Thank you everybody!
O.K., kinda hard to explain for me, but what I meant was: let's say you look at two games, BF2, and Quake 4. Both had high expectations. If you're a quakehead, you'd probably like Quake 4 more than any other game(for argument's sake).
If you're a BF head(or fps gamer, or anyone, for that matter), you'd probably like BF2's gameplay. But what about the packaging itself? I think I'm right when I say BF2 was packaged much MUCH more better than than Quake 4 was. Which means Dice didn't spare any money in production OR leave out any details, when creating BF2(bugs aside).
For instance, in Quake 4, Raven didn't include female models. Why? Female(and custom) models have been a BIG fun part of Quake since Quake 1, so didn't Raven know the fans would be disappointed/pissed with this absence of caring/putting a little extra effort into the game? Also, when *I* compare the sky of Quake 4 to Quake 2, I pretty damn well know Quake 2's sky looks a ton better( artistically and technically). How is that, when Quake 4 is on the Doom 3 engine and Quake 2 is on, well, an engine from 1997? And to boot, I'd be hard press to believe Raven/ID didn't have enough money to hire some artists to make a decent rendition of WHAT'S OVER US EVERYDAY. This sort of half-assness trend goes on in Quake 4 I believe, which is PRETTY sad for a series so highly regarded, and even Sadder when I think, "why cut so many corners? Didn't Raven know they HAD COMPETITION?!"
Now with BF2, no corners are cut, nothing is left out(bugs aside, flame on). The first thing you see is, imo, a kick-ass movie that pretty much says "Get ready for the time of your life!", and they come through. Not only that, but when I pay a little attention to it, it's easy to see Dice REALLY made some extra effort into making the movie better-than-normal. It's this effort, that seperates bf2 from "subpar" games(gameplay aside), e.g. Quake 4.
The other day I discovered On Sharqi-64, if I get close to the TOW(?) south of the Hotel flag, I can see the color of the sunsetting sky beautifully on the weapon's scope. I also discovered two nights ago that when I move my MEC AK around slowly, I can see a beautiful but VERY subtle reflection of light on the gun's metal casing(?).
Hell, if I'm hanging around a USMC commander who's throwing grenades at the enemy, I won't hear "Grenade! Frag Out!" in some 21 year old's "typical soldier" voice, but instead, I'll hear the highly dramatic "Grenadeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!" in a comically stereo-typed, old-white-man commander's vocals. Yes, Dice even payed attention to that, and with a little effort, it payed off. I Never played BF1, but I think it was highly innovative and envolving to risk alienating players by having whole teams speak their complete native tongue, which, to this day, I'm still learning. Of course, if Dice was like Raven/ID, they wouldn't even have spent to money and effort to do so. Wait, if they were MORE like Raven/ID, they wouldn't have thought "maybe this would piss off the community" and added an "english only" option.
THIS trend of thoughtful and effort-filled development adds "the icing on the cake." Sure, the idea of the gameplay(running from one cp to another in highly dynamic, volatile battlefields) was enough to please a gamer, but Dice took an EXTRA mile to make sure their game wasn't mediocre.
Well, was just wondering, did they follow in their footsteps with the given time they had to develop BF2142? I sure hope so:)
/me edits
Last edited by lendll (2006-09-25 15:55:21)