Zombie James
Banned
Jim Sterling's a great guy when it comes to talking about the industry but he's the DSP of video game reviews. Try not to get too worked up over it. It's just one opinion out of many.
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Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice - Review Thread
- Thread starter Savantcore
- Start date
Yah, I just finished listening (didn't want to visually spoil anything).
I think he should have stuck with his original 1/10... there is nothing wrong with a review score being driven by emotion. And I can only imagine the sheer rage when he experienced that bug at that part of the game... that sound, good lord. If it was a disk, I probably would have snapped it in half.
KZXcellent
Member
His reviews have gout?
Phoenix RISING
Banned
Like I said, that's when I contact the developer and ask them questions. I've had a few send me back a custom save so I could continue.
Right now I'm trying to figured out where to find the seventh shard in Sundered. Review is written, but Thunder Lotus is active on the forums.
Messofanego
Banned
Psychological.
perineumlick
Member
Well, good on him for not doubling down but instead admitting that his original review may have come from a bad place. Can't wait to play this!
Any one of us would have been in that "bad place"... this was definitely a complicated situation for him to be in as reviewer, but only because his review score has such a rippling effect. If a game pisses you off that much (especially if it was so fun in the hours leading up to that point), I feel you would be justified to give it whatever score you want... and you shouldn't need to worry about the effect that has other than "This is my personal opinion, and this is how I feel, and I want to share that with the world."
I feel Jim's opinion and feelings were robbed from him. And the current structure of the industry is to blame.
Jim stated in his first followup video that his practice is to review the game that is delivered, not a game that is later "fixed", which is a perfectly valid practice IMO. If we can buy it Now, I wan't to know what I'm buying Now.
Jim is one of the few people left that truly holds the industry accountable and pushes against their shit practices. (Edit: That was a side note... not talking about bugs)
Him being the only person hitting this bug lines up with him being the only reviewer to give the game a 1/10. Without his 1/10, we would be much less aware of this bug even existing... it may not get fixed as fast as it now should... etc.
Radical Edward
Member
Is this a joke? His feelings and opinions were extremely positive. He loved the game and a bug that wasn't an intended part of the game, prevented him from finishing. It doesn't wipe out all the good stuff he experienced up until then. Judging by his review, a 1/10 was not an appropriate score. It was a rash decision and he admitted so. Good for him in acknowledging this. He took off a few points for what he experienced and it's a well done review.
I still remember the faces of Heavenly Sword.
That's great and all, but that's also not your job as a reviewer. Reviewers aren't testers and if you encounter a game breaking bug that the devs needed to provide you with a fixed save for your review should 100% take into account that without that the game was literallly unfinishable.
Honestly, people constantly saying in here "reviewers should be contacting the devs if they encounter game breaking bugs" are missing the entire goddamn point.
MrS
Banned
It gets better and better. Amazing game.
Sangetsu-II
Member
Now that's a good review.
DealWithIt
Member
Lots of people in this thread "can't possibly imagine" or "can't believe" that someone else could hold an opinion different than their own. Surprise, fam, people place different value in different portions of a game experience, including bugs.
Radical Edward
Member
No one has said that. 1/10 would be up there with the worst game you've ever played. Jim even admitted that wasn't a fitting score and he adjusted it. If you watch the review, he loved the game and would have possibly gave it a 9 if he didn't encounter the bug. Haven't played the game but it's easy to see he made a rash decision in giving it a 1/10.
newtypepilot
Member
I think people are still butthurt that Jim gave BotW 7/10
cripterion
Member
I don't care about his reviews but this thread took a turn for the worse cause of his attention whoring score.
I only played about 45 minutes but I'm loving it. Damn the audio is incredible and there's definitely something unsettling about it all. Environments look great and so far the combat was alright, nothing great but serviceable (I didn't even check if there was a parry or finish system).
Astral Dog
Member
NT games are all 80+
I meant that some of the design decisions in this game are risky and I expected them to be more devisive. I'm a fan of the studio.
D
Deleted member 325805
Unconfirmed Member
You're not paying attention if you think he wanted this controversy. It only paints him in a bad light, he knows it and he's done the right thing by swallowing his pride and correcting it. A lesser critic would've played the hard-line stance, which I see is now upsetting the "pro-consumer" crowd that treats Sterling like an attack dog. Dying on the hill of video game reviews...maybe not the most worthwhile thing to do.
That's pretty impressive tbh for NT.
Soldiussnaku
Member
Yes, another high rated NT game, despite misgivings I really liked the new dmc on pc and really really liked enslaved and enjoyed HB on PS3.
Will add to my future to buy list for pc.
Will add to my future to buy list for pc.
RedAssedApe
Banned
is andy circus in this? 
not really. i mean there previous games were decent...nothing amazing though.
not really. i mean there previous games were decent...nothing amazing though.
DangerMouse
Member
King Gilga
Member
That's great.
You think they'd also do that for the average Joe? You're a shining example of why games journalism is so out of touch and becoming increasingly irrelevant.
drotahorror
Member
I didn't see the review Jim posted, but I just watched his follow up (after I beat the game of course, his video and I'm sure the review is full of spoilers but you can't not have them for a game like this). Anyways, I watched his follow up and I think I know exactly where he ran into this 'bug' (which was user error but also the games fault for saving him past the part where he could get a torch). I initially missed a torch as well, but I died. Immediately after dying I thought "I bet there's a torch over there" and sure enough there was. If I was to guess it was at a part where you shimmy across 2 ledges, then go down a path where eventually you find a small waterfall with a wooden beam next to it.
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
I think that's a terrible excuse. A game can't go from an 8 to a 1 because of that.
Glass Shark
Banned
I just started playing this game and HOLY SHIT I love it. I don't think I would even have heard of it if not for this "permadeath" controversy.
drotahorror
Member
Yeah really. The combat was serviceable and it carried the game well enough, but the story and puzzles were the highlights. Art design was insane, but thats par for the course for Ninja Theory.
DarthMasta
Member
Sure it can. Eve Online had an update that screwed up your OS if I remember correctly, preventing booting up, that would've been a 1/10 for me, no matter how much I liked the game.
His 1/10 was the result of frustration, most likely because of how much he was enjoying the game and having that enjoyment "taken away". You might not think that merits the 1/10, same as he did after cooling off, but there's no law that says it must be so...
Armoured Priest
Member
Played the first hour or so of the game.
Really moody. Looks really good. Plays pretty good. I'm pleased so far.
I was super fascinated with what NT was trying to do here (smaller budget, AAA comparable game that tries to do some new things). It seems like the game laregely accomplishes what NT set out to do.
Really moody. Looks really good. Plays pretty good. I'm pleased so far.
I was super fascinated with what NT was trying to do here (smaller budget, AAA comparable game that tries to do some new things). It seems like the game laregely accomplishes what NT set out to do.
D
Deleted member 325805
Unconfirmed Member
Sure it can. If I'm near the end of a game and it prevents me from finishing it due to a bug it instantly goes from a game I was enjoying to a broken one, so 1/10 would be fair.
striferser
Huge Nickleback Fan
I know Jim already redacted his score, but a 1/10 is reasonable if he can't finish the game. It's the worst kind of game breaking bug, especially in a very heavy story type of game, where 2nd playthrough can really sour your experience. Heck. most QA won't give the game okay to be shipped if they found this bug during testing.
If i gotta use analogy for it, it's like you enjoying a fine piece of steak, then during the second to last bite, you found cockroach head, hidden behind that fat full of marbled steak. I mean, before you found it, it was the perfect steak. Now, it all ruined. I doubt you want another one after that kind of accident.
If i gotta use analogy for it, it's like you enjoying a fine piece of steak, then during the second to last bite, you found cockroach head, hidden behind that fat full of marbled steak. I mean, before you found it, it was the perfect steak. Now, it all ruined. I doubt you want another one after that kind of accident.
anothertech
Member
That's bullshit. Obvious bug is obvious. Apparently Jim also disagrees with you.
I mean, Jim himself disagrees with you but ok.
Acquiescence
Member
I'm just thinking about how this whole fiasco would've played out if you replaced the name Jim Sterling with something like, oh I dunno, Arthur Gies?
Dude would never have lived it down.
Dude would never have lived it down.
drotahorror
Member
Do you even understand what happened? It's not even really a bug. It's more a design oversight if anything. Jim missed a necessary item, an item that should have been necessary to even get to the next checkpoint. I imagine he died a couple or even numerous times and skipped over the item he was supposed to get, several times (I could be wrong of course).
I know where he's talking about, I'm surprised he made it to a save point without the necessary item (
if you don't grab a torch you get swallowed by darkness
D
Deleted member 325805
Unconfirmed Member
Calling people morons for having a different opinion than you is the truly moronic thing, I'd say.
Personally, I don't agree with Jim's reason for giving the game a 1/10. Obviously, after he calmed down, he didn't either. That being said, that doesn't mean that other people can't feel that his initial reaction was correct. Him changing his feelings shouldn't effect the opinion of people who initially agreed with him. So I wouldn't say that they are left with their pants down. If anything, it shows that they are consistent.
Once again, to reiterate, I don't feel like a game should get a 1/10 because you run into a game breaking bug (unless that game breaking bug is extremely common); that being said, I do feel like Bethesda should be hit harder for their games consistently being a mess.