Factor 5 Developing for the "GameCube 1.5"

The Crotch

The Crotch

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http://wii.ign.com/articles/845/845353p1.html
[quote name='IGN']January 14, 2008 - The maker of the hit GameCube series Rogue Squadron is back. In a phone conversation with IGN Wii this morning, company president Julian Eggebrecht confirmed that the studio is underway with at least one all-new Wii project -- and it's not a Virtual Console game. Beyond that confirmation, Eggebrecht was mum, but he did note that the new title would not simply re-use old Rogue Squadron tech; whatever it is, significantly updated or even completely new tech has been developed to help accommodate it.

Factor 5's previous title, Lair, released for PlayStation 3 to mixed reviews. However, it is worth noting that the developer is intimately familiar with the GameCube hardware, whose technology extends to Wii. Not only did Factor 5 work with Nintendo to develop GameCube's audio solution, but it pushed the console harder on a graphics level than just about every other studio, Nintendo included. Bearing that in mind, fans can rest assured that whatever the company's new Wii game is, it's a safe bet that it'll look good and push the hardware.
At one time, Factor 5 was pegged to develop a sequel to Pilot Wings for the then-codenamed Revolution. Nintendo even went so far as to list the San Rafael-based studio as a "partner" in its official E3 presentation. Since that time, though, the company has been busy with the PS3-exclusive Lair and thus, work on any Pilot Wings sequel is thought to have been halted or cancelled altogether. Incidentally, IGN believes Factor 5's Wii title is an altogether different beast. We'll have much more on the project as information becomes available. For now, though, Nintendo fans who loved the Rogue Squadron games should be happy to know that one of GameCube's best contributors is now lending its support to Wii.[/quote]

For my part, I loved the much-maligned Rogue Squadron III. Haven't played Lair, though. Regardless, I'm happy about this. Let's get the StarFox franchise back on track, motherfuckers!
 
Eh, I think motion controls for things like 180 degree flips could work. You know, like flicking the remote or chuck up to do it.

Honestly, I'm fairly ambivalent towards this news. I wasn't exceedingly impressed with Lair, and I certainly don't need another Rouge Squadron game, so I'm not sure exactly what I want from them. I mean, after Lair, I've lost some faith in their ability to deliver tight gameplay, and I don't want their established Nintendo property.

Though, I gotta go with the suggestion Crotch offered up... give them StarFox. Rogue Squadron + StarFox = direction that can't possibly be worse than where it is now.
 
[quote name='CoffeeEdge']Factor 5's Wii game is going to be the long-planned Thornado (aka the spiritual successor to Turrican). Count on it.[/quote]
I hope not. I would much rather see Rogue Squadron 4, PilotWings Wii, or Star Fox Wii come out of Factor Five before an on foot game.
 
Rogue Squadron was good. I don't know what everyone else is talking about.

Anyway, what probably happened was that they couldn't get another budget to do a 360/PS3 game after the disaster that was Lair.

Hence they've probably only managed to allot a budget for a Wii game.
 
^I agree Rogue Squadron was good. The only thing I didn't like about the series was the on foot parts from 3, they were horrible and I don't know why Factor 5 thought including on foot segments would be a good idea.
 
I remember Factor 5 applying Zelda-like controls on the n64 port of Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. That was actually a pretty good game, but it froze a lot though. Personally, I would love another Pilot Wings. The Wii needs a good flight simulation game. Wing Island, Heatseeker, and Blazing Angels do not do justice.
 
[quote name='4tygames']I remember Factor 5 applying Zelda-like controls on the n64 port of Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. That was actually a pretty good game, but it froze a lot though. Personally, I would love another Pilot Wings. The Wii needs a good flight simulation game. Wing Island, Heatseeker, and Blazing Angels do not do justice.[/quote]

and since Wing island, heaterseeker, and blazing angels all bombed, we need a damn good airplane / flying game asap -_-V
 
I am almost positive I remember F5 trashing the Wii sometime within the last year (obviously, before Eggbrecht came out an said that "developers on the Wii are lazy and it is a more capable machine than everyone perceives"), but I wouldn't know how to dig up the quote.

I'll believe the game when I see it. If they just started - and I'm going to wager that they did - it will be 1.5 years or more before it could be released, depending on how long it takes them to adjust to the development environment.

So let's just say I'm cautiously ...cautious.
 
Meh. They absolutely have to prove themselves after earning their Factor 4.5 reputation.
 
I thought Rogue Squadron II deserved the scores that Lair got, except it got much better scores. Perhaps this is just what happens when you take away the SW license?
 
Wow, you guys are harsh on the Star Fox games. I liked Adventures and Assault both...a lot. Still play them (OK, mainly Assault...hella fun). Haven't tried the DS version, though.
 
[quote name='Ice2Dragon']I liked Lair..

But I dont consider Rogue Squadron a hit..[/quote]

You don't have to consider it a hit but RSquadron sold over 2 million copies and RSquadron 2 sold nearly 2 million copies. RSquadron 3 was generally considered to have good flying missions but the on-foot sections were flawed.

Lair has only managed to sell like 300,000 copies worldwide.
 
[quote name='Zen Davis']Rogue Squadron was good. I don't know what everyone else is talking about.
[/quote]

Rogue Squadron was good, Rogue Leader was great, but the third one was pretty crappy. A couple of the vehicle stages were ok, but most weren't up to par with Rogue Leader's levels and the on foot stages were fucking dreadful.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Rogue Squadron was good, Rogue Leader was great, but the third one was pretty crappy. A couple of the vehicle stages were ok, but most weren't up to par with Rogue Leader's levels and the on foot stages were fucking dreadful.[/quote]

Pretty much.
 
I played Rogue Squadron 3 and found it pretty mediocre, I think it got an elevated score for the Star Wars license. I haven't really been impressed by Factor 5.
 
[quote name='msdmoney']I played Rogue Squadron 3 and found it pretty mediocre, I think it got an elevated score for the Star Wars license. I haven't really been impressed by Factor 5.[/QUOTE]

It's 76.8% on Game Rankings. I'd say that's a mediocre score. Rouge Leader got a 89.9% by comparison.
 
My take on this is they lost a shitload of money on Lair, so they will release a hurried, un-polished, and most likely crappy title on the Wii in hopes to boost income. But lets hope not.
 
[quote name='JoeTheZombie']My take on this is they lost a shitload of money on Lair, so they will release a hurried, un-polished, and most likely crappy title on the Wii in hopes to boost income. But lets hope not.[/quote]

I think they'll be asking Nintendo to hold their hand.
 
Yeah, it could very well be some licensed shovelware designed to make a quick buck like most third party Wii offerings thus far.

Hopefully not though. I'd personally love to see another Rogue Sqaudron game, as long as it's polished like Rogue Leader, and not 100% motion controlled crap like Lair.
 
I just got Rogue Squadron 3 via Goozex, as you can see below this post. It has a crappy single player experience, but in my opinion the co-op makes up for it; me and my lady have had a blast so far (although she died like 10 times by running into the friggin' Death Star during the first level).

Of course, the co-op seems very much like a feature that was dropped from Rogue Leader due to the short dev time, what with it only including Rogue Leader's levels.
 
[quote name='RelentlessRolento']I smell "Princess Peach Air Battle"[/quote]
I demand that, as "CAG's only game designer", you make this game IMMEDIATELY.
 
I liked the first two Rogue Squadrons. I'm not exactly sure why people are bashing them now, but it seems like what happens with almost every game after a few years.

Factor 5 seems to have some talented developers. I think anything they could do would be of interest. Even Lair was an interesting failure, that really showed off some amazing tech. I don't know, I hardly find any developer makes AAA titles every time.
 
Not sure what to make of it. No nostalgia for me as I never played it back in the day, and didn't like it much when I tried to play it on emulator a few years ago.

But it does seem to be out of Factor 5's breadbasket genre wise. What have the done besides the Rogue Squadron games and Lair?
 
Actually, now that I think about it, they did the rather good ports of Turrican for the Genesis and SNES, didn't they? That series has a similar feel to Kid Icarus. Although I'm with dmaul, I didn't like the original game that much. Still, it has a lot of potential, and the more Nintendo franchises the better.
 
I like how every company that's close to Nintendo and puts out great games decides to go out on their own starts to suck for some un-explained reason.:lol:

Anyway... I really don't know if I want them back. Lair played like ass and I really don't know what to expect from them now. I'm guessing we'll see some remakes of the GC Rogue Squadron games or something.
 
Some of you people are insane. Rogue Leader (whatever the first GC game was called) was my favorite game of last gen. THAT was the game I wanted to play when I was a kid and the original movies came out :drool:. The only thing that knocked it down in my eyes was the asinine Load/Save/Erase feature that led to my son erasing my game save with all the Gold medals (TWICE) in it. I haven't had the heart to get them all back again :cry:. That was some horrendous UI design right there - the rest of the game was technically awesome though.
 
Hey, remember - I loved Rebel Strike. I just don't like it when Factor 5 starts branching out into doing something "different". Like dragons. Or on-foot missions. Or Kid Icarus.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']Hey, remember - I loved Rebel Strike. I just don't like it when Factor 5 starts branching out into doing something "different". Like dragons. Or on-foot missions. Or Kid Icarus.[/QUOTE]
No argument there. My son also erased my Rebel Strike game save (same horrible interface design) after I had slogged through the on-foot missions to get golds. There was no WAY I was going to repeat those.

He's now finally old enough (7-8) to play the game with me now and we had some fun a few months back playing the coop missions. We'll have to pick that up again.
 
I found the on-foot missions to be unbelievably easy. Hold the "R" trigger and spam jumps and lasers. Move forward as needed.

That "endurance test" of a final level, though? fuck that noise.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']I found the on-foot missions to be unbelievably easy. Hold the "R" trigger and spam jumps and lasers. Move forward as needed.
[/QUOTE]

Easy to get golds, though? You have to shoot sparingly, usually, to meet the accuracy targets.
 
Nah, accuracy's fine on-foot. The only real impediments are the horrendous camera and "Am I locked on? No? Okay, how about now? Hmmm... Now?" aiming mechanism.
 
Rebel Strike's on-foot missions were good for a laugh but that's about it. I'll never forget F5 turning Yoda into a fourth-wall ignorant clown. "Press the B Button to use the force" indeed, Yoda.
 
I also liked how the "skills" you got during that level - double jumping, lightsaber combat, blocking - were useful for a good three minutes outside of that level.
 
Rebel Strike's foot missions was the game's downfall. Not a good sign for them making a potential Kid Icarus game. If you want to revive a 20 year old dead franchise this isn't the way to do it.

[quote name='Strell']I am almost positive I remember F5 trashing the Wii sometime within the last year (obviously, before Eggbrecht came out an said that "developers on the Wii are lazy and it is a more capable machine than everyone perceives"), but I wouldn't know how to dig up the quote.

[/QUOTE]

It was an issue of EGM (a preview page for Lair). He praised on PS3 saying it was the only system that could do the level of graphics and audio they wanted in games. Too bad they checked gameplay at the door for their inaugural release on that system.
 
Factor 5 should just make Star Fox for the Wii. Seeing how bad the GCN games were, it can only get better. Plus, pretty graphics would be nice.
 
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