Tomb Raider Forums  

Go Back   Tomb Raider Forums > General Forums > General Chat

Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 23-10-19, 13:11   #1
dg1995
Member
 
dg1995's Avatar
 
Joined: Mar 2019
Posts: 1,976
Default Why outside of TR, Core didn't make any memorable games ?

The only games of Core Design that people praise are their TR games.(Maybe excluding the last 2 but imo they are still enjoyable and good flawed games)

The only other game they made that was turned into a franchise was Fighting Force but that franchise died with its second game.

Did they just put all their talented staff on TR games?
Or their other games never got the support that they needed?

A talented developer makes different kinds of enjoyable games. For example, the Resident Evil team at Capcom also made Dino Crisis, Devil May Cry , Viewtiful Joe , Okami , God Hand etc while Core Design made Tomb Raider games and some forgettable games.
dg1995 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23-10-19, 13:34   #2
tomee
Member
 
tomee's Avatar
 
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 15,630
Default

Core Design was a small studio. They made a bunch of different games, but Tomb Raider was their breakthrough. It was so successful, that after '96, that's all they focused their resources on, up until 2003. They just didn't have the manpower to develop anything else simultaneously.

If you think about it, Crystal was also producing nothing but Tomb Raider for over a decade. They had to pass Tomb Raider into the hands of Eidos just to be able to develop the Avengers.
tomee is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23-10-19, 13:41   #3
dg1995
Member
 
dg1995's Avatar
 
Joined: Mar 2019
Posts: 1,976
Default

I remember Crystal developed Legacy Of Kain before Tomb Raider.

Also don't get me wrong. I'm not saying Core Design weren't talented, It's just kinda weird they didn't make any other memorable franchises other than TR.
dg1995 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23-10-19, 13:46   #4
Portugalraider
Member
 
Portugalraider's Avatar
 
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 6,901
Default

Crystal did have the "Soul Reaver" franchise before handling Tomb Raider, but it's not that uncommon for a single studio to only have a major franchise at a time, when they finally get a big hit. It just happened that Tomb Raider was the only big hit Core got before they closed.
Portugalraider is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23-10-19, 16:40   #5
Samz
Member
 
Samz's Avatar
 
Joined: Jun 2018
Posts: 6,529
Default

I know a bunch of ex-core devs made the PS2 game "Without Warning" that I think is the only third person cover shooter to be more tedious than 2013.

I know another bunch ended up in another studios that made such "classics" like Shellshock 2 Blood trails.
Samz is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 23-10-19, 19:45   #6
dg1995
Member
 
dg1995's Avatar
 
Joined: Mar 2019
Posts: 1,976
Default

Unfortunately after AOD, they never managed to make a "hit" game. I saw somewhere they worked on the PSP version of Free Running and that crappy Rogue Warrior game.
dg1995 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23-10-19, 19:51   #7
Quebsenuef
Member
 
Quebsenuef's Avatar
 
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 16,968
Default

I think it has a bit to do with whether or not their other games were going to be interesting enough to gain a following and then how Eidos at the time wanted to do with Core and their other game children.

I remember they did a game called Herdy Gerdy in 2002 for PS2. My parents got it for me and I had no interest in the game. It was a puzzle game from what I remember but that was it. I think a big part was Core wasn’t too good at creating stories that really made the players interested. TR1 and 2 had stories but the main draw was Lara.
Quebsenuef is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23-10-19, 19:56   #8
Caesum
Member
 
Caesum's Avatar
 
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 12,070
Default

Core Design studio was founded in 1988. I bet most of people here only played Tomb Raider game and onward and we all know that after TR1 Core was practically forced to work on TR solely. If we really want to know if Core had other good and known franchises we should look at their games made before Tomb Raider. Personally I heard they were really good at making quality games for SEGA platforms. Unfortunately I have only played their PSX-PS2 titles so can't tell if that's true. I guess the same applies to 90% of people here.
Caesum is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23-10-19, 20:47   #9
Catapharact
Member
 
Catapharact's Avatar
 
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 23,157
Default

If you look at the genre of the Video Game that Core was producing prior to Tomb Raider, you will notice that almost all of them had heavy competition to deal with during the time of their release; Specifically from better Marketed and established Japanese IPs.

Games like Action Fighter which came out in 1988 had to overcome the popularity of established titles such as Spy Hunter and Chase H.Q. (An Arcade Video Game that IMO inspired the Need For Speed Hot Pursuit series.)

When Tomb Raider made its debut, it was revolutionary in the sense that it ironed out a lot of issues with 3D Platformers at the time, it was cutting edge in Graphics, and it had a female Protagonist; All aspects which singled it out as a unique game.
Catapharact is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23-10-19, 21:05   #10
Blackmoor
Member
 
Blackmoor's Avatar
 
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 15,409
Default

Core did make another memorable game - they made Project Eden at the time of making TR, which is one of my favourite-est games of all time. You are in a team of 4, each of whom have different abilities, and the levels are essentially puzzles that you need to work out using the intermixed abilities of all 4 whilst going on this creepy, futuritistic action adventure. It's great!

Too much pressure was put on this amazing developer and instead of nurturing the talent they had them whipping out games all the time.

I don't want to get into a this developer v. that developer but Crystal Dynamics' other franchise, the one they worked on whilst Core developed TR, was alleged by Silicon Knights to be stolen from them.

According to wiki (so who knows how accurate, but...):

"Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain was created by Silicon Knights under the direction of Denis Dyack, with assistance from publisher Crystal Dynamics".

"The first title, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, was created by Silicon Knights in association with Crystal Dynamics, but, after a legal battle, Crystal Dynamics retained the rights to the game's intellectual property, and continued its story with four sequels."

Who knows what really happened although I find it very interesting that Silicon Knights were the primary developers for the initial game / IP for that franchise and then for Crystal Dynamics's second franchise (TR) they were given the IP from another studio.

Last edited by Blackmoor; 23-10-19 at 21:07.
Blackmoor is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT. The time now is 10:49.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Tomb Raider Forums is not owned or operated by CDE Entertainment Ltd.
Lara Croft and Tomb Raider are trademarks of CDE Entertainment Ltd.