I like this article, but I still definitely feel like you're giving them too much credit. This feels like in my literary analysis classes when it's obvious that people are trying so hard to extrapolate meaning from a text that doesn't have as much as they'd like that they end up just making up stuff or reading way too far into meaningless events. ... view replies
Great article. Moral choices, I feel, in general need an overhaul. To me, the biggest problem is the need to offer a gameplay incentive to go one way or the other. In my experience, offering a gameplay or even real-world (achievement/trophy) incentive only cheapens the moral choice because it lets you detach yourself from the choice and think instead about the incentive. Should I be evil to get the evil powers because they're better and will make the game more fun or be good because that's what I believe in? Stuff like that is one of the big factors that holds moral choices back.
I noticed you didn't cover inFAMOUS. I'm really not trying to plug this link, it's just very related to your article and I don't feel like merely taking bits of the points I made there and putting them here when it's quicker and more efficient to just link to it: The Choices We Make: inFAMOUS. Since we've both got an interest in how moral choices in games play out, hopefully you'll find it as interesting as I found your article. ... view replies
Great article. It's a big reason why I think linear games like Uncharted 2 are still superior to open-world games that encourage you to just dick around for hours at a time. Also one of the reasons I get pissed off when reviewers and gamers act like a game today being linear is a bad thing.
Hell, it's why I avoided almost all of the side missions in Assassin's Creed II until I was done with the main storyline. They just felt like I was doing stupid crap that broke the narrative and what I really wanted to do was get revenge. They weren't helping that, so I just finished the main story then did those. ... view replies
@bluetom00: You completely summarized exactly how I felt about this whole situation in just a few short sentences. Bravo!
"Granted, the game isn't perfect. But a 4.5 is intended for shock value only, and completely cheapens Dtoid's review cred. Way to fuck up another one, Jim!"
@Jim Sterling: You never have to fight for my approval. I'm glad you elaborated on stuff though.
Ezio climbs pretty fast once you get good at learning what he can climb and learning how to recognize the pathways up. But asking him to climb faster feels weird because, well, he's already doing things that border being silly. He's scaling the sides of buildings with his bare hands. And there are only like four missions where you walk with another character, and they aren't THAT boring unless you went in expecting to kill somebody. But it's a story mission. Even GTA has those occasionally.
The minimap being small and icons being too big never bothered me, but I don't know, I guess I can relate to that if you wanted TOTAL pinpoint precision. However, the criticism about vertical markings is weird because, well, if you're on the ground level, markers on the roof are a bit greyed out and vice versa. So it's not that hard to tell. And the objectives issue, while I never had that issue, is because he mission essentially goes away since you have to be anonymous, so it instead prioritizes hiding spots and stuff to help you become anonymous again.
And about animations, those are more issues that just didn't come up in thirty hours for me. I noticed some clipping elsewhere, and the faces are not especially amazing, but beyond that, the animation was great.
It's totally valid if you didn't like the game, but a lot of these issues you're having seem like the kinds of little flaws every game has that shouldn't affect your overall experience unless you want them to. The biggest problem I have with your review is how many people are completely swayed to never touch this game now thanks to statements like, "Assassin's Creed 2 has tried all sorts of tactics to improve upon the original, but none of these attempts have worked."
Many aspects of this game are leagues beyond the first game. ... view replies
@Tarvu: The only reason I'm bothering to post is so that maybe at least one person that was on the fence about this game that read Jim's review and said "fuck this game, thanks Jim for speaking the Truth," might reconsider. If you didn't like the first game, then welcome to about 50% of the first game's audience. However, ACII does plenty of stuff that makes almost all of the criticisms of the first game totally irrelevant here. The mission structure in particular is exponentially better.
You should at least rent it. Be more informed than the people saying "fuck this game" or "fuck this review" without any merit or experience. ... view replies
"You murder children and then flay them and wear their skin around your penis and testicles.
Piecing together our own versions of people and passing them off as reality is fun! This is a great game you've invented!"
At first, I thought that was an idiotic, irrelevant statement that I just didn't understand. Then I got what you were trying to say, that I created my own version of you that is false.
Then I reread that review and remembered that your journalistic style has degraded in the last year or so to be all about pissing people off and getting hundreds of comments (like now). So now I'm back to thinking that that was an idiotic, irrelevant statement.
If you'd care to elaborate on, for instance, why you think Ezio should be able to climb faster, or why the minimap was "horrible," or why you think the animation is "piss poor" outside of one quick kick and some potentially dodgy hit detection, (all of which you should have done in the review), then that might at least show you weren't just pulling stuff out of your ass to justify a low score. ... view replies
To anyone that isn't going to play this game because of Jim Sterling's review: Play it. He's low-balling it because he knows it's a controversial score that will get a lot of clicks and angry comments.
"...Ezio is so slow and ponderous when it comes to climbing buildings..."
Even though a lot of other things about this review are totally stupid, this is perhaps the dumbest. Ezio climbs faster than Altair ever could and they both climb stuff faster than a human has any right to. Criticizing his climbing speed feels like a criticism for criticism's sake and not really justified. Like you've been playing Prototype too much and forgot that normal humans can't just run up walls.
Other than that, the thing that pisses me off the most about this review is people's reactions to it. Jim Sterling is not some savior, calling out this game when no one else had the balls to. Some of his criticisms are valid, I'll admit, like having to go back to the Villa to get money being annoying, but then again, it's totally optional. There are so many ways to get money in that game that the Villa almost felt like cheating to me. The fast travel stations needed to just exist as a start menu option, though, so that part I'll agree with.
Most of his criticisms, I feel, are totally without merit. Arguing that this game has "piss-poor animation" is ridiculous. Yeah, I know exactly what kick he's talking about and yeah, it was kind of silly-looking, but that was THREE SECONDS in this whole game. Ezio's animations are really, really good. "Fluid" gets tossed around a lot, but here it's very appropriate. And calling out the story for being implausible is equally foolish. You're playing a video game. Suspend disbelief for a little while.
He calls out the mini-map as being "horrible" without EVER elaborating why, and that puzzles me considering that it has a WEALTH of information on it that never left me wanting. It shows you the city layout, nearby guards on multiple levels, hiding spots, locations of stuff like doctors and blacksmiths, everything. Anything you'd want to show up is there, and if you feel like there's too much stuff, you can just disable whichever specific elements you'd like. And as usual in AC, waypoints are super helpful. The mini-map in this game is great.
Jim Sterling is so busy trying to find ways to call this game out for being shit that he's willing to just make up stuff. Of course, it's a huge success for him because he'll be getting Destructoid a lot of clicks by trying to rouse people up.
When I said that people's reaction to this review is what perturbs me the most, it's because you have so many people that were on the fence about this game that are now absolutely not going to buy this game. I just got the platinum trophy in it a couple days ago, so yeah, I've played a lot of this game, and no, it's not perfect, but it absolutely isn't the shit Jim Sterling would make it out to be. ... view replies
This game does not need co-op. Mind you, if they've SOMEHOW figured out how to do it, then more power to em and let's hope it turns out awesome. ... view replies
I would also like to say that Maxxthepenguin is brilliant. Love the comparison to God of War; that was a great scene. And even then, you still got those moments where Kratos would stop and see his blood-soaked reflection and repent. The line, "By the Gods, what have I become?" has stuck with me for years.
And taking Brad Rice to task for pretending like GTA is so comical yet has such severe negative reinforcement was also a really well-delivered point. GTA IV is very serious. The main character is a guy who (though negative space) has done terrible things, and is trying to repent. But he gets dragged back into it and is forced to do terrible things that you, as a player, commit. You're not some medic cleaning up after Niko.
Which was another point that I especially liked. I hate that every game ALWAYS has you playing the hero. Every character I play is always so altruistic. Not every character needs to be the Hero of Time. If the character I play in MW2 is a guy who is still haunted by the memories of working for the Russian terrorists undercover and being forced to kill civilians, then he's very flawed, and I like that. He's got so much more motivation and personal investment than just some random ass soldier, and therefore I as a player should feel more investment. I want to help my character repent.
I applaud Maxxthepenguin's rebuttal to Brad Rice's post. ... view replies
This is so stupid. You haven't played the scene in context, and you admit you've barely got any clue of what's going on in the story. Yet you're totally condemning it on the basis that the game doesn't have immediate negative feedback the way GTA does. So what? This game is about modern warfare. This is the kind of thing that can happen in modern warfare. People have to sell their soul and sacrifice others to save a larger context of people. And besides, there is negative feedback. People are screaming and trying to get away and move others to safety. I don't remember any security guard resistance from the one quick viewing of the footage, but that's another possible, more GTA-esque, source of negative feedback. Though I don't see why you don't consider innocent people dying negative feedback.
NOT TO MENTION THAT THIS SCENE IS TOTALLY SKIPPABLE.
So without seeing it in the final game in context, not illegally obtained in a shitty quality video totally out of context, you absolutely cannot make a strong enough argument to justify why not supporting Modern Warfare 2 is a good thing, or smart, or even at all justifiable. It's just speculation and conjecture how this scene really plays out in the full game. Who knows if you're even required to shoot anyone?
Anyone who boycotts the game this early just for that is a flat-out idiot. ... view replies
Dead Space. Easily. They did such a good job with the environments and the enemies, and you can tell they thought A LOT about how those things need to come together. When you watch the developer diaries, they talk about their scare strategy of not being able to continually scare the player the same way every time because gamers would become jaded to it. It absolutely shows. Every time I went into an elevator in that game, I was always on edge that something, some thing, would appear and rip me to shreds. Yet only about two times does anything bad ever happen to you in elevators. Same thing with vents, same thing with the holes in the wall where (sometimes) a giant tentacle thing would come out and drag you down to your horrifying death. The game just does a fantastic job of keeping you on edge.
Not only that, but they did a spectacular job with the environments. Some areas had nothing in them that would hurt you, but were still really scary. The two that stand out to me are the guy banging his head against the wall and the loud hallway with flashing lights. The guy banging his head against the wall was great, because you could hear him doing it from a mile away and had no idea what it was. Then when you finally saw him, it was just creepy as shit to watch that guy bang his bloody head against the wall until he finally collapsed and died. Then hopefully you know what I mean with the "loud hallway with flashing lights." You walk into this hallway and the environment just screams at you and the lights are flashing and oppressive. Surely something would have to happen here. But nothing does. But for that moment, you just felt threatened from every angle, had no idea what was going on, and every time you passed through that area again even though nothing happened last time, you still felt like something could jump out at any moment. And that's another area that the Dead Space team talked about in their diaries. Just shows how much work they put in.
Dead Space is easily, EASILY, the best horror game of all time. It's scary without crippling your character with bad controls, had excellent sound design that messed with your head all day and night, and they just knew exactly how to have the player jumping left and right, worrying about absolutely nothing. Such a remarkable game.
I doubt anyone who played Dead Space can ever forget what Isaac's muffled screams sound like. ... view replies
Jim, it's pretty obvious why the PS3 version would sell more in Japan, so unless you're (once again) trying to get extra clicks by inciting fanboys (which obviously works judging by these comments), then I don't know why you'd even question it. Japan has more PS3s than 360s. Done. That's why. Japan's xenophobia is what caused them to have more PS3s, but now there's just a bigger install base of PS3s so why WOULD the 360 version sell more? ... view replies
Just a taste of some of the typos:
"busrting with love!"
"vSpeaking"
"...an industry friend of mind..."
"Bettlejuice"
"...the way that Kubrick but the movie together..." ... view replies
@akathatoneguy: Totally agree. This game got zero hype until the art style changed and then everyone decided to jump on the Borderlands bandwagon. People just need to be a little less hypocritical when they talk about this game. It looks like fun, but it's not some indie darling to rally behind. ... view replies
Destructoid is so fucking stupid sometimes. You promote a story about how people need to lay off Pachter, then word your articles in inflammatory ways against him solely to generate more clicks of people posting how much they hate Pachter. You keep writing stories about whatever Pachter says on the Bonus Round as though it were actual news and not just a bunch of guys talking. You use words like "accused" instead of a much more neutral "said" just to put a ridiculous anti-Pachter spin on the story. It's subtle, but it's enough to get Destructoid users to hate him for whatever reason.
Borderlands is a risky game. Considering that MW2 launches in a few weeks, it's not hard to fathom that a title like Borderlands, that ONLY started getting any hype when they changed their art style, wouldn't sell that well, that people would just brush it off and wait for MW2. Pachter's statement MAY have been wrong (we shall see once NPD numbers come in, not Randy Pitchford's goddamn Twitter feed), but it still wasn't stupid and deserved more respect.
More and more, Destructoid just caters itself towards becoming a fanboy's paradise. ... view replies
That, and I agree with the dude who said that it should have had a demo in the first place. You know what? ALL downloadable games like this should have demos. I feel so much less sympathy when games that didn't have a demo and expected people to just take a plunge fail. ... view replies
It just looks like another puzzle game. At this point, I'm tired of puzzle games revolving around blocks like that. I bought Echochrome without a second thought.
Mind you, I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy Critter Crunch soon. But dude, I'm tired of playing evolutions of Tetris. ... view replies
All these people completely disregarding the iPhone since it's not a "serious" gaming device for "real" gamers and therefore not "true" competition should probably catch up on the last three years of gaming. ... view replies
Well you don't get the other part of what he said with that quote. He said that publishers are essentially cannibalizing their own properties, so by putting Madden on the iPhone, it diminishes the value of Madden on the 360/PS3/etc because the Wal-Mart type crowd will have gotten their Madden fix and won't need to buy the $60 version.
Which is a good point. With publishers just RUSHING to quickly cash in on the iPhone craze, porting their most popular IPs over, like Doom, Rock Band, Lumines, etc, are they hurting the sales on their more expensive ("real") versions? ... view replies
"But I'm not. I'm criticizing them for trying to do it in such a lame way. Nice try though, please play again!"
Inserting snide comments against the PS3/Wii/360 in almost every console-related story simply because you know PS3/Wii/360 fanboys are really sensitive is just as lame. Can't fault you because it's just your job, but at least recognize that you're doing the same thing Game Informer is doing, the same thing that GameTrailers does with their comparison videos, and the same thing as every other publication where people need to eat and enraging fanboys for more clicks helps that goal along nicely. ... view replies
My optometrist told me that I have astigmatism in my left eye solely because of the exorbitant amount of time I spend gaming and looking at computer screens.
Health problems. I think I need these glasses most. ... view replies
@Magnalon: It doesn't always put you back at the exact ledge. It most often put you back a few paces behind where you were. Say there was a long series of jump and columns and wall runs and climbs you had to do. If you fucked up, it puts you back on the original ledge before you started any of that platforming. The general rule was typically that she'd just put you back at the last safe spot you were at, i. e. at the last bit of flat ground.
To me, that seems incredibly fair. I don't get why gamers are always clamoring to be punished more. I just want to keep playing, so this system worked REALLY well for me. I get it, I fucked up. Let's get back into the game.
Besides, Prince of Persia has always been about taking a leap where you aren't really sure exactly where you might end up landing. A game like that simply CANNOT be unforgiving without being annoying as shit. The last generation literally just let you REWIND TIME to correct mistakes and put you back on the last safe ledge. This one just skips that and gets Elika to drop you there. Quickly. I like the system from Sands of Time better, but they did the best they could without the sands of time and I appreciate the solution they came up with. However, it seems like the sands might just be coming back anyway, so whatever. ... view replies
Shit, and lastly, for trophies like "Don't die a hundred times," give me some sort of counter so I don't have to worry about literally keeping track of that myself. ... view replies
Oh, and keep the death system. It's good. People don't understand that watching Elika's hand grab yours is literally EXACTLY the same as watching a screen that says "YOU ARE DEAD," except that it's a hell of a lot quicker. ... view replies
Put the Sands of Time back in (Forgotten Sands, wink wink, clever), don't make me stop to talk to Elika, just have her talk on the fly, revamp the combat system so I'm not stuck in that battle with no chance of getting away from some grunt enemy until I just kill him, don't reuse the bosses over and over, don't make the platforming QUITE so automatic, get rid of most of the dumb weird magical floating platforming sections.
Also, I'd appreciate it if the story didn't... blow.
But mostly, just make sure it doesn't follow up like Warrior Within did last generation with some aggro bullshit. The ONLY positive thing to come out of Warrior Within was the Dahaka chases. ... view replies
I bought Persona 3: FES because of the Endurance Run. Persona 4, I probably won't buy because I've watched so much of it, but I might buy it and play it sometime down the line. Farther down the line. However, like a lot of people, Persona games weren't AT ALL on my radar until the Endurance Run. I would've never given them a second glance, just assuming they're just another JRPG that I won't like (not the biggest JRPG or even RPG fan), so hey, the Endurance Run got me and a lot of others to buy either Persona 3 or 4 or both, and Persona 5 is definitely going to be something I want once they finally decide to fucking talk about it. ... view replies
God damn it. The more the game designer in me thinks about how cool a good serial killer game could actually be, the more pissed off I get about this stupid fucking idea.
It's like, after they impressed the shitfuck out of me with Dead Space and got themselves on my radar enough to really want to care about what their next few projects would be, these developers just decide to make themselves TOTALLY irrelevant. Dante's Inferno is a bastardization of (I'm told) a great work of a fiction and a shameless God of War ripoff, coming out one month before God of War. I could begrudgingly accept that since I absolutely love God of War and since Dante's Inferno looks better than I think anyone expects, it'll push the developers of God of War even harder to create the best game they can.
But this?
What the fuck?
Way to take an idea that would make up for Dante's Inferno, that could be totally intriguing and innovative when done correctly, and absolutely just shit all over it by turning into the most generic sounding bullshit ever that literally offends on so many levels by trivializing the deaths of people who were brutally murdered by a psychopath in some back alleys in Britain with a goddamn knife (a terrifying fucking death) and painting that psychopathic fuck AS A GOOD GUY.
At this point, I'm just debating whether or not I'm willing to deprive myself of Dead Space 2 in order to boycott Visceral Games. ... view replies
I hadn't even REALLY heard of the Persona series until Giant Bomb's Endurance Run. So obviously they had a problem with marketing, so those numbers actually don't surprise me. I bought Persona 3: FES after watching some of the Endurance Run and realizing how fun it looked for a JRPG (a genre I typically hate) and finished the original campaign. It was really good and Persona 4 looked just as good from the Endurance Run.
But yeah, not really surprising since Giant Bomb is a better marketing team for them than what they've got. Only now that Giant Bomb's Endurance Run is so popular do I see all this rampant love for Persona games. ... view replies
Somehow this offends me more than the reinterpretation of Dante's Inferno. It's like if someone made a game about the Virginia Tech kid "saving" people. It's just a little insensitive considering that this stuff actually happened and real people were affected, not some work of fiction like Dante's Inferno.
But more than that, I'm just offended that a wholly interesting concept like Jack the Ripper (either playing as him or trying to catch him or both) was totally squandered by this completely generic idea. ... view replies
Eight Days looked pretty cool. The Getaway 3 (at the time) looked pretty. Good to hear that Eight Days might still see the light of day, but it might just be too late at a certain point. Duke Nukem Forever had to be rebuilt over and over until it just collapsed. You can't just keep updating a game like that without it eventually just being too late. ... view replies
Sphere is a dumb name because it makes you think you'll be holding a sphere, not that it's a wand with a sphere on it. They should just stick with PlayStation Wand and just leave it at that. It's simple. It makes sense. It evokes the right imagery. Tah dah. ... view replies
Oh, and yeah, saving on the fly like that is an awesome feature. My Dingoo A320 (an emulator system I originally found here on Destructoid) lets me create multiple save states for every game, so whenever I need to just turn it off, I just update my save state or create a new one and that's that. I can get on with my life without having to worry about losing progress in my game. ... view replies
Simply put, the PSPgo isn't really intended for people who already have PSPs. It's a hassle to move all your content, it's not THAT upgraded from the 3000 model, and all your UMD games become obsolete. It's for people like me that held off on buying a PSP for so many years. It just makes it that much more of an attractive system. Smaller, sleeker, more comfortable, new features, download-only, etc.
The problem is the price. Just like when the PS3 launched with a price that was just too high, the system is great, but gets a lot of flak for the price tag, and rightfully so. There's no reason for the PSPgo to cost that much beyond the fact that Sony can price it that much and people will buy it. So I'm STILL holding off on the PSP.
Also, I find it absolutely fucking poetic that everybody just shat all over the PSPgo's design when they first saw it, and now they're all calling it "sexy" and praising it. ... view replies
God that was so melodramatic. I just don't see the appeal in Final Fantasy. More power to those that do since that is certainly a very pretty game, but everything about that trailer just screams "NOT FOR YOU," from the combat to the dialogue to the characters... everything. But yeah... visually impressive. ... view replies
They just want you back in the game as soon as possible. Yeah, you fucked up and got arrested. You're an idiot. We took away all your weapons. Now get back out there. Anything more than that would be so tedious. Would you want the death to be more involved too? Watch a cut scene of doctors reviving you after you've been shot 47 times, then have to go through a rehabilitation minigame so you'll be able to walk again?
The system they have is perfect. Asking for more realism and punishment is GTA is interesting, but not fun. Hence why the driving in GTA IV is so polarizing. ... view replies
The PSPgo seems like it's mainly for people who don't already have a PSP. Then you don't have to worry about transferring content and leftover UMD games and all that. ... view replies
That blur really does nothing. Maybe it's a joke from Destructoid because of all the people complaining, but I'm betting it's because Destructoid has turned into total click whores lately. Every article has to be inflammatory in some way, either because of Jim saying something to incite fanboys, or the news being spun in a needlessly mocking way, or because of a header like this. They just want horny 13-year old guys to click on the article even if they don't give a shit about Dante's Inferno. So fuck all the loyal Destructoid readers at work that love this site enough to check it out on breaks/instead of working; WE WANT BOOBIES.
It's just a little tiring coming to Destructoid lately because the need for EVERY article to try to rile people up just gets old sometimes. It's fine when it works, like when Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo do something INCREDIBLY stupid, but forcing it is dumb. ... view replies
Dude, don't use the God of War II soundtrack for Dante's Inferno. Seriously... Colossus of Rhodes is a fantastic track; Dante's Inferno needs to establish its own identity and this is definitely not helping. ... view replies
Meh, Jim, you just wrote this like it was the script to a Videogame Show What I've Done rather than a ___ Is Blatantly Better Than _____. Yeah, they're not that different, but the stylistic change is noticeable. ... view replies
Good stuff, especially about the extras. MK Kart was a fun little side bonus, not the main feature. So why treat it like it's a full retail product? It's a free bonus. People who dock points for games that include fun little bonuses like that are so fucking stupid.
And MK really has done an exceptional job at trying to innovate with single-player in fighting games. Armageddon had that action-adventure game that was decent. Just gave a justification for fighting the computer and added context to it all.
MK really is a good fighting series. But seriously, Street Fighter is better. Should've brought up how stiff MK feels. ... view replies
Who knows, dude? Maybe punishing is slicing their head off with the scythe and absolving is jamming the crucifix through their skull. IMPORTANT CHOICES. ... view replies
Dude, I would totally be trading in my 80GB PS3 for this if it weren't for... Well. That's still another $300 (sans however much I could sell my PS3 Phat for), it doesn't have as many USB ports (a serious concern), and no backwards compatibility (if I can't play Rez and Persona 3 and God of War and ET FUCKING CETERA on it, then that's a problem. Not a deal-breaker, but a problem).
Otherwise, this thing seems pretty great. I might've designed it a bit differently but whatever. It ultimately doesn't fucking matter a bit what the console looks like. The 360 is arguably more attractive, but, you know, when I see a red light with my PS3, I don't freak out. And that's nice. ... view replies
Meh, Mega Man was the best. The only really funny part in this one was "congratulations, Kung Fu. You're a work of martial art." This is the kind of video feature that really just shouldn't be weekly. ... view replies
I'm happy it's happening, but looking at that picture of the townspeople, and then hearing that it was inspired by existentialist work, and then hearing the line about the townspeople being strange... I'm all for that. That sounds awesome. Suda 51's take on a game without stupid mindless action that's mostly character development of weird townsfolk? Awesome!
Oh, wait, it's about going to a "foreboding castle" and battling "mysterious ghouls" with a torch? So it's basically like EVERY OTHER FUCKING GAME ON THE PLANET? Great. Just... great.
I like how a genuinely interesting and exciting concept gets completely fucked by the traditional trappings of being a videogame and needing Enemies to Fight and Exciting Action. ... view replies
@Video Cognito: Yeah, it really surprised me that it was only 298 MB. You know, until it then downloaded a 33 MB patch the moment I tried to play it, and then downloaded an addition 2 GB after I finally got it loaded.
Oh, and then PSN was down so I couldn't even create a character.
But hey, as long as it starts working relatively soon and doesn't expire after just a week or two (this game seems like it could benefit from EXTENSIVE beta testing), then I'm happy. ... view replies
Goddammit. This is the problem with moral systems. They just have to add a gameplay incentive that means I'm just going to ignore the morality of the situation and go with whatever helps my character. Right now I'm pretty fucking sure I'm just going to punish everyone regardless just because I want a badass scythe. ... view replies
Dude, I fucking hate all the Pachter hate. He's really funny and really nice on GameTrailers' Bonus Round. And if I see a prediction from him as a news story, I'll read it just to see what he thinks, but I don't expect that he HAS to be right or whatever. The prediction isn't really for me, some gamer sitting at home reading Destructoid. It's for investors. He can't always be right. He's just a dude. His job is to make predictions.
So all those people that hate Pachter for whatever reason seriously do need to just shut the fuck up. If you don't want to read his news stories, then fucking DON'T. Just scroll past it. I don't understand the mind of a Pachter hater, but I'd imagine it goes something like this:
"Another Pachter story? I really don't want to read this. I really don't want to read this! I REALLY DON'T WANT TO READ THIS! I'll read it anyway. I'm not liking this. I'm really not liking this! I REALLY DON'T LIKE THIS! FUCK YOU PACHTER! IT'S YOUR FAULT THESE GAMING NEWS SITES POST YOUR SHIT! WHY DON'T YOU FUCKING DIE COCKSUCKER? IF YOU'RE DEAD, I WON'T HAVE TO READ THESE NEWS STORIES ANYMORE EVEN THOUGH I DON'T REALLY NEED TO READ THEM!"
Just retarded. I don't understand the progression between "I don't like Pachter's predictions" and "Pachter should fucking die." ... view replies
a) Anyone interested in watching the show should ABSOLUTELY fucking watch seasons 1 and 2. Then stop. Just like LOST, it all just degenerates into bullshit after that.
b) As for the game... just no. I'm one of the biggest goddamn Prison Break fans out there, and I totally recognize that there is almost no way this game will be good. ... view replies
Portal gun, dude. Gravity gun was all just wasted fucking potential. The first time they throw you in a level with it, all they do is give you sawblades and zombies. Which, yeah, is cool. But they could've done so much more than just let you throw explosives and plug shit in.
The portal gun is badass right from the start and used brilliantly throughout. ... view replies
I'm getting it for neither. I'm still guessing it'll outsell in the US for the 360, but not as much as Microsoft wants it to. They want a blowout. But worldwide? Probably PS3, but not as much as Sony wants it to. They want a blowout too.
As for exclusive DLC... If Sony gets it, they'll outperform Microsoft even in the US, but not by a HUGE margin. If Microsoft gets it, they'll outperform Sony by a lot. ... view replies
Also, @hpv: I played it the same way as you and the game is still basically the same. Story-wise almost exactly. Gameplay-wise very close. Not a terrible thing, but they really should've widened the difference between good and evil further. ... view replies
I have a Destructoid account and a YouTube account. Like most people with a YouTube account, I have no idea why I bothered to sign up for a YouTube account. I saw this video here first. And only.
And I really liked it. Lots of good, valid complaints about inFAMOUS but he took a fair look at it and recognized how fun it was regardless. Just interesting to watch, and the trophies bit is awesome too. I too thought I wouldn't give a shit about trophies, and now I'm level 9 and I've got a platinum with inFAMOUS and rented Terminator Salvation just for the quick platinum there too.
The only part that was annoying about the video is the animosity to the PS3 console itself. It's fine to not like the bumpers on the controller, but to call the entire console sub-par without truly backing it up was a little uncalled for. I wouldn't mind watching a Storm's Adventures! PlayStation 3 video to go over this kind of stuff. ... view replies
@Vegas: I'm not saying that it's wrong to make sure this kind of stuff doesn't get abused, but the people acting like these ads are the worst things in the world and calling for a boycott of the entire game is just ridiculous. My guess is that most of these people have no idea what these ads were really like because I'm betting that the most vigilant people complaining don't even own Wipeout HD and are just basing their entire opinion on Jim Sterling's word.
And while I did notice the load times were a bit longer during the advertisement sections, (I don't know about totally doubling the time unless you comparing times for restarted races since those load really quickly), the load times in this game are still so quick compared to most games that it's really not a big deal.
And that's my biggest problem here. It's not a big deal. Calling for a boycott on Wipeout HD due to this ad was a completely ridiculous response.
Again, I'm glad they're gone, but seriously. Let's have a little control here. We don't need to max out our Internet Nerd Rage every time ANYTHING even slightly offends us. Let's save it for something more worthwhile. ... view replies
Dude, I'm happy about this in the sense that the load times will be a bit faster now, but Jesus Christ people blew that shit out of proportion. People act like they were shoving the ad down their throat, but it just played, inoffensively, without making too much noise or even being too obvious that it was an ad until the last second, and then you started your race.
Fuck, I bet most of you up in arms like babies don't even own Wipeout HD. ... view replies
Jesus Christ, don't overreact to this. First of all, it's not in front of "every race." It's only occasionally. Second, I didn't even know that they were ads until it played the third time. It makes basically no noise and is in no way offensive. You couldn't even tell it was an ad if the State Farm logo didn't appear. And the load times, while longer if an ad plays, are still so quick compared to most games that I just don't fucking care.
Don't blow this shit out of proportion and get all offended and boycott the game. Wipeout HD is a fucking fantastic game, the Fury add-on is a huge value, and these ads are not offensive in the least.
I love when developers make all these big claims and criticize how other games have been made for years... and then their game comes out and it sucks.
Same with the Blur dev team. Coming out and making grandiose claims and talking about how awesome their game will be, and then the FIRST time the press gets to get their hands on it, they're all like "...meh."
Hey Edward Stern, how about you and the other Splash Damage crew shut the fuck up and spending your time working on making Brink good, yeah? ... view replies
The first one was awesome but there are only so few jokes you can do like this. Probably should have just left it at Mega Man.
On a side note, Destructoid needs an effing video podcast. I keep missing Rev Rants or Videogame Show What I've Dones or the other Destructoid originals because once their off the front page... never to be seen again. ... view replies
I'm sorry, I read the title, was intrigued enough to click, and then you negated everything in the first two sentences.
I'm so fucking tired of everything on Destructoid (even the goddamn user blogs) being about reeling you in. Every article now seems to try to be inflammatory just to get more comments. Half of Jim Sterling's articles have now devolved into prodding fanboys because it'll spur 100+ comments without fail. It just gets annoying.
And now even the c-blogs totally betray me. ... view replies
This game need not exist. It's ugly, basic, and just looks like Comix Zone done wrong.
All Comix Zone needed were more checkpoints (and by "more" I mean "more than none"), zero damage taken from hitting obstacles blocking your path, and to just be in general more forgiving and it would've been a masterpiece.
In a way, (and I'm one of the people that's been arguing for "not fun" games for awhile), I absolutely agree with Jaffe. It's tough, as of right now, to convey these different, complex emotions through actions that ultimately boil down to button presses. Can you really make a game where your character's first kiss evokes all the emotions of apprehension, excitement, fear, etc if it all boils down to "press X to kiss"? And another problem is that it's tough to get the player that invested in it. If I feel like just dicking around, maybe I'll just make my character kiss even if it seems like a terrible idea... just to see what'll happen.
Making games that evoke feeling of love, joy, sadness, heartbreak, pride, regret, and a host of other complex emotions with a controller that is ultimately very, very simple... it's tough. Yeah, it's got a shit ton of buttons, but they're all just buttons.
Right now, in the infancy of the game industry, (teen years?), gameplay that still captures your attention yet doesn't involved mindless action is very difficult to do. Some indie guys are doing it in 5-minute chunks, but that's not good enough. That's proof of concept. Do it on a larger scale. Prove it can work as a "full" experience. Show the world the video game where you abide by traffic laws yet is still as engaging as mowing people down on the sidewalk in Grand Theft Auto.
But we have to keep demanding this stuff, or else there's no chance it'll happen. Jaffe didn't mean that we should all just stay quiet on the issue until someone finally emerges from the darkness of their basement with the final product. He's just telling us to stop bitching about how it needs to be done and do it. Don't talk about how games need to be "more than fun." Show us how games can be "more than fun."
And in that respect, I totally agree with him. ... view replies
@levkar: Why does a "take-your-daughter-to-school game" need to be "fun"? As you pull out of the driveway, three black Sedans tear out of the alleyway and start chasing you down? Or a time limit starts counting down Crazy Taxi-style?
A "take-your-daughter-to-school game" would have to evoke completely different emotions to work. You'd have to be building up a relationship with your daughter over the course of the game so that by the time you take her to school for the first day, you aren't having fun. You're feeling the same mixture of sadness and pride that your own parents felt the first day they dropped you off to school.
And that's the problem that we're trying to tackle here. Why can't a game evoke that kind of emotion? Why does every game need to be shackled by trying to evoke the same suite of emotions? I'm not saying that "fun," and exhilaration, and tension, and fear, and the other typical game emotions need to go away, and neither is anyone else.
We're only suggesting that there's room for more. ... view replies
Citizen Kane really isn't that good. The first time I watched it, I had to take a 40-minute break halfway through to keep myself from committing suicide.
That said, good rant, Rev; I totally support about 90% of what you said. If only the rest of the Destructoid staff felt the same way...
"At the end of the day, a game can be as emotional and intelligent as it wants, but if it's not still fun at the same time, I couldn't give a crap." -- Jim Sterling ... view replies
People "flip out" because dicks like Destructoid actively bait fanboys in the most awkwardly uncomfortable and transparent efforts to get more traffic ever. ... view replies
Meh. Certainly not as bad as the atrocious Guitar Hero 5 box art, but damn dude. Just from a design standpoint, that is terrible. It's just like random stickers placed everywhere with genres of music or just random shit. There's like six stickers on there that all say "Hip Hop." If they wanted to do something like this, they need to make it about 75% less busy, and use a notebook paper aesthetic underneath it, sort of like what Harmonix did with the original Guitar Hero's menus and instruction manual.
I'm definitely pumped to get whichever DJ game turns to be better between DJ Hero and Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, but man... this is not like the original Guitar Hero's box. I proudly display that. This I'll probably just shove in my closet and never let it see the light of day. ... view replies
Spawn grenades, plain and simple, need a bit of invulnerability. Yeah, having no invulnerability encourages smart placement, but it's not always that simple. You might drop one outside only to realize it's too open, so next time you drop one just inside a doorway to provide some cover. The moment that ONE person on the enemy team discovers that spawn point, all they have to do is just sit there and keep firing or throw an occasional grenade and you will literally just spawn and die, spawn and die, until you decide to just spawn back at your original spawn point and work your way back.
Maybe they were too powerful before, but now they're FAR too weak. ... view replies
@Jimeee: "Nobody ASKED Sony to get into the market either back when PS1 was released."
Nintendo did. They got Sony to develop an add-on for the SNES for them, then backed out to partner with like Philips or whatever (a big insult to Sony), so Sony entered gaming to crush Nintendo. ... view replies
"I really hope that MW2 meets with as little success as possible in the United Kingdom."
I feel most bad for Infinity Ward in all of this. I want MW2 to have as much success as possible, but not if it means that Activision feels like it can get away with arbitrary price hikes. ... view replies
To be fair, I'd only experienced maybe... like one or two console game crashes ever. When I had a Wii, I had a few game crashes. Playing on a friend's 360 has let me seen more than a few game crashes, and same with my PS3, which I love, but I'm tired of it.
If this generation dropped the ball in any way, it's the instability of the games released. They're all released before they should be, letting them crash now, then get a patch released that does more harm than good, then another patch to get the game working the way it should have in the first place.
It's just bullshit, and it's not a Microsoft-specific problem. ... view replies
This game has at least one flaw. Rez HD is not on PSN.
It's fine for me because upscaling my PS2 copy looks good enough, but a) I want to download a straight-up HD version and b) I want as many other people to experience Rez as possible. ... view replies
Nothing about this looks interesting to me. Jack Black, or the game itself. I really just hope that come review time, people don't just give Brutal Legend a free pass because it might be kind of funny and everybody loves Tim Schafer all of a sudden. ... view replies
The God of War novel (this coming from the biggest God of War geek on this planet or otherwise) sounds like a terrible idea, but the comic could be... kind of cool. The cut scenes are stylized sort of like a comic anyway, so as long as the writing's up to snuff... ... view replies
I'll probably buy it since I've bought the other two, but I only played the first map pack like once or twice online and dicked around in the second offline for a bit and that was that. I just need to get back into a Killzone 2 mindset, but that's kind of hard since I'm in a Battlefield 1943 mindset right now. ... view replies
@runtheplacered: Satire is totally awesome, and South Park used to do it really well, but the problem with South Park is that that's all they do anymore. I guess my comment should've read, "...when they stopped making their own plots and decided to solely rely on riffing pop culture."
It just gets old having every episode focus on whatever's hot in the news last week. ... view replies
Meh. Tower defense games are getting old, and South Park got old and tired like three seasons ago when they stopped making their own plots and decided to rely on riffing pop culture. ... view replies
@Jim Sterling & EternalDeathSlayer: "Entertainment" doesn't just mean "fun." It just means that you're entertained. It captured your attention. Fun is certainly a good vehicle to use for doing that, but there are definitely other ways.
Was it "fun" to watch the scenes in Band of Brothers where they stumble upon the concentration camps? Absolutely not. It was fucking heartbreaking, especially having to watch the Jewish soldier tell the prisoners that they need to go back into the camps. But was it entertaining? Did it capture my attention? Absolutely.
I don't understand why every moment in a videogame, no matter what the context, needs to be shackled by needing to be "fun." Should seeing Solid Snake be tortured and beaten down to the breaking point be "fun"? Should seeing Kratos kneel before the remains of his wife and daughter that he just accidentally murdered be "fun"? Should pretty much 99% of Heavy Rain be "fun"? ... view replies
And seriously... the Prince of Persia limited edition was FREE. Stop complaining. It was just for preorders, and just to give people more incentive to buy it at launch. ... view replies
I find it hilarious how quickly the "unpopular" opinion becomes the popular one. Everybody on this podcast acts like it's absolutely insane to prefer Ocarina to Wind Waker and that all those people are either biased, or had never played a Zelda before, or just plain wrong.
Pretending like Ocarina of Time wasn't good and didn't have interesting characters and lacked charm and was otherwise bland... Don't play devil's advocate just to make your point or because it's more fun. Ocarina of Time was a fucking amazing game at the time, and still is an amazing game. No, the graphics don't hold up as well, but the gameplay, the pacing, the story, the music... everything about that game holds up so well.
But that's not to say that Wind Waker wasn't amazing. And that's the point you guys seem to be missing. You're acting like Wind Waker can only be good if it's at Ocarina's expense. People hold Ocarina up because it's such an amazing game. Wind Waker was a risky, risky game. A lot of stuff about it is very divisive. The cel shading didn't click with a lot of people. Sailing didn't click with a lot of people. Being a kid again didn't click with a lot of people.
Yeah, Link is almost always a kid. But why can't the series fucking evolve? I liked that Link was more adult in Ocarina. I think it opens up more themes for them to explore, more options for Link, and for the of God, it gives them an excuse to actually motivate Link by making Zelda his lover (which they still haven't done--wasted opportunity) rather than his typical "doing good just to do good" crap. I was looking forward to a new, more adult Link.
And besides, A Link to the Past was the best Zelda. ... view replies
This is good for one thing, and one thing only: Interrogation scenes.
If they want to make me strap this thing on in a Blade Runner game to see if I'm a Replicant, or have some cop ask me questions in a game like Indigo Prophecy, or whatever, then... yes.
@BluDesign: The big two things driving up the PS3's costs are Blu-ray and the Cell processor, not the hard drive. The hard drive is dirt cheap by comparison, hence why they keep throwing in extra hard drive space. They're trying to make the perceived value of the PS3 go up so that people will be more willing to swallow the price tag. Just dropping hard drive support to maybe 20GB or whatever wouldn't be enough to let them drop the price of the whole console. ... view replies
@Daxelman: Yeah, it is unfortunate they decided to make the PS3 so awesome. Well, except for everyone that actually owns a PS3 like me. I'm glad the PS3 can do everything it does, but Sony really would've been better off making it less robust.
@Im OK: I got as far as you saying the the price of the PS2 now (aka, 9 years later) has any relevance on the price of the PS3 now (aka, 3 years later) before I just stopped reading. If you really want to look at it that way, then you're looking at it exactly the way Sony is and I guess you agree with their pricing. They've got six years to lower the price to that kind of level. ... view replies
Pretty much yeah. Killzone 2 is technically pretty astounding. An extra few months of polish does that. It doesn't fix mediocre level design, completely unlikable, infuriating characters, or a totally missed potential storyline. It just makes all that stuff look really nice.
Hopefully Singularity gets the same treatment. ... view replies
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