Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway Delayed (Again... Again...)

Oh bullocks, one of the most disappointing news I’ve heard in recent days.

Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway has been delayed once again, aiming for an early fiscal 2008 release.

I’ve been following this piece of news for almost a year now, and the constant delays have brought nothing, but frustration. What aggravates me further is my disappointment in Gearbox and Ubisoft. Ubisoft and Gearbox have been “all talk and no show” companies to me during the previous months. Yes, there are videos, but heck, they are all either pre-rendered or heavily scripted. Pre-rendered movies are made to look good, but hardly reflect the actual product. And the heavily scripted parts only stage a scene for the press and the community to make the game look impressive.

 The first installment in the Brothers in Arms series, Road to Hill 30, came out last 2005, and they managed to release a sequal, Earned in Blood, in the same year. I understand that Hell’s Highway has a lot of technological improvements, but the least Ubisoft can do is release a demo that actually offers players something. The videos and mini-documentaries/DevDiaries are all eye candy. What are we going to do with screenshots, Ubisoft? Masturbate to them? It took them two years only to “…approach beta status on Hell’s Highway.” I want results!

Just to give you an idea how much I am anticipating this game, earlier this year, I spent at least US$300 upgrading my system from an Intel P4 3.0GHz mPGA478 system with a dated X1600 Pro to an overclocked AMD Athlon64 X2 5600+ AM2 system with an overclocked 8500GT. The performance increase is undeniable. I took this route in anticipation of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 (which was a good game!) and Hell’s Highway, which at the time of upgrade, was already delayed to a November release.

Aside: Why I bought a measly 8500GT was something circumstance forced me to do. I was ready to pay for an X1950XT, but my favorite shop didn’t have stock. I couldn’t wait because I already had all the components except the video card and a trip to the shop is costly; I had to make the most out of it. There were no other choices that satisfied me in terms of price-to-performance. In the end, I bought the 8500GT as a placeholder video card and overclocked hell out of it. Right now, I am saving up for an upgrade to an X1950 Pro 512/X1950 Pro CF (@ 1152 x 864. Yeah, I know it’s low) or an X1950XT.

I’m sorry, Randy Pitchford, but this isn’t just working out. When I heard the uncertain and rather optimistic tone of your voice in a preview video talking about release dates, I knew something would come up. And here we are right now.

Hell’s Highway better be worth the wait. Ubisoft likes to toss the phrase “to further improve the game” around and I damn hope it delivers.

 To be frank, I can sum up my bitterness and disappointment in one word: vaporware.