PS4 Launch Titles are (Surprisingly) not getting good reviews
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It's not surprising at all. Super Mario 64 and Halo are the exception rather than the norm. Launch titles are rarely killer apps; and when they are it's generally due to a well funded, experienced in-house developer.
There's good reason for that, when you think about it. New consoles are always going to involve an element of risk, and no third-party developer is really going to be keen to take a game they're hoping will be a major hit and staple it to a console that might turn out to be really slow to shift units.
There's good reason for that, when you think about it. New consoles are always going to involve an element of risk, and no third-party developer is really going to be keen to take a game they're hoping will be a major hit and staple it to a console that might turn out to be really slow to shift units.
Acutally, and keep in mind, this is coming from an Xbox fan, I think Shadow Fall got rated too low. Gamespot should have given it an 8 at least. However, I do find it funny that Killzone is now just catching up to Halo in terms of multiplayer features and options. In any case, I'm glad they're going in the right direction with it.
I only really pay attention to the positives and negatives of a game; just because some guy paid to give his opinion thinks a game sucks doesn't mean I will.Shamanic Rhythm said:
I fail to see what part of this is surprising. Fact of the matter is that launch lineups are NEVER great (at least in the past twenty years). First year offerings are mostly just tech demos trying to get a handle on the hardware and working the kinks. Hyped titles like Knack and Killzone shouldn't be a shock to anyone who's been through a console launch before.
Positive launches are launches with killer apps--almost no consoles, historically, have been able to field a wide array of great titles. By this standard, we can compare the good with the bad.hazabaza1 said:
Good launches:
NES (U.S.): Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, Ice Climber, Excitebike--probably the best launch ever
SNES (U.S.): Super Mario World, F-Zero, Gradius III, Pilotwings, SimCity--another candidate for the best launch ever
N64 (U.S.): Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings--a little thin, but SM64 was a work of titanic significance
Dreamcast (U.S.): Soulcalibur, Power Stone, Sonic Adventure, The House of the Dead 2--a very strong launched that helped propel sales of the Dreamcast, and hindered only by the failure of Sonic Adventure to meet expectations
Xbox (U.S.): Halo: Combat Evolved, Dead or Alice 3, and Jet Set Radio Future, which would receive a lot of attention for being bundled in with the Xbox--it's hard to imagine what might've happened to the Xbox if not for the strength of this launch
Wii (U.S.): Wii Sports and Twilight Princess, with a side of CoD 3--the strength of the Wii's launch, which hinged a lot on the surprise trending of Wii Sports, helped cement the console's sales lead for the next few years
Bad launches:
Sega Genesis (U.S.)--Altered Beast certainly wasn't enough to attract attention away from the NES and its impending Super Mario Bros. 3, and the Genesis would hobble behind that console in sales until Sonic arrived
PlayStation (U.S.)--Not pretty. Street Fighter: The Movie was a laughably bad entry in a prematurely aging series, Battle Arena Toshinden was good but flaked at the market, and Ridge Racer was still years from hitting its stride as a series. The only redemption came in the form of the classic Rayman, which went on to be the best-selling PSX game in Europe.
PlayStation 2 (U.S.)--Not that bad--Tekken Tag Tournament, Fantavision, Smuggler's Run, and Unreal Tournament all found their niches--but the fact that the launch was totally overshadowed by the inclusion of a DVD player in the system speaks volumes about its inability to excite the public.
Gamecube (U.S.)--Rogue Leader and Wave Race: Blue Storm were good, but also for specialists. The only Nintendo home console to launch without a Mario or Zelda game, and also the least successful (the jury is still out on the Wii U). Coincidence?
Xbox 360 (U.S.)--Granted, the strategy of Microsoft was to beat its competitors to the marketplace, but this was still laughably bad. You had Rare's degeneration on display with the much-vaunted but ultimately vacuous Perfect Dark Zero, a soggy and completely pointless Quake 4, and a boatload of sports games--most of them available on last-gen consoles.
PS3 (U.S.): Anyone want to play Dynasty Warriors with Gundams? Or a bunch of mediocre action games like Genji or Untold Legends? You might've thought Sony would've learned from the PS1 and PS2, but they hadn't--this makes the PS2's launch look like the NES's.
Wii U (U.S.): Maybe Nintendo thought that by offering yet another New Super Mario Bros. title to the public they would save the Wii U from following in the Gamecube's underwhelming footsteps. Well, they were wrong: the Wii U is doing terribly, and I'm pretty sure Pikmin 3 or an HD Wink Waker remake won't solve their woes, either.
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Conclusion: Nintendo has historically given us the best launches--though as their talent pool has thinned, even they've grown unreliable. Also, launches weren't always bad: up until the sixth generation they were a mixed bag, though they've reached their absolute nadir in recent years, probably because of the time required to understand the architecture of modern consoles as well as the fact the industry is no longer associated with two or three major IPs (Sonic, Mario): it's harder to tell, in 2013's diverse marketplace, what will be a runaway hit.
You, sir, have my disagreement. DR3 does indeed look like a cluster of f-bombs hunting for a target, but all the material I've seen on Ryse gives it the gameplay feel of Dragon's Lair, only for 6-10 hours rather than the half-hour Dragon's Lair/Space Ace. It won't even get the relative mercy of short cutscenes.Crazy Zaul said:
I expect Ghosts to drop in the Metascore at some point, as well. All that for an extra $100 and the DRM waiting in the corner waiting for Microsoft to tell it to come out to play. A score of 74 is perfectly respectable, and Joystiq is a few short steps above Kotaku in terms of attitude. See what Jim and the gang here think about it, or Destructoid (because they actually use their entire range). This isn't high school, kids. Relax.
Hell, for that matter, 74 is better than I've seen a number of titles at the end of more than one console generation, never mind the front end of a new one. Remember the A2600, and weep.
I'm sorry, but I have to do this... "Sony is DOOOOOMED, there are no GAAAAAAAMES! They should stick to making cd players and TVs!". I thinks it's unfair that there are only dumb Nintendo doomsayers. Seriously, i'm not that surprised. Outside of FF15 and MGS5 I didn't found anything interesting in the upcoming library of games for the PS4 and I would say that there is a 99% chance that they will be ported to the PC. PC is the fastest growing market these days and I think MGS5 is already announced for PC and Nomura said, that they are making FF15 for the PC, then downgrade it for the consoles. My prediction is that the PS4's sales won't meet Sony's or anybody else's (read: Sony fanboys) expectations. They will be higher, than the Wii U's, but not that amazing.
How was the Gamecube's launch a let down? yeah their wasn't a major mario game at release but most of the games that were launched at release are still fun today, super monkey ball luigi's mansion, and tony hawk 3 say hi. if your talking raw sales then yeah I get what you are saying but if you look ate the US and EU release libraries then the gamecube had quiet possibly the best launch lineup period even if none of the launch games became legends.EzraPound said:
I mean something like 'Good: Unique game style, multiple branching paths Bad: Somewhat primative grapics, fairly steep learing curve' is information that actually helps me. It tells the (potential) goods and bads and lets me make my own choice as opposed to some stranger telling me "It sucks; don't buy it."Shamanic Rhythm said:
The only ones who have the right to tell me something like that are people who know me and the types of games I like and dislike.
I wasn't gaming as extensively then as I am now. And Nintendo is usually the odd man out in regards to launch games. Usually.Mr C said:
In a world where 8/10 is an average AAA score. Do you not recall the backlash Greg Tito got for giving GTA 5 a 7/10?Hazy992 said:
OT: I know launch titles are typically of far lower quality than what will come to be the average but I did expect this gens launch titles to be better than usual given that they are literally the only games you'll be able to play when the console launches and given that they will have had absolutely enormous budgets/ funding. Of course that said there are only 17/18 reviews for Knack/ Killzone respectively so it's early days, there may well be a huge swing in review scores in future reviews or they may just be the kind of games that don't get stellar reviews but end up with high user scores.
On Metacritic there are more games with a score of 90 and higher then than 40 and lower released this year, Just under 50% of games have a meta critic score of 75 and up... You can more or less take 5 of the final score and use the scores like a five star rating.Hazy992 said:
75 is the real average score. Killzone: Shadow Fall is getting worse reviews than Train Simulator 2014.
So to answer your first question: Our world.
I'll only start crying when inFamous Second Son gets mediocre reviews. I fucking call it that sales will shoot up in Q1 when it's released, and I would have honestly have liked to have seen something from Insomniac or Naughty Dog.
Killzone looked alright and the previous ones played alrighy, but they've never been a system seller for me personally.
Probably going to get a PS4 a Christmas due to have nothing else to get for myself.
Killzone looked alright and the previous ones played alrighy, but they've never been a system seller for me personally.
Probably going to get a PS4 a Christmas due to have nothing else to get for myself.
Must. Resist. Fanboy urge. To cuss you out. BLARRG!Robert Kalmar said:
That's all well fine and for you not to find particular games interesting and thus system is doomed without them, but other people have different tastes. People love the shit out of Angry Birds enough to justify make sequels than there are Nintendo generations, doesn't mean I have to like it.
And to use one that's a bit closer to home, I didn't feel compelled to buy a 3DS or just Pokemon again, that's justifiable to a lot of people (as the sales have proven) not myself personally.
The reason there are Nintendo doomsayers is because: a) there isn't a Wii Sports to suck in the casuals and gimmick isn't as esay to sell, b) it's been buggerising around for a year now with without the big franchises to boost sales, and c) the hardware gap between it an the Xbone/PS4 is steep enough that it's going to/is driving away 3rd party games.
Sorry to jump up your ass on your first post but... yeah.