GameTap Offering Free Daikatana Plus A Little History

[Andy Chalk]

GameTap Offering Free Daikatana Plus A Little History

For those unfortunate enough to have missed this little snippet of history, Daikatana [http://www.gametap.com]available free until the end of December, and has also posted a brief retrospective of the game's unfortunate history.

Released in 2000 after over three years of development despite lead designer Ion Storm [http://rome.ro/]development studios as well as John Romero's previously untouchable cachet.

Of interest even to gamers who don't care to try Daikatana for themselves is a brief overview of the game's history, describing the luxurious Ion Storm offices in Dallas and the reaction of the press to the game that was finally delivered. A link to a much lengthier 1999 article from the Dallas Observer is also included, which provides a more detailed and in-depth (and uglier) look at the behind-the-scenes shenanigans at Ion Storm during the Daikatana period.

To find out more about Daikatana and the good times at Ion Storm, or to try it out for yourself, head on over to GameTap [http://www.gametap.com/home/read/article/8a25090116925aa50116933245f00479].


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[Halfang]

I would't play Daikatana even drunk, even free, or even if my life was on immediate danger.

Come on, be realistic. Daikatana? Free?

 

[Andy Chalk]

Hey, it wasn't that bad.

 

[Lance Icarus]

I might actually go check the game out. I keep hearing all this lore about how bad it was, yet it seems that 80% of the people saying these things barely got through the first level of the game, if they even played it at all.

Still though, it seems that game companies have learned nothing from Daikatana. Do NOT hype your game like it's the Second Coming of (insert genre here). You will ALWAYS disappoint your fans. Just tell people you're making a great game and be done with it, don't talk about "revolutions" you're working on and "innovations" that may have been done before.

 

[J.theYellow]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=y8SC7z8W134

 

[werepossum]

I played it (mostly with my teeth clenched against nausea) all the way through to the game-stopping bug that required a massive patch to finish the game. Thank G-d for bugs! Steam-powered frog? Sidekicks so stereotypical taht even Shaft was embarrased?

Playing Daikatana should definitely be done for free. Actually you should get paid for playing it, but if you can do it for free you'll immensely appreciate other games. ANY other games.

 

[Andy Chalk]

There's a difference between "bad" and "not good." And while Daikatana was definitely "not good," it... well, okay it was "bad," but it wasn't the greatest stinkfest to ever land on your PC. Trying to be as objective as I can after all this time, I'd say it was no worse than Tribes: Vengeance, and far better than the crapwad that was Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior. Remove John Romero and the massive amount of hype that preceded the game and what you end up with is a very mediocre and instantly forgettable FPS that doesn't rate anywhere near the bad press it gets.

 

[werepossum]

I played one or two levels of Fire Warrior and some Tribes: Vengeance (also free with PC Gamer), and both were really, really bad. But they were normal, half-assed, poor effort bad. Bad copies of good games by people without the vision, or the talent, or perhaps the budget to do good work.

Daikatana however is a completely different class of ass. I came to it with an open mind, having generally liked Romero. In Daikatana, people went out of their way to put in the things that sucked. Daikatana had people spending years making ass. Somebody actually had to voice-act Superfly Johnson and whatever the Japanese chick was called, and faithfully recreated the dialog written. This is not voice acting by non-actors, or script-writing by non-writers, or English dubbing from a cheap Russian-English dictionary you've just been handed. This is years of work by professionals. Daikatana is not amateur bad; it's professionally bad. Daikatana is ass done by people who actually have talent.

It's "Springtime for Hitler" bad. And that's a whole 'nother bad.

 

[MrKeroChan]

Daikatana..... yawn.....

 

[Andy Chalk]

You guys have no appreciation of history. Mediocrity of the game aside, Daikatana represents one of the most significant milestones in the history of the industry: The implosion of the no-holds-barred development philosophy and the infallible rockstar developer icon it created. Daikatana created ripples in the world of gaming that are still felt today, and now everyone has the opportunity to discover the truth about the game behind the insanity. Isn't that at least a little bit interesting?

 

[shadowcode]

Both studios? I thought that Ion Storm Austin (DX, DXIW, T3) went well for quite some time afterwards?

 

[Andy Chalk]

Funny you mention that. My original intent was to say "both the Ion Storm development studio as well as John Romero's blah blah blah," referring specifically to the Dallas outfit, but obviously I made a typo and tacked on the extra "s." I noticed it when it went up, but decided to leave it alone because, one, I think it makes me look rather clever, and two, Ion Storm Austin may have put out some decent games (okay, the best game EVER) but the Daikatana baggage was just too much to bear. When people think Deus Ex, they don't think Ion Storm, they think Warren Spector, and when he left, it was game over.