By Kieron Gillen on February 8th, 2009 at 2:13 pm.
Sundays are for finding yourself somehow awake at a silly hour with a lack of sleep because you’ve got a comic signing at 10am. 10am? 10pm, possibly. 10am is madness. Anyway – that means I better compile this list of writing found by the good ship RPS across the week and resist linking to songs I found myself singing while replacing central words with the name of a talented comics artist. Go!
- We haven’t really done enough on the end of Ensemble, I suspect. They’re one of the big iconic RTS developers, after all – but they’re also one which RPS as a whole has tended to admire rather than love. Let’s pass the baton over to Gamasutra, who do the last studio tour with them.
- “Gary Penn is a gentleman,” notes Jim. I can only concur. Paul Barnett’s Lester Bangs on game design.
- Also on the game design front, Greg Cherlin goes through the thoughts behind the change to Team Fortress 2′s critical hits system.
- Also on game design… The Wall Street Journal? Are you sure? We live in blessed times.
- We’re away from PC Games, but this has been the one story I’ve been track of since disappearing to NYComicCon (Well, any story online. Stories involving drunken comic writers, I’m all over). Killzone 2 has come out. Reviews have been really quite good. However, it seems that the internet hatemob is intensifying even over perfect reviews. Best response is G4′s video one to their mailbag after they gave it a disgracefully low 5/5. And go see what happens when someone isn’t actually positive about the bally thing. The best take on it I’ve seen is Tycho over at Penny Arcade, lamenting over how games are turned into acts-of-faith in the console wars.
- Waterloo by Abba. We won’t tell you the comic artist, natch.
Failed.
08/02/2009 at 14:26 Mo says:
I read Tom Chick’s review of Killzone2 yesterday. Effin’ hilarious. Loved it! The comments were … yeah, let’s not go there.
08/02/2009 at 14:36 Jim Rossignol says:
What the hell is going on with Guardian gamesblog? Why do the correct links produce the wrong pages? Witchcraft! Edit: Seems to be fixed, but there is something very fishy going on at the Guardian.
08/02/2009 at 14:59 Larington says:
Makes me glad I don’t have a 360 or PS3 and game mostly on the PC, that way, I get to avoid most of this ‘us or them’ mentality thats been somehow bred into console fandom.
08/02/2009 at 15:01 Dante says:
God this Killzone 2 nonsense is ridiculous, I’m glad we PC gamers are out of this console war nonsense.
The PS3 side strikes me as the more hysterical of the two though, presumably because they’ve got less to enthuse about.
08/02/2009 at 15:05 Scotch Mist says:
“Waterloo by Abba” – “This video is not available in your country.”
Chalk one up for the censors in Thailand! I guess?
On a barely related note, has anyone else heard the new Sufjan Stevens cover of You Are The Blood by the Castanets? It’s really, really awesome.
08/02/2009 at 15:14 PHeMoX says:
I don’t know what’s more retarded… the comment on the Killzone 2 review or the video reaction from Adam on those comments. Sure I had a good time laughing out loud about those quotes and his responses, but come on… don’t freaking waste time by giving those retard fanboys attention.
Especially those Xbox fans that still don’t realize the PS3 has their precious Xbox technically dominated. :P
It’s only a matter of time people will want a PS3 for it’s games, instead of it’s Blu-ray drive. ;)
08/02/2009 at 15:18 PHeMoX says:
“The PS3 side strikes me as the more hysterical of the two though, presumably because they’ve got less to enthuse about.”
You should really take a look at those comments they posted.
You’ll see the Xbox fanboys are all over the place claiming Killzone 2 doesn’t look as good as Gears of War 2 and very silly things like that.
The PS3 guys aren’t even responding much, as they seem to be very aware of which games on the PS3 are graphically impressive. Of course they ridicule those Xbox fanboys, but come on, who wouldn’t… it’s like those few PC gamers claiming Unreal Tournament III is somehow more impressive than Crysis.
08/02/2009 at 15:22 Heliocentric says:
If killzone 2 came out on the pc, i’d both download the demo and if there wasn’t a demo buy it for £10 on the back of a few good reviews.
But i’d need to spend £300 to even try a demo, so to me this is not news.
But its nearly valentines and i have bromance for tom chick so i’ll let you off this time.
08/02/2009 at 15:24 Mister Hands says:
The Adam Sessler video reminds me of the good old days of Digitiser, when Biffo used to administer the smackdown on console zealots on a regular basis. That’s an excellent thing.
08/02/2009 at 15:25 Rogue says:
He could have been a little more subtle with his insults, but I still enjoyed it regardless.
08/02/2009 at 15:28 AndrewC says:
@ Larington & Dante: Are you not exercising some ‘us vs them’ in your own posts?
08/02/2009 at 15:29 Gap Gen says:
“Seems to be fixed, but there is something very fishy going on at the Guardian.”
International Socialism!
08/02/2009 at 15:31 FernandoDANTE says:
” Best response is G4’s video one to their mailbag after they gave it a disgracefully low 5/5.”
That doesn’t make any sense.
08/02/2009 at 15:31 Mo says:
Haha. I’m both a console gamer AND a PC gamer, and let me tell you, PC elitists are just as bad as console fanboys. So don’t worry, you’re not missing out on a thing! ;)
08/02/2009 at 15:35 Rogue says:
He is, just not most of it.
08/02/2009 at 15:36 Therlun says:
What about the Steam prices?
You promised you were working on something! *sniff*
You promised! *cry*
08/02/2009 at 15:36 smorgasbord says:
All the fuss over review scores is making me lose faith in humanity.
08/02/2009 at 15:42 Del Boy says:
That Adam Sessler video is so therapeutic.
I get so unnecessarily wound up by these console owning c**ts and that has eased my frustration.
(I am not implying that console owners are c**ts but that these c**ts own consoles)
08/02/2009 at 15:43 Dolphan says:
Nice to see the random game-stuffs in the Wall Street Journal. Just finished Dead Space, and the HUD-integration was another nice little touch in a game that seemed to be entirely constituted by them.
Oh, and I’m sure plenty of people on here have consoles as well as PCs. It’s not quite as much of a case of double vision as having both a 360 and a PS3.
08/02/2009 at 15:58 Gap Gen says:
“Haha. I’m both a console gamer AND a PC gamer, and let me tell you, PC elitists are just as bad as console fanboys. So don’t worry, you’re not missing out on a thing! ;)”
You own a console toy! Gasp!
08/02/2009 at 16:05 AndrewC says:
@ smorgasbord
It is pretty depressing. It’s nice to think that they are all 15 and don’t know better. When you only have enough money for one console it becomes important to think you’ve made the ‘right’ choice.
Equally a teenager uses their consumer choices to define them – be it music or games or clothes – so it becomes waaaay more important than it should be.
It’s nice to think that they are very young, and will grow out of it, but i’m really not sure it’s true.
Even more depressing is following the ‘Is Resident Evil 5 racist?’ furore. There are epic examples of ignorance in those threads, and that will only grow as it gets closer to release.
Sigh.
But hey, we game on our PCs so we are smarter than that. Right?
08/02/2009 at 16:11 skizelo says:
“Colleen Coover” fits over “Waterloo”, almost kinda.
And I’m out of comic book artists. This is going to bug me.
08/02/2009 at 16:15 Mo says:
Two, even! Four, if you count handhelds! And I’ll be getting a PS3 at some point. The shock, the horror! :)
08/02/2009 at 16:26 Dreamhacker says:
J-pop culture has Narutards.
Videogaming has console-owners.
08/02/2009 at 16:26 Post Maker says:
It’s not as though consoles themselves are inherently bad; it’s that some of the choices that are made based on them are (Game for Windows – Live). And they provide a good alternative for people who can’t get a handle on mouse and keyboard style movement/ aiming.
08/02/2009 at 16:27 Monkfish says:
Pointless conflicts such as the current console wars aren’t unique to the current times, of course. Hell, I remember similar rivalry between Speccy and C64 owners. What is new, though, is the sheer aggression and vitriol involved. I mean, back in the 80′s it was all lighthearted banter – probably because you were face-to-face with your rivals in the school playground – but this Xbox vs. PS3 nonsense feels like gang warfare at times.
Still, we PC gamers aren’t entirely immune from a bit of tribalism. Just mention ATI vs. Nvidia and you’ll see separate wars being waged in other, distant corners of the Internet. And they get just as nasty as the console wars, too.
Common to them all is the factor of large, multi-billion dollar empires laughing maniacally at the way people are fanatically defending their products. Mwahahahahaha.
Me? I couldn’t give a stuff what platform I play my games on, as long as the games are fun. And I’m the one having a ball playing these games, while all those idiots are wasting their lives arguing about them. Sucks to be them.
08/02/2009 at 16:40 Chaz says:
@ PHeMoX
Is there no escape from people like you. :(
08/02/2009 at 16:41 Pags says:
Is Killzone 2 actually a game, or is it just an elaborate hoax to give people an excuse to argue over the internet?
08/02/2009 at 16:46 A-Scale says:
Adam Sessler is good man.
08/02/2009 at 16:52 unclelou says:
God this Killzone 2 nonsense is ridiculous, I’m glad we PC gamers are out of this console war nonsense.
Yeah, I am finding this console war nonsense more and more obnoxious. Industry string puppets, the lot of them.
Disclaimer: I obviously don’t mean every console gamer.
08/02/2009 at 16:52 StormTec says:
@Monkfish
Here here!
08/02/2009 at 16:53 Tei says:
I have no problems with tribalism, is people get the nettiquete right. Most people don’t even know the nettiquete exist.
08/02/2009 at 17:05 Rei Onryou says:
Stories involving drunken comic writers, I’m all over.
Oh Kieron, does your vanity know no bounds?
08/02/2009 at 17:13 Charlie says:
I think people don’t believe Sony about the PS3′s power because they are a bunch of liars!
When the Dreamcast came out Sony boasted how much more powerful the PS2 was over it and then in reality it was a lie. The same is happening to the PS3, they have MGS and Killzone2 but then the multiplatform games often end up looking better on 360. I’m not convinced the 360 couldn’t run both those games without much graphical difference.
I understand that the PS3 is more powerful but I don’t think it particularly matters. Yes I do own a 360 but I’m definitely a PC gamer not a console gamer.
The PS3 is an overpriced brick and the 360 breaks if you sneeze in its general direction. PC FTW
08/02/2009 at 17:26 qrter says:
I thought the Sessler thing was pretty embarrassing, for all parties involved. The way he tries to show how other people are idiots makes him look like a similar kind of idiot.
08/02/2009 at 17:48 El Stevo says:
Tom Chick’s Killzone 2 review is disgraceful. Napoleon was actually average height for the period.
08/02/2009 at 17:54 Gap Gen says:
PHeMoX: Irony is a wonderful thing.
In any case, the PS3 *should* be twice as good as the 360, given that on average (in the UK) it costs twice as much.
In other news: my monolithic corporate oppressor is better than your monolithic corporate oppressor.
08/02/2009 at 18:07 Dolphan says:
I like my DS. Even the PC struggles to stand against a platform with Phoenix Wright leading its charge.
08/02/2009 at 18:08 Nick says:
PS3 rox! 360 sux!
08/02/2009 at 18:21 Theoban says:
The only thing better than console gamers sniping at each other for no reason, is uncontrolled snobbery from PC gamers.
/PC Gamer
//Snob.
08/02/2009 at 18:28 Charlie says:
Snobbery FTW!
08/02/2009 at 18:38 El Stevo says:
~ Dante
“It’s dumbing down for the consoles!”
“It’s consolitis gone mad!”
“This format is going to hell in a handbasket!”
“Waste of the licence fee!”
08/02/2009 at 18:58 Confidence Interval says:
I like the leading questions accompanying the Wall Street Journal’s article and inviting readers to join the discussion:
“Do videogames make you antisocial? How much spending is too much? Did you grow up playing videogames, but have yet to give them up? Join the discussion”
I find “have you to give them up” demeaning – but maybe I’ve just been made antisocial.
08/02/2009 at 19:08 malkav11 says:
Never really have understood the need to champion a particular console or platform. They all have their ups and downs, and generally the approach that makes the most sense is to own all of them that have something to offer you. Which is why I have a Mac, 3 PCs, a Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, Xbox 360, PSP, and DS. And I’m very close to buying a PS3 – the price is still ridiculous and the selection anemic, but I’m tired of missing out on things like Disgaea 3 and Valkyria Chronicles, and I’m going to have an HDTV soon so may actually care about BluRay.
08/02/2009 at 19:12 pepper says:
If you look at the specs of both the xbox and PS3 then there both pretty similair, with the xbox being stonrger in the graphics department, and sony in the processing power.
Development wise there is a big differance, with the sony PS3 being a total screw up, which they even openly admitted. It appears the PS3 has lost its edge in that area.
08/02/2009 at 19:35 psyk says:
Not followed the link but can imagine what the comments are like and the reason there like that is the people posting are still kids at the oldest maybe 18 who are still trying to work out that what there arguing about is worthless or there just trolls.
08/02/2009 at 20:00 Larington says:
@Gap Gen: Being elitist against idiots & Zealots? Sure. Elitist against genuine affionados of their preferred system (IE not prone to Zealotry)? Then most certainly not.
I’m no fool, I know the PC has some weakness’ compared to consoles (Mostly weaker in terms of slower plug in & play times (Installs) and you can’t really have four people gaming in the same room on PCs, unless theres a heck of a lot of power points involved.) and that sense of, umm, modesty is whats important, to me at least.
08/02/2009 at 20:14 Tei says:
“and you can’t really have four people gaming in the same room”
google for LAN party, and be ready for a surprise.
08/02/2009 at 20:15 Tei says:
Like this:
http://kendlesworld.com/wp-content/gallery/general/lanparty4bg.jpg
08/02/2009 at 21:38 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
There’s nothing like a cathartic video rejecting the conceited idiocy of humankind to help cleanse the palate of internet vitriol.
And by catharsis I mean Abba.
08/02/2009 at 21:53 Tworak says:
sitting on the fence eating a bag of chips looking at the feces throwing console gamers. nothing better. so awesome
08/02/2009 at 21:53 qrter says:
I never understood the appeal of large scale LAN parties, myself. Hundreds of people sitting in a large hall, lovely.
Small scale, homely LAN parties are a lot of fun, though. It’s been years since my last LAN party – who wants to lug around all that equipment (yes, not all of us have laptops..), connect everything up, etc.
08/02/2009 at 22:32 Oak says:
I imagine the appeal is getting a kill and hearing someone yell “GOD DAMMIT!” at the other end of the hall.
08/02/2009 at 22:59 Larington says:
I do know what a LAN party is, honest. Its just not as convenient as a console for quick pick up and play ‘cos we’re bored fun. I suppose I should’ve made it more clear I was pointing to the caveat of multiple plug sockets and other issues like lugging a desktop PC around. My mistake.
Yikes, I’m pretty much a PC only gamer and I suddenly seem to be defending consoles, the world does seem to work in funny ways.
08/02/2009 at 23:10 jalf says:
Aw, come on. Saying one console has better games than the other is fine, that’s just plain fanboyism, but please, can we leave the half-understood technical specs at the door?
Despite Sony’s claims, the PS3 is not some universe-simulator from the far future. It’s no more powerful than the 360 at games.
It’s ridiculously powerful at certain scientific computations (and yes, I’ve spent some 8 months programming one for that very purpose), but for games, most of that is useless. As far as specs go, the PS3′s only real advantage is blu-ray (which is a two-edged sword, with slower reads, but *far* greater storage). The 360 has a better GPU, and while the Cell CPU is humongously powerful, it’s also ridiculously specialized, to the point where it’s largely useless at games.
Argue that 360 sux if you must, but base it on the games, not the specs. Please.
08/02/2009 at 23:30 Arathain says:
I’m a little sad about the TF2 changes. I love criticals. Getting killed by a lucky crit bothers me to the point of causing a small frown to crease my forehead, which fades well before the respawn timer ticks down. Getting a crit streak on a Heavy that blows away two guys, or blasting someone with a lucky Scattergun crit causes me to guffaw and dance in my chair. A strong net positive for me, I think you’ll all agree.
I get very sad and puzzled when I scan down a list of servers and see so many of them are nocrit tagged. Is some dry luddic sense of skill dependence really worth removing the joy? I don’t even agree with the premise anyway (I think crits allow luck in the micro sense, and skill dominates in the macro sense).
Don’t get me started on mucking with the respawn timer…
08/02/2009 at 23:45 Kieron Gillen says:
Skizello: I met Colleen this week actually. She’s lovely. I avoided gushing about Banana Sunday.
FernandoDANTE: It’s a joke.
KG
09/02/2009 at 00:08 PHeMoX says:
“” Best response is G4’s video one to their mailbag after they gave it a disgracefully low 5/5.”
That doesn’t make any sense.”
Go watch that video and read the comments, it makes perfect sense.
09/02/2009 at 00:09 PHeMoX says:
Oh lol, didn’t spot Kieron Gillen’s reply there, my bad.
09/02/2009 at 00:14 bhlaab says:
Two months from now:
“Alright alright it wasn’t THAT good”
09/02/2009 at 00:14 PHeMoX says:
“Argue that 360 sux if you must, but base it on the games, not the specs. Please.”
That would make even less sense. Developers don’t take enough time to take the PS3 to it’s limits and the Xbox360 is nearly there already. Go figure… it’s just silly to compare games when the developers never even tried to max it all out. It’s also why Killzone 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4 are pretty good examples of where the average PS3 game might go eventually.
09/02/2009 at 00:16 PHeMoX says:
“Two months from now:
“Alright alright it wasn’t THAT good””
… that has been true for GTAIV, Halo3, SPORE and Gears of War 2 also, just to name a few. It’s just that nowadays reviewers get carried away with hype. Anyone scoring a game 5/5 loses credibility in my book. :p
09/02/2009 at 00:23 PJ says:
I’m assuming that was Killzone 2 in the background during Adam’s rant?
it looks pretty cool
Oh and PC gamers are not even remotely removed from fanboy wars. Take a look at MMO forums, Intel vs AMD, ATI vs Nvidia, or Unreal series vs Quake series.
09/02/2009 at 00:27 Larington says:
I’ve started to get the sense that when a game gets over-rated by a reviewer (It does kinda happen) its not because of a pay out or anything stupid like that, but more likely its either they get carried away with the multiplayer (Halo series), or with the level of choice offered in the single player (Fallout3) – Either way they’ve gotten carried away by something, and its that the point of games?
I’ll have to bear this theory in mind and see if it works in future over-rating scenarios.
09/02/2009 at 00:28 Larington says:
And before anyone says anything about the level of choice comment, I should append: Or at least tries to offer in the single player.
09/02/2009 at 00:38 Tei says:
Judging from Mario Galaxy, the WII is a powerfull graphic console. And this is the problem of using only one game to score the power of a console. There will be always some games that somehow (Genius?) extract the 120% of the power of a console. Maybe Killzone is one of these games, so maybe is 120% more pretty than a normal PS3 title.
09/02/2009 at 00:55 dhex says:
“Take a look at MMO forums, Intel vs AMD, ATI vs Nvidia, or Unreal series vs Quake series.”
one of my favorite things about the internet is the shitty banners that people make up for their “rigs” in various pc hardware forums.
this is one of my favorites of all time (vaguely not safe for work, though)
http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/3272/signature3bmg6.jpg
these are pretty nifty, too:
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o308/trespass_cmt/fireyesand1-1.gif
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s55/The_Assassin47/BigSigtest-1.gif
it makes a good case for requiring some kind of voight kampff test to even look at photoshop.
09/02/2009 at 00:56 unique_identifier says:
@ arathain : The only time I regularly noticed massive critical chance bonuses from recent damage was when a demo+medic pair had snuck behind enemy lines and was camping the enemy’s spawn. Arguably a camping demoman doesn’t really need a 20% chance to throw a crit sticky out every time.
The lower net chance to crit is interesting. I guess it will reduce the amount of background crit spam. I understand random crits give less skilled players (as well as more skilled players) the chance for occasional glee, but running around a corner to receive a spammed crit rocket in the face gets a little old.
@ dhex: i reckon those replicants would have far more interesting sigs. you wouldn’t believe the things they’ve seen.
09/02/2009 at 01:01 Nick says:
“Oh and PC gamers are not even remotely removed from fanboy wars. Take a look at MMO forums, Intel vs AMD, ATI vs Nvidia, or Unreal series vs Quake series.”
Exactly, twas the reason for my harking back to the cry of old =)
09/02/2009 at 01:12 Larington says:
I can’t comment on other folks, but I’ve always distanced myself from inter-PC-Gaming fanboyism too, maybe its just that I’d rather be playing or designing games than giving a crap about whether game series x is better than game series y, same goes for competing hardware technologies.
09/02/2009 at 01:21 DigitalSignalX says:
Just finished Dead Space as well this week, and found the seamless integration of player data as part of the game environment to be spectacular. The use of elements related to gravity was also excellent. It makes me wish the actual game itself was better, the plot and various dramatic bits fell well short imho.
I hope other big budget titles rip off dead space and shove that sort of cleverness into much better games.
09/02/2009 at 01:44 jalf says:
And how do you measure that? Do you have a device for detecting unused hardware capabilities? Why is it that when anyone else say “our computer is 20 times more powerful than the competition, people laugh… Except when it’s Sony. Then everyone assumes it must be true. And when games come out that look identical on 360 and PS3, it must be because “they were too lazy to make proper use of the PS3″. It makes me wonder why Sony even has a marketing department. It seems 90% of the world’s population firmly believe anything they say anyway.
You can always tweak better performance out of any system, including the 360. But no, there are no magical turbo switches that make the PS3 unleash a bajillion extra megahurtz.
Once again, the Cell is powerful, but it’s also not very well suited for your typical game. Is the only “fair” comparison in your mind the one where the PS3 game was given 15 times as much development time? The one where the PS3′s performance is multiplied by 3 to account for the “untapped potential”? Is it untapped potential if a SPU on the Cell goes unused *because there is nothing the game needs done that it is able to do*? Or is it the one where we feed dummy instructions to each SPE just so we can claim it’s being utilized?
Or do you want to explain how games should compensate for the Cell’s nonexistent branch prediction? It’s inability to process integers larger than 16 bit? The latency involved in DMA transfers to the SPE’s? The ridiculously small amount of storage on each SPE?
I’m sorry for the rant.
I couldn’t care less about most of the console wars, but people who claim that the PS3 must be more powerful “because Sony said so” really rub me the wrong way. How much experience do you have programming the thing?
09/02/2009 at 01:45 bhlaab says:
For dead space, the integrated menus don’t work as well on pc, though
09/02/2009 at 04:10 ascagnel says:
Bah! I was hoping to make it to the iFanboy meetup last night (and possibly buy you a nice cold adult beer-beverage in exchange for a signed Phonogram) but instead came down with some nasty bug that’s kept me room-bound for the better part of what has been a beautiful February weekend in the NYC area.
Did Garnett Lee get drunk? That would have been a sight to see.
09/02/2009 at 04:16 ascagnel says:
@jalf:
I got to talk with someone who worked on the engine tech for Frontlines: Fuel of War (UE3-based, which was designed for the PS3 before the X360). His main comment was in terms of raw horsepower, there was more there, but getting to that horsepower was a strenuous activity that would typically end up with them getting in at a very low-level, with either great big gobs of C or assembly code. This would lead large chunks of the codebase being extremely hard to maintain.
09/02/2009 at 05:04 born2expire says:
neat.
09/02/2009 at 05:55 Dave L. says:
@ascagnel: The Frontlines guys didn’t know wtf they were doing from pretty much day 1, so I wouldn’t take anything they say as any form of gospel.
09/02/2009 at 06:50 waffles says:
@Dave L.
Their only previous release was a mod, right?
Also i think the “lol i trol u” mentality is partially to blame for all this.
09/02/2009 at 07:14 pepper says:
@Jalf, i completely agree with you, sony fucked up big time with the PS3 pipeline. They even admitted that they made it extremely overly zealous to code for the PS3 in a gamasutra article last month. Which actually baffled me because it showed exactly how much the sony execs live in there own little world..
09/02/2009 at 07:41 Tei says:
The PC hardware already exist, the XBox use alike hardware, minus tons of ram, minus tons of Hard-disk, etc.. theres no need for the PS3 to be *another* PC-ish hardware. Dev’s need to stop ranting, and start figuring out how to create new games with a *different* hardware. Not creating more games that *sure* will work good on a PC-ish hardware. What about raytracers? what about a really good physic engine? what about simulating a huge city or set of NPC’s, or flock movements, etc.. Make the XBox hardware looks ridiculous!.
Ok, Ok.. I know this will never hands, as professional dev’s have limits on then, schedules and things. Something hard like the PS3 hardware could have worked better with hobbyism game programmers toying with the hardware, maybe. Maybe if the console is unlocked to everyone to code for it, will show the potential, but will never happends, as consoles are locked, and for some strange reaseon, the owners of the consoles are happy with that.
09/02/2009 at 07:49 James T says:
I think the correct word may be ‘lovemob’.
09/02/2009 at 09:32 Radiant says:
You can understand a kid’s fanaticism if you think about how much time they spend playing these games.
I was watching a mates younger brother play Gears of War 2 and I was shocked firstly because he’s 13 and secondly he bought the game the day before and he was already about two thirds of the way into the game.
I spent a month playing through Bioshock and it took me a good week or so to stop hearing the bloody security bot whistles in my head [or the hellish vending machine giggling jingles] so imagine what a full burn through ‘badass’ country does to someone in his teens?
09/02/2009 at 09:34 Radiant says:
Anyway; fuck all that.
Why is Killzone called Killzone anyway?
09/02/2009 at 09:34 Radiant says:
- anyway
09/02/2009 at 09:45 Gap Gen says:
Larington: Your comment on over-rating games implies that there is some objective scale of reviewing, and that the reviewer is objectively wrong. Am I missing something?
Granted, their score may be at odds with what the majority of the people on the internet think, but that doesn’t mean that they’re wrong.
Maybe what you’re trying to say is “they liked the game more than me”, which I would agree with, but then the point sort of becomes a tautology.
09/02/2009 at 10:08 Bobsy says:
I know I’ve missed a lot on t his Killzone thing. But… why exactly is Killzone 2 special? I mean, apart from being on the PS3.
09/02/2009 at 11:02 Dinger says:
It’s testosterone poisoning.
I remember when, pre-beta, the WW2OL developers were talking about their table-top prototype of their game, and the TF2 fanbois came in posting how Team Fortress 2 was going to kick WW2OL’s ass all over the realistic military arms MP simspace.
It’s funny how: A. the WW2OL prototype failed to point out the numerous severe problems with their game design choices. B. TF2 turned out to be a great game, but not at all the one those kids thought it would be. C. Those kids are now in their early twenties, laughing at the console fanbois and bragging that PC gaming is immune from such crap.
At some point, you have to realize that you’re arguing with 12-year-old males, and just let it go.
PS3 may have more untapped potential, but you have to make developers want to explore it. If a platform and its tools don’t inspire love, or at least obsession, with the people that make the games (and not just the 12-year-olds), you won’t get games that test the limits. That’s why the Amiga rocked so hard.
09/02/2009 at 11:48 Man Raised By Puffins says:
@ Tei: I’d imagine a big damper on exploring the potential of the PS3 at the moment is the fact that it’s very much playing second fiddle to the 360 in the race for second place in the console ‘war’. It doesn’t really make much sense to throw R&D money at the platform with the smallest installed base, unless you’re Sony obviously.
Really, so long as the hardware is reliable (something which MS is still working on, clearly), it shouldn’t really matter too much which platform is more powerful than the other. It’s the software which counts.
@ Kieron
Leinil Yu (assuming his name is pronounced Len-ill You)?
Also, a mention for the filthy consoles and none for John’s love letter to BG&E? For [Snip! - Ed] RPS!
09/02/2009 at 11:59 MrDeVil_909 says:
Amazing. Console fanboism on RPS, I never thought I’d live to see the day the folks here would be reading marketing press releases at each other.
09/02/2009 at 12:10 Gap Gen says:
I only played BG&E recently after buying it in a Steam sale. It’s awesome. Except for the fricken’ end boss.
09/02/2009 at 12:37 SoapBoxFurby says:
Just watched Sessler’s G4 soapbox piece – is there any way this can be nominated for some kind of award? I mean, do we have awards that reward this kind of rebuttal journalism? Special RPS awards made from tin-plated plywood, perhaps?
If not, there definitely should be. A copy of Advanced Lawnmower Simulator: 21st Century Remix to the best suggestion.
09/02/2009 at 14:21 Larington says:
@Gap Gen: I simply refer, for example with Fallout 3, that reviewers are more prone to score a game higher if one particular element blows them away, they get tunnel vision on that when scoring it because, understandably, its likely everyone else will flock to that particular element as well. So reviews go out as 10 out of 10, etc. The game still has flaws though, and I get the impression those flaws are more likely to be factored into the score if multiplayer or level of choice fails to ‘blow away’ a reviewer.
Hope that makes more sense.
09/02/2009 at 14:54 Gap Gen says:
I would have given Fallout 3 a 9 or a 10, tbh. 10/10 doesn’t mean perfect, as no game can be “perfect” so the score would be redundant.
Can you cite an example where one element of a game made a reviewer unfairly overlook other flaws? I can’t think of an example off the top of my head, although there are of course reviews of games that favoured a game more than I would have done.
It’s hopefully correct that few reviews will be influenced by financial concerns (although it has happened in some less reputable outlets), but I think that it’s simply a case of differing opinions rather than specifically focusing on one element to the detriment of other elements of a game.
Then again, I think it’s fair enough to do it – if one particular element of a game is great, I often don’t notice or don’t care so much if other aspects that are a little flawed.
09/02/2009 at 15:05 Larington says:
There are plenty of folks who argue the voice acting in F3 is so awful it puts them right out of the game. However you can avoid a lot of the dialogue by just wandering the wasteland exploring and choosing what to do, so its easier to overlook the dialogue issue, thats probably the best recent example I can think of. Of course, it didn’t help that xmas just gone was so full of releases that reviewers were only about to give it a couple of hours in a number of instances.
09/02/2009 at 15:05 Larington says:
about = able.
sorry.
09/02/2009 at 15:28 cyrenic says:
The big disclaimer at the beginning of the Adam Sessler video was the best part.
09/02/2009 at 15:34 Dolphan says:
Bobsy – Killzone 2 has been hyped, basically (and bizarrely, since Killzone was hardly the stuff of legend). It’s supposed to show off the power of the PS3, and possibly be its answer to Gears on the 360. Although Resistance was that too. I think. If you concentrate on these things for too long your brain goes into meltdown.
09/02/2009 at 15:53 Bobsy says:
I really liked the alternate history backstory part of Resistance. I remember a big ol’ flash website just before the first one came out which gave a detailed history of the world post-1900 with mysterious somethings slowly conquering the planet. It was almost certainly more entertaining than the game itself, and had a read gripping almost Lovecraftian element to it… right up until it became clear that the somethings were just aliens and the game would just mean fighting aliens over and over.
I can do that at home.
Meanwhile Killzone has fancy masks I guess? Despite what I’m learning is an impressive amount of hype it’s completely passed me by (but I guess not having a PS3 will do that) and all I can see is a game where guys shoot things with guns. I know consoles, and Playstations in particular, have never quite got a great big hold on the genre with the exception of Halo (Medal of Honour never quite met its own potential) but I have a pretty definitive “shoot things with guns” game on my shelf. It’s Quake 4, and it’s all I can think about when I see Killzone 2 shots.
Damn! That Quake bastard works fast!
09/02/2009 at 16:28 Catastrophe says:
@ Larington
I agree. You also get the reviewers who will score a game 10/10 just on the name alone. (FallOut3 is an example).
09/02/2009 at 16:28 Kieron Gillen says:
ascagnel: I was only there for an hour or so, alas, before trundling off to another party. Didn’t meet Lee either, which is a shame. Did totally hang out with Leigh Alexander and record a podcast though.
09/02/2009 at 20:36 Gap Gen says:
Again, I don’t see how Fallout 3 gained 10/10 on the name alone. Evidence?
09/02/2009 at 20:37 Gap Gen says:
Also, if you think Fallout 3′s voice acting is bad, take time to play through Haegemonia and Nexus: The Jupiter Incident. Hell, Deus Ex doesn’t have the best voice acting.
09/02/2009 at 20:49 Larington says:
Not saying its been over-rated on the name, just the ambition of the game (Which I’d argue it doesn’t quite reach). Meanwhile, of course there are going to be other games that have worse voice acting than Fallout 3… Doesn’t make it right though.
10/02/2009 at 15:22 Jason Moyer says:
So when did people stop considering Tom Chick a total hack?
10/02/2009 at 15:42 Jim Rossignol says:
About the time he started writing really interesting stuff about games.