Zero Punctuation: Knack

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
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I loved the hammer visual gag.

Also, I think many games would be better if the bad guy just said "bored now" and did evil things. Or only knew how to do things the evil way. It'd at least be less contrived than 90% of game stories.
 

Brotha Desmond

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Jan 3, 2011
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Am I the only one who never suffered from framerate issues with Knack? I'm not saying that the games any good, but it never chugged or froze on me.
 

Branindain

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Jul 3, 2013
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This game was a disappointment to me. I was encouraged to see a new console being launched with a platformer again, it stood out among the boring beigeness of the AAA offerings but it turned out to be just as boring and beige and linear as they were. Reminds me of my dismay last gen when Lair sucked, dooming Sixaxis games and dragon-flying games with one fell swoop. (And it wasn't the tilt controls that messed up that game, it was shit all on its own.)
 

Branindain

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Jul 3, 2013
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Oh, by the way, language belongs to the people who speak it. Maybe it's intended to be pronounced Newtella, but 50/50 people (at least) who I've heard use the word pronounced it Nut-ella which kinda makes that the right way.
 

jackpipsam

SEGA fanboy
Jun 2, 2009
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Knack always looked horrible.

It now is clear that even Ryse: Son of Rome had way more effort put into it.
 

Pebkio

The Purple Mage
Nov 9, 2009
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I played the demo for Knack and I remember thinking that Jak and Daxter was a better Knack than Knack.
 

Zeriah

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Mar 26, 2009
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mjc0961 said:
The thought that it should be "nut-ella" because it's got nuts makes sense, but he's right. It's "new-tella".


In Australia, it is most definitely marketed and known as Nut-ella, as you can see from this ad.
 

joest01

Senior Member
Apr 15, 2009
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Flatfrog said:
OlasDAlmighty said:
Nutella is pronounced with a long u, like NEW-tella.
No. No it's not. It's got nuts in it. It's pronounced like nut.

Maybe in some *other* language it might be pronounced differently.
Seeing how it is an Eyetalian product it would appear that a look at at least that language might be in order then!

Has anyone tried playing Knack on hard difficulty. It looks like the kind of game that could come into its own when played on hard?
 

daxterx2005

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Dec 19, 2009
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Its funny you bring up it being similar to Crash since it had some of the same people who made Crash.
 

Tim Chuma

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Jul 9, 2010
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Wait six months at least before buying any next gen console or at least until Christmas 2014. More if in Australia. I paid $850 to get a Dreamcast and couple of games when it came out. Interest in it died as soon as the PS2 was rumoured to be released.
 

IrisNetwork

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Sep 11, 2013
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Zeriah said:
IrisNetwork said:
The thought that it should be "nut-ella" because it's got nuts makes sense, but he's right. It's "new-tella".


In Australia, it is most definitely marketed as Nut-ella, as you can see from this ad.
Why am I being quoted here? I never said that. @_@
Natella? Nootella? Neutella? I don't really care. Too much sweet stuff gives me a headache.
 

Zeriah

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Mar 26, 2009
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IrisNetwork said:
Zeriah said:
IrisNetwork said:
The thought that it should be "nut-ella" because it's got nuts makes sense, but he's right. It's "new-tella".


In Australia, it is most definitely marketed as Nut-ella, as you can see from this ad.
Why am I being quoted here? I never said that. @_@
Natella? Nootella? Neutella? I don't really care. Too much sweet stuff gives me a headache.
Whoops something weird must have happened during the quote, it was directed at mjc0961.
 

Aardvaarkman

I am the one who eats ants!
Jul 14, 2011
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joest01 said:
Has anyone tried playing Knack on hard difficulty.
Yep.

joest01 said:
It looks like the kind of game that could come into its own when played on hard?
No, it isn't in any way. Hard mode just exacerbates the frustratingly brittle gameplay.
 

Hutzpah Chicken

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Mar 13, 2012
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I don't care to read other comments, so obligatory knack pun. Why bother with a PS4 when one can always go crazy with the PS2? You know, back in the day when backwards compatibility was still a thing?
 

geizr

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Oct 9, 2008
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Haven't we been through this kind of crap dredging for just about every console launch since somewhere about the SEGA CD-ROM days? As far as I remember, every console starts with a load of crappy games where the developers are basically experimenting with the APIs and limits of the machine, and, because their focus is on the technology, they're not thinking too critically about actual game design. There may only be 1 or 2 launch titles that actually act like a real game; the rest is just low-quality junk. I'd say the main difference, recently, is that after the experimental punching of the console to learn its limits and get a handle on the APIs, the developers quickly turn to creating the same games as last generation, only with shinier graphics (because, strangely, as much as gamers complain otherwise, that's exactly what they want, as evidenced by how they vote with their wallets).
 

putowtin

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Jul 7, 2010
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Here in the Yorkshire Ghetto we agree, this generation does seem to be lacking something....
A plot! Kinda like Knack!
 

r1z4t

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Mar 15, 2011
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that's not a goatee. a goatee connected to a mustache is called a van dyke
 

Aardvaarkman

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Jul 14, 2011
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randomthefox said:
What evidence are you basing this claim off?
Basic business sense. If a console is not available to consumers, then why would you waste your developer resources developing games for a system that isn't available yet?

The way Rayman Legends was finished being developed and then withheld by the publisher from being released until there were other platforms to release it on? Hell, they didn't even let it get released on the WiiU and then released the multiplatform versions later, they held back the whole kit-and-kaboodle.
And Rayman Legends is obviously a very typical case, and one of the best-selling AAA games released, right? Oh no, that's wrong.

How many developers do you expect will be willing to spend tens of millions of dollars developing a game, and then just withhold it from sale, until the console manufacturer takes its own sweet time releasing the console? The publishers are not charities, their goal is to make the most profits as soon as possible. Good luck asking them to just wait around for a while before releasing a title they have invested so much money and time into.

It can, and has, been done. Give a time line for when they're allowed to work on the game, cut em off when they run out, and then just don't release the game until the console comes out.
Yeah, because developers and publishers will love working to the console makers' time schedule.

Do you think there might be a reason that major titles like GTA V and Bioshock Infinite were released for the "last" generation consoles rather than the new ones? It's because they know which side their toast is buttered on, and they will sell a lot more by making games for the consoles with the huge install bases and tested development procedures, rather than an unknown quantity, where the manufacturers can't even keep up with the demand for consoles.

Morons who don't understand the first thing about the game industry seem to be under this delusion that every moment a game isn't on the store shelves is time it is being worked on by the developers.
I'm not sure who you are talking about here, or its relevance.

You think, when they say a game comes out on Oct 12th for example, that means it's still in development all the way up until Oct. 11th and when the clock strikes midnight they ship it out, which is clinically untrue.
No, I don't think that. What evidence do you have that would make you think that I think that? You seem to be attacking straw men.

you're apparently also applying this (stupid) line of thought to the consoles themselves, thinking that because they aren't on store shelves means they're still being made and thus not available to the developers to work on and develop games for, which.... I don't even have a rational dismissal for since it is so blatantly incorrect an assumption
No, I'm not.

And speaking of blatantly incorrect assumptions, once again you're just making stuff up about how I supposedly think - once again, a straw man.

that my mind just automatically leaps to bashing my head against the wall for even attempting to converse with someone so devoid of common sense.
And the ad-hominems continue...

So, "common sense" to you is that developers should devote their resources to develop new games for a console that hasn't been released, that has no customers, while the existing consoles already have millions of devoted customers. Okaaaaay.

And if it's such common sense, then why have none of the console manufacturers, game publishers or developers followed this wisdom? They have rather large businesses as stake. If it were so obvious and easy, then why didn't they follow your sage advice?

The competition element is also irrelevant because in my hypothetical fantasy scenario of the game industry actually making intelligent decisions, we also have a single universal console that can play every game ever released ever from the Atari on to any future releases moving forward, because when you're enjoying some pie in the sky semantics you might as well put some nice whipped cream on top too.
How would the "universal game console" be an intelligent business decision? Who makes this universal console? And why would a company want competing companies' games to run on the system? A huge portion of the profits in the console business come from licensing fees to develop games for a particular console, or exclusivity for first-party titles. A "universal console" would put an end to that revenue stream.

Note that I' not saying that this is bad from a gamer's perspective, but I'm talking about the reality of running a business with massive budgets, that could easily be bankrupted due to volatility in the market.