GameSpot trashes Advent Rising (XBox)

[Vandenh]

Looks like the potentialy great Advent Rising falls short. Gamespot has a rather harsh review (http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/adventrising/review.html).
There's nothing inherently wrong with ambition, but ambition is nothing without a solid framework to back it up. This is what is most notably missing from GlyphX Games' Advent Rising, a sci-fi themed action adventure game that seems to shoot high but falls hard. In development for a few years, Advent Rising tries to do an awful lot of things at once, attempting to combine a cinematic gameplay experience with an all-new sci-fi universe and some unique control and combat mechanics. Unfortunately, none of these elements comes together well at all. The presentation is a technical nightmare, the story is poorly told, and the modicum of uniqueness the gameplay has to offer is almost completely murdered by sloppy mechanics and a myriad of bugs.
A pity.

[dr_qwandry]

oh Navaro you slay me

I watched the video review and the game doesn't even really look that great.

also it seems that still life was given a pretty bad score too (6.7)
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/stilllife/review.html
I don't care i'm still buying it

"Canadian mannerisms" I never knew we had those

[Kamalot]

Ouch. This is a shame. It sounds like the team had a bunch of great ideas for the title but failed in execution.

[Varsity]

I ask you, how could a game where the lead character is "Giddeon Wyeth" ever succeed?

[ezekiel61]

I have to say that I am actually enjoying the game. Sure there are a few things that still needed refinement, but I still think its fun and has a lot to offer.

I think we've all gotten spoiled by the advancements in games and its created alot of game snobs. Give this game a rent, $5 bux to make up your own mind.

[ldi222]

*** Possible Spoilers Below ***

I think the story and cinematics are pretty good, the one vehicle segment I went to so far was fun and had Halo like control. This is somewhat of a Halo knockoff but that's not such a bad thing. The story has established itself on its own and has been pretty engaging and this time you actually do play the game on your invaded planet. The combat sequences can get annoying but it seems worth it so far to enjoy everything else about Advent Rising and at least they are easy enough not to get stuck on for very long. Despite all of its flaws I want to see the end of the story so Im having a pretty good time so far with this game.

[Liquidize105]

$5 bux to make up your own mind.
Well said. I totally agree.

[outontheporch]

that games sucks

[Metal Jesus]

My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who said Advent Rising sucks. I guess it's pretty serious.

[pomeroy]

Give this game a rent, $5 bux to make up your own mind.

Where do you rent? Almost everything here is $7 or more, hence no renting of games for me.

[netcraazzy]

Where do you rent? Almost everything here is $7 or more, hence no renting of games for me.

Join club, damn blockbuster. There used to be a mom and pop place near my house that rented games for $2.99, now that was a deal. Gamefly is pretty cool but I cancled my subscription becaues it was taking a week and a half to get my next game.

[TrackZero]

"Canadian mannerisms" I never knew we had those

Whoa, wait, what? Who said we have mannerisms?

[Spigot]

Yeah, I didn't see that in the review.

Maybe they drink lots of beer to fuel their psychic powers :)

As for the game rental stuff, I'm liking that Get Games service. Pretty fast turnaround time and a nice selection of games.

[TrackZero]

Ah, found it.

"All of the dialogue is spoken, usually with detectable traces of Canadian mannerisms."

Yeah EH, look it's a dead body. Pass the back bacon and beer. You think it's another serial killer EH? Whoa buddy, we better check for fingerprints.

Fucktards. I almost want to play the game just to see what the hell they consider "mannerisms". Erasing the obvious stereotype talk I just spouted, there's no difference between the way we talk and someone from Michigan or Seattle. So WTF?

Bah.

Edit: Hell, in fact I find Canadians sound more American (as per Hollywood) than most Americans sound.

Edit #2: Ah, I just found out the voice acting was FRENCH Canadian. Meaning English isn't even their first language. Nice way to lump the entire country's accent in with one group. Damn you Ryan Davis (http://www.gamespot.com/user/profile.html?user=Ryan)!

[Chagrinful]

UGH French Canadians, sometimes they sounds like mongs :( nice how Gamespot doesn't know even the simiplist thing about Canada(that we're billingual). Canadian Mannerisms LOL!

Why can't GS make their video reviews more like the occassional IGN review, where you never see the ugly pasty white reviewer?

[EGO]

I'm finding reviews nowadays to be COMPLETE ASSHATS!

They're on some sort of power-trip, thinking they're "saving the public" or by being pricks they're "insightful and critical". BULLSHIT! They're just bitter wannabe game developers, who are just a step above the guy behind the counter at your local EB giving your THEIR OPINION. It's not QUALIFIED! There's no accountability, no school, nothing that qualifies a person and holds them to any sort of standard.

SHIT, they don't even have to have a 5th grade education to throw up a review. Half of these dickheads don't even use a spell checker.

I'll utilize GameFly and Forums to make my deciscions from now on, because places like IGN and Gamespot have become complete tools!

[Arphahat]

There are a couple of words that Canadians pronounce a little differently than those from the US, even in Michigan. For instance, "mom" and "about". Nothing bad about it, just different.

Or, maybe they just eat Mac & Cheese with ketchup in the game? That's a Canadian mannerism, right? :)

[Wadmaasi]

I can peg a Canadian by the way they say "ou" words, like "out" and "about" whatnot. That's a pronunciation thing, though, not a "mannerism."

[automaton]

I think you are overreacting a little EGO. I can't speak for IGN because I never read their shit, but Gamespot is a site I respect. You can belive the forum posters at Gamefly if you want to, but at least I know with Gamespot that I'm getting the opinion of someone who is over 12 years old and been playing video games for decades.

[Noman]

Most of the bashing in the review is about the controls - that they tried something different and it didn't work.

That's one thing the PC version will not have. I remember reading an interview, where a developer (of this game) mentioned that they had put lot of efforts to minimise the inherent disadvantage of using a gamepad compared to keyboard/mouse for the shooting elements. So while they had standard third person controls for the PC version, they added 'flick aiming' or something, where if you quickly flick an analog stick in one direction, it'll latch on to a target but a slower motion will just change the perspective. Looks like that didn't work too well.

I am hoping that PC version is better. It's $20 cheaper as well, just like other Majesco games.

[dark_inchworm]

Well, I still want to at least rent this game, as I've been somewhat interested in it. But after waiting for a decent source of reviews to supply their take on it... um, jeez. That's a bit tough.

I'll see for myself eventually.

[if76]

Where do you rent? Almost everything here is $7 or more, hence no renting of games for me.


Yeah paying $7 for over a month of rental is an absolute ripoff. For just 7x that much I could buy the freaking game.

[bapenguin]

There are a couple of words that Canadians pronounce a little differently than those from the US, even in Michigan. For instance, "mom" and "about". Nothing bad about it, just different.

Or, maybe they just eat Mac & Cheese with ketchup in the game? That's a Canadian mannerism, right? :)

Mac and Cheese with ketchup? That's repulsive.

[TrackZero]

There are a couple of words that Canadians pronounce a little differently than those from the US, even in Michigan. For instance, "mom" and "about". Nothing bad about it, just different.

Or, maybe they just eat Mac & Cheese with ketchup in the game? That's a Canadian mannerism, right? :)

Heh, I never actually saw someone do that until I was 17-18ish and my reaction was "WTF are you doing to your Kraft Dinner"! (They renamed it "mac and cheese" for some reason in the states. Damn marketing departments.) Usually I don't bother, but sometimes it's a nice twist to use ketchup.

[TrackZero]

Mac and Cheese with ketchup? That's repulsive.

It sounds repulsive, it looks repulsive, but it doesn't taste bad after you've tried it once or twice.

Now what's disgusting is my step-brother putting creamy cucumber salad dressing on everything he eats (grilled cheese sandwiches, pizza, steak...*shudder*).

[Spigot]

Mac and Cheese with ketchup? That's repulsive.

Bah. Everyone knows you're supposed to put Tobasco or Frank's Hot Sauce on your KD. Or is that just me?

As for the Canadian vs. American accents, I spent most of my teen years living in Sarnia, which is right across the border from Michigan. It really strikes me as odd that I can call over to the stores in Port Huron and they have a VERY noticable accent.

It's the way the Michiganites (Michigonians?) pronounce words like pop as pap, hot like hat, etc. It's almost Bostonian, only not as thik.

Granted, you'd never hear them say pop as pop in the states is soda... sigh...

[dr_qwandry]

I can peg a Canadian by the way they say "ou" words, like "out" and "about" whatnot. That's a pronunciation thing, though, not a "mannerism."

I've never heard one Canadian say that. I admit I obviously don't know every Canadian.

The "eh" thing on the other hand, that I do know some Canadians who do say that.

[TrackZero]

I can peg a Canadian by the way they say "ou" words, like "out" and "about" whatnot. That's a pronunciation thing, though, not a "mannerism."

I've never heard one Canadian say that. I admit I obviously don't know every Canadian.

The "eh" thing on the other hand, that I do know some Canadians who do say that.

Oh yeah, I totally use "eh?" in conversation. Though I find Americans do it too, they just use "hunh?" instead.

Example:

Canadian: "Cool, eh?"
American: "Cool, hunh?"

I still remember the first time I called in to a New York radio show and they had me say "out and about" and broke down laughing, I thought they must have been high or something, didn't get what was so funny. I can hear the difference now, but it's very small to my ears.

[Racknahm]

Everyone has mannerisms and accents. So you can't really say a person or group of people don't have them. I'll wait for X-Play's review. They're usually spot on.

[Pumped'Up]

Since Forza, XBOX has had 7 games straight in a row rated below 6.6 by GS.

OUCH. this is really quite bad....but normal for the Xbox library?

[Metal Jesus]

>>Gamespot is a site I respect.

Agreed.

I even pay the $20 membership for the Complete subscription. Completely worth it.

[Crabby]

Gamespy's review was pretty accurate on this one. I wouldn't have shipped my game out of the factory with similar FPS problems. Trying my best to ignore the grossly poor presentation problems in order to enjoy the meat.

The sound is also another NASTY problem, and it is noticable immediately. The game has a lot of run and gun and all of that gun-play REALLY screws up the sound a lot. Also, I would have liked to hear more of the great music.

[ldi222]

I thought gamespot had a chance to stand out from the crowd in a different way this time by recognizing some of the quality aspects of the game. Since IGN and Gamespy trashed it I guess they felt compelled to go further to continue to "distinguish themselves."

[Zulu107]

To bad I never go to them for a review of any kind, and like I always say....I don't care what others think, its my money and my opinion is all that counts in the end.

[Royal Fool]

This game had absolutely truckloads of potential, sad to see it wasted. I think it could have been awesome as a blockbuster movie franchise... but as a game? I dunno. The problems described sound terrible. I guess I might find out soon enough...

[Kelegacy]

Where do you rent? Almost everything here is $7 or more, hence no renting of games for me.

No crap. Rentals have gotten out of hand. It's cheaper for me to buy the game, play it, and sell it on ebay when I'm done or disgruntled. Not that i do that, but still.

[Kelegacy]

I thought gamespot had a chance to stand out from the crowd in a different way this time by recognizing some of the quality aspects of the game. Since IGN and Gamespy trashed it I guess they felt compelled to go further to continue to "distinguish themselves."

Why inflate a game that is obviously flawed and a stinker? It might not suck through and through, but why would they go out of their way to tell you how great the okay parts are when most of it stinks?

As for not listening to reviews, but instead using your own money to judge...that's just plain dumb. I always listen to advice, and if i dont like that advice i go somewhere else. That's what's great about the 'net. Tons of gaming sites that review the same games. Shop around.

[GunnyMo]

For the first time in, well, forever, I actually agree with Gamespot on this one. I had such high hopes for this game. A great storyline and the promise of a triology with a PSP tie in was a great thing for me. Sadly, much like Pariah, so much potential has been wasted.

I'm about three quarters of the way through the game and I've only kept playing to get more of the storyline. My first thought after immediatly starting the game and running around the space station was "How can a game ship with such obvious graphical errors?" Example: In the station there were two NPCs talking next to a wall. Apparently they were both stuck in the wall as they were vibrating constantly! And this was five minutes into the game. At that, stage, however, I was willing to forgive a few things because I was digging the game so far. Sadly, things just got worse. Frame rate slow downs, major sound problems and horrible, horrible cuts between scenes. One of the worst things is the "flick targeting", as they call it. You "flick" the right stick to switch quickly between targets. Great idea and works fairly well except for the fact that the auto target is horrible especially after getting the psychic powers. Say you are fighting a number of enemies and need to duck behind something to reload/regen health. There is no way to "un-target" manually so if you try to run away and the game thinks you should target something it will auto target and swing the camera back around to do so. You end up with run-turn-run-turn-run-run-run-target-target. It's even worse if you have the Levitate psychic power because you will not only auto target enemies but inanimate objects you can move as well!! It is infuriating especially in large battles.

I do like the dual wield and the psychic powers add some fun gameplay mechanics. I think the storyline is great and, in the beginning, it runs along rather nicely. However, later on it tends to start falling apart and jumping to and fro.

Here's hoping they can correct these problems in the subsequent games.

[mister_slim]

A lot of the flaws they mentioned in the review sounds like a tired DVD drive. It would be rather funny if GS underrated a bunch of games because they're still using a launch Xbox.

[TrackZero]

A lot of the flaws they mentioned in the review sounds like a tired DVD drive. It would be rather funny if GS underrated a bunch of games because they're still using a launch Xbox.

Damn, I wish it was that simple. I'll hold out hopes that the PC version will be fixed up and not have the same hardware/targetting issues (this could be an example of when patches are a good thing).

[StoneGut]

Short and Sweet: I'm playing the game... and it's great!

[Spigot]

Since Forza, XBOX has had 7 games straight in a row rated below 6.6 by GS.

OUCH. this is really quite bad....but normal for the Xbox library?

Welcome to the 8th Annual May - July Videogame Slump. I'm not terribly surprised that a lot of stinkers are getting dumped on the market now as this is usually the slow time of the year.

Now if they're high profile games and they're still getting slammed...

It sounds to me that Advent Rising is good in concept, horrible in execution. Technical issues like the ones they're reporting in most of the reviews I've read just shouldn't be allowed out the gate. It's one thing if they happen on a PC where you don't have standardized hardware, but on a console that's unforgivable.

[Kamalot]

I wouldn't have shipped my game out of the factory with similar FPS problems.

Only it isn't an FPS. Targeting is a totally different beast in Advent Rising than an FPS game.

[Crabby]

Only it isn't an FPS. Targeting is a totally different beast in Advent Rising than an FPS game.

Thanks Boss, FPS=frames per second as relevant to the article I cited and the discussion of the horrid graphical problems cited in this thread.