Ben-DutkaI remember working in EB when Daikatana came out. I was only into RPGs in those days so I didn't play it, but I remember the backlash…that game and its designer, some dude called John Romero, was getting run through the shredder .
Seriously, like every other customer that came in had some jab. And then I found out that it was the same guy who worked on titles like DOOM and Quake and I went, "Damn, one bad game and all his work on iconic titles is down the drain?" Well, it kinda felt that way at the time, anyway.
And now a reader shoots me a link to Romero's Twitter page , where the man in question was asked if he had given up on making an "old-school first-person shooter." You know, like the kind he always used to make. His answer was actually a little surprising…and encouraging.
"Definitely not. I have plans…"
He did clarify that it won't be Daikatana 2 , though, and based on what I remember, that's probably a good idea. Romero has been all over the place since leaving id Software back in 1996; he has worked everywhere from Midway to Gazillion Entertainment to Ion Games and right now, he's CEO and co-founder of Loot Drop, a developer that focuses primarily on social and mobile gaming. So maybe those are the platforms Romero has in mind for this "old-school FPS."
Still, I'd rather it be for major gaming platforms. Give this guy a chance to shine again. I still remember my coworkers pointing to that red box and laughing and shaking their heads, and going- "We got five copies in last week…still have four left."