He always does.HGFB wrote:Reggie looks like he's about to start eating brains
Did anyone see these reggie wii t-shirts that were apparently in sale somewhere in states?
Apparently they're 100% official merchandise.
Official Nintendo Fanboy Smugness & Gloating Thread
...see gaming has some interesting characters 
The spread in all these reviews just look like the glass-half-full vs. glass-half-empty effect to me. The Wii is such a different approach that personal prejudices seem to get hugely amplified.
Look at Jeff Gerstman's Gamespot LoZ:TP review vs Matt Casamassina's review. They both actually point out similar negatives:
. The game is an evolution of LoZ:OoT
. The graphics haven't really advanced over the Gamecube (other than use of widescreen)
. Neither has the sound (it is at heart a gamecube game after all)
. There's still no voice acting,
. The fights are somewhat superficial.
Where they differ is in how much they feel any of this matters. Matt concentrates more on what's right and less on what's wrong, whereas Jeff takes pretty much the opposite view. Personally i think Matt nails what the spirit of what Zelda is about, whereas Jeff seems to want Zelda to be a Playstation FPS. This bias also comes out in their different assessments of the length of the game (if you ignore sidequests in Zelda, you've completely missed the point), and the validity of the controller.
Two different viewpoints, two different reviews. No problem. What i do think is wrong though is:
1. Each reviewer should declare their prejudices. That way you can read the review bearing in mind how much their preferences overlap with yours.
2. Scoring a game out of 100 (or with decimals), or even out of 20 (or with half points) is simply a case of spurious accuracy. It means nothing, as the margin for error is far larger. You just have to look at the list of Gamespot reviews ranked by score to see this at work. I don't believe an impartial observer would have ranked Zelda:TP below many of the games that scored 8.9 or higher on that list.
The granularity of the Edge scoring system is a far better approach (very few games have achieved an Edge 10, and each one that did offered something ground-breaking for it's time, against which a 9 for Zelda:TP seems perfectly reasonable). Even then, scores below 5 really just mean don't buy, so why bother with that range?
5 grades are all you really need to adequately guide the prospective buyer (along with an informative, insightful review that conveys the spirit of the game):
0 - forget it
1 - rent
2 - worth buying
3 - must have
4 - ground breaking
Sadly such honesty requires a) the publication not being the publishers' bitch and b) the reviewer being somewhat more mature than an overgrown adolescent male.
The spread in all these reviews just look like the glass-half-full vs. glass-half-empty effect to me. The Wii is such a different approach that personal prejudices seem to get hugely amplified.
Look at Jeff Gerstman's Gamespot LoZ:TP review vs Matt Casamassina's review. They both actually point out similar negatives:
. The game is an evolution of LoZ:OoT
. The graphics haven't really advanced over the Gamecube (other than use of widescreen)
. Neither has the sound (it is at heart a gamecube game after all)
. There's still no voice acting,
. The fights are somewhat superficial.
Where they differ is in how much they feel any of this matters. Matt concentrates more on what's right and less on what's wrong, whereas Jeff takes pretty much the opposite view. Personally i think Matt nails what the spirit of what Zelda is about, whereas Jeff seems to want Zelda to be a Playstation FPS. This bias also comes out in their different assessments of the length of the game (if you ignore sidequests in Zelda, you've completely missed the point), and the validity of the controller.
Two different viewpoints, two different reviews. No problem. What i do think is wrong though is:
1. Each reviewer should declare their prejudices. That way you can read the review bearing in mind how much their preferences overlap with yours.
2. Scoring a game out of 100 (or with decimals), or even out of 20 (or with half points) is simply a case of spurious accuracy. It means nothing, as the margin for error is far larger. You just have to look at the list of Gamespot reviews ranked by score to see this at work. I don't believe an impartial observer would have ranked Zelda:TP below many of the games that scored 8.9 or higher on that list.
The granularity of the Edge scoring system is a far better approach (very few games have achieved an Edge 10, and each one that did offered something ground-breaking for it's time, against which a 9 for Zelda:TP seems perfectly reasonable). Even then, scores below 5 really just mean don't buy, so why bother with that range?
5 grades are all you really need to adequately guide the prospective buyer (along with an informative, insightful review that conveys the spirit of the game):
0 - forget it
1 - rent
2 - worth buying
3 - must have
4 - ground breaking
Sadly such honesty requires a) the publication not being the publishers' bitch and b) the reviewer being somewhat more mature than an overgrown adolescent male.
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limb_clock
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supermonkeyworld
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+2Jimaroid wrote:Double cunt + 1.GeeZa wrote:Oh fuck me you guys are gonna die when you get this thing. Thus far it feels like the best thing ever. More soon, and I will be very careful not to spoil things for the UK launch.
Armed with a Cintiq+4+bless I'm off to fight bad taste!
Take a look at my art and t-shirts
Take a look at my art and t-shirts
I've only played Wii Sports and Excite Truck and just completed the basic trophy and the first tutorials. The Wii itself is just wonderful. Compact, neat, quiet, a really thoughtful design. Took literally a few minutes to set up and the picture through the supplied cable on my CRT telly is excellent. The sensor bar is smaller than I thought and is stuck on top of the TV. There's a couple of easy set-up steps and you're ready to go, no pain at all involved.
I set up my Mii profile and the first thing I noticed was how intuitive the nunchuck pointer is. Really, you'll pick it up straight away. Feels totally odd at first but within a few minutes you're pointing with speed and accuracy. There's a subtle rumble of feedback which helps too, it's weird (for example when you point over a dialogue button). The controllers feel solid although oddly light-weight. Love the blue LEDs and the speaker is a nice little addition. Buttons and triggers are fine. Nice soothing music on the Wii screen too, lovely. Oh and the way it sucks the disks into the slot without a tray *is* the coolest thing ever, very Apple. (Don't hurt me).
Wii Sports really is the first thing to play because it's gonna help adjust to the controls. I played Tennis and Bowling and both were excellent. Tennis is basically Ping Pong, just back-hand and fore-hand swings with a subtle twist of the controller for top-spin or lob. It's fucking fun though. The first time I did a serve it just felt new and cool. Bowling is a little more sophisticated and I struggled with the controls here. Got the hang of it in the end but it took about 30 minutes. The movement is odd, you bring the controller up to your chest whilst holding the trigger, then the man runs up to bowl, and as he does you have to do a kinda bowling motion and then let go of the trigger. It's all about timing but after a while I found myself pretty much bowling where I wanted to with only the odd fuck up. Definitely one to practice though, and I bet Golf is the same. Can't wait to give that a shot.
Excite Truck is superb btw. Those journos on that video must have been douche-bags because it's not hard to control at all. It fucking *flies* along at a rapid pace and the blur-o-vision effect when you get the power up and go to warp speed is great. Graphically it's high-quality, with nice tracks, water effects, and a solid fps. The game itself is just a no-brain arcade racer. There's not much subtlety to it, it's just go as fast as you can and do tricks and shit. Blasting through trees with the turbo on is intense, as are the super-airs. I suspect there's not much longevity here, but if you want an arcade racer that's just huge fun with really nice visuals then this is definitely worth considering. It's *not* Wave Race Blue Storm because although I loved that game, it was far more demanding of the player. Excite Truck is just "blast trucks around tracks and get massive air" all at 60fps. So y'know, not Sega Rally or anything, but a solid and fun-packed title which probably gets better as it goes along. Impressed to be honest....
Monkey Ball and Zelda after I eat.
I set up my Mii profile and the first thing I noticed was how intuitive the nunchuck pointer is. Really, you'll pick it up straight away. Feels totally odd at first but within a few minutes you're pointing with speed and accuracy. There's a subtle rumble of feedback which helps too, it's weird (for example when you point over a dialogue button). The controllers feel solid although oddly light-weight. Love the blue LEDs and the speaker is a nice little addition. Buttons and triggers are fine. Nice soothing music on the Wii screen too, lovely. Oh and the way it sucks the disks into the slot without a tray *is* the coolest thing ever, very Apple. (Don't hurt me).
Wii Sports really is the first thing to play because it's gonna help adjust to the controls. I played Tennis and Bowling and both were excellent. Tennis is basically Ping Pong, just back-hand and fore-hand swings with a subtle twist of the controller for top-spin or lob. It's fucking fun though. The first time I did a serve it just felt new and cool. Bowling is a little more sophisticated and I struggled with the controls here. Got the hang of it in the end but it took about 30 minutes. The movement is odd, you bring the controller up to your chest whilst holding the trigger, then the man runs up to bowl, and as he does you have to do a kinda bowling motion and then let go of the trigger. It's all about timing but after a while I found myself pretty much bowling where I wanted to with only the odd fuck up. Definitely one to practice though, and I bet Golf is the same. Can't wait to give that a shot.
Excite Truck is superb btw. Those journos on that video must have been douche-bags because it's not hard to control at all. It fucking *flies* along at a rapid pace and the blur-o-vision effect when you get the power up and go to warp speed is great. Graphically it's high-quality, with nice tracks, water effects, and a solid fps. The game itself is just a no-brain arcade racer. There's not much subtlety to it, it's just go as fast as you can and do tricks and shit. Blasting through trees with the turbo on is intense, as are the super-airs. I suspect there's not much longevity here, but if you want an arcade racer that's just huge fun with really nice visuals then this is definitely worth considering. It's *not* Wave Race Blue Storm because although I loved that game, it was far more demanding of the player. Excite Truck is just "blast trucks around tracks and get massive air" all at 60fps. So y'know, not Sega Rally or anything, but a solid and fun-packed title which probably gets better as it goes along. Impressed to be honest....
Monkey Ball and Zelda after I eat.
