Has Michael Unsworth left Rockstar Games?

[daltontigerboy]

15 minutes ago, Lie said:

Guess Unsworth won’t be getting credit, seeing as he’s leaving midway through a project 

Ironically, the person(s) at Rockstar responsible for enforcing that policy might have already departed or will have departed the company by the time VI releases, lol.

[SpiderVice_Sucks]

2 minutes ago, Spider-Vice said:

I mean, the game itself won't be but the narrative beats are most likely close to set in stone if not fully so.

So 2024 release coming!!! /s

[Leonida Man]

42 minutes ago, daltontigerboy said:

Totally possible and welcome.

 

Unfortunately when looking at the industry as a whole over the last 5 years, there's not a ton of evidence to support that the new school of talent (especially on the writing side) is better than what we had before. In fact there's a good bit of evidence to the contrary. This is certainly not an objective thing to argue though. One man's trash is no doubt another man's treasure.

Oh, noooo! the wokes took me grandma values away 

 

Jokes aside, you have to be cherry picking to say the writing is worse than 5 years ago, or to say that it's better. There's great examples of both ends, as it always has been.

[Agent Edward]

Is this even a confirmed thing or are you people arguing over nothing again?

[RoughD]

Don’t know how to feel about it. Firstly of course this is a bittersweet news, he was a veteran and shaped lots of stories in our beloved games, also him being a writing leader alongside mighty Dan certainly had an impact on R* games. I only wish that their values will be preserved in future titles. As we know lots of examples when “veterans leaving studios having no impact on future games” resulting into total disasters (Saints Row for example).

 

 

[drdrimes]

[Jason]

Anyone saying writing has gone downhill in the industry in the past five years is simply saying that they don't play many, or know of, many videos games outside of their small circle. Disco Elysium was 2019 for one, lol.

 

Meanwhile in terms of overall talent we've had two games of the generation contenders this year, with another possibly in a week, with 2023 overall being widely regarded as one of the strongest years for video games ever.

[sanjay3207]

1 hour ago, ionutx02 said:

Just imagine how many different people developed RDR2 than GTA San Andreas for example

This is kinda true because, Many OG Rockstar executives/writers/creativea left Rockstar after GTA SA. Some ex. are terry Donovan, Jamie king, Paul kurowski, James worral and many more left Rockstar. Michael unsworth and Rupert humphries joined Rockstar after their departure and their 1st game was GTA 4. These creatives departure did have some impact on GTA 4 considering how much different it is compared to the original GTA's.

[Jason]

Tbh what's funny is that I actually looked at his LinkedIn a week or so ago and saw it exactly as it was and just assumed it meant he's still working there, but someone views the wording another way and now the community "reporters" are putting out BREAKING news bulletins on something despite the fact that we literally have no idea at all if it's true. 

 

Top tier reporting from our community reporters once again, lmao.

 

If it is true given the timing it likely means his work on VI is done though, which could be a good sign that the game is indeed heading for 2024.

[Retro_Causality]

so its just Rubert Humphreys left?

[Agent Edward]

I don't even know if I care about RDR3 anymore to be honest, as long as they've written GTA6's story already, which is the only thing I'm interested in nowadays, in fact I might just change my name again.

[The-Ghost]

3 minutes ago, Retro_Causality said:

so its just Rubert Humphreys left?

No, word has it everyone left, and the game is done.

 

Nobody to get it out there though.

 

Shame.

[RoughD]

Yeah maybe he soon will be promoted to CEO of writing

[Retro_Causality]

2 hours ago, Spider-Vice said:

He will lol, much like his position was still being updated in the GTA Online credits. If anything the writing is mostly finished so he's felt comfortable in leaving now, so he'd be credited.

the writing is finished but the recording/mocap/voice acting isn't so i assume he wont be around for potential re-writes?

[Spider-Vice]

4 minutes ago, Jason said:

Tbh what's funny is that I actually looked at his LinkedIn a week or so ago and saw it exactly as it was and just assumed it meant he's still working there, but someone views the wording another way and now the community "reporters" are putting out BREAKING news bulletins on something despite the fact that we literally have no idea at all if it's true. 

 

Top tier reporting from our community reporters once again, lmao.

 

If it is true given the timing it likely means his work on VI is done though, which could be a good sign that the gaming is indeed heading for 2024.

Yeah, for all we know he made a title change in his LinkedIn that made it so it shows "until 2023" on his Rockstar Games career even if he's still there lol. It's the reason why when I split the posts into a new thread I titled it a question, there's no announcement or certainty, like, say, Dan Houser. But again even if he did leave... /shrug

[DisCrafted]

4 minutes ago, Retro_Causality said:

so its just Rubert Humphreys left?

We don't even know if this "news" is indeed true. Doesn't stop the "reporters" from tweeting it out as "BREAKING NEWS!!!" though, does it?

[RacWolley]

Is it just me or does it still say “Rockstar Games” under his name? It just says he’a a writer.

[Jason]

1 minute ago, Spider-Vice said:

But again even if he did leave... /shrug

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

It's a weird one in the R* community honestly. It is true that R* are one of the more rarer studios that keep a lot of their talent (of which there is a lot, now just the 5 names most R* fans know) and that of course will have an influence on the studio but yea, uh, turn over in the industry is incredibly common in the grand scheme of things.

 

Not to mention that these people have been in this job for a long time now and will be moving on to either a last new challenge or just flat out retirement. They can't do this forever and while yes any of the longstanding R* OG's leaving is gonna have some sort of impact, it's always a bit silly that the reaction is to fearmonger the whole thing.

 

Personally there's areas of R* where I'd want fresh blood because I think there's elements of their games, like the controls, that need a complete overhaul from top to bottom cause per RDR2 articles years back, there's at least one person up high in the studio stopping that.

[Agent Edward]

6 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

It's a weird one in the R* community honestly. It is true that R* are one of the more rarer studios that keep a lot of their talent (of which there is a lot, now just the 5 names most R* fans know) and that of course will have an influence on the studio but yea, uh, turn over in the industry is incredibly common in the grand scheme of things.

 

Not to mention that these people have been in this job for a long time now and will be moving on to either a last new challenge or just flat out retirement. They can't do this forever and while yes any of the longstanding R* OG's leaving is gonna have some sort of impact, it's always a bit silly that the reaction is to fearmonger the whole thing.

 

Personally there's areas of R* where I'd want fresh blood because I think there's elements of their games, like the controls, that need a complete overhaul from top to bottom cause per RDR2 articles years back, there's at least one person up high in the studio stopping that.

What these changes would be? Other than improving the input lag oc.

[Jason]

Just now, Edward RDRIII said:

What these changes would be? Other than improving the input lag oc.

 

Their games feel very meh to play on a controller when you do any sort of combat. The clunkyness, the wide turning circles, poor cover mechanics, the "cinematic" camera controls that make free aim on controller so horrendous that they design the game around auto aim. They can do shooting controls on controller that feel great, MP3 is proof, but for their open world games they flat out choose not to.

 

While I'm here I'd also say they need people who are experienced in designing good combat scenarios in general, they far too often rely on aimbot AI that spawn behind you for challenge over well thought out fights. So much of R* combat based missions are: start with 500 enemies shooting at you > enter the cover closest > poke your head in and out of said cover abusing the auto aim to headshot said enemies. Movement just results in you taking an enormous amount of chip damage or just outright dying.

 

Also someone good at game economies would be nice, GTA/RDR economies in SP are basically you start poor, you stay poor, stay poor a bit more, then you have enough money to purchase a country.

[Trafficante]

Mans quit R* to play Starfield, cut him some slack 

[RoughD]

It would be interesting to see a round up of all veterans that are currently at a studios

[Agent Edward]

3 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

Their games feel very meh to play on a controller when you do any sort of combat. The clunkyness, the wide turning circles, poor cover mechanics, the "cinematic" camera controls that make free aim on controller so horrendous that they design the game around auto aim. They can do shooting controls on controller that feel great, MP3 is proof, but for their open world games they flat out choose not to.

 

While I'm here I'd also say they need people who are experienced in designing good combat scenarios in general, they far too often rely on aimbot AI that spawn behind you for challenge over well thought out fights. So much of R* combat based missions are: start with 500 enemies shooting at you > enter the cover closest > poke your head in and out of said cover abusing the auto aim to headshot said enemies. Movement just results in you taking an enormous amount of chip damage or just outright dying.

 

Also someone good at game economies would be nice, GTA/RDR economies in SP are basically you start poor, you stay poor, stay poor a bit more, then you have enough money to purchase a country.

As a free aim player one thing I hate is having to press or hold A while already holding the analog stick to make the main character walk faster while shooting, why can't the game just recognize that if I'm holding the analogue stick all the way to one side is because I want to walk faster while shooting? While I could just, y'know, focus more in the actual combat buttons instead of pressing or holding A too.

[Jason]

5 minutes ago, Edward RDRIII said:

As a free aim player one thing I hate is having to press or hold A while already holding the analog stick to make the main character walk faster while shooting, why can't the game just recognize that if I'm holding the analogue stick all the way to one side is because I want to walk faster while shooting? While I could just, y'know, focus more in the actual combat buttons instead of pressing or holding A too.

 

Different control schemes they've added help with this, there is a good one called Standard FPS 2 (I think, been a while) in GTA V that puts sprint on RB/R1, allowing you to move, aim, shoot and sprint at the same time. They've gotten a lot better with QoL stuff like that in more recent years, current GTAO has the option to turn sprint from a tap to a hold too IIRC.

[HybridTalonZ]

1 hour ago, TheOverlookHotel said:

The replies on this tweet gave me a brain tumor.

I’m confused I’m looking at his LinkedIn and I’m not seeing where it says he left

 

Edit: I guess it’s because it says “spent” hm. Well that sucks, but hopefully he gets to where he wants to go

Edited August 26, 2023 by HybridTalonZ

[Index]

I think I changed my controls a bit the last time I played. Having the left stick pushed in once to jog and again to sprint really felt a heck of a lot better.

[DisCrafted]

14 minutes ago, RoughD said:

It would be interesting to see a round up of all veterans that are currently at a studios

There are many. Alongside some of the more known names like Aaron Garbut, Rob Nelson, Jennifer Kolbe (and others whose names I can't remember right now), looking at LinkedIn profiles you'd see people who are still there after 15 years etc... But because they have other roles and don't get involved with public appearances/interviews people don't zero in on them as if they're solely responsible for everything in these games like they do with people such as Benzies, Houser, Lazlow etc which is ironic because IIRC, one of the Housers, forgot if it was Sam or Dan, said in the past they don't like to appear in a lot in public interviews and events and whatnot because their games are team efforts and they don't want all the attention to go to a couple of people.

Edited August 26, 2023 by DisCrafted

[sanjay3207]

Just now, HybridTalonZ said:

I’m confused I’m looking at his LinkedIn and I’m not seeing where it says he left

It says "Vice president of writing [2008 - 2023]". The 2023 "might" signal that he left the company. Apart from that we do not have a official confirmation from rockstar or t2. Personally, I would wait for a official confirmation before jumping into conclusions. 

[daltontigerboy]

RDR2 controls perfectly fine after making a few critical settings tweaks in the game's settings. (Switching run from tap-X to click L3 is one example, also adjusting aim sensitivities, accelerations and deadzones)

 

To say it needs a "complete overhaul from top to bottom" is a bit much. Is Arthur supposed to float around or control like a Dark Souls character? There is obvious intent with how the characters move and control in Rockstar's RAGE era titles.

 

Sure, the aiming could be improved a good deal to allow for true free-aim gameplay and the input lag of some actions could be cleaned up a bit, but a "complete overhaul" would result in the game losing some of the personality and charm that has made Rockstar's last handful of titles so grounded. It very well might not even be possible for Rockstar to make the player character control as free-and-loose as other games while retaining the physics and realism that we all love from RAGE/Euphoria.

 

An open-world story driven Rockstar game cannot be designed to control like Max Payne 3 where the character is light-of-foot, constantly in a jog while aiming his guns forward, and ready to dive behind cover at the drop of a hat. That would look ridiculous in a game like GTA or RDR and wouldn't fit the context or tone of the game at all. It's not feasible. Max in MP3 isn't designed to ragdoll realistically like Niko after jumping out of a moving car going 100mph. That's why MP3 feels the way it does when you control Max, and games like GTAIV and RDR2 feel the way they do when you control Niko/Arthur.

Edited August 26, 2023 by daltontigerboy

[TheOverlookHotel]

3 minutes ago, daltontigerboy said:

RDR2 controls perfectly fine after making a few critical settings tweaks in the game's settings. (Switching run from tap-X to click L3 is one example, also adjusting aim sensitivities, accelerations and deadzones)

 

To say it needs a "complete overhaul from top to bottom" is a bit much. Is Arthur supposed to float around or control like a Dark Souls character? There is obvious intent with how the characters move and control in Rockstar's RAGE era titles.

 

Sure, the aiming could be improved a good deal to allow for true free-aim gameplay and the input lag of some actions could be cleaned up a bit, but a "complete overhaul" would result in the game losing some of the personality and charm that has made Rockstar's last handful of titles so grounded. It very well might not even be possible for Rockstar to make the player character control as free-and-loose as other games while retaining the physics and realism that we all love from RAGE/Euphoria.

 

An open-world story driven Rockstar game cannot be designed to control like Max Payne 3 where the character is light-of-foot, constantly in a jog while aiming his guns forward, and ready to dive behind cover at the drop of a hat. That would look ridiculous in a game like GTA or RDR and wouldn't fit the context or tone of the game at all. It's not feasible. Max in MP3 can't ragdoll realistically like Niko after jumping out of a moving car going 100mph. That's why MP3 feels the way it does when you control him, and games like GTAIV and RDR2 feel the way they do when you control Niko/Arthur.

This 100%.