Just go to sites like metacritic and look at the average score and read multiple reviews. No need to treat the opinions of ign, gamespot and gt as absolute truth.
Speaking of Gametrailers, I noticed in their review at 3:30 they used a clip of them missing a jump when talking about frustrating level design but in this video from their site at around 7:40 the developer tells you exactly how to make it. You have to HOLD the jump button. Unless they suddenly decided to test invisible walls at that point in the game and intentionally missed the jump it felt pretty unusual to me for them to use that death specifically in the review.
As a sidenote I thought having to hold the jump button to traverse larger gaps has been around since the platforming days of the NES or maybe that’s how I played the games.
That doesn’t make sense. Fans are, honestly, some pretty stupid people most of the time. And being “mainstream” doesn’t mean a review is automagically either worthwhile or shit (the same applies to “not mainstream”). If 5 mainstream reviews all say “Game X does well in Y way and poorly in Z way,” chances are game X has pro Y and con Z.
Dr. B doesn’t need his jump button held; he always jumps the perfect height.
They probably just wanted to illustrate “plummeting death.” I agree they should have thought about it a bit more and used some footage of the level design actually being frustrating.
This game looks like a pretty fun GoW stand-in.
As for the whole review debate, I’ll take a demo and a mixed bag of gameplay videos from someone who isn’t the developer / publisher over any review. “Mainstream” reviews have had a bad rap (deservedly) for years thanks to, ah, commercial considerations… but that doesn’t change the facts that fan reviews pretty much suck, too.
Give me a demo and some footage. Yeah, a demo can deceive, but it is more difficult to fake that than it is to buy off some reviews.
And does Dr. B really jump the perfect height, or does the world shift to accommodate his jump? Chicken or the egg?
I saw the review and I didn’t cancel the preorder because a lot of their complaint was about the game play, but for the most part, it looked like it wasn’t the game that was the problem, it was the user. They just sucked at the game and rather than blame themselves for dying or falling so much, they blame the game instead. You can see them jumping early and acting too late in the video multiple times.
It’s like people who complained about Castlevania 1-3 that it was the game’s fault they couldn’t jump simple crevices throughout the game.
VG Journalist always have to find something to complain about, or every game would get a perfect score. Gametrailers always did have bad reviews and for the most part always review the game for the less hardcore players.
Umm dude…most stages so far are linear; there are multiple paths but they would all lead to the same exit. These mutliple paths just lead to extra items or enemies you may need to deal with. …and I’ve hardly spent an hour trying to ‘figure out where to go or what to do’ in any stage of the game so far. In fact stages would take at most maybe 15 mins.
I’m not sure if this is because I’m playing on Hard mode, but if you beat a stage with low health you will start the next stage with your remaining health from the previous stage, i.e. your health does not reset to max at the start of each stage, or when you lose and restart from a checkpoint.
I still managed to survive most battles with my extremely low health tho :lol:
Most mainstream reviews are shit, rushed uninformed shit to be exact. Also, your confusing fans with fanboys. Fans as in people who know what the fuck they are talking about versus alleged “pro’s” reviewers who don’t know what they are talking about half the time.
I’m going to wrap this up as I feel this topic shouldn’t derail into reviewer talk, and my wrap-up is this: you’re arguing from emotion. Poor reviews are not the exclusive domain of professionals or otherwise; they’re the domain of people who don’t accurately assess what they’re reviewing.
Dr. B’s reviews are so mind-bendingly thoughtful, reading one spoils all other social interaction.
That GT review made me want it even more, most if not all the complaints seemed to stem from lack of player skill, though keep in mind many games SRK’ers love are considered “cheap, poorly designed, too hard, etc” because reviewers have to keep casual gamers in mind too. However, I have a sneaking suspicion the reviewer had an anti platforming/puzzle bias as many mainstream review sites tend to have.
I took a chance and bought this tonight, despite having never liked a 3-D Castlevania game before. So far, its pretty cool. I think I could live without the blatant ripping-off of Shadow of the Colossus but the rest of the combat is cool. But I just played through Bayonetta again recently and the combat feels lacking in comparison. That’s not entirely fair though because no third person action game can really stand up to Bayonetta IMO.
Nothing about the setting that I’ve seen so far really screams “Castlevania” to me but it still looks really nice. And of course the voice acting is excellent. I’m interested in seeing where the story goes, hopefully they tie it into the old games at least a little.
By the way, I bought the PS3 version and it seems to run pretty well. I haven’t seen any slow down or anything like that yet.
Norio Wakamoto speaks in a European Engrish dialect as Dracula? One can hope ;.;
…and I think it is best to judge the combat after you’ve unlocked every type of combo in the game.
Oh yeah have you tried this attack yet? Press Triangle (area attack), then quickly press Jump.
There are so many holes with this logic. Professionals at what? other then the fact that mainstream reviews are done by journalist. What real indication whatsoever that these guys are “pro’s” in relation to their understanding of gaming? Because they say so?
Second, I never claimed they were exclusive to domains of “pro’s”. I’m implying that they are not pros at all.
I only have one atm- [spoiler=]Daggers, you have to be looking at the enemy you want to throw it at, but they will usually hit them if they don’t dodge it. Some enemies can be killed by one dagger alone. Read their description in the game to know why.[/spoiler]
I don’t want to derail this thread. So, I’ll just end this little tirade here and now.
I’ll respond with another question: What have said reviewers done to convince anyone that they are at the level of a professional gamer in their assessment?
And, working as a journalist for a big video game publication comapny is not valid proof. I mean real proof, like say something that people who play games for a living or on a hardcore level can agree on. For example does anyone here on SRK a pro fighting game website support mainstream reviews on fighters? and why? [Rhetorical question btw, because anyone who knows a thing about fighters knows that the “pro” reviews don’t know anything about fighters.] Because for every claim that the reviewers of: IGN, Gamespot or whatever are “pro’s”. Burden of proof on the positive is required.
That’s my last comment on the issue.
Edit:
I knew the bs “Fighting games are deeper” card would be pulled. Typical, shoryuken and still no proof that these dudes are pro’s or even good.
I’ll say this; reviewing a game that has near limitless playtime (fighting games) vs reviewing a (on average) 3-4 time play through action game is completely different.
Outside of fighting games, I believe the “pro’s” have enough experience to provide a insightful review.
Keep in mind also that “pros” would be looking to see if the game would fit their own target audience. Who may not necessarily “get” fighting games like the rest of us do.