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A Hat in Time Review Thread

Can we have at least one thread for this game that doesn't revolve around Jontron?

You should be fine in the OT.. if there is one.

I want to play this game bad, but if you don't stand up for something, you'll fall for anything. So that being said, Ima pass..

I'm pretty sure I've bought a racist mans game before, but I can't do it knowingly a guy like this is behind it.

Oh well, you win some you lose some.
 
Where's the OT? Been playing the game for awhile, and it's probably the best 3D platformer I've played on PC so far, which is a good thing, considering how disappointed I was in Yooka-Laylee.

It's incredibly charming, and the graphics are surprisingly good. I watched some gameplay before playing, and for some reason the textures just looked really basic. Having played it though, it looks a lot better than it seemed from just watching others play. It also controls incredibly well.

There's also a ton of graphics settings for PC. It helps that it runs really well too, being a well made Unreal Engine 3 game rather than whatever the fuck happened when Playtonic got their hands on Unity.
 
There's this blur the game does that I'm pretty sure all the Mario games do, and it can't be disabled as far as I can tell. There's a setting in the menu for it, but the options are "standard" and "complex". I noticed some things weren't blurred that probably should have been blurred when standard is selected, so I chose complex. Would turn it off if I could. Might go digging around in the files.

nNHGJSV.jpg

I have a feeling this game's gonna get massively overlooked, and it's a shame, considering how successful Yooka-Laylee was.

Edit: Turns out it's easy enough to disable DoF from the game's files. Dunno why they don't just have an option for it in the menu.

 

Firehead

Member
I don't either but it has been plaguing every thread I read about this game. A thread has already been made to discuss that particular issue.

It's a valid and relevant issue that's plaguing this game. Why shouldn't it be discussed and have people made aware of? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad this game is doing well in scores, but fuck supporting that fuck. Until they remove him from the game, purchasing it is actively supporting him.
 
It's a valid and relevant issue that's plaguing this game. Why shouldn't it be discussed and have people made aware of? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad this game is doing well in scores, but fuck supporting that fuck. Until they remove him from the game, purchasing it is actively supporting him.
I'm not supporting Jon. I'm supporting the best 3D platformer available on PC at the moment.

One voice clip doesn't nullify the rest of the dev's work put toward this game.
 

Fou-Lu

Member
I'm not supporting Jon. I'm supporting the best 3D platformer available on PC at the moment.

One voice clip doesn't nullify the rest of the dev's work put toward this game.

For some people those multiple voice clips (he voices more than one character apparently) and the devs lack of comment on it is enough to not buy the game. It's a perfectly valid choice to not want to buy it because of these issues. I think it is also perfectly valid to decide that him being there isn't enough to stop you from buying it.
 

Ferrio

Banned
Is he being paid for the part? Even if they did remove him, I imagine the devs could get into some legal issues if they tried to get out of paying him.

Also it's a shame people don't want to support a game with a female main character that's portrayed extremely well just because they don't wanna hear that moron.
 
The Jontron thing must have put off most reviewers.

thats very unlikely. This wasn't really on the public's radar other than the controversy and those same reviewers are working on evil within 2, assassin's creed origins, wolfenstein 2, and super mario galaxy right now, and they just finished up with shadow of war, cuphead, and forza 7.

its a super busy time of year, a game like this is easy to slip through.
 

atomsk

Party Pooper
I cant tell if youre serious or not.

I can only speak for myself as a smaller YouTuber doing games coverage, but the publisher offered a key today, and I passed on it.

Will reconsider if things change, but that seems unlikely.
 
I'm not supporting Jon. I'm supporting the best 3D platformer available on PC at the moment.

One voice clip doesn't nullify the rest of the dev's work put toward this game.

Yep

And nobody should judge anybody else on their own personal choice to support or not support on such an issue. If it bugs you, don't buy. If the game looks good, buy it. Nobody should tell you how to feel about it - it's not as if you're buying a subscription to breitbart or something.

And if it really bugs you that much donate $5 to a charity of your choosing that counters jontron's troublesome statements with your Hat in Time purchase.
 

RPGam3r

Member
It's a valid and relevant issue that's plaguing this game. Why shouldn't it be discussed and have people made aware of? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad this game is doing well in scores, but fuck supporting that fuck. Until they remove him from the game, purchasing it is actively supporting him.

This feels a little baby with the bath water. I think its fine if you want to not purchase in an effort to show your stance. I think it goes a bit far to tell others they're supporting something, when you don't know what their actual feelings are on the subject.
 

jholmes

Member
I'm not supporting Jon. I'm supporting the best 3D platformer available on PC at the moment.

One voice clip doesn't nullify the rest of the dev's work put toward this game.

Again, this idea that the dev is a shining paragon of virtue who got dragged into this against his will is so misplaced. So many shitty things took place during the Kickstarter campaign and before.
 
So many shitty things took place during the Kickstarter campaign and before.
Are you talking about the dev doing shitty things, or Jon?

Once again, I'm only replying to the person suggesting that buying the game means you support Jon. I didn't buy the game to support Jon. I bought the game because it's a great game.

Why is that confusing? If they're removing his dialogue from the game, and he paid to have his dialogue in the game, that would mean they should refund him.
 

Rmagnus

Banned
Are you talking about the dev doing shitty things, or Jon?

Once again, I'm only replying to the person suggesting that buying the game means you support Jon. I didn't buy the game to support Jon. I bought the game because it's a great game.


Why is that confusing? If they're removing his dialogue from the game, and he paid to have his dialogue in the game, that would mean they should refund him.

I agree I mean we have people buying shoes using child labour. We all know the working conditions of fox con. So yeah it don't matter a guy like Jon is in the game. It doesn't even matter in the grand scale of things
 
Again, this idea that the dev is a shining paragon of virtue who got dragged into this against his will is so misplaced. So many shitty things took place during the Kickstarter campaign and before.

Sorry to be that guy but can someone elaborate?

I would have purchased this game but as many others have mentioned in this thread, JonTron is a deal-breaker.

It may be emotional, but I felt personally betrayed hearing those comments. Was a huge fan for years before that.
 

Despera

Banned
This is a really painful and sad situation.

On one hand you have what's possibly the best platformer to hit the PC, the development of which I've followed for many years. Just go watch a couple of reviews and you can see all the love and care put into it.

On the other hand the game contains the work of an individual who is publicly racist, and the devs seem to be more than okay with that.

:/

They must do something about this and fast.
 

5taquitos

Member
I know Steam changed their system, but after Firewatch it's entirely possible that the devs fear mass negative reviews from JonTron's shitbase if they remove him.

I don't think that's a good enough reason to not say anything.
 

jrcbandit

Member
I still might buy the game, but I'm definitely put off by the Jontron inclusion. If Jontron did pay to be put in the game, it might not be as simple as a refund, they could be sued for a breach of contract and I guess the suits figured the lost income from people boycotting the game was less than the costs of battling a potential lawsuit. Also, Jontron's followers review bombing Steam can have a great effect if people actually care about Steam reviews?

OMG, the Steam comments can be so baffling in Discussions section. Some idiot equated Jontron's belief in eugenics with leftists support of Planned Parenthood. Huh??????????
 
Edit: To clarify, I'm not speaking against you, but to some people who wants to keep mention of JonTron out of this thread.
To be fair, this is a thread about discussing reviews for the game. There was a massive thread about the Jon issue already.

This thread's probably gonna end up being closed largely because nobody's discussing reviews, and everybody's talking about Jon.

I know Steam changed their system, but after Firewatch it's entirely possible that the devs fear mass negative reviews from JonTron's shitbase if they remove him.

I don't think that's a good enough reason to not say anything.
Also, it's unfortunately likely that the crowd who could potentially shit all over their game would do so in higher numbers than those who might support the game otherwise.

The game's only got 63 reviews right now. And I don't think anybody's making an OT here.
 

Granjinha

Member
It's weird that the devs haven't come forth on the issue when the director of the game (and CEO of Gears for Breakfeast, i think) openly condemns Trump on twitter.
 

jholmes

Member
Are you talking about the dev doing shitty things, or Jon?

Once again, I'm only replying to the person suggesting that buying the game means you support Jon. I didn't buy the game to support Jon. I bought the game because it's a great game.

The dev, but obviously him too.

Sorry to be that guy but can someone elaborate?

I would have purchased this game but as many others have mentioned in this thread, JonTron is a deal-breaker.

It may be emotional, but I felt personally betrayed hearing those comments. Was a huge fan for years before that.

I'll try to round this up as succinctly as posssible:

  • When the Kickstarter campaign launched in 2013, it hit its initial ask in a few hours and added stretch goals. It didn't add a Wii U stretch goal, but it did court the Nintendo-covering enthusiast press hard and talk about the platform on the main page. (This is now viewable under the FAQ.) Once the campaign cleared, they stopped talking about the Wii U as a good-faith goal and now as something they had never promised.
  • The first major development in the Wii U issue was that Gears for Breakfast said given that the game was made in UE3, a licence would cost something in the six figures to release the game on Wii U. This was contradicted by public figures available from Epic.
  • Following that, GfB claimed they weren't in touch with Nintendo's indies guru at the time, Dan Adelman. That was preposterous given how available he was, but I and others reached him that evening and he confirmed that, at least by that point, he was in touch. In the end, this all went nowhere.
  • One thing they did add as a stretch goal was music by Grant Kirkhope. First there was one song, then they said he would do one for every $15,000 over $200,000. This game raised just short of $300,000. Kirkhope was only contracted to do three songs total, rather than seven or eight. When pressed on this obvious inconsistency, GfB in mid-2014 in the Kickstarter comments said Kirkhope was only contracted to do "six minutes" of music. In April of that year, GfB said: "The total Kickstarter amount seen on the right ($296,360) does not match the amount we actually ended up receiving, because a lot of backers had their payments fail (either due to incorrect credit card or similar issues). That is why 7 is not the total pieces Grant will be performing." This shortfall would be drastic, approaching six figures in failed pledges, which I am assured is nowhere near the norm (or even believable) on Kickstarter.
  • This Kirkhope situation occured during a 12-month stretch between February 2014 and February 2015 where they only made three Kickstarter updates, one of which was very brief. This was not addressed in a Kickstarter update, but in the comments and only after public comments by Kirkhope in a Reddit AMA. At one point Kickstarter was brought in to encourage the devs to communicate with the backers.
  • Pre-dating the campaign, the main dev, under the alias Mecha the Slag, while participating in a Mario fansite, was alleged to have created a site slandering another user. This followed the user claiming his work and the work of an associate where unjustly being used by MtS in a game. I'm not involved in this, all I know is what I've read, and that's all available in the now-locked HiT mega-thread.
 

BlueMagic

Member
There's this blur the game does that I'm pretty sure all the Mario games do, and it can't be disabled as far as I can tell. There's a setting in the menu for it, but the options are "standard" and "complex". I noticed some things weren't blurred that probably should have been blurred when standard is selected, so I chose complex. Would turn it off if I could. Might go digging around in the files.



I have a feeling this game's gonna get massively overlooked, and it's a shame, considering how successful Yooka-Laylee was.

Edit: Turns out it's easy enough to disable DoF from the game's files. Dunno why they don't just have an option for it in the menu.

Yes!
Wanted to disable it as well but didn't check any config files yet. Now that I know it's possible I'm definitely doing it.
 

Bridges

Member
Game looks amazing! Too bad it comes out the same month as Mario, don't know if I'll have time for both right now.

Do y'all skip movies that have actors in them who you think are bad people? I really can't stand the personal views of certain actors but I don't think I've ever skipped a movie solely because of a single actor's shitty opinions, so in the same way I don't feel inclined to skip a game solely because a voice actor (who paid money to be in the game and won't be getting any kind of revenue directly from his involvement in the game).

I realize this is a bit of a special case though considering the nature of JonTron's comments, so I respect the right for people to feel and act the way they do and are, but also I can't help but feel it'd be a real shame for what looks like a really solid entry in a dying genre to be passed over due to something that has very little to do with the game itself.
 

Maffis

Member
I think they will comment after a few weeks, when the most important sales will be done. People fail to realize they are 8 people in the dev team and removing Jontron would ensure massive amounts of review bombing and death threats. Maybe even threats in real life. Yes its sad they didnt comment but its perfectly understandable why they have not. This game is their food now. 5 years dev time with probably thousands of dollars invested means they need it to be succesfull. Their lives depends on it. Just look at the Cuphead team. They said they were so close to bankruptcy. Holding these indie devs to such high-standards as multi-million dollar devs is not fair.
 

petran79

Banned
With all those anonymous Kickstarters, one has to get used to the fact that white supremacists and other extremists will take part in game funding. Not just famous like Johntron.

This is a serious issue and they can use this as self-promotion material too.

Unless devs asks about your political background and beliefs in a questionaire before you fund.
 

Maffis

Member
You keep saying this, but it wasn't hard for Playtonic.
They were triple the size on their team, they also had waaaay more money to help them with marketing. And they also recieved tons of threats. Not a lot of people would find that as easy to take in, especially when they are such a small team that needs all the positive marketing they can get.
 
At the very least, the devs should speak up about the issue. They can say, sorry, we didn't know he was this back when things happened and we don't support his views. Then let the voice be a regretful relic, but don't deny the devs their due for making a good game for something they don't have control of. Then when the game sells, they can eventually patch him out.
 
I think they will comment after a few weeks, when the most important sales will be done. People fail to realize they are 8 people in the dev team and removing Jontron would ensure massive amounts of review bombing and death threats. Maybe even threats in real life. Yes its sad they didnt comment but its perfectly understandable why they have not. This game is their food now. 5 years dev time with probably thousands of dollars invested means they need it to be succesfull. Their lives depends on it. Just look at the Cuphead team. They said they were so close to bankruptcy. Holding these indie devs to such high-standards as multi-million dollar devs is not fair.

There's a bit of a difference....Studio MDHR (Devs of Cuphead) spent 5 years pouring blood, sweat, and tears into their game.....that's it. No controversies unlike some of the devs at Gears For Breakfast during their Kickstarter campaign, their absolute silence on this JonTron controversy for all these months. Heck, Studio MDHR even condemned those making fun of the games journalist from Venturebeat playing awful in the Cuphead gameplay video.

Right now, all GFB care about is getting their profits back...and nothing more.
 

Fancolors

Member
Put some hours into it.

I'm having some fun, but I'm not sure if I would say waiting 4 years for this has been worth it. I'd probably tell myself to wait for a 33% sale if I could go back in time.
 

Dissent-

Neo Member
Weird there aren't really any reviews for this, but I'll share my hot take from an hour or two of playing for those curious.

This game is solid but the biggest weakness is that it is a constant tug of war between high and low budget. Animations are the worst offender, they can be very simple, stiff, and "janky" or they can be very fluid and incredible, like the main character. The first boss (Which is just one of the usual enemies in the area) bends down to pick up barrels from a stack that materialize in their hands right in front of you, no masking attempted, with a very basic throw animation. The boss also completely walks on thin air before actually falling off platforms straight down, with no falling animation other than their idle pose. Your character however, is expressive and animates beautifully at almost all times. It's very jarring to have both of these animation types happening on screen at all times.

The environments are also a mixed bag, areas occasionally are either too flat or too noisy, the happy middle is only sometimes there. If you look at a game like a 3D Mario you can pick out all the objects around you while in motion, but things in this game blur together easily even with the various blur effects off.

Performance is also a concern, the framerate can be 144fps for a minute and then suddenly hitch horribly for a split-second when walking near some new lighting. Animations can also suddenly snap with no tweening for seemingly no reason. I'd chalk these up to typical Unreal engine problems, though.
6600k w/ 1070 for those interested in comparison.

Despite all those things, I understand it's an indie game with a small budget that has been in development for several years and what they've done is super impressive. There is definitely fun to be had here, especially if you aren't an old, jaded gamer like me that nitpicks the little things.
 
I've played for a little over an hour, just tooling around and getting used to movement.

I'm really enjoying it so far. It'll be quite awhile before I can get a full review in however (I have a couple other titles taking priority).
 

Marker007

Member
Day one purchase for me. Can't wait to play it. Jontron's involvement is a added benefit for me. Really like his work on YouTube.
 
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