GamesTM - Issue 75

[ezee ryder]

Reviews:

Spore - 9
Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise - 8
Crysis Warhead - 8
R-Type Tactics - 7
Fracture - 7
Infinite Undiscovery - 6
Mercenaries 2 - 6
Wario Land: The Shake Dimension - 8
Castle Crashers - 7
The Last Guy - 6
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway - 6
Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise - 8
LEGO Batman - 7
de Blob - 7
Pipe Mania - 7
Football Director DS - 7
Warhammer Online - 8
Dungeon Maker - 5
Yakuza 2 - 6
Pure - 8

Cover game is Resident Evil 5, a nice 8 page feature on it.

For those interested there are also previews of Batman Arkham Asylum and Madworld

[Eight Rooks]

The Spore, Last Guy and Yakuza 2 scores reinforce my conviction this just isn't the magazine for me. (I'd cancel my subscription if I had one, etc., etc. ) Interesting to see the average scores for the other big blockbusters continuing, though.

[mmmonkey]

Looking forward to the RE5 info Any news what's in the Retro section?

[Kaladron]

Looking forward to the RE5 info Any news what's in the Retro section?

Behind the Scenes: Discworld
Hall of Fame: Fox McCloud
An interview with three of Activision's founding members.
Plus all the usual bits and pieces.

[SuperBeatBoy]

The Spore, Last Guy and Yakuza 2 scores reinforce my conviction this just isn't the magazine for me. (I'd cancel my subscription if I had one, etc., etc. ) Interesting to see the average scores for the other big blockbusters continuing, though.

Spot on mate. Couldn't have said it any better. At least they arn't GameCentral they love themselves too much and it come across in their laughable reviews.

[charlesr]

Good to see Pure getting the recognition.

[rmoxon]

The Spore, Last Guy and Yakuza 2 scores reinforce my conviction this just isn't the magazine for me. (I'd cancel my subscription if I had one, etc., etc. ) Interesting to see the average scores for the other big blockbusters continuing, though.

Why? The Last guy is incredabley short and alothough very fun dosent deserve any more than a 6 or 7. Spore is certainly unlike other games and plays really well, I have no probablem with that score to be honest. I havent played Yakuza 2, but unless they made the gameplay alot more compelling than the original game doubt I would have a problem with that score either.

[Eight Rooks]

I loathe pretty much anything from Will Wright, and despise the man for his attempts to hasten the death of narrative in videogames. (Obviously I've never met him, probably he's perfectly charming in person, etc., etc., but I really do hate his work ethos, hate most of what he stands for in the industry and seriously wouldn't play any of his games if you paid me, so it was good to see Edge taking his latest sacred cow down a peg or two.) The Last Guy is made for replay and score attack, so it's highly debatable how long it is - it's certainly cheap, cheerful and not without its faults but a 6 would definitely be too low for me. Yakuza - hey, if you don't like Shenmue, good for you; I loved it, loved the first Yakuza as a result, think you can make a really good case the game's idiosyncrasies just aren't for people like you , think the sequel (at least what I've played) is every bit as good as the first.

GamesTM are free to write what they like; I don't work for them or influence them in any way. And I very much support the survival of paid-for, professional criticism of every artistic medium under the sun (as opposed to Some Guy On The Internet saying "It's fecking sweet as innit"), so I don't want them to stop what they're doing. And I haven't read the issue yet - not even browsed it in a store. But I'd never rate those games those scores, no matter how cynical I was being, so the magazine's obviously not for me. Good enough?

[Darwock]

Pipe Mania???

Pipe Mania???

Is this the same retro pipe mania that I was hopelessly addicted to on the spectrum when I was 12 years old? Has it been re-released?

[Eight Rooks]

There was a mention of it in this month's Edge... seriously jazzed up, characters, a storyline, all the rest of it. Maybe GamesTM got their hands on it early?

[jim g]

There was a mention of it in this month's Edge... seriously jazzed up, characters, a storyline, all the rest of it. Maybe GamesTM got their hands on it early?

there's a demo on PSN

[Strider]

Pipe Mania???

Pipe Mania???

Is this the same retro pipe mania that I was hopelessly addicted to on the spectrum when I was 12 years old? Has it been re-released?

Yes it is. Been playing the DS version and it's pretty damned good.

[rmoxon]

I loathe pretty much anything from Will Wright, and despise the man for his attempts to hasten the death of narrative in videogames. (Obviously I've never met him, probably he's perfectly charming in person, etc., etc., but I really do hate his work ethos, hate most of what he stands for in the industry and seriously wouldn't play any of his games if you paid me, so it was good to see Edge taking his latest sacred cow down a peg or two.) The Last Guy is made for replay and score attack, so it's highly debatable how long it is - it's certainly cheap, cheerful and not without its faults but a 6 would definitely be too low for me. Yakuza - hey, if you don't like Shenmue, good for you; I loved it, loved the first Yakuza as a result, think you can make a really good case the game's idiosyncrasies just aren't for people like you , think the sequel (at least what I've played) is every bit as good as the first.

GamesTM are free to write what they like; I don't work for them or influence them in any way. And I very much support the survival of paid-for, professional criticism of every artistic medium under the sun (as opposed to Some Guy On The Internet saying "It's fecking sweet as innit"), so I don't want them to stop what they're doing. And I haven't read the issue yet - not even browsed it in a store. But I'd never rate those games those scores, no matter how cynical I was being, so the magazine's obviously not for me. Good enough?

Not really, becuase if you havent read the issue then how can you say, with such conviction, that the scores arent right (for you)?. Maybe if you actualy read what was said in the reviews you would understand where they are coming from, while still realising you disagree with the score, there is more to reviews than the score at the end. Even if a game gets a relativley low score the review still might make you want to play the game. beuase it might still be somthing youd enjoy.

See my point?

[Eight Rooks]

It doesn't bother me or anything but I'm not sure why you're bothering to press the point, to be honest. I've browsed GamesTM a few times before, I don't enjoy their writing style, they've published several reviews I don't agree with and now they've given scores I couldn't possibly justify to several games I love and one big game from a man whose work I feel is severely over-praised. So I don't think there's much point in me buying the issue. I didn't originally post to troll or anything; I was just saying "...but it's kind of interesting that although I disagree with (X, Y and Z) they're yet another review source giving relatively average/low scores to some of this summer's big blockbusters which were supposed to be amazing" (BiA, Mercs 2, Infinite Undiscovery in particular). Uh... sorry if it means that much to you, I guess.

[Malc]

If we're on the subject of writers we hate. Then I nominate that Tim Rodgers (spelling?) bloke who writes the Japanese coloumns for Gamestm. The few articles i've read from him consist of "I met with my freind who's a !!!!GIRL!!!!" or "I spoke to my new Japanese freind who owns every videogame company in the world!" and "The whole purpose of my interview was to try on Hideo Kojima's glasses; we're now best freinds!" etc.

What an idiot.