GOOD LUCK, BIZARRE CREATIONS PEOPLE
It looks like Activision, peddler of plastic shite, endless war misery and assorted licensed rubbish, has decided to close Bizarre Creations – the UK developer it bought three years ago. This is pretty grim news, as Bizarre were ace on a technical and human level and were responsible for some amazing games. And The Club. And that one about the animals fighting.
The best game of this entire generation so far (our genuine, not ironic opinion) was Bizarre’s Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, and WHERE WOULD WE BE TODAY without Metropolis Street Racer? Almost certainly dead, or at least in a wheelchair. Good luck, Bizarre people.
filed in "NEWS", ACTUAL GAMES on Nov.16, 2010
November 16th, 2010 on 9:38 pm
I came here after reading this on Kotaku. The brotherhood of Dreamcast must come together once in awhile.
Although I eventually got quite annoyed with MSR and the 10 screens you had to skip through to get to the race AFTER you had already chosen the car and track, it was definitely one of the defining Dreamcast games for me. It felt special and unique (or just a bit weird, like quite a lot of DC games). I spent hours never really getting any better and putting up with that Will Smith impersonator on the soundtrack.
I know the real London a lot better now, maybe I’ll dust off (vacuum) the Dreamcast and take a ‘trip’ down memory ‘lane’… or not.
Never played anything else by them, didn’t have an Xbox and only have two games for the 360. Maybe I should pick up PGR Whateveronewas on 360. I’m sure my 360 is due to die soon, I got 3 years out of it by never using it. Would be ironic if PGR did it, like MSR killed my first DC. That was a lie, I went for the melodramatic rather than realist version of history.
Hopefully MS buy them or at least contracts them. Moral of the story is, don’t let Activision or EA buy you as they are asset strippers. Not in a good way.
November 16th, 2010 on 10:22 pm
A real shame if these guys go under. I’ve played all of their racing games and love most of them to bits. I had a feeling this would be their fate once activision got hold of them, I really don’t know why MS never bought them. They clearly have $500 million to piss away on advertising a gimmick camera so why couldn’t some of that go towards these guys.
Bah.
November 16th, 2010 on 10:30 pm
Didn’t they only make 1 game for Activision during that time? Mario Kart/PGR crossbreed – Blur?
It astounds me that Activision shitcans a talented studio because of a not-bad game that was didn’t sell due to an already saturated racing market, but wouldn’t cut their losses on that awful peripheral based Tony Hawk game… Instead, making an equally bad sequel this year, subtly releasing it under the radar and telling people it’s a “kid’s game”.
What am I saying, of course it doesn’t astound me.
November 16th, 2010 on 11:19 pm
They just finished some James Bond game for them as well. I bet they loved having to make licensed shite, maybe they’re better off dead if that’s their fate.
November 16th, 2010 on 11:20 pm
They made 007: Blood Stone for Activision too, probably the least memorable game ever. Possibly should have tried a bit harder.
November 16th, 2010 on 11:52 pm
The game’s up once your given the Bond license. Or any license. It must be very difficult to make good games, like it is to make anything good. We all criticise from the sidelines, but imagine putting your full effort into something and no matter what you try, it still turns out a bit rubbish. What do you do then?
I’ve sidestepped this problem by never doing anything.
November 17th, 2010 on 1:28 am
As one of the few companies to have the sense to add my car – Astra Coupe – to their game, they deserve to be bought and make MSR2. MS own the PGR name, so MSR is ripe for a comeback.
November 17th, 2010 on 8:18 am
I used to like Activision, but that was way back in the days of Ghostbusters, Beamrider and Little Computer People for the C64. They used to be cool. Such a shame.
If Bizarre Creations close, the staff aren’t going to be culled, are they? i.e. there’s nothing to stop them maybe starting up a new studio and doing their own thing (that sells) again, is there? (apart from money)
Never got round to getting Geometry Wars 2, I was still playing Geometry Wars 1 when my 360 imploded. About as close to a psychedelic Jeff Minter shooter as you can get when a) not written my the Yak and b) not including ungulants.
November 17th, 2010 on 1:35 pm
MSR was the reason that I bought an Xbox years ago… I wanted more and Project Gotham was an Xbox exclusive… both games were far more fun than the sterile, slot car racing experience that is Gran Turdismo.
November 17th, 2010 on 3:55 pm
GW:RE2 is a good game, but looking through the list on Wikipedia of games that they’ve done, it’s actually the only game of theirs that I have owned.
I never ‘got’ PGR.
November 18th, 2010 on 12:31 am
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November 18th, 2010 on 8:32 pm
“And that one about the animals fighting.”
Fur Fighters? That was quality! Even better when re-released… Very fond memories of literaly knocking the stuffing out of my brother in the multiplayer modes.
It’s just sad that it was about 8 years ago – PGR/Geometry Wars aside they’ve seemingly struggled since :(