Vinny said something that irked me (I know, I'm in dangerous territory now) during the Knack QL, and it went something along the lines of, when responding to Brad's question if it impressed him at all, saying "If you're asking if I look at this and think "Whoa!!! That's fucking amazing!" then no." As if that was the only condition to him ever playing a game, at this point; unconditionally blowing him away in every conceivable way.
I agree with you OP, there is something appealing about Knack in spite of the fact that it still looks one-note and weirdly shallow, and I'll buy it when I get a PS4 sometime next year to give it a shot. Alex's review is totally fair, it doesn't look like it deserves a great score. And yet, it bothers me that it seems like many critics can't tolerate anything that is any less than ground-breaking-mind-fucking-orgasmic-amazing, and aren't willing to try and enjoy or spend time with something that is subpar. Everything these days is so hyperbolic whenever something isn't a 9/10; if it's not incredible, nothing worthwhile is ever remembered of it. Assassin's Creed 3 got four stars on this site, but you'd certainly never know it if you never saw the review.
Most individuals aren't exactly high-standards individuals, I understand that, but it does come off as a bit snobbish at times. There is a value in playing and talking about games that are not necessarily amazing, but can nonetheless be enjoyed and worthwhile in some way. It keeps yourself grounded and is an interesting way to remember why, if nothing else, the games we consider so great really are that great. Not keeping that perspective is what leads people to end up whining, at the end of every year, at how so much of the year was disappointing and sucky. There are interesting and worthwhile games all around, getting released all the time, and if you're not at least trying different things out once in awhile, you're doing yourself a disservice.
I guess in a long and vaguely incoherent rambling way, what I'm really getting at here is that I kind of miss how Giant Bomb used to give more middling-tier games more coverage and discussion. I miss when Vinny used to insist on playing Wet, and spend days on The Wheelman, when Jeff pissed away a weekend on Godfather 2, when Brad used to finish a game outside of one he was reviewing, and they could come away from these experiences thinking "Not the greatest game ever, but hey, here's a silly/dumb part I really liked." In the last year and ahalf, it's like everyone on the staff aged ten years, are always ten minutes late for something, and can barely cover the tentpole releases, let alone anything else.
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