More people look at it's charm, rather than the technical side.

you just didn't 'get it', man

OH NO, NOT TEXTURE POP IN!

you just didn't 'get it', man

@Noct said:

I alo personally did not enjoy the constant dick jokes at all...

I'm no stiff;

*elbow* Eh? EH?

                   

you just didn't 'get it', man

                   

               

                    More people look at it's charm, rather than the technical side.

                   

               

it..has.. a.. freakin..boner gun...  whats to hate about a game that has a freakin boner gun? 

I disagree with the staff all the time. Who cares?

Why do you feel the need to argue so vehemently over a one star difference?

                   

OH NO, NOT TEXTURE POP IN!

                   

               

When did the general opinion of this game flip from "It's a great game that's a lot of fun" to "You're an idiot if you don't like this game", exactly? I haven't noticed anything of the sort.

I can see why the IGN review was so high. Arthur Geiss puts a lot more stock into the the aesthetics and form that the game contains. Really great music, really interesting artstyle, purposely campy dialog; it's all put in place to recreate an exploitation film and it's done with a lot of love and care. That will resonate with certain people more than others. But beneath all that, the game is simply average. If you want a good 3rd person shooter and you don't care about the exploitation motif or you don't care where the musical queues are coming from, you're probably not going to enjoy it.

Ultimately that's what SUDA51 does. He makes games that envoke certain emotions in certain people. Personally, as a game, I think all of SUDA's older games are terrible. The only reason why they get a pass is because the evoke an aesthetic that resonates with certain people. NMH1 was a much easier sell to me due to it's commentary on the anime scene, but as a brawler, that game is dogshit. Shinji Mikami's presence reels in SOTD a little bit, but ultimately it emulates the worst parts of RE4 (because there's no one reeling in Mikami).

I think we all wanted something like Bayonetta where the style is crazy and new and batshit but you want to see it all at least once, but under all that there's an incredibly solid game. That's hard to do, and this game doesn't really do it.

@Noct said:

@Laketown said:

OH NO, NOT TEXTURE POP IN!

You say that like it's something that shouldn't be mentioned... It's something that reviewers typically laambast a game over, and it was so rampant in this game that I felt like I was playing GTA:SA again... I'm not saying that it ruins the experience of anything, but it's definately something worth noting. Especially when it is this pervasive.

mentioned, sure; made out to be some big problem? nah son

- prods with one stick and start rubbing it with annother- give me about 2 hrs

The score doesn't matter. I agree with some of your points though. The jokes and writing didn't bother me, but the bad aiming/shooting did. The guns didn't feel right, it was hard to tell where your shots were landing, etc. Also the game was too easy and simple. It has a charm to it, and I liked the presentation/some aspects of the narrative, but it is not a particularly great game. Shinji Mikami needed more of a gameplay lead or design rather than "creative producer" role (whatever that means): if it was simply a very good RE4 clone it would've been fine, but it wasn't even that. More or less a lukewarm 3/5 for me.

I disagree. The texture pop-in you mention is mild at best. Gears of War 2 had 4 times as much pop-in as SotD (?) and I don't think there's much clunk to talk about. On top of that it's a one of the funniest and craziest games I've played in a while. In my opinion it's a solid 4.

It's because the flaws you are pointing out are not as glaring as you are making them out to be.

                    The score doesn't matter. I agree with some of your points though. The jokes and writing didn't bother me, but the bad aiming/shooting did. The guns didn't feel right, it was hard to tell where your shots were landing, etc. Also the game was too easy and simple. It has a charm to it, and I liked the presentation/some aspects of the narrative, but it is not a particularly great game. Shinji Mikami needed more of a gameplay lead or design rather than "creative producer" role (whatever that means): if it was simply a very good RE4 clone it would've been fine, but it wasn't even that. More or less a lukewarm 3/5 for me.

                   

               

                   

@Noct said:

You say that like it's something that shouldn't be mentioned... It's something that reviewers typically laambast a game over, and it was so rampant in this game that I felt like I was playing GTA:SA again... I'm not saying that it ruins the experience of anything, but it's definately something worth noting. Especially when it is this pervasive.

It's an Unreal Engine game so it's pretty much expected/a known issue/working as intended. It's been six years, not sure it's still worth noting beyond mentioning that the game runs on UE3.

                   

               

i love how you state Alex's opinion to not be fact to in the next line say that...YOUR opinion is fact. you gotta fucking love the internet

                   

It's because the flaws you are pointing out are not as glaring as you are making them out to be.

                   

               

                   

@Noct said:

Put bluntly, I'm a little shocked and disheartened at how high a score and level of praise Alex will give a seriously flawed game just because it has dick jokes in it... I mean, either that or he just really likes the notion that it was a Grasshopper game and wants to come across as some kind of a hipster. "This game isn't for everyone man; don't let society tell you what games should be like", etc...

That hole isn't deep enough, keep going.

                   

               

                    i love how you state Alex's opinion to not be fact to in the next line say that...YOUR opinion is fact. you gotta fucking love the internet

                   

               

you just don't get it do you?

                    you just don't get it do you?

                   

               

So many people focus so hard on the actual score of reviews it's crazy

@Rhaknar said:

                    i love how you state Alex's opinion to not be fact to in the next line say that...YOUR opinion is fact. you gotta fucking love the internet

                   

               

Where did I say that, or even imply it in the least? Yeah, you gotta love the internet, where people barely read anything and just pull stuff out of thier ass.

Ok, I think (some of) you guys are missing my point here. I didn't want to argue over a one-star difference, and I totally get that reviews are totally subjective and just one person's opinion.  My point was more along the lines of how surprised I was to see that one-sided review here. Put bluntly, I'm a little shocked and disheartened at how high a score and level of praise Alex will give a seriously flawed game just because it has dick jokes in it... I mean, either that or he just really likes the notion that it was a Grasshopper game and wants to come across as some kind of a hipster. "This game isn't for everyone man; don't let society tell you what games should be like", etc...  Don't get me wrong, again, there's some stuff to like about this game, but I'm just totally stunned how many issues it has that Alex/GB was willing to overlook in their review. I know, I know, you have to take all reviews with a grain of salt, but honestly, this is the first time EVER that I've not totally agreed with one of this club's reviews. I'm just shocked is all.  Again, its not a worthless game, there's some fun to be had there, but I just can't believe how many problems people are willing to overlook in it.

I think accusing me of "hipsterdom" because I genuinely enjoyed the game's sense of humor and style is a little absurd.

I say in the review that the linearity of the level design and bland world aesthetics were an issue. I didn't have much of a problem with the loose handling of the shooting, nor did I have an issue with the frequency of the boner jokes. I sort of enjoyed the way the game reveled in that stuff, personally.

I say in the review the game is not for everyone, and that some simply won't be able to fall in line with the game's... unusual sense of humor. It sounds like you were one of those people. That will totally happen, as I said. I just think it's a little nutty that you'd be so "shocked" that I enjoyed it, when I clearly laid out why I enjoyed it in the review text.

@Noct said:

    umm, which one in particular? Cuz I don't think Ive overplayed any of the flaws... Care to give me an example? 

I didn't play the game but I watched a playthrough of it on youtube and yeah the pop up is really bad.  
 
At one point, the player decided to go back to a previous area to get a pick up he missed before he moved on. The street behind him completely disappeared and took a bit to materialize. I've played my share of Unreal Engine stuff but good god. Fortunately it doesn't seem THAT frequent

                   

@Noct said:

Uhh, yeah.. When I have to stand there for like 5+ seonds waiting for the billboard I'm supposed to be looking at to load, simply so I can read it; I'd say it's worth mentioning...

Unreal Engine. You either get nice textures w/pop-in or crappy textures w/ less pop-in. People know that going in, it's neither unexpected nor worth continuing to harp on about six years after the current version debuted. (UE2 had similar issues too, so we're looking at over a decade of this now. If you were taken by surprise then you haven't been paying attention, which is fine but it's also not the reviewer's fault.)

                   

               

                    @Noct: Question: did you enjoy any of Suda51's past titles? Or any of PlatinumGames's equally problematic-but-just-as-awesome titles?  Opinions be opinions, but I think you have to be a tad understanding of the kinds of things that people like. Personally, I'll play the jankiest damn game in the world if it has the personality to win me over. While I haven't touched Shadows of the Damned yet, it's something that I'm dying to get my hands on. It's almost everything that I like about a game, and I couldn't care less about what the gameplay is like.

                   

               

@Noct said:

Ok, I think (some of) you guys are missing my point here. I didn't want to argue over a one-star difference, and I totally get that reviews are totally subjective and just one person's opinion. My point was more along the lines of how surprised I was to see that one-sided review here. Put bluntly, I'm a little shocked and disheartened at how high a score and level of praise Alex will give a seriously flawed game just because it has dick jokes in it... I mean, either that or he just really likes the notion that it was a Grasshopper game and wants to come across as some kind of a hipster. "This game isn't for everyone man; don't let society tell you what games should be like", etc...

It sounds to me like the problem here is the assumptions you're making about Alex's review. You might feel that the game is "seriously flawed" but that doesn't necessarily mean that it is, or that the flaws present are being entirely overlooked for a few dick jokes. This game is a lot of fun without being any kind of anti-popularist statement - particularly when you consider that this is one of the more "mainstream" games to be produced by Grasshopper Manufacture. Hell, if Alex were "some kind of hipster" I daresay the review would have turned out significantly more negative. Alex himself points out that the game is a pretty traditional 3rd Person action title that doesn't really deliver on what you could imagine the minds involved might produce were they to truly run creatively rampant.

It's okay, you've found yourself disagreeing with a Giant Bomb review. It's not the end of the world.

@Noct: I think Alex summed it up nicely. there's no need to go accusing people of stuff; he liked it you didn't end of. Personally I don't exactly agree with a the tastes of some the Whiskey Staff I learned that after Jeff was raving about Boderlands went out bought it and only played it for an hour but I bought Super Meat Boy after Brads quicklook and loved it. Giantbombs goal is to let you know about the reviewers personality and preferences so you can make more informed choices about who you agree with.

Love the game and would recommend to anyone who just wants to have fun, or challenge.

Yeah, I've liked a few. I'm all about Cheese/Camp, it's not that I don't get that. I see your point, but that's kinda what's losing me here. It's not necessarily people's willingness to overlook the jankyness, as much as thier downright refusal to admit it's there, and this overwhelming notion that you just don't "get it" if you see it. Well, I see it, this game is janky. Janky and clunky.  For example, I personally had an absolute blast playing Enter The Matrix, and that was riddled with problems. But I wouldn't sit there and argue that they weren't there or that people were just not "getting it" if those issues kept them from playing it. That's kinda my point here, it seems really odd to me what people are overlooking/defending about this game...

Yeah, Shadows of the Damned really isn't a 4/5 star game... It's 5/5 star game, fool! I got my fire and my gasoline, now where's your address?! Let' settle this. (NOTE: Suda 51 is my favorite game developer of all time, so I'll irrationally defend all of his games to the very end).

@rebgav said:

                   

@Noct said:

Huh? How am I in a hole? Have I contradicted myself somewhere? It's not like I'm standing on some cloud of judgement flaming insults down on the game or review... I'm just talking about how surprised I was to come out of this game so underwhelmed after reading Alex's review...

You basically just said that you weren't sure if Alex was too lenient because he's immature (dick jokes) or because he's a douchebag (hipster). If you're going to go the personality assassination route at least own it.

                   

               

Reviews are so subjective, and your impressions will not always match some reviewers, even the guys here. I disagree w/them regularly. So what. Don't take it so seriously, and quit being so analytical, and come to expect and appreciate different perceptions. Get over it and play and plaudit games you like.

                    @Noct said:

@Rhaknar said:

                    i love how you state Alex's opinion to not be fact to in the next line say that...YOUR opinion is fact. you gotta fucking love the internet

                   

               

Where did I say that, or even imply it in the least? Yeah, you gotta love the internet, where people barely read anything and just pull stuff out of thier ass.

                   

               

where did you say that? oh i dont know, maybe here:  "Sorry guys, you're kidding yourselves." Yes, because you are the holder of the truth, the rest of the people are kidding themselves...

                   

               

did not enjoy the constant dick jokes

I think accusing me of "hipsterdom" because I genuinely enjoyed the game's sense of humor and style is a little absurd.

I say in the review that the linearity of the level design and bland world aesthetics were an issue. I didn't have much of a problem with the loose handling of the shooting, nor did I have an issue with the frequency of the boner jokes. I sort of enjoyed the way the game reveled in that stuff, personally.

I say in the review the game is not for everyone, and that some simply won't be able to fall in line with the game's... unusual sense of humor. It sounds like you were one of those people. That will totally happen, as I said. I just think it's a little nutty that you'd be so "shocked" that I enjoyed it, when I clearly laid out why I enjoyed it in the review text.

Crysis 2 was full of insane fps drops and pop in on consoles. It wasn't even campy or unique. Where were you for THAT review?

@Noct said:

it's not a 4 out of 5

Oh ffs.

Sorry but its not sudas fault that your taste in games are so shitty

                   

@Noct said:

    umm, which one in particular? Cuz I don't think Ive overplayed any of the flaws... Care to give me an example? 

The dick jokes don't even come up all that often outside of the Big Boner chapter and remains subtle all throughout. Not exactly something that would be 'embarassing' to play in front of others unless you're really, really self conscious or something. The texture pop in is practically non existent and is far, far, far worse in other games. If you think the gameplay is archaic, that's fine, but how is it any more archaic than RE5, a game with higher praise and worse shooting mechanics?   It also tends to hurt your credibility when you open up by saying anyone who likes the game is kidding themselves and then go on to pretty much just try to throw another reviewer's credibility under the bus. You don't like the game, that's fine and good, but don't start to say that people who do are 'kidding themselves'. 

                   

               

Finished this game yesterday, and while I certainly enjoyed bits of it, I think IGN was right on the money with their review. I don't know what game Alex was playing, but I feel a little bamboozled by that review...  I don't really care that it was linear; linear does not nessecarily mean bad, but it had so many other problems... It's a solid 2.5/3 out of 5, but this notion I keep seeing around here that this game is so awesome and you're an idiot if you don't think its great, etc... Sorry guys, you're kidding yourselves.  It does some interesting stuff, and has some really nice modeling, but it is also clunky as hell, extremely limited in a dozen ways, has an insane amount of texture pop-in, etc, etc... I'm not going to rehash my entire review here, but it was just riddled with problems, and was such an archaic experience in every way that it feels like it should have been released years ago. I alo personally did not enjoy the constant dick jokes at all... Not only did I not think they were funny or clever, it just kinda embarrassed me that I was playing something so juvenile when other people were around. I'm no stiff; I'll happily watch the most explicit and/or disturbing thing you can show me, but I just felt like I was listening to two 12 year old kids banter on the play-ground the whole time. It would have been worth a simple chuckle if they had made one or two jokes about it, but it was just so tired by the end of the experience that it just felt ridiculous.  Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed playing though it, (especially the nods to Evil Dead), but it's not a 4 out of 5. Not by any stretch of the imagination...