Video game companies you rely on.

[Drew da Destroya]

Bioware and Blizzard are both up there for me. I just bought a brand new computer so I could stop playing SC2 on crap settings, and my friends can stop *****ing about me "slowing down the game". I'm also pretty excited for Diablo 3, expecially since it sounds like they fixed the loot system so my loot-whore friend won't suck the fun out.

I'm a pretty big Nintendo fan as well, although probably more on the hardware end. The 3DS is really cool, but I haven't played any first-party games on it (excepting Find Mii, Fishing, Archery, and that ball-rolling one). Ghost Recon was awesome, though, and I'm eagerly looking forward to Dead or Alive.

Speaking of... Dead or Alive is a series I love, although I don't care much about the other games released by Tecmo/Team Ninja.

[Psychosplodge]

I adore the Baldurs Gate series, but I think Dragon Age and Mass Effect are on par with quality. I've actually cried at certain points in both games, I've been that emotionally vested in my character and the squad/party members. I'm really looking forward to SW:TOR as well, if anyone can make a good story driven MMO it is Bioware.

Oh I forgot Creative Assembly, I've bought every Total War game to date, though I have to admit I preferred Empire to Shogun II.

I can't imagine putting in the 120+hours on dragon age that I put in the original PC Baldur's Gate, the depth of play just isn't there. The new Bioware releases have been "dumbed down" t be shorter and appeal to the wider console market....

Still undecided on the change in the strategic game mechanics they introduced with medieval 2, Still play rome but not medieval 2....

[eldargal]

Tastes differ, me, I've sunk 300 hours into ME1+2. Chronic insomnia ftw.

[wittdooley]

Rare used to be one for me, but not so much anymore.

Epic Games has been a win lately for me.

As for BioWare: Are they still doing a new Star Wars RPG? Knights of the Old Republic is probably my favorite RPG ever, and I need some more.

[Psychosplodge]

Tastes differ, me, I've sunk 300 hours into ME1+2. Chronic insomnia ftw.

True.
ME1 is essentially rome without the updated army movement, but I preferred viking invasion to the main campaign 'cause it never got to the ridiculous 60 min turn of managing all of Europe, I don't even want to contemplate the hours spent on TW....

Rare used to be one for me, but not so much anymore.

.

Did they ever do another good game after MS bought them?

[wittdooley]

You know, I don't think they did. I didn't think Kameo was awful, but it certainly wasn't up to par with their previous efforts. Same for Perfect Dark Zero.

Jet Force Gemini was actually one of my favorite games by them. I still wish they'd have come out with a sequel. And seriously...why haven't we seen a 3D, Ratchet & Clank style BattleToads?

[Skragger]

Eh, Blizzard can be frustrating to me, I used to play wow and the new expansion killed it for me, so i havent played in a while and have no plans to return.

You and me both! This about sums it up:

[novatomato]

well I've never really depended on any game company but back in the 90s I would always look for games from ATLAS, they were never the best games, but they all were of good quality. I'm no longer a huge video game person so I don't know if that still holds true.

[Kieranator K82]

BioWare: Mass Effect is a pretty cool game series.
Bungie: Halo is awesome.
Treyarch: Call of Duty with zombies is better than Call of Duty without zombies.
VALVe: Team Fortress 2 is super awesome happy fun time. Half Life is pretty cool too, and so is Portal.

[pinchy]

I can't imagine putting in the 120+hours on dragon age that I put in the original PC Baldur's Gate, the depth of play just isn't there. The new Bioware releases have been "dumbed down" t be shorter and appeal to the wider console market....

Well I've played completely through DragonAge three times now so I guess I've put in 100+ hours. Have to agree on some of Bioware's other games being far too short though- ME2 took 20 hours the first time, 8 the second when I was just trying to skip everything that wasn't on the main path (maybe the game would be longer if they stopped devoting so many resources into overpriced DLC that should have been part of the main game). Really lost faith in Bioware after they made the story featuring my Shepard's romantic interest a paid extra- so much so that I haven't picked up DragonAge two (the first Bioware game in probably ten years I haven't gone out and bought straight away for PC).


Also am somewhat ambivalent towards Blizzard at the moment (a state I thought I'd never be in)- they've just been making so many dumb decisions later, particulalry when it comes to nickel and diming people already paying them a monthly fee- here's a thought you've profited off me for 3-4 years of subs (with a few short gaps in that time admittedly), why go and charge me $25 a head to move to the server that some of my friends are on. Not levelling through Outland/Northrend on another character and not paying $25 so they lost my monthly sub earlier this year.

Maybe it's me but it's becoming very hard to trust/rely on any developer these days- the only ones that I actually did trust got bought out by (or to use the marketing bollocks "merged with") people I don't.