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[British Monsoon]

Couldn't find a thread already, so here's some snippets and scores from the latest EDGE;

Hype

. L.A. Noire (360, PS3)
. Operation Flashpoint: Red River (360, PS3)
. Dirt 3 (360, PC, PS3)
. Dead Space 2 (360, PS3)
. Battlefield Play4Free (PC)
. Need For Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed (360, PC, PS3)
. Darkspore (PC)
. Rift: Planes of Telara (PC)
. Anomaly: Warzone Earth (iPhone, Mac, PC)
. YooStar 2 (360)
. Fight Night Champion (360, PS3)
. The Sims Medieval (Mac, PC)

Articles

. Uncharted 3 - Secrets & Lies (cover).
. Wish you were here? A new era for PC graphics.
. Credit Report - the state of modern arcades.
. An Audience With... Jonathan Blow & Chris Hecker.

Time Extended

. Guitar Hero

The Making Of...

. The X-Files

The EDGE Awards 2010

Best Game (mainstream)
. Super Mario Galaxy 2
. Rock Band 3
. Bayonetta

Best Game (indie)
. Minecraft
. Super Meat Boy
. Neptune's Pride

Best Visual Design
. Red Dead Redemption
. Bayonetta
. Limbo

Best Audio Design
. Red Dead Redemption
. Limbo
. Sid Meier's Civilization V

Best Online Experience
. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
. Halo: Reach
. Need For Speed Hot Pursuit

Best Developer
. Platinum Games
. Blizzard
. Harmonix Music Systems

Best Publisher
. Electronic Arts
. SEGA
. PopCap

Best Hardware
. iPhone
. Kinect
. Move

The Alternative EDGE Awards 2010

Most Unrelenting Violence
Kirby's Epic Yarn

Best Bugs
Fallout: New Vegas

Most Effective Tool For Ruining Friendships
Neptune's Pride

Most Aggravating Shopping Experience
Heavy Rain

Mightiest Flanks
Red Dead Redemption

Best Gateway Drug
Toy Story 3

Furriest Fur
Kinectimals

Slightest Return
APB

Wettest Game
Hydrophobia

Most Alternative Ego
Deadly Premonition

Most Transformative Update
Red Dead Redemption

Most People Saying "Fisher" Angrily
Splinter Cell: Conviction

Most Controllers Thrown at the TV
Demon's Souls

Most Poignant Reminder of Reality
Kinect

Most Excitable Commentator
Husky

Reviews

. Gran Turismo 5 - [7]

In spite of it's foibles, by sheer brute force of content and an overhauled physics engine Gran Turismo 5 fulfils it's primary objectives. It's a virtual matchbox collection, and much of the pleasure comes from shopping and tinkering, and then feeling the results as you push the car out on the circuit. But this is a production that feels increasingly aged in the face of modern game design. The creeping and eventually overriding feeling is that this meticulously precise simulation, and it's lovingly constructed catalogue of automotive history, deserved a little more game to come along for the ride

. Epic Mickey - [7]

An exhibit as much as a game and a skewed amble through animation history as much as an exercise in interactive storytelling, Epic Mickey may not always be entirely satisfying to play, but it's still enormously interesting to wander around with an eye open for the detailing.

. Call of Duty: Black Ops - [7]

As polished and pretty and fun as Black Ops often is, it feels more like a yearly update than a sequel, a new campaign with old multiplayer. The game isn't distinct from it's predecessors in any important way, and fatigue sets in quicker than before.

. Tron: Evolution - [5]

There is merit here which could have emerged after a longer gestation, but it's premature release has ensured that it's potential is largely de-rezzed.

. Splatterhouse - [5]

What we're left with is an update that is out of date, a re-imagining without enough imagination. To be this simplistic, the game needed a masterful melee system and a range of inspiring enemies; it tries, but it doesn't fully deliver on either count.

. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 1 - [3]

It's hard to come away from this without a sense of persecution. It isn't just that it's a poor game, it's that it thinks it's good enough to survive on the coat-tails of it's licence - and that you won't have the wherewithal to discriminate.

. Dead Nation - [5]

The peerless control offered by the genre's move & shoot mechanics feels compromised by the grimy world, so while Dead Nation is still entirely playable, it feels trapped in a disappointing limbo.

. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn - [8]

An intelligent combat system, then, but one for which Camelot fails to find a suitable threat. Bar a few bosses, Dark Dawn is a pushover, never requiring you to brave the combat's depths.

. Hydroventure - [8]

While Hydroventure shares many of the long-standing criticisms of the Metroid series, it also shares most of it's strengths. The world is similarly intricately designed, granting a sense of satisfaction and progress and you slowly tame it by mastering your many powers.

. Ilomilo - [6]

While Ilomilo's calculated oddness may ultimately fall flat, it's most intelligent puzzles embrace three dimensions surprisingly well.

. Mario vs Donkey Kong: Miniland Mayhem - [7]

Despite a fiddly control scheme, in taking away direct control Miniland Mayhem has intensified the appeal to players' protective instinct which exists at the heart of the series.

 

[Empty]

galaxy 2 for game of the year and platinum as dev of the year. i approve.

 

[Ashes]

I agree with Edge.... For the most part!

 

[LCfiner]

Most Aggravating Shopping Experience
Heavy Rain

made me lol.

nice alternative awards. I always enjoy those more than the regular old goty stuff each year

 

[Dabanton]

Looks like a good issue.

 

[kinggroin]

Iphone 4 best hardware?

 

[opticalmace]

Nicely organized OP. The scores make sense.

Looking forward to playing GT5 over Christmas and then reading the review.

 

[snap0212]

As polished and pretty and fun as Black Ops often is,

 

[Dennis]

:lol Bayonetta

EDGE credibility ruined.

Seriously though, I cannot fathom the praise for Bayonneta.

And Edge is more out of thouch with gaming than ever before. UK gaming and in general. Last bastion of 'japanese games are just better'

 

[Tricky I Shadow]

So Epic Mickey is on par with Donkey Kong Country Returns? GTFO EDGE! :lol

 

[Volcynika]

Seriously though, I cannot fathom the praise for Bayonneta.

Sucks for you!

 

[vodka-bull]

Totally agree with EDGE on golden sun, it's a perfect game, albeit it's really not necessary to activate dschinns and other psynergies outside of boss battles. Thus, the depth of the combat system is more of a additional bonus than a mandatory tool.

And I can agree on BLOPS too. It's getting too boring too fast, the campaign is pathetic and the multiplayer is as good as it could be after Infinity Ward left activision.

Didn't play the other games though.

 

[ASIS]

:lol Bayonetta

EDGE credibility ruined.

Seriously though, I cannot fathom the praise for Bayonneta.

And Edge is more out of thouch with gaming than ever before. UK gaming and in general. Last bastion of 'japanese games are just better'

Have you tried getting platinum medals in any levels outside the first one? If you did that and still didn't have fun then I'm at loss for words :/

 

[U2NUMB]

Most Transformative Update
Red Dead Redemption


I know this is sort of their joking section of awards and I am hardly a WOW player but I would say their update to the game is of much larger scale.

But overall they are spot on.

 

[Vinterbird]

So Epic Mickey is on par with Donkey Kong Country Returns? GTFO out EDGE! :lol

Don't do that please..

 

[Volcynika]

So Epic Mickey is on par with Donkey Kong Country Returns? GTFO out EDGE! :lol

get the fuck out out edge?

 

[Tricky I Shadow]

:lol Bayonetta

EDGE credibility ruined.

Seriously though, I cannot fathom the praise for Bayonneta.

And Edge is more out of thouch with gaming than ever before. UK gaming and in general. Last bastion of 'japanese games are just better'

That’s rich coming from someone with a Mass Effect avatar. Bayonetta has perfect controls/gameplay......something Mass Effect wishes it had.

get the fuck out out edge?

LOL, I should go to bed. Fixed!

 

[Trickster]

:lol Bayonetta

EDGE credibility ruined.

Seriously though, I cannot fathom the praise for Bayonneta.

And Edge is more out of thouch with gaming than ever before. UK gaming and in general. Last bastion of 'japanese games are just better'

I'm curious, have you played bayonetta? Asking because I thought you were a pc only guy.

I guess I could also ask if you like other games in the same genre as beyonetta?

 

[Ruud_Luiten]

This month EDGE is a good boy, next month -with a few bad ratings- EDGE will be terrible again. I love that!

 

[jon bones]

:lol Bayonetta

i'm a huge critic of bayonetta but even i can see how well the game was made and how much fun it is to play

 

[Dabanton]

:lol Bayonetta

EDGE credibility ruined.

Seriously though, I cannot fathom the praise for Bayonneta.

This isn't the first time i've seen you go at Bayonetta.

What is your problem with it?

 

[Dabanton]

Iphone 4 best hardware?

The app store games are amazing. This year it has exploded into a very capable gaming machine.

I'll add iPod Touch and iPad to that as well as they are all connected.

 

[Shurs]

Don't do that please..

I can understand why it would be foolish to compare score across publications, generations, platforms or genres. I think it would be dumb to compare the scores of ilomilo and Resident Evil 4, for example.

These reviews are a month apart, in a similar genres on the same platform.

I don't see what is so terrible in comparing them.

 

[jarosh]

epic mickey deserves an edge 4 or 3, not a 7. it's a fucking disaster of a game. never fun, fundamentally broken and ass ugly. you spend more time looking at quest update notifications and camera pans than playing the game. and what you play is dull dull dull. one tedious and nonsensical fetch quest after another, interrupted by inane, throwaway 2d platforming sequences with yawn-inducing, braindead level design. and even the music sucked. i thought for a long time metroid other m would be my personal worst game of the year - and it certainly set the bar low - but then i played epic mickey. oh boy.

 

[Stink]

:lol Bayonetta

EDGE credibility ruined.

DennisK4 :lol

 

[Dabanton]

Is Epic Mickey that bad? i stopped following updates about it months ago when it was looking like it wasn't going to be as dark as i hoped...

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

Best Online Experience
. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty

Fucking trolls!

 

[Prime crotch]

epic mickey deserves an edge 4 or 3, not a 7. it's a fucking disaster of a game. never fun, fundamentally broken and ass ugly. you spend more time looking at quest update notifications and camera pans than playing the game. and what you play is dull dull dull. one tedious and nonsensical fetch quest after another, interrupted by inane, throwaway 2d platforming sequences with yawn-inducing, braindead level design. and even the music sucked. i thought for a long time metroid other m would be my personal worst game of the year - and it certainly set the bar low - but then i played epic mickey. oh boy.

what the hell, Epic Mickey sucked? I am way out of the game

:lol Bayonetta

EDGE credibility ruined.

Seriously though, I cannot fathom the praise for Bayonneta.

And Edge is more out of thouch with gaming than ever before. UK gaming and in general. Last bastion of 'japanese games are just better'

I'm sorry all games dont look as visualy boring as Two Worlds deux

 

[GaimeGuy]

epic mickey deserves an edge 4 or 3, not a 7. it's a fucking disaster of a game. never fun, fundamentally broken and ass ugly. you spend more time looking at quest update notifications and camera pans than playing the game. and what you play is dull dull dull. one tedious and nonsensical fetch quest after another, interrupted by inane, throwaway 2d platforming sequences with yawn-inducing, braindead level design. and even the music sucked. i thought for a long time metroid other m would be my personal worst game of the year - and it certainly set the bar low - but then i played epic mickey. oh boy.

 

[Dennis]

Look, Bayonetta is a competent action game in the style of DMC. I can give it that.

But the ridiculous visual design is so bad that it ruins the game for me. I feel like gaming takes one step forward and then Bayonetta makes gaming take two steps back.

And I admit that having something like Bayonetta mentioned as GOTY along side games such as SMG2, RDR and Mass Effect 2 makes me despair.

Edit: I played Bayonetta on PS3.

 

[nincompoop]

Nice to see Fluidity/Hydroventure getting some love... but then again, Curve studios is based in London so coming from Edge it's not exactly unexpected :lol

 

[Tricky I Shadow]

epic mickey deserves an edge 4 or 3, not a 7. it's a fucking disaster of a game. never fun, fundamentally broken and ass ugly. you spend more time looking at quest update notifications and camera pans than playing the game. and what you play is dull dull dull. one tedious and nonsensical fetch quest after another, interrupted by inane, throwaway 2d platforming sequences with yawn-inducing, braindead level design. and even the music sucked. i thought for a long time metroid other m would be my personal worst game of the year - and it certainly set the bar low - but then i played epic mickey. oh boy.

Agreed! I played it recently at a friends house for about 10 minutes before I couldn’t force myself to keep going. It’s just horrible. Pretty much everything about it was borderline broken.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

This isn't the first time i've seen you go at Bayonetta.

What is your problem with it?

Is not in PC.

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

Most Transformative Update
Red Dead Redemption


I know this is sort of their joking section of awards and I am hardly a WOW player but I would say their update to the game is of much larger scale.

But overall they are spot on.

Is Cataclysm transformative, or iterative and streamlined?

 

[LCfiner]

Look, Bayonetta is a competent action game in the style of DMC. I can give it that.

But the ridiculous visual design is so bad that it ruins the game for me. I feel like gaming takes one step forward and then Bayonetta makes gaming take two steps back.

And I admit that having something like Bayonetta mentioned as GOTY along side games such as SMG2, RDR and Mass Effect 2 makes me despair.

that's how I felt about MGS4. I thought I was taking crazy pills when people kept praising the story (awful) and gameplay (meh). eventually I got over it.

Bayonetta is one of those games that seemingly gets the combat so right that it's enough to get past the cheesy-as-hell art design.

 

[Morbid Angel]

Fucking trolls!

What?

 

[vodka-bull]

Look, Bayonetta is a competent action game in the style of DMC. I can give it that.

But the ridiculous visual design is so bad that it ruins the game for me. I feel like gaming takes one step forward and then Bayonetta makes gaming take two steps back.

And I admit that having something like Bayonetta mentioned as GOTY along side games such as SMG2, RDR and Mass Effect 2 makes me despair.

Edit: I played Bayonetta on PS3.

Judging Bayonetta by its visuals is so wrong...

 

[ksan]

Personally I believe this is as close as you can get to a perfect list for this year if you only look at the winners and not the nominations.

 

[jon bones]

But the ridiculous visual design is so bad

you're right - it's so bad... but the fundamental gameplay is very, very tight. i'm with you 100% - but instead of letting it ruin the game for me, i just dismiss the terrible visual design and have fun killing shit.

taking gaming back two steps :lol come on man not all games have to be portal/braid and push envelopes

 

[slaughterking]

Good to see Platinum getting the recognition they deserve. Now if I only could get me to like Infinite Space! >:I

 

[Arnie]

These reviews are a month apart, in a similar genres on the same platform.

I don't see what is so terrible in comparing them.

Because even then there are a wealth of factors which contribute to the overall score that are completely exclusive to each particular game.

From the sounds of that conclusion EDGE were impressed with the amount of history and research that went into the creation of Epic Mickey and were interested in this whilst playing it. If this was such a fundamental part of their overall experience with the game and contributed so heavily to the final score they gave it how then can it be compared to DKC.

 

[Stumpokapow]

These reviews are a month apart, in a similar genres on the same platform.

I don't see what is so terrible in comparing them.

Well, for one, it isn't simply comparing them, it's a "X > Y? U SUCK!!!!!!" one-line troll-and-run. So it's a shitty post. So people shouldn't do it. I realize it's hard to make a more detailed reply when you only have a one line excerpt of a review, but that's not an argument for making a one-line troll reply, that's an argument for not replying at all.

But secondly, the same score doesn't mean the same opinion--they're giving Epic Mickey a very good score on the basis that the interesting world more than makes up for deficiencies in gameplay. I haven't even seen the DKCR review and I'm going to go ahead and say that that's not what they said about it. EDGE amongst all outlets tends to be more holistic with their scoring, and frequently score games as being greater than the sum of their parts or lesser than the sum of their parts. That Epic Mickey quote very clearly indicates they feel the game is greater than the sum of its parts.

One of my favourite games of all time is Actraiser. It's got a stiff, not particularly great platformer, and a linear, not particularly deep simulation mode, combined into one game. If anyone were to say that Actraiser is a better platformer than, say, Super Mario World, they'd be nuts. But I think it's a better game because it synthesizes its constituent elements so well that the product rises far above the limitations of its gameplay modes.

It's not hard to imagine how someone might feel the same way about Epic Mickey, despite control and camera issues.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Good shit Platinum!

 

[Visualante]

Sweet issue, guess mine won't arrive due to snow.

 

[Trickster]

Judging Bayonetta by its visuals is so wrong...

This is DennisK4 you're talking about :lol

 

[dimb]

that's how I felt about MGS4. I thought I was taking crazy pills when people kept praising the story (awful) and gameplay (meh). eventually I got over it.

Bayonetta is one of those games that seemingly gets the combat so right that it's enough to get past the cheesy-as-hell art design.

But the art in Bayonetta is actually really well done, particularly that of the enemies and the environments.

 

[Htown]

Oh, so Hydroventure is Fluidity, right? I had no idea that game was like... Metroid? Need more damn Wii points.

 

[mescalineeyes]

yay, they remembered sc2 exists!

 

[Shurs]

Well, for one, it isn't simply comparing them, it's a "X > Y? U SUCK!!!!!!" one-line troll-and-run. So it's a shitty post. So people shouldn't do it. I realize it's hard to make a more detailed reply when you only have a one line excerpt of a review, but that's not an argument for making a one-line troll reply, that's an argument for not replying at all.

But secondly, the same score doesn't mean the same opinion--they're giving Epic Mickey a very good score on the basis that the interesting world more than makes up for deficiencies in gameplay. I haven't even seen the DKCR review and I'm going to go ahead and say that that's not what they said about it. EDGE amongst all outlets tends to be more holistic with their scoring, and frequently score games as being greater than the sum of their parts or lesser than the sum of their parts. That Epic Mickey quote very clearly indicates they feel the game is greater than the sum of its parts.

One of my favourite games of all time is Actraiser. It's got a stiff, not particularly great platformer, and a linear, not particularly deep simulation mode, combined into one game. If anyone were to say that Actraiser is a better platformer than, say, Super Mario World, they'd be nuts. But I think it's a better game because it synthesizes its constituent elements so well that the product rises far above the limitations of its gameplay modes.

It's not hard to imagine how someone might feel the same way about Epic Mickey, despite control and camera issues.

I'm not going to argue this into the ground, as I don't care what the scores of the games are, nor have I played them. I don't think that Edge rated them too high or low. The scores are the opinion of either the individual reviewer or the outlet, depending on how they assign their scores and, therefore, are "just right" as far as I'm concerned.

The argument I was trying to make -- and bear with me, because I just woke up -- is that if an outlet has a review scale that presumably speaks to the overall quality of the games to which the scores are assigned, I don't find it unreasonable to compare the scores of the games as a judgement of their overall quality relative to one another, regardless of how the final score was arrived upon.

Obviously, I feel the text of the review is more important than the actual score, and I would encourage everyone to read the reviews before judging the scores.

Wow, I'm rambling this morning. Did any of that make sense?

 

[Kuran]

He has no hips at all.