Well, we are getting bombarded by LBP2 reviews all day today, from major websites such as IGN, 1up, etc. Overall the review scores are great, but what struck me as funny is that half of these websites can't even get the games name right.
Is this the direction Gaming journalism is headed? Where we cant even fact check our titles? What happened to quality control? If the New York Times spelled the title of a movie wrong, there would be hell to pay.
A website as huge as 1up spelled the name wrong, does that make them a bad source? It could invalidate their review. If they can't even get the title right, can we really trust them to get the score right? What if they put the wrong letter for their score? Did they really play the game?
It may be nitpicking, but thats what reviewers are supposed to do, nitpick everything. Get the name right people, you just played the damn game for hours (we hope), can't you at least fact check your reviews?
Gaming journalism is going downhill, and this is a prime example of it. Lets get this straight, its LittleBigPlanet 2, Not Little Big Planet 2, if you cant see the difference, there are no spaces in LittleBigPlanet.
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Showing posts with label Free Action Games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Free Action Games. Show all posts
Friday, October 21, 2011
December User Blog Contest Winner!
December's User Blog contest was a very tight race, with three blogs within a vote of one another! The winner is...
BEST USER BLOG:
Winner: cgoodno with http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...
Prize: Ace Bayou Xfunctional Media Furniture X-Pedestal Audio Gamer Chair
Congratulations!!
If you don't remember the December contest details: http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...
...and be sure to check out the January contest details! http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...
How a winner is chosen: The top user blog as voted by staff and the ten most active members of the month. Staff selects a pool of no more than 10 from the User Blogs, then sends those candidates to the top ten most active members that month for voting.
BEST USER BLOG:
Winner: cgoodno with http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...
Prize: Ace Bayou Xfunctional Media Furniture X-Pedestal Audio Gamer Chair
Congratulations!!
If you don't remember the December contest details: http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...
...and be sure to check out the January contest details! http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...
How a winner is chosen: The top user blog as voted by staff and the ten most active members of the month. Staff selects a pool of no more than 10 from the User Blogs, then sends those candidates to the top ten most active members that month for voting.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
The Do's And Dont's Of N4G
Greetings everyone, it's your friendly neighborhood Raven Nomad aka The Crapgamer. Recently I have been thinking of a way to give back to all the wonderful people here. That led me to coming up with a way to draw in even more members to the site. I have come to realize that a lot of people aren't exactly sure how to jump into topics and discussions around here. So this is THE comprehensive list of what to do and what not to do in order to fit in at N4G.
Do-Have a strong opinion, just make sure it's the same opinion as everyone else around here. N4G isn't the place for people who think for themselves.
Don't-Like the Xbox 360. We all know the Xbox 360 is total trash right? So we should all just act like it doesn't exist.
Do-Post Japanese game and console sales, because that's where Sony is #1 and that's what we all care about!
Don't-Post American game and console sales, because we all know the United States doesn't equal the world!
Do-Enjoy handheld gaming, just as long as it's not on a Nintendo handheld.
Don't-Mention how awful the name PlayStation Vita actually is...just not going to get you anywhere.
Do-Be a hypocrite. Usually this is a bad thing, but not here. N4G is the place to be if your a hypocrite. A good example of some hypocrisies here would be. You complained about how bad Peer to peer online was for Call Of Duty, but when you heard that it was also peer to peer on Uncharted 3, you suddenly thought P2P was the best thing since sliced bread.
Don't-Like Cliffy B. He actually enjoys Microsoft products without getting paid to endorse them. He also really likes Kinect, so obviously he is the devil.
Do-Like David Jaffe. Apparently people around here think Cliffy B is annoying and don't like him, but Jaffe who is the most annoying jackass in the gaming industry is loved here. So you gotta follow the crowd and love the guy!
Don't-Mention that Kinect is successful or that 90% of the N4G crowd predicted it to fail and be the next 32x.
Do-prefer games with 30 frames per second as opposed to 60 frames per second.
Don't-Like Call Of Duty or anything made by Activision, apparently they are evil for releasing a franchise every year that the masses love just the way they are, yet the people here think they need to go back and change everything.
Do-Like EA, I know, I know...it was hard for me to write. EA has long been known for their monopoly with the NFL games and releasing literally the same sports games year after year, but this year they have Battlefield 3 with 30 FPS, 4 person squad based chat, vehicles for spawn trapping! and were assuming a version for Xbox 360...but that has yet to be confirmed as we've seen no actual gameplay footage for the console as of yet and it's only three months until it's release. (fingers crossed)
Don't-Bring up Sony's utter lack of smarts for getting their PlayStation Network hacked and shut down for almost a month. Also it's probably not a good idea to mention that Sony brought on the hacks themselves by "poking the bear" so to speak, when they took Geo Hot to court.
Do-Like motion controls, as long as they are "Hardcore", which pretty much means they have to be on the PS3.
Don't-Mention that Nintendo has totally smacked the competition this generation.
Do-Make excuses as to why Nintendo won this generation. Some of my favorites are "The Wii is only owned by mothers and casual gamer's" and "Everyone owns one, but they are all collecting dust"
Don't-Ever mention that your interested in a Kinect game or Kinect integration.
Do-Pirate movies, music and games
Don't-Jailbreak your PS3 though, that's drawing the line. Piracy is fine as long as it's not on the PS3.
Do-Talk a good game, make sure whenever a new Sony product is coming out you say things like "Day one buy!" and "$599 US dollars isn't too expensive, I'll just get a second job!"
Don't-Actually buy the products you claimed were "Day one buys".
Do-Pretend party chat isn't an important feature for online gaming.
Do-Have a strong opinion, just make sure it's the same opinion as everyone else around here. N4G isn't the place for people who think for themselves.
Don't-Like the Xbox 360. We all know the Xbox 360 is total trash right? So we should all just act like it doesn't exist.
Do-Post Japanese game and console sales, because that's where Sony is #1 and that's what we all care about!
Don't-Post American game and console sales, because we all know the United States doesn't equal the world!
Do-Enjoy handheld gaming, just as long as it's not on a Nintendo handheld.
Don't-Mention how awful the name PlayStation Vita actually is...just not going to get you anywhere.
Do-Be a hypocrite. Usually this is a bad thing, but not here. N4G is the place to be if your a hypocrite. A good example of some hypocrisies here would be. You complained about how bad Peer to peer online was for Call Of Duty, but when you heard that it was also peer to peer on Uncharted 3, you suddenly thought P2P was the best thing since sliced bread.
Don't-Like Cliffy B. He actually enjoys Microsoft products without getting paid to endorse them. He also really likes Kinect, so obviously he is the devil.
Do-Like David Jaffe. Apparently people around here think Cliffy B is annoying and don't like him, but Jaffe who is the most annoying jackass in the gaming industry is loved here. So you gotta follow the crowd and love the guy!
Don't-Mention that Kinect is successful or that 90% of the N4G crowd predicted it to fail and be the next 32x.
Do-prefer games with 30 frames per second as opposed to 60 frames per second.
Don't-Like Call Of Duty or anything made by Activision, apparently they are evil for releasing a franchise every year that the masses love just the way they are, yet the people here think they need to go back and change everything.
Do-Like EA, I know, I know...it was hard for me to write. EA has long been known for their monopoly with the NFL games and releasing literally the same sports games year after year, but this year they have Battlefield 3 with 30 FPS, 4 person squad based chat, vehicles for spawn trapping! and were assuming a version for Xbox 360...but that has yet to be confirmed as we've seen no actual gameplay footage for the console as of yet and it's only three months until it's release. (fingers crossed)
Don't-Bring up Sony's utter lack of smarts for getting their PlayStation Network hacked and shut down for almost a month. Also it's probably not a good idea to mention that Sony brought on the hacks themselves by "poking the bear" so to speak, when they took Geo Hot to court.
Do-Like motion controls, as long as they are "Hardcore", which pretty much means they have to be on the PS3.
Don't-Mention that Nintendo has totally smacked the competition this generation.
Do-Make excuses as to why Nintendo won this generation. Some of my favorites are "The Wii is only owned by mothers and casual gamer's" and "Everyone owns one, but they are all collecting dust"
Don't-Ever mention that your interested in a Kinect game or Kinect integration.
Do-Pirate movies, music and games
Don't-Jailbreak your PS3 though, that's drawing the line. Piracy is fine as long as it's not on the PS3.
Do-Talk a good game, make sure whenever a new Sony product is coming out you say things like "Day one buy!" and "$599 US dollars isn't too expensive, I'll just get a second job!"
Don't-Actually buy the products you claimed were "Day one buys".
Do-Pretend party chat isn't an important feature for online gaming.
Yet Another GTA5 Wishlist...
Alrite, let's get this out of the way right off the bat: I'm not happy that I'm writing this. I too am getting sick of the flood of hypothetical and speculative things to hit this site lately, especially about games that have not yet been anounced. However, the rumor of a summer reveal of the next GTA got my mind racing about the potential ideas that could take the series forward. If I don't share them somewhere, then I will feel as if I wasted a lot of valuable thinking time. So, yes, I am indeed wasting even more time to speculate about a game that is only speculated to be announced. Call me a trend-follower, a hypocrite, a sell-out or whatever you will, but I now present to you my wishlist for the next GTA game.
1. Location
Ah, location. We're always told that this is what it's all about. While the location in many games is often just a backdrop for whatever you may be shooting or blowing up Michael Bay style, it has always been a central part of the GTA world. It is a character just as much as the many exaggerated stereotypes that you will meet along the ride. I believe that R* should move away from the cities that have already been used - stories have already been told there, and while there could undoubtably be some cool reasons for revisiting it, we've already explored these cities and discovered their secrets. Those of you yearning for a remade Vice City or San Andreas should just go boot up those games. They may not be HD, but they're still a hell of a lot of fun. Many also want the game to be set in England or Japan, but I feel the GTA series would lose a lot of its charm by moving elsewhere, though R* could prove me wrong. My personal favorite choice would have to be the city of Detroit. I know the people there are falling on hard times, and no disrespect to them, but I feel as if the current state of the city would be ripe for a story involving corruption and the rise of gang forces. It could also be funny to have a character who is a satire of Eminem. If not Detroit, then I would also love to go on crime sprees in the windy city, Chicago. Of course this is just my personal opinion, and if you disagree feel free to state your top choice in the comments section.
2. Story vs. Craziness and Fun Factor
GTA was praised by critics for its deeper and more meaningful story, free of some of the wackiness of the earlier games. However, in its attempt to become more realistic, many fans of the old GTA games felt it had also lost what made the other games so damn fun to play well after the story had ended. Gone were the Jetpacks, planes, and dildo swords. While the game was still fun to roam around in, many found that they become bored of the city much faster as a result of the ommision of oddities and insanity. It was as if people went into a movie expecting an action packed comedy, but instead got a more serious crime drama. They didn't necessarily think it was bad, but it was not as they expected. People were therefore dissapointed. This puts R* in a bit of a situation. They have proven that they can tell a wonderful and cinematic story through both GTA4 and Red Dead Redemption, but seriousness in the story often comes with a decreased fun value for the players. I therefore propose a radical suggestion. R* should keep their serious story and more serious world to go along with it, but only until before the credits roll. After that, when the city is only available for free roam, players will be able to discover many new oddities and fun within the world. Or R* could take a page from Crackdown and include a mode akin to Keys to the City, separate from the world of the story and meant to be nothing more than fun and chaos that the player controls. By having two separate but similar worlds through different modes, R* would be able to incorporate all of what they are best at into a single game.
3. Reworked Gameplay:
GTA 4 brought the gameplay of GTA into a more modern era with the inclusion of a cover system and reworked gunplay and hand to hand combat. However, it was still not perfect and R* could take a few pages from other games to make the gameplay in GTA as smooth as possible. The first game R* could borrow from is Gears of War. GTA 4 already incorporated the cover sytem that Gears popularized this gen, but it was a bit clunky, especially when compared to the fluid action of Gears. Like Gears, the next GTA should have a universal button which allows players to get into cover, hop back and forth between cover, vault over cover, and evade with a sideways roll. Another thing GTA could borrow from Gears is the ability to take a foe (or bystander) and use them as a human shield. This wwould be a great mode of protection in GTA when you are in a tight spot and need protection. Imagine if you could grab a gang member to stop their fellow gang members from shooting at you, or doing the same with a civilian when fighting off the cops. Even if they still open fire, there is a layer of protection between you and their gunfire. Another game that GTA should borrow from is Assassins Creed. The free running system in these games are great and could be implemented as parkour in GTA. Imagine if instead of tapping A or X repeatedly to sprint, you just held the button down to run and jump/climb anything in your path. It would have to be toned down to work in the more realistic setting, but it would open up the possibilities for smooth on foot chase sequences or jumping from rooftop to rooftop with ease. GTA could also borrow a page from Assassins Creed when it comes to hand to hand combat, which allows you to smoothly deal with many enemies at once. This was a major problem in GTA 4 and while I realise that it would again have to be toned down because the character is not a master assassin, it would make your fists a much more viable option in combat.
1. Location
Ah, location. We're always told that this is what it's all about. While the location in many games is often just a backdrop for whatever you may be shooting or blowing up Michael Bay style, it has always been a central part of the GTA world. It is a character just as much as the many exaggerated stereotypes that you will meet along the ride. I believe that R* should move away from the cities that have already been used - stories have already been told there, and while there could undoubtably be some cool reasons for revisiting it, we've already explored these cities and discovered their secrets. Those of you yearning for a remade Vice City or San Andreas should just go boot up those games. They may not be HD, but they're still a hell of a lot of fun. Many also want the game to be set in England or Japan, but I feel the GTA series would lose a lot of its charm by moving elsewhere, though R* could prove me wrong. My personal favorite choice would have to be the city of Detroit. I know the people there are falling on hard times, and no disrespect to them, but I feel as if the current state of the city would be ripe for a story involving corruption and the rise of gang forces. It could also be funny to have a character who is a satire of Eminem. If not Detroit, then I would also love to go on crime sprees in the windy city, Chicago. Of course this is just my personal opinion, and if you disagree feel free to state your top choice in the comments section.
2. Story vs. Craziness and Fun Factor
GTA was praised by critics for its deeper and more meaningful story, free of some of the wackiness of the earlier games. However, in its attempt to become more realistic, many fans of the old GTA games felt it had also lost what made the other games so damn fun to play well after the story had ended. Gone were the Jetpacks, planes, and dildo swords. While the game was still fun to roam around in, many found that they become bored of the city much faster as a result of the ommision of oddities and insanity. It was as if people went into a movie expecting an action packed comedy, but instead got a more serious crime drama. They didn't necessarily think it was bad, but it was not as they expected. People were therefore dissapointed. This puts R* in a bit of a situation. They have proven that they can tell a wonderful and cinematic story through both GTA4 and Red Dead Redemption, but seriousness in the story often comes with a decreased fun value for the players. I therefore propose a radical suggestion. R* should keep their serious story and more serious world to go along with it, but only until before the credits roll. After that, when the city is only available for free roam, players will be able to discover many new oddities and fun within the world. Or R* could take a page from Crackdown and include a mode akin to Keys to the City, separate from the world of the story and meant to be nothing more than fun and chaos that the player controls. By having two separate but similar worlds through different modes, R* would be able to incorporate all of what they are best at into a single game.
3. Reworked Gameplay:
GTA 4 brought the gameplay of GTA into a more modern era with the inclusion of a cover system and reworked gunplay and hand to hand combat. However, it was still not perfect and R* could take a few pages from other games to make the gameplay in GTA as smooth as possible. The first game R* could borrow from is Gears of War. GTA 4 already incorporated the cover sytem that Gears popularized this gen, but it was a bit clunky, especially when compared to the fluid action of Gears. Like Gears, the next GTA should have a universal button which allows players to get into cover, hop back and forth between cover, vault over cover, and evade with a sideways roll. Another thing GTA could borrow from Gears is the ability to take a foe (or bystander) and use them as a human shield. This wwould be a great mode of protection in GTA when you are in a tight spot and need protection. Imagine if you could grab a gang member to stop their fellow gang members from shooting at you, or doing the same with a civilian when fighting off the cops. Even if they still open fire, there is a layer of protection between you and their gunfire. Another game that GTA should borrow from is Assassins Creed. The free running system in these games are great and could be implemented as parkour in GTA. Imagine if instead of tapping A or X repeatedly to sprint, you just held the button down to run and jump/climb anything in your path. It would have to be toned down to work in the more realistic setting, but it would open up the possibilities for smooth on foot chase sequences or jumping from rooftop to rooftop with ease. GTA could also borrow a page from Assassins Creed when it comes to hand to hand combat, which allows you to smoothly deal with many enemies at once. This was a major problem in GTA 4 and while I realise that it would again have to be toned down because the character is not a master assassin, it would make your fists a much more viable option in combat.
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