ES4: Oblivion - vs Limbo of the Lost

This is a different one. GamePlasma has noticed some of the art in a Trisynergy point-and-click adventure called Limbo of the Lost looks suspiciously identical amazingly similar to Bethsoft's Oblivion. There may well be a valid explanation - but head over and check out the screen comparisons for yourself. You'll recognise the original Oblivion screens from the interface.
More information.

Not only the texture and art are the same, they don't even bother to change the layout?

There was a brief uproar when people thought that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. used assets stolen from DOOM 3 (I think). It turned out that they both licensed the same assests from a third party. But I don't think anyone had side-by-side screenshots of the games looking so similar.

Holly cow! check the latest news about the controversy…

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/53090

Damn…if this is real and they haven't gotten permission, it is incredibly stupid.
Did they think people wouldn't see it? I mean, atleast if you want to cheat, copy from some less profiled games then, instead of copying from some of the biggest titles.

I assume this is illegal, that copyright protects the original code.

My favorite part is where if you look close at the center of some screenshots, you can see a bad circular copy-n-paste copy where they covered up the cross hair of the original game screenshot. The screenshots really are screenshots!

Check the bottom of the stairs.

Wow, you're right, Stanza. That's bad. It's like they didn't even care if people noticed… or maybe they didn't expect anybody to actually play the game.

Reminds me of a game whicvh name I don't remember anymore which used a real photograph of a car's license/registration plate for the game.

Unlicensed, of course.

It was taken from a public site showing photographs.

Nobody ever payed the original photographer.

My feeling has become more and more that Bethesda did very little direct work on Oblivious and licensed almost all of the artwork and models, especially when you consider the limitations of re-using models between products from the same company. The graphics just become more and more same looking with very little variation which I notice more and more with Oblivion every time that I actually try to play it again.

Also note the continued lack of apparent optimization and customization of the licensed game engine. Seems to me that it's likely that they probably depended upon the engine developers to get things running and left in the basic script engine which could account for the differences int he scripting capabilities between Morrowind and Oblivion.

Overall, Oblivion really is beginning to feel like something that Bethesda did on the cheap, supplying only the story line and basic layout of the game world, such as it is.

Gamespot's news on the controversy

Wow, Remus, great link. The comments are great. Talk about the tip of the iceberg.

Plans for a sequel and the need from a 2d/3d background artist.

Stolen video footage from the movie Spawn.

Official website was on Geocities (is down now - this is the archive of it).

The crack team of hot young coders being interviewed.

Instant collector's item. Get your copy today before the retailer gets the notice from TriSynergies. Get it before you have to get your's on eBay.

But you'd think the box art would be the biggest tipoff.

—

EDIT: more; the devs have been caught posing as regular users with multiple accounts at JustAdventure and Gameboomers trying to influence the moderators.

Originally Posted by Lucky Day
But you'd think the box art would be the biggest tipoff.

Looks like the whole game is somkind of joke. I dont believe they are actually making it.

The box art was a fan made joke I just posted. A little bit of photoshop for a game which is essentially a photoshop.

The game was first released in Singapore in Dec apparently then in Japan and the UK last month. Trisynergies has stopped production and distribution. They will likely have the game pulled off the shelves to try to prevent lawsuits.

I've asked my buddy int he UK to see if he can find a copy before its too late. The number of seeds for it on Torrent I noticed have doubled (now tripled)..which was not that many to begin with.

Trisynergies is apparently trying to contact the Devs now but can't seem to find them.

no kidding, i'd like to score a copy of that!

To provide an idea of the studio's resources, the official Limbo of the Lost website is hosted on GeoCities.

That's funny.

@cutterjohn, this is clearly not the case here as Majestic merely copied screen captures. Its not a 3d environment and as been pointed out in several screenshots they left the crosshairs in the game. Also, as Remus' lnk points out there have been a half dozen games and two movies found to be stolen from.

—-

Tri Synergies has released an official statement and stopped production

http://www.trisynergy.com/news.asp?nid=25

Here's the quote in it's entirety:

The official statement regarding recent inquiries about similarities between Limbo and other titles

Tri Synergy, Inc. would like to publish an official comment regarding recent comparisons of level design and artwork between Majestic Studios’ Limbo of the Lost and Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion/Eidos Interactive’s Thief: Deadly Shadows.

Tri Synergy is just as shocked as everyone else is by the recent screenshot comparisons. At no point during our dealings with Majestic Studios up until the point that the comparison was first publicly made by a third party did we have any knowledge of these similarities. Additionally, Tri Synergy will discontinue distribution of Limbo of the Lost in both retail and online outlets.

We have contacted the developer, Majestic, and are anxiously awaiting their response. As soon as we know more on this matter we will issue another statement.

might be good for the front page…

Hilarious. If you look at their pictures, they even look like crucks. In that interview posted in this thread, it becomes apparent that they were looking for a get-rich-quick scheme. How that backfired! It's amazing that they were able to pull off something that I assume is at least reasonably coherent and playable. Some say it is actually fun!

Originally Posted by Thaurin
Hilarious. If you look at their pictures, they even look like crucks. In that interview posted in this thread, it becomes apparent that they were looking for a get-rich-quick scheme. How that backfired! It's amazing that they were able to pull off something that I assume is at least reasonably coherent and playable. Some say it is actually fun!

Either their 2d artists quit or they never had any 2d artists and only the coder's were left to make the game.

I guess they know their coding stuff (=gameplay), they were just not good at creating assets.

It was made by three old buddies, so I guess they never had any 2D talent. Maybe this whole thing could have worked as a fan effort instead of a commercial endevour.

It took about 10 minutes of playtime before I uninstalled this. The pointer is a severed hand and should have spotted right away where that came from. The 640x480 graphics make it look cheap and the opening cutscene/prologue is unbearable. But you can't click past it!

A suspicious comment showed up on the Wikipedia entery concerning an internet conspiracy and that people are rushing to get it as a collector's item before it goes out of print.

Its too bad thing has gathered so much attention. I'd like to have those minutes of my life back.

I wonder if anybody here knows about an awful adventure game called Detritus I bought about 10-15 years ago? I wonder how that ever got packaged, because it was so painful and amateurish that I couldn't bear to play more than a few minutes.