Civilization V Lead Designer and Programmer Jon Shafer has apparently left his job at Firaxis and moved to Plymouth, Michigan, to join Stardock Entertainment – makers of the Galactic Civilizations series and, more recently, the somewhat disastrous Elemental: War of Magic. For starters, Big Download reports, Shafer will be helping the Elemental team get that game up to some semblance of snuff; later on he’ll helm his own dev team at Stardock on another game. …
Two Mothers Of All Patches came out in the last day – Stardock Systems has released a monstrous 1.1 patch for its bomb Elemental: War of Magic, and Firaxis unleashed an update they’re actually calling The HUGE Patch to Civilization V, tweaking nearly every aspect of game AI. As the patch notes, linked above, indicate, neither of these are little bitty fixes. They are huge tracts of patch. Elemental 1.1 apparently ups the game from …
UPDATE: the consequences referred to below have begun. A round a layoffs at Stardock, alongside the termination of an upcoming (unannounced) game project, may just be the beginning.
UPDATE UPDATE: Mr. Wardell has posted a “final” remark on the Elemental flap here at the Elemental forums. One of the things I appreciate most from him on this one is that he recognizes how hard it can be for journalists to harshly criticize a game created by developers they consider friends. But it has to be done sometimes.
For those who’ve followed the 24-hour firestorm that erupted in the wake of Elemental: War of Magic’s botched Day Zero release, you’ll know that whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stranger.
Ouch. As strategy buffs may know and others should learn, Stardock Systems’ Elemental: War of Magic was released upon the earth yesterday. And apparently, it’s a disaster. PC Gamer has described it as “broken to the point of being unplayable,” and urges gamers to “stay well away.” RPS goes a bit further, accusing Stardock of violating its own Gamers Bill of Rights (now removed from the Stardock website) – specifically Right #2: “Gamers shall have …