All this Rare bashing :P Tbh I understand it but let's not act like they haven't made any quality games since MS bought them. I too lost all hope for Rare in recent years but given Phil's latest info about him telling them to make an "iconic Rare game" I think we need to give them one last shot.

Who's even left at Rare anymore? Almost all of the talent they had when they were with Nintendo left years ago.

To be honest, though, Rare was overhyped even during their "glory days" on the SNES and N64.

Personally, I don't think they made anything I would consider genuinely great. They certainly made some good games.

I can atleast say their MS games hold up better than most of their NIntendo games.

No argument on Nintendo.

This year alone Microsoft has launched Project Spark, to good reviews, funded Titanfall to great reviews, and will soon have Sunset Overdrive, reviews pending. Your logic extended to Sony sees us with GT, Killzone and LBP, sprinkle some titles in here and there. It is effective and does the trick, but you have to call it like it is.

Not really sure, I think they're capable of making a great game though. I guess we'll see.

Donkey Kong Country. Goldeneye. Killer Instinct. Banjo Kazooie. Conker's Bad Fur Day. Perfect Dark.

Though some of these games are dated by today's standards, they were breakthrough titles for their time.

Rare accomplished an impressive bredth of variety and high quality that really has only been equalled by the likes of Naughty Dog.

They were glorious days indeed. 

In the loosest sense possible, any studio has the potential to make a great game. In 1998, who'd have thought a dried-up husk of a company like Activision had a fate other than imminent bankruptcy waiting for it?   (Interesting note: Activision actually was bankrupt in 1990 when Bobby Kotick and his partners bought the company).

However, a studio is only as good as the people in it. And while I generally see Rare's "golden age" games as technically astute but otherwise generally weaker clones of the games made by Nintendo of Japan, excepting games like Goldeneye and the original Perfect Dark, they're still leaps and bounds above anything made by Microsoft's Rare. I haven't seen any sign that anybody worth a damn still works for Rare since MS bought them. Even Perfect Dark Zero was pretty weaksauce.

Naughty Dog does FPS, Fighting and Sims (Viva Pinata)?

Rare was way better than naughty dog.....  Look what you wrote yourself.....  DKC/Goldeneye, Perfect dark, jetforce Gimini,Blast force, Killer instinct, Banjo Kazooi/tooie/Diddy kong Racing/Conker...   that same generation Naughty dog made Crash1, Crash 2, Crash 3 and Crash team racing... 

No they've done platformers (Jak and Daxter) and action games (Uncharted, TLOU). That's fairly good variety, and all delivered to high acclaim much like Rare.