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[BuddyC]

September 2004 issue, Oddworld Stranger on the cover.

A packed eight page story on Stranger, including some nifty info. As the mag is pretty solid, I'd suggest you check it out yourself, but here's a sample:

Our hunch is that the game is in reality quite far along, but two factors will prevent it from seeing release in 2004: 1) EA's desire to release the game simultaneously on Xbox and PlayStation 2 (the PS2 port is just beginning), and 2) The all-dancing, all-singing, all-selling, all-shooting, competition-swallowing winter 2004 release called Halo 2.

Lanning also insinuates that Munch was rushed and relied far too heavily on focus test data.

Oh, and Sudeki got a 6/10.

 

[kaching]

Lanning said as much in that video interview/demonstration for Stranger that was circulating around here a week or so ago. Focusing on finishing the Xbox version and then starting on the PS2 version.

 

[Redbeard]

What happened to that Wideload game they said they were going to unveil this issue?

 

[teiresias]

Munch was rushed? When they had all that dev time on PS2 and then all that other dev time on Xbox, at which point the game design itself should have been nailed down.

 

[BuddyC]

Munch was rushed? When they had all that dev time on PS2 and then all that other dev time on Xbox, at which point the game design itself should have been nailed down.

Lanning: "I suspect that the lessons learned from the Xbox launch come down to trusting or not trusting focus testing. You've got to be extremely careful with how you use this data and how much of it you use. On Munch, we were too trusting of the focus-testing data and not trusting enough of our own critical analysis. Making sure you meet launch as a first priority is not always the best thing for the box or the game."

 

[TheDiave]

...The all-dancing, all-singing, all-selling, all-shooting, competition-swallowing winter 2004 release called Halo 2.

Fucking yawn! I'll be glad when the game (Halo 2) comes out so people will just shut the fuck up, stop beating off over screenshots, and just play the damn game.

Same goes for GTA:SA.

...of course once either game comes out, every little bastard in the four corners will proclaim either one to be the "greatest video game ever made," to which I will promptly find a corner to barf in.

 

[Musashi Wins!]

Did they review Galleon? Can someone post the complete scores?

 

[Tellaerin]

Is it just me, or did Sherry McKenna come off as a total psychotic bitch in that feature? My favorite 'Sherry moment' had to be the mini-rant the author inadvertently triggered by suggesting Stranger be labeled a 'shooter'.

"Nothing upsets me more than people calling it that," [McKenna] snaps. "It's so much more. Oddworld Inhabitants will never make a 'shooter', because I have no interest in making a 'shooter'."

 

[MC Safety]

Did they review Galleon? Can someone post the complete scores?

Galleon is next issue, meaning the one we're about to send off to press.

Why do people always post scores for magazine reviews here? What's the point of just having a number without any sort of context. If you're curious, buy, borrow, or steal the magazine and read the words.

 

[Ghost]

your magazine doesnt get published here (to my knowledge)

/me kicks dirt in depressed fashion.

 

[MC Safety]

your magazine doesnt get published here (to my knowledge)

/me kicks dirt in depressed fashion.

Well, yes. If our articles were reprinted here, there'd be no reason for anyone to get the magazine.

I don't mind when people post magazine scores. I'm just curious as to why anyone would care so much about a number without any context to it. For me, it's the review score that's largely superfluous -- although I understand it has value in conjunction with the criticism.

 

[Acosta]

although I understand it has value in conjunction with the criticism.

No, because there is not a proper numeric value to express certain things. Actually, scores are useful exactly for what you don´t like: trashing them on forums, and for people that look for easy guide to buy videogame (surprising how many people buy videogames based on its score, without reading the review).

 

[MC Safety]

No, because there is not a proper numeric value to express certain things. Actually, scores are useful exactly for what you don´t like: trashing them on forums, and for people that look for easy guide to buy videogame (surprising how many people buy videogames based on its score, without reading the review).

Well, there is a proper numeric value within the scale the magazine uses. It's just each magazine has its own scale, and even when the scales are similar, the values for each score are different.

It's why I find Gamerankings to be useless; it's just an accumulation of numbers with no context. It's even worse the site tries to be semi-scientific about its averages.

 

[Musashi Wins!]

It's certainly not that I won't bother to read your reviews or that I generally ignore the context of a games score. As a matter of fact, I would say that it's a general appreciation of XBN's content that leads me to be more curious than in most cases. If your magazine has a fault in the proliferation of buying guides it's that you struggle to remain current in your reviews as compared to release dates. As I tend to trust your scores/reviews more than most a score would at least allow me one more opinion (in a vague sense) to guage the "new" market.

blah blah blah the fall of western civilization and buying without appreciation and all that.

 

[Goreomedy]

I understand it has value in conjunction with the criticism.

Then you've answered your own question. A 6/10 is enough for some. They trust that the review makes the case for the score.

If I'm interested in a game, though, I rent it no matter what score or review remarks it receives. Often, you guys have been so very wrong.