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Broken Sword: The Director's Cut - The Official Thread (Wii & DS)
- Thread starter Sloane
- Start date
I can, because I looked up what exactly they added. So I know what parts are added and what parts were of the original. And judging by that, I think they should have added more.BaZZaa said:
Actually, for the other interested guys, I gave the game a 7. Called it a great, timeless adventure game that fans of the genre should play anyway. Some nice additions in the director's cut (hint system, dialogue portraits, gameplay sections with Nicole and not tacked-on puzzles), but they should have added more. Another con is the weak sound quality. That sums up my review I think. Should be on Metacritic soon, hopefully as the first one!
Baloonatic said:
I played this version on my Pocket PC and the voices were so compressed it was painful. I'm sure the DS would have suffered from this as well.
Minsc
Gold Member
Sloane said:
Perhaps, I never read much on pricing of the cards. Would have made a sweet collector's edition DS version, sell it for like $70 or something, throw in an artbook, and the more expensive larger card and have their art guy compress the voices down for the DS. Surely it would have sold out a limited run of 2,500 or so, with ebay auctions for it running over $100 shortly after.
Mithos
Member
BluWacky said:
Been waiting for this game since the european Wii release.
VGP has in on 31th of march, another site say 15th april, and you say amazon say May.
I really hope it comes out soon, I want this, I love these type of games.
Maybe that Norwegian game maker could do Longest Journey + Dreamfall for Wii too, please please.
Mesijs said:I can, because I looked up what exactly they added. So I know what parts are added and what parts were of the original. And judging by that, I think they should have added more.
Actually, for the other interested guys, I gave the game a 7. Called it a great, timeless adventure game that fans of the genre should play anyway. Some nice additions in the director's cut (hint system, dialogue portraits, gameplay sections with Nicole and not tacked-on puzzles), but they should have added more. Another con is the weak sound quality. That sums up my review I think. Should be on Metacritic soon, hopefully as the first one!
It disgusts me that people like you actually have representation on Metacritic.
Your entire point above justifies why you shouldn't be reviewing videogames.
If you've never played the original, then the point that the game adds very little to the experience is totally invalid. You're not a position to comment, because you're unaware of how much/little the game will add to those who've played the original.
Jesus christ the whole 'review hate thing' gets started all over again.Google said:
You know, I perfectly know what was added to the game so I actually CAN comment on what is new and what not. It isn't rocket science to figure that out.
Also, we're talking about a 13 year old game. I think it would be a little ridiculous to just give a high score based on that the game was so good so many years ago. That would mean that any simple remake of a great game could get away with not adding anything.
In the review itself, I'm talking very positively about the game overall, only it strikes me that after 13 years there was added so little.
And I have to add that I did play the game until the finish and analyzed all the elements that were added to the original, and based on that I figured a 7 would be a fair score. I did recommend the game to everybody, however I would recommend the 13 year old PC version as well. I think that's the difficult point of reviewing remakes.
Hopefully we could evade words like 'it disgusts me' and stuff like that, it's a bit unrespectful.
Mesijs said:
I couldn't care less what score you gave it - I simply don't think you're in a position to comment on how the game will be viewed by those who played the original.
Your point is without validation.
It's like watching a directors cut of a film that you hadn't seen in it's theatrical release and detailing specifically how much it adds/detracts from the experience, simply because you read some opinions on it.
Ridley Scott's Blade Runner directors cut may only add a small amount to the actual film, but does that mean it's worth more or less than the theatrical?
My point about the Metacritic score is that you're obviously not capable of writing an objective, and reasonable review, yet your score is reflected on a website that publishers are using as targets. People's jobs and bonuses are reliant upon specific metrics, and it's people like you contributing to those.
Minsc
Gold Member
Mesijs said:
Realize too that for metacritic to function properly as it is used in the industry, you need to rate it based on not your personal scale of 1-10, but the industry's.
A 7 is a bad score for a game by most standards these days, like it or not.
Perhaps I don't understand how metacritic works, but I'm getting more of a 9 than a 7 from reading your comments.
For a game to come to a current-gen system as an updated version without that many updates? The new artwork is striking and brilliant, but it's pretty easy to identify it against the older artwork and the same goes for the audio. This is 2009. Broken Sword was brilliant, but don't you wish they'd have updated it a bit more? 7 is a great score for this game. I'm excited for it because I loved the original and didn't get through the whole game, but attacking the reviewer because he gave the game a 7, which, may I remind you, is a positive score, is ridiculous (this is more to Google than you stuminus).stuminus3 said:
Because metacritic and publishers see a 7 and cringe, does that mean all journos and respected media outlets should change their scoring criteria just to appease those who see a game only by its numerical average? C'mon... The review is very positive, he obviously likes the game, and I'm thrilled to be picking up this game shortly.
discoalucard
i am a butthurt babby that can only drool in wonder at shiney objects
I dunno, a 7 sounds like it could be about right for a game that's being repackaged as a full price release when you can get the original game, plus its sequels, PLUS Beneath a Steel Sky, for a fraction of the price, for the platform this should've been released on the first place.
Which I actually did end up buying. I briefly played the PSOne version of Broken Sword years ago but didn't muck with it much - this release got me interested but it's just way too much money. Sorry Ubisoft.
I agree that maybe the reviewer probably should've played at least a bit of the original to see the differences firsthand though. But it's not like Ubisoft would've provided him a copy of that, and it takes time to get these things when deadlines approach, I'm sure.
Which I actually did end up buying. I briefly played the PSOne version of Broken Sword years ago but didn't muck with it much - this release got me interested but it's just way too much money. Sorry Ubisoft.
I agree that maybe the reviewer probably should've played at least a bit of the original to see the differences firsthand though. But it's not like Ubisoft would've provided him a copy of that, and it takes time to get these things when deadlines approach, I'm sure.
Mesijs said:
That sounds really strange and sloppy to me. Could be a budget issue of course, because otherwise they simply should've re-recorded all of the voices. But still, I kind of assumed they would have access to the original recordings in good enough quality without compression or anything like that. Perhaps even those recordings were bad though. In any case, it's a shame.
Well, I can tell you that Gamer.nl is, on average, the most critical site of the Netherlands. Inside the editorial staff, we have a lot of discussion about score inflation, consistency and being critical but still fair. For example, my colleague gave Resident Evil 5 and DMC 4 a 7 as well, I gave Heavenly Sword a 7 for example. We do have our own scoring policy and a 7 just means that it's a good game. Especially for an almost direct port of a 13 year old game, I think a 7, in our scoring system, is just very good.Minsc said:
About playing the original: I just wasn't able to. I don't own the game itself and was reviewing this one. I can place it into the context because I'm familiar with that era and adventure gaming, and also I do know exactly what is added into this Director's Cut and what was original. I myself really think that this is sufficient to judge the game now on the Wii.
About the chess comment, I think that's quite ridiculous in comparison to gaming. Games are constantly evoluting and if an unchanged game of many years ago would be released today, it would feel quite sloppy and old. See for example the critics about Resident Evil 5, which is actually a sequel to a 4 year old game that gets criticized quite a lot for it's old feel. I think it says a lot about the timelessness of Broken Sword that I still judge it a very good game (in the review text as well) after 13 years and that it keeps up well with todays standard. Very few games manage to do that.
Edit: I'll give you the conclusion and the pros and cons of the review for some clarification.
"Broken Sword turns out to be a very well adventure game that can't be missed by old fans and newcomers alike. It does everything well that we're used to from adventure games and adds some subtle things that give the game extra value. However, after thirteen years we expected some more extras."
Pros:
Gameplay and dialogues still very strong
New parts and puzzles do add something to the experience
Useful hint system
Cons:
Too few new things
Sound quality is antique
Hope that clarifies a bit more how I see things.
I was playing BS2 just last night on my Xbox...So much charm...I really love this series.
It helps that this series has always grounded its puzzles in reality...One of the most frustrating things about adventure games is when you're asked to build odd contraptions or use items in ways that seem illogical. As much as I enjoy "Day of the Tentacle", I always had a difficult time with the puzzles for this very reason...use a plunger, rope, and blender to build a time machine!....Ugh.
It helps that this series has always grounded its puzzles in reality...One of the most frustrating things about adventure games is when you're asked to build odd contraptions or use items in ways that seem illogical. As much as I enjoy "Day of the Tentacle", I always had a difficult time with the puzzles for this very reason...use a plunger, rope, and blender to build a time machine!....Ugh.
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
I never had a problem figuring these sorts of things out in games like DOTT or the Monkey Islands. I dunno, it made "logical sense" to me for some reason when I started thinking more in lines of the nonsensical game world's reality.3rdman said:
discoalucard
i am a butthurt babby that can only drool in wonder at shiney objects
XiaNaphryz said:
Man, as much as I absolutely love Day of the Tentacle, I never would've figured out the "take poster of tentacle, warp to past, give to Betsy Ross to make flag, then use as costume in future" puzzle without either SOME kind FAQ, or at least random mucking about.
Flying_Phoenix
Banned
Yet again we have people complaining about a review score (someone's opinion). I could only imagine if the gaming industry took the way of movie or music reviews and scores tomorrow. It would be the coming of the apocalypse.
Google said:
Excuse me, I do not really see the irony. Like I said a few times, I know exactly what the old and the new parts are. So in this sense I did play the old game, as it is included in the director's cut...
It would be something different if I would, for example, comment on things that are sequel-specifically not done well when I didn't play the previous part.
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Hey now, those of us who played those games when it was released had no easy access to FAQs or the Internet or anything really. You had to be creative on your own. The flag thing wasn't too hard to figure out, it was more of a "I need this, what object could possibly be used here?" Of all the old SCUMM games, I found DOTT the easiest in terms of not getting stuck or having to resort to "trial-by-error." I ran into more of those spots in other games, like Sam & Max or CMI, but after pounding my head a couple times I eventually got through them.discoalucard said:
dollartaco
Member
discoalucard said:
Since I recently posted an OMM link for the discussion on shipping containers, I think this post warrants a similar response:
http://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/78.html
discoalucard
i am a butthurt babby that can only drool in wonder at shiney objects
XiaNaphryz said:
Haha, for me, it was waiting until my parents decided to go to the mall, head to the book store, and peek through the walkthrough books in the "Games" section. I was like only like 13 back then.
dollartaco said:
To be fair, as noted, the wacky hyperlogic puzzles of Day of the Tentacle kinda sorta make sense in its cartoon universe. Gabriel Knight mostly takes place in reality (barring the supernatural stuff), so it sticks out way more.
It's good to hear Broken Sword is a lot more grounded in that sense. I keep harping on my friends about how great old Sierra/Lucasarts/etc. games were, and they mostly just respond that they're too difficult, or too focused on death.
You can see the new intro for the game here, looks like the game starts with Nico instead of George. It's in German but man, that music gets me feeling so nostalgic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ0n6EXpr_Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ0n6EXpr_Q
Majora said:You can see the new intro for the game here, looks like the game starts with Nico instead of George. It's in German but man, that music gets me feeling so nostalgic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ0n6EXpr_Q
Wow, Nico has a deep voice in German. Is it her or George delivering the opening monologue?
I think my chief concern from watching that is about how well the new animation is going to mesh with the old. The original Broken Sword was like playing a snazzy cartoon, but the Nico sequence looks like a stylised CG comic book (the character animation in particular looks much more computerised). I don't think it's a bad thing, I think it actually looks quite nifty, but I'm not sure whether I'll find the styles clashing.
Not too long to wait now!
Dragona Akehi
Retired
I really can't wait for this, especially after that trailer!
HyperZone<3
Member
IAmtheFMan
Member
Okay, I saw the trailer, and I want this game. I never played the original but this looks to be a classic P&C Adventure Game.
Is this more like a Lucasarts or Sierra game? Basically what I mean is, can you die and screw yourself with items like King's Quest, or do you just get stuck because you can't figure it out a la Monkey Island, Full Throttle, etc. Or is it something completely different?
Is this more like a Lucasarts or Sierra game? Basically what I mean is, can you die and screw yourself with items like King's Quest, or do you just get stuck because you can't figure it out a la Monkey Island, Full Throttle, etc. Or is it something completely different?
IAmtheFMan
Member
stuburns said:
Sweet.
Hmmm... I kinda want a King's Quest revival now.
pakkit said:
If he did, good for him.
Some of the stuff he wrote here (note: I haven't read his review) just don't make much sense:
True, it would be even more than a little ridiculous.
But this is exactly the way it SHOULD be. Judge every game by its own merits right now. Everything else is irrelevant quality-wise.
I've known people who mechanically drop off points from otherwise great games simply due to reasons like this. I just hope it didn't happen here..
Adventure games like this is a risky business these days, so to expect them to spend a bunch of money on updating something that actually looks fine already is asking a bit much. I'd rather they spend less cash to make sure they regain what they spent through the sales. It's not a huge selling genre anymore, and I think cheaper (but great) games is the way to go to slowly get the genre on its feet once more.
After all, while some of the old games did have excellent graphics for its time (outside of art direction I mean), it's certainly not the reason these games are still great. Monkey Island 2, while having a great art direction, is not up to par on the technical level, but it's still a bloody great game (imo, one of the best games ever, regardless of genre).
After all, while some of the old games did have excellent graphics for its time (outside of art direction I mean), it's certainly not the reason these games are still great. Monkey Island 2, while having a great art direction, is not up to par on the technical level, but it's still a bloody great game (imo, one of the best games ever, regardless of genre).
Minsc
Gold Member
pakkit said:
Is there really that much more they could have done graphically? I mean short of redoing the entire artwork, which is harder than making a brand new game most of the time? If the original was in 320x240 I'd probably agree 100%, but the original was already running at the Wii's native resolution more or less, so I'm just not sure how much could really be improved graphically in such a remake.