Remember how bad ass Haze was supposed to be? Well, it sucked. Free Radical, the British based developer thought the same and had counted on a sequel to be its main revenue stream for 2009. Not going to happen. Their other cash cow, the Timesplitters series has bounced off of the radar. Now they are facing extinction. Already shitcanning 75% of their workforce, the company is calling for investors to come forward and save the company.
“We are inviting all interested parties to come forward. Significant interest has already been shown and we are hoping to make further announcements by the middle of January.”
The Haze demo went up on the European PlayStation Store today and I had a chance to play through it a few times. At first, the game feels a lot like Crysis. You’re in the middle of a very nice looking jungle in an enhanced suit taking out enemies. You go through a series of small of objectives (clear the area, move to point A, clear the area, move to point B, clear the area, move to point C, clear the area…). It gets a bit repetitive, but that’s how shooters are these days.
The graphics are fairly nice and the demo runs at a constant framerate with no noticeable slowdown no matter how many enemies you’re taking out. The one problem I have graphically is interacting with the environment. You’re in a huge lush forest and brushing by leaves and branches does nothing. In games like Crysis and Halo 3, when you’re in a jungle, these things move when you hit them. It’s a bit disappointing to see this type of thing neglected by developers still.
Here is a first look at Haze’s multiplayer modes. At first glance, the game looked like fun but I was not overly impressed with the graphics. You would hope a game this highly anticipated coming out almost 2 years after PS3 launch would look a little more polished. Alas, these are just test screens so all hope is not lost.
Haze has been on again, off again with it’s release dates for a while now. Ubisoft has finally let the cat out of the bag and confirmed that Haze will be released in North American on May 20th.
In addition, we’ll be getting a demo in early May to test out the game. I’m on the fence with this one still. It seems like it has a good storyline, but it could easily fall into the “just-another-FPS” category. I think the demo will set me over to one side or the other, but for now I’m going to reserve judgement.
EB Games in Canada was offering their customers a way out if they had purchased Haze for PS3 and wanted to return the game. A full refund was to be offered by the store IF the game was preordered and return with receipt within 7 days of purchase. This policy was more or less a free week rental and seen as a testament of the game not worthy of an outright purchase. Ubisoft was perturbed to say the least and called for the promotion to be cancelled. EB Canada obliged, or so we thought.
It turns out that the promotion is still active albeit with a new caveat. They are so confident that you will love the game, and NOT return it, they will give you the same considerations as before. It seems that EB Canada may be placating Ubisoft here. Why would this promotion even be necessary. Having to hedge your bets to sell an already anticipated product seems unnecessary. Is this a savvy marketing move or is EB Games motorboatin’ sons of bitches for defying a huge studios wishes?
Although the upcoming FPS on the PS3 Haze looks stunning, the plot is still to be questioned. Take a look at this extended preview on what really going on in Haze and the benefits on being a Mantel Soldier. The game has gotten some mixed news lately with the whole EB Canada mess, but the game looks promising and will have to be very good because the FPS market will be getting very crowded soon when we get Resistance 2
Ubisoft made sure their pimp hand was way strong before heading over to EB Canada and bitch slapping the hell out of them. Stephen Totilo over at Multiplayer got in touch with Ubisoft for more details on the Haze return policy deal, and had this to say:
What I was told by a member of the Ubisoft’s PR team in the U.S. yesterday was that there had been a miscommunication between the publisher’s Canadian arm and the EB Games retail chain in Canada. Furthermore, the issue has been rectified some time in the last week and the promotion has been cancelled. I was unable to get further details on how this miscommunication happened.
So it’s pretty safe to say this program won’t be happening anywhere anytime soon. I can’t say I blame Ubisoft on this one. I wonder how EB is going to respond.
The fanboys are at it again over the news released recently that Haze, the anticipated shooter will be only coming to the PS3. There were grumblings that the can may have a future release on the 360, but those have recently been quashed. Furthermore, Mass Effect 2 looks to be a Xbox 360 exclusive as well, but only for a little while. The space based RPG which made waves for all the right and wrong reasons, looks to finish its anticipated trilogy on MS, but will then soon go to the PS3 says Bioware. It looks as if some developers are willing to spread the wealth while other want to stay on a single console. That ethos seems like a death knell for sales figures.
Many people are stoked about Haze for PS3 coming out soon. Apparently, EB Games in Canada feel that the game is not all that. If you preorder Haze, and return it with in 1 week with your receipt, you get a total refund. Its store credit but still. Ubisoft must be shitting their pants with rage right now. They are basically giving the game away for a free rental, and if you don’t like it, you can return it no questions asked. Furthermore, they are openly promoting this. There seems to be a good chance that Haze is going to suck big time and EB Canada is hedging their bets.
Ubisoft previously announced Haze is only coming to the PS3, and now they’ve announced it’s gone gold.
GamePower in Australia is reporting that Ubisoft has been telling everyone that Haze has been released to manufacturing. The game has a scheduled release date of November 19th in the US. Seems a little late given the fact the game is already gone gold?
Maybe this will give Ubisoft time to get a demo together before release for the PlayStation Store…
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