There's still some developers left that seem to take pride in always delivering super polished, well-tuned, perfectly tested games. To them, a single bad review of their repertoire seems unacceptable.

For example, there's Polyphony Digital (developers of the Gran Turismo series - they also made a Space Harrier-like shooter at one time, I think), the team that made ICO and its sequel Shadow of the Colossus, and of course, Blizzard.

These are developers I'd probably blindly buy a product off, but well, that's just three, in a world saturated by thousands
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Totally agree with those. The GT series has always been amazingly polished and they are one of the only developers to truly squeeze everything possible from the system they are running on. I cannot wait until the PSP and PS3 GT games are released. And Blizzard definitely make some amazing games. I've still not played WoW just because I don't want to waste so much of my spare time on it, and I know I would. But every other Warcraft and other game from them have been brilliant.

Psygnosis was another developer I used to be a big fan of. It was so sad when Sony disbanded them as a developer and slowly merged them into the rest of the company. Studio Liverpool does still exist but it isn't the same.

ICO and Shadow of the Colossus have to be two titles that verge on becoming true interactive art, rather than just games. They are amazing in showing that you don't have to have stats filling the screen, or visual command prompts. The exploration and experimentation with the environment in both games shows this.
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Indeed, it's usually the synergy between certain developers that make 'winning combinations'. If one member of the team quits, or is forced to quit, the consequences are almost always negative. Studio Liverpool - it looks like they're only making Formula One games and WipeOut right now. Where's the original ideas?
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The same happens in all creative areas. I often see London based design agencies advertising for a complete design team to join them. Usually looking for an existing team of four people to employ. Doing this negates the need to try and build up a design team from scratch and get them to gel to all work well to their strengths.

One design agency I used to work within was great, but then a member left and it was never quite the same after that.
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Man that was tough.

Bitmaps, Psygnosis and Sensible Software were amazing but it has to be Team 17 for me. Had a soft spot for some Virgin games too.
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Psygnosis did have the blip that was F1 '98 but I guess they were well on their way to being Studio Liverpool by that stage. By that time, Rollcage was the last successful new concept to come from them under that name.
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Rollcage was a brilliant game. I remember playing that for a long time. The graphics haven't dated well these days but the game is still as enjoyable to play.
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I still haven't voted as I cannot decide myself
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Was rollcage that game where you were in a big sphere and had to roll around?
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No, it is a car racing game where you can go up walls and end up racing on ceilings. The vehicles are indestructible with huge wheels so if you flip over you can just keep driving. And there are a load of different weapons to slow down the opponents so you can try to win.
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