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Post by Atma on Jun 1, 2009 10:18:28 GMT -5
What the hell did I just read. Amazing.
Nice to see these glorious wastes of programming finally up here.
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Post by zzz on Jun 1, 2009 10:29:03 GMT -5
i'll admit i have a problem: my idol is Chuck Klosterman. yeah, the guy who wanted a Lester Bangs of gaming journalism. which isn't what i'm trying to be, trust me. i realize pop culture references won't go over so well here, but i do like to write to a slightly broad audience. believe it or not, i also write "offensive" jokes i don't think are terribly funny for the same reason. but, i know that jokes like that appeal to such as the VG Cats crowd, so I throw them in. hell, i thought dick jokes died with Seanbaby circa 2002, but he was still making them in 2008 and STILL about Phil Collins, so they still HAVE to be solid gold. right? Well... Well, cheers on expressing yourself! If you welcome feedback, please allow me to bring up a specific potential issue. You mentioned your jokes and pop references aim for broader audiences, but it seems to me they appeal to much tighter, narrower groups you seem to befriend since half the pop culture names you bring up completely elude me (perhaps because I wasn't raised in the U.S.) and the humor just isn't my taste. In any way, but you can see that you are leaving some of us out already instead of getting a broader audience. The other thing is that I didn't really learn the basics about the series. I really don't care about character profiles, what their favorite color is, and how much they weight; but I do think that some fundamental information regarding the game's different aspects is missing. Anyway, thanks for your attention. Everybody has their own style, but I'm willing to bet your article would fit better among your particular group of friends. For now, I guess I'll have to find out about the Time Killers series somewhere else. Here's the thing: There's really nothing to say about Time Killers except that it's really violent, and really bloody, and really gorey, and really stupid. And that's exactly what he said. So why not try to make it entertaining in the process? Where the problem comes in is that 1) some of it (i.e. the Contra part) went too far with being vulgar for vulgarity's sake, and 2) a lot of it is way off topic. Making pop culture references - even bad ones - is perfectly acceptible if you can in some way do so within the context of dicussing the game. The intro and the part about Time Killers do this well (most of the time). The Ninja Clowns part completely fails at this. The difference between the two is that the former is providing context (by describing the mindset that led to games like this and Mortal Kombat to begin with), while the latter is just pointless pop culture references and dick jokes for their own sake.
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Post by Revolver Ocelot on Jun 1, 2009 10:51:20 GMT -5
Someone tried to channel Seanbaby, and failed...
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Post by Ganelon on Jun 1, 2009 11:57:49 GMT -5
Good job, mercatfat. The style suits the games.
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Post by mercatfat on Jun 1, 2009 13:44:46 GMT -5
Someone tried to channel Seanbaby, and failed... no, i didn't. well, try to channel him, that is. the failure is debatable. but i appreciate the sentiment. the contra part was extremely extreme, i'll admit. it's also knowingly vulgar, but that's missing the point. when i look at what modern game design involving tough dudes has become, that's basically i see. a giant masturbatory mess of men who secretly love each other, but instead choose to pursue a shallow, meaningless personal existence other than kicking ass with overcompensatingly heavy hardware. the ultimate in Brotoculture. i tried to make sure that this was clear in the third paragraph, but eh. i'm comparing with the original version of the Ninja Clowns article and i'm realizing some serious problems in transition simply because it's missing pictures that wrote a paragraph in themselves. the worst example is under "beard me up buttercup," which had the comic-book style plot advancement between the first and second paragraph. without it, it's suddenly an incredibly awkward transition. also problematic is the ending picture is in the sidebar, but it was crucial to one of the concluding paragraphs. in short, if the missing pictures are restored to their proper places, i'd really like it to have a second look taken at it. the sparseness alone is killing me. and thanks to everyone that pointed out how little there is to say about these games so i didn't have to. in all truth, the screenshots and gifs say so much more than the article ever could. nevertheless, the first two games are an important part of early 90s gaming history and violent excess, so i feel they deserve a look. edited to fix one of the links.
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Post by savagepencil on Jun 1, 2009 14:00:40 GMT -5
I didn't learn anything about those games from that article. All I got was an edgy ("'nuff said!") ego-trip that didn't talk about the game mechanics or anything. I don't mind a little rose-tinted nostalgia in the HG101 articles, but this was a waste of time.
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Post by jorpho on Jun 1, 2009 14:31:44 GMT -5
Here's the thing: There's really nothing to say about Time Killers except that it's really violent, and really bloody, and really gorey, and really stupid. And that's exactly what he said. So why not try to make it entertaining in the process? But there have been reviews of profoundly awful games on HG101 before - Hoshi wo Miru Hito, for example. I have found such articles to be constructive and informative. If there are going to be more articles like this, perhaps they should go in their own section, as has been done with the Cranky Gamers reviews. It could be called "Funny Gamers" - you know, so that people will know they're funny. in short, if the missing pictures are restored to their proper places, i'd really like it to have a second look taken at it. the sparseness alone is killing me. Seriously, the pictures won't help unless they cover up the text. If the sparseness is killing you, maybe you should fix the writing!
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Post by TheGunheart on Jun 1, 2009 14:33:45 GMT -5
The pictures don't really say anything to me. They tell me it it's far more cartoony than Mortal Kombat, but that's about it. I would've greatly preferred something akin to zzz's article on pre-Street Fighter 2 fighting games, which actually gave an idea how each one played and did a good job explaining their faults. The pictures of Pit Fighter alone tell you what's wrong with the game, but he still managed to give it a good rundown on how it actually played.
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Post by mercatfat on Jun 1, 2009 15:46:34 GMT -5
for the record, i'm going to be revising the articles to add a bit more discussion about the mechanics of the games. there isn't a lot to say, but i can do that for you lovely chaps.
i'm also well aware that my style isn't going to appeal to everyone, and that's fine. just for christ's sake, don't compare me to Family Guy; or for that matter pretend that i'm leaning on pop culture references just because there's a couple peppered throughout.
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Post by megatronbison on Jun 1, 2009 15:51:52 GMT -5
Well, I did try to read it but tbh the game and the writing style weren't for me so I'll pass.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2009 16:00:33 GMT -5
It was more than a couple references. The entirety of the article relied upon them. Like a short, bald man outside a club, leaning against his Charger.
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Post by jorpho on Jun 1, 2009 16:27:47 GMT -5
It was more than a couple references. The entirety of the article relied upon them. Like a short, bald man outside a club, leaning against his Charger. Seconded. I find the Family Guy comparison to be apt and appropriate, unlike pretty much any comparison to be found in the article. I'll be quiet now.
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Post by TheGunheart on Jun 1, 2009 17:56:56 GMT -5
But there have been reviews of profoundly awful games on HG101 before - Hoshi wo Miru Hito, for example. I have found such articles to be constructive and informative. And let's not forget Bubsy, either. Just to give a constructive example of how it could be improved, let's look at the one-hit-kill mechanic. A well written article would've gone back and elaborated further on it: what triggers it? Can it only be used in the third round? Does the game even pretend to balance it? It'd help if the character bios took some time out of their rapid fire pop-culture references to actually mention their one-hit-kills for emphasis. It might sound silly to you, but the point in many of the articles on this site is not only to entertain, but also to be informative. I'm not saying you have to cut out any of your jokes, but you should really try to balance it out with a genuine review of the game. Jokes are all well and good, but without content, then why even make it an article on the game?
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Post by TheChosen on Jun 1, 2009 18:28:53 GMT -5
I liked the articles on this site because they were informative. This isnt one of them. If Shin Megami Tensei article was written on this tone, I probably would have never touched the SNES game, nor get any interest towards the series whatsoever.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2009 18:35:40 GMT -5
Well, to be fair, Time Killers is not worth touching in the first place. There really isn't anything deeper beneath the surface. Even so, this was hands-down the worst article in the site's history. It sounds melodramatic to say it, but the vast difference in quality actually cheapens all of the other, quality pieces out there.
Sorry to keep harping about this, though. I guess for good or ill, this turned out to be a very memorable article.
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