Edge 215 review scores - Edge 216 out 17/6 due to embargo

rudderless wrote:

HSH28 wrote:

VenomUK wrote:The quickest way to make me cancel a subscription.... have the magazine available in the shops before delivering my copy.

This issue isn't in shops till Tuesday...

It's been seen in shops - I think that might well be where the info comes from, because I've not had my subs copy yet, and I don't know anyone else who has either. People on rllmuk said it was available in supermarkets this weekend.

Not had mine yet either. It is kind of irritating.

HSH28 wrote:Seperate SP and MP reviews are completely stupid, as if you somehow are aquiring these things seperately.

You sort of are, if you're like me and don't play online.

It's pretty annoying when they score a game based on MP. I mean I have to read the text and everything!

Winckle wrote:

rudderless wrote:

HSH28 wrote:

VenomUK wrote:The quickest way to make me cancel a subscription.... have the magazine available in the shops before delivering my copy. :x

This issue isn't in shops till Tuesday...

It's been seen in shops - I think that might well be where the info comes from, because I've not had my subs copy yet, and I don't know anyone else who has either. People on rllmuk said it was available in supermarkets this weekend.

Not had mine yet either. It is kind of irritating.

Its not supposed to be in shops till Tuesday. You can't blame Edge if places have put it out early.

I've lost count of the number of times I've seen games rated more highly simply by virtue of them having a multiplayer component - regardless of whether it's any good or not. I do think anything with a multiplayer mode gets an easier ride, often because the reviewer thinks "well, lots of people like multiplayer and will probably enjoy this" and also because it's often a bit of an unknown quantity, what with the size of the online audience, the stability of the netcode, potential future patching and DLC all making a difference.

In many ways, it makes more sense to score the multiplayer completely separately, if only because most reviewers' experience of the online game before a timely review can be produced is based on playtesting at either a specific press event (where often it's a LAN setup) or on a debug console where servers are relatively empty. But then you have games where the focus is plainly on the multiplayer component, where rating them is more difficult if the publisher isn't willing or able to provide reviewing conditions akin to playing the game over LIVE/PSN.

Speaking from experience, I've had to review games where I've barely been able to get a decent game of multiplayer going because for the most part there's been no-one about. In which case there's a kind of tacit understanding that you assume that the net code's stable, that it doesn't degenerate into an unplayable mess when everyone's online, that there's a decent audience for it so you don't really need to wait any length of time for a game and it's easy to connect. It's often why reviews either gloss over the multiplayer side or talk about it in a way which doesn't really seem to tally with players' experiences weeks or months down the line. Heck, it's even worked the opposite way for me - Mario Kart Wii's online absolutely made the game but Nintendo didn't give me the opportunity to examine it at all, hence me being forced to rate it on the single-player alone. I wasn't going to extrapolate because I'd never played a Mario Kart game online before and it was impossible for me to assume that connectivity and lag wouldn't be issues.

People take the piss out of Games TM for reviewing the multiplayer component of a game well after its release, but it's eminently pretty sensible to do so. Even if it can make a mockery out of the initial score.

Serious question, having never played Galaxy, what am I missing out on? A platformer executed to perfection or something much deeper?

Harry Ola wrote:Serious question, having never played Galaxy, what am I missing out on? A platformer executed to perfection or something much deeper?

The former. For my money, it's the finest 3D platformer ever made, and a purer 3D approximation of the classic 2D genre than any other.

rudderless wrote:

Harry Ola wrote:Serious question, having never played Galaxy, what am I missing out on? A platformer executed to perfection or something much deeper?

The former. For my money, it's the finest 3D platformer ever made, and a purer 3D approximation of the classic 2D genre than any other.

Its worth pointing out that its absolutely full of ideas and imagination. Its not all that much of an exaggeration to say that there are almost as many unique ideas in the game as there are levels to put them in.

Oh and the music is awesome as well.

HSH28 wrote:

rudderless wrote:

Harry Ola wrote:Serious question, having never played Galaxy, what am I missing out on? A platformer executed to perfection or something much deeper?

The former. For my money, it's the finest 3D platformer ever made, and a purer 3D approximation of the classic 2D genre than any other.

Its worth pointing out that its absolutely full of ideas and imagination. Its not all that much of an exaggeration to say that there are almost as many unique ideas in the game as there are levels to put them in.

Oh and the music is awesome as well.

What these guys said.

Also, in my eyes it's the greatest console game of all time.

rudderless wrote:

HSH28 wrote:

VenomUK wrote:The quickest way to make me cancel a subscription.... have the magazine available in the shops before delivering my copy.

This issue isn't in shops till Tuesday...

It's been seen in shops - I think that might well be where the info comes from, because I've not had my subs copy yet, and I don't know anyone else who has either. People on rllmuk said it was available in supermarkets this weekend.

Yep, I picked up a copy in Sainsburys on Saturday.

suzzopher wrote:

HSH28 wrote:

rudderless wrote:

Harry Ola wrote:Serious question, having never played Galaxy, what am I missing out on? A platformer executed to perfection or something much deeper?

The former. For my money, it's the finest 3D platformer ever made, and a purer 3D approximation of the classic 2D genre than any other.

Its worth pointing out that its absolutely full of ideas and imagination. Its not all that much of an exaggeration to say that there are almost as many unique ideas in the game as there are levels to put them in.

Oh and the music is awesome as well.

What these guys said.

Also, in my eyes it's the greatest console game of all time.

It's an absolute joy to behold, never has a game made me go slack jawed with the ease and frequency of Mario Galaxy.

If there wasn't an ear-to-ear grin on my face it was because my jaw had hit the floor and that was the order of the day for the entirety of the game.

Shadow wrote:

suzzopher wrote:

HSH28 wrote:

rudderless wrote:

Harry Ola wrote:Serious question, having never played Galaxy, what am I missing out on? A platformer executed to perfection or something much deeper?

The former. For my money, it's the finest 3D platformer ever made, and a purer 3D approximation of the classic 2D genre than any other.

Its worth pointing out that its absolutely full of ideas and imagination. Its not all that much of an exaggeration to say that there are almost as many unique ideas in the game as there are levels to put them in.

Oh and the music is awesome as well.

What these guys said.

Also, in my eyes it's the greatest console game of all time.

It's an absolute joy to behold, never has a game made me go slack jawed with the ease and frequency of Mario Galaxy.

If there wasn't an ear-to-ear grin on my face it was because my jaw had hit the floor and that was the order of the day for the entirety of the game.

Yep. At 22 I still woke up at 5 on Christmas morning to play it ( ).

As someone who detests boss fights/areas, I mean really hate them, one of the strongest memories I have of SMG is actually 'loling' ( ) during one of the boss levels as one of the puzzle sections was so amazing.

I agree with rudderless. The meat of any packaged game should be single player campaign unaffected by online multiplayer, in mechanic or in context, except fo co-op. Full online multiplayer has a different set of objectives and is an game entity in itself.

It troubles me the heart and soul of a game is scathed and tortured by online multiplayer. It should not happen.

cooldawn wrote:It troubles me the heart and soul of a game is scathed and tortured by online multiplayer.

That's pretty dramatic.

suzzopher wrote:

HSH28 wrote:

rudderless wrote:

Harry Ola wrote:Serious question, having never played Galaxy, what am I missing out on? A platformer executed to perfection or something much deeper?

The former. For my money, it's the finest 3D platformer ever made, and a purer 3D approximation of the classic 2D genre than any other.

Its worth pointing out that its absolutely full of ideas and imagination. Its not all that much of an exaggeration to say that there are almost as many unique ideas in the game as there are levels to put them in.

Oh and the music is awesome as well.

What these guys said.

Also, in my eyes it's the greatest console game of all time.

It is unashamedly a video game, it cares not about plot and cut scenes but about pure unadulterated gameplay, sadly a dying trend outside of indie games.

Winckle wrote:

cooldawn wrote:It troubles me the heart and soul of a game is scathed and tortured by online multiplayer.

That's pretty dramatic.

And completely ridiculous. More games include online multiplayer because lots and lots of people enjoy it.

Carlos wrote:

suzzopher wrote:

HSH28 wrote:

rudderless wrote:

Harry Ola wrote:Serious question, having never played Galaxy, what am I missing out on? A platformer executed to perfection or something much deeper?

The former. For my money, it's the finest 3D platformer ever made, and a purer 3D approximation of the classic 2D genre than any other.

Its worth pointing out that its absolutely full of ideas and imagination. Its not all that much of an exaggeration to say that there are almost as many unique ideas in the game as there are levels to put them in.

Oh and the music is awesome as well.

What these guys said.

Also, in my eyes it's the greatest console game of all time.

It is unashamedly a video game, it cares not about plot and cut scenes but about pure unadulterated gameplay, sadly a dying trend outside of indie games.

It's also GR's Game of the Decade.... Remember that?

Hime123 wrote:

Winckle wrote:

cooldawn wrote:It troubles me the heart and soul of a game is scathed and tortured by online multiplayer.

That's pretty dramatic.

And completely ridiculous. More games include online multiplayer because lots and lots of people enjoy it.

Not to mention games that are solely online/LAN multiplayer experiences like Team Fortress 2.

Carlos wrote:It is unashamedly a video game, it cares not about plot and cut scenes but about pure unadulterated gameplay, sadly a dying trend outside of indie games.

Except for the fact that it contains a clearly lovingly crafted and wonderfully written story as well.

Winckle wrote:

Hime123 wrote:

Winckle wrote:

cooldawn wrote:It troubles me the heart and soul of a game is scathed and tortured by online multiplayer.

That's pretty dramatic.

And completely ridiculous. More games include online multiplayer because lots and lots of people enjoy it.

Not to mention games that are solely online/LAN multiplayer experiences like Team Fortress 2.

Jesus christ guys...you really can't read and/or just misinterpret what I mean. I defined my comments using the word 'package' for a reason.

How ridiculous it would be for me to suggest online only games don't get a fair review. Likewise it's ridiculous for anyone to think a single player campaign should be marked up or down based on a part of a game that has no relevance to it i.e. multiplayer.

cooldawn wrote:Likewise it's ridiculous for anyone to think a single player campaign should be marked up or down based on a part of a game that has no relevance to it i.e. multiplayer.

Except you can't buy SP campaigns without the MP bits that are attached. Its one thing, even if for some reason you only want a part of it.

I find it truely strange that people think about these things seperately, online is so much a part of games now that I will generally not play a game (SP or MP) unless I'm connected to the net.

It just feels wrong to be playing games while not connected. One of the reasons I don't like playing games on PS3, it just doesn't feel as connected as when I'm on 360.