. Your only
goal is to get the hell off the island by any means necessary. The bad
news is that you don't have any weapons--but the good news is that you
can do just about anything in the world of Trespasser that you could do
in real life: break barrels, float wooden objects, stack crates, etc.,
giving you dozens of ways to attack each puzzle you encounter.
Trespasser contains no indivdual game 'levels'--it's all one giant,
continuous 3d world, with dozens of acres of realistically modeled
jungle terrain. And you're not alone because herds of dinos that
realistcally flock, attack, and hold their distance will be sharing
space with you. The AI system adds a twinge of raw, terrifying
unpredictability--a raptor that materializes 10 feet in front of you may
not be hungryat all...or it may be poised to strike. And yes, the T-Rex
is in there, and she's rarely ina good mood.
Trespasser's aim is to play the way the player wants it to--you can
go in guns-a-blazin', or you can trick the dinos with phsics-based
traps. It'll be intersting to see if the game can feature such amazing
complexity while actually still being fun to play--but..." yadda yadda
yadda
Anywho, my point is this. This was the the December isse, which means
it was probably written in October or November, only a month or two
before the game was released. This blurb pretty much is a summary of
every other preview of this game, written up within days of its release,
all talking about its non-linear gameplay, low system requirements,
higly intelligent AI and realistically gameplay......Trespasser has none
of this. How could a game change this much in such a short amount of
time? Was the end product a result of a total rewrite? Maybe the
testers found the open ended non-linearness too hard and what we have
now is a result of a quick throwing together of the pieces? Or, were we
lied to and this is what they had all along but the developers were
overhyping and exagerating their product?
Well, just something to mull over, and sorry if this is a repeat of any
previous posts.
--
Andy Stein
Jon Saloga
<aste...@eden.rutgers.edu> wrote:
>Anywho, my point is this. This was the the December isse, which means
>it was probably written in October or November, only a month or two
>before the game was released. This blurb pretty much is a summary of
>every other preview of this game, written up within days of its release,
>all talking about its non-linear gameplay, low system requirements,
>higly intelligent AI and realistically gameplay......Trespasser has none
>of this. How could a game change this much in such a short amount of
>time? Was the end product a result of a total rewrite? Maybe the
>testers found the open ended non-linearness too hard and what we have
>now is a result of a quick throwing together of the pieces? Or, were we
>lied to and this is what they had all along but the developers were
>overhyping and exagerating their product?
Welcome to the world of PC gaming magazines, where cutting and pasting
press releases and box cover screenshots are synonymous with
journalism.. and exactly why I don't even read them anymore. If it
weren't for the demo disks, I would've cut my subscriptions long ago.
Jon S
jason
Andrew Stein wrote in message <3667651C...@eden.rutgers.edu>...
>it was probably written in October or November, only a month or two
>before the game was released. This blurb pretty much is a summary of
>every other preview of this game, written up within days of its release,
>all talking about its non-linear gameplay, low system requirements,
>higly intelligent AI and realistically gameplay......Trespasser has none
>of this. How could a game change this much in such a short amount of
>time? Was the end product a result of a total rewrite? Maybe the
>testers found the open ended non-linearness too hard and what we have
>now is a result of a quick throwing together of the pieces? Or, were we
>lied to and this is what they had all along but the developers were
>overhyping and exagerating their product?
>
>previous posts.
>
>--
>Andy Stein
>
spiced up the screen shoots and avi's in 3d studio max. I think its a joke
that anyone could give the trespasser team any credit after all the did to
lie to us. Thank god I got the game from EB and was able to take it back.
Krud
>previews of what they considered top 50 games coming out for Xmas
>shopping season, and their brief blurb of Trespasser is pretty much the
>sum of every preview I ever read on it....
The game didn't change, PC Gamer lied again. They probably saw a few
screenshots or played a beta version for 5 minutes then wrote up an overhyped
preview. They do it all the time. That's why they sell the most magazines -
they're hype-masters. I bet if you took a poll, half the people on this
newsgroup have gotten PC Gamer and cancelled it soon afterwards. They are the
National Inquirer of the gaming industry.
-Krud
Mike
>press releases and box cover screenshots are synonymous with
>journalism.. and exactly why I don't even read them anymore. If it
>weren't for the demo disks, I would've cut my subscriptions long ago.
>
>Jon S
I can't stand PCGamer (but sometimes get it anyway : p). I prefer CGW
but find it lacking in irony and humor unlike UK publications.
PCGamer UK is pretty comical and far more critical than PCG US. The
whole idea of grown men playing video games is pretty silly. When a
magazine takes itself too seriously I feel that much more like a nerdy
loser reading it.
You're right though, publishers are afraid to say anything nasty about
a game until after it's released. On the one hand, you have to be
fair to the company. But the company's shouldn't always get such free
hype regardless of the merits of the game. I'm sure that during
Trespasser's development lots of reviewers thought it had a huge
chance of sucking but only the truly independant would actually say
it. CGW on the other hand is going way out of its way to say how much
Ultima 9 is going to suck a year before its release -- is that fair?
Don't know,
Mike
astein03
>
>
> The game didn't change, PC Gamer lied again. They probably saw a few
> screenshots or played a beta version for 5 minutes then wrote up an overhyped
> preview. They do it all the time. That's why they sell the most magazines -
> they're hype-masters. I bet if you took a poll, half the people on this
> newsgroup have gotten PC Gamer and cancelled it soon afterwards. They are the
> National Inquirer of the gaming industry.
>
> -Krud
The reason why I picked PC Gamer's blurb is because it is the sum of everything
i've read on other magazines. Everything that was said in PC Gamer has been said
on every other magazine and and website and newsgroup posting i ever read. I was
just wondering if Trespasser EVER resembled the game that it was supposed to be/
-Andy
Chet
>Andrew Stein wrote in message <3667651C...@eden.rutgers.edu>...
>>
>>I was looking through December's issue of PC Gamer,and they give a brief
>>previews of what they considered top 50 games coming out for Xmas
>>shopping season, and their brief blurb of Trespasser is pretty much the
>>sum of every preview I ever read on it....
>
>
>The game didn't change, PC Gamer lied again. They probably saw a few
>screenshots or played a beta version for 5 minutes then wrote up an overhyped
>preview. They do it all the time. That's why they sell the most magazines -
>they're hype-masters. I bet if you took a poll, half the people on this
>newsgroup have gotten PC Gamer and cancelled it soon afterwards. They are the
>National Inquirer of the gaming industry.
>
>-Krud
>
Actually some of the hype laden previews for Trespasser came from some
online reviewers that I normally respect. I wonder what the actual
preview session were like... they seem to always have been one lone
previewer and multiple Dreamwork guys and it never seems as if they
let the previewer actually play... How else could you describe
Trespasser as
" Trespasser contains no indivdual game 'levels'--it's all one
giant, continuous 3d world"
where you lose all your weapons each level...
One thing no one talks about... store an item (e) and then look at
your shadow... whats that on your head?
chet
http://www.oldmanmurray.com
Read the message bases that so pissed off rich flier he emailed us
this time...
(rich flier seems to have been a shipping clerk for DreamWorks)
Gary Figg
>Andrew Stein wrote in message <3667651C...@eden.rutgers.edu>...
>>
>>I was looking through December's issue of PC Gamer,and they give a brief
>>previews of what they considered top 50 games coming out for Xmas
>>shopping season, and their brief blurb of Trespasser is pretty much the
>>sum of every preview I ever read on it....
>
>The game didn't change, PC Gamer lied again. They probably saw a few
>screenshots or played a beta version for 5 minutes then wrote up an overhyped
>preview. They do it all the time. That's why they sell the most magazines -
>they're hype-masters. I bet if you took a poll, half the people on this
>newsgroup have gotten PC Gamer and cancelled it soon afterwards. They are the
>National Inquirer of the gaming industry.
FOr some reason I'm getting PC Gamer in my mail (I think it's because
I was gullible to subscribe to OGR magazine (hey that one issue was
great :( ) and when it folded like a cheap tent, they subscribed me to
PC Gamer). Anyways, I get it this month and they have a "review" of
Fallout 2. It heeps endless praise on the game without mentioning the
bug-ridden state it was released in. I think Interplay actually wrote
the review for them to save them some time.
g
Wayne Peterson
> Andrew Stein wrote in message <3667651C...@eden.rutgers.edu>...
> >
> >I was looking through December's issue of PC Gamer,and they give a brief
> >previews of what they considered top 50 games coming out for Xmas
> >shopping season, and their brief blurb of Trespasser is pretty much the
> >sum of every preview I ever read on it....
>
>
> The game didn't change, PC Gamer lied again. They probably saw a few
> screenshots or played a beta version for 5 minutes then wrote up an overhyped
> preview. They do it all the time. That's why they sell the most magazines -
> they're hype-masters. I bet if you took a poll, half the people on this
> newsgroup have gotten PC Gamer and cancelled it soon afterwards. They are the
> National Inquirer of the gaming industry.
>
>
>
>
Not to stick up for PC Gamer here, but they weren't the ones doing the
lying. Every preview I read in magazines and online said almost exactly
what the PCG article did. It was Dreamworks that lied and altered
screenshots and movies.
Andrew Stein
> let the previewer actually play... How else could you describe
> Trespasser as
> " Trespasser contains no indivdual game 'levels'--it's all one
> giant, continuous 3d world"
>
That's what amazes me....I've been wondering if they ever had anything that
resembled the game they (the development team were describing), but was nixed
because of management decisions or whatever, or if they intentionally mislead the
public....I would be interested in hearing an explanation from the development
team.
--
Andy Stein
Simon Robbins
then after I moved to Canada couldn't believe it was the same magazine (it
isn't.) It's seems to be the same with a lot of the niche publications,
motorcycle magazines are the same. (In UK they're full of wheelies, swearing
and sarcasm, over here they're full of "the seat is comfortable and the tank
holds 17L of gasoline.")
Si.
Mike wrote in message <3667fe31....@news.fas.harvard.edu>...