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[ManaByte]

 

[mejin]

Death Stranding has more perfect notes than any game released in 2019 The Kojima Productions game for PS4 and PC (as of the summer of 2020) is the game with more scores of ten out of ten so far this year, with 14 perfect scores.

 

[mckmas8808]

I agree with you, but I think that expectations as opposed to hype maybe is a better way to look at it. Hype, comes from the outside in, and we're always free to be skeptical about it. Expectations on the other hand are internal, we do it to ourseleves by blowing stuff up in our mind to a point where a reality check becomes inevitable. Anticipation is a thrill in itself after all.

I'd also say (kinda leading on from this mental image aspect), the other crucial question to ask is whether they are willing to admit that all their favorite games are imperfect and flawed in some way, but that's not really the point. Greatness is what makes some games great, not the absence of things to nitpick about.

That greatness can come in many forms, because in the end its all about the sum-and-total of the experience in terms of delivering what we value personally.

This poster "gets" it!

 

[Wink]

I really do get where you're coming but I just don't agree. Things like game of the year, or what a game made you feel are entirely subjective, and each person has their own unique choice and opinion. But an actual number score, while still entirely subjective, is supposed to be a way of stating a more definitive, thought out perspective. If you say The Last Guardian is one of your favorite games of all time, that's a completely reasonable thing to say. But to point out massive flaws like in your review, or the Death Stranding reviews, and still give a score that essentially means flawless defeats the entire point.

You're gonna just keep scratching your head with that definition going forward, because nothing about a 10 means flawless. It means the reviewer could not recommend the sum total experience he had any higher to a fellow human being. No one giving any game a ten wants to fuck you over or mislead you. Especially in cases where they just wrote a whole damn review pointing out the flaws.

 

[Mochilador]

I just preordered the special edition. I don't care about scores and journo's opinions.
To be honest, this whole situation is a joke. We have reviews saying that the game isn't that good and yet they give it the max score.
It's like they are afraid to say the game is bad.
The worst part are the shitty excuses. "It's not for everyone", "not being fun is not a problem at all", "it's not very good but you gotta appreciate the art". And then they give it the max score.
The review industry is a fucking joke.

 

[nowhat]

Just commenting to agree. I played Witcher 3 shorty after beating Bloodborne and playing Dragons Dogma for a while. I legit don't see how people can claim that combat is anything above serviceable.

It's not only combat though - this was improved later a lot, but at launch Geralt's movement was so floaty it was quite comical. Especially diving, that handled horribly. And the fall damage, oh man. After surviving a horde of monsters and then falling just a few meters to your death doesn't make you feel like an awesome witcher.

Just to be absolutely clear, I think W3 is a great game overall, but the combat/controls are far from great.

 

[Sander Cohen]

I just preordered the special edition. I don't care about scores and journo's opinions.
To be honest, this whole situation is a joke. We have reviews saying that the game isn't that good and yet they give it the max score.
It's like they are afraid to say the game is bad.
The worst part are the shitty excuses. "It's not for everyone", "not being fun is not a problem at all", "it's not very good but you gotta appreciate the art". And then they give it the max score.
The review industry is a fucking joke.

Agree. I mean, I usually think people are giving too tough of a time to reviewers, criticizing and accusing them because they are easy target but they really shit the bed with this one.

Words and numbers are desynchronized. You can’t say pretty much exactly the same as all others but give it 9 while someone else 6.9. “Oh, this game is incredibly tedious, boring, dull with poor combat and average characters...here, take this 9, thank me later Kojima”.

Pathetic. I don’t think they’re corrupt, just starstruck.

 

[Aggelos]

 

[mckmas8808]

I just preordered the special edition. I don't care about scores and journo's opinions.
To be honest, this whole situation is a joke. We have reviews saying that the game isn't that good and yet they give it the max score.
It's like they are afraid to say the game is bad.
The worst part are the shitty excuses. "It's not for everyone", "not being fun is not a problem at all", "it's not very good but you gotta appreciate the art". And then they give it the max score.
The review industry is a fucking joke.

Believe it or not games like Bloodborne and Dark Souls aren't for everyone either. Yet, they are great games. Also.....I wouldn't say The Last of Us was a "FUN" game, but it was one of my favorite games last gen. There is a difference.

 

[ethomaz]

Sometimes...
It is a PS4 game and people want to discuss what can come from PS5 lol
It is better to use a PC with ultra settings + RTX for that.

Death Stranding is an example of what you can do on... PS4.

 

[dDoc]

Even worse is an ad for Reedus’ AMC motorcycle show.

Hey at least its not a greedy microtransaction affecting any gameplay this game might have

 

[Renozokii]

You're gonna just keep scratching your head with that definition going forward, because nothing about a 10 means flawless. It means the reviewer could not recommend the sum total experience he had any higher to a fellow human being. No one giving any game a ten wants to fuck you over or mislead you. Especially in cases where they just wrote a whole damn review pointing out the flaws.

Again I see where you are coming from, but I think this is just an example of how low our standards of reviews in the game industry are. A fundamentally flawed game does not deserve a 10/10. Any reviewer giving Death Stranding a 10/10 while saying the core gameplay loop is boring and tedious should be taken as a joke. If you want to use a score as purely a recommend or don't recommend type of thing, you can adopt Kotakus buy, wait, or don't buy system.

 

[synchronicity]

Believe it or not games like Bloodborne and Dark Souls aren't for everyone either. Yet, they are great games. Also.....I wouldn't say The Last of Us was a "FUN" game, but it was one of my favorite games last gen. There is a difference.

I like to consider how much a game engages me. If my sense of engagement is high, then chances are it resonates deeply on some level, whether or not it is easily digestible "fun". Games can be both as well, though.

But as long as I'm really engaged with the experience, I'm having a good time - regardless of how that may be defined in various ways.

 

[ethomaz]

The game has:

Perfect scores: 15
> 75 scores but not perfect: 43
< 75 scores: 12

 

[ROMhack]

Love how 85 is classed as 'generally favourable'. lol

 

[ethomaz]

Love how 85 is classed as 'generally favourable'. lol

Why it should not be?

Perfect scores: 15
> 75 scores but not perfect: 43
< 75 scores: 12

77% of reviews are favorable.

That is pretty much generally favorable.

 

[ethomaz]

OpenCritic has more reviews and better average plus 82% favorable reviews.

 

[ROMhack]

Why it should not be?

Perfect scores: 15
> 75 scores but not perfect: 43
< 75 scores: 12

77% of reviews are favorable.

That is pretty much generally favorable.

Oh because 85 is high. It's very recommended for my money.

 

[dDoc]

The slow pacing in rdr2 was not the problem. The problem was forced slow walking in camp, very slow animations for many stuff, clunky controls and non obvious button prompts. if that game did not had button prompts displayed or waypoints on radar, it would be unplayable

and the horrible mission structure, the sub par shooting, the input lag. Man RDR2 sure was too well reviewed, weird the journalists didnt mention any of these

 

[mckmas8808]

Why it should not be?

Perfect scores: 15
> 75 scores but not perfect: 43
< 75 scores: 12

77% of reviews are favorable.

That is pretty much generally favorable.

The wording of "Generally favorable" is too low. It should be "highly liked" or "Loved" or something.

 

[Orta]

It's going to be a ride, that's for sure.

 

[Wink]

Again I see where you are coming from, but I think this is just an example of how low our standards of reviews in the game industry are. A fundamentally flawed game does not deserve a 10/10. Any reviewer giving Death Stranding a 10/10 while saying the core gameplay loop is boring and tedious should be taken as a joke. If you want to use a score as purely a recommend or don't recommend type of thing, you can adopt Kotakus buy, wait, or don't buy system.

I'm not trying to tell you what I want to believe a number at the end of a review means. I'm telling you that different people have a different perspective on this than you, others have the same. Let's say you conclude that your way of looking at it is correct for whatever reason. I have no investment in changing your believe what review scores should represent. I am somewhat interested in offering you the perspective that just because you see a thing in a very firm way and would rather explain any discrepancy to yourself in a way that confirms your view ("these scores are a joke") and thus making sure you'll always feel alienated by anything that doesn't fit that view, you could instead entertain the notion that you'd still not be wrong about your own perspective even if you accept that not everyone will subscribe to your idea ("these scores mean something else to that person than myself").

 

[RPGCrazied]

Does this game not have much story and little cutscenes? Also, do any of the reviews(don't want to spoil myself to much) say if the weirdness from the trailers are in the game? Still on the fence if I should get.

 

[imsosleepy]

davidehrlich the movie reviewer just released his review for death stranding!
''
i beat and wrote about Hideo Kojima's transcendent DEATH STRANDING, which plays like a Grand Theft Auto game directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, and blurs the line between movies & video games in some of the most exciting ways I've ever seen.''

 

[Evil Calvin]

It is know issue... the combat system is serviceable at best.
It is one of the worst combat system you can find in videogames this gen. Animation, movements, hit box, input delay, etc is all bad.

Overall it is an amazing game.

I put over 250 hours into it and I find the combat great. I think you have to get good at it, get good at the Witcher signs (spells) and put upgrades into finishing moves. And learn to roll and dodge. It's not overly complex and feels pretty good after you get the hang of it.

 

[ROMhack]

davidehrlich the movie reviewer just released his review for death stranding!
''
i beat and wrote about Hideo Kojima's transcendent DEATH STRANDING, which plays like a Grand Theft Auto game directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, and blurs the line between movies & video games in some of the most exciting ways I've ever seen.''

Like global warming and the spread of the internet, the singularity between film and video games has become inevitable; at this point, we only have the power to manage it. But “Death Stranding” finds that every cataclysm is its own opportunity, and that the end of one thing is the beginning of another. Kojima believes that the future will only destroy us if we don’t allow it to bring us together, and he’s never found a better way of delivering that message.

KINO

 

[mejin]

The game has:

Perfect scores: 15
> 75 scores but not perfect: 43
< 75 scores: 12

up to 85, nice.

 

[rofif]

Does this game not have much story and little cutscenes? Also, do any of the reviews(don't want to spoil myself to much) say if the weirdness from the trailers are in the game? Still on the fence if I should get.

I would like to know this as well.
Is it just 50 hours of gameplay or are there really hours of cutscenes like in mgs iv ? (I would hope so. I want it to be story heavy)

 

[ethomaz]

I would like to know this as well.
Is it just 50 hours of gameplay or are there really hours of cutscenes like in mgs iv ? (I would hope so. I want it to be story heavy)

Seems like the ending chapter has over a hour of cult scenes.
Not that much in the others chapters.

But that is what I read... I'm not sure if true.

 

[ethomaz]

I put over 250 hours into it and I find the combat great. I think you have to get good at it, get good at the Witcher signs (spells) and put upgrades into finishing moves. And learn to roll and dodge. It's not overly complex and feels pretty good after you get the hang of it.

Well different opinions I guess
I suspect the bad combat system is what made them change to FPS in Cyberpunk.

 

[hollowcupra]

I would like to know this as well.
Is it just 50 hours of gameplay or are there really hours of cutscenes like in mgs iv ? (I would hope so. I want it to be story heavy)

Τhere are lots and long cutscenes. I would say at MGS4 levels. The game is long because of the slow gameplay the delivering requires. I mean there are two occasions where the mission requires you to do a hell of backtracking and completely nullifies the purpose of connecting the world.

 

[rofif]

Seems like the ending chapter has over a hour of cult scenes.
Not that much in the others chapters.

But that is what I read... I'm not sure if true.

There is already an hour in all the trailers combined.... I hope Kojima did not showed everything already

 

[Wink]

There is already an hour in all the trailers combined.... I hope Kojima did not showed everything already

More than seven hours of cutscenes.
Source: 26 minute documentary/report of BBC reporter visiting Kojima Productions three days up to the game going gold.

 

[rofif]

More than seven hours of cutscenes.
Source: 26 minute documentary/report of BBC reporter visiting Kojima Productions three days up to the game going gold.

Does he say 7 hours ?! at 14:30 minute mark ?
Edit: About that documentary - it's crazy to have a boss like Kojima. He gives CLEAR directions on what he wants. He does seem very very intelligent, sure of what he wants and helpful although that music american guy in Hawaiian shirt seems to be afraid of him

 

[Sosokrates]

A sense of wonder is great, eg when witnessing the sheer realism of RDR2 gave a true sense of wonder, the Bioshock games did this too as did many other games.

However if this was the only thing in those games, they would suck.
I don't know how anyone can defend a game when it's its like 20hrs of delivery tasks, imagine a gta game with just these style of missions, it would get shat on for eternity.

 

[Stuart360]

A sense of wonder is great, eg when witnessing the sheer realism of RDR2 gave a true sense of wonder, the Bioshock games did this too as did many other games.

However if this was the only thing in those games, they would suck.
I don't know how anyone can defend a game when it's its like 20hrs of delivery tasks, imagine a gta game with just these style of missions, it would get shat on for eternity.

One of the reviews said its like the crappy side mission fetch quests in open world games, except here its main missions lol.

 

[Javthusiast]

God I hope my copy arrives on release day and not on the monday after this weekend knowing my luck. If it isn't shipping on thursday guess I will have to buy the more expensive digital version, lmao.

 

[rofif]

God I hope my copy arrives on release day and not on the monday after this weekend knowing my luck. If it isn't shipping on thursday guess I will have to buy the more expensive digital version, lmao.

Why not just go to any retail store and pick it up? It's not 2010 anymore and shelfs are stocked

 

[Javthusiast]

Why not just go to any retail store and pick it up? It's not 2010 anymore and shelfs are stocked

You know what, after buying physical games online or through psn for years, this thought didn't even occur to me, lmao. Thanks for reminding, and I rather buy it physical, since it's brand new and full price anyway so that I can sell it later and make some money back if I choose to as opposed to getting it for 69.99 digitally.

 

[TGO]

Sometimes...
It is a PS4 game and people want to discuss what can come from PS5 lol
It is better to use a PC with ultra settings + RTX for that.

Death Stranding is an example of what you can do on... PS4.

Exactly

 

[Sosokrates]

One of the reviews said its like the crappy side mission fetch quests in open world games, except here its main missions lol.

I don't know how anyone is not bored to death after a few hours.

If the "missions" or "quests" are 90% delivering stuff, I don't understand how anyone can rate the game higher then a 6/10

 

[Fake]

up to 85, nice.

Until Edge...

 

[Stuart360]

I don't know how anyone is not bored to death after a few hours.

If the "missions" or "quests" are 90% delivering stuff, I don't understand how anyone can rate the game higher then a 6/10

Its not even the fetch quests thats the major problem for me, its the stumbling around and falling over and losing your stuff, which you then have to go pick up and start bumbling along again, while have to keep triggers and buttons pressed to balance yourselves. It just sounds oh so tedious.

 

[ethomaz]

I don't know how anyone is not bored to death after a few hours.

If the "missions" or "quests" are 90% delivering stuff, I don't understand how anyone can rate the game higher then a 6/10

From what I read delivery is addictive and give a strong sense of accomplishment.
And each delivering is different from each other... even the same delivering can be done in different ways.
I think I really will like that game.

 

[Stuart360]

From what I read delivery is addictive and give a strong sense of accomplishment.
And each delivering is different from each other... even the same delivering can be done in different ways.
I think I really will like that game.

If the open world wasnt dead and empty, maybe it would be more fun. You know a little hut here with a bit of lore, a cave there with a audio tape explaining a bit of lore, maybe some loot, or a few survivor camps in the wilderness etc, but no.
Once the stunning graphics wear off, i just cant see how it wont get very old very fast.

 

[ethomaz]

If the open world wasnt dead and empty, maybe it would be more fun. You know a little hut here with a bit of lore, a cave there with a audio tape explaining a bit of lore, maybe some loot, or a few survivor camps in the wilderness etc, but no.
Once the stunning graphics wear off, i just cant see how it wont get very old very fast.

Well I'm talking form what I read... I want to play first of course.
But the open world is supposed to be alive with others players... and not dead and empty.
The world is shared between players..

 

[Stuart360]

Well I'm talking form what I read... I want to play first of course.
But the open world is supposed to be alive with others players... and not dead and empty.

I thought that was just the multiplayer segment and it was seperate?. Can you actually do anything with other people though?, go on missions etc?

 

[ethomaz]

I thought that was just the multiplayer segment and it was seperate?. Can you actually do anything with other people though?, go on missions etc?

There is no multiplayer I think... it is a shared world like Demon's Souls/Journey? I don't really know.
What I know is that the reviewers did not played with a lot of players.

Trying to give a example I read... if you build a bridge all others players can use it.
After all the game is suppose to connect people.

 

[mckmas8808]

If the open world wasnt dead and empty, maybe it would be more fun. You know a little hut here with a bit of lore, a cave there with a audio tape explaining a bit of lore, maybe some loot, or a few survivor camps in the wilderness etc, but no.
Once the stunning graphics wear off, i just cant see how it wont get very old very fast.

So you saying this game is bad too?

 

[Stuart360]

There is no multiplayer I think... it is a shared world like Demon's Souls/Journey? I don't really know.
What I know is that the reviewers did not played with a lot of players.

But what i mean is, if you cant do anything with them then what difference does it make?, something to break up the tedious stumbling about the wilderness? 'oh look over there, another player......thats great'.