Between This review and what I've seen on metacritic this is not looking good.
http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3181116
Alos shacknews is NOT reviewing it till it gets cleaned up, I'm liking this game but they make good points.
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/65347
The sad part about the 1up review is that it doesn't appear he has even played the game for very long. He even states that the multiplayer is "robust."
Multiplayer is the most robust part of the game - it never crashed on me.
He also states that he wants alert messages about stuff being built. What the heck does he think the icons along the right side of the screen in screenshot #3 are? jeesh
Meh he should shut up about the graphics already. It's not like his opinion was the only truth in the world. I for one find Elemental very pretty, and would not find it as luring with realistic Anno style graphics.
That's great news about Shacknews. An undiluted review after they patch it is exactly what I need.
Based on what I'm reading, I think I have a hunch what's going on. A lot of people think human interface design is something just anyone can do out of high school. Microsoft invests millions in scientific, repetitive, and kind of boring studies into finding out what people consider an intuitive interface. I took a Ph.D. level class on HI design myself--of course, I did not think it was truly Ph.D. level. It was an easy A, to be honest. But unless you want to try and get lucky, there's a lot of work that goes into a GUI, and it's not fun work. The AI is the same way: there are Ph.D.'s who write dissertations on computer AI. There's directed graph theory, discrete math, summations and 800-page, $100 textbooks of algorithms that people have got in their heads. But then some schmoe comes along and says, "How hard can that be?" And sometimes, they'll do well, even without an education and a lot of hard work in the theory of it. But that's like trying to make money at the casino: sometimes you'll win, but in the end, the house always wins. I think that's what happened.
that 1up "review" is horrible. It sounds like he just read about the game and drew his conclusions from there...
I'm shocked 1up gave it a C+. Deserves a D+ at most.
Harsh man, real harsh.
This game is easily a b+ atm, and heading for a nice A ^^
That's considering I never crashed once while playing the game. Happened twice while loading a saved game...
Send stardock your specs, hell send all of us them so we know what the computer that runs the game properly looks like.
Then you haven't noticed the plethora of game mechanics that are flat out broken. I don't even mean "imbalanced", I mean "they don't work." And I'm not talking about crashes or frames per second - I mean game rules mis-programmed so that they don't function. While I believe Elemental has staggering potential, to call the current build an "A" game is patently ridiculous.
It's like playing a huge placebo atm.
what specifically is broken in that way? I haven't come across anything, except MP which I don't care about and will never use...
Start with several non-functional faction traits (which they've acknowledged, and have slated for functionality after the weekend), continue into at least some of the sovereign backgrounds also being non-functional, throw in spell shards (among god knows how many other mechanics) not functioning at all in tactical combat, an auto-resolve combat system that often gives ridiculous results for anything but straight beater units, plus the numerous glitches that screw with city tile limits, squads of units (hint: don't save your game if any of your squads are damaged - you'll regret it when you reload) and character stats (again, particularly upon loading a save), and likely a bunch that haven't come to light yet or that I can't remember due to the haze of frustration.
And that's only the stuff that doesn't function outright. Then you get into the realm of poor balance decisions and bad AI...
They're slated to work on literally all of these things, but that doesn't change the fact that the game is currently busted.
Like many reviewers said, you can't rate it fairly right now. The game is obviously unfinished :/
Honestly. Should not have been released yet >.<
Im glad they released it, im having tons of fun with it.
Sure its rough around the edges but its fun and thats all that matters to me to be honest.
It will only get better in the future anyways.
Ive bought tons of games on consoles and pc over the last 5 years and Elemental is some of the most fun ive had out of any of those games.
How people can say this is unplayable is beyond me.
Or maybe I just have horrible taste and like bad games, which seems to be the case these days as I dissagree with 90% of reviews these days.
This was 60$ well spent on a game that I was going to pass on, I am sooo glad I watched some videos of this game the last fewy days and picked it up, the game has surprised the heck out of me.
Yes it has its issues (the late game slowdown is ridicolous), but the good far out weigh the bad for me personally.
Yup. I'd rather play a broken game while they fix it than stare longingly at screenshots while they finish it before releasing. The fact the broken game is still immense fun is an unexpected benefit.
Yeah he sounds like a lot of the trolls on this site. He didn't play it (or didn't play it for very long) he just went around reading toll comments on other forums and just drew up a conclusion from all that. Reviewers like that should be sued and taken off the review market. Unless you have 100 full hours of play into a game you shouldn't be allowed to review it.
...*sing* Dreaaaaams are myyyy Realityyyyyy... *sing*
Fanboy criticisim... LOL wake up kiddo!
Interesting bit of history...
-1up was originally a spinoff of Computer Gaming World and Gamespot, after CGW went south following Johnny Wilson's departure.
-Gamespot allegedly fired reviewers for not giving a game a better score in a re-review after the advertiser threatened to pull it's dollars, and a bunch of people left to form Giantbomb.
-CGW and Gamespot reviewed Magic the Gathering Online, and gave it crap for not having great graphics. Mind you, we're talking about a card game simulation here.
-CGW and Gamespot reviewed Space Horse and gave it an abyssmal review. Problem is, it's pretty much a direct copy of M.U.L.E., a game they both acknowledged as a Hall of Fame game and a Classic. All becaues the reviewer couldn't play it the way he thought it should work, never mind it worked just like the original. Major problem there.
I can go on. Bottom line is, everything I've seen for the last 10 years says to me that site is more interested in reviewing Advertisements and not games.
Other sites aren't much better. Gamespy posted a nice piece on how Fallout fans should "die" for wishing for a sequel to Fallout instead of what Bethseda was developing. Penny Arcade did a huge piece on why Fallout fans were wrong and shouldn't be listened to as well. In the 90's, Gaming Journalists reviewed games, not did PR for companies.
There's other stuff one should read to. There's an interesting piece out there about how gaming journalists are given a "List of rules for previewing".
A little bit of research makes things alot more clear.
Edit: picked that poster to quote because it sequed into my post, wasn't posting in response per se.
Gah, I would love to buy the game, but the reviews and impressions I read are so mixed, some good some bad, that I really don't know if I should spend the money right now! If they made something like a weekend deal with 10+ € off the price I'd buy it regardless of the reviews!
100 hours? 100 hours?! 100 hours?!!! I'm afraid you're wishing for the impossible.
I own hundreds of PC games, some good, some great others poor. Some hasn't been well recieved by the reviewers but are still great games _for me_, others are bad like they say. The point with reviews are that they're subjective. It's what the reviewer thinks of the game and doesn't have to apply to your taste. Of course you feel insulted when YOU think something's good and you've also invested money into it. When someone "bashes" the thing you like you take it personally and lashes out with "malcontents", "trolls", "must play for ONE HUNDRED HOURS or it's nonsense" etc.
The thing is: You already have the game. You enjoy it. For god's sake: Play the game! Don't get upset over reviews or other peoples opinions. Those people WANT to like the game, they wish it to be more to THEIR tastes. You're already set, you've got a game that's good for you so enjoy what you have.
For myself, I think the game is OK. Havn't played it that much yet (working through the campaign right now) but I'm hoping it will be a great game and something to play for a looong while.
Yeah, review sites are generally trash and/or whores to industry. The only sources I can trust anymore are individual gamers with whom I share preferences. Otherwise, I have to just try things out myself.
Well I have put many hours into the game and wihile the reviewer is harsh he
does have some valid points. AI that spams undefended cities that a simply
army can just wander in and own leaves you feeling no game achievement and
that lack of achievement is all over the game. I feel no goal and no real growth.
I hope as in the past more updates make the game seem more but I am not
sure any amount of updates will fill that empty feeling.
I would really like to see your reaction if the game was actually good and the reviews would be good also.... would you still say they are whores to the industry...? this is so ridiculous.
"For what it's worth, Elemental tries hard to be the spiritual successor of a fantastic turn-based strategy game cum RPG called Master of Magic."
I pulled this quote from the review and I don't know what this statement means. Can anyone enlighten me? Is it an editing flaw?
Yes, I would. What's ridiculous? Money talks. And if you'd actually read what I, personally, wrote, you'd realize that I mostly agree with the media on Elemental. Just because they occasionally call it right doesn't mean that they do so consistently, or for the right reasons, or that their conclusions aren't incredibly shallow.
I happen to think that Halo 3 and the Gears of War sequels are poor, if polished, games. The media fawned over both. I happen to think that Elemental is an unfinished game. So does the media. I think Gratuitous Space Battles is an awesome and innovative, if poorly balanced, game. The media mostly ignored it. Occasionally the stars align and they come up with an opinion that resonates with mine, but the reasons bear only passing resemblance.
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