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The PS4’s Worst Reviewed Game is Being Rebuilt From the Ground Up
Let’s say you’re in the market for a PS4. So you, being the savvy consumer that you undoubtedly are, decide to look up the console’s best-rated titles on Metacritic to see if the platform has enough quality games to make it worth its $400 price tag. After scrolling through the list, you reach the bottom and are greeted with Basement Crawl, Bloober Team’s horror-themed Bomberman clone that released this February to scathing reviews (it sits at an abysmal 27, based on 16 reviews).
If you read Bloody Disgusting prior to the game’s release, you may recognize the title. I gave the game a fair amount of coverage leading up to its release because it looked like a genuinely eerie little game. Unfortunately, the only thing that’s scary about Basement Crawl is how awful it is, and this is something its developer is fully aware of.
Speaking with GameSpot, Bloober Team’s Marc Colhoun detailed their plan to try and make it up to those who spent money on what was largely an unfinished, buggy mess of a game. According to Colhoun, they’re not only deeply apologetic for the state of the game, they’re working on remedying the situation by rebuilding the game and making it available as a free download to those who bought the original.
“Usually, what you will see at this point is a lot of marketing talk and maybe a patch. Rather than accepting defeat on this and issuing a patch that kinda fixes this or kinda improves that, we have decided to just come out and explain to you where we are right now and what we plan to do. We have been rebuilding the game, completely from scratch and on a new engine.”
“I know that this isn’t really the way things are usually done in the industry, but I think that if you have put a bad product out to people it is your job to do what you can to fix that. Even if it means going back to the drawing board on a game that has already been released.”
“We don’t want to come out and say that this [new version] is going to be 10/10 GoTY, but just a way for us to regain the trust of gamers. We also really don’t want anyone to think that this is some kind of quick money grab. So, we will be giving this game for free to people who bought the original game. This is our priority, to ensure that we give you what you expected from us. To do this we are getting in touch with as many people as we can that bought the game to get feedback and help ensure that you guys are just as much part of the process as we are.”
“This deals with the technical issues we ran into but a few of you spoke about how there needs to be a tutorial, AI, more game types and so on. We have added all of these things into the game and more. We aren’t talking about it too much right now simply because we are in no position to be making promises to people.”
It’s clear that Bloober Team wants to fix this. That’s admirable, and it may even be enough to restore faith in the developer. No studio wants to be known for making a console’s worst reviewed game, and Basement Crawl has some definite potential, at least in terms of its atmosphere and creepy/quirky cast of characters. You can see a little of each in its debut teaser below.
Sam Neill, the New Zealand actor best known for his role in 1993’s Jurassic Park, has passed away this week at 78 years old. In a statement shared on Neill’s Instagram page this morning, the actor’s family said that his passing was “sudden and unexpected.”
Neill had been diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in 2022, but stated the following year that he was in remission. The family notes that he “remained cancer free” at the time of his passing.
The family statement reads, “It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia. Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life. The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.
“They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care. More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.”
In addition to his iconic role as Dr. Alan Grant in the original Jurassic Park and the sequels Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World: Dominion, Sam Neill left an indelible mark on the horror genre with memorable roles in Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession, The Omen: The Final Conflict, John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness, and sci-fi horror favorite Event Horizon.
Sam Neill’s vast resume in film and television began in the early 1970s and also includes the films Sleeping Dogs, Enigma, The Good Wife, A Cry in the Dark, Dead Calm, The Hunt for Red October, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Hostage, The Jungle Book, Snow White: A Tale of Terror, The Horse Whisperer, Bicentennial Man, Daybreakers, Escape Plan, and Thor: Ragnarok.
Sam Neill is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren.
Steven Spielberg said in a statement to Variety, “I owe a debt of gratitude to Roger Donaldson, Gilliam Armstrong, Graham Baker and Phillip Noyce for casting Sam Neill in the roles in which he was so brilliant that brought him to my attention and led to his playing Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park. Sam was exceptionally collaborative. It was a stretch for him to play a character who acted as though children were messy and smelly because this was the opposite of the loving father he was to his children. I adored making all the Jurassic movies with him.”
Spielberg adds, “Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our Jurassic family and Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the world.”
Sam Neill in ‘Event Horizon’
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