The Video Game Critic

They are a Nintendo owned studio, but I have to mention Intelligent Designs. They created the Fire Emblem series, Advance Wars, and Metroid, among other things.
 
Also, yeah, Capcom.... c'mon folks! They have their misses but what a legacy otherwise.
 
Interesting that I can't seen to remember too many mentions of Squaresoft. Sure, they iterate the same few games, but they certainly create consistent, high quality experiences.
 
As far as newer companies go, I'd say BioWare and Pandemic (they are kind of one entity now). They both make interesting and well made titles.
 
Bad companies? Hmm.....
 
Ion Storm for Daikatana and for mismanaging gross amounts of money. Shame on you John Romero and co. for losing your mind. Of course I exclude Warren Spector, obviously.
 
Now, the rest of these companies aren't "bad" or anything, but aren't my favorites for the following reasons:
 
Id Software: Overrated at this point. Carmack's a brilliant programmer, but they no longer have any substance. Shoot, they are almost a middleware developer, the people who license their engines make more interesting games than they do (of course, after saying this I'll probably be called up for a big music contract for them, which I'll totally reverse course and say they're great!).
 
Rare: They jumped the shark with the Xbox 360 Perfect Dark.
 
Majesco: Totally bungled with Advent Rising. That game could have been a smash hit, but they decided to use a rookie developer to make it, and the resulting game engine is a mess. Sadly, the game features one of the most beautiful musical scores you'll find anywhere, and it's wasted.
 
3D Realms: Duke Nukem Forever. At this point, we have to wonder if this was really a viral marketing scheme all along.
 
-Rob
 

Ion Storm made the greatest FPS ever created - Deus Ex.
 
iD a middleware company?  They license their product to only a select few developers unlike Epic who farm the stuff out to anyone who'll take it.  iD have never made a bad game once.  And besides Quake 4 their own products have always shined above their licensees.
 
Perfect Dark Zero was made for the Perfect Dark and Goldeneye fans, not the Halo fans.

Did I not say that Warren Spector was exempt from my Ion Storm comment? He was the creator of Deus Ex, right?
 
Id may not license to the extent that Epic does. But they have a history of allowing a select amount of developers use their engine, and since Romero left, those companies tend to make, in my own personal view, more compelling games.
 
I think you might have missed the part of my post where I said that I didn't think the companies were "bad." Just maybe a little overhyped. Id hasn't made a bad game. Just not a great one in awhile, at least according to my own tastes in games.
 
-Rob

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Namco

[QUOTE=Adamant]And buh, no mention of Capcom either? Come on, people.[/QUOTE]

I have a love-hate relationship with Capcom. They make great games, but then decide to whore it.

[QUOTE=Conn][QUOTE=Adamant]And buh, no mention of Capcom either? Come on, people.[/QUOTE]

I have a love-hate relationship with Capcom. They make great games, but then decide to whore it.[/QUOTE]

I agree. In my book, the Megaman franchise is the dead horse that Capcom keeps beating.
 
Also, I really like Inis. Although they just started, every single one of their games is top notch (EBA, anyone?)

There is more to a whole division than just it's lead designer.  If you had set "exempting Ion Storm Austin" then that would have been allright.
 
Please, Romero was a hack.  He didn't even do a much of the level design on Quake.  Besides Doom name one game he has been involved in that has been any good.  iD's most creative projects visually in my opinion have been Quake 3 and Doom 3.  Both have an amazing style that all the licensees of those engines have copied.  Hell even Call of Duty 2 still had Quake 3 style architecture.  And please show me a Doom 3 engine game that wasn't visually inspired by Doom 3.
 
I know you said they were just overated but those companies are some of the best in my opinion.
 
 

I found Doom 3's graphics to be technically superb, but overall I didn't like them too much.  It had lighting effects up the wazoo and great textures, but I found the look to be incredibly boring.  I guess it doesn't really matter because they nailed the mood they were going after and graphics aside I felt it was one of the best FPS in years though.
 
 
 
 

I've always been a huge Technos fan. The Kunio series of games are my favorite of all time. Atlus has some decent GBA stuff. Konami used to be able to do no wrong either.

ULTIMATE - Play The Game: Sabre-Wulf, Knight Lore. Class.

Ultimate made "better than the arcade" games for cheap, simple computers. They achieved in 48k and 8 colours what other developers considered impossible. I don't think any games programmers before, or since, stretched hardware the way the Stamper brothers did. In 1983 people were playing dodgy versions of Pac Man and Donkey Kong - then Knight Lore came along on a simple little rubber keyed computer. Gorgeous 3D graphics, full animation, interactive scenery, and tomb-raider style puzzles and traps that would be the mainstay of adventure games for decades.

As much as I love Nintendo and Ocarina Of Time (my favoutie game); that game didn't even come close to the quantum leap that was coming from Ultimate.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabre_Wulf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Lore