Facebook Files: What Western Games and Developers Do You Like?

By Ishaan . December 6, 2009 . 6:02am

Facebook Files: What Western Games and Developers Do You Like?

Welcome to Facebook Files, where we sometimes secretly ask questions to see what our readers like, while pretending they’re "discussions." Here’s a rundown of how things work: Every week, we look through our Facebook group for the best community discussions. The ones that stand out are published on Siliconera as part of this feature every weekend. If your topic isn’t chosen one week, don’t lose heart…it might get picked up the next!

 

We’re all obviously fans of Japanese games, but something that doesn’t get discussed on Siliconera very often — unless it’s very unique — are western games and developers. What western games and developers do you like? Is there a particular developer from the West that you think can capture the same kind of charm that appeals to you in the way Japanese games do? Fire away, we’d love to know!

 

Here are some opinions from the usual Facebook thread:

 

Fabio wrote:

I used to be a PC gamer (I started gaming on a C64 and then moved to a PC, only started getting consoles in 2002), so of course I had to be appreciative of what western developers had to offer. Some of my favorites were id Software because of their awesome Quake series, Activision for complex games like Mechwarrior 2, Acclaim for their great shooters and Shadowman, Cyan for the Myst series, Infocom for their humor, and obviously the gods at Bullfrog for the awesomeness that was Magic Carpet. Overall, though, there are too many to count.

 

Granted, things change with time. Infocom is long dead. id hasn’t made a good game since Quake 3. Activision has become kind of like EA. Bullfrog got destroyed by EA (cannot forgive them). Acclaim went bankrupt, and their latest games sucked anyway. Cyan isn’t really making games anymore, I don’t even know if they’re still alive.

 

Ishaan wrote:

Haha, it’s funny you should mention Acclaim…I still love playing Extreme G-2 and XG3 whenever I can. Still among the best racing games for me. Crystal Dynamics were also fantastic with their Legacy of Kain series.

 

Haha, there’s just something very unique about European developers that I love. They’ve never been scared of tackling issues like voice-acting, giving personality to their protagonists etc.

Tim wrote:

I picked up Dragon Age: Origins when it was released and has introduced me to Bioware. I love the game and how much thought and story is put into the characters and world. The characters are wonderful, voice acting is great as well, though lame voice acting is getting harder to spot nowadays. I haven’t played Mass Effect, but I have been reading about a lot of it. I plan to play it, but I hear it can be very long if I want to experience the most out of it.

 

Valve is another current favorite, pushing games like Left 4 Dead 1 and 2, and Team Fortress 2; nice fast paced, multiplayer games that are a lot of fun to play, and most of the time don’t have the annoying elitist gamers you get in COD or Halo games.

 

Mattias wrote:

Llamasoft. Jeff Minter makes the best western shooters available! Charlie at www.charliesgames.com is quite the bundle of joy too.

 

If we put aside my shmup fetish I do fancy Bioware because of their epic RPGs, Double Fine because Tim Schafer’s a genius and RARE because they’ve still got it after all these years.

 

I’m always interested in knowing what western games our readers like because some of them are very unique and we’d love to be able to talk about them occasionally on the site (we do cover quirky games). For example, Epic Mickey got a great response from everyone. There was demand for Scribblenauts coverage, too, which we couldn’t do, unfortunately, because we were all tied up at the time.

 

[Next week: Game titles: Which ones are awesome and which ones suck?]


Read more stories about on Siliconera.

  • Ereek

    Insomniac for me. The original trio of Spyro games are some of my favorite of all time. The original Spyro the Dragon has an incomparable atmosphere.

    Codemasters and their Overlord series has some “magic” to it as well.

  • urbanscholar

    I'm actually a fan of Ubisoft when I think about it. When I hear they have a new game in the works I always find myself waiting with a good bit of anticipation. Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia(2008 & Sands of time) and the like are my cup of tea. I enjoy the sense of immersion and the interactivity one can have with the environments. I think I remember spend like an hour or 2 when playing the aforementioned and just checking out the scenery instead of moving the game along.

    Another would be Lionhead Studios, after playing Fable 1 and Fable 2. I have yet to doubt Peter Molyneux and crew to date. You get alot of choice with interesting directions and much tomfoolery thrown in.

    Rockstar Games as well, recently I just played GTA: Chinatown Wars and I haven't been so entertained since playing GTA 3 & Vice City. Witty writing (varies at times) and just plain bad humor is one thing I can count on with a GTA title….that and the tons of crime

  • http://denpanosekai.blogspot.com denpanosekai

    Hey Ishaan, I _loved_ Legacy of Kain but ONLY the first one, by Canadian studio Silicon Knights. I think it's too bad they lost the license, because it's the closest thing to a mature Zelda game we ever got. I didn't get into the following 3D games. These folks also came up with Eternal Darkness, which is still being talked about as a standout Gamecube title.

    Although I still haven't tried IV, I very much remember buying GTA3 and a couple of its spinoffs on day 1. Otherwise, I can get into a good FPS that has depth. Deus Ex, Fallout 3, the old Eye of the Beholder PC games, etc. Unless we're talking about action/arcade, I don't care for games that don't include some level of character growth.

  • malek86

    Blood Omen was awesome, and Soul Reaver was pretty good. All games after those two, sucked on many different levels.

    But Eternal Darkness was kind of boring. After seeing all the possible mind tricks, the gameplay got old quickly. And spell-casting was just a pain.

  • http://honorless.net honorless

    WayForward, Bit Blot/Derek Yu (though I admit I haven't played Aquaria; I just like Spelunky) and Arkedo. Probably Polytron whenever they finish Fez, which will more than likely be the first XBLA title I buy.
    Gaijin Games deserves a mention for the Bit.Trip series which looks interesting, but not interesting enough for me to to bother with point cards.

    In the past I was a huge fan of The Learning Company (Super Solvers, Oregon Trail, Word/Number Munchers…oh man, the list goes on) and Maxis Software for SimTower and SimCity 2000. Maybe SimTower doesn't count, haha.

    …You know what, I'm off to install some games.

  • badmoogle

    “Is there a particular developer from the West that you think can capture the same kind of charm that appeals to you in the way Japanese games do?”

    Frontier Developments.

    Other Western developers that i like:
    Core Design (now defunct)
    Insomniac (more because of Spyro and less because of Ratchet)
    Naughty Dog (because of Uncharted)
    Dice (because of Mirror's Edge)

  • http://www.siliconera.com Ishaan

    Denpa, you should check out Soul Reaver when you get the chance. If you think LoK is akin to a “mature Zelda,” you'll love Soul Reaver. It's like Zelda with incredible characters, amazing voice-acting and awesome puzzles.

    Haha, my stance on GTA is the same as yours with Legacy of Kain. I loved all the 2D ones (GTA2 is my favourite) but the 3D ones tended to overwhelm me.

  • JohnCasey1

    I'm shocked only one person said Naughty Dog. D: What's up with you people?

    -Crash Bandicoot Series
    -Jak Series
    -Uncharted Series

    What more do you need? :<

  • malek86

    Yeah, well, but the 3D games after Soul Reaver were simply not that good. I guess the series would have been better off if it just ended as it was initially supposed to.

  • ndjn3979

    Bethesda, specifically Fallout 3 GOTY. Loving it all over again, and I don't even like shooters.

  • thaKingRocka

    valve, bioware, bethesda, insomniac, ubisoft, id, blizzard, infinity ward (CoD 1 was/is one of my favorite pc games of all time), rockstar, lucasarts & sierra (for the adventure days of old)

    maybe i should just mention the ones i don't like. :P
    currently, i'd say naughty dog and ea are on the right track, but they'll need to produce a lot more before i'd count them among the ranks. uncharted is very good. i haven't played part 2 yet. dead space was surprisingly well done with some of the cleanest, most perfect graphics i've seen this generation, and the sexiest HUD design in history despite the overly small text.

    telltale games is a company that is earning my love and respect as well. they've picked up the torch dropped by sierra and lucasarts so long ago.

  • Pichi

    Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Ubisoft, 5th Cell, Sucker Punch, EA, and I can't remember some others. Love some of the games they make like the trio of Jak, Ratchet, and Sly along with Drawn to Life and others.

  • tim_mbp

    Love 5th Cell. Especially Lock's Quest.

    Big Bang Mini was loads of fun.

    Popcap makes great time wasters like Peggle, Plants vs Zombies, Bejeweled.

    Maxis. SimCity is the bomb. The Sims series is great too. Haven't played Spore.

  • B4ULoveShine

    For Western games, I tend to be extra-picky. Heck, at the moment, I'm waiting for Bioshock 2 and DOOM 4, as I already got Monster Madness and will get a gta game, just to catch up.

    For Western developers, I'm sticking with id, 2K, Rockstar, and Take-Two.

  • neo_firenze

    UK and NA devs are some of the best in the racing genre. My love for racers started with Japanese devs – Sega and Namco arcade games, and Polyphony is great. But Codemasters UK (GRID, DIRT series), Bizzare Creations (PGR series), SCE Liverpool (Wipeout), and Turn 10 (Forza) are top notch western racing devs. I'm also impressed with Black Rock Studios (Pure, the upcoming Split/Second), Criterion (mainly for Burnout Paradise), even a lot of the recent EA studios/contractors working on the Need for Speed series (e.g. Slightly Mad's bang up job on NFS Shift).

    Sony's 2nd party devs are really good too – Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch, and Insomniac have been consistently working at a high level for the last decade plus.

  • http://doujingamer.blogspot.com/ doujingamer

    I still love Bioware, can't get enough of the Baldur's Gate series even now. Also love the classic Wizardry and Might and Magic games. Oh, and I'm a WoW fan. (/ducks)

  • http://anosou.blogspot.com/ Anosou

    Enjoyable games? :D

  • kupomogli

    Bethesda. The Elder Scrolls games are great open world games. Beautiful worlds, lots of stuff to do, etc. The first time I actually played one was Morrowind for the PC. I really enjoyed it because it was somewhat like King's Field. However, I hate playing games on the PC, not to mention at the time I had a not so great video card so I quit playing shortly into the game.

    I'm enjoying Oblivion much better on a console because it sort of has that King's Field feeling of play while using a controller. Even though a different button setup, playing with a control is much more fun.

    Silicon Knights and Crystal Dynamics. Legacy of Kain Blood Omen is the best in the series, but I did actually like Blood Omen 2 alot. I didn't enjoy Soul Reaver that much so skipped the second title. Then Defiance came out and it's basically Soul Reaver plus, though with Defiance I actually enjoyed it since it had Devil May Cry-esque gameplay and the puzzles really weren't boring.

    Reflections. I've always liked Driver more than GTA though Driver 2 and Driv3r, other than the multiple areas. The first Driver is still a great game and then Driver Parallel Lines is one of my favorite in this genre. I like GTA4 better as they finally did everything right, but I'm really waiting for Driver 5 and wondering if it will be better than GTA4 or not.

  • http://www.younganimal.com/berserk Mr_Qoo

    I beat Blood Omen (that first one) almost once a year. I just had so much fun with it back in the day. I also agree that Eternal Darkness was spectacular. The 4 different endings was fun, albeit not too much different. I'm afraid Silicon Knights sort of let me down with Too Human. I'll have to give it a complete shot one day…

  • Ereek

    I only liked Crash: Warped. I haven't tried Uncharted yet.

  • TyeTheCzar

    Why Valve of course. They are some of the true pioneers in FPS design, and their endeavors show with games like Half-Life, Counter-Strike Source, The Orange Box, and Left 4 Dead.
    Also 2D Boy deserves recognition despite having only one commercial game out. That single game, World of Goo, is one of the highest-rated games on PC and THE HIGHEST game to date on WiiWare. And their website http://experimentalgameplay.com/ shows just how prolific they are in making games.
    Finally, despite being owned by the dastardly Activision, Blizzard is just as much liked by me as everyone else. They, like Valve, have the blessing of unlimited time to develop and polish their games to a sheen, resulting in constantly groundbreaking games such as Diablo II and WoW.

  • http://superficialsubtext.com/ Scypher

    Hahaha, I didn't know you went to this site Daniel. It's Elliot. I thought I recognized that screen name.

  • http://superficialsubtext.com/ Scypher

    Hey, I dare you to play through Uncharted 2 and say that again with a straight face. :P

  • ndjn3979

    HEEEY~ Wat's going on! It's good to see you, bud. What you been up to??

  • http://pt-pt.facebook.com/people/Lyh-Scully/613703032 Lyh Scully

    I like Naughty Dog , Ubisoft, and Bioware .

  • http://anosou.blogspot.com/ Anosou

    Fair enough, I still don't believe the hype :3

  • http://pt-pt.facebook.com/people/Lyh-Scully/613703032 Lyh Scully

    I like Naughty Dog , Ubisoft, and Bioware .

  • http://anosou.blogspot.com/ Anosou

    Fair enough, I still don't believe the hype :3

Video game stories from other sites on the web. These links leave Siliconera.

Popular