Stranger's Glory
 

The most recent issue of Game Informer magazine included a review of 2005, the best and the worst the industry had to offer. Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath was included in a well deserved spot on their Top 50 of 2005 (It's specific placement on the list was unavailable), and the Stranger himself was named No. 8 on the Top Ten Heroes of 2005 (PsychoNauts fans will be pleased to hear that Raz sits comfortably in 2nd place). The feature included a fine little paragraph that mentioned the merits of the game, as well as the fine features of the whole Oddworld series. Regardless of the rest of the industry, it seems OWI has a friend in GI.

Discuss.

This sound great. I get game informer every month, so Im looking forward to hear about this.

Well Oddworld never seems to fail. Don't they get awards for each of the games they make?

Yeah.

All the magazines and reporters seem to really like Oddworld, which is good.

They SURE do. Every game Odd, has won an award.

I think the reason why is because how it can be so aquanted(sp?) with real life. How factories are destroying native things, and terrorists are mudokond cause they threaten the industrialists and all that stuff. It makes it really intresting for a lot of people.

Plus many of their awards are for graphics and their FMVs, which certainly have been way ahead of the pack in the game industry.

Plus, even if you don't like some of their characters, you can't deny that they're original and distinctive (also practically unique in the industry).

Oddworld won tons of awards and deserved every single one!
The only thing I hope is that they'll cary on with that level of excellence and succes

Ugh. I'm never informed 'cause I don't have game informer...maybe I should get it...
They get awards in magazines, but never in Gphoria. That makes me wonder...

They even deserve some awards they haven't won. FPS are generally infamous for being a genre that can't stand innovation and strategy. And what did OWI do? The added innovation and strategy, to an otherwise same-old, same-old theme. Games like Halo, while not needlessly bad, per say, are still rather generic in terms of gameplay and storyline, yet they recieve the honors of a king. Where is Stranger's laural wreath?

This is kind of the story of the year, though. The really, really great games got no play. Stranger's Wrath sold very poorly. Psychonauts (which is probably the greatest platform game ever made) didn't even come close to the 100,000 sold mark. And Shadow of the Colossus did't do well either. Come on, everyone! Let's all join hands and celebrate mediocrity.

Yar, innovation is craved for in the gaming industry, but publishers/advertising peoples commonly screw things up. Take the psp game Gripshit for example (omg teh inside looks):

Origionally, Gripshift looked to be a game brimming with creativity, but publishers are scum of the universe.

The engine was just being established when the game was picked up by Sony Online, who royally ****ed things up. They said: "The target market of PSP buyers are sweaty fat people between 16 and 35 years of age, so like, make Gripshift edgy for the children.". Bye bye, Dr. Bun; Bye bye Bear. All of the amusing cartoonish characters were replaced with 'edgy teen' characters, and the game sported a soundtrack so wonderfully composed by the tone deaf band, Misfits Of Science.

Eventually, any and all creativity was sucked out and turned to the product you see today. Yar.

As my father once said (but applies to all industries):

All you need to succeed in the movie industry is to say "Yes!" and have a good gag reflex.

Shadow of the colossus sold better then ico

Yes. It did. If you have a point I'd be interested to know what it is.

Oh, way better. I really did'nt like ico. Fairly good graphics, but it had no flavor to it.

I loved the demo of Ico... it was realy touching.
I'm glad Sony's re-releasing it... so I'll be able to play the whole thing

Did you say that Ico had no flavor to it? Have you taken leave of your senses? That is a beautifull and emotional game. You know how you have taste in your mouth? Prepare to get it slapped out. :)

Well I did'nt play it completely, but I got pretty far. I probably shouldnt judge it cause the best stuff is probably at the end of the game, but what I did see, I did'nt really like.