GSY Retro: Black Rock Studio

Driftwood
Wednesday, December 24, 2014 | 3:00 PM
9 comments

GSY Retro PC Xbox 360 PS3

For this new chapter in our GSY Retro series, we decided to focus on a studio rather than a game. Black Rock Studio, formerly known as Climax (Moto GP on the first Xbox), managed to develop two new franchises whose Metacritic score reached more than 80. Sadly, it didn't prevent them from being shut down by Disney Interactive in 2011, a year after their second game was released. As you may have already guessed, the two titles we're talking about are Pure and Split/Second, two games that were undeniably good and that would have deserved next gen sequels. Take a look at our videos of the two PC ports (and realize that we have come a long way since then in terms of PC adaptations).

High quality stream and download

Commented on 2014-12-24 15:26:01

Man I loved these games. I still got my copy of Split/Second. I haven't played it in about a year tho lol. Too bad their will never be another.

In reply to

bubble2020

Commented on 2014-12-24 19:20:13

Loved Moto GP, Pure was ok, and Split/Second was freakin' awesome. Not sure why they were shut down. Wish they would revive the studio and bring these games back. Would definitely buy a next gen iteration of these.

der_ton

Commented on 2014-12-25 13:21:11

Thanks for these retro features.
I'd love to see more videos of Pure. How many different areas are there? Does it feature any topics like Winter or so?
Considering the time it was released, I think it looks great.

tetsu3000

Commented on 2014-12-25 16:50:57

Split/Second was so fun to play, a sequel could had polished it nicely, really not fair...

AnthonM2

Commented on 2014-12-26 08:43:22

Split/Second is my game of the generation, Disney should at least release Split/Second Remastered, 1080p/30fps, 60fps wont be easy so 30fps is good enough, the online multiplayer is awesome too and still active on PS3/360.

TheFuriousOne

Commented on 2014-12-30 20:01:09

I had forgotten about split/second, I did own it for awhile but decided to sell it because I was spending all my time playing Blur by Bizarre Creations (Whiz and Liz, Project Gotham), which ironically being sold only a few days apart was also their last game before Activision shut them done *shakes fist at Activision*

Some of the team from Bizarre Creations set up a new company called Lucid Games, they still own the Geometry Wars franchise, they released the new game a few weeks ago. Would be great if you did a GSY Retro for Bizarre Creations, they were for a long time considered the best British game developer before RockStar came along.

Driftwood

Commented on 2014-12-30 20:11:41 In reply to TheFuriousOne

We've already done a GSY Retro for PGR2 and PGR4. :)

Commented on 2014-12-30 23:20:03 In reply to Driftwood

Posted by Driftwood

Cool, I'll check those out!

panzerthrice

Commented on 2015-01-06 10:30:09 In reply to TheFuriousOne

Posted by TheFuriousOne

...which ironically being sold only a few days apart was also their last game before Activision shut them done *shakes fist at Activision*

I think Blood Stone was their last gasp. It felt like a fitting end to their saga as it had some of the best elements of their shooting and driving games on display. Probably one of the best licensed games in the past decade.