Yet Another Pillars of Eternity beta preview

[Snoozer]

The reviewer should have posted what build he was testing, among other nagging issues with the impression. He should have probably consulted with some colleagues to see if their experience was similar.

 

Just a tip for everyone, don't bother reading first impressions or early build previews. They are hype pieces that don't give any indication of the final product. Two examples: Aliens Colonial Marines and Dragon Age Inquisition. The former for obvious reasons and the latter had so many design changes within a year that reviewers (I'm thinking of one on Kotaku at the moment) didn't recognize it.

[Nomadmerc]

If the review was a metaphor for the blind person touching the trunk of a elephant then spot on review!

 

 

[Lephys]

Methinks this guy knows not the difference between "unbiased" and "uninformed."

 

It only could've been funnier if his dedication to remaining unbiased led him to haphazardly download the Mac or Linux build for his Windows machine, and his entire preview consisted of "You can't even install this game. The installer doesn't work. They can't be getting any testing done. How can they expect the game to release in a month and a half?! FEH, I say! It's a good thing they have unbiased people like me getting to the truth of the matter, u_u..."

[MarkTaylor]

lol

[teknoman2]

we should all troll the coments

[Gairnulf]

we should all troll the coments

Mine was first

 

I was just so irritated at this guy not doing a minimum amount of research before writing. Opinions are opinions, but there are informed ones and there are... those like what he has posted.

 

I also believe he is quite deliberately misleading the audience by not specifying that this is 1) a beta, and far from release, 2) not intended to write previews off of, 3) a portion of the game taken from the middle of the campaign. I'm not sure if he himself is aware of these facts.

Edited February 15, 2015 by Gairnulf

[Stun]

Yes, I also think this is a ridiculous review by a guy who claims to be an RPG fan but for some reason has never heard of using pause in the middle of combat.

Yep. He's simply not an RPG fan. I clicked on his post history to see all the reviews he's done and I only found 1 other RPG: Wasteland 2. And, surprise surprise. He spouts the exact same gripes at it:

 

1) Hardest game I ever played!

2) Steepest learning curve ever!

 

There's no mystery here. He's a typical casual. The various Wii Mario games are what he calls home. And that's fine. It means we can dismiss him and his attempts at "journalism" as completely irrelevant and move on. And by "we" I mean we "poor suckers who backed this game", as he puts it.

Edited February 15, 2015 by Stun

[Osvir]

This guy isn't even a reviewer people. If you read his box he says "I'm just a dude with 'opinions'" pretty much..

Thus, his "Review" is more of an Opinion-Piece, it is nothing but a "Blog" message. He's not a journalist and probably doesn't even know what journalistic research is.

It is disguised as a Review/Preview, but really, it isn't.

EDIT: And you are traffic when you click on that link, that GameCloud can use in their statistics of visitors for their ad networks etc.

You're giving them money/credibility to their advertisers by clicking on the link, essentially. Do what you will with this info, go there, read it if you want, put on Adblocker, or ignore it.

Edited February 15, 2015 by Osvir

[SunBroSolaire]

 

 

It was only because of a loading tooltip that I learned you were actually supposed to pause mid-fight to issue commands to your team, which actually does allow much more planning during combat.

 

  Now I understand why developers put such overbearing tutorials in their games.

[Gairnulf]

This guy isn't even a reviewer people. If you read his box he says "I'm just a dude with 'opinions'" pretty much..

 

Thus, his "Review" is more of an Opinion-Piece, it is nothing but a "Blog" message. He's not a journalist and probably doesn't even know what journalistic research is.

 

It is disguised as a Review/Preview, but really, it isn't.

 

EDIT: And you are traffic when you click on that link, that GameCloud can use in their statistics of visitors for their ad networks etc.

 

You're giving them money/credibility to their advertisers by clicking on the link, essentially. Do what you will with this info, go there, read it if you want, put on Adblocker, or ignore it.

The "Bio" boxes containing "witty" descriptions disgust me. It's like saying "I'm a random knowitall on the Internet, here to tell you about something you probably know better than me, in language I've borrowed from stand-up comedians I've watched on youtube". No added value, just copying stuff he's read somewhere and considered to be funny and edgy.

Edited February 16, 2015 by Gairnulf

[Luckmann]

This guy isn't even a reviewer people. If you read his box he says "I'm just a dude with 'opinions'" pretty much..

 

Thus, his "Review" is more of an Opinion-Piece, it is nothing but a "Blog" message. He's not a journalist and probably doesn't even know what journalistic research is.

 

It is disguised as a Review/Preview, but really, it isn't.

 

EDIT: And you are traffic when you click on that link, that GameCloud can use in their statistics of visitors for their ad networks etc.

 

You're giving them money/credibility to their advertisers by clicking on the link, essentially. Do what you will with this info, go there, read it if you want, put on Adblocker, or ignore it.

 

There's still people that cruise without AdBlock Plus?

 

 

When I was told that YouTube had commercials, I was genuinely shocked.

 

[talharbash]

 

Yeah, nothing which better says "HELLO I AM NOT QUALIFIED TO OPEN MY MOUTH ABOUT THIS GAME".

 

 

Really, people need to be qualified to give a first impression?

[Luckmann]

 

 

Yeah, nothing which better says "HELLO I AM NOT QUALIFIED TO OPEN MY MOUTH ABOUT THIS GAME".

 

 

Really, people need to be qualified to give a first impression?

 

 

I tend to think that people should be qualified to do anything, really. It doesn't take much, but there's a level you should expect your fellow man to reach while still be allowed to keep breathing, let alone offer "opinions".

[Rostere]

 

 

Yeah, nothing which better says "HELLO I AM NOT QUALIFIED TO OPEN MY MOUTH ABOUT THIS GAME".

 

 

Really, people need to be qualified to give a first impression?

 

Obviously. It's like if you would write a car review, saying that "it's big and red, I like the round rubber thingies at the bottom, but it doesn't appear to do much. It was only after several hours that I discovered by chance that you can insert the key by the side of the steering wheel, whereupon the car makes a humming noise. 2/10".

[Moirnelithe]

 

This guy isn't even a reviewer people. If you read his box he says "I'm just a dude with 'opinions'" pretty much..

 

Thus, his "Review" is more of an Opinion-Piece, it is nothing but a "Blog" message. He's not a journalist and probably doesn't even know what journalistic research is.

 

It is disguised as a Review/Preview, but really, it isn't.

 

EDIT: And you are traffic when you click on that link, that GameCloud can use in their statistics of visitors for their ad networks etc.

 

You're giving them money/credibility to their advertisers by clicking on the link, essentially. Do what you will with this info, go there, read it if you want, put on Adblocker, or ignore it.

 

There's still people that cruise without AdBlock Plus?

 

 

When I was told that YouTube had commercials, I was genuinely shocked.

 

 

Thanks, I didn't know this existed. Added 

[500MetricTonnes]

In Baldur's Gate, the tutorial was delivered by a number of green-robed monks standing around Candlekeep. One of the first things you'll hear from them is "if you don't use pause, you will find the entire game very difficult to play."

 

Given that PoE is a spiritual successor to the Infinity Engine games, would it be too much to ask for reviewers to make at least some effort to familiarise themselves with the type of game they're attempting to evaluate? You don't pick up a copy of Falcon 4.0 and whine "Oh my God, you mean I actually have to read this three-ring binder of a manual just to play the game? What the hell is wrong with these people?"

 

This is how we get games like Skyrim and Dragon Age 2. Someone picks up an RPG, finds out that it's more complex than "A space marine is you! Kill everything that isn't you!" and complains about it.

[Stun]

Obviously. It's like if you would write a car review, saying that "it's big and red, I like the round rubber thingies at the bottom, but it doesn't appear to do much. It was only after several hours that I discovered by chance that you can insert the key by the side of the steering wheel, whereupon the car makes a humming noise. 2/10".

lol

 

That is a remarkably accurate analogy.

[Lephys]

Obviously. It's like if you would write a car review, saying that "it's big and red, I like the round rubber thingies at the bottom, but it doesn't appear to do much. It was only after several hours that I discovered by chance that you can insert the key by the side of the steering wheel, whereupon the car makes a humming noise. 2/10".

I laughed to the point of mild pain when I read this, 8D

[Freshock]

Funny to see the split in opinions about Pillars of Eternity, haven't really seen such different views on a game in a long time. 

I've uploaded two gameplay videos of Pillars of Eternity on YouTube and there's 90% that writes good comments, then there are a agressive last 10% that really have no filter saying what they think about the game. I feel like one comment really stands out;

 

 

The age gap is obvious on this comment board.

People that are old enough to have played Baldur's Gate say it looks awesome.

People who's first system was a PS2 say it looks bad.

I think it looks fantastic.

 

 

Not saying the reviewer is a kid, but can't really see that this was something he was looking forward to play. He's complaining about not getting his hand held through the gameplay mechanics - I understood the mechanics in less than thirty minutes, can't really see what's hard about it. I think he's a decent reviewer that got lost in a RPG genre he can't play, and have too little patience to understand. It's kind of refreshing knowing that this game will be a struggle, it will be a hardcore game, and it's not ment for everyone. He's right that there's bugs to be fixed, but watching the latest gameplay videos on YouTube I can't really spot any major ones. 

[Lord Gorchnik]

Didn't read every single reply but in the reviewers little defense they have, you do have to pause quite a lot in battle I have noticed.  A bit more than I care for so far. Maybe as time goes on, or in PoE2/3/6/alpha-12 we will see you be bale to queue up multiple actions/tactics so that you don't have to pause after every single round or face annihilation.

[apolloooo]

wow reading that was so painful. it shows just how much research and experience that guy has lol

[aluminiumtrioxid]

 

 

 Going above the standard class, skills and race choices, you’ll also get to choose their sub-race, where they hail from and what they’re overall intentions are.

 

Professionalism!

[The Guilty Party]

On one hand, yes, it's a little forehead-smacking to read a preview of a game like this that doesn't know about pausing.

 

But everyone has to start somewhere. And if you're starting from, say, Diablo (which at a quick glance PoE looks like) then the concept of pausing to control things is foreign to you and PoE is just going to slaughter you and you're going to say 'wtf is with this game, it's impossible'.

 

This guy's feedback is actually useful. If this is how a new player greets the game, then a gently-ramping (and hopefully skippable for us) tutorial would be very helpful. Now, that sort of tutorial doesn't really make sense in a Beta so in that sense, he's kind of off-base with his complaints. But I'd rather not have one of my favorite game-styles (isometricish pauseable rpgs) turn into some dwindling niche because no one new ever gets into it due to a cliff-like learning curve.

[ruzen]

This guy's feedback is actually useful. If this is how a new player greets the game, then a gently-ramping (and hopefully skippable for us) tutorial would be very helpful. 

I second that

[TheisEjsing]

There will be a tutorial in the game, so the new players can ease into it. It should however be fairly obvious to the man, that it won't be placed in a backer beta that is made to for bug finding and balancing, where you start out in the middle of the game.

 

The blame for the awful preview is on him, since he didn't plan or research what he was about to do, and hence failed to realize, that he was unable to perform his task, with the ressources he had available.  

Edited February 18, 2015 by TheisEjsing