DIRT - Origin of the Species

Also known as: DIRT Origin of the Species [UK]

A child could have designed it better

10 of the most awful character designs of all time

Words: GamesRadar US

When a developer sits down to create a game that involves a central starring character it's probably the most important part of the whole game making process. The key is to design a character who is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also someone you care about and believe in. Get it wrong or misjudge what your audience wants and your game baby might never turn into the multi-million dollar franchise you'd hoped for...

10. Haven from Haven: Call of the King
PS2 | Xbox |GameCube | GBA

It's with a degree of sadness we include poor old Haven on this list. And in part we wish we'd made more fuss about his design earlier on. We might have made a difference. See, back in the day, when some of our staff worked in games magazines, we did a lot of coverage on Haven and its ambitious streaming technology. To top it off, at a press event we told the developer we really liked the game, but out of politeness neglected to add that Haven, the lead character, was weak.

Cleverly anticipating how Naughty Dog would eventually ruin their Jak character by giving him a green goatee beard, Haven was a fat-headed ginger with crap facial hair and not an ounce of charisma. And that's exactly why we've never seen Haven 2 -  it might have been technically good and scored well and all that, but everyone hated the lead character.

 
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