Topic: PlayStation4 - News/Rumor/Speculation - Over 1 Million Sold on Day 1

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

I found that I can't think about how much I spend on gaming in terms of value, I collect more than I play that is for sure. The only hobby I ever got into that didn't eat up all my free money was Dungeons and Dragons, and that is because I stick to one rule set for damn near a decade and I rarely buy supplements. Then I discovered Magic the gathering, used to be addicted to trading cards back in the 90s so the bug bit me again and wow now there is a hobby that is not worth the money for what you get.

[Soren]

The Order 1886. Such sweet sweet schadenfreude. The entire narrative of marketing is being controlled by a YouTube let's player and review embargoes are keeping game journalism outlets from properly commenting on the issues until Thursday.

[BranDonk Kong]

I heard it's a 5 hour game.

[Soren]

I heard it might be worth your time, but you gotta wait until Thursday for the review embargo to lift.

[broodwars]

I heard it's a 5 hour game.

I've also heard it's an 8 hour game, and a 12 hour game, and a 15 hour game. It depends on who you talk to. Suffice it to say that 5.5 hour completion time you see quoted everywhere is from a Youtube speedrunner who skipped all skippable story content and did no exploration. They just ran through the levels without dying. The typical timeframe for people who actually play through the game normally seems to be about 8 hours or so, which is fine by me.

Honestly, the complaints over completion time have to be some of the most idiotic I've seen in a while. It's like the internet was experiencing a shortage of things to bitch about. So long as you find the experience enjoyable and worth your time, I don't think the completion time altogether matters. It's especially hilarious seeing the press jump onboard this gravy train considering so many of them also bitched about Alien Isolation being TOO LONG at 12-15 hours last October.

As for that speedrunner, I think uploading an entire game to youtube before the game's even out is a particularly dickish thing to do. I hear Sony took the videos down, and I can't say I blame them.

[Shaymin]

People here already got the game (Best Buy/Shop of the Future shipped them Monday thinking it was a Tuesday release). I look forward to finding used copies Thursday.

[broodwars]

The latest Penny Arcade comic sums up my position on this "issue" pretty accurately:

[oohhboy]

So nothing wrong with the review embargo right guys? It's ok to do that but not post a video of you playing the game? Its almost like "Gaming media" is nothing more than a PR arm extension enabled by the very consumers of said products.

[Ian Sane]

Suffice it to say that 5.5 hour completion time you see quoted everywhere is from a Youtube speedrunner who skipped all skippable story content and did no exploration. They just ran through the levels without dying.

Playing a game like that seems nutty to me but it isn't as uncommon as I'd expect.  Too often I read comments where people are happy that a game lets you skip the cutscenes.  I think that's great on a replay and it's a must if the cutscene replays every time you die.  But I've seen it get brought up as a good thing because the person wants to skip them to get back to playing.  What is the point of playing if it's just some checkbox on your "to do" list?  "Yep, beat it.  On to the next game."  If you're just powering through games I'd say you're playing games wrong.  If you're going to play like that you might as well stick to shmups and Atari 2600 games.  Does someone who plays like that even see the levels as locations and the enemies as creatures or is it just some obstacle course that might as well just be undetailed gray polygons?

[Soren]

So nothing wrong with the review embargo right guys? It's ok to do that but not post a video of you playing the game? Its almost like "Gaming media" is nothing more than a PR arm extension enabled by the very consumers of said products.

That's what I love about this whole issue. Predictably, this whole mess has turned into the same stupid argument about game length (oh hey look at all the posts above mine), when it should be sparking a more thorough debate about publisher-controlled pre-release narrative, review embargos and marketing in general. But let's talk about how that YouTuber is "playing the game the wrong way", as if there's only one right way to play games.


Ready at Dawn never wanted us to talk about game length, quick-time events and reused boss fights. We keep letting devs and pubs get away with the same **** because we like it when we get screwed, apparently.

[MagicCow64]

Well put, Soren.

Also, just for the sake of argument since it came up, that 5.5 hour The Order video was not actually a speedrun from what I read from commentary about it. Apparently the player didn't linger in non-interactive areas or read journal entries, but was otherwise just playing through on normal, died plenty of times, messed around in spots. etc.

[broodwars]

So nothing wrong with the review embargo right guys? It's ok to do that but not post a video of you playing the game? Its almost like "Gaming media" is nothing more than a PR arm extension enabled by the very consumers of said products.

Frankly, I'm not fond of this review embargo, or that the game's coming out on Friday for that matter. The stores already have the game. I confirmed that with my local GS. They're holding it for Friday because....reasons. The game's out in the wild and on Youtube. The damage has been done. Just allow stores to sell the damn thing, and allow reviewers to talk about it.

[Ian Sane]

Review embargo, at least if it is pushed until the last minute, is usually code for "we know our game sucks."  It usually means the publisher is concerned that the reviews won't be favourable and will hurt sales if published prior to release.

A review typically needs a pre-release copy of the game.  The only way to get that is from the publishers.  If you don't play ball with the publishers you don't get a review copy.  So an embargo seems like a reasonably fair trade-off for getting an early copy for free.  But then why couldn't a publisher demand that they only get favourable reviews or they'll not provide review copies?  Take it to that extreme and the reviews are worthless.  It's a tricky balancing act.

[broodwars]

Review embargo, at least if it is pushed until the last minute, is usually code for "we know our game sucks."  It usually means the publisher is concerned that the reviews won't be favourable and will hurt sales if published prior to release.

Well, this review embargo isn't "last minute", like AC Unity was 12 hours after release last year. This one lifts tomorrow and the game comes out on Friday.

[broodwars]

Well, The Order reviews embargo dropped and the end result is about what I expected after the last week: scores varying wildly between as low as an 5.5 from Polygon to an 8.2 from Gametrailers. As I feared, the central complaint seems to be the standard shooting gameplay, something that's bothered me every time Sony's put a 5 second FMV up on stage at trade shows instead of gameplay demos. That said, the Gametrailers review was written by Daniel Bloodworth and my tastes & feelings on games tend to line up with his. I think I'll stick with my Order...well, "order."

[Ceric]

Well, The Order reviews embargo dropped and the end result is about what I expected after the last week: scores varying wildly between as low as an 5.5 from Polygon to an 8.2 from Gametrailers. As I feared, the central complaint seems to be the standard shooting gameplay, something that's bothered me every time Sony's put a 5 second FMV up on stage at trade shows instead of gameplay demos. That said, the Gametrailers review was written by Daniel Bloodworth and my tastes & feelings on games tend to line up with his. I think I'll stick with my Order...well, "order."

NWR Alum Daniel Bloodworth?

[broodwars]

Well, The Order reviews embargo dropped and the end result is about what I expected after the last week: scores varying wildly between as low as an 5.5 from Polygon to an 8.2 from Gametrailers. As I feared, the central complaint seems to be the standard shooting gameplay, something that's bothered me every time Sony's put a 5 second FMV up on stage at trade shows instead of gameplay demos. That said, the Gametrailers review was written by Daniel Bloodworth and my tastes & feelings on games tend to line up with his. I think I'll stick with my Order...well, "order."

NWR Alum Daniel Bloodworth?

I believe so, yes. He's mentioned Nintendo World Report a few times on Gametrailers' weekly video podcast GT Time.

[broodwars]

I have finished The Order: 1886, and despite some issues with the ending overall I rather enjoyed the game. It's polished as ****, the combat's thoroughly competent, and the QTEs are WAY less intrusive than the reviews led me to believe. The reviews make the game sound like a David Cage production, but I found them to be at worst around Uncharted level. In fact, the game in general reminds me a lot of the first Uncharted: very rough around the edges in place, but a solid foundation for a potentially awesome sequel that corrects many of the first game's issues.

And for the record, I don't feel the least bit cheated by the run time. I found it about standard length for a shooter, and I actually paid more for it than most people will since I got the $80 LE w/ the humongous Gallahad statue.

[lolmonade]

And for the record, I don't feel the least bit cheated by the run time. I found it about standard length for a shooter, and I actually paid more for it than most people will since I got the $80 LE w/ the humongous Gallahad statue.

I never get the game length argument.  You can't always take the value of a game based solely on dollars/hour.  Some of the best gaming experiences can be sub-10 hours.  Even if you assume The Order has an average 6 hr run length, that's $10/hour of game entertainment, still better than a lot of other mediums.


That said, Similarities to Uncharted tell me it's a "wait for it to be $20 or on PS+" decision for me.  Just not a type of game I can play often.

[ObbyDent]

Itsd not similar to Uncharted, its far more comparable to Gears of War. More like games of yore amirite

[broodwars]

Itsd not similar to Uncharted, its far more comparable to Gears of War. More like games of yore amirite

The UI is pretty much identical to Uncharted/The Last of Us; the way the game moves between "cutscene -> walk & examine -> gunfight" is similar to Uncharted/The Last of Us; the way collectibles are scattered around is similar to Uncharted/The Last of Us; and the general gunplay and how enemies move & flank (especially the shotgunners) is very similar to Uncharted/The Last of Us. There's even a little bit of climbing & traversal similar to Uncharted/The Last of Us, though nowhere near to the absurd degrees that Drake does.  Gallahad moves with a great deal more weight than Drake or Joel does, so the game has a different feel to it than Naughty Dog's work, but the similarities are striking.

Honestly, the only similarity it bears to the Gears series is a vague visual one, and the Gears series wishes it had this quality of art design/character design. Plus...yeah, the voice acting in The Order is on a completely different level than something like Gears.

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

I just discovered another great benefit of PS4 and PS Plus, they let you back up your game saves to the cloud and you can re-download them latter that is awesome does PS3 have that same feature because if it does I am taking advantage of it.

[Shaymin]

Yes it does. My Tales of Symphonia save sits in the cloud while I wait for April to pick up a new PS3.

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

I had to initialize the PS4 to wipe the storage to, hopefully, fix Minecraft crashing on me. I didn't have a spare hard drive easy to get to so I was so happy to learn to there was a cloud back up solution.

[Dasmos]

Definitely thought Sony's conference was better than Microsoft's.

Had a few cool surprises, and it's good to see The Last Guardian back.

And lol at the Uncharted demo fucking up. At least it wasn't scripted.