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[SigSig]

Skipped around a bit and don't get the hyperbole ITT.
Guy plays like most people who will play BOTW.
He certainly does better at many parts than I did in my first 4 hours.

also, lol, shitting on someone cause he's not as good at playing games as you
some of you should reevaluate their priorities.

 

[Greddleok]

All of his games are like 90% puzzles. What a pretentious bastard!

You're right, what he makes isn't pretentious, he is.

 

[AquaWateria]

Lol my little brother plays better than this.

I would think he would be able to understand the basics.

I mean I know not everyone can't be good at games, but its kind of hard to watch.

 

[Lifeline]

He seems kind of down on it so far,

Welp, that decides the fate of this thread. I can already see it's not gonna go well.

 

[goodfella]

I like his games, and think he's talented. He clearly has a good sense of design.

However, both Braid and The Witness don't have anywhere near the breadth of mechanics that Zelda does, so having a go at the game for not doing exactly what he expects comes off a bit thin, as of course it's harder to introduce players to a game that is more complex.

 

[Dio Brando]

Skipped around a bit and don't get the hyperbole ITT.
Guy plays like most people who will play BOTW.
He certainly does better at many parts than I did in my first 4 hours.

i honestly feel that while blow can be incredibly blunt sometimes, people just have this predisposition of seeing everything Blow says in a negative way. look at people here saying he's pretentious.

 

[CHC]

Always good to have a reminder of why a video game developer should never expose his or her personal life to the internet.

 

[J_ToSaveTheDay]

Glad to see Blow lend his perspective on this one.

I'm still of mind that it's my favorite game, but Blow lending his critique doesn't make me feel lesser for it.

 

[More_Badass]

I'd argue he is, but I wouldn't trust his judgement of other games.

If he says a puzzle game is great and worth checking out, it's usually a good idea to check out that puzzle game.

 

[boiled goose]

I feel bad for people who can't enjoy this game.

It's a masterpiece and a triumph of game design

 

[Greddleok]

i honestly feel that while blow can be incredibly blunt sometimes, people just have this predisposition of seeing everything Blow says in a negative way. look at people here saying he's pretentious.

When someone admonishes others for "not enjoying the game in the right way" or "not understanding why the game is good" I think it's fair play to call them pretentious. Going almost as far as calling everyone stupid for not understanding his genius.

 

[PedroLumpy]

He has very particular tastes. I think he's awesome, but I hope you all have the good sense to not use him as a barometer for if you'll enjoy a game or not.

 

[Council Pop]

When BOTW was released, Blow was writing some whiny tweets about how critics love Zelda games just because they're Zelda etc (and that was way back in March, so the guy clearly didn't want to like the game), and also tweeting sarcastic replies at people who were asking for The Witness on Switch.

The guy makes good games (although Braid is dated AF these days, and aesthetically horrible), but he's such a whiny misanthrope (typical whiny man really) that I find him quite irritating.

 

[Dio Brando]

When someone admonishes others for "not enjoying the game in the right way" or "not understanding why the game is good" I think it's fair play to call them pretentious. Going almost as far as calling everyone stupid for not understanding his genius.

he only did that with Braid, and has never done that since. people can change.
EDIT: like, he's opinionated and has very specific tastes. people treat him as if he needs to add "in my opinion" to every phrase.

 

[xJavonta]

dude blocked me on twitter, i have no idea why lmao.

then again it's probably a good thing since he's so full of himself it's painful

 

[Marcel]

You can be a known, liked artist with important work to your name and also be an absolute prick as a person. Jonathan Blow is just carrying on an old tradition.

 

[OdysseusVA]

I feel bad for people who can't enjoy this game.

It's a masterpiece and a triumph of game design

Ah, yes

The run across this empty open world and unlock another tower design. Masterful.

Oh, and LEMONS!

 

[SigSig]

i honestly feel that while blow can be incredibly blunt sometimes, people just have this predisposition of seeing everything Blow says in a negative way. look at people here saying he's pretentious.

 

[Dio Brando]

preach.

 

[RedFury]

Yup, pretty much.

 

[andymcc]

Ah, yes

The run across this empty open world and unlock another tower design. Masterful.

Oh, and LEMONS!

Jesus Christ this is the most painfully reductive shit I've ever read.

 

[UrbanRats]

Same old Blow. He hosted a conference on how Bioshock 1 was such a terrible game.

Sorry Blow, you're not as good of a developer as you think you are.

I dont get this, him being or not a good developer has nothing to do with it.
Few on Gaf are even developers, yet plenty critique.
You dont need to be a master director to offer good critique on films, etc.

 

[Tarextherex]

Skipped around a bit and don't get the hyperbole ITT.
Guy plays like most people who will play BOTW.
He certainly does better at many parts than I did in my first 4 hours.

also, lol, shitting on someone cause he's not as good at playing games as you
some of you should reevaluate their priorities.

That's because he's a known hypocritical scumbag

How do you whine about Zelda having tutorials or whatnot and immediately whine about not knowing what to do/where to go

 

[Draper]

Ah, yes

The run across this empty open world and unlock another tower design. Masterful.

Oh, and LEMONS!

This is embarrassing.

 

[BY2K]

Ah, yes

The run across this empty open world and unlock another tower design. Masterful.

Oh, and LEMONS!

Hey look, someone who hasn't played the game!

 

[Chainsawkitten]

That's because he's a known hypocritical scumbag

How do you whine about Zelda having tutorials or whatnot and immediately whine about not knowing what to do/where to go

There are plenty of ways to guide a player's direction without resorting to traditional tutorials.

 

[Skinpop]

people here hate blow so much, it's embarrassing really.

 

[Marcel]

Ah, yes

The run across this empty open world and unlock another tower design. Masterful.

Oh, and LEMONS!

I didn't think BOTW was God's gift to gaming or anything like some folks but you're absolutely off-base with this.

 

[Always-honest]

I'm not a huge BOTW guy but a lot of this struck me as overly whiny.

Well, it's... Jonathan Blow...

 

[niccoolnic]

Ah, yes

The run across this empty open world and unlock another tower design. Masterful.

Oh, and LEMONS!

 

[Neoleo2143]

There are plenty of ways to guide a player's direction without resorting to traditional tutorials.

Many of which are employed by this game to strong effect.

 

[SigSig]

That's because he's a known hypocritical scumbag

How do you whine about Zelda having tutorials or whatnot and immediately whine about not knowing what to do/where to go

How about you don't give a fuck

lmao calling someone a scumbag over him not being good at Zelda

 

[AndrewDean84xX]

That's because he's a known hypocritical scumbag

How do you whine about Zelda having tutorials or whatnot and immediately whine about not knowing what to do/where to go

Because it's only cool for his games to not have tutorials.

I'm honestly starting to think, maybe he is just very bad at video games. Maybe his games are in development for so long because it takes him years to beat his own games.

 

[Oxirane]

Did he figure out that there was a vision cone for the camera as well as an indicator for which way Link is facing?

 

[nynt9]

That's because he's a known hypocritical scumbag

How do you whine about Zelda having tutorials or whatnot and immediately whine about not knowing what to do/where to go

Because it's only cool for his games to not have tutorials.

I'm honestly starting to think, maybe he is just very bad at video games. Maybe his games are in development for so long because it takes him years to beat his own games.

There's shitposting, then there's this. Wow guys, these are some of the worst posts I've seen on gaf in a while. What did Blow do to hurt you so bad?

 

[xJavonta]

people here hate blow so much, it's embarrassing really.

honestly, not quite as embarrassing as his edgy criticisms of every popular game ever made. I don't know how someone doesn't get tired of sucking the joy out of everything.

 

[SomTervo]

Ah, yes

The run across this empty open world and unlock another tower design. Masterful.

Come on.

You can beat the entire game without touching a tower (well, except the very first one in the tutorial.)

 

[Chainsawkitten]

Many of which are employed by this game to strong effect.

I disagree. I think the game feels very directionless. Either way, the two complaints are not contradictory. Though I don't share his distaste of tutorials myself.

 

[Foreign Jackass]

Ah, yes

The run across this empty open world and unlock another tower design. Masterful.

Oh, and LEMONS!

Is there an inside joke about lemons going on here or... ?

Cause BOTW sure doesn't have any lemons.

 

[RedFury]

Hey look, someone who hasn't played the game!

I agree with it and I'm currently playing it 3 divine beasts down. That and combat are the worst aspects of the game by far. It's the open sandbox and atmosphere that make it so good for me. You can't be upset with people for being tired of the tower formula. Especially when towers and shrines are like the biggest part of the game % wise. I hated the game at first and found it incredibly dull/boring. It doesn't help it starts so slow. I met characters learned things I could do with items in the sandbox (like a kid appropriate hitman game), etc that's when I got hooked. Still find the towers tedious and the shrines are now annoyingly repetitive. All in all I love the game and am now looking to play older Zelda titles, but you guys acting like it has no faults is simply ridiculous.

 

[PAULINK]

A dissenting opinion is a breath of fresh air.

 

[ughkingdom]

Same old Blow. He hosted a conference on how Bioshock 1 was such a terrible game.

Sorry Blow, you're not as good of a developer as you think you are.

BioShock 1 is great as a piece of gaming iconography, but as a game it's terribly terribly disjointed. Lots of good ideas that weren't allowed to sift into place long enough, so they stayed stretched out and spread thin over a game that was 2 hours too long and with 2 endings to prove it.

I disagree with a lot of what he finds unenjoyable in games, but I absolutely can follow his thinking. He's very much a "trim the fat" kind of guy when it comes to what parts of the gameplay are important and what parts are not. This is why his games are just intricate puzzle after intricate puzzle. He focuses so much on that puzzle space and how a player first sees it, what they think they can do in it and then how they're going to find out what they can REALLY do in it. I can agree with him in a lot of ways that there's a lot of fat in BotW but I think BotW needs that fat. It's part of it.

Also he's so much more about what a space looks like once you enter it that every little complaint he has about being "misdirected" just because he assumed something would take him somewhere and it didn't, or that it should, is something that I ignore pretty much immediately. I just don't agree with that at all, at least in all games. Now if it were a puzzle game, like the genre he's kind of king of, then yeah I agree.

 

[Giftofgab24]

It didn't age well, but that doesn't mean it's terrible. The large majority of games from the PS1/N64 generation didn't age well, but that doesn't take away from what they were at the time

Never understood this line of thinking. Games are art just like movies, paintings, and books are. People never question reading old books, or watching old movies, or using or reproducing old iconic photography and other mediums of art. Why is it that people think that old games are somehow unplayable or less amazing then they were when they came out? I play older games all the time and still enjoy them immensely. I know people will blame the technology, but the same think could be said for other mediums as well no?

 

[Marcel]

A dissenting opinion is a breath of fresh air.

Yeah because there's a real shortage of dissenting opinions on the internet right now.

 

[EnlightenedMint]

honestly, not quite as embarrassing as his edgy criticisms of every popular game ever made. I don't know how someone doesn't get tired of sucking the joy out of everything.

You come off as far more petty than he ever has.

 

[HStallion]

I feel bad for people who can't enjoy this game.

It's a masterpiece and a triumph of game design

Eh it wasn't for me. I'd probably give an 8/10 if I were reviewing it as I loved a lot of the ideas and what not but the luster wore off very quickly for me and I started finding it more tedious than rewarding. Blow can certainly be obnoxious though I will say that.

 

[Skinpop]

honestly, not quite as embarrassing as his edgy criticisms of every popular game ever made. I don't know how someone doesn't get tired of sucking the joy out of everything.

I agree with him on a lot of what he has to say about games, I think it's sad that anyone with an unpopular opinion is to be dismissed as an edgy, pretentious, whiner - especially when in Blow's case he actually has the credentials to speak about these things as an expert.

 

[Plum]

A dissenting opinion is a breath of fresh air.

Dissenting opinions are so frequent here I'd bet a decent amount of money on the game not winning GOTY (NieR's mine by far so I've got no horse in the race). Compared to when it first came out it's getting more and more difficult to find someone gushing over it.

 

[dcdobson]

I'll be interested in hearing his thoughts once he's a little further into the game. Personally, I was hooked from the beginning, but I can understand why someone might struggle to get into it at first. Still, I feel like the "directionless" aspect of it can be overstated. I remember the game strongly suggesting what areas I needed to explore first, even if no particular course was ever mandated.

 

[Subpar Spatula]

BotW kind of bored me. Too vast and empty with poor puzzle design: the world felt like a engine demo while the dungeons were so simple you thought they were place holders.


Every time I hear someone bring up BotW, they only talk about the idea of it (open world, can do whatever) instead of specifics in the game that are good and memorable. Even Skyrim had that stupid arrow and shout meme.