Comments on: Gaming News: Little Big Planet 2, Age of Conan Expansion Released, Humble Indie Bundle, Zynga set to leave Facebook?

By: Dblade

Dblade — Wed, 19 May 2010 08:56:32 +0000

Yeah it got a lot of press, and very good reviews, but I think Metal Gear Solid 4 was the first real system seller. User created content on consoles isn’t really new, but I don’t think the draw is that, usually a small amount of people bother, while most enjoy the main game like Halo 3′s forge.

By: spinks

spinks — Wed, 19 May 2010 06:33:04 +0000

Interesting. To me, LBP was the first PS3 exclusive game that really got the column inches and caught my attention, they were certainly marketing the heck out of it.

By: Dblade

Dblade — Wed, 19 May 2010 04:08:54 +0000

Little Big Planet isn’t as big as you’d think: a lot of it’s success was being in a bundle pack around black friday when the ps3 finally took off. Compare it to the PSP port and Japanese sale figures for an example.

Chances are the sequel is going to see a very sharp decline in numbers now that the system has matured some.

By: spinks

spinks — Mon, 17 May 2010 05:38:52 +0000

I read what he was saying as that it wasn’t very good, but does fulfil many of its goals so if you like that sort of thing then you won’t care. Which I think is fair enough and would give me the information I needed to decide whether to try it or not. It’s hard to explain the experience of a hard PvP sandbox game to someone who has never tried one — you don’t want to totally put off anyone who might be interested, but at the same time it is quite harsh.

Marks are misleading anyway, but if you’re forced to compare the game with WoW, Little Big Planet, Modern Warfare, and World of Goo then there’s a limit to how high you can score it, I think, without being totally misleading.

And I agree, he knows fine well that Ed screwed up the original review. And probably didn’t even need to mention that here.

By: Stabs

Stabs — Mon, 17 May 2010 01:34:30 +0000

Kieron’s DF review was a tad annoying.

It was a well-written objective review with some insights into his editorial role until it got to the score.

4/10

4/10 basically means do not buy this game ever.

However the review was essentially saying the game was quite good if you like that sort of thing (he doesn’t).

I think he gave it a 4 because he was, as he admitted, caught between journalistic integrity and backing up his writer. Ed gave it a 2 so he had to give it a bad mark or Ed would have looked a complete fraud.

Reading between the lines he knew Ed didn’t do a proper job and put him in an impossible position:

He says “If I ever actually find out conclusively that someone was lying in this matter, I will do everything I can to destroy them.”

Now that’s clearly NOT aimed at Aventurine or Tasos (because Eurogamer had already done everything they can to destroy them).

It was an adroit save from an untenable position but I really don’t think you can hold up Kieron’s review as a highlight of games journalism.

It follows up unfair and unprofessional with less unfair but professional.

More quotes from the review:

“I feel I have to applaud Darkfall.”
“The variety in the conflict … kept it as entertaining.”
“I hope Darkfall grows and becomes a game which can take its charms and appeal to a wider audience”

“4/10″

By: We Fly Spitfires

We Fly Spitfires — Sun, 16 May 2010 21:42:51 +0000

Thanks for the linking to Kieron Gillen’s Darkfall review. I totally missed that one and I love the guy’s writing. Not only is RPS great but it turns out he’s also been writing my favourite Marvel comic series – Thor. Small world indeed!