Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Haze Review

sikkinixx said:
This generation isn't as amazing.
Click to expand...

Speak for yourself. IMO This gen has brought the best Mario, the best Mario Kart, a Zelda game almost equal to Ocarina of Time. I'm not so keen on Halo 3 and GTA IV, as far as sequels go they didn't really improve on much. On the handheld side of things it's brought us Crisis Core (best FF since 7, again IMO), Dawn of Sorrow, New Super Mario.

Meh, maybe it's more that Sony and MS pumped out great games last gen. Nintendo not so much (Double Dash, Sunshine). Now they're just playing it the other way around.
 
Well gamesenders have just emailed me to tell me they have sent me this out on rental anyway, so I guess I'll see for myself. Certainly not wasting €69.99 on it though 🙂
 
To be honest this gen is going down like the gen before it...A lot of generic stuff then some diamond out the rough....we still got along time before this gen is complete(well not if MS has anything to say about it but thats another story) and the diamonds will shine through...remember the PS1/PS2/Xbox/GC 1st year was maxium suckage.

Well Silent Hill: Homecoming will be my "game to end it all" this year and if I hear one smart remark about SH from MRU I will personally bring a copy of HAZE and Vampire Rain to your house😡



Bless
 
raggedjimmi said:
Speak for yourself. IMO This gen has brought the best Mario, the best Mario Kart, a Zelda game almost equal to Ocarina of Time. I'm not so keen on Halo 3 and GTA IV, as far as sequels go they didn't really improve on much. On the handheld side of things it's brought us Crisis Core (best FF since 7, again IMO), Dawn of Sorrow, New Super Mario.
Click to expand...

wow dude really? I would argue the total opposite. Mario Galaxy is no where near Mario 64, Mario Kart Wii, while not too bad, is a joke compared to DS/SNES/N64 version and Twlight Princess was hours upon hours of monotony with a waggle function shoehorned in.

But to each their own.
 
raggedjimmi said:
Speak for yourself. IMO This gen has brought the best Mario, the best Mario Kart, a Zelda game almost equal to Ocarina of Time. I'm not so keen on Halo 3 and GTA IV, as far as sequels go they didn't really improve on much. On the handheld side of things it's brought us Crisis Core (best FF since 7, again IMO), Dawn of Sorrow, New Super Mario.

Meh, maybe it's more that Sony and MS pumped out great games last gen. Nintendo not so much (Double Dash, Sunshine). Now they're just playing it the other way around.
Click to expand...

I agree.

As for Haze, I'm totally disappointed. From the previews, I, too, thought it looked a bit generic and it didn't really interest me. But the sheer fact that Free Radical was making it, I thought it would surely end up being a candidate for FPS GOTY. The Free Radical team makes some of the best FPS's around....what happend with Haze? Is it just a holdover for Time Splitters 4? Is that where most of their resources went?
 
After playing the demo and reading some reviews, it appears the game is not at all what I thought it was going to be. From skimming the previews in the past, this is what I expected of the Nectar concept:

The war (or battle or whatever) is taking place in an ugly, dirty, desolate, and destroyed landscape; everything's looking dark, gray and brutal. When you are on Nectar, it puts a "mask" over this landscape, and makes you feel like you're battling in a beautiful tropical setting, everything pretty and all. Once the effect wears off, the illusion goes away and you see the harsh reality.

And I could have sworn I read something about multiplayer where one team would have access to Nectar and therefore see the "fake pretty tropical island world", while the other team sees the harsh brutal landscape, while they are fighting each other.

This, I think, would have been an amazing concept and probably made for a great game. What it seems to be instead (nectar gives enemies shiny outlines, reduces damage, makes soldiers blurt embarrassing one-liners...) is rather disappointing.

Guess I need to read the previews more carefully next time to avoid such disappointments. 🙂
 
2nyRiggz said:
Well Silent Hill: Homecoming will be my "game to end it all" this year and if I hear one smart remark about SH from MRU I will personally bring a copy of HAZE and Vampire Rain to your house😡
Click to expand...

I'm a silent hill fan matey, so no worries there. I'm also looking forward to Alone in the Dark 😉

But i'm sure no horrors in SH wil compare to those two games 😀
 
raggedjimmi said:
Speak for yourself. IMO This gen has brought the best Mario, the best Mario Kart, a Zelda game almost equal to Ocarina of Time. I'm not so keen on Halo 3 and GTA IV, as far as sequels go they didn't really improve on much. On the handheld side of things it's brought us Crisis Core (best FF since 7, again IMO), Dawn of Sorrow, New Super Mario.

Meh, maybe it's more that Sony and MS pumped out great games last gen. Nintendo not so much (Double Dash, Sunshine). Now they're just playing it the other way around.
Click to expand...

So mainly, what makes this generation awesome for you is Nintendo's recooking their decade-old franchises for the umpteenth time? 😉

Don't get me wrong, they're great games, but there is just really nothing new here. (Besides the spastic controller-wiggling, which just does not happen to appeal to me at all...) Same with the other consoles. We don't really get a lot of *new* titles anymore - just new numbers attached to old titles. Almost every title worth getting excited about has a number attached to it nowadays.

Curious to see what Little Big Planet may bring. It may be the most original and innovative concept of the current generation so far.
 
Well my rental came anyway and I've played it a bit today. I'm a few levels in and past the point of turning against mantle.

Graphics are still hokey. The dialogue is simply appalling with mantle having zero redeemable quality to ascertain from it. I know they intended to make mantle like stupid marines, but this is a stereotype too far - especially given the supposedly morality reasoning behind the game, it makes all the enemies on either side just nothing but frag figures rather than making them real.

Motorbike/Quad driving is awful control wise, in fact vehicle control is simply wrong especially given that we have plenty of FPS's where they got it right.

Graphics are ok but just look obviously low res. If the game managed to ever reach proper 720p or 1080p for that matter it would look nice, but it really does look like black on the xbox more than anything else because of the 576p resolution they have opted for.

Some of the animation is well done though and very fluid, shame that the AI is ridiculous and spoils it.

MY GOD FLAME THROWERS SUCK! in all ways, graphically and effect they are really bloody useless. Whoever was in charge of particle effects on this game needs a kick in the crotch. Really I haven't seen such bad flame effects in a game since 2004.



Despite all of this - its ok'ish and does pass the hours....
Yes its ultra generic in every sense,
Yes its more red faction than anything else,
But for a mindless rental it's ok and worth a shot...
Certainly have no interest turning my rental into a purchase though. ever...


5.5 - 6 /10
 
Taustin Powers said:
So mainly, what makes this generation awesome for you is Nintendo's recooking their decade-old franchises for the umpteenth time? 😉

Don't get me wrong, they're great games, but there is just really nothing new here. (Besides the spastic controller-wiggling, which just does not happen to appeal to me at all...) Same with the other consoles.
Click to expand...

Exactly. How many Final Fantasy games are we up to now (no really, I actually did lose count after 11)? Remakes and ports of each series aside- since 1997 there have been as many console Zelda games as Metal Gear Solid 😉 even fewer proper Mario titles. But there are so many of these games because they do well in the market. And just like the Wii controller doesn't appeal to you, upping the res doesn't appeal to me 🙂 ... or not in the case of Haze, GTA.
As teh MRU says; different strokes and all that!
 
I finished the game and actually thought it was ok. Characters in the game suck and the rebels are nothing but clones which is shocking in this day and age, but despite its glaring faults it was ok. Final rating 67%
 
I just picked up my PS3 this friday, and man I can't believe how flooded this market is with FPS (Next gen market). I'm shocked people aren't tired of them, but it seems like any FPS that looks nice ends up having a lot of hype.
 
KurtangleTN said:
I just picked up my PS3 this friday, and man I can't believe how flooded this market is with FPS (Next gen market). I'm shocked people aren't tired of them, but it seems like any FPS that looks nice ends up having a lot of hype.
Click to expand...

But don't you see, they have to the hype in order to make them stand out of the crowd, but games publishers / developers are as guilty as sin for this and not just marketing side of things.

When they give 'bogus' screenshots which are at resolutions simply not possible, when they apply extra rendering and such to those shots, when preview builds / videos are running on super computers with hyper resolutions and yet the final game runs at basically PAL progressive.

I mean they fed that bogus development stuff to the press, so they are the ones guilty.

When I look at a magazine showing me screenshots of a forthcoming game, one assumes correctly that what we see is what we will get.

However I still can't quite understand how the press go along with this rubbish during preview process, other than lots of money and free trips to studios etc.... I mean how the hell did they not spot that this was nothing more than MEH! ?

It's all so bloody bogus, and I guess as games development increases in cost, we are going to see more and more of these BS tactics.


HAZE deserves the sh*t being flung at it. Free Radical deserve the sh*t being aimed at them, and the press who overly asserted and went along with the publishers press release hype deserve a kick in the ass too.
 
MacRumorUser said:
But don't you see, they have to the hype in order to make them stand out of the crowd, but games publishers / developers are as guilty as sin for this and not just marketing side of things.

When they give 'bogus' screenshots which are at resolutions simply not possible, when they apply extra rendering and such to those shots, when preview builds / videos are running on super computers with hyper resolutions and yet the final game runs at basically PAL progressive.

I mean they fed that bogus development stuff to the press, so they are the ones guilty.

When I look at a magazine showing me screenshots of a forthcoming game, one assumes correctly that what we see is what we will get.
Click to expand...

i stopped assuming that a few years ago when this generation was about to launch where it especially was bad

actually penny arcade even came up with a name for it already

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/09/12/

for me it's just further proof that this current fixation on graphics will take another turn in the next years and how you actually play will become more important again
 
I'm disappointed in Haze not because it's a miserable PS3 exclusive but because it's a miserable Free Radical game, those games used to make incredible shooters, TimeSplitters is one of my favorite console FPS ever and we all know how good GoldenEye was.
 
iEdd said:
So what made it better than 65.5% but not as good as 68.4% ? 😀
Click to expand...

🙄😛

Actually in all seriousness I think this game has caused me some serious mental damage. I keep hearing the words 'don't forget your promise to moreno' repeated over and over again in my head. I think its because in the latter part of the game you hear that said around 100 times or more that your head begins to ache.

In retrospect I think I was being generous 😉
 
Chone said:
TimeSplitters is one of my favorite console FPS ever and we all know how good GoldenEye was.
Click to expand...
Amen. Especially when TS2 came out and it had mapmaker, as well as being quirky and having weapons from all periods in time. Future perfect was a little less than I expected, but still 9.5/10. 🙂
Is there an estimate for Timesplitters 4 or not?

I'm disappointed after reading these reviews, because Haze sounded like a great original idea. If it were just graphics being a low score then I could deal with it, but repetitive gameplay... 🙁

Edit: Wow, here's one of the low metacritic reviews of the original timesplitters:
65 Happy Puppy
It is extremely awkward trying to control your basic movements with the left analog stick while at the same time controlling your look and aim movements with the right analog stick.
Click to expand...

Reminded me that it was one of the first games to be controlled this way. Gee we all know how badly that worked. 😉
 
iEdd said:
Reminded me that it was one of the first games to be controlled this way. Gee we all know how badly that worked. 😉
Click to expand...

it still controls badly ... it's just that many people got used to it


i just played GTA4 on ps3 last weekend and it took me hours to even remotely control the thing ... i wonder how long it would take somebody who doesn't play as much video games as i do ... (off topic: compared to Scarface on the wii the controls in GTA4 are a disaster ... it's like night and day)
 
takao said:
it still controls badly ... it's just that many people got used to it
Click to expand...

I never did get to grips with timesplitters control scheme. Red Steel on the wii was the last game to remind me of how timesplitters control/movement worked and I hated that too.
 
What? It's nothing like red steel... Have you even seen a wii control setup? 🙄 😉

I guess you guys are KB/Mouse gamers then. Well that's okay if you like that sort of thing I guess...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back