General Gaming Discussion

[Akun]

2 minutes ago, killamch89 said:

Thanks man but IGN's reviews aren't exactly the greatest or most accurate. I'd much rather ask fellow gamers than these journalists who can barely play Cuphead.

Agreed. IGN has an awful track-record when it comes to fair reviews for JRPGs. Their review of Digimon Survive and Soul Hackers 2 suck.

[killamch89]

5 minutes ago, Akun said:

Agreed. IGN has an awful track-record when it comes to fair reviews for JRPGs. Their review of Digimon Survive and Soul Hackers 2 suck.

Believe me, that's not the only ones - there are whole host of IGN reviews that are so wide of the mark that you'd think they were talking about a different game.

[Yaramaki]

On 9/2/2022 at 12:54 AM, Heatman said:

You have already checked out the first phase which was purchasing the game. The next phase now would be to play it and what it's worth. If it meets the expectations on it, then it's a very good bargain. 

 

I will definitely be looking forward to that! 

@Heatman i've put about 10 hours into Monster energy supercross 5, must say it's not a bad game but it does nothing really to stand out from being nothing more then an above average game. Is it for you well that depends on wheter or not you are into supercross or not, if you have no interest in enduro racing i'd say skip it. 

Obvioulsy in typical Milestone fashion there is plenty to do other besides the races but it's execution could have more polished, like for example area there is a open world area where you have 3 minutes to search for letters and do a few whips and get an amount of points, where i am wondering what is the point in it all. The difficulty my god be sure to cranck it all the way to atleast medium because on the easier settings believe me, in 5 minute races you can lap the entire field and win the race with more then a minute ahead.

Graphics wise it looks like an early ps4/xbone game like something like forza 5 which was a launch game looks much better then this, despite playing on a series x in this day and age could have done a little better, obviously it doesn't too matter all that much aslong as the racing as good and luckly that is good, the bikes feels good and are easy to control but hard to master. My only grip i have is that the tracks are a little bit too narrow for my taste compared to mxgp tracks and you'll know what i mean, offcourse it has to authentic. 

Overall it ain't a bad game but knowing milestone by now a lot of their games could use a little more polish, i know this is a rather niche product compared to something like the motogp series which have keep getting better and better each year like why not release a supercross game every other year, instead of turning into a yearly franchise and deliver a more polished product because i get the feeling even a diehard supercross fan is not going to buy this yearly.

There is a lot to love here but be cautious it's not worth paying full price for, granted i only paid 22 euros for it i can see trough a few short commings here and there and i'll likely get my money's worth out it by the time i'm finished like If you want this is atleast a 50+ hours game.

One last thing loading times on ps4/xbone are supposedly brutal from what i've read here and there, i can vouch for a few of the milestone games i've played in the past that that was the case so i suppose supercross 5 is no different.

These are my first impressions, hope they are off any use. 

[Withywarlock]

17 hours ago, killamch89 said:

Thanks man but IGN's reviews aren't exactly the greatest or most accurate. I'd much rather ask fellow gamers than these journalists who can barely play Cuphead.

IGN's editor gave Cuphead an 8.8 out of 10, and I'd say that closely matches the text of the review. They've also rated Xenoblade Chronicles 8 out of 10, and both games were reviewed by different people.

If we're going to bash people or projects let's do so with appropriate examples and not use that to tar others with the same brush. The whole "too much water" meme from IGN to give one such example is funny when taken in good humour... which most do not because they didn't read the article.

This isn't exclusive to you nor is it a telling off, it's just a suggestion for improving the discourse seen here. It does not take long for a circlejerk to happen on this forum, and I'd prefer to prevent that than have to divert it afterwards.

Having said all that, the gameplay in that video of it looks fairly decent. Makes me want to get back into JRPGs, which I know I love but just cannot bring myself to play that often. 😣

[Shagger]

22 hours ago, killamch89 said:

Believe me, that's not the only ones - there are whole host of IGN reviews that are so wide of the mark that you'd think they were talking about a different game.

 

4 hours ago, Withywarlock said:

IGN's editor gave Cuphead an 8.8 out of 10, and I'd say that closely matches the text of the review. They've also rated Xenoblade Chronicles 8 out of 10, and both games were reviewed by different people.

If we're going to bash people or projects let's do so with appropriate examples and not use that to tar others with the same brush. The whole "too much water" meme from IGN to give one such example is funny when taken in good humour... which most do not because they didn't read the article.

This isn't exclusive to you nor is it a telling off, it's just a suggestion for improving the discourse seen here. It does not take long for a circlejerk to happen on this forum, and I'd prefer to prevent that than have to divert it afterwards.

Having said all that, the gameplay in that video of it looks fairly decent. Makes me want to get back into JRPGs, which I know I love but just cannot bring myself to play that often. 😣

 

There was a time when nothing IGN said was worth taking seriously, but in recent years I think they've become a lot better and more willing to score thier reviews for the players rather than to keep publishers happy. I still think the way that game's journalism has become as least partly dependant on game's industry success is flawed, but I don't doubt for one second that even big journalistic entities like IGN have passionate, dedicated people who want to do right by the gaming public. Maybe game's journalism is less dependent of advertising from games publishers than it used to be, I don't really know, but I do think it's a hell of lot better than it was even 4 or 5 years ago.

[Akun]

32 minutes ago, Shagger said:

There was a time when nothing IGN said was worth taking seriously, but in recent years I think they've become a lot better and more willing to score thier reviews for the players rather than to keep publishers happy. I still think the way that game's journalism has become as least partly dependant on game's industry success is flawed, but I don't doubt for one second that even big journalistic entities like IGN have passionate, dedicated people who want to do right by the gaming public. Maybe game's journalism is less dependent of advertising from games publishers than it used to be, I don't really know, but I do think it's a hell of lot better than it was even 4 or 5 years ago.

They called SMT V "Persona without the heart." That was a game released last year. That tells me everything I need to know, how little research they did about their games. Persona games are a spin-off of SMT, not the other way around. Their "Persona without the heart" was so hilarious it easily became the "Too much water" meme of our modern generation.

Plus, there's also the aforementioned Digimon Survive and Soul Hackers 2 reviews that I just found insulting and unfair. For Soul Hackers 2, IGN called turn-based combat dated. I mean, I get that a lot of gamers (particularly on Reddit) love to call turn-based combat "a dated gameplay," but I just find that to be a rather narrow-minded point of view because it's like calling platformers dated. It's a style of gameplay many gamers still enjoy today. Plus, FYI - Persona games are turn-based combat games and they gave P5 a high score.

So no, it's not just "one or two reviews" that made me think that way, but a number of bad takes that were made even recently, particularly on JRPGs and visual novels.

Edited September 6, 2022 by Akun

[Kane99]

I don't mind IGN to some extent, but I don't really follow them for their reviews. I've heard stories about how they have plagiarized some reviews, and to be fair those were the writers and not IGN themselves. But it happens a lot more with IGN it seems, so I'm not really interested in taking their opinions at heart these days. 

[Akun]

Honestly, I'd prefer relying on user reviews than some publisher review following corporate mandates anyway, especially from what I've seen of companies manipulating review scores these days. Hell, I'll take a YouTuber's review any day as there's at least a face I could trust, even if many YouTubers are paid shills of some form too.

[Withywarlock]

17 hours ago, Akun said:

They called SMT V "Persona without the heart." That was a game released last year. That tells me everything I need to know, how little research they did about their games.

But that's one reviewer and one editor who scored it 8/10, so I'm not sure who exactly I should be listening to here. I certainly think it's poor etiquette to have someone who doesn't like JRPGs review them (the only time I think that's OK is when someone's mind is changed by that particular entry, or if they're to provide an alternative viewpoint, but even that's solely with user reviews, not people who are paid to talk about them).

You're also doing what the folks who got mad about 'too much water' did, which is reading solely the summary. The full summary is, emphasis my own, "Shin Megami Tensei V's excellent JRPG combat and deeply rewarding customization shine bright, even when it sometimes feels like Persona without the heart."

I'd say despite that mention of 'sometimes' lacking in heart Lenna Hafer gave a glowing recommendation, and if that's all I need to know about IGN then I feel they enjoy JRPGs.

17 hours ago, Akun said:

Plus, there's also the aforementioned Digimon Survive and Soul Hackers 2 reviews that I just found insulting and unfair.

The only major outlets that rated Digimon Survive highly, and I use the term 'major' very subjectively I appreciate, were GameByte (9/10), Nintendo Life (8/10), Game Informer (73/100), Eurogamer Italy (7/10), Push Square (7/10), and The Sixth Axis (7/10).

Not to mention IGN Italy scored it 7.8/10, which then develops the question of which IGN are we talking about, and are we prepared to brand them all the same?

17 hours ago, Akun said:

For Soul Hackers 2, IGN called turn-based combat dated.

Reviewer Cameron Hawkins did not say that anywhere in the article. Quote the beginning, emphasis my own,

"It may be held back a bit by its uninspired level design and turn-based battle mechanics, but the story still shines bright enough to help carry it thanks to a diverse cast of characters and engaging themes about what it means to be human."

And the combat section,

"Combat in Soul Hackers 2 is very familiar if you’ve played a Persona game or Tokyo Mirage Sessions, but doesn’t meet the depth of what came before it. Atlus loves to try out new battle mechanics that you must master in order to maximize your combat effectiveness in every game, and Soul Hackers 2’s flavor of this is building a demon stack. Initially, a stack is made whenever you hit an enemy with their weakness, and at the end of every turn you perform a sabbath – an all-out attack where all the demons in the stack assault the enemies. It’s a fun mechanic that gets the job done, but doesn’t stay consistently engaging due to lack of growth over the campaign. As my party members gained summoner skills by progressing through their respective Soul Matrix, they learned other ways to build a stack, but even with those new additions I never saw a significant increase to my stack count.

One of the few things that is unique to Soul Hackers 2 is sabbath skills. These abilities can be used to add another effect to the team assault, like dealing more damage or healing your party. By going to the local circus I could fuse my demons into stronger ones, while going to the local weapon smith would let me gain commander skills, like being able to change demons on the fly or adding more to a stack. However, similarly to the stack mechanic, these features were introduced so early on that it started to get stale by the time I got to later sections."

In the verdict, the closest they say to this is, quote, emphasis my own:

"Soul Hackers 2 is, at its heart, a streamlined Atlus JRPG, serving as a great entry point for anyone new to the genre or the developer in general. The combat and dungeon delving are entertaining, if fairly familiar, and the charming cast of characters kept me interested all the way through its roughly 60-hour campaign. But a disappointing lack of creativity in its battle systems and a fairly shallow overarching story mean this newly resurrected series will need to do more if it wants to set itself apart amongst Atlus’ best."

Again, if we're going to criticise people and companies for doing things, let's criticise them for the things they're actually doing, not ones we think they're doing.

17 hours ago, Akun said:

I mean, I get that a lot of gamers (particularly on Reddit) love to call turn-based combat "a dated gameplay," but I just find that to be a rather narrow-minded point of view because it's like calling platformers dated. It's a style of gameplay many gamers still enjoy today. Plus, FYI - Persona games are turn-based combat games and they gave P5 a high score.

I agree, I actually prefer turn-based combat to real-time in an RPG. But that's not what was said in the review. Regarding Persona, it may be because Soul Hackers 2 doesn't take any risks, but I wouldn't know anything about that because I'm going entirely on the review.

17 hours ago, Akun said:

So no, it's not just "one or two reviews" that made me think that way,

You have listed "one or two reviews" and the information you've asserted isn't entirely correct, so please accept my skepticism.

17 hours ago, Akun said:

but a number of bad takes that were made even recently, particularly on JRPGs and visual novels.

That's fine. But please say that, and if you want to discuss it further by all means do so with the correct information. If we're not going to do that we're just masturbating over things that are blown out of proportion, which I would like to reiterate, happens all too often in video games discourse.

17 hours ago, Kane99 said:

I don't mind IGN to some extent, but I don't really follow them for their reviews. I've heard stories about how they have plagiarized some reviews, and to be fair those were the writers and not IGN themselves. But it happens a lot more with IGN it seems, so I'm not really interested in taking their opinions at heart these days. 

Agreed, once is a mistake. If the editor doesn't have the time to run a review through a plagiarism detector, they need to make time because it could end so much more worse than egg on their face. With the way copyright is today, they should take it a lot more seriously.

Edited September 7, 2022 by Withywarlock

[Akun]

6 hours ago, Withywarlock said:

You're also doing what the folks who got mad about 'too much water' did, which is reading solely the summary. The full summary is, emphasis my own, "Shin Megami Tensei V's excellent JRPG combat and deeply rewarding customization shine bright, even when it sometimes feels like Persona without the heart."

Alright, I'll give you that one. The meme is still hilarious though because it's so understandable why people just immediately took that line personally, considering how popular Persona games were and ending up overshadowing the mainline franchise they spun off from, with many Persona fans and SMT fans still bitterly arguing with each other till this day on the Internet over which is the superior franchise despite both coming from the same franchise. So you can see why people took it to heart, because it's like a Digimon fan calling a Pokémon game "Digimon without the emotional story" or a similarly pointed comment about a Digimon game. People will react instinctively, especially with how easy it is to cast your opinion online.

Based on your remark about not reading the full review, I'd say you're in the right, but honestly, I'm kinda tired of debating whom is in the right anymore, especially on the Internet. I know it sounds like I'm contradicting myself when I was the one who called out IGN for being in the wrong, but they're a million dollar company whose profit won't be hurt by a few petty comments I made based on my feelings, so it's not really the same thing when IGN's editors and CEOs won't be spending hours writing a thesis on why the other person is wrong on the Internet like what I'm doing right now with my life. Appropriately, it reminds me of IGN's forums where people mock each other for the wrong opinions all the time. It's like, what are people like them and myself doing with our lives? I'll probably forget this conversation in a few days anyway and going back to distrusting IGN again no matter how right you might be because that's how trust works - it needs to be earned, and emotions play into trust more often than logic. You can't logic your way into getting someone to trust you (not to mention how insignificant which review publisher I trust matters in the big picture).

But sure, I'll bite and try to address your concerns about my opinions.

 

6 hours ago, Withywarlock said:

The only major outlets that rated Digimon Survive highly, and I use the term 'major' very subjectively I appreciate, were GameByte (9/10), Nintendo Life (8/10), Game Informer (73/100), Eurogamer Italy (7/10), Push Square (7/10), and The Sixth Axis (7/10).

I don't really see the point in this statement other than saying IGN was right about Digimon Survive - they're not IMO. Digimon Survive isn't really the terrible game you seem to be implying with this statement by adding "subjectively" in that context, as if those outlets' high scores for Survive were untrustworthy, and therefore their status of being "major" outlets is subjective with how untrustworthy they are. I might be reading too much into it, but your statement was rather vague for me to understand what you're actually implying.

I don't agree with IGN's score, but I do think that Nintendo Life gave it too high; my score after finishing the game rests around 7.5/10. I'd say that's a fairer score than IGN's 6/10.

And here's the thing about fairness - it can be subjective to people's emotions, even if you might not think that is fair in itself. I grew up as a Digimon fan more than a Pokémon fan, so I know more than my share of Digimon-bashing in a world where Pokémon's the dominant franchise. Just like the people who instinctively dismissed IGN's statement that associated an SMT title with Persona games, I instinctively disliked their review as a Digimon fan, especially after having played it and confirming it's not really a 6/10 game IMO.

 

6 hours ago, Withywarlock said:

Reviewer Cameron Hawkins did not say that anywhere in the article. Quote the beginning, emphasis my own,

Again, if we're going to criticise people and companies for doing things, let's criticise them for the things they're actually doing, not ones we think they're doing.

I agree, I actually prefer turn-based combat to real-time in an RPG. But that's not what was said in the review.

Not the article. The YouTube video IGN published on their official channel. It's probably a minute into the video. A number of people in the YouTube comment section called out on this too, but that's how YouTube comments sections work, so I digress.

And I think when people criticize IGN, they don't really take into account the editors or individuals writing/filming the review anyway; they're just bashing on the faceless corporation itself, not the editors. Besides, god knows if their editors have to follow a corporate mandate. I don't have that trust in faceless corporations because I don't work for publishers like that, which is why I place my trust in individuals, not IGN YouTube videos where the reviewer doesn't even show their face. Sorry if I'm wrong about their review, but I'm still biased.

 

6 hours ago, Withywarlock said:

You have listed "one or two reviews" and the information you've asserted isn't entirely correct, so please accept my skepticism.

lol Really? Then please accept my skepticism of the faceless company you're defending so passionately. I think I at least have the right to be skeptical of a faceless corporation based on my personal feelings, so I don't know why you're calling me out like this when my vocal remarks would hardly matter to anyone anyway, considering I'm just some schmuck in Singapore who's "productively" spending my time replying to an essay-length response on an Internet forum. And are we really going to talk about skepticism when you're calling out people for being skeptics of IGN? Please accept people's skepticisms then for not placing their trust in a company that has a history of yellow journalism.

 

7 hours ago, Withywarlock said:

That's fine. But please say that, and if you want to discuss it further by all means do so with the correct information. If we're not going to do that we're just masturbating over things that are blown out of proportion, which I would like to reiterate, happens all too often in video games discourse.

But I did say that? lol You literally quoted me saying that, that I don't trust them because of their takes on JRPGs.

I think things are blown out of proportions in all matters of discourse on the Internet, not just video games, like how certain casual remarks made online are taken to task, even though those remarks were based on personal feelings and not some thesis I spent hours researching on. This whole conversation is blown out of proportion IMO. I have a feeling I'll be spending days "debating" again on whom is right on the Internet after I submit this post because that's such a fun and productive thing to do. lol I'm not interested tbh, and if I'm wrong, then I'm wrong. I'll let you have the win.

[Yaramaki]

On 9/7/2022 at 1:50 AM, Akun said:

They called SMT V "Persona without the heart." That was a game released last year. That tells me everything I need to know, how little research they did about their games. Persona games are a spin-off of SMT, not the other way around. Their "Persona without the heart" was so hilarious it easily became the "Too much water" meme of our modern generation.

Plus, there's also the aforementioned Digimon Survive and Soul Hackers 2 reviews that I just found insulting and unfair. For Soul Hackers 2, IGN called turn-based combat dated. I mean, I get that a lot of gamers (particularly on Reddit) love to call turn-based combat "a dated gameplay," but I just find that to be a rather narrow-minded point of view because it's like calling platformers dated. It's a style of gameplay many gamers still enjoy today. Plus, FYI - Persona games are turn-based combat games and they gave P5 a high score.

So no, it's not just "one or two reviews" that made me think that way, but a number of bad takes that were made even recently, particularly on JRPGs and visual novels.

While i don't read many ign reviews or watch their youtube channel, i feel like a lot of reviews in general should be taken with a grain of salt as A lot of reviews have to be rushed out of the door to be published in time, there is no way a reviewer could have played everithing a jrpg has to offer. Over the years i've started seeing reviews as more of a guideline rather then something to solely base your oppinion on wheter to purchase a game or not. There are so many websites out there that review games, so many youtubers that do stellar reviews of games i feel like the truth is always in the middle. Read reviews all you want and judge for yourself i'm your are going to like this game or not. It's probably a no brainer that you know yourself best of all wheter or not you are going to enjoy a certain game or not. You don't need a reviews for that.

I've yet to pick up digimon survive and sould hackers 2 considering they got physical releases on xbox aswell i should make work of that sometime soon because i want to support these releases on getting a physical release on my platform of choice. I'm not even going to bother reading reviews for both games, because you know atlus their games have always been good amongst the very best the jrpg genre has to offer, same counts for the digimon games can't think off a single bad one i played over the years apperently digimon survive has many visual novel elements which is probably a good thing, to distant themselves from the clueless who would call it a pokemon clone. 

To get back to reviews I'd be more interested that companies start doing another review half a year or a year later after the game launched and give it another final score,many games get slammed because they are not finished and rightly so but take a game like no man's sky or final fantasy 15 and review the entire package that is what i'd  interested in how the game performs and if anything is fixed etc etc. I'm usually a year behind when playing videogames so well maybe an idea for ign for people like me to follow up on their supposed shitty reviews lol.

[Kane99]

Do you guys have any issues gaming with a cheap mouse? I try not to use cheap mice, but had to purchase one recently as my current one is starting to go. I decided to get one of the Amazon Basics mice. Was a little under $10. I probably won't end up gaming much with it to be honest. Probably not really meant for gaming in the first place, but I might give it a go if needed. 

[Withywarlock]

20 hours ago, Kane99 said:

Do you guys have any issues gaming with a cheap mouse?

Nope. My UTech Venus Smart is a cheapo gaming mouse and is considerably more durable than a Razer Naga(?) that I paid about £90 for. Same buttons, no real difference in sensitivity and accuracy, and it lights up nicely.

I've used tons of office mice in my time and they remain fine, at least until my ordered gaming mouse arrives in the mail. More often than not its the person behind it doing the work, not the mouse itself.

[Akun]

20 hours ago, Kane99 said:

Do you guys have any issues gaming with a cheap mouse?

I don't really care much about my hardware unless it involves whether it could support next-gen graphics. My cheapo Targus mouse feels like any expensive Razer mouse, minus the unnecessary "extra functions" that I didn't even bother to use much for Razer mice. I guess there are gamers who would need more functionality for their games, but since I usually only play simulation or adventure games that don't require superb control over several hotkeys, I don't really have need for extra functions like that.

[Yaramaki]

Anybody remember this forgotten early xbox one/pc exclusive called Screamride? imo one of the most fun rollercoaster riding/building (and destruction) games out there had a great time with this game a few years ago as it's easy to pick up and play and above all fun, if you have gamepass you could do a lot more worse then giving this game a try, i feel like you owe it to yourself to give it a shot, you'll thank me later (i hope). 

 

Edited September 10, 2022 by Yaramaki