$20 for 60-80 hours of some of the best gaming ever pressed to disc?
I paid $50 on release and thought I had a good deal.
NP has gotten a bit better in the past few years, but you're right about them being more forgiving overall.
GI...I just gave up on. They make their editorial preferences known, and they don't seem to much care about being objective at this point.
GT is a pretty good source. I read/watch them and Destructoid most of the time (I used to count IGN in there, but I just don't know about their setup at this point). If I remember correctly, GT gave FFCC a 7.7. Not a bad...
It got decent ratings across the board:
Story = 8.8
Design = 7.8
Gameplay = 6.4
Presentation = 8.2
Overall = 7.7
The weakest link for GT was combat using IR/pointer controls for telekinesis.
Have you played it, and how would you rank the combat?
Setting a first-person shooter in an underwater, Atlantis-meets art deco locale with a plot line derived partly from Randian philosophy was equally ludicrous (if not more so).
It's called creativity.
[sarcasm]
It's obvious how much more the op/ed and blogger crowd knows about the business than Nintendo. So they better listen to this dire warning.
[/sarcasm]
According to the all-knowing game industry suits, Nintendo has been "heading towards disaster" for some time now...to the point where they would've been Sega-ed by this point.
"Along with killing, Travis will still have plenty to do around the city. Side tasks are available to earn extra cash, and lawn mowing will return. As for driving, it has gone through a complete overhaul, so it doesn't feel as clumsy, thanks to the sleek new Mark II motorbike.
"Visually, No More Heroes II is similar to the first, with a quirky (but likable) art style and free-roaming sandbox environment. You'll go anywhere, even though specific objectives appear on your...
The lack of the open world/sandbox kinda sucks. It wasn't well done in the original (in fact, I think they intentionally made it clunky), but it was kinda endearing in its own way. And the Wii is starved for good sandbox games.
Still, combat is where the original shines, and there looks to be much more of that. The 8-bit games look awesome, too. Day one.
That's probably the most positive 7 rating I've read from them.
Wanna see what Destructoid scores this one...
Seriously. NMH didn't bomb. It's up to what, 450K lifetime sales? For a niche title made on a small budget by a small developer?
It did well enough to get a sequel green lit. And as you said, it's Suda's best-selling game.
These guys just don't fact check. This isn't "gaming journalism." It's fanboyism.
Well, they really liked the original NMH:
http://g4tv.com/games/wii/3...
NMH2 looks badass. First-day purchase for me.
Hatch -- I don't doubt that the Wii has divided people. I just don't get the reason. People getting misty for the GC days weren't there. Or they used Nintendo as their third console.
The Wii has the usual suspects of every Nintendo console.
Great 3D Mario? Check. Another on the way, too.
Metroid? Triple check.
Zelda? Check. And more to come.
Smash Bros? Check.
Second tier titles like PunchOut, Excite racers, Fire Emblem, Sin & Punishment...
I don't fully trust Boz, either. In retrospect, I cut him a little slack (since he had just spent months with COD:MW2, then had to review MWR in one day). But not too much. He was still wrong.
I'll read his review, but I don't think I'll ever trust IGN in quite the same way I did before. Destructoid seems about as good as I've seen lately, so I'll definitely check out their review, too.
But all things considered...this game sounds tailor-made for my tastes. It'l...
Seriously. You've got to go to page three before the real review truly begins.
That said, these two paragraphs are full of win:
"Breaking the norm of FF games, Crystal Bearers feels much more like Zelda. Focusing less on RPG elements, puzzle-solving and action-platforming takes up much more of your time. The sandbox elements are a great addition- I've spent hours just running around the open-world messing around and finding secrets and extra items. Considering ...
The thing is, we don't know how much of what they're saying is truly accurate, or just something to distract us and throw us off (so that we'll actually be surprised at E3).
Oh Ninty, you're such a tease.
January 27 can't come fast enough.
[spoilers]
"The gameplay seems to be getting suitably tightened, the quirkiness is in full bloom, feedback on the original game has clearly been incorporated, giant robots have been included, and you can turn into a tiger. Do sequels get any more promising?"
--------
Win?
Win.
[More spoilers]
It sounds like Suda almost completely did away with the sandbox. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Yeah, it was clunk...
"What kind of "support" are third parties like EA looking for? Most likely, third parties are looking for co-opted marketing opportunities provided by other first-party platforms, like Sony's PlayStation.Blog or Microsoft's MW2-branded hardware. Unfortunately, Nintendo appears content with its hands-off approach to third-party marketing, offsetting all the blame for the failures of GTA: Chinatown Wars and countless other games at the hands of their respective publishers." ...
"Moving on to the controls, you use the Nunchuk for basic movements (forward, back, left, and right) and the Wii Remote to look in various directions. I did not like this aspect of the game. In the heat of battle this could be somewhat crippling. If you tilt the Wii remote in the wrong direction, even in the slightest motion, you could be staring at the sky or ground while someone pumps you full of bullets. I tried using the Perfect Shot because I heard it was easier, but it’s not. The m...
I don't understand it, either. If you unlock something in-game, or beat a boss and get an item to use for the rest of the game...that IS an achievement. Do you really need some other "special" icon to pop up onscreen or something?
Don't get me wrong...Zelda needs some freshening up. A full orchestral soundtrack should be a no-brainer at this point. It needs to push the Wii graphically like no other title has. Motion+ better give us a darn good combat system. That'...