Support NeoGAF

[bender]

Just watched my first and probably last FightingCowboy video. That wasn't much of a review.

 

[FoxMcChief]

You telling me those problems arent present in BOTW?

Just showing media bias, thats all

It's the fucking Belda argument again….

 

[March Climber]

So worse than starfield, yikes

The only way for anything to be worse than Starfield is for the game to present me with a loading screen every 2-5 minutes.

 

[bender]

The only way for anything to be worse than Starfield is for the game to present me with a loading screen every 2-5 minutes.

...or be the next game made by Bethesda.

 

[Lux R7]

so you can have a dog pet that follows you around. I didn't get this info before.
100/10 game of the millennium for me.

 

[Lokaum D+]

Ben saying this. Stop the hype ️ it looked deep as a puddle and generic

"Deep as a puddle" meanwhile most reviewers are giving lower score cause the game is just too difficult to master and there is lots of systems to learn.

 

[xanaum]

Only played it a few hours though.

He argued with me once on Twitter defending Marvel's Avengers from Square with everything he had, just because he thought Kamala Khan's characterization and writing were the best thing ever. He might be a good source of info, but his taste is trash.

 

[touchfuzzy]

Worse reviews than Metroid Prime 4, lol.

 

[DreamcastSkies]

This game looked really ambitious. Was it too ambitious? Sorry for the people hyped for this game. Remember 7s are disappointing, but in the gaming world we act like a game is garbage if it gets below an 8. There's a lot of games that didn't get much attention at release over middling scores and as time went on, what they did well was appreciated more. I'm sure there's a good game here even if the scores aren't as consistently high as would be desired.

 

[Sgt.Asher]

Well shit, if that cunt schrier hates it I might have to get it now.

 

[near]

Greg gave it a 5/10 with ~20 hours playtime and has dropped the game.
Blessing gave it a 6/10 with ~15 hours playtime.

 

[March Climber]

...or be the next game made by Bethesda.

I have accepted Bethesda's form of jank. I just don't want them to ever return to a game where you have to constantly leave and land on planets.

The loading problem wasn't as bad with every other Franchise because everything in the overworld took place on one planet.

 

[Bonkerzzz]

Just watched my first and probably last FightingCowboy video. That wasn't much of a review.

As a longtime fan of FC, I was really disappointed with his "review" since it really wasn't one.

 

[M.W.]

Greg gave it a 5/10 with ~20 hours playtime and has dropped the game.
Blessing gave it a 6/10 with ~15 hours playtime.

Two of the biggest fucking morons in the industry.

 

[LakeOf9]

This has the same energy as a Lakeof9 post.

"Nintendo games only score high because of bias"

*run of Nintendo games getting 74-80 on MC*

"Wow Nintendo sucks will they have a 80+ game this year?"

But I love BOTW

 

[DeaDPo0L84]

Greg gave it a 5/10 with ~20 hours playtime and has dropped the game.
Blessing gave it a 6/10 with ~15 hours playtime.

What score did Greg's wife's husband give it?

 

[bender]

As a longtime fan of FC, I was really disappointed with his "review" since it really wasn't one.

"I'm not going to fight a boss" in this 40+ minute video was a headscratcher. He mentioned somewhere in the video about getting high and just exploring in the video game and all I could think was the video felt like someone high rambling on for 40 minutes and not really saying much. I will say that him putting in 110 hours and having such low completion rates for most of the tasks in the game is incredibly daunting.

The pop-in continues to be crazy. I did notice some birds on the ground pop-in at the characters feet in his video.

 

[Brigandier]

So from what I've read or watched the main gripes are

- Item Management issues.
- Terrible Menus.
- Food/Healing system a chore and inefficient.
- Unbalanced Bosses some very OP.
- No Item/Equip Storage which is bizarre.
- Clunky controls and combat.

If most of these issues can be fixed I think I'll enjoy this game very much, But will they?.

 

[StereoVsn]

How is the world interactivity and NPC conversations? Is there any decent in depth side quests and story missions in this?

The reviews kind of seemed to indicate this was all pretty shallow.

 

[GHG]

Watched a few reviews on YouTube and the reception looks to be excellent.



Then I come on here and see people are talking nonsense because the mainstream that recommended crap like Veilguard are failing to connect with it.

Then I saw this comment from Fightincowboy and it all makes sense:

 

[coachmcguirk91]

We've got a high of 100 and a low of 45 across 87 different people. Same reviewers will probably give GTA 6 scores in the 90s and I'll probably end up hating it just like I always do GTA games.

Made my choice and bought the game before the reviews and these scores don't change a thing for me. That doesn't mean I won't be disappointed. Doesn't mean I won't be happily surprised. Just gotta play and find out for myself.

The game is still going to sell like crazy. According to the developer, they are going to continually update the game over time. I am probably waiting a year or two for QOL fixes and proper updates, but it still seems 100% worth getting sooner or later

 

[StereoVsn]

So from what I've read or watched the main gripes are

- Item Management issues.
- Terrible Menus.
- Food/Healing system a chore and inefficient.
- Unbalanced Bosses some very OP.
- No Item/Equip Storage which is bizarre.
- Clunky controls and combat.

If most of these issues can be fixed I think I'll enjoy this game very much, But will they?.

It does sound that a few months of patching could fix the above…

 

[SomeNorseGuy]

Damn, that's quite the endorsement. I'll be suprised of don't end up getting it sooner rather then later.

 

[MMaRsu]

Watched a few reviews on YouTube and the reception looks to be excellent.



Then I come on here and see people are talking nonsense because the mainstream that recommended crap like Veilguard are failing to connect with it.

Then I saw this comment from Fightincowboy and it all makes sense:

Huh??

Karak and others have been truthful and honest about the game in that there is a lot of good but also a lot of mediocre and annoying stuff.

But believe whatever you want

That Luke guy who said this is amazing has a video on Veilguard with a thumbnail "im impressed" so this isnt a black/white situation like some of you make it out to be, which is ridiculous.

I hate the dumbass woke reviews and games like any other but this is just getting dumber and dumber with the coping

 

[bender]

I have accepted Bethesda's form of jank. I just don't want them to ever return to a game where you have to constantly leave and land on planets.

The loading problem wasn't as bad with every other Franchise because everything in the overworld took place on one planet.

I've just accepted that Morrowind was the exception and not the rule.

 

[Hoho for breakfast]

Seems like one of the most divisive games ever lol. I was really hoping it'd be GOTY material and maybe for some it will be. I'll be buying it I think despite some of the low reviews just because I love exploring worlds.

 

[GHG]

Huh??

Karak and others have been truthful and honest about the game in that there is a lot of good but also a lot of mediocre and annoying stuff.

But believe whatever you want

I watched his review as well and found his to be very positive overall as well.

I'm not understanding why you gave a huge pass and even got banned over mindseye but with this you're suddenly trying to find any negative scrap you can to lean on?

I don't understand what this game or the team behind it have done to rub some people the wrong way, but it clearly has. Not that it will matter since the game will still sell very well and have positive user reviews regardless.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Just watched my first and probably last FightingCowboy video. That wasn't much of a review.

After watching a few reviews, I actually liked seeing someone just showing how some things of the game are that others haven't shown.
Maybe he shouldn't have called it a review, but after you watch a few reviewers they all sound samey. Needs bugs patched. Inventory is bad for now. etc.

 

[Topher]

Huh??

Karak and others have been truthful and honest about the game in that there is a lot of good but also a lot of mediocre and annoying stuff.

But believe whatever you want

That Luke guy who said this is amazing has a video on Veilguard with a thumbnail "im impressed" so this isnt a black/white situation like some of you make it out to be, which is ridiculous.

I hate the dumbass woke reviews and games like any other but this is just getting dumber and dumber with the coping

Believing whatever you want works both ways. Worst we can say here is that the opinions are divided. It isn't like everyone is universally trashing the game so where is this "coping"?

 

[bender]

I watched his review as well and found his to be very positive overall as well.

I'm not understanding why you gave a huge pass and even got banned over mindseye but with this you're suddenly trying to find any negative scrap you can to lean on?

I don't understand what this game or the team behind it have done to rub some people the wrong way, but it clearly has. Not that it will matter since the game will still sell very well and have positive user reviews regardless.

I think a lot of it stems from the meteoric rise in hype which made the game feel like it came out of nowhere. My theory on that people overlooked it because of the developer is known for MMOs and the name is so similar to their MMO title that people wrote it off as another Korean MMO (probably true for me). And it's just such a big game that people are trying to wrap their heads around what it is. I really want to try it, but I think it might be too big.

After watching a few reviews, I actually liked seeing someone just showing how some things of the game are that others haven't shown.
Maybe he shouldn't have called it a review, but after you watch a few reviewers they all sound samey. Needs bugs patched. Inventory is bad for now. etc.

It just felt rather aimless and probably would have worked better as a conversation with someone else (like the old GiantBomb Quicklooks. I've heard his name before and saw his subscriber count and based on that video I was just left with the question of "how?".

I really just want someone to go more into depth on exploration/discovery and how the world map works. That will make or break the game for me.

 

[KanKamAndNob]

Seems like one of the most divisive games ever lol. I was really hoping it'd be GOTY material and maybe for some it will be. I'll be buying it I think despite some of the low reviews just because I love exploring worlds.

I hear you. I wasn't expecting this game to be on the levels of a fucking GOTY or whatever on the levels of Morrowind, or the Witcher series but I do want to support games like this.

New IP (kinda), interesting looking gameplay mechanics, not made by activists, and I also want to support developers who at least try to diversify what they offer gamers. I can't in good faith bitch and cry about remakes/remasters, endless sequels, wokeness, and then shit on a game like this that does the opposite of that lol. I like to put my money where my big mouth is when it comes to that.

 

[Musashipan]

Higher than I expected!

 

[March Climber]

I think a lot of it stems from the meteoric rise in hype which made the game feel like it came out of nowhere. My theory on that people overlooked it because of the developer is known for MMOs and the name is so similar to their MMO title that people wrote it off as another Korean MMO (probably true for me). And it's just such a big game that people are trying to wrap their heads around what it is. I really want to try it, but I think it might be too big.

A ton of the reviewers have been putting 'our review (so far)' on their titles, even those who have sunk 100 hours on it. Others have said that it took 8 hours for them to unlock the right amount of skills for things to click with them, then they started having tons of fun.

This is exactly the gigantic game that you think it is.

 

[Humdinger]

But dude they are so random and arbitrary, how do you know they for you aren't an 80s? See what I mean? Like it's nothing official whatsoever.

Oh, I don't. I'm not saying it is. I'm just saying the average score is lower than I expected. Judging by the poll, it's lower than almost 90% of people expected.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

I've heard his name before and saw his subscriber count and based on that video I was just left with the question of "how?".

He's the biggest or one of the biggest soulsborne content creators. Makes them look ridiculously easy when they're not.

 

[RickSanchez]

Watched a few reviews on YouTube and the reception looks to be excellent.



Then I come on here and see people are talking nonsense because the mainstream that recommended crap like Veilguard are failing to connect with it.

Then I saw this comment from Fightincowboy and it all makes sense:

Yep, a lot of the negatives i have seen are around a few common themes - difficulty, lack of tutorial-izing, lack of hand-holding, clunky menus - all of which can simply be attributed to a learning curve.

But a lot of the reviewers i trust have been very positive on it, which seems to be the same impression you got. I have summarized my observations here:

So ive now watched 5 reviews in their entirety (ACG, FightinCowboy, Luke Stephens, Fully Ramblomatic, Before You Buy - gameranx), and read the blurbs from others. Here's my human (non AI) summary:

1. Overall there is both breadth and depth to all of its systems, and that is why a lot of people find it overwhelming. Jake Baldino specifically says that all the systems work well and come together to add to the fun factor. Nothing is there just for the sake of it.
2. Long onboarding - Game takes several hours to introduce all systems and mechanics. Jake Baldino says 8 hours. Fightincowboy said he was just discovering game mechanics for 15 hours.
3. Combat is probably the deepest and most fleshed out mechanic. Hard to learn and even harder to master. Steep learning curve. Should satisfy the hardcore 'git gud' crowd. I am personally a filthy casual with terrible reflexes who will not be able to cope with this, so i'm hoping a trainer comes out soon after launch that helps me cope with the combat. Yea i fucking said it.
4. Combat has a lot of variety in terms of moves, combos; enemies and bosses also have this variety, so casuals like me will find that challenging. But if you're creative enough, you will apparently have freedom to string together different moves and combos to develop your own combat tactics.
5. Puzzles are also hard to figure out. No handholding, no yellow paint. This part i love. I like to think of myself as intelligent. I relish a good puzzle and i love it when im able to figure out something difficult without looking at a tutorial. But if im not able to, and i need to look at some guides, eh, thats fine too.
6. Open world & exploration is top notch, almost unparalleled. Even critical reviews praise this aspect of the game, including Yahtzee who famously dislikes empty checklist type of open worlds. There are things to find in every corner of every region of the map. Exploration is incentivized and rewarded with useful items. You can literally discover special abilities and entire quests by accident, by just roaming around in the world.
7. Draw distance is huge, and you can actually look at a distant point on the horizon and trek all the way up to it. Todd would be proud.
8. Story - not many reviewers have gone into details about the story to avoid spoilers. Fightincowboy specifically said he has enjoyed the story he has seen so far, says it is engaging enough for him to keep going. ACG says voice acting is top notch. Fightincowboy and Luke Stephens also say that small side quests have meaningful writing around them so that they feel like more than just meaningless fetch quests. But overall, do not expect great storytelling like CDPR or Rockstar or Naughty Dog. Jake Baldino said he did not connect much with the story.
9. Resources / grind - Fightincowboy and ACG called out the resource gathering as grindy and tedious, made worse by limited inventory capacity at the start. But they also said it gets easier as you progress. However, Luke Stephens said that Pearl Abyss has acknowledged this and are trying to make it easier with the day 1 patch. He said they are going to increase the starting inventory.
10. The positive about resource management is if you are someone who enjoys immersive crafting & cooking and also enjoys base building, then those mechanics are deep enough for you to enjoy yourself. Recipes have to be read and then cooked at a cooking station with immersive animations. Same for crafting & upgrading equipment.
11. Graphics - universally praised by everyone, no doubts left here.
12. PC performance & optimization - again universally praised. Apparently my 4090 can do 4k 60 fps or 1440p 120 fps at high or ultra settings without DLSS or framegen. That's crazy good optimization.
13. Bugs - almost everyone pointed out that there were bugs in the review build, but also that Pearl Abyss were very responsive to bug reports and were fixing things left & right during the review period. ACG recommends to wait for this very reason. But looks like many of the smaller bugs will be patched in the day 1 patch.

Overall, looks like a day 1 buy for me. i am willing to put up with the teething troubles, and i want to show support to devs who dedicate themselves to this level of optimization while making the game look this good. It is also great to see a fairly unknown company try to break into the mainstream AAA space with such breadth and depth of systems. They actually pivoted from an online live service to a single player game, which atleast as of now is devoid of microtransactions. Vote with your wallet & all that.

 

[MMaRsu]

I watched his review as well and found his to be very positive overall as well.

I'm not understanding why you gave a huge pass and even got banned over mindseye but with this you're suddenly trying to find any negative scrap you can to lean on?

I don't understand what this game or the team behind it have done to rub some people the wrong way, but it clearly has. Not that it will matter since the game will still sell very well and have positive user reviews regardless.

What are you even talking about, I would like nothing more than this game being a 10 out of 10, Im not leaning on anything negative at all.

Wtf are u on about m8 have u taken ur pills today

There isnt anyone being rubbed the wrong way by this game, maybe its not for some but there isnt a 'hate force' for it like say Concord at all

 

[bender]

He's the biggest or one of the biggest soulsborne content creators. Makes them look ridiculously easy when they're not.

That make sense. I don't watch play through videos.

A ton of the reviewers have been putting 'our review (so far)' on their titles, even those who have sunk 100 hours on it. Others have said that it took 8 hours for them to unlock the right amount of skills for things to click with them, then they started having tons of fun.

This is exactly the gigantic game that you think it is.

FightingCowboy stated he thought it would take 400 hours to 100% the game, but based on his playtime and completion percentages, it looked more like thousands of hours. I used to jones for that type of content, but these days, I'd rather the game be done in 8 hours than the game just ramp up at that point.

 

[TheLikou]

So worse than starfield, yikes

That should show you guys that scores shouldn't be compared directly. It's not an objective metric. Games aim for different things and there are even personal taste involved. So in the end even an 7/10 game can be so much better than other 7/10 to the point that the comparison makes no sense.

*Starfield is a boring fest.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

One aspect that Luke Stevens pointed out was a good one. If you are getting demolished by a boss and leave, you don't just mindless grind for XP to level up your character, you actually explore and do side quests to get better equipment.
So the "grinding" is actually doing more of the actual game. Not mindless XP farming.

 

[Hollywood Hitman]

Oh, I don't. I'm not saying it is. I'm just saying the average score is lower than I expected. Judging by the poll, it's lower than almost 90% of people expected.

I just think when games like veilguard gets a 9, it's fucked. That to me erases basically any merit any more because people have way to many outstanding agendas to trust any of it.

But there's some 90s scores so my gist is mainly if you were reviewing it let's say, maybe you're a 9 out of 10, or maybe I am etc..

 

[Hollywood Hitman]

One aspect that Luke Stevens pointed out was a good one. If you are getting demolished by a boss and leave, you don't just mindless grind for XP to level up your character, you actually explore and do side quests to get better equipment.
So the "grinding" is actually doing more of the actual game. Not mindless XP farming.

Yea that's awesome to hear, I think overall it sounds very satisfying... I mean I could be totally wrong and the game will be a pile of shit but I highly highly doubt it. I think it's gonna be incredible for those that were excited for it.

 

[MMaRsu]

Yea that's awesome to hear, I think overall it sounds very satisfying... I mean I could be totally wrong and the game will be a pile of shit but I highly highly doubt it. I think it's gonna be incredible for those that were excited for it.

I mean in the end I think it's probably around an 8, which is great. And which is also what the review scores mostly come out to. I voted 80-84% in the poll

 

[March Climber]

FightingCowboy stated he thought it would take 400 hours to 100% the game, but based on his playtime and completion percentages, it looked more like thousands of hours. I used to jones for that type of content, but these days, I'd rather the game be done in 8 hours than the game just ramp up at that point.

Sounds like it's time for you to join the Pragmata waiting room with Danjin44

 

[Hollywood Hitman]

I mean in the end I think it's probably around an 8, which is great. And which is also what the review scores mostly come out to. I voted 80-84% in the poll

Yea I think I was same vote or no actually 85 to 89 I voted, which I think like dragons dogma it'll be a game with some jank but alot of fun overall.

These days I'm just hankering for that explore and loot shit, DD2 I platinumed and it was awesome despite some of its downfalls so I'm ready for something similar.

Downloading now

 

[bender]

Sounds like it's time for you to join the Pragmata waiting room with Danjin44

I like everything about the game except the pipe dreams mini-game to defeat every enemy. Seems like that's going to get old REALLY fast.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Yea that's awesome to hear, I think overall it sounds very satisfying... I mean I could be totally wrong and the game will be a pile of shit but I highly highly doubt it. I think it's gonna be incredible for those that were excited for it.

To me most of the negatives, like the bugs and inventory system will probably be fixed within a month. Considering I can only play an hour or two a night, it'll all be fixed before I've done 5% of this game.

 

[Humdinger]

I just think when games like veilguard gets a 9, it's fucked. That to me erases basically any merit any more because people have way to many outstanding agendas to trust any of it.

But there's some 90s scores so my gist is mainly if you were reviewing it let's say, maybe you're a 9 out of 10, or maybe I am etc..

Yeah, it's fair to mistrust game journalists. I don't have any great respect for them, either. I never go by average metacritic score. I always look at the pros and the cons, then ask whether those pros and cons align with my tastes.

In this case, unfortunately, they don't. Although exploration sounds great, I know that I would get impatient and irritated the long, steep difficulty curve, the complicated combat system, and the obtuse puzzles. This is a very subjective judgment of course, and I'm sure many people will love the game.

 

[Hollywood Hitman]

Yeah, it's fair to mistrust game journalists. I don't have any great respect for them, either. I never go by average metacritic score. I always look at the pros and the cons, then ask whether those pros and cons align with my tastes.

In this case, unfortunately, they don't. Although exploration sounds great, I know that I would get impatient and irritated the long, steep difficulty curve, the complicated combat system, and the obtuse puzzles. This is a very subjective judgment of course, and I'm sure many people will love the game.

But that's the thing maybe for you, those puzzles wouldn't be so hard? I'd absolutely put my money on it that you're a better gamer than any of these "journo reviewers", so to them it's hard or difficult but we all experience it differently, something hard to them might be because they suck know what I mean?

Not tryin to sell the game to you just my overall take that random people and their experiences may be vastly different than ours.

 

[RSMan]

Ign review so far

6 out of 10