http://money.cnn.com/2003/12/16/technology/nov_gamesales/index.htm?cnn=yes
Seems like it.
[/i]
(emphasis mine)
You don’t think it’s possible that Manhunt just isn’t as good a game as a lot of the others out right now? I mean, I haven’t played it because the title and the cover together just make me laugh too much, but from the reviews I’ve read it doesn’t seem like it’s that interesting a game.
I think GTA sold well because of the positive word of mouth. Sure the controversy and violence helped but it wouldn’t have had legs if that’s all that it had going for it. Also, did GTA 3 sell that well right out the gate? Or did it build slow? Manhunt is only about 60 days old, the controversy has only begun. I bet most GTA owners aren’t even aware Manhunt is from the same company. Manhunt is just another game sitting the shelf next to Burnout and that game that lets you hunt down Osama Bin Ladin.
Manhunt was a pretty closely guarded title. We didn’t get a hands-on until three weeks before the release of the game. Rockstar or not, you have promote your game. I’ve already had hands-on access to Battlefield Vietnam, Far Cry, got Team Sabre access over a month ago… When you’re coming out in the middle of the big game-buying season, you can’t float on name recognition. Manhunt was always kind of under the radar, like a side project.
I suspect this doesn’t have to do with the game’s violence so much as its general ordinariness. Manhunt’s simply a rather empty, dull game.
Peter
As much as I don’t like GTA, that game was a phenomenon for far more than just its violence. I don’t think that we’ll see a game with that publicity for a very long time, no matter how much more, less, or equal it is to GTA in terms of violence.
cough State Of Emergency cough
The baddies begging for their lives and screaming in agony in SoFII bothered me. You’re not supposed to feel sympathy for the bad guys. What next, they are going to start crying and begging for their lives? Telling you about their wives and kids? That is actually more disturbing to me than straight up gore or violence.
That would be interesting, because unlike watching it in a movie where you don’t have a choice as to what the protagonist chooses to do, you may have a choice (assuming the game was developed that way) in how you respond to that. Creepy…
I quit using sleeping darts in NOLF2 since they didn’t last long, which required you to execute the sleeping guards to keep them down. That was a bit much for me.
The Crusader games were interesting with all the unarmed scientists. You could kill them with no consequences. I’d let them live with a few casualties here and there.
I was a teenager when I played those, and quite sadistic. I’d kill all but one, leaving him to “spread the message”. Hmm… this game has warped my fragile little mind.
I think that the SOF games go too far in terms of graphic violence. There is no reason for that. I can’t comment on Manhunt cause I haven’t played it.
Same here. NOLF2 offered absolutely no incentive to keep guards alive, so I felt like I could might as well take them out right away. Compare that to, say, the Thief games where killing guards could make you fail the mission (and knock-outs lasted forever) and you really could use non-lethal violence without suffering for it.
Ha, that seems not to have stopped plenty of people voting in the 2003 Koontzie Awards.
Ha, that seems not to have stopped plenty of people voting in the 2003 Koontzie Awards.[/quote]
Dear god, TAKE THAT BACK. Edit that out. Don’t immortalize him!
GTA3 and GTA: Vice City was fun just to jump in, wreck a few cars, kill some people, get killed and start all over. My friends wives and girlfriends love playing the game. It’s spontaneous. It turns out that it’s the best party game I have.
Manhunt is none of those things, and that’s the problem.
…and the nominees for this year’s Koontzie are…
What about the annual Chicklets?
I’m not really bothered if Manhunt’s principle weapon is a baby cannon with a blender on the end - the basic description just doesn’t do it for me.