The Big OT:
ELAzalin:
You only think HMX did Guitar Hero?
Lets educate you
Rock Band
Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the '80s
Guitar Hero II
Phase
Karaoke Revolution (Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3)
CMT Presents: Karaoke Revolution Country
Amplitude
EyeToy:Antigrav
Frequency
The Axe
PaRappa the Rapper
UmJammer Lammy
Beatmania
Dance Dance Revolution
When your owner is Viacom and the Parent is MTV you pretty much know what titles and genre you will be in.
Let the counter education begin:
Rock Band - Correct! You win a cookie!
Guitar Hero - Correct! You win a cookie! (Breakout game!)
Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the '80s - Correct! You win a cookie! (Addendum to the breakout game, new songs...same interface...hey wait same game...still new licensed songs...)
Guitar Hero II - Correct! You win a cookie! (Minor innovation over the addendum to the breakout game.)
Phase - Correct! You win a cookie! (iPod game that like 53 people have downloaded - good find.)
Karaoke Revolution (Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3)- - Correct! You win a cookie!
CMT Presents: Karaoke Revolution Country - Correct! You win a cookie!
Amplitude - Correct! You win a cookie! (Kinda neat...)
EyeToy:Antigrav - Correct! You win a cookie! (Did anyone really use the eyetoy?)
Frequency - Correct! You win a cookie! (Innovative and super cool)
The Axe - Correct! You win a cookie...though the number of people that know about The Axe Music system is likely very low. (Software developed to help arrange and re-arrange previously recorded music...originally built to support The Mr. Holland's Opus foundation...it was pretty damn impressive for the time.
That is where the Harmonix list ends. 13 published titles.
PaRappa the Rapper - No cookie for you! NaOn-Sha was the developer they are from Japan.
UmJammer Lammy - No cookie for you! NaNaOn-Sha was the developer on this one too.
Beatmania - No Cookie for you! Koji Okamoto and a team of developers made this one for Konamk...in Japan...where rhythm games have been popular a lot longer than here in the West.
Dance Dance Revolution - No cookie for you again...Konami strikes again...from Japan. Where rhythm games were born.
Not taking anything away from Harmonix, because I find them to be one of the more innovative studios out there, but the level of innovation from game to game between GH-GH2 and Rock Band is minimal. Their earlier games like Amplitude and Frequency were amazing and truly defined them as a company. GH was a fantastic refinement and finally a commercial hit the size of which a studio looking to break onto the mainstage needs. Rock Band was an impressive achievement for bringing it all together and providing a near to perfect drum simulator. But in looking at the GH - 80's and GH2 titles there was little innovation, so we should call that iteration. Do we really need to call out anything about the KR Vols. 1-3 +CMT the art was different and the songs were different...other than that...not much.
Frequency and Amplitude are great! The Axe was very cool for what it did - bringing music to people with no musical ability all on a joystick or mouse...
Their rhythm stuff is based on previously existing titles out of Japan. This does not make them tracers - but it might take some of that lusterific glory off of their highly polished tushy in this post and poll.
Now let's look at Valve. Nearing 12 years in the industry. Re-defined shooters with Half-life. This was not Duke Nuke 'em or Doom or Quake this was something new and very different it was the second in a line of real strong story-telling within the FPS space. In addition to the story-telling, Half-life married puzzles and platformer type game play to the FPS. It had the horror elements of System Shock but also introduced something unique in a protagonist that was an everyman. Gordon Freeman was something special - if you have never played the game...or refuse to because you hate shooters or blah, blah, blah you should really turn in your gamer credentials. You are doing us all a disservice by pretending that you are a gamer. HL was innovative to the nTH degree and was polished, accessible, difficult and brilliant.
Three expansions: Opposing Force (brilliant retelling of the Half-Life story), Blue-shift another brilliant retelling, and Decay the last alternative perspective of the story. Now, none of these were developed directly by Valve, but they certainly had oversight.
Counter-strike (+2 version, one a single-player release for Xbox, the other Source) and Day of Defeat (+1 for Source) - arguably the best mods created for a game, ever! - initial variations were developed by folks who were modding but eventually brought into Valve. We'll give valve credit for the 3 bonus versions.
TFC and DMC (Team Fortress Classic - squad based combat that used real tactics in an FPS and Deathmatch Classic - gibfest) were both in house at Valve and both were great. After that the mods released through the the initial game and the modding community are pretty impressive a brand new little petri dish of culture.
Source - the new engine for HL 2 used for some other games and is a moderately accessible tool. The Unreal engine might be better...but this is of little importance.
Half-life 2 took all the lessons of HL1 and the subsequent launches and improved upon them, innovating where it needed to and used a physics engine like no one had done before. Again...if you have never played this game - you should. Two episodes later, both by Valve, and a consistent story running for 2+ decades of game time. That is Half-life, so far.
Add Portal to this, one of the best games of 2007. A perfect blend of humor, irony, fun, puzzle-gaming and brilliant writing. Is it for everyone...no, but it is near to perfect.
Add TF2 and then Steam and all the other games published by valve...actually no...let's just count what we have here.
13 products. Tale of the tape is darn close here.
I had to go with Valve. Gordon Freeman changed the industry. Portal introduced the world to GLADoS, guns that don't kill - GLADoS does, companion cubes, and re-introduced to the world to cake and Jonathon Coulton who's Code Monkey song is something of an anthem amongst comp. engineers with the thankless task of making these games. Not to mention the introduction of Aperture Science.
You may not like shooter and you are certainly entitled to your opinion. I am a gamer. I tend to look at all games and play as many as I can to draw conclusions. I may suck at shooters - I'm not great at them - but that does not mean I dismiss them out of hand. There are some that do suck. Seriously, there are some nasty games out there, but to dismiss all that Valve has done for the industry is folly.
Harmonix is great, but their innovative games will never get the commercial success of their rhythm stuff and that is a sad fact.
Valve just makes quality games and is writing one of the most intense story-lines to move through a game series ever.
Valve should win. No contest.
You are the definition of a tool.
I don't believe there is MMO that I feel comfortable letting an 8 year old. He can read a book, go play some sports, or do something then sit down in front of the flickering screen.