Too Human -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me will be Silicon Knights' Xbox 360 exclusive Too Human. Easily the most controversial game this year. Too Human's controversy has little to do with gore or sexuality, as there isn't any in the game itself. No, Too Human's controversy for the most part extends beyond the game and goes back years. First of all, people have been waiting on this game for a decade. Too Human started out as a four-disc PlayStation title that first saw the light of day at the 1999 E3. Shortly thereafter Silicon Knights signed an exclusive deal with Nintendo and the game was moved to the Gamecube where a reworked version was shown at the 2000 Space World show. Silicon Knights delivered Eternal Darkness and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for the system and then the partnership with Nintendo was dissolved. So the development of Too Human began anew with Microsoft's Xbox and especially Xbox Live in mind.  Time passed and the impending generational shift to the Xbox 360 further delayed the often delayed title. So finally the game hits store shelves in August of 2008. But even then, it wasn't without further controversy. And for that you go back a bit to the 2006 E3 showing of an extremely early build of Too Human on the Xbox 360. Denis Dyack, the head of Silicon Knights showed the game behind closed doors to select few people. One of those groups happened to be EGM / 1-UP. They revealed what they saw, which was essentially a very early build of the game with graphic and frame rate issues among other things. The game took a rather large hit in the public perception. This obviously didn't sit well with Denis Dyack as he went on a 1-UP podcast the following year in which he essentially rattled off some diatribe about the responsibility of game journalists among other issues. He went on to name NeoGAF forums as an example. He essentially decided at that point to take on the Internet. A truly foolish act. NeoGAF's regulars proceeded to mock him openly and incessantly until he further responded by joining said forum and posting a challenge to post in the thread if you were for or against Too Human all before anyone had a chance to play it. If the game scored below a certain average among critics then the losers would receive a forum tag. The outcome would be either 'Owned by Too Human' or Dyack would be tagged 'Owned by NeoGAF'. Childish and silly, to be sure. The demo proceeded to hit Xbox Live Marketplace and the reaction was decidedly mixed. On one hand a lot of people declared the game shit, while others declared it great. Microsoft actually let it be known that the game had received over a million downloads in a short amount of time. However it's going to play out, there is massive interest. The day before the game was to ship Dyack was permanently banned from the forum further causing childish squabbling. And it's into Too Human we go with all it's core baggage. And I say core baggage because that's also at the heart of what's going to play out here. NeoGAF is the hardcore. They're the ones on the Internet who eat, sleep, and drink video games. But does all that squawking and squabbling resonate outside of the core demographic? Does the casual player hear this? Will Too Human sell in spite of reviews and demo reactions? Is its generally negative opinion amongst the core gamers due from carryover from that initial E3 showing? Is it a good game with an unfair rap? Only one way to find out.