Support NeoGAF

[Uno Venova]

With all the praise and video reviews I've seen I actually didn't know there was only one new weapon until EZA's review, that actually does a lot to kill my hype for the game.

I'm still getting it down the line but it definitely doesn't need to be anytime soon.

 

[nib95]

Yes, if the genre is old and tired and the game currently being reviewed isn't bringing anything new to the table in that reviewers opinion, it should be called out for the same thing. They called it a re-imagining anyway and it's beentotally rebuilt. This isn't a port.

it's not a bad thing in the context of the review to say that if you've played the first one and it's fresh in your memory, you might not get into this one. It's quite clear that in the review as a whole, it's being recommended that you should grab this if you've never played R&C.

I'm not really sure I see it that way, though I could see how some do, and disagree. For me it'd be about reviewing the game in terms of it's design, mechanics, controls, fun factor etc, comparative to today's standards, not it's level of innovation or new content, because after all it is a Remaster and not a new game. Remasters by definition, would not be massively innovative, and criticising one for that is akin to knocking it for simply being a Remaster, or existing in the first place!

You could add in the point about it not being as fun or fresh for people who had played it already (which should be glaringly obvious even without mention), but I'm not sure it should be used as an actual negative in terms of its reception or score. If it was a proper R&C sequel, obviously it'd be a different situation altogether, as it's design intention wouldn't essentially involve being a graphically revamped and mechanically tweaked copy of an older game.

 

[mishakoz]

Criticising a Remaster for not being new enough, is like criticising a platformer for being a platformer, or a game for being a game. You might as well say you don't agree with Remasters and leave it at that.

Its not a remaster though. Its a reboot/remaster. If it were a remaster, there wouldn't be such radical changes, but the game occupies some weird space between the two.

Differences
*Drek, how Ratchet and Clank meet, characters, etc are totally different in behavior and arc
*Many of the weapons are from the Future series, many from the original are missing
*Some remixed planets, mechanics from later games, change in order in how gadgets are obtained

Similarities
*Some levels are literally copy and paste in their layout
*The general storyline is the same
*The progression through the game is mostly the same, gold bolt locations, etc.

So its not a remaster. And there is no excuses for not at least trying to do what the original games did best, create cooky and fun weapons. As it stands, Zurkon, the combusted, fusion grenade, and groovitron have been in ToD, QFB, CiT, A4O, FFA, and Into the Nexus, without any major changes. Zurkon doesn't even have any new recorded lines as far as I can tell, which gives him about 6-10 phrases he keeps repeating.

I think the game is great so far but I can see the cut corners with my own two eyes.

 

[Maligna]

Guess no one had told Huber about Road Redemption?

Also, if any company should be letting indies use their IPs like Square is doing, it should be Sega. So many great, dormant franchises.

 

[LycanXIII]

I still think for Season 2 of bets on the podcast, the teams should be Kyle vs Brandon.

 

[TheAbsolution]

D-Files Update #2 is up on Patreon.

 

[IdreamofHIME]

Guess no one had told Huber about Road Redemption?

Also, if any company should be letting indies use their IPs like Square is doing, it should be Sega. So many great, dormant franchises.

SEGA already do it. You have the Sonic games on mobile from Christian Whitehead that are regarded as the definitive versions and your own avatar is Shenmue, which SEGA has no part in making 3 except letting Yu Suzuki use the license.

I prefer that methid than this Fear Effect kickstarter bastard that looks nothing like the 2 classics sitting on my Vita.

 

[Wiggy]

D-Files Update #2 is up on Patreon.

Any guesses who the potential partner is? He seemed pretty happy about it, hope it happens.

 

[luchadork]

I can't believe people are struggling with a 5 star score system. It's the most basic system in the world.

This is just patently false. Everyone knows the thumbs up/thumbs down system is the most basic system in the world. Thumbs up for yes/good. Thumbs down for no/bad. Then if you need more nuance to it, you have two thumbs up for very good; two thumbs down for very bad; and a sideways thumb for average. And then if you really want to drill it down, you can use bent thumbs and from there start adding additional fingers/bent fingers/toes.

 

[timmyp53]

Any guesses who the potential partner is? He seemed pretty happy about it, hope it happens.

He said on the last D-files that some of the fancy production and stuff for the D-files was going through one of his friends from Viacom I think. so maybe its something owned under viacom?

 

[rtcn63]

Huber and Brad are currently streaming Reaper of Souls, then RE6 at the stated time.

I remember thinking how novel the graphics were in Diablo 3 when I first played it. Now looking at it, the graphics have that "early PS1 3D" feel. Not great.

 

[SeanTSC]

Criticising a Remaster for not being new enough, is like criticising a platformer for being a platformer, or a game for being a game. You might as well say you don't agree with Remasters and leave it at that.

It's not a Remaster at all though. It's a complete Remake, like Resident Evil 1 HD. That's very different from just being an upgraded port. Remasters and Remakes are different things and scored accordingly.

 

[Labrynian Rebel]

So R&C and Starfox Zero are both in the same category.

 

[SeanTSC]

Don't try and make out that people who look for scores aren't as intelligent or require validation.

If you actually read my post, I made it quite clear that I don't care about the score and that I just listen to the review anyway (because im really smart and i can understand 'subtlety'). I'm just saying I think the current system feels pointless. It feels confusing or misleading for casual fans and doesn't add much to the actual review. I was saying that I'd rather have a 100 point scale or nothing at all.

Anyway, I'm sure Blood and the reviewers had this conversation a 100 times over before the first review.

But "casual fans" are far more likely to be used to a Star system. You can almost certainly bet that far, far more people are familiar with Stars thanks to Amazon and any other online store site than they are a 100 point scale. And let's not forget that Smartphones use Stars for their App Stores.

 

[MrMette]

But "casual fans" are far more likely to be used to a Star system. You can almost certainly bet that far, far more people are familiar with Stars thanks to Amazon and any other online store site than they are a 100 point scale. And let's not forget that Smartphones use Stars for their App Stores.

Yeah, I agree + I think it DOES add a lot that they show you if the game is either Masterful, Excellent, Recommended, Lacking or Poor.

I will go as far as to say they can even remove the stars all together and just put one of those 5 words at the end of their review. It says everything the reviewer thinks about the game in conjunction with the rest of the review which explains what the reasoning behind the score is.

I am not saying they should do this as I think the system is good like it is now (although I would put a bit more emphasis on the meaning of the stars as I think 3 stars in their system is different from what most people think if they see 3/5 or 6/10).

It is different then most videogame websites/reviewers, but that doesn't mean it is a bad system. I don't see why everybody should review games with the same scoring system. I also don't see how it does matter how the rating is shown, as long as you know how they rate a game. Imo it is a rating system just like all the other systems and I don't see anything wrong with it.

 

[NuttSack]

Any guesses who the potential partner is? He seemed pretty happy about it, hope it happens.

I think I know, they are both in Dallas.
The GM of the other company talked about how he wanted to bring back Pop Fiction for a while.

He said on the last D-files that some of the fancy production and stuff for the D-files was going through one of his friends from Viacom I think. so maybe its something owned under viacom?

No, I don't think so.
He mentioned Marco Rosado and Dan Racusin who worked at Viacom with GT to make graphics, animation and other visuals. They have their own Animation Studio : http://www.modeselect.net/

 

[Servbot24]

Even though I agree that in general a remake/remaster shouldn't be docked points for being similar to the original, I also encourage reviews to reflect the personality and emotions of the reviewer at the time. It's just someone's thoughts after all - sometimes I think people treat reviews like we're filling out scientific data onto metacritic.

 

[plasmawave]

Twitch's been crap lately -__-

Brandon's bonus RDR stream.
https://www.twitch.tv/easyallies

 

[LycanXIII]

Man, RDR still looks good for a 6 year old game. So excited to hear Brandon commentate on it. My favorite game.

 

[UrbanRats]

This is just patently false. Everyone knows the thumbs up/thumbs down system is the most basic system in the world. Thumbs up for yes/good. Thumbs down for no/bad. Then if you need more nuance to it, you have two thumbs up for very good; two thumbs down for very bad; and a sideways thumb for average. And then if you really want to drill it down, you can use bent thumbs and from there start adding additional fingers/bent fingers/toes.

Don't forget the middle finger, for a particularly bad game.

 

[TheDarkKnight774]

Man, RDR still looks good for a 6 year old game. So excited to hear Brandon commentate on it. My favorite game.

Easily my favorite rockstar game. I'm done with the GTA setting. They're not bad games just not for me anymore. The free roaming west is much more compelling.

 

[Hasney]

Don't forget the middle finger, for a particularly bad game.

And the special British two fingers.

 

[LycanXIII]

Easily my favorite rockstar game. I'm done with the GTA setting. They're not bad games just not for me anymore. The free roaming west is much more compelling.

Yep, found posses in RDR Online more fun than GTA Online too.

 

[Deleted member 80556]

And the special British two fingers.

The French take offense to this!

 

[kennyamr]

so... taking R&C's review as a reference, I'm guessing FFVIIRemake will have a 3.5 score as well (or maybe 4 for the battle system) if it doesn't introduce a lot of new stuff not present in the original? (besides graphics).

 

[Bigrx1]

Huber seems to be harsher on remakes and remasters. Remember him talking about some other remake or remaster and he brought up a point that the oringinal always has the advantage of being the original, fresh, and new. Even if improvements are made that is still lost.

I agree with him, but of course it would not really apply to someone who never played the original.

 

[Visceir]

so... taking R&C's review as a reference, I'm guessing FFVIIRemake will have a 3.5 score as well (or maybe 4 for the battle system) if it doesn't introduce a lot of new stuff not present in the original? (besides graphics).

Since the game will be split into 3 parts so will also be the score, each part getting 1.5 stars, obviously.

 

[Hasney]

so... taking R&C's review as a reference, I'm guessing FFVIIRemake will have a 3.5 score as well (or maybe 4 for the battle system) if it doesn't introduce a lot of new stuff not present in the original? (besides graphics).

Depends on the reviewer since it's mostly subjective. There's also been a lot more time passed, so it can feel fresher again.

 

[LycanXIII]

I love the Brandon and Amanda dynamic when they're on streams together, but her arrival totally changed the mood of the RDR stream when she arrived.

 

[TheDarkKnight774]

I love the Brandon and Amanda dynamic when they're on streams together, but her arrival totally changed the mood of the RDR stream when she arrived.

Yea my problem is it removes the focus off the game and she dominates too much of the discussion interacting with chat. Going back and forth with chat is good but you need to have balance and sometimes just let the game do some of the talking. Brandon had a habit of doing this on Dumb game Monday's back in the GT days.

 

[LycanXIII]

Yea my problem is it removes the focus off the game and she dominates too much of the discussion interacting with chat. Going back and forth with chat is good but you need to have balance and sometimes just let the game do some of the talking. Brandon had a habit of doing this on Dumb game Monday's back in the GT days.

Yeah, something like Toybox Tuesday is great for her, when Brandon builds something or is just running around, she keeps it entertaining then. But for Red Dead Revisited? It didn't work tonight. Brandon was doing great by himself. This could all be chats' fault too. They were the ones asking her questions specifically, had they continued discussing the game, I think it would have been better.

 

[Napalm_Frank]

Same thing with any Huber FPF stream with no talking during cutscenes. Any quest appearance means mostly talking over everything.

 

[Spman2099]

Yeah, something like Toybox Tuesday is great for her, when Brandon builds something or is just running around, she keeps it entertaining then. But for Red Dead Revisited? It didn't work tonight. Brandon was doing great by himself. This could all be chats' fault too. They were the ones asking her questions specifically, had they continued discussing the game, I think it would have been better.

I think you nailed it there. It seems pretty hard on Amanda to chastise her for making the experience for the actually watching the twitch better. They gave the people what they wanted. It probably made for a better feed for some, but a worse video in the end.

That is the primary positive and negative of twitch. Things can't be as meticulously managed, so things could take a turn for the worse or better at any given time.

Personally, I love it when Amanda shows up. Though I will admit the flow changed when she did this time; I think her inclusion is, more often than not, a good thing.

 

[TheDarkKnight774]

Yeah, something like Toybox Tuesday is great for her, when Brandon builds something or is just running around, she keeps it entertaining then. But for Red Dead Revisited? It didn't work tonight. Brandon was doing great by himself. This could all be chats' fault too. They were the ones asking her questions specifically, had they continued discussing the game, I think it would have been better.

Yea you interact with chat and they will keep ampimg it up. They turned it all on her asking stuff like favorite games, characters, etc. IMO not the stream for that stuff. Sometimes you just have to ignore comments for the sake of the stream. There are times my comments are noticed and discussed by the crew, sometimes it's not. It's how it goes.

 

[Roberto Larcos]

Good streams don't always make good YouTube videos, and you've got to play to the audience in front of you.

Back to another topic entirely, I'd love if Ian's show turned into something akin to 'Gamers in cars getting burgers'. Ian seems to have a real knack for putting people at ease, which makes his interviews(?) interesting viewing. I'm sure there would be a fair few indie game devs up for doing it, if only to hype up their game a little bit - they're in the perfect location, and publicity doesn't always come easy.

Not only devs, of course. Anyone, really. But interviews are awesome.

 

[Naythan]

Yea my problem is it removes the focus off the game and she dominates too much of the discussion interacting with chat. Going back and forth with chat is good but you need to have balance and sometimes just let the game do some of the talking. Brandon had a habit of doing this on Dumb game Monday's back in the GT days.

Ehhhhh. Nah, it was fine. It's just a stream, from their house, where she lives too. It would be one thing to complain if this was a fully produced show but it's just a casual stream (outside of their cowboy outfits, which were hilarious). I don't really care who talks or about what.

 

[LycanXIII]

Brandon's going to be excited to learn that the leaked map is supposedly real.

 

[wiibomb]

Yea you interact with chat and they will keep ampimg it up. They turned it all on her asking stuff like favorite games, characters, etc. IMO not the stream for that stuff. Sometimes you just have to ignore comments for the sake of the stream. There are times my comments are noticed and discussed by the crew, sometimes it's not. It's how it goes.

btw, now that you say that, EZA only reads comments from subscribers? I haven't seen they read any of my comments and I think I always go ignored

 

[Hasney]

btw, now that you say that, EZA only reads comments from subscribers? I haven't seen they read any of my comments and I think I always go ignored

No, but they're easier to see with the icon. Lot's of people end up feeling ignored because things are just missed.

 

[wiibomb]

No, but they're easier to see with the icon. Lot's of people end up feeling ignored because things are just missed.

yeah I get that, I suppose it is more tempting to subscribe in that regard, but I still feel that if I should be giving them more money, it should be through patreon because they get more though there than through twitch sub model

 

[LycanXIII]

btw, now that you say that, EZA only reads comments from subscribers? I haven't seen they read any of my comments and I think I always go ignored

I'm not a sub but had a couple of mine read last night about the Golden Guns.

 

[farisr]

Actual think a 5 or 10 allows you to be more specific. 3/5 is recommended by EZA, so a 3.5/5 is highly recommend (especially for fans of _____) but falls short of being excellent.

While I do think this 5 star system is one of the best they can have for brand new releases (especially with those descriptions), no scoring system could clear up the Ratchet & Clank score with the points that were brought up in the review about the value the game provides for long-time fans

What does 3.5 (or whatever score the game gets assigned regardless of scale) actually mean?

Is it an averaged out score to account for newcomers and longtime fans alike? Is it a 3.5 strictly for newcomers? or is it a 3.5 strictly for longtime fans? Because if it's the former, then the game is a 3 or lower lower for longtime fans. If it's the latter, then the game's actually a 4 or higher for newcomers etc. There's just a whole new aspect of "what does the score actually mean" when it comes to remakes & remasters, as opposed to brand new games.

 

[Wiggy]

EZA Pod is up for all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3lADgIp6iE&ab_channel=EasyAllies

I wonder why they dropped doing titles and thumbs? I used to like em on GT Time

 

[sora87]

Brandon and Amanda looked like walking dead extras during the red dead stream

 

[MrMette]

While I do think this 5 star system is one of the best they can have for brand new releases (especially with those descriptions), no scoring system could clear up the Ratchet & Clank score with the points that were brought up in the review about the value the game provides for long-time fans

What does 3.5 (or whatever score the game gets assigned regardless of scale) actually mean?

Is it an averaged out score to account for newcomers and longtime fans alike? Is it a 3.5 strictly for newcomers? or is it a 3.5 strictly for longtime fans? Because if it's the former, then the game is a 3 or lower lower for longtime fans. If it's the latter, then the game's actually a 4 or higher for newcomers etc. There's just a whole new aspect of "what does the score actually mean" when it comes to remakes & remasters, as opposed to brand new games.

Their scores mean something (they put the key/legend in the desciption of the review video). 3 Stars means Recommended, 4 stars means Excellent, so somewhere in between those two.

For more info, you should just watch te review.

Scores on their own never mean a lot anyway as it depends on the reviewer and on the website/company who are reviewing the game.

One of the best reviewsystems I have seen is from a Dutch gamewebsite and they (at least when I watched it) put 2 people from the website together and discuss about the game. Usually they try to have people with 2 different opinions about the game. They don't score with points, the just discuss about it and tell what they like and don't like and in the end of the review both give a conclusion. After a while you know which reviewer has the same taste in videogames you have and because they balance out who they put together for the review, you get a nice balanced review.

 

[farisr]

Their scores mean something (they put the key/legend in the desciption of the review video). 3 Stars means Recommended, 4 stars means Excellent, so somewhere in between those two.

For more info, you should just watch te review.

Scores on their own never mean a lot anyway as it depends on the reviewer and on the website/company who are reviewing the game.

I don't think you read my post properly.

 

[laserlaser]

Yo Ben! I had my doubts but Frame trap ep. 1 was great. I dig the way you articulate your points thoroughly, it's very distinct from the rest of the crew. Legit host. No nitpicks other than the sound which others probly mentioned. Lookin forward to the next one.

 

[MrMette]

I don't think you read my post properly.

Whoops, I guess I didn't. I am sorry, I am somewhat tired today and English is not my native language (as you can see without a doubt).

A solution is either putting 2 scores on remakes/remasters or setting one score like how the reviewer is feeling about the game (and specifying if he played it previously or not, like Huber did).

I think the 3.5 star score is just how Huber felt about the game (so for people who played it before). If you didn't play it before, it is a higher score then 3.5 for you (so 4 or 4.5 or something).

As far as I see it a review shows how the reviewer feels about the game. I don't think it does translate how other people should feel (wether they played it or not). I am sure there are fans who played the game before and really love this remake, the same as there are fans who find it more of the same.

 

[Mikey Jr.]

EZA Pod is up for all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3lADgIp6iE&ab_channel=EasyAllies

I wonder why they dropped doing titles and thumbs? I used to like em on GT Time

I trashed their thumbnail on their second podcast in this thread.

I said I wished they just went back to the thumbnail of the first podcast. Hahaha, oops. Ohh well, that second thumbnail was garbage-tier.

 

[Tankard]

I trashed their thumbnail on their second podcast in this thread.

I said I wished they just went back to the thumbnail of the first podcast. Hahaha, oops. Ohh well, that second thumbnail was garbage-tier.

You were the only one to do so though.

I wonder why they took it off and are not even naming the pod episodes anymore, it is somehow fun to try to name it myself after I download them on Soundcloud.