Need for Speed Racing Games

Ok, i have tried asking this pretty much everywhere, and have had no luck, "EAGunclub" is deader than a coffin nail, (it must be THE most underused forum on the EA servers) and the battlefeild forums are full of jocks who think that any FPS that doesn't play Like "Call of Doody" "sux *" (morons in other words, as far as i am concerned, any FPS that does play like COD sucks!, in fact they are unplayable)

Now, i know virtually everyone on here Sees me as the typical "angry old gamer" someone who just sits in a basement ripping modern games in half while lamenting the demise of MIDI sound and the build engine, and yes, i will admit, i do tend to rip modern games apart, but only because i fail to see the point in a short, boring, easy game....

However, I am actually attempting to do something about that, i am actually trying to get an IP off the ground, and well, every time i try, it gets shot down in a hailstorm of pure Publisher Bull**it. "It is Too hard" "it is too long" "it is too complicated" "it is too old" "it is too british" "the americans would not buy it" (err, its not even marketed at them!) "What? no Multiplayer?"... basically, unless it is Modern Warfare 101, the publishers of today do not seem to want to know.

now, normally this would not be a problem, but, i am on a VERY limited budget, i could not even afford a decent graphics engine, let alone a steam release, so the "Indipendant" circuit is sadly out of monetary reach, so i have got to go the "publisher route" wich is a problem...

You see, as it is my game, naturally, i am going to want to play it and enjoy it, i mean, wouldn't you if it was your own IP? however, if i go the "Modern warfare 101" route, i am going to find it Unplayable. I just hate the Gameplay...

so Basically, i need some advice, see if there are ANY publishers out there i can look to, or Indipendant Developer/Publishers? or am i scuppered?

Ok, i know what you are thinking "modern warfare 101? whats this crazy azzclown talking about?" basically, think youre modern FPS, Call of Duty, Battlefeild (post BC2 anyway), Crysis, Nu-Moh, Bodycount, yadda de yadda. You know the mechanics.

1. Regenerating Health that is gone in 2 or 3 hits (never liked it, it breaks the game up too much, and i just cannot adapt to the ultra low survival ratio, hell, i can whup NOLF on hard (and its a hard game!) without one dirt nap, but i cannot even whack the first level on casual without several deaths with this regenerating system, it is even worse when the enemy takes 12 hits to the head from an AK to down, but they can stop you with 2 m1911 shots)
2. "bloody Screen-so Real" (always hated that one, you cannot see CRAP for it, meaning yet another death, were as the old "Life" readout on the HUD was cleaner, didnt obscure the bloody screen, and was more consistant in letting you know what you have left in the tanks)
3. 2 weapons maximum limit (this bores me, i like variety, and i really hate how the correct weapon is always lying about when it is needed, stop treating me like a dribbling amoeba and let me work out the best weapon for the job and place it in the inventory accordingly! plus, in the 5 seconds it takes you to "press x to swap" (complaint on that in a mo...) you have died as an enemy has killed you from 9 miles away!)
4.Expanding crosshairs (this one is a GAME RUINER! as they mean you cannot hit a tank with a sniper rifle at four feet when moving, so you have to stop, so you die...)
5.Ironsites that take up the whole damn screen (cannot see who to shoot, so you die, this is made worse by the fact you need these up at POINT BLANK to hit the enemy, but, they can shoot accuratly, from the hip, while running, hello, "gaming laws of evil accuracy" clearly state you should be able to shoot mega accurate with a Mp5 in each hand, while circile straffing, while the enemy should not be able to hit the broadside of a barn with a lazer, but, for some reason, the post COD games have got it the wrong damn way round!)
6. "GOD BLESS AMERICA, F** YOU COMMIE!" Director micheal bay school of story (offensive, badly written, and OUT OF DATE, hello, the cold war ended 30 years ago! get your head out of the moonshine bottle! and far too short!)
7. Non Existant campaign (60) pounds for 12 5 minuite levels (well, would be 5 minuites if you did not die ever 12 seconds) that mean in 2hours, thats it, the credits are rolling to some godawfull liscence "rap" song...)
8. Multiplayer (angry genocidal alabaman 10 year old kids screaming insults down a microphone at you just because you have an English RP accent... and you wonder why online gaming gives me a nervous breakdown)
9. squads...(hate these, they kill all the baddies for you, they open the doors for you, they really wind you up with there constant "lets kill these commie MotherF*ckers and save america" doped up prattle, you want to kill them but cannot!)
10. Press TO (like i said, i am not a brain dead Amoeba, please do not block my screen with these help messages, i read the manual, so i KNOW the controls, i dont need reminding i need to "press and hold 0 to arm the nuclearmissile bomb and WIN")
11... NO Variety, (you walk, you shoot, you die, you walk, you shoot, you knife, you perform a QTE, you watch a BIG EXPLOSION cutscene, you shoot, you die, you walk, you wait for the squad to open the door for you while holding of 12 million enemies, you die, you kill the remaining 11 million, you perform a QTE on a russian businessman, you watch credits and listen to rap song... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..... come on what happend to Puzzles, even DOOM had Puzzles! what happened to stealth, sneaking around, what happened to finding a keycard, solving a puzzle to get keycard, and openeing the damn door yourself! more fun!!! helps keep the game Fresh and exiting)
12. No Bosses (just press x-0-Triangle to flatten down some scar faced rooshkie sterotype and oh... ive won the game, what happened to having to spend every bullet you had to smack the armour of a freaking superhuman, before finishing him off with fully controllable fisticuffs?)
13. No Characteriseations (marine sterotypes, russian sterotypes, maguffin weapon of mass destruction, go there and kill.. ok, so just who is general guba, were was he born, what is his beef with america, what is the weapon, what were the nazis doing in kamchatka with such advanced tech, how did general guba find it after 70 years, who am i? why are you telling me NOTHING!)
14, QTE ("press the following buttons to WIN", err, again, what happened to puzzles and stuff, and manually operating things, you know, like in half life, wich is more advanced than any modern warfare clone, and it is 13 years old!)
15. Corridoring (so you go in a straight line, you cannot deviate and yet you PUT A WAYPOINT! to show me wich straight line to go in! hello, i have a brain you know, just because your playtesers dont, dont assume we are all brainless morons)
16. No proper cutscenes (just cheap "satellite imigery" or a first person scene that gives you no idea who or what the "hero" is supposed to be, other then "they" are an "american soldier")

ugggh, i have made myself angry just thinking about it....

what i want is the TOTAL OPPOSITE of all that, a real, Proper, OLD SCHOOl FPS of the late 90s'/early 2000's you know, something that plays like Half Life, NOLF, GE64, MOH-Frontline, RTCW, Timesplitters Future perfect ETC.

so, heres the problem, i need to find a publisher who does NOT want to make every game into a "modern warfare 101" and is willing to do something more old fashioned....

Something with Medikit based health with an onscreen health display (and of course, armour pick ups!), fixed crosshairs and hip shooting, the ability to carry as many weapons as you can find, a ZOOM aim that lets you bob and weave (okay, bodycount baught that back from the depths of the past, but, forgot the rest of the cool stuff!) stealth missions were you fail if you are spotted (think Nolf 1 "A Man of Infulence" Sheeee-iiitt! those levels were TENSE!), FIENDISH Half Life Style brain blowing Logic puzzles, fully interactive environments (remember duke nukem 3d? that had them, and that was 20 years ago) proper Boss fights, full hand to hand fighting, open plan levels with No waypoints that you can explore for bonuses, no onscreen tutorials (read the manual, it is why 7 trees were cut down, its not there to just look pretty!,it is there to tell you what to do) no Multiplayer, a long single player campaign of 25 hours plus ON EASY. Difficulty Dependant Objectives (think GE64, PD64 and 'Splitters the harder you go, the more you have got to do..) a deep complex story told with proper third person cutscenes with a fully fleshed out British Hero who is on his own (no squads) and fully fleshed out charachters with histories and reasons (think back to nolf1 with Cate telling us all about Magnus Armstrongs childhood and war record it made him, and the other villains absolutly fascinating, as they were, well, people, with a past and reasons!) , levels that force you back to the start if you are a Twit and get killed (impossible with your health SHOWN ON SCREEN! surely?) and is basically, FUN..

so, is there any publisher out there with the experience and preferance to take on such an old fashioned project and not "modernise it" "dumb it down" or "americanize" it in any way shape or form? as i really want to stop being seen as just a moaner, and actually get myself into the industry..

please give any Publisher/developer suggestions you can, cause i am at my wits end here!

thanks...

"Any Chance of Hand?" (Sgt Cortez to Capitain Ash, 1924 "Scotland the Brave", Timesplitters: Future Perfect)

PS. thank god this is the "off topic" segment eh?

PPS: OOOPS nearly forgot, the game is planned as a PC exclusive!

tl;dr

Get Bioshock if you don't like any multiplayer based FPS.

I have Bioshock 1, it is a damn good game, got most of what i am after... Bioshock 2 was a major dissapointment, here is hoping "Infinate" prooves to be a return to form, even if i am gonna have to get it on console, as sadly, this old thing is seriously outpowered by even the minimum required specs, my laptop, wich is win-98 based is even worse off power-wise, but, it does perfectly for what i want, namely playing old DOS based games and win-95/98 native titles. i would upgrade my main pc but, 1. alienware gaming rigs are VERY expensive, 2. the Lithtech engine used in the NOLF series is very finiky and needs a very special, and expensive, emulator to run on the latest graphics cards, and 3, i am on a limited budget, and basically, there is not enough "PC style" games out, most are just cheap ports of console games so an expensive pc purchase is not economically viable.

However, I think you missed the point of my question, I have my own Intellectual Property, and i am looking for a publisher to lease it too (that way i am in controll of the gameplay development, i DONT want to wind up with a Bulletstorm here, a crap game wedged between 2 incompatible era's), not alternative games to the mainstream "modern warfare" shooter.

i was actually looking at 2k games for being the publisher, thanks to bioshock but, they have never done a "British themed" game before, only american, so i am rather reticent to use them as i do not want my IP "americanised" as it would loose its impotus.

British themed games used to be everywhere once, i mean, two of the best ones actually came from an American Devloper (Monolith) Beleive it or not, namely NOLF 1 and 2, games that are now considered Iconic!... now, well, you never even see British themed games, not even from our native developers, even Free-Radical, now Known as Crytek UK has been forced to "wave the stars 'n stripes" by its new owners, only James Bond is still British themed, and even he has gone rather "americanised" since MGM/Eon Entertainment/DanJaq decided to copy the Jason Bourne franchise in the rebooted films... so i quess i cannot blame activision for that one, just the dud gameplay of their bond titles hangs on their heads...

please, read the purpose of the thread, like i said, i have got a TONNE of Bumpf here for an "early 2000's Style" British Espionage FPS series of my OWN design, storyline, potential sequal ideas, gameplay breakdown, faq guide, characther lists, concept art, weapons lists, acheivments list (even pc games have them now microsofts orders) level by level breakdown, the works, and its burning a hole in my desk, and the continual "shooting down" by thick publishers who only want to make Halo or COD clones is starting to send me even crazier than usual.

Would like to give you a hand Classic, but I know nothing about IPs and their development/publishing. Don't do multiplayer, or online, or FPS, or much of anything but singleplayer racing games. But I did order Portal 2 a few days ago. Best of luck with your enterprise.

Frank
(Gun owning retired union worker Yankee Ralph Nader-supporting liberal)

Thanks frank, Not much luck so far, but i am darned if i am giving in...

hmm, i was thinking about valve as well, they certainly know old school mechanics (they REFUSE to do modern ) and they practically invented the puzzle orienated FPS with Half Life, but again... they have never done British, and just happen to have Evil Alliance as a publishing partner, so i am very much afraid it would be a synch that EA would probably order the hero to be turned from a very verbose lone Englishman into a squad of monosyllybic fat american marines.... wich would ruin the game... wich leaves me very reticent to try them unless, as with my reticence to try 2k, they basically sign and confirm that they will keep the game British.

I quess i am probably responsible for more than 1 shooting down, but, if you were too cook up a racing game about super cars, i quess you would be furious if the Publishers ordered the addition of a kia cee'd because "market research" says people dont like supercars..,. well, it is the same with me, the game has been designed a certain way, and wont work if fiddled with. so the whole idea of it potentially being "americanised" due to some "marketing Research" rubbish gets me very annoyed.


(errr. i thaught the liberals were all for banning the ownership of guns? or have i missed the gag being a brit?)

Stop referring anything, that is not British and single-player based, evil. They don't harm you at all. Infact, your pro British bias is worse than that. Your attitude doesn't impress me at all and practically makes your points invalid.

Face it, nowadays American themed games are popular and unfortunately, you have a low chance, a publisher would actually pay attention to your IP, not to mention you are on a Need for Speed forum, whose members are generally more race oriented and thus are out of other genre publisher's target audience.

In my humble opinion, you are taking some things too serious. Be it NFS or your IP; I'm sorry dude, but if you stay being so narrow-minded and hot-tempered, you won't be successful in anything. People won't take you serious, and probably will do.

If you really really want your IP to be taken serious, how about you join a FPS forum or something, and let the publishers get your attention? Or better yet, stick to your DOS games.

Classic, the only "gag" was a bit of response to your penchant for pigeonholing Americans. But I was raised around rifles and hunting, so although I am a liberal on most issues I have never understood the knee jerk Liberal belief that the proper response to violent crime is to disarm the victims. It seems to be mostly urban liberals who have that affliction, so perhaps there is a link between aversion to private ownership of weapons and population density. Maybe the urban reliance on a retreat to the rear of the crowd (safety in numbers and all that) is the overriding factor. Of course sometimes the front of the crowd becomes downright surly when attacked.

Frank

P.S. Really just trying to stake out my individuality I guess.

Sorry Frank, remember English polotics are very different to American polotics, also, remember, Firearm ownership is heavilly controlled in the UK, you need a special liscence to own ANY firearm, and you cannot have the ammunition in the same building as the weapon, you now also need a "small game" hunting liscence to even own an air rifle.

yes, we do have violent gun crime here, as shown by a Police Helicopter being fired upon with a 9mm during the london riots (look it up on BBC news archives) but, due to the strict firearms controlls, it is much easier to track the weapons used and bring the bounders to justice! as the madman who fired on the helicopter will attest, as he is now sitting in a cell at paddington green police station having been grabbed by "the yard"

I think the problem is, the liberals have a similar view of urban crime to my own, and yes, mine is due to lack of knowledge or understanding of urban conditions or culture...

Most Violent gun criminals come from the areas of urban Deprivation, the "slums", it also seems those areas have spawned a culture that glamourises gun violence, i quess they think that by banning guns, they will curb the amounts of violent gun incidents in those areas. a Noble Sentiment yes, but probably barking up the wrong tree.

Now, RHH21, point out were, in this topic only, i Described non British, non singleplayer, games as evil... all i said was i find multiplayer overly hostile and a waste of time, and i find the "commies attack america" plots of the American biased shooters to be boring, out-dated, and a little offensive (what, is the rest of the world not worth bothering with?)...

My British bias comes from the fact i am british, and patriotic, i mean, the patriots of america have games singing praises to the stars and stripes coming out of there ear-holes, but patriotic british people are basically told "your country is a bunch of cissies, so F** off limey, america rules you commie".. i find that more than a little unfair.

I have to be serious about my IP, or no one will take it seriously, if you are not serious about your own product, then people will just think you are pulling their leg, and no one likes that, i am sure you have heard the expression "pull the other one, its got bells on" ?

The Popularity of "american" biased games is due to the fact most publishers pull there market research on 12-15 year old console only players in the United States, however, I have found that amongst 20-30 year old PC players in Europe, the desire for a European Biased, "old school" pc shooter is actually incredibly high, and that older players are fed up of not being catered for, this will damage the companies in future, America has been downgraded to AA credit do not forget. it may go down further, this will lower the sales of games in the states, if all the companies are offering is "modern warfare" go america go type games, then they will no longer have a market. and they will go bankrupt.

well, on Forums, i Initially tried this on EA's Shooter forum, "the gunclub" only thing is, that forum is Basically dead, and the battlefield forums are full of jocks who will attack, and with extreme agression, any notion of their being A. heros from any nation outside of america, or b, any form of in game health other then "bloody screen-so real" regenerative, so suggesting this in there would be a kamikaze mission. like i said my game still uses medikits and a health readout, as that is the system i personally prefer.

So, okay then, anyone know an FPS forum that is Not overloaded with COD loving idiots? or at least has a section for the disscussion of older FPS games?, due to the fact that a game with mechanics like My IP, wich takes its mechanics from the early 2000's, would be cut down like a pine tree by the "make it like COD or die!" brigade that seems to be the main american FPS player now.

the reason why i came in here asking for publishers in the first place! is because the few i have tried have all shot it down for the same, BS, reasons. (note, my "Counter-Arguments" are in the brackets), "it is too british" (err, its marketed for the british!) "it is too long" (what?, 25 hours, that is about the same as NOLF, 3 hours for 60 pounds is not accpetable) "the story is too complicated, kid's wont understand it" (hello, it is an Adults game, 18 certificate!) "the gameplay is too old fashioned" (err, it is what British PC players prefer!) "the americans would not buy it" (its not even marketed at them!) "what? No Mutliplayer, this is 2011 not 1991!" (so what?, multiplayer is a waste of disk space and money, it is a gimmick at best, a game ruiner at worst) I am sick of hearing it, and i know that even on an FPS forum used by Publishers, 90% of them will say the same damn thing, its why i wanted some names of people who wont, and are willing to make such an old school, british, single player biased product.

Why not simply rewrite it for america i hear you ask? simple, the plot concerns many things that are unique to the UK, things that do not concern the states, if i rewrote it for the American market (and thus made it so basic, loud, and dumb that it could be written by professional moron Micheal Bay as it appears from the "war"shooters that the American FPS Market cannot understand anything more complicated than "russian sub in the hudson river, commies fire nuclearmissilebomb, big explosion takes out empire state, lots of swearing, us marines make sub sink, big american victory, rap song, go play multiplayer) it would Simply.... Stop...Making...Sense...

I dont understand America or the way it works anyway, but i do Understand England and Europe. "write about what you know" Remember?, the most important advice for anyone who wants to write a story about anything.

Sounds like the publishers are looking for the biggest quickest profit, and you're trying to convince them to aim for a little less and put out a better game. Makes me think of the community project at SMS. (Community Assisted Racing Sim) Although I understand you're not looking for community participation.

Frank

it Depends on the community, I dont want it to be ruined by demands for Regenerating health, or iron sites, or american centered storyline, or any of that call of duty rubbish..

if i get a decent community, one that prefers British Charachters, old School "healthpack and Lifebar" health and zoom aim, then i would not mind community back up, 1000 voices are far more convincing than one alone, that is why i am looking for a forum with a Very "old school" FPS community, the sort that think COD sucks and Ge-64 is the way an FPS should be Made...

The Publishers only care about the fastest profit, make it cheap, make it fast, dont worry about the bugs, if it is a COD clone, then the casual gamers will buy it in droves, you are 100% correct there frank. it is a shame, but its true, they have gotten greedy!