Re: Telegraph: Super Mario Galaxy 2 preview
Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 7:00 pm
Have you written anything about the new Ace Attorney?
Winckle wrote:Have you written anything about the new Ace Attorney?
the journey is relentlessly exciting; a blistering spectacle told in blood and thunder. Truly epic
spikey wrote:Some of them have a fair point though. Considering the amount of praise you lavish on the game throughout the article, including the following quote in the final paragraph:the journey is relentlessly exciting; a blistering spectacle told in blood and thunder. Truly epic
makes giving it an 8 seem very odd.
Dual wrote:You're a monster.
Razilez wrote:Great review there Thongings, and just ignore those who look at the score and nothing more.
Would you say it's your favourite game in the series? Just completed GoW I recently and was a great game, but I did find it tedious in many parts. Same goes for GoW II actually, so I'm hoping it isn't needlessly tedious. Does the game have more story/cutscenes? That's one of the things I loved about the other games, but they were few and far between. Hoping for more story in this title.
Plus, this is the first game in the series that I've really started to tire of Kratos as a character, there's a fine line between furious anti-hero and unsympathetic, murderous cuntflap. Falls on the latter side far too much in III for my taste.
Thongings wrote:Razilez wrote:Great review there Thongings, and just ignore those who look at the score and nothing more.
Would you say it's your favourite game in the series? Just completed GoW I recently and was a great game, but I did find it tedious in many parts. Same goes for GoW II actually, so I'm hoping it isn't needlessly tedious. Does the game have more story/cutscenes? That's one of the things I loved about the other games, but they were few and far between. Hoping for more story in this title.
Hmm, it's a tricky one. I mean, I think it's generally a 'better' game than its predecessors, the combat's tighter and the controls have been tweaked into a much better layout for flicking between weapons and spells. The only thing the others have on it, for definite, is that it's pretty short in comparison. If I remember rightly anyway, I & II were both around 15 hours, whereas I clocked III in a comfortable 10.
Having said that, I can't rate it in a bubble against just its forebears. The platforming's still dreadful, and it almost stubbornly refuses to break from its template, even though it has some great ideas, it gives them up far too quickly. I would have liked to have seen them try more on that front. The combat is great and brilliantly satisfying, but it expands to a point and then kind of... stays there. I just don't think it pushes itself as much as it should do.
I got a lot of stick because I gave Bayonetta a 10/10 and this an 8, and I know a lot of people will disagree with me on it. That's fine, but it's something I stand by. I'm constantly discovering things about Bayonetta's combat, and it would shake things up quite often just to keep the game fresh.
Thing is... I'd hesitate to call myself an 'expert', but if I had a 'specialty' as such, I would say I'm very well versed on action adventure hacknslash. So I'm always very interested in exploring the nuances of combat, so I'm perhaps a little more critical than many on it. I can often get prickly about people calling a lot of hacknslash games 'button-mashers' because, while I know that you can operate to a reasonable degree of success there, it's not until you really explore it that you find out what you can do. Bump up the difficulty on Bayo or GoWIII and I'd like to see you button-mash your way through it!
Oh, I've gone off on one there! Sorry about that. Point is, while GoWIII definitely has much more depth and breadth to it than a lot of people would give it credit for, for me, it doesn't quite do enough. Ultimately, I think I'd find it hard to argue about people calling this the 'best' entry, I think I'll alwsy have fondest memories of the second one, though, to be honest.
Plus, this is the first game in the series that I've really started to tire of Kratos as a character, there's a fine line between furious anti-hero and unsympathetic, murderous cuntflap. Falls on the latter side far too much in III for my taste.
Dual wrote:Plus, this is the first game in the series that I've really started to tire of Kratos as a character, there's a fine line between furious anti-hero and unsympathetic, murderous cuntflap. Falls on the latter side far too much in III for my taste.
Hmmm they mentioned that in the OPM review too.
Razilez wrote:As I say I'll no doubt enjoy it, but I can see it being not the title that most reviewers have hyped it up to, so I thank you for your honesty there Thongings. Sounds like an enjoyable adventure, and will hopefully end the series on a high.
Banjo wrote:Dual wrote:Plus, this is the first game in the series that I've really started to tire of Kratos as a character, there's a fine line between furious anti-hero and unsympathetic, murderous cuntflap. Falls on the latter side far too much in III for my taste.
Hmmm they mentioned that in the OPM review too.
Personally, I'd like it more if Kratos was entirely the latter. Makes a ncie change of pace to see a lead character who is an arsehole.
Thongings wrote:Only if...
a) You take that quote completely out of context, ignoring the rest of the review's complaints, and the words directly proceeding it
Thongings wrote:b) We're still living in this alternate dimension where 2 marks off maximum is a bad score.
spikey wrote:I'm playing devils advocate a bit here in that i haven't played the game, and nor do i intend to.
I am as surprised as you are that this would cause so much fuss so i comment mainly out of fascination in 'fanboy' behaviour - this is more an analysis of why such an uproar.Thongings wrote:Only if...
a) You take that quote completely out of context, ignoring the rest of the review's complaints, and the words directly proceeding it
"The brutal and bloody God Of War III is a blistering adventure and an essential purchase for all PS3 owners."
That's a better example perhaps. A game that scores an 8 will never mean an 'essential purchase' to me.Thongings wrote:b) We're still living in this alternate dimension where 2 marks off maximum is a bad score.
I think for a game that's expected to get 9s and 10s, its a good idea to explain exactly why you chose to score it an 8, rather than a 9 or 10, in the review.
It may not be a bad score, but to a lot of people an 8 is a game not worth spending their hard earned £40 on.
spikey wrote:It may not be a bad score, but to a lot of people an 8 is a game not worth spending their hard earned £40 on.