Six Games That May As Well Be Vaporware

Final Fantasy XIV PS3

I’ve already made fun of Final Fantasy XIV two times, so please enjoy this YouTube video of a puppy eating a lime instead:

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2

If you’ve been playing Sonic games as long as I have, then you always get sucked into Sega’s hype machine when they promise that the franchise will stop sucking with this next release. And dammit, it seems that they were on to something with last year’s release of Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1. I was a bit confused by the episodic format, but I was just happy to see a new release in the mainline series.

Above: This was just fine, and more might be even better.

Since then, we’ve heard literally nothing about subsequent episodes. Instead, we have Sonic Generations releasing this year and, while it shows great promise, it leaves me wondering what Sega’s plans for Sonic 4 are. While Sega West CEO Mike Hayes says that Episode 2 is coming “very soon,” the company has done little to support that statement. This time last year, the Sonic 4 website was being updated with information, screenshots, and sweet, sweet music as the release for Episode 1 came closer and closer. This time around, nothing.

The first episode wasn’t perfect, but it sold well enough to justify the release of further downloads. If Sonic Generations’ mix of what’s best of old and new Sonic ends up being a success, will there even be a place for Sonic 4 anymore?

Beyond Good & Evil 2

It’s no secret that the original Beyond Good & Evil sold terribly despite glowing reviews, and therefore viewed as one of the greatest injustices in the history of video games. Naturally, everyone who did buy the game was pleasantly surprised when it was announced that a sequel was in the works.

Above: Excited gasp!

Fast forward to this year, and we’ve yet to seen anything new since the one teaser trailer. In the meantime, Ubisoft re-released BG&E on PSN and XBL. While this allowed people that missed out the first time around to check out what all the fuss was about, I suspect that the biggest reason for the HD remaster’s existence was to serve as a test to gauge player interest in a sequel. According to sales figures, I’m not sure it’s a test that gamers passed.

On Xbox Live, the game sold a bit under 100,000 copies during the first half of 2011. Those aren’t terrible numbers, but it was outsold by plenty of other games, including Torchlight, Full House Poker, and Dead Rising: Case West. Data for the game’s PSN sales isn’t known, but since Ubisoft aren’t shouting them from the rooftops I doubt that they’re better.

While Ubisoft insist that the studio developing BG&E2 is focusing its attention on the superb-looking Rayman Origins, I don’t buy it. Beyond Good & Evil, despite being an excellent game that everyone should play, has failed to catch gamers’ attention twice now. Realistically, I doubt that Ubisoft would plunk down the cash to make a game that the gaming community at large has simply shown no interest in.

Readers Comments (17)

  1. did i really just get a popup ad from your site? what is 2005 now?

  2. Sorry, but this website is so cluttered with ads that I can’t even read the article.

  3. Mr Baskerville August 15, 2011 @ 17:49

    This article is useless due to the ads covering the entire screen

  4. Sorry about the way ads are loading up. I worked pretty hard on the article, and I’d like people to be able to read it, so hopefully we can get this fixed ASAP.

  5. 2 pm West Coast USA, article unreadable due to ads, further, the huge ad actually covering the article is not blockable by Adblock, so, yeah.

    I wanted to read this and am very interested in the subject matter, but the ads on this site have essentially ruined any possibility of that occurring.

  6. HEY ! I posted my comment and it went away ! Score !

  7. good job! you STILL haven’t fixed the giant ad covering the article that you “worked pretty hard on”. guess you didn’t work hard enough on it. you know, if the only way you can have a ‘news website’ is to have it so full of ads that no one can see your ‘news’, you may want to consider quitting and doing something NOT useless. it’s bad enough that online journalists seem to think that putting up a quote and then asking what everyone thinks about it constitutes an article, not to mention the stupid headlines that have only a tenuous connection to the article, but now I can’t even look at the tripe you’ve come up with because you’re greedy and can’t pay the domain fees without massive, ridiculous amounts of advertisements for things that aren’t even targeted at the audience that would most likely come to the site. good show all around! you’re a winner!

    • Jesus, relax. I only write the words, I don’t have anything to do with the inner working of the website, or the advertisements that are posted. If something doesn’t work, all I can do is tell the admin and hope he comes around quickly enough to fix it in a timely manner.

      It’s not something I normally advocate, but if you ABSOLUTELY MUST, it’s not too difficult to figure out how to view web pages ad-free.

      • it’s already been noted that ad blockers aren’t helping, but thanks for the condescending tone. and sorry, I thought from all the articles that were written under YOUR name you would have some sort of say in what goes on. I guess not. It must suck to be so replaceable. If I were taking time to write articles, I would probably want to make sure that people can see them, but I understand if you don’t have the gumption to do anything about it. That’s probably why you’re stuck writing shitty articles for a random website that rates advertisements over articles with actual content. Best of luck to you, you’re going to need it once you make it to the real world.

        • FWIW, I’m viewing the page perfectly using an adblocker on Google Chrome.

          As for the rest, I don’t own the website. I only contribute words. I don’t know what gives you the impression that this would equate to IT work as well, but if you click my name in any of these articles you’ll see that I’ve been contributing since last March, and this is quite literally the first time there’s ever been a problem with ads rendering content unreadable.

          As for being condescending, I’m not sure why you’re offended by my tone. You commented on my article, trashed me for something I can’t control, and expect me to just take it? That’s not the real world, that’s just you being a dick.

          • WIW = nothing. I’m using Chrome as well and don’t seem to be the only one having a problem.

            as for the rest, I don’t really care whether you have control over it or not, it’s just your misfortune that the first time this comes up is associated with your content. I notice that it’s still not fixed, and since this is the primary page that I have an issue with, I’ve posted my concern here. Again, I’m not the first one to do so.

            as for being a dick: that’s my prerogative. you have a service offered online and I’m dissatisfied with it. as such, I’ve voiced my complaint in the loudest possible voice I could muster, which, in a world where text rules out over sound, is perfectly appropriate. the complaint, however, and being trashed for something you can’t control IS, in fact, the real world. the fact that you’ve never experienced it is proof-positive that you have yet to experience the “real-world”. you’re welcome for your first lesson. how are you going to make it in the writing space if you can’t even handle one, little, complaint without losing your head?

  8. Beyond Good and Evil sucked. Worse game I ever bought. It got what it deserved.

  9. @Max above (reply threads cut off after a while: “I don’t really care whether you have control over it or not” — Then you’re only here to stir up shit. One thing is voicing a concern, but when someone tells you that their hands are tied and you continue berating them then you’re just being a dick for the hell of it.

    “the complaint, however, and being trashed for something you can’t control IS, in fact, the real world. the fact that you’ve never experienced it is proof-positive that you have yet to experience the “real-world”” — Again, no. The only people that do that are pushy chumps that have to compensate for their own shortcomings. In the meantime, I’ll be sure to refund your money while the ads are fixed.

  10. Woo ads are fixed. Good post.

  11. you..regarding to the date you posted this…you miss something….square already told the ffxiii versus already complete due the date you posted this..be alert

Comments are closed.