This game needs a good tutorial/Why I can relate to OXM Dan

[Foozwah]

Bulls charge things with their horns (for MASSIVE DAMAGE), therefore Bulling enemies is obviously the act of ramming enemies in some way.

While I personally found the whole "bulling" biz in SG largely self-explanatory (despite never having heard the term before), your comment above actually reads more like an argument against it.

I.e. "Bulls charge things, ergo charging something should obviously be called bulling..."

Seems to me, if obvious was what's required, it'd be a bit more obvious to call charging, err, charging...

But screw obvious! In fact, I'd like to propose that the act of bulls charging in real life should henceforth be referred to as "bulling"!

Let's get the word into dictionaries, where it'll also act as a free plug for SG and Llamasoft - everyone's a winner.

[Baggypants]

Bulls charge things with their horns (for MASSIVE DAMAGE), therefore Bulling enemies is obviously the act of ramming enemies in some way.

While I personally found the whole "bulling" biz in SG largely self-explanatory (despite never having heard the term before), your comment above actually reads more like an argument against it.

I.e. "Bulls charge things, ergo charging something should obviously be called bulling..."

Seems to me, if obvious was what's required, it'd be a bit more obvious to call charging, err, charging...

But screw obvious! In fact, I'd like to propose that the act of bulls charging in real life should henceforth be referred to as "bulling"!

Let's get the word into dictionaries, where it'll also act as a free plug for SG and Llamasoft - everyone's a winner.

Well Fuck Me.
Bulling

v. bulled, bull·ing, bulls

v. tr.
To push; force.

v. intr.
To push ahead or through forcefully: "He bulls through the press horde that encircles the car" (Scott Turow).

can we stop now, its clearly called bulling because its an appropriate bovine reference. along with the probably million other bovine and ungulate reference in the game which I've not played yet because my mate sold his 360, bloody fool.

[rowan]

I thought use of the word bulling was explained in the tutorial by inclusion
of quotes around it in this sentence.

When power zone is active you can 'bull' enemies off the rim by running
into them.

[tentaclesex]

I thought use of the word bulling was explained in the tutorial by inclusion
of quotes around it in this sentence.

When power zone is active you can 'bull' enemies off the rim by running
into them.

Oh sure, that's great if you can read. Requiring players to read creates a discriminatory barrier to entry for illiterate people. That isn't fair at all.

[choddo]

athough I'll admit I thought the floating words "Power Zone" above it were plenty at the time.

James

Want to hear something funnier? The biggest moan I read about on the RLLMUK forums was that once they got into the real game they didn't know they had a power zone because the words didn't appear.

That was from some game developers too though. I think it was a fair comment.

[choddo]

athough I'll admit I thought the floating words "Power Zone" above it were plenty at the time.

James

Want to hear something funnier? The biggest moan I read about on the RLLMUK forums was that once they got into the real game they didn't know they had a power zone because the words didn't appear.

To be fair to the rllmuk lot, the vast majority of them changed their tune after a few days and were praising the game.

Thanks largely to you, Afterbirth & I SINGING it's praises

Plus... it's a shooty game, even if you totally miss the whole point of the PowerZone it's not too tricky to work out, surely? And since people like to compare it to Tempest, that should imply a certain style of gameplay...

Which is EXACTLY the wrong thing to do.

[PVB]

athough I'll admit I thought the floating words "Power Zone" above it were plenty at the time.

James

Want to hear something funnier? The biggest moan I read about on the RLLMUK forums was that once they got into the real game they didn't know they had a power zone because the words didn't appear.

That was from some game developers too though. I think it was a fair comment.

I don't.

If the tutorial had been made like some people have suggested, with the game pausing and arrows highlighting all the enemies/gameplay points, others would have complained that the same cues weren't also in the main game.

You can't please all of the people all of the time.


I'm beginning to get tired of all the comments about SG being difficult, hard to understand, etc.

Let's just leave it as it is and play the fucking game, hmm?

[Yak]

haha, just read this thread for the first time for ages, been staying away from this part of the forum while I work on new stuff, only popped back in to post about the patch.

At least I know now that OXM are clueless lazy fuckwits *whichever* side of the Atlantic they are on. Pearls before fucking swine doesn't begin to cover it.

Oh well, more fool them. Fuckwits. And they moan about having no credibility...

[stefcha]

If the tutorial had been made like some people have suggested, with the game pausing and arrows highlighting all the enemies/gameplay points, others would have complained that the same cues weren't also in the main game.

I think that knowing the name of what's just killed you to death (without having to go and find out what they're called on the 'net) would have been useful for constructing an appropriate sweary sentence. But that's about it, unless I've missed it (it's been a while, and my memory /is/ shit).

Was also going to say it'd be good to see them too (with perhaps a hint of their behaviour, in a not-unlike-an-old-arcade attract sequence ), but it does that on the web preview when you leave it for a bit, doesn't it? Always forget that.

If only the 360 would fit in my luggage when I have to travel

[ukslim]

I think that knowing the name of what's just killed you to death (without having to go and find out what they're called on the 'net) would have been useful for constructing an appropriate sweary sentence. But that's about it, unless I've missed it (it's been a while, and my memory /is/ shit).

Ironically, my major reason for not enjoying FPSs is not knowing where the shots that killed you came from (fixed, apparently, in Call of Duty which holds not appeal to me, and Team Fortress 2 which looks good).

The same people who mock me for this view and say it's just because I'm shit at games and not willing to practice, are the same ones complaining about not seeing bullets/enemies in SG. Gah.

[WiredWorm]

Having played it for a while I can say that SG is actually quite a fair game - probably more so than Geometry Wars.

Yes, at times there is a lot going on in SG but the point is that there are other cues (most notably audio ones) which you can use to your advantage. The same can't be said for Geometry Wars.

In pretty much all the cases when i've died i've held my hand up and admitted that it was because I either tried to make a risky move (usually when trying to shoot an enemy bullet only to find it's closer than I thought) or because I ignored an audio of visual cue.

Level 64 would be quite tricky IF you relied only on what you saw. If you listen carefully it's quite easy to identify what you're shooting at and using this information and an interpretation of what you can see it's really not that hard.

I guess having played the game more now (LiveEye reckons i've spent 18 hours on it thus far - and i'm sure it'll keep me busy for many months to come) I can appreciate just why Jeff was so pissed off with their 2/10 review. It really is an 'old school' shooter where the player is not spoon fed; instead it's up to the player to learn the rules of the game and develop a suitable play strategy.

I dunno - maybe it's just an 'age' thing - when I was a kid it was normal to have patience when it came to gaming. Lets face it - if you'd waited 5 minutes for a Speccy or CBM game to load up then you'd usually play it for more than 5 seconds before dismissing it and loading up the next game.

[franki]

If the tutorial had been made like some people have suggested, with the game pausing and arrows highlighting all the enemies/gameplay points, others would have complained that the same cues weren't also in the main game.

i dunno if that's true.

the instructions melted lovingly into the game, you could be forgiven for thinking they were part of it. i loved that, but i can understand why people didn't get it. if there had been a cartooney glass sphere thought bubble with a pink neon arrow pointing to the powerzone or a roadrunner type sign or something, you wouldn't expect to see it every level now, would you?

You can't please all of the people all of the time.

i know that that's true

I'm beginning to get tired of all the comments about SG being difficult, hard to understand, etc.

Let's just leave it as it is and play the fucking game, hmm?

amen

[teamonkey]

"Our giraffe is another castle", for example, which could mean anything

Now, I can understand how the average OXM reader may not get this reference, but surely any games journalist should?

[PVB]

"Our giraffe is another castle", for example, which could mean anything

Now, I can understand how the average OXM reader may not get this reference, but surely any games journalist should?

Yes, and they should also be able to read plain English, as it actually says
Our giraffe is in another castle.

[tentaclesex]

Having played it for a while I can say that SG is actually quite a fair game - probably more so than Geometry Wars.

Once you figure out what's going on, it's certainly far fairer than any incarnation of Tempest. It's challenging, but never punishing. It's tough to get a great score, but it's easy to make progress.

It was a pretty big surprise to me, actually. After being accustomed to having my ass kicked up and down the street by T2k and T3k I expected the same from SG. The start bonus system is great, because even if you can't pull off an awesome run, you can still get a sense of accomplishment from making little bits of progress here and there.

As far as the tutorial goes, I guess I can't judge, because I had devoured every available morsel of information about the game prior to playing it.