Be Excellent To Each Other

Who is Jim Sterling? I've seen his name crop up a number of times but don't know who he is?

He jizzes blue.

Game critic. Used to be the chief guy at Destructoid and had his video series The Jimquisition on The Escapist. Has since struck out on his own and posts stuff both on YouTube and his website funded largely by Patreon. His Jimquisition videos are mostly consumer advocacy (i.e. spotlighting shady shit from game publishers and developers) and his other stuff is either straight reviews or ripping the piss out of the awful shit that makes up a lot of Steam's Greenlight programme.

And he tends to use the full spectrum of numbers from 0 to 10 rather than just using 6 to 10.

A link to the review. beware the crying fanboys

Jim is entirely independent, and has to go out and buy copies of games for review from several companies (EA and Square Enix Japan, and of course Konami) due to his 'Wild Card' status. (IE giving out review scores lower than 9 or 10).

Ugh, I'd completely forgotten about the fucking bullshit stamina system from the last Zelda game until that review reminded me. And Jim's chat about weapons breaking confirms what I'd feared when I watched some videos of the combat.

Hilariously the comments on that page are no longer viewable because that aspect of the site's run out of memory.

I was expecting that review to be full of bile and hate but I'm pleasantly surprised. He does make some fair points but none of which make it a terrible game. The weapons that break is annoying. No two ways about that but the stamina wheel and the rain are all things that are easily managed.

Personally I think the game deserves a higher score but I can see from his writing that it's a good game and he did enjoy it... just with a few niggles.

Jim's scoring system is like Amiga Power and Edge, 5 is average. The fanboys tossing death threats don't understand this.

Let's not pretend he's the second coming of the Messiah. I've watched a fair few of his videos and I find him to be a fucking irritating self aggrandising cockbag.

Is it art?

In his defence, the 'persona' he puts on for the Jimquisition videos is just that and is a very exaggerated version of himself by his own admission.

In our defence, no one here has implied anything like him being the second coming of the Messiah.

Mentioning him in the same sentence as AP is as close as you'll get. Not to you, mind, cause you're not from WoS and no one knows where you came from. Some say you were birthed in a laboratory; some say you were hatched from a scotch egg - we'll never know.

Amiga Power wasn't exactly the first coming of the Messiah, to be fair.

Now, Your Sinclair...

(I merely mentioned AP as they similarly used the full range of their scoring scale, along with Edge.)

I've not finished the game yet but from what I've played so far I'd say his review is fair and balanced, but the things that he finds really quite irksome don't bother me so much.

My feeling at the moment is maybe 849/1000, although that may yet be subject to change, of course.

Why does it deserve a high score? What an odd idea.

I just would mark it higher than a 7. That's all. I think it's better than that.

That's brilliant.

My progress in this game remains slow but that doesn't matter because I'm absolutely loving it.

I'm supposed to be doing a quest but I keep getting sidetracked with fighting, killing and eating. It's glorious. Every place I go, I see things in the distance which sucker me into travelling further and further and before I know it, I'm miles away and it starts raining.

At first I was worried about my weapons being crap but I'm not starting to see some better weapons that seem to last a little while longer. I still run away from the majority of fights as I don't have any proper armour yet but that's ok. I'm sure that will come in time.

I haz this!

It's shit 5/10.

More thoughts when I open the wrapper.

I also had this. It is also still in wrapper.

Well,I played a little yesterday.

It's not a strong start. First of all (and perhaps because I was playing on the pad rather than the TV) it was Terribly washed out, which just made everything indistinct and hard to resolve.

Secondly "have this weapon" *monster* *hit monster* *hit monster a second time* *weapon breaks*...

Seriously?

Is this the Wii U version Dave because the Switch version doesn't appear washed out to me.

As for the weapons, yeah. The first lot you get are shit. They get better though.

It is, indeed, the WiiU version.

As things stand, I'm not too likely to get a switch.

Don't worry. I'll let you play on mine at the Cotta8e. You were kind enough to let us all sweat in your Vive so it's the least I can do.

He's playing it on the pad screen, it's bound to look like dogshit!

Yeah, it's not a great screen.

I've discovered that this isn't a great game to play on my lunch break.

I've been late back every day since I've had it.

I'm not really used to this style of game (don't own an Xbone or PS4, don't play console games that aren't on Nintendo machines), and I'm finding it very overwhelming. Sort of aimless, even. I think I'm more suited to the traditional Zelda style of going from event A to place B to get item C to unlock area D, to be honest: I think I'm going to struggle going further, and I've finished all the 3D Zelda games which aren't Skyward Sword.

I must admit, I struggled with this too. I've had to get into the mindset that it doesn't matter what I do in the world, it'll all be for the greater good eventually.

It took so long to update (probably about 20 minutes, all while displaying "4 seconds remaining" that I'd moved away from the TV by the time it started.

I've been reading some comments about this elsewhere in that the game is designed to push you to use different tactics away from a typical 1 on 1 sword fight approach so the rapidly degrading weapons are part of the encouragement to make you think about fighting in other ways/using the environment blah blah blah. I don't know cause it's still in the wrapper. 3/10

Been playing this on Wii U. Only a little over 10 hours in, barely scratched the main plot line, but pretty certain already it is the best Zelda game ever made. It is basically the elegance and humour of classic Zelda, with combat inspired by Dark Souls and exploration that's more tense and exciting than Minecraft. And unlike Minecraft, where the world is procedurally generated, here it has been carefully designed and is packed full of the kind of magic that you only find in Nintendo games. It is mind-boggling when you think about how big the world is.

Aside from the massive map, probably the biggest​ difference between this and other Zelda games (at least since LTTP) is that in previous games the only real difficulty came from getting stuck on a puzzle. Here you are very unlikely to get stuck puzzling (at least in what I've seen), but you will die through getting into fights you're​ not ready for or failing to pay careful enough attention to the environment. I've died at least 20 times already, but thankfully death is much less punitive here than in Dark Souls.

So yeah, it is pretty damn good. Indeed, it's the first videogame in a very long time that's​ made me care enough to ask, "I wonder what the excellent folk at BETEO make of this?"

And I'll admit I'm slightly sad to log on here for the first time in several years and not find a greater plurality of answers to that question. But hey, I'm also pleased that the gentle moderation that lets these threads meander around is still in force. While there are certainly more exciting things to talk about on this subject​ than the battery life of controllers, the fact this is the only game on the Wii U that's made me notice how short the battery life is on the gamepad certainly tells its own story.

Anyway, can more of you go play this and report back please? It's worth taking out the wrapper at least.

No. I don't like Nintendo. So there.

Yes, send money plz and I will go buy

They're thieves.

A.K.A. They had a crap loyalty scheme.

The game, however, is much fun.

It's still in the wrapper.

There's something um... Nintendo-ey about all their games that annoys me. I can't put my finger on it... it's something about the feel of the games.

The hardware is fine, I suppose, except that all the games are Nintendo games.

Been playing it more, is a quite absorbing game. Still don't feel like I've got at all far in it, just plenty of exploring.

Some annoyances , controls aren't the most intuitive, rains to often and no option to turn off the voice acting.

Rain?

In game rain , when it happens you'll have problems navigating or climbing stuff - its one of the common complaints (especially when your trying to get to the top of something :-(

http://kotaku.com/i-swear-if-it-rains-i ... 1793220766

Controls are fiddly, I think that's fair. Largely a reflection that the underlying systems are much more sophisticated than previous Zelda games. It's a shame they don't give you the option to fully remap the controls, but after an admittedly long period of adjustment I've reached the point now I'm comfortable with them.

But the rain? It is a fundamental part of the simulation that is key to making this an effective and enjoyable survival game. Personally, I'm thrilled to play something that doesn't just use it to make it harder to change direction when running. Here it puts out fire, makes surfaces slippery, interacts with electricity, and likely does all manner of other things I've yet to discover.

It's one of the many elements that makes this - quite unlike any other Nintendo title - a game which will give you 100 unique stories to tell.

For example, last night I climbed to a high point to attempt to glide across a canyon. I knew it was 50-50 whether I'd have the uplift to fully breach the gap, but with my recently improved stamina I knew that if I fell short I ought to still be able to climb the rest of the way up. So heroically I launch myself from the highest tree on my side of the canyon. Unfortunately, I am in the air less than 10 seconds when it starts raining.

I think the rain must add weight to my glider, because my angle seems to detoriate a little and I crash against the cliff edge on the other side. Link helpfully grabs on automatically, but the cliff is a sheer 90 degree angle. If it were dry I'd have no problem, I could climb up the last 5 meters and be exploring a brand new continent in a matter of seconds. But no, it is raining.

I try to climb anyway. We get about a metre further up, but then the rock gives way and Link starts to slide back to where we started, except now with a little less precious stamina. I check my inventory in case I find an item I'd forgotten I picked up that improves my grip, but no such luck. I try to push up again taking a slightly different route, but the result is the same. The only way is down.

What is at the bottom of this canyon anyway? It was too deep to easily see from the top. I slide slowly, carefully down. Soon it becomes clear it's a river, but with no banks to rest on either side. And of course at this point, Link is exhausted. He has no stamina for swimming. He drowns.

Annoying? To some maybe. But this game autosaves pretty frequently, so I've not lost much progress. And this game generally gives you at least half a dozen ways of achieving your ends, so when I reload I climb down the tree I'd tried to glide from and look into other ways to cross the canyon. I spot smoke in the distance and follow it to find another traveller who tells me a few legends about what's on the other side, says that there's a bridge out to the east, but it's a long old road. He also says it would surely be folly to try to cross any other way...

I could go on, but safe to say as I headed out east there more exciting, tense, funny moments of emergent gameplay, that makes me think this really is the first game to live up to the term "sandbox".

If ever you were inclined to give Nintendo a second chance, I assure you this is the game to try.

See smarter people than me talking along similar lines here.

Sounds pretty shit, to be honest.

Nah, I can see what Tsu Much is saying and it's spot on.

This is a wonderful game.

I have Horizon: Zero Dawn and Nier: Automata. Why do I need a game that needlessly fucks you over randomly, on the console that is the whitest of all Nintendo's elephants?

Far as I understand it, Horizon: Zero Dawn is to BOTW what Saints Row is to GTA: pretty good but one is on another level.

EDIT: not from my experience though as I've no interest in bland Horizon and BOTW is still in the wrapper.

It doesn't fuck you over, it just rains so you have to change your plans slightly. Instead of climbing a mountain, you try to walk around it and see what you can find that way.

Err, because you aren't​ ever "fucked over"? The penalty for dying is minimal. It's often as funny as when you die in something like Trials HD. For the first time, we have an open game world that is in a genuine state of flux, exciting and unpredictable. There's more than one way to do things. Moreover there's a gazillion things to do. The game rewards​you for being adaptable instead of persisting with plan A when the circumstances change.

Surely only miserable dullards and shareholders in the next Brown Corridor Collect-em-up would believe that these are bad things​?