Wii/PS2 (n-Space's version) talk and Official News

[Noelemahc]

Yeah, the skin I ripped came from his NPC appearance. Neat, huh?
The whole file structure reeks of laziness on n-Space's part (or would it be VV's?).

[Teancum]

Why are you guys so hard on n-Space?  They're a really small development shop, and they had to learn the engine, build a lot of new content, put it all together, AND publish it on three systems, one of which hasn't every had Alchemy on it before, and another of which uses a totally unique controller that they had to plan things around.  Geez, give them a break.  Given that they had only a small handful of folks and probably had a truncated timetable (PS2 and Wii weren't confirmed until months after 360/PS3 were) I think they did a great job.

You guys call it laziness, but I develop applications every day and I can see all the hard work they put into it.  It's amazing they got what they did out as fast as they did.  Want to point the finger?  Point it back to the publisher, where it belongs.  Publishers give crappy timetables to finish things, and right now developers will under-bid on the job (basically saying they'll do it faster or for less) just so they can get the job and keep food on their family's table.

Sorry, but I'm tired of ripping on devs.  If it's a choice they had to make to fit something into the budget/time just leave it alone.  Criticizing art style, lack of talent -- that I can handle, but just remember at the end of the day all these devs did the best they could with the time and money they were given.

[Noelemahc]

Don't get me wrong, the end result is insanely good considering what they had to work with. It's just that on an absolute scale of greatness, the end result is somewhere between above average and passable (although on the relative scale it's next to downright awesome) and being the nitpicky loozer that I am, I just can't pass the opportunity to diss it. The blame, naturally, should be collectively shared by Activision and everyone else involved for trying desperately to make it look like the old-gen versions suck while the next-gen ones don't.

[Gevth]

N-Space has some developer diaries, and a FAQ about the game: http://www.n-space.com/n_Space/MUA2_Diary_FAQ.html

Some interesting stuff:
-Lack of alt. costumes is because VV's original design didn't have them in the first place.
-N-Space worked on it for 13 months and with a max team size of 30 people.
-Iron Fist was always supposed to be a next-gen exclusive.

[BLaw]

Interesting. It's sad how n-Space didn't get much attention for their releases, and that the comm was bad.

Also worth noticing is the line "keep an eye out for great and exciting things to come!", which is meant for MUA fans, if I'm correct.

[Larcetin]

Does Iron Fist appear as NPC?

[BLaw]

Nope, as a cut-scene character for 1 second.

[Teancum]

N-Space has some developer diaries, and a FAQ about the game: http://www.n-space.com/n_Space/MUA2_Diary_FAQ.html

Some interesting stuff:
-Lack of alt. costumes is because VV's original design didn't have them in the first place.
-N-Space worked on it for 13 months and with a max team size of 30 people.
-Iron Fist was always supposed to be a next-gen exclusive.

Wow -- I knew they only had a little over 100 people working for them, but only 30 folks actually developing is a TINY team!  Now I'm even more pro n-Space.  That's really impressive.

[Dihan]

Basically, everything that was wrong can be blamed on VV and Activision.

[Teancum]

It's funny cuz it's true!  Seriously - lack of alt. costumes, no Stan Lee cameo, having to manually update the engine for the Wii, no Iron Fist, no on-the-fly character switching, no online play ---- none of that ended up being n-Space's fault.

Still, I wish they would have kept the alt costume code in the game.  Then at least we could make a mod and access it via cheats.

[iammingy]

Ultimately, we can blame Activision for choosing VV over Raven.

[LX - Rampage]

Well, I liked the games before (XML 1-2 and MUA 1), so I liked what they have done. I haven't tried MUA 2 on XBox 360 yet, so I just wait and see. Still, not the game I expected on PS2, but it was good.

[Teancum]

Ultimately, we can blame Activision for choosing VV over Raven.

Absolutely.  From the little I've play VV's version isn't horrible like I originally thought, but Raven has an excellent track record for making epic games.  I've often wondered if VV said "well, it's our engine, let us show you what we can do with it" to Activision.

[Noelemahc]

Nope, as a cut-scene character for 1 second.

But he has TWO skins in the game files ^_^
I'd sure love to poke about the inhards of the X360 version, because if the n-Space release has so many WEIRD leftovers, I'm sure the VV one would have even weirder ones.

Ultimately, Raven still showed everyone what a proper superhero game should be with Wolverine, neh?

[LX - Rampage]

But on the other side, it's not like "It's not so good, but it's because them and them, oh and them aswell". I mean, a critic or who wouldn't care with dev's and they would just say, that if it's good or not. I mean, it's like this in Hungary. Everyone can hate them for it, but still, if we like a game, but the critics don't, well then...you know.