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Kotaku: Unfortunately, Quantum Break Looks a Bit Rubbish

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Velkyn

Member
Edit because I don't want to driveby shitpost.

Obviously I've never played the game, but the tone of the article is very much like it's trying to pass opinion off as fact. I also take issue with the comments about the live action segments, equating them to the Max Payne games' Night Falls or whatever they were called. It seems very much like a review rather than a preview, and I really don't like that publications do that; present what you've seen of game without editorializing with ridiculous clickbait titles.
 

KORNdoggy

Member
I saw both as well and I can't say it made me change my opinion. The combat was the same

that could be the problem. it's easy to be impressed with what look like dynamic combat only to see it again and realize your options are more limited then you were led to believe. hell, if in the extended demo it was just the exact same combat situation with the same outcomes it could easily come across as less appealing the second time viewing.
 
Okay, you just don't understand the journalism part of the quote then.

Why not? Chris Donlan is a (rather excellent) gaming journalist who writes an article about his illness and ties it to his hobby and profession. Gaming journalism is more than going to trade shows and commenting on trailers and videos. It was just one example of excellent writing on a major games site, I could link to many more, but as it doesn't really have anything to do with QB, I might suggest you do some digging yourself.
 
Wouldnt the controller fall asleep if the cutscenes are 20 minutes? Are there QTEs?

Are you really concerned about your controller falling asleep? To answer your question, though, the game has junction points which control story elements. Maybe some of these happen mid-episode for the TV show. No QTEs have been announced and I can't imagine they will be in the live TV show portion.
 

AgeEighty

Member
southpark_mob-300x225.jpg

Right? These butthurt reactions. We like Kotaku when they do an article we agree with; when they don't, out comes the hangin' rope.

This didn't even come from Kotaku proper but from Kotaku UK. They probably just reposted it because the UK journalist was the only one who experienced the preview. "A bit rubbish" is a British phrase that isn't as extreme as it comes across here. The guy's just saying he was a little let down by it.
 

soultron

Banned
Really not getting the MP/Bullet Time comparisons. BT used slow motion, yes, but a key part of that mechanic was also the bulletdodge™ (or whatever it was called). You could totally use BT when walking or standing still, but it definitely felt better and had more utility while using the dodge since you'd be moving faster.

I could be wrong, but QB's slow motion behaves differently chiefly in the fact that you don't have a dodge mechanic like in MP.

I agree that time manipulation isn't a new thing. But I also doubt QB has shown its entire hand. There could be some great puzzle or platforming (yes, serious) sections in QB that they're keeping close to their chest so they don't spoil them.
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
There are only 4 of them that you will see.

4 long "stop caring about the game and just sit tight" periods is 3 too many.

His main point is it does nothing new yet he complains the time powers aren't like Max Payne's bullet time. Contradiction?

Its more that bullet-time changed the gameplay and your approach. The time stuff in this just seems like "different grenades" and not as amazingly transformative to the combat loop. SuperHot sort of does what Quantum Break wishes its approach could be, but is tied into that CINEMATIC GAMEPLAY engine thats bringing exploding vans crashing in and the like.

The only bit of the footage I liked was the timelapse explorable cutscene. Everything else failed to wow and felt clumsy in ways.
 

Fbh

Member
I don't know. That demo they showed during the conference looked pretty good IMO.

His main argument against the gameplay seems to be that we have seen similar game mechanics before. I personally don't think a game needs completely new and never before seen gameplay to be good. I've been having a blast with The Witcher 3 but in terms of story and gameplay it doesn't do anythig I haven't seen before.


But the TV show part does sound pretty bad. I hoped it would be some optional gimmick but it seems to be pretty integrated into the core of the game
 

Exile20

Member
His main point is it does nothing new yet he complains the time powers aren't like Max Payne's bullet time. Contradiction?

He said the game adds nothing new like when Max Payne came on the scene.

He isn't saying that QB should have bullet time.
 
"time ball that makes things explode." wouldn't it be more interesting if you throw a time ball that made things decay?

To me, it's an interesting experiment at best. At worst it is a remnant of Microsoft's TV utopia. Ultimately I think Alan Wake was a bit of a disappointment, especially in combat.
 
Gamescon Gameplay looked good to me. They mentioned about needing more lively shooting? Uhhhh, What was shown was pretty flashy. Also complaining about Time powers not as original as Max Payne's bullet time? C'mon now.

It just seems they are more worries about the show being integrated into the game more than the game itself. Game is looking more polished to me then it ever did in previous showings so...I think it will be just fine.
 

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
Why not? Chris Donlan is a (rather excellent) gaming journalist who writes an article about his illness and ties it to his hobby and profession. Gaming journalism is more than going to trade shows and commenting on trailers and videos. It was just one example of excellent writing on a major games site, I could link to many more, but as it doesn't really have anything to do with QB, I might suggest you do some digging yourself.
No shit it's more than commenting on trailers and videos. It's not that at all.

You're still confused about the journalism aspect of this all and bringing up Gamespot and Gametrailers as sites that do games journalism better than Kotaku just means you don't know at all what it is about.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it right back. I'll recommend Kotaku and Metro Game Central interviews.
 
Can only go with what I've seen, which unless there is a hands on demo is pretty much what they've seen. Basically, I respectfully disagree.
 
The gameplay looks really interesting to me but the character lineup is serving Order 1886 boring-ness - three incredibly generic looking white dudes. The set up deserves better tbh.
 

Toski

Member
What does making money have to do with what he said?

The Order was a short & pretty game that didn't sell well and was met with lukewarm response. If he was trying to make the same comparison to Quantum Break, why bring Destiny into it?
 
Wouldnt the controller fall asleep if the cutscenes are 20 minutes? Are there QTEs?

The cutscene s aren't 20 minutes. Their is a total of 22 minutes of cutscene across the entire game.


Anyways the gamescom demo looked great to me, not sure what this guy is basing his opinion off of but I guess I can see some concerns over the gameplay especially after how lame the gunplay ended up being in AW.
 

duckroll

Member
Heads up, here's what is and what isn't acceptable in a thread about an article from a publication:

- It's fine to critique content of an article and to open it up for discussion. If there are things you disagree with or feel contradict facts, do go ahead.

- It's not fine to drive-by and shitpost about the publication with nothing more to add. That's a derail.

- It is absolutely not fine to suggest that publications should be banned on this site because they don't like a game you might like. Leave the moderation to the moderators.

- If you don't care to read the article before commenting on it, you should not bother posting in the thread if you just want to shitpost.

Have a nice day.
 
Kotaku whining should be a bannable offense, always takes up 1/2 the thread, I mean technically it's kind of thread whining no?

Anyways, I have faith in Remedy but yeah some segments of the combat in that stage demo did not seem very fun and looked like it could get boring/annoying fast.

I didn't really get the live action corn he talked about in the article though, but I haven't seen nearly enough to judge.
 

ANDS

Banned
I find that hard to believe.
Going from exellent to rubbish for the exact same demo with some live action and platforming stuff tacked on is pretty strange to me.

I saw both as well and I can't say it made me change my opinion. The combat was the same, the platforming was in line with what they showed last year (so hardly new either, just a different location) and the live action stuff, well, that was new.

So you find it more likely that a writer on a well knock website decided to shit over a game just for clicks? That's more likely than an evolving measured response being critical after an initial positive response from finally seeing a game thats been in development for more than awhile. Ok.
 

soultron

Banned
The gameplay looks really interesting to me but the character lineup is serving Order 1886 boring-ness - three incredibly generic looking white dudes. The set up deserves better tbh.

Hoping we'll get more interesting characters too. I also find it hilarious that they're really over-designed in the costuming department. I'm not saying I need a character that looks edgy like Delsin, but these guys all look more like fashion models than they do characters belonging in the story they're playing out.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
Some of the complaints in the article are the complaints I had about Alan Wake, the combat wasn't especially satisfying for instance, in addition to it becoming very repetitive after a few hours of playing. I'm a huge fan of the Max Payne series though, so I'm hoping they can clean up some of these issues and make it a more interesting, engaging experience.

Yeah, the actual gameplay in Alan Wake was a bit rubbish. Not sure why people are expecting this to be amazing.
 
Sure. But I think that comes down to feel and can only be reasonably estimated by watching a presentation.

Just being down on a game because it lacks innovation is silly.
I think one of the best third person shooters is Infamous 2 and that isn't really innovative. In that game you also have the stables of the genre: You have grenades but now they are electricity grenades, you have rockets but now they are electricity rockets.
Those are basic third person mechanics and the reason they are ubiquitous is because they work.

I guess the problem is that special powers can sometimes break the balance of a game, being able to pause time and wonder around can fundamentally change the nature of a 3rd person shooter. Which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how they find that balance. Not all those that have done similar things in the past have been successful, but Remedy may have what it takes to make it work.

It comes down to the nature of these kind of big budget titles now. They'll always find an audience that will appreciate them, but between critical reception and the vocal reception of those people who don't like a game they can really be affected commercially if they don't have an element of mainstream appeal.
 
Hoping we'll get more interesting characters too. I also find it hilarious that they're really over-designed in the costuming department. I'm not saying I need a character that looks edgy like Delsin, but these guys all look more like fashion models than they do characters belonging in the story they're playing out.
Same, there's something that looks a little too clean and stylish about all of their outfits.
the order characters are "incredibly generic"? really?
Yes... they are similar visually and there wasn't much variation in personality either, except for the French dude who was basically a walking stereotype.
 

bomma_man

Member
The tv bits might be so bad they're good. Otherwise, yeah, this game looks pretty borin and generic compared to their previous efforts.
 

shandy706

Member
My first post was a bit of a joke towards how people usually attack Kotaku.

I don't mind them.

If he finds QB generic, he must really not like Gears of War or Uncharted.
 
No shit it's more than commenting on trailers and videos. It's not that at all.

You're still confused about the journalism aspect of this all and bringing up Gamespot and Gametrailers as sites that do games journalism better than Kotaku just means you don't know at all what it is about.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it right back. I'll recommend Kotaku and Metro Game Central interviews.

I know a bit about journalism, I've been one for many years. Going to a trade show and writing about your experiences IS journalism (just like reviews, interviews, background articles etc.), I just didn't think this was particularly good writing. Not saying Kotaku never does good writing, I'm just generally not all that impressed with them.

And I'm not all that impressed with Quantum Break yet either, but I would need to see way more of the combat to write it off.

Scalebound's extended demo on the other hand, now that was a really good one.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Hoping we'll get more interesting characters too. I also find it hilarious that they're really over-designed in the costuming department. I'm not saying I need a character that looks edgy like Delsin, but these guys all look more like fashion models than they do characters belonging in the story they're playing out.
Are you talking about Quantum Break's characters? Because so far we've just seen dudes wearing normal street clothes, and on the fashion model thing, they're characters are based on and played by good looking actors. What about them seems overdesigned exactly?
 
This didn't even come from Kotaku proper but from Kotaku UK. They probably just reposted it because the UK journalist was the only one who experienced the preview. "A bit rubbish" is a British phrase that isn't as extreme as it comes across here. The guy's just saying he was a little let down by it.

Thanks for the clarification; Americans (like myself) probably view the word 'rubbish' in a very negative light when the author was just trying to say they were let down. The 'ban kotaku' backseat moderators should probably chill out on that stance.
 

Snorlocs

Member
If the word "rubbish" wasn't used would the backlash be this bad? QB looks like a solid game that will land somewhere in the 6 to 8 range on the critics scale. Not rubbish at all, but not a masterpiece. If you can't skip the tv show though, that's gonna tank the success of the game
 

Raide

Member
The tv bits might be so bad they're good. Otherwise, yeah, this game looks pretty borin and generic compared to their previous efforts.

But based upon their previous efforts, do you think they would make something boring and generic? Max Payne and Alan Wake did some really cool narrative and combat things, so you really think Remedy have basically gone "Shove it, lets make it as generic as possible!"

Sure they are showing off some vertical slice stuff in terms of the powers and gun combat but how to these powers start out, how do we learn to use them, how complex will the puzzles be that involve altering time etc, what weird and wonderful story have they crafted to knit all of this into?
 

Denton

Member
Quantum Break has always looked quite bland and generic. Max Payne/Alan Wake exude much stronger personality. And frankly, as much as I love MP/AW and Sam Lake, the writing has always been a little...on the nose (but I admit I loved it). Seeing negative preview doesn't surprise me. Hell, I had to force myself a bit to actually finish watching the extended gameplay trailers :/

Pls Remedy give me Alan Wake 2 with its moodiness
 

KieranD

Banned
Not sure the guy who wrote the QB article played that demo, he wrote this "The presenter running the demo showed off a gunfight against some hired goons"

Similar thing with Halo 5.

Did any of those journalists pick up the xbox one controller and play?
 

ANDS

Banned

If the word "rubbish" wasn't used would the backlash be this bad? QB looks like a solid game that will land somewhere in the 6 to 8 range on the critics scale. Not rubbish at all, but not a masterpiece. If you can't skip the tv show though, that's gonna tank the success of the game

Well rubbish has been changed to pants. Now the criticism is OK I guess.
 
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