Poll: Views on Gearbox?

[Assassin Xaero]

They are one of my favorites. I really enjoyed Duke Nukem Forever (shame I could never find a server that wasn't laggy online), but that really doesn't have much to do with them since all they did was finish it and ship it. Both Borderlands games have been great (still leaning more towards the first though since it is pretty hard to find a good gun in the second). Sure, ACM was false advertising, but BioWare released a trailer for DA:O that was way better than the game (which was shit), and nobody said a thing about that.

 

[The_Echo]

I liked Borderlands, and loved Borderlands 2. So, Gearbox is great in my book.

I'm sure they did their best with Duke. And Aliens might have been a fluke. I dunno, I haven't actually played either of them.

 

[Goofguy]

I went with 'good' as the Borderlands games have been fun coop experiences for me. As for their bad games, I've never played them. Though I'm sure I'd probably agree with the vast majority on the both cases.

 

[N3squ1ck]

I voted with "average" their borderlands franchise seems to be good (just not my cup of tea) and I liked their HL1 addons and the Brothers in Arms series. Also I don't blame them for the catastrophe that was DNF.
I absolutely despise how they acted around A:CM, so it evens out everything that happened before.

 

[Chemical Alia]

They're all a bunch of assholes, every last one of them. v:

 

[Sylveria]

I think Gearbox has become vastly over-appreciated. While Boarderlands is competent if nothing else, DNF and A:CM are horrid and A:CM really should be the subject of them being charged with false-advertising. Additional Gearbox is absolutely embracing this "Season pass" garbage so you pre-pay for DLC they may or may not even get made.

Randy Pitchford accusing people like Jim Sterling of being an attention whore when he publicly condemns how bad and misleading A:CM was certainly doesn't help my image of them. That's the kind of crap EA would say.

They may have been a decent company years back, but they're quickly pissing all that away.

 

[kommando367]

They're pretty good when not trying to finish games that have been in development hell for a while.

 

[DoctorImpossible]

I liked Opposing Force but that was over thirteen years ago. Wasn't impressed with Borderlands and when combined with the seemingly sleazy nature of the Aliens fiasco I've developed a dim view of them as a company. Voted Bad!

 

[BartyMae]

They made the Half-Life expansions way back when...which I guess makes them alright...but I'm looking at their list of games, and all of them are pretty much junk besides Borderlands, (though I don't like Borderlands, so that doesn't really help shift my opinion)...

 

[Twilight_guy]

I think they are okay. Duke Nukem isn't really their fault since they were just the guys hired to salvage it they didn't create that decade long mess. Aliens is bad but I'm not going to let one fiasco ruin my opinion of them.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

They're all a bunch of assholes, every last one of them. v:

Careful, you might get warned for that post. Not to mention lose your job.

I've liked Gearbox ever since Borderlands. BL 1 & 2 are the only games by them I've played, but they're some of my favorites. DNF was already a clusterfuck a decade before they got their hands on it, and A:CM seems like a similar situation. So, I would say they are an above average developer, but unlucky in that recently they have failed at trying to save some franchises that were already dead.

Captcha: It's Super Delicious. I agree.

 

[Laser Priest]

Borderlands is their only game I can bring myself to enjoy, and even then, I think it's average overall and greatly overrated.

I'll cut them a bit of slack on Duke Nukem because that went through hell before they even got it. Aliens less so, because the final product looks shittier than the old E3 footage.

Overall, I'd say they're average at best, most likely below average.

Also, Randy Pitchford is currently one of the most annoying people in the gaming industry.

 

[aguspal]

I love Borderlands 1 and 2.


I dont care for DNF/A:CM.


So they are great in my book. They made those two FAIL GAMES, yes, but I never cared for thos ein the first place, so in my eyes they are great anyway. Besides the fact than aparently they barely had any kind of input in those two games...

 

[Skops]

I'll put them down as "Good, when they make the game themselves".

Borderlands 1-2 and Half Life: Opposing Forces were good. And I enjoyed them.

Aliens: CM and Duke Nukem Forever were garbage.

 

[Signa]

They're all a bunch of assholes, every last one of them. v:

I got a good chuckle from that.

OT: I'm not sure what's going on in Gearbox land, but every game I've played from them has ranged from really good to fucking awesome. The only exception was DNF, and I saw little reason to blame Gearbox for that mess. As it was, the DLC actually was really good, and I can pat GB on the back for having some part in that one. This A:CM debacle is saddening because it looks like it's had more of a opportunity for a guiding hand from GB than DNF ever did (I mean, come on, you're putting your name on it with pride. Make sure it lives up to your standards!). To make matters worse, Randy hasn't been the coolest in the conversations I've read. At the very least, promising patches for the moonwalking aliens, and throwing console limitations as well as the other developer's talent under the bus would have been a preferable response than the ones I read. I certainly dodged a bullet by having no interest in CM, but from now on, I'm going to be more cautious if a Gearbox game wasn't developed by Gearbox.

 

[Callate]

I don't know what happened with Aliens: Colonial Marines, but it's definitely going to be on people's minds the next time a Gearbox game comes out.

I enjoyed Borderlands and Borderlands 2, and thought Gearbox did a pretty good job with Half Life: Opposing Force. It seems to me that they can make a good game (though I still think someone needs to take a long hard look at what this thing called a "map" is for if there's a Borderlands 3.) Maybe they just don't work well with certain kinds of external pressure- long-awaited game considered vaporware, much-beloved license being developed across several studios under time constraints.

I'm beginning to think Randy Pitchford needs to learn when to keep his mouth shut. It kind of pains me to say it; he's always been such a seemingly open and enthusiastic advocate for his company's games. But between A:CM and DNF, I'm really beginning to feel he simply has no frame of reference for how things will actually be received in the real world.

 

[Therumancer]

So, what with this new Aliens: Colonial Marines fiasco and the simple fact that Duke Nukem Forever even existed, what are your opinions on the game developer Gearbox? Terrible? Great? Good but unlucky? Good but lazy? Good but stop with the DLC now seriously it's getting annoying?

I said "other" right now Gearbox seems to be being called a quality developer largely because of "Borderlands" which was kind of clever and well put together. That said, they have basically failed with two out of three of their releases, and "Borderlands 2" shows some really incompetant programming, as the developers themselves said they boxed themselves in by creating a game they couldn't expand the level cap of, or add new levels of loot to, meaning that most of the DLC they are pimping doesn't even really advance the game.

Right now it seems to me that Gearbox is rapidly beginning to be revealed as a crap developer that got lucky once, and couldn't even think far enough ahead to expand their own sequel despite the $$$ hungry DLC pimping, with their other releases being garbage, one of which they lied and used their reputation and good will from their major success to sell.

As I see things right now Gearbox isn't yet in the terrible department, but you can't call them good or even average overall. A lot depends on whether they ever do another release, and how good it is. Right now I kind of suspect they will be "The Borderlands Company" and even that probably won't last because I already see cracks forming in it's success since they have shown the inabillity plan ahead and manage their own products. I mean seriously, it takes a "special" kind of company to plan to release a supertanker full of planned DLC, and yet develop a core game for it that they simply cannot fundementally expand beyond the basic product without breaking it due to balancing it without any foresight as to how that would go over with their DLC plans.

The odd thing is that I can actually see a group of lazy devs who dialed in DNF, and lied to try and sell a game using 5 year old graphic tech as new and state of the art, making that kind of mistake. Getting greedy with the DLC gold rush without actually thinking ahead on how they were actually going to justify it with the product.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

I voted average.

Although that's not really the term I'd use for them. I feel like inconsistent is a better description. Some of their games feel like they had genuine effort put into them, even if it didn't alway pan out well, while other games feel uninspired and lazy. Even their best games have areas that lack the polish you'd find in a great game, leaving them standed at just 'good'.

 

[Phlakes]

They're pretty good when not trying to finish games that have been in development hell for a while.

This really hard.

They've made two bad games, and both of them seem to have been at the point where they should've been scrapped and rebuilt, but someone (probably whoever's money was riding on them) wanted to get them out anyway.

They're obviously a really good developer, they just need to be working on what they want to.

EDIT: It's also really fascinating to see people turn from "FUCK YEAH BORDERLANDS 2 IS AWESOME" to "RRAGH GEARBOX HAS ALWAYS SUCKED THEY JUST GOT LUCKY".

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

I think that Gearbox are good; Borderlands 1 & 2 were both enjoyable almost en masse, and the Brothers in Arms series of games are also brilliant.

Two flops would not make me lose faith in a developer, and even then, at least they tried to make something interesting/put themselves forward to pick up the pieces(less so regarding A:CM).

I always respect passion and attempts of greatness over constant mediocrity.