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| 13 APR 2007 at 7:14am |
IviniaGuild Master
Posts : 4459
Joined: 7 JUN 2003
Location: US
Status : Offline | This might be fun...ok, maybe not.
The worst AG Reviews by a non-AG site. Reviews that seem to bash a game for being, well, an adventure game. I just stumbled on one for the Sacred Rings. While not the worst (that would have to go to GameSpots reviews of Barrow Hill & Scratches), this one just caught my eye.
Traditional would be a euphemistic way of describing how The Sacred Rings plays; outdated certainly would be more accurate. As Umang, you’ll explore the game from the first-person, talking to other characters and solving puzzles.
Apparently 1st-person AGs, talking to people and solving puzzles is outdated. I am SO screwed with PoE... The Sacred Rings was 360 1st person and PoE is slideshow.
There’s very little new or innovative in The Sacred Rings; in fact, it’s decidedly antiquated as an adventure game. The genre has long since evolved from staid first-person adventures to more active third-person experiences, making this game stand out in a rather bad way. It’s hard not to compare the game to Myst, as its clear The Sacred Rings takes from that formula.
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but weren't there 3rd person AGs out long before Myst?
Should you be able to withstand the lack of innovation, you’ll likely find The Sacred Rings to be unbearably difficult. MENSA members only apply—this game is one of the most challenging to come around in some time.
Cool beans. I'm a genius. As are pretty much every adventure gamer out there. Ok folks, time to put in our applications: http://www.mensa.org/index0.php?page=11
While it might tax your patience, it definitely won’t do the same on your system. With minimal system requirements and a corresponding presentation, The Sacred Rings isn’t exactly among the most impressive games in the genre.
Ok, now we're getting somewhere. An game MUST max the reviewers system in order to impress them.
Environments are disappointingly static in way that is too reminiscent of Myst and its sequels.
...and lots of things moving around too. As I sit here staring at my living room, I'm finding it static too. Nothing is moving, not even my cats.
Crap. My entire world is outdated.
Double-crap...I take that back. The spider that was sitting in the corner by the ceiling is gone. Obviously something IS moving in here.
For the full review, check here: http://www.dignews.com/review.php?story_id=21970
You might even get a kick out of their Barrow Hill review too: http://www.dignews.com/review.php?story_id=17509
I particularly liked how the reviewer called the British voice-acting in that game 'fake'. Matt and Co. are all British aren't they?
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I really don't care if some outside reviewer rips apart an adventure game, but damn, rip it apart for being a bad game (Not that the Sacred Rings was a bad game). Don't rip it apart for being an adventure game.
I can agree with certain aspects of what the reviewer apparently likes, but somehow I still think they miss the mark. Could the games be better? Of course they can, but if a game is supposed to be a puzzle adventure game, why are you ripping on it for having puzzles?
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| 13 APR 2007 at 7:59am |
kateSorcerer Apprentice
Posts : 245
Joined: 20 FEB 2007
Status : Online | if you don't have to buy another computer than the game bites, lol : at least thats what most of them all think in the action world, i hate having to buy new stuff than my old stuff don't work so well. :'(
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| 13 APR 2007 at 9:34am |
KarstenSorcerer Apprentice
Posts : 347
Joined: 23 SEP 2006
Location: DK
Status : Offline | I just read the review from dignews on Barrow Hill. Apparently, the reviewer thought it was a different kind of game than the adventure/puzzle game that it is. And if the reviewer opened the box, and popped in the game in the computer expexting a game like say Silent Hill 2, well then, I can understand why he (or she) got disappointed.
As for the voice acting, I do think that the reviewer maybe expected Inspector Morse (aka Oxford English), not the Cornwall dialect. And yes, Matt, that created the game, lives in & around Barrow Hill or Cornwall, I think.
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| 13 APR 2007 at 4:39pm |
GhostSorcerer Apprentice
Posts : 273
Joined: 31 JUL 2004
Status : Online | [smiley=laughing.gif] Great post, Ivina. I'm impressed with a game if I don't have to upgrade my pc!
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| 13 APR 2007 at 4:45pm |
AyaGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 7277
Joined: 16 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | i particularly like the fact that barrow hill, according to that immensely credible site, is a survival horror game! i wonder if the reviewer is still searching for zombies to shoot down! :
if there is one solid fact about adventure reviews, it's that one cannot even give the slightest credit to any reviews done outside adventure-specific sites/mags... if done on a generic gaming site or mag, it has to be done by an adventure gamer/reviewer (eg greek pc master, which has an adventure reviewer - although they did mess up last issue by having some irrelevant person review secrets of atlantis), otherwise the only purpose of those reviews is to print them out and use them as tp replacement on emergency situations...
You have gotten the attention of the mysterious lady. She turns to face you. Her face is devoid of any flesh. You are frozen with horror as she begins ripping your body into a bloody mess.
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| 13 APR 2007 at 5:18pm |
alkis21Schattenjger
Posts : 2112
Joined: 23 OCT 2002
Location: GR
Status : Offline | How about discussing reviews we're not crazy about in JA?
Like that pathetic review by this Aya character. How he managed to give an A to this atrocity is beyond me!
Seriously now, this review is my least favorite by far.
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| 13 APR 2007 at 5:22pm |
AyaGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 7277
Joined: 16 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By alkis21 (13 APR 2007 5:18pm)
Like that pathetic review by this Aya character. How he managed to give an A to this atrocity is beyond me!
that was A for Atrocious!
You have gotten the attention of the mysterious lady. She turns to face you. Her face is devoid of any flesh. You are frozen with horror as she begins ripping your body into a bloody mess.
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| 13 APR 2007 at 5:45pm |
SirDaveGuild Master
Posts : 4941
Joined: 17 OCT 2002
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By alkis21 (13 APR 2007 5:18pm)
How about discussing reviews we're not crazy about in JA?
Like that pathetic review by this Aya character. How he managed to give an A to this atrocity is beyond me!
Seriously now, this review is my least favorite by far.
I think the fix was in. I heard that the reviewer received an under-the-table $1,000,000.00 from the developer.
The future ain't what it used to be!
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| 13 APR 2007 at 6:01pm |
AyaGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 7277
Joined: 16 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By SirDave (13 APR 2007 5:44pm)
I think the fix was in. I heard that the reviewer received an under-the-table $1,000,000.00 from the developer.
i heard that that was the plan, but the developer never delivered... now the reviewer is anxiously looking forward to review the developer's new game and take his revenge......! [smiley=devil_smiley_grintail.gif]
You have gotten the attention of the mysterious lady. She turns to face you. Her face is devoid of any flesh. You are frozen with horror as she begins ripping your body into a bloody mess.
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| 13 APR 2007 at 10:33pm |
alkis21Schattenjger
Posts : 2112
Joined: 23 OCT 2002
Location: GR
Status : Offline | [img]http://forum.team-ingame.de/images/smilies/sofa.gif[/img]
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| 14 APR 2007 at 11:47pm |
jalexSchattenjger
Posts : 2503
Joined: 5 MAR 2003
Status : Offline | I don't like reading reviews where they bash any game even if it is only there opinion. There are many of us gamers out there and we all have a little different tastes. Some of us like hard puzzles and some like a good story and so on. Some like point and click and some like direct control. So the reviewer should say what he saw in the game as far as how it ran and a little about the story and puzzles. It's ok for the reviewer to say what he/she thought about it but not to keep bashing or insinuating that it's a bad game as there are many readers that don't see the same qualities in a game. Some even go so far as to say don't buy this game as it's a waist of money. These kinds of statments don't belong in reviews as it's only the reviewer's opinion.
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| 15 APR 2007 at 1:28am |
AyaGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 7277
Joined: 16 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | jalex, a review is actually somebody's opinion, and nothing else... a review is supposed to describe the game as well as portray the reviewer's feelings... a review that bashes a game can be equally bad or good as one that praises a game... saying smth like "don't buy this game" is equal to saying "buy this game"... the important part for the reviewer is to justify why they're saying that... "don't buy this game cause i didn't like it" is naturally a bad statement! "if you don't like logical puzzles, then don't buy this game" is a perfectly valid statement and can help both gamers that don't like logical puzzles as well as the ones that do
another very important aspect of a review is to whom it is directed... reviews on ja, even the action ones, are directed to adventure gamers, and are written under an adventurer's pov... reviews on casual sites are by casual gamers for casual gamers, so, naturally, they cannot analyze an adventure game they way it should be analyzed... although reviews like that could be considered "correct" for their target audience (a huge percentage of which do not want to put a game in and have to stop and think to solve a puzzle), they don't do justice to the genre... which is why adventurers should only check specialized reviews
You have gotten the attention of the mysterious lady. She turns to face you. Her face is devoid of any flesh. You are frozen with horror as she begins ripping your body into a bloody mess.
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| 15 APR 2007 at 9:14am |
Igor ArtemovSpace Cadet
Posts : 185
Joined: 1 APR 2003
Status : Online | Oh, yeah! That reviews of Callahan's and MI 1-2 from some guy Ray Ivey.. "C" and "C", just because his bias against third-person and "over-humored" adventures! How dare he.. non-AG site.. oh. Naughty, naughty GameSpot >
Killing Time
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| 18 APR 2007 at 2:24am |
jalexSchattenjger
Posts : 2503
Joined: 5 MAR 2003
Status : Offline | Aya , I agree with that too but I do think that some reviewers do try to push there likes and diskikes off on other gamers. I think it's just a matter of the words used to discribe them. Some words are stronger than others.
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| 27 APR 2007 at 4:22pm |
snowtimeJourneyman
Posts : 1014
Joined: 28 JUN 2005
Status : Online | It was interesting to read the Barrow Hill review on GS. I'm not sure that it's as crappy as you all make out. He kept saying he was a fan of horror and point-&-click adventures, so I'm not sure he was just doing a FPS-brain-dead-knee-jerk. The criticisms he made would have been reasonably valid if BH was the result of a professional team rather than an independent, one-man production. Perhaps he didn't take that into account.
I particularly found myself nodding in agreement at:
There isn’t even a feeling of isolation, because there is an in-game character in a rather run-down petrol station/motel. And speaking of that, the animation for the character is laughable. Instead of having a series of pictures which move very jerkily, why not have a simple video clip; or (shock and horror) why not just have the voice of the character? Then it increases the sense of mystery, and the illusion isn’t shattered by an embarrassingly poor rendering of an in-game character.
So, he's not even particularly advocating more advanced graphics, he's just saying that the graphics weren't used in the best way to evoke the atmosphere.
Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed BH but I was also disappointed by it. In the world of point and click horror games maybe it deserves a 3.0.
Yours controversially
*
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
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| 27 APR 2007 at 11:11pm |
| Deleted User | 3.0.?!
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| 28 APR 2007 at 9:57am |
snowtimeJourneyman
Posts : 1014
Joined: 28 JUN 2005
Status : Online | OK, maybe not 3.0. But not higher than 6.
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
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| 30 APR 2007 at 1:54pm |
snowtimeJourneyman
Posts : 1014
Joined: 28 JUN 2005
Status : Online | [IMG]http://www.smileyhut.com/silly/tumbleweed.gif[/IMG]
*
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
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