• 24Apr 08

  Annoyances with the Reception of Clive Barker's Jericho

  One thing I have seldom experienced during my years as a gamer is being at complete odds with the opinion of the general public. Spurring from the continued success of the Wii however, and the handing around of '9.0s' like its going out of fashion, I have now begun to find myself more readily disagreeing with the popular opinion of the gaming community and industry more and more. Recently after actually getting an Xbox 360 and playing a certain game which has been plagued industry wide with negative reviews I have become compelled to write this opinionative rant. The game I am talking about is Clive Barker's Jericho and I'm writing about... (to put bluntly) why the hell do so many people not like this game!!?

  *sigh* Before I get too far I feel I should probably state that I do realise people have different opinions.. but almost every review I've read and video review I've watched and score I've looked at I just completely disagree with. Let me try and break down my POV on this game in comparison to the critics;

  1) Cramped Environments - Uhm.. what? NO! I just passed the part where the demo ended and I have so far not experienced any of the frustrations that reviewers b**** and moan about to do with not having enough room to 'tactically maneuver'. Furthermore learn to f****** shoot you stupid gits. If the 'exploding enemies' are such a big deal, which they certainly are NOT (coming from the guy who's using analog sticks) then maybe you should set the difficulty to easy.. in which case you would then probably whine about it being too boring because there's not enough challenge. Psh!

  2) Bad Weapons - I don't even want to know what people are thinking with this. Granted some of the weapons don't pack a nice 'oomph' sound to them, but their capabilities are damn impressive and their designs and graphics are superb. As a matter a fact I also know another game with some weapons which dont sound fantastic; Halo 3.

  3) Context Sensitive Button Prompts Feel... Out of Place? - I've played several button prompt games (Resident Evil 4, God of War) and I again have to state this is a stupid comment. These prompt situations are awesome and I never once sat there thinking whilst I was playing 'wow this is so out of place'. What is 'out of place' in relation to button prompts even actually meant to mean anyway...?

  4) Unoriginal Abilities - I'm sorry but what were people expecting.. the ability to fly or turn into aquaman? Exorcism, spiritual healing, blood wards, fire demons, slow motion aren't good enough for you people? This is one of the most pathetic attempts to bring down the game.

  5) Too Many Abilities and Weapons - So rat out on the 'unoriginality' of some of the coolest, classic supernatural abilities and then whine about how there is too many. I can understand how some people may feel overburdened by the VARIETY the character switching and abilities/weapon combinations this game offers but seriously as far as I've played there has been not one occasion where I have overused or underused a certain character in any fighting situation before (whether its for their weapons or abilities I end up using a nice mix as second nature)

  6) Bad Dialogue/Characters - I honestly wasn't expecting much from the characters in the way of any remote submissive or weak nature. They are a branch of the US Military. They are full out commando and whilst not making the game very scary, they really do drive the ambition to run and gun into a pack of blood thirsty (fantastically designed) monsters. Yes the dialogue is strange at times but I personally didn't realise the ridiculousness of some of the lines until they were commented upon in a review.

  So there that's my passion for the defence of this game out in words on my blog. I cant stress again how well aware I am of these things called opinions, but this game really deserves more credit than its been given (IMO). I suppose when it boils down to it what really infuriates me is not the are reviews Jericho got, but the reviews other games got in comparison. These include;
  
  - SSBB (9.5) - No way! This game is EXACTLY like melee but with more features thrown in. It's almost laughable it got such a high score..
  - Assassin's Creed (9.0) - Beautiful world but becomes rather linear and boring after a while. (OPINION!!)
  - Bioshock (9.0) - Well I'm not quite sure what to say about this.. its a great game.. fantastic immersion.. but the enemies were boring and the coolest stage was the first level, Dr Steinmann's surgery. Revolutionary ground breaking story telling... wth? 9.0 worthy? No.

  There I think that about covers my opinion and I feel a little better now. This was not so much for your reading as it was for me to just vent my annoyances but if you did read it anyway then thanks. I suppose really what it comes down to is people have different tastes, and a score should never 100% dictate your decision in any purchase you wish to make (not to say it wont influence others) but if you like the demo and want the game then buy it. That's what I did with Clive Barker's Jericho and I couldn't be happier. Now let's wait and see the inevitable Mario Kart Wii review. There has to be some integrity left in this industry... but I wouldn't hold my breath...
  • Posted Apr 24, 2008 9:58 am PT
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• 8Apr 08

  Birthday and X360!!

  Well I don't know whether anyone will actually take the effort to read my blog anymore considering I've been inactive for such a long time and have made little attempt to rekindle my blog writing despite the fact I said I would. But no matter how many of you actually read this I felt it was important enough to mention that I GOT AN XBOX 360!

  Yes I'm now able to finally say I own all three consoles and now can finally bad mouth people on either side of the console argument fence without getting criticised because I own all three lol. But yeah I got it the other day for my birthday and it came with Halo 3, an Xbox Live Vision Camera and another controller free. I haven't played Halo 2 though.. any of you guys reading this who have played the trilogy.. um.. is it very important I play 2 before I jump into 3? Of course that might have to wait for a bit anyway as I sort of have to wait until after my exams next week before I can open the 360 or have any sort of celebration (that's my own decision by the way).

  I also decided to pick up Dead Rising because I have been wanting that game since forever, actually to the point where I just dismissed everything to do with Microsoft's crappy X360 hardware and asked to have it. I really just couldn't be bothered waiting any longer. If any of you guys who read this are X360 fans can you suggest to me any really good games? I already have quite a few in my wish list (hence the reason I got it) but some further input from you guys (if there is any ) would be good.

  Thanks for reading this if you did. If you did your probably loyal to my dead blog and your awesome. If you didn't (don't ask me how you know I'm saying this if you didn't read it) I still think your awesome

  • Posted Apr 8, 2008 3:44 am PT
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• 21Oct 07

  My Brother's Wii

  So yesterday me, my brother and my dad went out to pick him up a birthday present (a little early as his birthday is not until Tuesday but my dad will be out of the country on work so we got it earlier) and he decided to get a Wii. My brother had been on about wanting one for a while (hes nine now btw) so really it seemed the obvious choice. Also the Wii will have Super Smash Bros Brawl coming out sometime early next year I think it is.. and because my brother just loves playing Melee it pretty much provided the sole reason for him to get the damn machine.

  Upon getting it my brother took the time to.. ponder over what game(s) he would want to get. I happily provided my imput to atleast try and sway his decision from buying junk (hey he was looking at Bionicles, Billy and Mandy and Spiderman 3..) of course my brother isnt a total idiot and actually asked for Metroid Prime 3 to my avail. Problem was the place didnt have it so he MAY get that in the immediate future and/or The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (he loves the show.. and he is still a kid)
  As a sidenote of interest I also spotted the Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary PSP Edition at the store. Being that we are in Singapore most of that sort of stuff comes down from Japan which is cool so I asked how much.. $550SGD. For you lazy readers of mine thats $375USD, $420AUD for my Australian buddies and $360CAD for you Pascal. Hmm.. perhaps its alot better holding off on wanting a special edition PSP and UMD, although it did look really nice.

  Anyway when we got home I set up the Wii and unbelievably enough the first thing my brother asked me to do was get my GC controller and memory card and SSBM so he could play it on the Wii. I ran Wii Sports for him instead so I could actually show him what he had used his birthday present for. After watching him jump around like a spasticated moose (I really dont know where that came from) he told me it sucked and so I put on SSBM for him. Thankfully for me and everyone else there reading he did pick up Wii Sports again today and this time played it properly. He loves it but still askes me when SSBB and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles are coming out (hes watched me play most of the games) and is looking forward to some light gun, zombie killing regardless of review or anything. Other than that thats about all. Interesting the first new console for this gen I would get.. wouldnt even be mine. I will pick up that Xbox 360 some day.. but I'm still looking at that PS3 sitting in my room.. pay my friend $700SGD ($470USD) I get a 60GB Japanese PS3 from launch with four games. Must.. resist..

  • Posted Oct 21, 2007 12:40 am PT
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