Support NeoGAF

[j0hnny_385]

Its bullshit. Its not like western games aren't full of bugs and unpolished either.

this. wtf is this thread anyway? The Witcher (yes, the first one, Enhanced Edition is fucking awesome), The Witcher 2 is a pure masterpiece and something that Bioware and Bethesda can only dream of (and I adore those two companies), Metro 2033, DiRT 3 (UK is also Euro JANK?), Serious Sam, etc.? Get real people.

 

[DodgyGeezerFella]

While i completely understand what people mean by euro-jank, lets be honest, Bethesda games are some of the most jankiest ones out there.

 

[Kong Fisso]

Eurojank

Check out the animation. Janky as all hell.

 

[leng jai]

The Two Worlds games justify the term on their own. Their levels of jankiness are in another stratosphere.

 

[Easy_D]

If Risen and STALKER are examples of Euro-Jank I think more games should have it. Both are two of the greatest games ever when it comes to exploration.

Edit: To the gentleman above - Two Worlds 2 is actually quite good, haven't encountered anything I would call "jank"y over anything I'd find in a Bethesda game. Hell so far it's even less so.

 

[lilltias]

Castles. Men on horses. Socialism.

Yeah. I mean, I'm from Sweden and I have never been to Europe. Seems like a strange little place.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

I like my Mafia and The Witcher eurojank <3

 

[Haunted]

Mafia is fairly polished, I don't think it should get the moniker. Play more 1C games to see the difference.

"Can." There are plenty of games full of the same flaws that are not as ambitious as those particular games.

That's true. Let's settle on it often being a factor, but not necessarily a requirement for euro jank.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

Mafia is fairly polished, I don't think it should get the moniker. Play more 1C games to see the difference.


That's true. Let's settle on it often being a factor, but not necessarily a requirement for euro jank.

I said that because I dont think there is an euro jank term, maybe a different approach to making games, maybe sometimes more ambitiuous that makes them be a little janky, maybe they can be realesed with no major problems. Theres a lot of types of games in europe also, and theres also bad games that are the real jank.
America and Japan have also styles of making shitty games but they are not call american jank or japanese jank.

Ive seen people call Mafia 1 janky, same with The Witcher. If calling euro jank is going to be meant for those types of games, I dont mind playing euro jank games, becuase they are truly special (the thing is, I find jank pejorative and IMO its better not to use it to call the majority of eastern european games)

 

[krzy123]

Euros make the best rpgs, euro jank or not. To me its a term that kind of meant something was pretty advanced/usually great, but still alot of missing polish.

For example see jumping in Risen and Divinity 2. Though the jump from anywhere mechanic in Divinity 2 is soo good. Also see Diablo vs. Divine Divinity.

The past year I've beaten Gothic II: Gold, Drakensang (both games + exp.), Risen and currently playing Divinity 2.

 

[Jac_Solar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuO_bb80mXw&feature=related

 

[Nabs]

Man, I wish I jumped on the Precursors deal from way back. I could use another Euro jank fix.

 

[thetrin]

Euro jank refers to a lack of focus testing and "modern" UI and tutorial design. They don't hold your hand, and often times aren't immediately intuitive.

That is euro jank.

 

[Kade]

They have crazy board games that use cards, dice, little dudes, notepads, whiteboards, currency, counters AND other board games. The instructions that come with them are tiny cards with like, two sentences on them. Imagine that, but video games. Europe is scary, man.

 

[Joe Molotov]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koTV3Rr0PKY&t=3m30s

 

[szaromir]

Eurojank

Check out the animation. Janky as all hell.

Ugh, I buried that song in my memory never to be uncovered again. Humanity should have erased every trace of it when the third millennium became official.

 

[JDSN]

Its the main output of Tripwire Interactive (Killing Floor), ironically, they are American.

 

[Lupin the Third]

euro-jank = ambitious, inspired, substantial, extremely technical game uncompromisingly designed for a specific audience who can appreciate the core experience without being pandered to with shallow embellishments or dumbed down mechanical design

ameri-jank = ****ty game

seriously though, besides being an incredibly lazy and thoughtless criticism, 'jank' is a horrible, ugly word and should never be used by anyone. it's worse than 'shmup.'

But you can't call them shooters because then people might get them confused with first-person shooters or third-person shooters!

(I like and use the term "shmup", even if no one knows what I mean by it.)

 

[Dave Long]

They were the shooters before there were first-person shooters. They will always be shooters. These other things are first-person or third-person shooters. Shmup is a wholly Eurojank concoction.

 

[Sol..]

I don't understand some of the definitions posted.

Is it a issue of quality or an issue of unnecessary depth?

Or is it both?

 

[MacBosse]

No sir, this is euro jank.

No this is euro jank (nsfw)

 

[shysaursoft]

It's just a term. It means whatever people want it to mean. Usually, people use it to express how they feel about the general quality of Euro games, the je ne sais quoi about them they can't articulate well.

Since the 90s, east-bloc games have been imaginative, with ambitions that outstrip the ability of the devs, which results in buggy and often with strange UI conventions and outdated gameplay paradigms. It's becoming less so, but there's still visible elements that make spotting a Euro game easy. Just look for bad German or Russian voice acting.

I've been playing Euro games for two decades now, and this week was the first time I ever heard the phrase "euro jank". I wonder where it originated from.

 

[IchigoSharingan]

Usually they're games that are pretty hardcore relative to other games in whatever genre they're doing (stalker, ARMA, Witcher etc).

Normally they're ambitious games that happen to have a lot of bugs and sometimes stuff like animation is really poor due to lower budgets. Much like how most western studios sacrifice ambition and gameplay for graphics and smoothness, these guys do the opposite.

Then I am a Eurojank lover forever.

 

[Spectacular Dr Dawg]

That's a pretty good summation.

Alpha Protocol often felt like it was in this vein. Instead of settling for their budget and just making Mass Effect with lower production values, they put a ton of effort into making it a really ambitious game. I'll take that, and it's European counterpart, over polished turds and pretty but paper thin games that are filled with bugs under the nice UIs anyway.

This is exactly how I feel.

No this is euro jank (nsfw)

True euro jank.

 

[Kade]

This is exactly how I feel.


True euro jank.

Good Eurojank.

 

[Teknopathetic]

"Is it a issue of quality or an issue of unnecessary depth?

Or is it both?"


Neither, at least not "quality" with regards to being a good game or not. Some people are overly defensive because they like games that could be described with the term and are pretending it means they like super deep, intelligent, ambitious games.

 

[Zing]

It was very unsettling to me that I have never heard the term "euro jank" until now, but I somehow knew exactly to what it referred.

 

[Orayn]

STALKER is the very first game I think of when I hear "Euro-jank." To me, the term generally refers to titles that are more ambitious than they are polished, excel I'm at least a few major areas, and attract fairly devoted cult followings. If anything, it reminds me of From Software, whom I consider to be the foremost purveyors of endearing, high quality "J-Jank."

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

Metro 2033's jankiness is one of the things keeping the survival horror genre alive , so I can't complain.

<3 unnecessary depth

 

[iSurvivedTheOutage]

I lol'd

 

[Dan Yo]

What is this European culture you are talking about? I am curious.

Pop culture, entertainment.

STALKER is the very first game I think of when I hear "Euro-jank." To me, the term generally refers to titles that are more ambitious than they are polished

I don't think level of ambition is normally a precursor for a game being euro jank. A game could be unambitious as shit and still be euro jank.

 

[saunderez]

Metro 2033's jankiness is one of the things keeping the survival horror genre alive , so I can't complain.

<3 unnecessary depth

What's janky about Metro 2033? I'm playing through it again right now and it's very polished and practically bug free. There's no unnecessary or overly complicated game systems either, everything has its place. It definitely feels like a European game but it's not janky in the slightest.

 

[djtiesto]

Sounds like a new type of dance music. Thats, what, the 4th this month?

I'm still trying to get caught up on autonomic drum & bass, lol.

imagine a game where you have to scroll through a text menu to open a door or 20 different commands to manipulate a gun, none of which are "fire it"

you now know eurojank

The early DQ games are now eurojank?

I don't know much about eastern euro gaming, honest (you guys will always be #1 for women though). Only eastern euro games I've played are the 2 Witcher games. And there was nothing in those games that were any worse than say, Mass Effect 1 or the Bethesda games. Sluggish framerate in certain parts of Witcher 1, and weird, stiff movement in both games... I tend to prefer mechanically refined Japanese games, which seem to be quite the opposite of your guys definition of "eurojank" though.

 

[R1CHO]

 

[Pinko Marx]

Well played. I giggled a little.

 

[Jake Tower]

Is that a screen from Game Dev Story?