This month's PC Gamer sucked
Hey Guys,
I've been busy with school, so I haven't had the time to post as much as I wanted. I just wanted to "share my feelings" about this month's PC Gamer, which I found pretty damn bad.
I've had an up-down relationship to PCG. I always thought the early years of the publication were the best (then again I was only around twelve at that time so I can't be so objective). Then there was a period where I thought the mag sucked. That was around 2001-02. I can't remember why exactly; I found the writing to be particulary sophmoric and dead, etc. Now, I tend to think it's quite good. Not as strong as before, but closer than usual.
But this edition is horrendous. Their cover story on Quake IV was embarassing. Other gaming mags have accused other publications of "bribing" game developers to get exclusives for their magazine, meaning that if they get the exclusive, they will give the game a favorable rating when it's released. I wouldn't like to think PCG would do something like this, but that preview had the writing on the wall; it was a love-letter to a game which, in my opinion, didn't look all that spectacular...
Yes, Q4 uses the DOOM3 engine, but it looks like a poor cousin to its predecessor. I may be harsh, but it looks like to me that they had to tune down a lot of graphical goodies to get the game running at that frenetic pace the game is supposed to have. And, I think the art direction sucks. It's incredibly bland, dull, same-old-same-old post-sci fi grotesque chic that we're all used to. The character models didn't look that interesting, the weapon models were particularly bad. The only good things about the visuals were the occaisonal impressive texture and of course the sumptuous use of shadows. But this can't compare to Doom3; whoever was in charge of art direction at ID did an amazing job. They were able to elevate a really bland color palette (blue, red, occaisonal green, grey, brown, and of course black) into something very visually interesting. That's damn hard to do - look at how bad things look in Deus Ex 2.
Of course the game is still in development and needs tweaking, but why the hell is Dan Morris jumping into all sorts of hyperbole? Ok, I haven't seen the game in motion, which is always important, but if you look at Raven's track record (SOF, SOF2 an the Elite Forces series of recent) their approach to action isn't all that interesting. I could go on about the little quips and bitches about the title, but to get to the point, this is a pre-emptive love letter to the game. My God, the way he talks about the Multiplayer aspect is so....dumb. (It will be like Quake III but with Doom3 graphics. "It may not sound revolutionary to you, but to me it's revolutionary enough!" :slap )
After that debacle, I found the mag to be generally uninspired. Although for some reason I 'm beginning to like the Vede more and more. I found him to be an asshole for a while, but now he seems not so bad. I liked his article about setting up a surround speaker system in cramped spaces - not the most optimal set up, but I'm glad he stressed the importance of good audio set up for today's games. Doom 3, and particularly Far Cry are a whole different game in surround. The reviews were merely meh to me, although I didn't read through all of them (if I missed a good one, it's my fault, I know). The new Wargamer columnist seems interesting. He definitely has different opinion about Wargames than Trotter and I wonder how wargaming fans will feel about him.
And last but not least, the craptacular fin de mots by Gaz. So, all of a sudden, he feels guilty for playing a "realistic" FPS? What, did he realize at the last moment he didn't have a clue as to what to write for this moment so he just pulled this out of his nether region? It was interesting, though for the fact that he mentioned that he was anxiously awaiting for Doom 3 (this article must have been written a while ago) while earlier in the magazine Vede mentioned that Gaz didn't like Doom 3.....
So, what did you guys think of this month's PCG??
Hey Guys,
I've been busy with school, so I haven't had the time to post as much as I wanted. I just wanted to "share my feelings" about this month's PC Gamer, which I found pretty damn bad.
I've had an up-down relationship to PCG. I always thought the early years of the publication were the best (then again I was only around twelve at that time so I can't be so objective). Then there was a period where I thought the mag sucked. That was around 2001-02. I can't remember why exactly; I found the writing to be particulary sophmoric and dead, etc. Now, I tend to think it's quite good. Not as strong as before, but closer than usual.
But this edition is horrendous. Their cover story on Quake IV was embarassing. Other gaming mags have accused other publications of "bribing" game developers to get exclusives for their magazine, meaning that if they get the exclusive, they will give the game a favorable rating when it's released. I wouldn't like to think PCG would do something like this, but that preview had the writing on the wall; it was a love-letter to a game which, in my opinion, didn't look all that spectacular...
Yes, Q4 uses the DOOM3 engine, but it looks like a poor cousin to its predecessor. I may be harsh, but it looks like to me that they had to tune down a lot of graphical goodies to get the game running at that frenetic pace the game is supposed to have. And, I think the art direction sucks. It's incredibly bland, dull, same-old-same-old post-sci fi grotesque chic that we're all used to. The character models didn't look that interesting, the weapon models were particularly bad. The only good things about the visuals were the occaisonal impressive texture and of course the sumptuous use of shadows. But this can't compare to Doom3; whoever was in charge of art direction at ID did an amazing job. They were able to elevate a really bland color palette (blue, red, occaisonal green, grey, brown, and of course black) into something very visually interesting. That's damn hard to do - look at how bad things look in Deus Ex 2.
Of course the game is still in development and needs tweaking, but why the hell is Dan Morris jumping into all sorts of hyperbole? Ok, I haven't seen the game in motion, which is always important, but if you look at Raven's track record (SOF, SOF2 an the Elite Forces series of recent) their approach to action isn't all that interesting. I could go on about the little quips and bitches about the title, but to get to the point, this is a pre-emptive love letter to the game. My God, the way he talks about the Multiplayer aspect is so....dumb. (It will be like Quake III but with Doom3 graphics. "It may not sound revolutionary to you, but to me it's revolutionary enough!" :slap )
After that debacle, I found the mag to be generally uninspired. Although for some reason I 'm beginning to like the Vede more and more. I found him to be an asshole for a while, but now he seems not so bad. I liked his article about setting up a surround speaker system in cramped spaces - not the most optimal set up, but I'm glad he stressed the importance of good audio set up for today's games. Doom 3, and particularly Far Cry are a whole different game in surround. The reviews were merely meh to me, although I didn't read through all of them (if I missed a good one, it's my fault, I know). The new Wargamer columnist seems interesting. He definitely has different opinion about Wargames than Trotter and I wonder how wargaming fans will feel about him.
And last but not least, the craptacular fin de mots by Gaz. So, all of a sudden, he feels guilty for playing a "realistic" FPS? What, did he realize at the last moment he didn't have a clue as to what to write for this moment so he just pulled this out of his nether region? It was interesting, though for the fact that he mentioned that he was anxiously awaiting for Doom 3 (this article must have been written a while ago) while earlier in the magazine Vede mentioned that Gaz didn't like Doom 3.....
So, what did you guys think of this month's PCG??
I loved being able to place tricky explosive packs and detonate them just as the hit-and-run scout thinks he has the flag.
