@Eraldus No, a joke would be reviewing a game that is still labeled as being in beta, which Dragon's Prophet is. Gazillion chose to end the Marvel Heroes beta and in doing so implicitly gave critics permission to review the game. That was their choice and they knew the consequences of it.
Every video game now has the potential to be updated and improved over time. It's ludicrous to ask critics to review anything but what exists here and now.
@gbrading Usually because other projects took priority. Pre-production begins the moment the pitch is greenlighted. It doesn't mean there's a team yet. At a large studio you might have a handful of people working once a week or less on the project for a protracted time. Pre-production is generally when much of the concept art, scripts, and other exploratory work is done, similar to film production. The development team for the future game is likely deep into development on another title, so when actual development starts will depend on when that project launches. For example we started hearing about Blizzard's Titan a good 2-3 years before it completed pre-production, and who knows how long it was in that state before the leaks.
Duke Nukem Forever's problem was that George Broussard kept wanting to go back and change things that should have been set in stone. A properly executed pre-production phase will avoid becoming another Duke Nukem Forever, not create one.
@elbauto Kickstarter isn't some magic cure all. It's great for niche games with relatively small budgets (even a few millions is a small budget in games today). However for a AAA title? It would never come close to what they'd need! Star Citizen was the most successful crowdfunding campaign thus far and that brought in $6 million. That's only a fraction of what Brutal Legend 2 would require.
@KodiakKoolaid Brutal Legend is a very different game. Focuses more on open world exploration (with amazing world design) and the core mission and multiplayer game play is RTS in a style closer to the classic Herzog Zwei rather than modern mouse-driven games. You build units that follow you around, with limited waypoint orders, and can possess individual units. Highly recommended you like heavy metal at least a little, bonus points if you like Ozzy. I loved the game, but it does have some flaws.
@elbauto If you have the tens of millions it would cost to develop ready to invest, I'm sure Tim would be happy to oblige. Double Fine simply doesn't have the money to fund a AAA title.
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