Is Edge Dead Yet? - The Bear and Badger

mistercrayon

XOMuggins wrote:

I found Bloodborne a fairly frustrating and boring experience. Didn't like Dark Souls either. Erm...

Same re bloodborne. But I only got to the first boss and thought my time was worth more than divining the characteristics of the boss when experimentation seemed to be punished but necessary and they forced a trawl through half a doz boring baddies just to try again. The general combat upto that point was mildly interesting but too involved to hold an interest for the number of times required.

mistercrayon

Ten is better than a nine. It's ridiculous to deny something a ten if it's a class above the majority of nines just because it isn't revolutionary or some such mythical beast.

Diluted Dante

10 = Ten

WorKid

hylian_elf wrote:

WorKid wrote:

The Orange Box can fuck off with its 10. Putting two 9s and an 8 on the same DVD does not make a 10.

Yes, Ep1, Ep2 and Team Fortress don't make a 10. I'm guessing the 10 was cos of HL2 and Portal.

(Scores right but) I'd take Portal as a 10, no arguments, it's sheer class. (HL2 was showing it's age but yeah its still good.)

But Edge cited value as the reason for the 10. Idiots.

Go back and give Portal a 10.

That reminds me I really should replay Portal with the kids, I think they are ready for it.

mistercrayon

Portal is four hours of tutorial missions for a half hour level though.

Facewon

Yossarian wrote:

Dinostar77 wrote:

COD4: bought mutiplayer online shooter to the masses.

Sorry, Halo 2 did that.

Saved me the trouble.

stonechalice

Yossarian wrote:

Dinostar77 wrote:

COD4: bought mutiplayer online shooter to the masses.

Sorry, Halo 2 did that.

Dinostar77

Facewon wrote:

Yossarian wrote:

Dinostar77 wrote:

COD4: bought mutiplayer online shooter to the masses.

Sorry, Halo 2 did that.

Saved me the trouble.

Did it really though? I'm talking about average joe public who hadn't heard of Halo or wouldn't touch Halo with a barge pole because of its cartoon graphics (not Halo hateing here btw). I remember when COD4 came out and people who used their consoles as dvd players were playing online. Soo many people who had no interest in gaming but made an exception for COD4. It was lighting in a bottle.

Diluted Dante

It did yes. The image of Halo was exactly the same DudeBro's who ended up on COD, who played nothing but Halo.

JonB

Mass appeal isn't something you can really include in a review though.

stonechalice

Halo 2 made me get Xbox Live. I'd already had it a good while when CoD4 came along because i knew Halo 3 was coming. Dino has a point though, I knew loads of casual beer heads that got Live just for CoD4.

g.man

Aye, big hitters but different demographics.

monkey

Halo was big for those already into games. Cod got people into games.

Diluted Dante

Again, I'd disagree. It's just that COD was on more things.

regmcfly

Sales figures seem to suggest Halo 2 sold an impressive 8 million copies.

Cod 4 sold over 18 million which is getting into the Carnival Games levels of saturation

The 'It was available on more things' argument doesn't preclude it from bringing it to more people, and I'd likely reckon the majority of sales were 360 due to the PS3 only really arriving in 2007.

hylian_elf

What's all this got to do with it being a 7 but Edge giving it a 9?

mistercrayon

Cod4 doesn't exist really without ms backing halo to work on original Xbox I reckon. Quite a gamble too halo started off as a hodgepodge from a mac only Dev (plus oni)

ShabbyMcCrabby

I started up a sub. This is on you Mugs!

Diluted Dante

regmcfly wrote:

Sales figures seem to suggest Halo 2 sold an impressive 8 million copies. Cod 4 sold over 18 million which is getting into the Carnival Games levels of saturation The 'It was available on more things' argument doesn't preclude it from bringing it to more people, and I'd likely reckon the majority of sales were 360 due to the PS3 only really arriving in 2007.

360 9.31 million, PS3 6.72 million.

Speedhaak

Edge on WoW:

It’s a game designed to exhaust the world’s supply of adjectives. It’s a world littered with riches - tiny details sewn into a vast, varied and utterly spectacular canvas. [Sept 2005, p.90]

Remember reading that like it was yesterday.

Escape

Mike stared in disbelief as his hands fell off. From them rose millions of tiny numbers. Numbers? Numbers. NUMBERS! NUMBERS! NUMBERS!... Numbers. All over the floor of the Post Office, in Leytonstone.

Numbers; ruby-red numbers; their numbers. Numbers. And piss and shit.

Something was pouring from its page. He examined his mag. Numbers?! Numbers. Maroon, Edge-smelling numbers - their numbers. Numbers. Numbers. Numbers. And bits of sick.

stonechalice

Billtong chundered violently.

Skerret

Greetings Badger.

Escape

Recently read their 2001 special before I chuck it (unless anyone wants it?), and a couple of things jumped out:

On Mario 64, Edge wrote:

The world of videogaming has just changed forever. The prospect of what Nintendo can deliver further down the line truly boggles the mind.

We're now the same distance from then that they were from Breakout. Galaxy's mid-term punctuation brings up another point (not my words, Carol):

On Mario 64, Edge also wrote:

Though far from epic in scale, SM64 manages to eke additional gameplay from each level by tasking the player with a series of challenging sub-quests.

Those worlds - for their time - were far more expansive than Galaxy's. As I've said many times (and accept it's not to the game's detriment in most eyes), Galaxy's levels were forced into space as the only way to make them pretty on its hardware. It was a design choice led by limitations, not creative vision.

Tomb Raider in 2001 retrospect:

Edge wrote:

It would be wrong to say that the Tomb Raider series gradually palled because the format became familiar. Wrong. Looking back, Lara's first outing had better set pieces and more imaginative puzzles. The dinosaur encounter and the Midas' hand conundrum still remain standout moments. While controls and animation were tweaked for subsequent iterations the level design lacked inspiration...

...The games will always sell, but many hope for a touch more imagination when Lara finally makes it onto PS2.

Absolutely nailed. The only one that came close for me was 2008's Underworld.

Tempy

The limitation thing is interesting because SM64 forces you to replay levels with new challenge because the asset cap is far lower. They had to re-use stuff, and therefore each level gets rigorous testing and exploration - you wear them out. New Mario is all about the whistle-stop tour; every level is a new idea played with and ditched instantly, which gives it a toybox feel. Neither approach is wrong, I just want them to tie them together better. Galaxy 2 is definitely a casualty here as it lacks even the enjoyable hub of Galaxy 1, and has far less ideas overall.

Old Tomb Raider is something I long to see back, but tweaked. I want the measurable jumps and clockwork controls back, but eased into a modern case. I imagine it's an almost impossible task though.

Escape

Underworld certainly delivered vintage footwork. But it pared it back to puzzles more than any other since the original.

The N64's texture limits were another Nintendo-bred handicap, aye. The SNES remains their only winner in hardware terms. The thing I don't like about Galaxy is that you're ‘on’ worlds, rather than in them. (“Jolly Roger Bay”, “Big Boo's Haunt” and “Dire, Dire Docks” are all self-contained, while “Cool, Cool Mountain” has natural cliffside boundaries.)

Hawk-Eye VR gets a mention in an “Out There” from 2003. Coming to set-top boxes in the distant future, apparently. Here's a belter:

In 2002, Edge wrote:

Games platforms gear up for online gamble

As the major console manufacturers prepare for the tardy broadband boom, Edge offers its analysis of what the major online platforms have to offer

[shortly below]

Even Nintendo, which continues to treat online gaming with some scepticism, has announced that its own network adaptor will be released before the end of the year in the US and Japan.

Classic perspicacity:

Edge wrote:

But it's worth remembering that barely a tiny minority of British households currently subscribe to broadband services (about one per cent), while only a third have access through a dial-up connection. Although analysts expect these figures to increase to meaningful levels by the year 2005, there is simply no guarantee that online gaming will provide either a stable source of revenue for Sony, a boost to market share for Microsoft, or indeed a stimulus for design innovation.

Well, they were right about the last bit.

Scotswahey

Is GamesTM still on the go?

Yossarian

I think it is merging or has merged with Edge.

Scotswahey

Seriously? Thats like Liverpool and Man Utd merging....

Escape

Saying that, I'm rereading...

2002-Edge-Retro-Magazine-Vintage-Computer-Game-Articles.jpg

And it shits all over Retro Gamer. They sourced their own photos - good ones - and went into a lot more detail. Retro Gamer's articles are largely filler; you read them and realise you've read nothing.

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