Warren Spector Starts His Own Shop

Gamespot has the word that designer Warrren Spector has gone ahead and formed his own development shop. The company, Junction Point, is titled after a MMOG that Warren designed but never got off the ground. From the article: "The company has started preliminary development on a "fantasy" title created by Spector, who worked at Dungeons and Dragons creator TSR in the 1980s. Although Spector said the title was rapidly evolving, he did not give any indication about what specific subgenre the game would fall under or what platforms it would be released for."

Yay for him

[ShamusYoung]

Warren Spector is a real innovator (or at least seems to always have his name on the most innovative projects) so when I heard he left ION I was pretty sad. But if he's starting his own game house then I hope this is just the start of better days for him.

System Shock, the 1994 classic in which he was involved, affected me so much I wrote an entire novel based on the game [shamusyoung.com].

Amazing guy.

Note to self: try to care

[Alzheimers]

Sorry guys, but after the heartbreaks that were DX:IW and T:DS, I simply can't jump back on the bandwagon so easily.

I *really* need to see some proof that the man hasn't lost his touch before coming back to the Chapel of Spector. Proof as in a playable demo to something truly innovative, and doesn't show any compromises in either Art Design or Play Dynamics.

Show me what you promised the world when you made the greatest games on the crappiest hardware, and I'll be there along with the rest of those who still think LGS are the holiest letters in the alphabet.

Show me you're not washed up, as your latest work seems to indicate. I've been fooled twice in a row. Only Peter Molyneux has gotten me worse. And that won't happen again, ever.

Re:Note to self: try to care

[Doomstalk]

I think Eidos had a lot to do with Deus Ex: Invisible War's problems. If I recall correctly, he wasn't even the project head. He was given a co-leader (probably a plant from corporate headquarters) to work with. Warren wasn't given the free reign he wanted/needed, and the product suffered. Considering the low percentage of bad titles under his belt (and I wouldn't even necessarily say IW was bad, just not what it should've been), I'd still be willing to give him another chance.

Re:Oh happy day!

[Jakeypants]

OK, you win.

Despite how much I enjoyed the game, all of those things did piss me off (particularly the damage modeling and how fast the sniper rifle burns through ammo).

In terms of choices, though, I did feel like it was a nice, streamlined, lighweight version of the first one. I think it offered a nice middle ground between DX and Snowblind (which I haven't actually played yet, but it looks like just another FPS with just a few DX touches). I liked that it had the side missions that you didn't have to do, but were fun (such as fixing the Greasel fights). I always loved setting a turret to attack the bad guys and then having them chase me into the trap. And as far as the physics are concerned, I liked that you could just walk through a room and you'd have made it look like a warzone with all of the tables and chairs and stuff kicked over. Unrealistic, but fun.

Thief - The Dark Shadows was decent....

[Sparky9292]

T:DS I actually thought rather good. The levels were too small, but with that one thing aside, the gameplay was better than either of the previous games. DX:IW sucked by dumbing things down; T:DS dumbed things UP, like the City as an explorable area and the new more interactive lockpicking system.

And, frankly, any game that contains a universally-admired masterpiece of design like the Cradle as well as classic Thief levels like the Widow's house and the Museum can only be a good thing.

I agree.

I've played all three games. While I understand some grumblings (loading times, smaller town) about the 3rd Thief game, it was pretty faithful to the first two.

The most nerve-shattering level is the infamous Shalebridge Cradle area. Try playing level alone at night in your house with the lights off and the volume turned up abit. You can read how people felt when they played this level. [eidosgames.com] Very immersive and well done.