I was pretty bummed just over a year ago when Liverpool-based developer Bizarre Creations (BC) closed down. I've always been a massive fan of the Project Gotham Racing series and I still hold PGR 2 and 4 as two of my favourite racing games of all time. I felt that BC really nailed the sweet spot between simulation and arcade style handling models and that the Kudos system was a work of genius.
Unfortunately, after being acquired by Activision they were no-longer able to work on the Project Gotham series and instead created Blur. I have to say I wasn't the biggest fan of Blur, a Mario-Kart inspired arcade racer, but new IPs are often difficult to get off the ground. I suspect BC would have been able to right the ship if they had of been able to make a sequel.
Unfortunately, in January of 2011 Activision announced that Bizarre Creations would be closing down. They were able to get one last game out of the door prior to this date though - James Bond 007: Blood Stone.
Perhaps my headline/title is a bit misleading. I don't know for sure that Bizarre Creations folded because of Blood Stone. I'm sure Blur not doing so well had some part. But I imagine all the licensing cash to pay not just for the 007 license but also for the voices and likenesses of Daniel Craig, Judi Dench and, er, Joss Stone must have weighed heavily in the sales expectations at Activision head offices.
Unfortunately for Bizarre, Blood Stone only sold an estimated 260,000 copies world -wide. Usually, licensed games are a....ahem....license to print money, that Blood Stone sold so little surely spelled the death of this studio.
I was one of those quarter million people who actually bought Blood Stone. Such was my excitement that I bought it at half price a couple of months after its release last year and it still sat in the shrink-wrap until a month ago.
After finishing the game, I have to say it's an awful, awful disapointment. Not because it's a crap game. No, because for the most part it's stunningly mediocre.
Blood Stone is a 3rd person shooter with cover-based elements and interspersed driving levels. Almost everything about this game screams average. The shooting is solid but enemy AI and the environments are a bore. The 'original' plot is even more non-sensical than the average Bond movie/game story (that's saying something!) The graphics are decent but are more reminiscent of a first generation 360/PS3 game with very bland textures and minimal lighting effects. Voice acting is also poor to average - Daniel Craig's Bond is fairly monotone in the movies so a similar performance here isn't out of character but Judy Dench sounds like she's been lobotomized.
Bizarre Creations also went to the effort of creating a decent online multiplayer feature. Amazingly, there are still a few gamers playing this and I was able to get in a few games. The level design is uninspired but since you're playing against human players rather than AI idiots it can actually produce a few moments of fun. Unfortunately, there are other 3rd person shooters I would rather be playing online (Gears of War says "hi").
However, not everything in Blood Stone is mediocre - the driving levels are complete dog shit. I think that's what hurts just as much as knowing this was Bizarre Creations last game. How could a company that produced such great driving games make driving sequences so awful? The car handling makes Ridge Racer seem like iRacing, invisible walls are everywhere, and there's nary a sense of speed. Likewise, the scripting events (explosions and the like) are completely uninspired. The only time I felt my pulse race was when I would get frustrated at the shit controls - it's the complete opposite of something like Split/Second - every race in that game felt like Bond driving scene on steroids!
I'm a completionist so I did finish Blood Stone but as I put down the controller I felt an incredible sense of sadness - how could a studio that produced games that provided me countless hours of fun go out on such a downer? We'll never know but after this post I'm going to choose to forget this game exists - and go play some PGR 4 instead......
Lavan
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