What about Ninja Theory?:troll:
I severely offended you didn't mention Team Ninja (Ninja Gaiden).
First off, i forgot to mention my list is not absoulte
Just companies i acknowledge and have proven themself.
As for Ninja theory - they havent proven themself. DmC gameplay was made by Capcom (Team Little Devils, Itsuno etc).
Just because Ninja theory with help from Capcom made DMC gameplay formula to a lesser degree on Unreal Engine does not make them excellent.
Let me give you a analogy to illustrate my point further:
Two students are given a asssignment to solve a mathematical task individually. Student A receives help from teacher, while Student B doesn´t.
Student A uses 12 minutes to solve the task.
Student B uses 15 minutes to solve the task.
Which of the student is more accomplished in your opinion? Student A or B?
The only thing i hear about Ninja theory aside from the gameplay they produced that they didn´t pioneer (DMC gameplay) are:
Motion capture - irelevant in a Hack and Slash - unless its a bonus
Enviroment - irelevant unless its a bonus thing
Story - right...great story. Outsorcing.
Let´s take standpoint in DmC. Because of the "story" , they didn´t add taunt (which some fans wanted).
They didnt bother with 60 fps because they rather work on Unreal ...or because they wanted dynamic enviroments which Unreal allowed them. They turned down to work with Capcom´s engine for one of those reasons.
And let´s take anotehr example. You say "I prefer MGR over DmC", MGR = roughly 2 years development time.
DmC....roughly 3 years.
That shows you how much better Platinum Games is than Ninja theory.
And honestly Vigil Games made Darksiders 2 pretty good on their own (remember NT did it with help from Capcom).
Reproducing a gameplay that other developers invented/pioneered doesn´t make you excellent, it just make you a good copycat. Actually...NT didn´t do that so well either, they were above average at copying .
Maybe if they had made Heavenly sword 2 or Enslaved 2 instead of DmC and it was around same level as Darksiders 2, then i would have put them up there as good developers at Hack and Slash.
But i bet if they do make HS 2 or Ens 2 now, and they make above average gameplay its partially because of Capcom´s help and their experience with DMC gameplay.
And considering NT´s philosphy "Elevate games story and cinematics so that it rivalizes movies" (what a stupid philosphy) ...i dont think they will innovate Hack and Slash.
I find their philosphy a joke because games...are great mediums for story even without great graphics. And games are primarily about gameplay = interaction, not bloody cinematics or story.
I am not anti story, i am just stating a fact.