Lotus Prince Let’s Play – Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Parts 4-6)
Lego City Undercover is AWESOME! – Episode 4
GView : Anomaly 2 Review
Tomb Raider is AWESOME! – Conclusion
MMO Grinder: Neverwinter
Posted By Shaun K. about 5 months ago
Thumb Wars: Episode 20: The Disappointments of 2012,
Episode 20: The Disappointments of 2012
Welcome back to the show where we introduce the debate and you continue it. This week’s topic: Shaun & Austin look back at some of the bigger video game related letdowns that have haunted them this last year. Oh and as an added bonus: this week’s drinking game involves taking a sip every time one of the guys says either ‘discussion’ or ‘disappointment’. Make sure you only pick one word per round and are not drinking anything too strong when playing or else you risk alcohol poisoning. Have fun.
Thumb Wars is a weekly show hosted/produced by Shaun Kronenfeld dedicated to starting and encouraging dialogue and debate on a wide variety of topics within the video game industry. Look for a new Thumbs Wars every Sunday. Comments, opinions, and thoughts are not only welcome, they are the entire point. Feel free to follow Shaun on Twitter @bigred_13 if you feel so inclined.
What Mass Effect 3? Oh,you guys must mean the 2010 version. That was more of an Ultimate version of Mass Effect more focused on action. There is no Mass Effect 3,what are you guys talking about? (twitch)
Yeah,the Vita is…not looking too hot.
Biggest disappointment? Mmm,probably RE6. It’s no longer up to debate,this series has lost its way. And -even with its strong sales- if Capcom doesn’t find the way to properly reboot the series (like Tomb Raider did) its safe bet to say this series is doomed.
Y’know something -and this is going to sound terrible- but I’m reaching a point in my life where I don’t think I want to spent time on games made in Japan anymore. Sure,I still love my fighting games and ocasionally my SMUPS (where is Mars Matrix,Capcom?),but with what little time I can devote to games these days I can’t waste it on half-assed Final Fantasy games that are a pale shadow of what they were in other console generations (what the Hell happened to tri-Ace?). And as much as I’d love to see more games like El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron (seriously,play this game,folks) or Catherine,they’re likely to remain oddities.
I politely disagree on your views about ME3, and feel I should explain why. This is going to be quite a wall of text, for which I apologise in advance.
1: The expectations were very high, for several reasons. First, it was Bioware, a company with an excellent reputation as storytellers. Also, the emotional investment in the story and characters was amplified, because the story had begun four years ago, and for people who had followed the series since the first one, that was time for anticipation to build—think of watching the original Star Wars movies as they first appeared in cinemas for a comparison.
2: The original ending is a dramatic change in tone, almost literally last minute. This change in mood comes out of nowhere in what was a story with a heavy focus on heroism and empowering fantasy, where your character can solve otherwise intractable problems and pull out impossible wins. I can’t really say if this is “arty” or not, but throwing in a “No, you’re a helpless pawn.” twist at the last minute is unsatisfying design for almost any story, but especially a game that has had radically different themes for almost the entire playtime.
Compare to say, “Deus Ex” or a “Metal Gear Solid”, where the tone of the game supports the deeper themes explored by the endings from very early on, so they feel natural and logical conclusions. In ME3, the change comes nearly out of nowhere. It’s not a case of being unable to handle a “depressing” ending, it’s more that the ending is to a completely different story. The ending of “2001” is very good. It would be less good if it suddenly appeared at the end of the Star Wars trilogy.
3: The ending also feels shoddy and tacked-on. The holes in Star Kid’s logic are obvious—the notion of inevitable war between synthetics and organics comes out of nowhere, and is especially jarring given that two major plots of ME3 allow for the creation of harmonious and loving relationships between the two forms of life. It goes on. There’s the Citadel, which feels like a kick in the pants (“All those NPC’s you spent time helping out? Yeah, they died offscreen.”), and contradicts the entire premise of the first game (if the Reapers seize the Citadel, they shut down the mass relays and you lose). This is another reason I don’t buy it being a “dark” ending. If we’d seen the people on the Citadel being attacked and killed or there had been some reaction from the characters, that would have been one thing, but the story just throws the capture out there and doesn’t think the players might be bothered about it in the slightest. The original ending just felt too careless and rushed to be pushing any kind of deep message.
4: It railroads, big time. There are explicit quotes from the creators before the release of the game, where they talk about how you weren’t going to be forced into an A, B or C ending. Well, I suppose a red, green or blue ending isn’t quite the same.
But at the conclusion of the game? You can’t argue with Star Kid, or point out the holes in his logic. The war assets meant virtually nothing apart from a couple of seconds of cutscene footage. You have a poorly explained and justified choice that feels like it was plucked from Deus Ex (only with less justification about why you need to make it), and then press a button to see the same cutscene with different coloured explosions. It had nothing to do with themes the games had pushed up to that moment, or the things people had liked about the ME trilogy up till that point. If that’s intentional (which I doubt), you could call it art, though I’d call it something more like “trolling”. And I don’t think Bioware are trolls.
5: I think that if a random company had released a game that was good until the ending took a hard right into WTF town, not many people would have been bothered. But it was precisely because it was Bioware that people were so shocked and disgruntled. After all, we know they can do stories with satisfying, well explored and thematic conclusions that don’t feel ripped out of a different game. The rest of the game is overall, very good, with some gripes (Kai Leng and his super cutscene powers) that are easily ignored in the face of awesome moments like the conclusion of the Tuchunka and Rannoch arcs. Honestly, since by all accounts, the ending was the baby of Casey Hudson working almost alone, I ended up feeling sorry for the rest of the Bioware team, because all the good stuff in the game was being sold short by an ending that made it feel retroactively pointless (Should I help the krogan build a new future at the risk of their threatening the galaxy under a warlike leader? Oh who cares, they’ll end up stranded on their world when the mass relays go boom.)
So I think that a large part of the complaints were not simply aimless fanboy bitching and shrieking, and were borne not from hate, but from love. You might see entitlement and whining, but I see people who knew Bioware could do better, and wanted them to do better, to give a capstone to a great game that was worthy of their name, rather than a lazy and confusing mess. No doubt there were some entitled whiners (it’s the internet), but I also saw a lot of people who had reasoned and well-thought-out complaints, who pursued them in a civil, reasoned way. Again, if the game had come from a different company, or had a different history, far fewer people would have cared about a cruddy ending. They’d just have shrugged, and popped in something else to play.
So that’s my reasoning. I’m not saying you’re not allowed to have liked the ending as it originally was (I’m glad you could find joy where I found disappointment), but hopefully I’ve managed to explain why the ending was so widely and vocally disliked by many. I hope you’ll at least consider that they had a valid view.
In any case, thanks for reading.
Biggest disappointment:
Still no word from Atlus on P2P Eternal Punishment in English T_T
My biggest disappointment of this year? Being forced to be online in order to play Diablo III’s single-player mode. I was lucky to be home on leave when this game was released. My issue arose when I learned of this absurd attempt at anti-piracy controls. I was on a small outpost in the middle of Afghanistan where my only internet connection was the community computers unless I was willing to fork over a couple thousand dollars for my own satellite connection with crappy speed. How was I going to enjoy this brand new game that I only had three days to play until mid-November?
Now I’m back, but barely interested in playing because of this disconnect from it. I’ve played maybe three times in the month since I made it home? All because my interest in it was waylaid by this redundant policy to stop hackers and web-pirates from doing what they do best, and will figure out anyway. Thanks Blizzard.
Signed,
A Bored Soldier
To Shaun’s point on the community being the biggest disappointment this year, I completely agree, but not on the mass effect issue no no no. The sexism issue. Lets not forget about the Street fighter tourny, and the Anita S. Kickstarters. The community as a whole has just made themselves out to be every stereotype we hate. Angry nerds with a warped view on life.
just because some sexist jerks did awful things doesn’t make the whole community sexist. you know by saying that you’re ignoring gamers who aren’t sexist men. you know there also gamers who are women some who also probably never got much attention on the issue. you’re generalizing the community as a whole filled with sexist nerd men, doesn’t that make you sexist?
No, it makes him a generalist. He would have to claim only one sex is responsible. I think Echelon730′s point is that the actions of the few have unfortunately painted us all with the same brush.
Ahh the Anita S. Kickstarter mess there is a bit more to that story.
The dislike of her didn´t come from the fact that she explored sexism in games(some of it might but not all).
There was a bit more first of all Anita is infamous for doing poorly researched videos (if any research at all) so the quality of her videos is debatable.
The next is that she has clearly shown that she can clearly afford 3 consoles a studio and cameras in the high end of the money scale.
So money it would seem is clearly not an issue for her, it would be like Bill Gates starting a kickstarter to get a new computer, because his old one broke down.
Then when people start calling him out on his bullshit he would take the most negative comments up and post them on his blog.
The media would then get wind of this blog and assume all people was giving this poor man a hard time where insensitive jerks, while completely ignoring the facts that A. Not all comments where of a hateful nature most of them was actually quite reasonable.
And B. The guy is a billionaire money is clearly not an issue here, so why the hell is the man begging in the first place.
These guys go into much more detail about the whole thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXRggb9JpnY&list=PL295A220A99CEA609&index=14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OExCdOImmVA&feature=plcp
I think in the matter of ME3 both sides (consumer and developer) didn’t set a good example for model behaviour. But as someone said already, there will always be trolls, the only descent thing to do is to ignore them.
At the core of the matter, the fans had very good reason to dislike the game and especially the ending (look at Archengeia, Angry Joe or Mrbtounge for example). On the other hand, the developers had almost nothing to justify their descisions.
And to say that the free DLC was a godsend is almost ridiculous:
A) After a while, they had to release something to put out the fire or lose great portion of their fanbase. The timing was aweful though. Much too late, which they admittedly couldn’t do anything about, and in a time when almost everyone had calmed down.
B) There was no other way than to make this DLC free. It would have cost them every bit of trust from their customers they had left.
C) The contents was okay, but nothing redeeming. It won those over, who wanted clarity and conclusion, but not those who couldn’t accept the deus ex machina-ish ending, the arbitrary choices or the lack of connection with the rest of the games.
D) The fourth ending. Because it should have been in the vanilla game, being hinted at in it (Liara showing you the device, she made). Because it was promised to have the option to fail (before the game was released). Because you could also trigger it by shooting the ghost kid (which feels more like a very mean spirited joke towards the fanbase). And because the presentation was quite lackluster compared to anything else in the DLC.
I, personally, didn’t like the ending at all. The portion up until and including the confrontation with the Illusive Man was fine. All after that was rubbish to me.
The rest of the game ranged from meh to absolutely fantastic. It had superb highlights and brought many storylines to conclusive endings, but it failed in some very basic things: The quest log was almost useless, the side missions were reduced to scanning missions much too often and some characters were rather bleak compared to ME2. Then there were some gaps, which were so obviously left out for DLC purposes, like Omega, which made the game feel really incomplete.
Yes, ME3 was still a good game for me, and I enjoyed it, I enjoyed to dissect the ending and discuss it thoroughly, too. But it was also a disappointment for me, because there was so much great potential wasted.
Speaking of wasted potential: Diablo 3 was at least some kind of disappointment. For me personally, not because it was different from D2, but because it had almost no long term motivation, initially. It was still a really good game though, and I liked playing it. I know it’s been patched into better shape, but I couldn’t get myself to play it again, yet.
Another disappointment was Torchlight 2. It is a fun game, but it has no level of complexity, whatsoever. The difficulty level is ridiculously low and the character development was really simple.
Me3…yeah…that’s a big issue……here is my opinion. you can say whatever you want about the ending. you can say whatever you want about the fan reaction. you can say whatever you want about the ME as a whole…but to be honest. a new ending DLC for FREE? i’m sorry, but you have no right to complain to bioware about ME anymore when they make a DLC(a.k.a, “let’s put a price to multiplayer and other basics extras”) of something that could have price on it, but instead it’s for free. in fact, i would feel ashamed if i said something out of place.
i think the problem with the reaction was with the time of it’s release. with michael bay and the turtles, people still resent for DAII, just EA’s existance, etc. really, i think it was because people just was pissed off and me3 just happened to ignite the fire……but what do i know?
also, what is your opinion of the way angry joe handled the issue? just curious.
my only real complain about the ending is…well, i don’t want to say it since is spoiler. but, in short, that complain has to do with my love interest(and it is because i wanted to see a “shepard family” or something. i know about “that scene” but it’s just i would just a little scene, and really, it’s a minor thing, and i can’t hate the ending just because i didn’t have “lived happily ever after”).
you know the best part of the megaman free game? it is “Street fighter X Megaman”, not megaman x street fighter. small thing, but it makes you think this is a street fighter games instead of a megaman game.
for me, megaman died when star force 3 sucked and BN “crossover” was just a remake. i loved the concept for that universe. and i was so disapointed. not to mention we never got a ZX3.
While this is in no way my biggest disappointment of 2012 I think it is entirely valid to say that the new artistic direction of Devil May Cry was highly disappointing. I personally really hate just Dante’s design I’m going to play the game I think the games going to be fun, Dante’s design is very unappealing to me though.
My biggest disappointment of 2012 is that we have yet to get an announcement of a western release of Eternal Punishment, I still hold hope but it’s still irritating that after 7 months there has been no word.
At least rent it or buy it used so that Ca$hcom doesn’t see a single sale going to them. But honestly there are other hack and slash games out there such as MGR Rising that you should support instead and promise to be much more fun.
I honestly believe that the reaction to ME3 wasn’t really blown out of proportion. They give us a ridiculously bad ending that contradicts everything in the series, so they should expect a response. Also, Bioware’s reaction wasn’t too good either, especially Casey Hudson who more or less threw the fans under the bus and bit the hand that fed him. After that, it’s all fair game.
Albeit, they won back some points via fellatio aka the loads of free DLC. However, this has only brought back a percentage of their audience and their last lazily written DLC didn’t help things either and note this is coming from someone who doesn’t outright hate the game, but I do find it repetitious and at times annoying.
With ME3 I think what happened was a miscommunication on both sides. Fans wanting “darker and edger” story and getting mad when bioware delivered. bioware was trying to make a statement about sacrifice and the nature of life that flew over a lot of peoples heads, mine included. I still don’t like the ending but I can see how some one could like it.
I don’t think that it flew over people’s heads I think people just entirely disagreed with them. Even with the extended cut I don’t like ME3′s ending… I didn’t even buy it and now I can’t buy it because of that ending. I agree that the reaction was a bit much, many things said were just uncalled for, but I am not surprised of the overblown reactions themselves. I find the 3 (now 4) endings easy to interpret and justify, I just do not like them. I think it would have been nice to at least have one ending where all the races of the universe as a whole where able to overcome this threat, work together and break this function that had been a plague on the universe long before any of their races existed. Instead they have to submit to a change that was never dictated by them. It would have been so worth while if one ending was represented by how well you united people but we didn’t get that and without that ending I just view the game as an incomplete.
and with that we are in a disagreement. I think way too many times (almost always) developers and movie makers alike follow the format of having to have a happy ending to their stories, and really that shouldn’t have to be the case for every single story. I am sorry if you feel different, but I feel that Shepard already defied odds 2x with ME1, and 2 so in my mind he is already on borrowed time, and if you played from the ashes (which I assume you haven’t since you do not have ME3) you would see that the galaxy as a whole was no where near as technologically advanced as the prothean were when the Reavers in that cycle. So no, I think the direction they took the story is correct and “complete”. I think they did leave a bit too much out of the original ending as well though (but it is not my lose for not playing a great game even if the last 5 mins were not as great in story development)
What I hate about the sexist and personal attack backlash at Bioware, besides the sexism and personal attacks, is how people use it as an excuse to dismiss any legitimate complaints against the ending. With the anonymity of the internet people are always going to say horrible things they would never say in person. You have to learn to tune that out or you’ll never get anything done because reacting to trolls just makes them troll harder.
Now that you’ve done this topic, why not a video of things you’re looking forward to in 2013, or things in 2012 that made you excited for the gaming future? For me, the announcement of Bayonetta 2. God I loved the first game, butterflies and all.
Also Bioshock Infinite in general, though I’ve heard there have been some problems with the game. Can anyone explain what’s happened to it for me?
Uh… I did a two episode series around Thanksgiving looking at games coming out in 2013. Its right in the archives if you are interested. As for the good things in 2012… Look to that as the theme of next week’s episode.
Well I’m a moron. Thanks for pointing that out. Should have checked first before posting.
Alright, I have to agree with them on Final Fantasy Type-0. As more info on that came out, I became just as interested in it as I was with Versus (also a disappointment). It’s like they don’t even want to mention those games anymore. The FF series in general has been sad to watch since 12 (which I hate with a passion). I actually liked 10 and thought X-2 had SOME good in it. I blame Toriyama, and director of FF13 and it’s crap sequels for how bad the series has been damaged. Jokes about his character designs aside, I still love Tetsuya Nomura’s work.
Other disappointments…um, how glitchy and unfinished Darksiders 2 was, and that’s about it. A lot of the big games that made people angry this year were games I wasn’t interested in. I suppose the delaying of Bioshock Infinite and Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon were disappointing. As for the Vita, frankly, if it is going to die I hope it’s soon, so game companies will put more support into other systems and I don’t have to deal with some smug friends gloating about their Vita’s anymore.
Mass Effect gets way overblown. Yes, I do kinda like making fun of it because I never liked any of the ME games, but when all is said and done…the original ending was “meh.” No more, no less.
Not porting Type-0, though, is EVIL. While I understand the business decision to not export it (handhelds sell like hotcakes in Japan, and are tepid in the rest of the world) it’s a crippling blow to global fanbases.
The Vita, however, is not in as bad a way as it would appear. It’s not selling because S-E and Capcom have no presence on it. The people who made God of War, Monster Hunter, Crisis Core, and Dissidia have THREE titles in the Vita’s global top fifty.
And I do expect this to change…eventually. We’re only ten months after launch; the PSP didn’t even have War of the Lions at this point.
Yeah, but PSP at least had major games announced. PSV has almost nothing announced even in Japan except ports and multiplatform games. Soul Sacrifice might be good… but it’s coming out the same month as Monster Hunter 4 with Dragon Quest VII remake coming to 3DS the month prior.
Let’s face it, baring some breakout hit, the Vita is doomed to Gamecube level sales or complete discontinuation.
The big problem for the Vita now is that nothing has even been ANNOUNCED for it. After Soul Sacrifice, there’s nothing even coming out for it. And Soul Sacrifice is going to have to compete with Monster Hunter, and that’s a losing battle.
I’m with Shaun on the behavior of the community but my reason for this is DmC, it’s ok if you don’t like the new look, it’s ok if you just can’t get behind the changes that were made but can we at least talk about it like civilized and intelligent people? I mean even here in the comments I see how Shauns rant completely fell on deaf ears. You can discuss the matter, just don’t be dick.
Well,unfortunately, there are a select few ne’er-do-wells who express disdain at virtually any gaming genre which dosent fit into their narrow mindset of what a videogame should be.Comments like “Eurotrash” further emphasise said persons bigotry .What can you do,aside from ignore them.
the new look of Dante in DMC reboot isn’t the main issue. there are so many faults that makes this game not a good DMC, maybe a merely decent hack and slash on its own but not by DMC standards. out of the games of Capcom that makes more sense to reboot like Resident Evil or Mega-Man, DMC doesn’t make a damn sense.
Here’s the thing this game might not even even be a reboot and more a sisterseries like Megaman/Megaman X, Capcom already voiced interest in making a “normal” DMC regardless of this games success. But something else, DMC doesn’t really have a standard, the quality of the games have fluctuated greatly with each installment DMC 1 and 3 are great but on the other hand DMC 2 and 4 sucked ass. On the subject of DMC 4, I think that this game is the reason why we have this “reboot”, the introduction of Nero was a grave mistake because Capcom probably wrote themselves into a corner they couldn’t get out of. Neros Devilbringer was way too powerful so they severly limited his moveset to balance things out, he also wasn’t a very interesting character so they probably didn’t know what stories to tell with him. Dante on the other hand was a completely boring and invincible Hero by the time of 4 and also he wasn’t getting younger so that wasn’t going anywhere either. So you see I actually see the need for a reboot here (I see the need of a reboot in every Capcom franchise though). So when we see oldschool Dante again it might be an actual reboot by then. So no you haven’t convinced me especially since you didn’t even tell me these many faults the game supposedly has.
how does that justify a whole reboot. are you telling me a game with 30 FPS for console yet 60 FPS on PC by different envelopment team, less maximum number of enemies compared to DMC3 or DMC4, ranking based on damage without change in style or use of weapon, no style option like gunslinger or royal guard, enemies only affected by certain weapons and a character who is a douche bag?! the reason why people say DMC4 sucked because of Nero replacing Dante. so he’s not getting younger and invincible?! he is a freaking half demon and half human what do you expect how does that not make him not overpowered. I mean look at superman or Ghost Rider for crying out loud. That’s why Dante is cocky, overconfident and teases around with devils. in fact look at Nathan Drake who is an average Joe yet can beat military trained mercenaries, do you see anyone criticizing this?! heroes are meant to be invincible in the story otherwise we’d get 100 different protagonists.
I wasn’t talking about overpowered I meant invinvible, where would the tension be if Dante would just walk around killing anything without breaking a sweat and then just saying “pft whatevs”, and that would go on until the final boss which isn’t a threat to him at all. Look at DMC3 widely considered the best of the series what happens there? Dante getting his ass kicked several times and having to overcome these obstacles. If you like your heroes invincible then play Dynasty Warriors on easy.
I can live with 30fps, the number of enemies isn’t that important either, as far as I can tell the ranking is affected by your change in weapon, no style option? Big whoop. None of these things you said strike me as necessarily bad the only thing I hear from you is “They changed it now it sucks”. Doing something different isn’t automatically a bad thing.
I’m not sure how often you check out the comments here,but people like Soliduz Znake,Sylveria, and myself on multiple occasions have explained to death about the other major changes that we hate on DmC and those imposters masquerading as the twin sons of Sparda Dante and Vergil are just the tip of the iceberg.
We have posted links,explained ourselves without losing our cool and yet you people still continue to sprout out nonsense that it’s the hair that we are bothered by the most. You know why? because you have no other rational counterpoint.
The community for Sonic and Final Fantasy are much much worse than Devil May Cry.
I’ve seen better arguments defending Metroid Other M.
Honestly 4chan’s /V/ board at least does it homework and doesn’t cling onto to such asinine weak arguments.
Why the hell are sprouting nonsense about tension in a Devil May Cry game when it is meant to be so over the top insanity? You sound like the idiots complaining about Superman begin so damn powerful and godlike.
That is how Dante meant to be.
Doing something this dramatically different has almost never worked out well for Capcom. Case in point Dino Crisis 3,Bionic Commando (the Xbox 360/PS3 version) and so on.
The heroes in Dynasty Warriors are “invincible” as you claim are due to the fact that the series doesn’t challenge you at all. At least not compared to say Ninja Gaiden.
You say you are not bothered by those changes,but that is mainly due to you not completely understanding how drastic they are and the consequences of them being implanted. If you educated yourself and did the research,you would know why these changes are such a massive problem but of course you wish to remain ignorant on the manner and put your trust into a company whom could care less their customers.
Also Destro9 comments such as “Eurotrash” are made maybe because both Ninja Theory and Capcom have not shown the tiniest bit of respect and maturity towards their customers.
But of course Capcom can always count on suckers such as you who will defend them despite the numerous ways they have pissed off their consumers this year alone.
You say I can’t give any solid counterargument when you aren’t giving me any either. You say the changes are too drastic and I say what’s wrong with that. I never brought up Dantes haircolor you where the only one mentioning it here so far. You don’t seem to understand what I meant with tension, even Dante has to overcome a challenge not only gameplaywise but also storywise or else I ,the player, wouldn’t a shit about what’s going on. When did I ever defend Capcom? I’m as irritated by some of their businesspractices as you are, but is it really so wrong that I’m willing to give this game a chance? At least I’m not defending the term Eurotrash which, as an European, offends me quite a bit. You talk as if Capcom is the fucking Shinra Corporation, but we are still talking about a videogame here, pull the stick out of your ass. If you don’t like it don’t buy it, but at least let those who do have their fun, can’t we just all get along?
Major reading comprehension fail or as a obnoxious meme goes “you just went full retard.” Did you miss the whole part about me saying that I have posted links and videos that CLEARLY explained in full depth what’s wrong with this reboot?
Two videos that point out the flaws very well for DMC (Gameplay flaws. Thus objective and not subjective):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b3oIhgHGJ0&feature=share&list=FLJ3P4nltH5zlJIXEfH99LGA
Read this and you’ll learn everything you need to know.
http://www.capcom-unity.com/devil_may_cry/go/thread/view/7401/27777413/A_Devil_May_Cry_Fan_Explains_The_Backlash:_An_article_about_how_its_not_the_hair
This part in particular explains why the gameplay portion of DmC sucks
http://captainstarball.com/opinion/dmcs-engine-problems
Don’t bother replying until you watch and read everything I have shared as well as understand that what I am presenting are NOT OPINIONS BUT FACTS.
You say you are not bothered by those changes,but that is mainly due to you not completely understanding how drastic they are and the consequences of them being implanted. If you educated yourself and did the research like I have been doing,you would know why these changes are such a massive problem, but of course you wish to remain ignorant on the manner and put your trust into a company whom could care less their customers.
I understood perfectly what you referring to by tension and your complaint about it is frankly unjustified and dumb. You don’t see me whining about Dragon Ball or Hellsing where there is no form of tension whatsoever.
I mentioned Dante’s hair merely due to the fact that the defenders of this terrible reboot keep thinking that this is the sole reason why we fans are so damn pissed off when it is not. Not to mention the writers on this site keep using this old tired and worn out joke.
Yes it is wrong to give this game a chance because once Capcom has your money,they don’t give a fuck about what you think of it. A perfect metaphor is giving a chance to the same notorious hustler who is known to rip off his/her customers.
There are plenty of other video games that don’t get as much coverage as this shit,but are well worth it and promise much more fun and excitement without fucking over anyone.
Not my problem if you get offended by Eurotrash.
Have you been living under a rock? Capcom are fucking Shinra Coporation. They are as bad as EA,Activision, and Ubisoft. MML3 cancellation,SF X T on disc DLC,Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3.
So freaking what? Video games cost money you dimbat. What we do in the present affects the future.
Not if their fun comes at the expense of fucking over a great franchise and allowing Capcom to destroy it like they are doing with Resident Evil. Maybe it is you who needs to wise up and try to see the bigger picture.
Get some better standards and stop settling for mediocrity
My big 3 (remaining) disappointments are the lack of solid localization prospects for Final Fantasy Type-0, Project X Zone, and the cancellation of Grand Knights History localization.
The year brought me a number of disappointments I’ve either made my peace with or turned in to positives.
The Vita is bombing, hard, but I got mine used and fairly cheap and it’s got enough decent games to justify what I paid for it.
The 3DS had a pretty crap line-up but that’s looking to turn around next year, so looking forward hopefully.
DMC Eurotrash and it’s developmer insulted every person who enjoyed the character and series beyond the just the gameplay. But, if Crapcom wants to ruin a series by dunking it in grit juice, cause that’s what cool these days if you’re 13, go ahead. I quite happily spent the money that would have gone to DMC 5 on the entire Ninja Gaiden series and we have Metal Gear Rising, Anarchy Reigns, and Bayonetta 2 to look forward to. So thank you Capcom and Ninja Theory for giving me so much incentive to spend my money on your competition.
I’ve come to terms that the Final Fantasy series died a twitching death after X-2 and now its skin is being worn by some shambling monstrosity like in Men In Black. Though, 13-2 was considerably less horrible than 13 and I’m cautiously optimistic about Lightning Returns as a game, though as an idea I think it’s incredibly stupid.
I also firmly maintain that FF Versus is, was, and always will be a giant marketing scheme for a fake game just to continue interest in the series, so I don’t get bothered by that.
Oh.. all this weird reverse sexism in the gaming culture that creeped up this year is pretty disappointing to. The complaining about fake nerd girls, the bitching about fan-service existing, the banning of booth-babes at cons – it’s all just.. confusing. It really reeks of over-compensating. Kinda like “See we’re not gross pervy neckbeards, we don’t even want to SEE hot girls!” Or maybe all the homo-erotic sub-text in modern games is starting to take a toll.
I agree with FF Type-0–that game was what first drew my eye towards the Sony handhelds. From what I heard, one reason it has not been localized is that Square had problems with licensing the main vocal theme song for international markets. Unfortunately, the song cannot be simply removed as it plays a significant part of the plot. Perhaps FFT0 is another victim of the localization cost/benefit analysis.
The other major disappointment for me are the rumors that Phantasy Star Online 2 may not come to Vita in the States. This is not confirmed, but, as a famous smuggler once said, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
And this is why licensed music in games is bad.
This is why strict copyright and trademark laws are bad.
Really, once something is made, it should be allowed to be reproduced at any time (with of course localization) regardless of separate rights, as the work should not be thought of as separate pieces, but a whole.
I think that there should be an anthology reprint of Nintendo Power, but all those ads and games rights belong to other people, which shouldn’t get in the way of reproducing the magazine as originally printed, but it does.
Licensing the music? Really? can you elaborate on that, cause if that’s the reason why it hasn’t come over, I’m really disappointed.
I forgot where I read it first, but a quick Googling directed me to this, which may have been my original source:
http://rpgland.com/editorials/the-final-fantasy-type-0-localization-problem-you-might-not-know-about/
wait how come SEGA wasn’t mentioned for their DMCA copyright claims against Shinning Force community and fans?!
PS Vita thing is one great example of how games are the reason for a console’s success and not the console’s performance alone. just look an Nintendo WiiU!
Capcom just sucked big time this year. look at RE6, DMC reboot, Mega Man, DLCs, and the list goes on.
besides the glitches in ME3 the ending issue is something so confusing to think about. I mean fans are upset about endng so does that mean they didn’t enjoy playing the game?! I mean since when did story replace gaming experience? it’s a video game and people shouldn’t be that upset about the story to choke a company to fix it. you play a game mainly for the game play! story is a flavor in games just like special effects is in movies.
about the Final Fantasy game that isn’t being released in the U.S. or other countries, can’t anyone just simply order a game to be delivered from Japan if they really want?
The Final Fantasy games aren’t translated in to English, as far as I know anyway, at all. It’s not a matter of just changing the language option. I wish it was, it would make things far simpler.
SFxT, it could’ve been a really good tournament fighter. It’s not necessarily a bad fighter, there’s allot of cool new techs and depth in the gameplay but when it comes to high-level play the game is a mess – whether its the unbalanced gems or the timer. Not to mention their anti-infinite mechanic is ridiculously lazy. Skullgirls – maybe a dead game now but that game had a great way of dealing with infinities.
Even Capcom have said what a terrible year it has been for Mega Man to the point where they are saying that Mega Man’s actual 25th Anniversary is actually starting from today (25 years since the games release.) Till I assume this time next year. I’m downloading the Mega Man X Street Fighter game now and playing through it. Who knows if there’s a surprise at the very end of the game with a brand new video game announcement or something. I’ll wait and see.
(Although the Bad Box Art Mega Man was apparantly the version the original Mega Man creator wanted for the game, And I found it hilarious, so I’ll defend that.)
Disappointments? Hmm… Nintendo releasing 2 NSMB bros games to be completely honest. I put NSMB2 on my Worst Of List because of how redundant it is because U got released. And they were only 4 months apart from each other. Not to mention them being the games where Mario Goes DLC and Nintendo doesn’t quite have the formula down quite yet for how to the DLC. Releasing 3 level packs for them game when most other platformers out there either already has a level editor (Sound Shapes) or gives out a level editor in free DLC (Super Meat Boy, Portal 2). I’ve said why I don’t like the NSMB games a number of times now, which is why they are considered my most disappointing games of the year. And I am praying that we don’t have to see a NSMB game in a long time now, and it’s even better if the next one gets rid of the recycled music, recycled world themes and outdated character model graphics for the main characters (And drop the 2 toads as well)
Second in the running would probably be 007 Legends. Really great James Bond movie. Terrible James Bond game. Activision is really draining all the love of out of the Bond Video Game franchise with these games. It’s probably almost dead now.
And lastly Rayman Legends being delayed till next year. Oh, and Just Dance 4 for existing. Seriously, why does this franchise still exist? The first game was an abysmal horrid mess and the series has barely evolved since it. The producer if confident that it will be able to get away with the Multi-Year releases of the franchises instead of Guitar Hero because Dance is a more popular genre. To me this sounds like saying “Just because everyone elses Castle built on mud sank doesn’t mean MY castle built on mud will sink!”.
i have been a fan of Devil may cry sense the first one and really i look forward to DMC, I mean sure they changed his hair and i was confused about that and his clothing but really big deal. he still seems to be a smart ass and such and the only thing that really gets me is now he is half angel and half demon instead of part human apparently or at least thats what i heard from some where.
Any ways my biggest disappointment this year was not so much a game as to what there doing with a game Series and thats Final Fantasy. final fantasy 1-9 and Tactics i loved and hell 10/10-2 where ok but after that they have been driving down hill i HATE FF 13 and wish they would just bloody drop it already. so they can move on to getting Zero over here or any other FF really i mean i still have hope for the series but it is starting to die for me.
So in other words,nothing at all to do with Devil May Cry.
Umm no Donte is not a smart ass,he is a full blown asshole who thinks swearing like a sailor is cool and acting like a douchebage is admirable.
Did you know that DmC Devil May Cry is about anti-government and trying to stand to stand up to The Man among other crap?
Some fan you are. At least rent it or buy it used. And maybe have some standards.
Yeah, Mega Man has been a running disappointment for me for over a year now. This year we saw Bad Box Art Mega Man in SFxT for no apparent reason and the pathetic support for his 25th Anniversary, but last year started things off with his inexplicable exclusion from MvC3, continued exclusion from Ultimate despite the fan outcry after vanilla’s release (and even more oddly, despite Capcom listening to the fans on characters like Phoenix Wright and Strider Hiryu), and the cancellation of Mega Man Universe and Mega Man Legends 3. Street Fighter x Mega Man is the first good sign in all that time, and even it’s a mixed bag at best since it’s just a fan game with Capcom’s seal of approval. Can’t say I’m optimistic for where this goes from here, but here’s hoping Capcom gets a clue nonetheless.
And yeah, ME3, I’ll agree with you. I definitely consider the ending bad, even after all their attempts to fix it, but the reaction to it was overblown in general, and the greatest extremes, like the attacks on that writer, were deplorable. On the other hand, I feel I should note that not all were – remember the colored cupcakes some fans had sent to Bioware as their way of expressing their criticism?
And honestly, I can’t even say I’m too surprised by the reaction anymore, the worst extremes of it aside. Bioware’s fan base has been weirdly volatile for a while now, with some segments vehemently disliking ME2, and a much larger segment doing the same for DA2. Not that there aren’t legitimate criticisms of those games, but too often I see people going to the “awful game, ruined the series forever” extreme for the latter, and there was some of that even for the former. At this point, I don’t know what to make of it, since even when I agree with the criticisms I can’t sympathize with the intensity with which they’re expressed – much less when I’m just baffled by the criticisms, as I was with a fair number of those leveled at DA2.
Anyway though, getting to my own that weren’t covered… honestly mine seem trivial by comparison. I’m generally pretty conservative about which games I pick up, only buying games I’m pretty damn certain I’ll like. So all I’ve got is moderate disappointment that Tales of Graces F’s story wasn’t as great as Abyss or Vesperia’s (still enjoyable though), and mild disappointment that Devil Survivor 2′s story turned out to be just a mix of Devil Survivor 1′s and SMT: Nocturne’s (still good though).
I guess you could also say the ending of ME3, though to be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from that anyway, since I’ve never felt that the main plot was Mass Effect’s strength. My biggest worry going into 3 was that the Reapers would by necessity be a focus again, and I just never thought, from the moment I first spoke to Sovereign in game 1, that they had potential as villains, so I’m not surprised that the resolution to their part of the story wasn’t very good. And in general I’m kind of mixed between disappointment in all the plot holes and general nonsense that riddle it and a sense of “well, at least the ending didn’t just boil down to ‘Shepard uses the Deus-ex-Machina device to kill the Reapers, the end’ like I was expecting.” I know I’m very much the exception to the rule there though, no matter which way you lean on the whole issue.
As for DmC… well, I’m sure that’ll be a topic in future episodes at some point, so I’ll say my piece then. Just so that you can see something positive said about it though, I will say this much: the demo convinced me that it’ll be better than Devil May Cry 2.
I have so many disappointments this year that… “A Devil May Cry”
But honestly I really didn’t get to excited about too many things. I would say that one major disappointment is the shutdown of Nintendo Power. Although I was not a current subscriber Nintendo power gives me some pretty nostalgic memories… I will admit that I went out and bought the last issue to be printed and it made me tear up.
Capcom, just capcom in general I think that the video pretty much touched on why… but really all in all not too disappointed…
This year I didn’t watch the VGA’s I can’t stand to watch them; Its like I’m watching a funeral for the video game medium every year.
Vita is a huge waste of money. All I’ve used it for is PSP and PS1 games. I was pretty disappointed with Dragon’s Dogma. It had so much potential but just fell flat in terms of story and gameplay. I sure hope Dragon’s Dogma 2 is more refined and in a much larger map.
I think at this point it’s safe to say anything to come out of ME3 was disappointing. This includes fan reactions, but does not omit the terrible ending from the game either.
Well there I disagree. The only thing I found disappointing (drink) about ME3 was the fan-reaction. As I said in the year-end article, it remains tied for my favorite games of the year, endings and all. But I will save more discussion (drink) on that front for next week’s show…
I’m glad YOU could enjoy it… but as a lifelong Bioware fan, the ending of Mass Effect 3 failed on nearly every single conceivable level. It broke even the most basic Writing 101 rules, and there’s a 13-page Google doc somewhere filled with minor and major, and accurate, reasons why the ending was a colossal, monumental failure.
I AM thankful to Bioware for the Extended Cut, and I want to be very clear that there is a separation of my utter dislike for the ending and my appreciation for the people behind it. Bioware DID try, but saying they tried to fix things doesn’t mean the problems didn’t exist. Just because I apologize to my friend if I punch him and buy him a soda doesn’t mean his black eye is going to go away or feel better.
Ultimately, ME3 violated the very themes of the franchise. It stripped out my control, ignored all my prior decisions, roped me into an ending I disagreed with, and introduced enough plotholes, inconsistencies, and lore violations to effectively rewrite the entire series. It wasn’t because the ending was “dark”; it was because the ending was simply nonsense. It’s insanely bad writing to introduce a brand new, all-powerful character in the final few minutes of a story; that’s Stephanie Meyer levels of suckage. But even then, the ending options are, basically, genocide, slavery, or violating everything on a genetic level without their permission.
The themes of unity, teamwork, and overcoming prejudice, the most singular themes of the franchise, were lost, and the conflict of creations versus creators took center stage, despite the fact we RESOLVED that conflict ages ago in the game.
But let me be clear on the fan-response; I am FINE with it. Yes, there was definitely some moronic responses and some uncalled for actions, but the actions of a few do not speak for the majority. I was right in the thick of it, and by my experience, 99% of the response was measured, calm, collected, and stemming from a love for the franchise. There was a REASON Mass Effect fans had banners reading “Mass Effect deserves a better ending” instead of “I hate Bioware and I hate Mass Effect now”. Bioware had proven before they could end a story on a high note; ME3 was not it. It did not live up to their own standards, and fans held their feet to the fire.
And the response of fans was THE chief reason the Extended Cut was made, and it largely improved the ending. It didn’t necessarily “fix” it, but it certainly turned one of the most disappointing, unsatisfying endings into something at least tolerable. It went from an “F” to a solid “B”, even if it wasn’t the “A+” homerun it could’ve and should’ve been.
I have my doubts that anything other than an overwhelmingly negative and passionately outspoken response would have made them budge and improve the ending. But it happened, and you cannot claim that fan response wasn’t the driving factor. Yes, personal attacks and sexist remarks were never called for, but those people were less than 1% of those involved, even if the media clung to those vocal minorities. For everyone else, it was a calm, measured, logical breakdown of how Bioware failed to live up to their standards and the expectations of their customers, and it was good of them to address that head-on.
Bioware screwed up. The fans called them on their mistake. They are not evil, simply human. But the fans were not in the wrong in demanding they measure up to Bioware’s own lofty standards.