Support NeoGAF

[pixelation]

Wow... tremendous reviews so far.

 

[OléGunner]

Getting my copy next week Thursday. I've only played a couple hours of Demons Souls before my PS3 got stolen but I'm very much looking forward to this.

Thankfully my hype is in check as I fear the brutal repeating deaths I'm going to face :')

 

[Magic Mushroom]

This should not be compared to shallow action movies, but violent masterpieces of film, like The Wild Bunch or Goodfellas.

You kill things, sure. But it's mechanically and artistically brilliant.

Anyway, great review in The Guardian.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/mar/24/bloodborne-review-elegant-precise-irresistible

 

[Chmpocalypse]

There could be a couple reasons for that like different reviewers, and different type of difficulty.

Or Bloodborne being the better game...

 

[Phat Michael]

When I arrive back in Dubai in 12 hours will I be able to buy this on the Sony store or whatever?

 

[Shredderi]

This is how I feel about Street Fighter. All you can do is fight, and if you don't then someone will beat the shit out of you. Locations from all around the world, characters with diverse backgrounds but no oh, all you can do is fight, fight, fight. How come nobody has critiqued this yet? #violence

 

[Docflem]

. . .if the violence is particularly excessive or out of place.

That's the point, violence in Bloodborne is neither of those things.

 

[AmethystEnd]

That's the point, violence in Bloodborne is neither of those things.

It's not out of place but it's pretty excessive. Have you seen how much blood comes out of an enemy from a single slash?

This isn't a bad thing, by the way. That's the kind of game this is.

 

[aravuus]

Seems not

Fuck, I hate saying this but that's actually a genuinely terrible opinion. Sorry, McIntosh, but you're an idiot.

 

[rtcn63]

 

[Docflem]

It's not out of place but it's pretty excessive. Have you seen how much blood comes out of an enemy from a single slash?

This isn't a bad thing, by the way. That's the kind of game this is.

Excessive is a relative term, for this type of game and "the vibrant world" that from developed it makes sense and is not over the top.

 

[revbatboy]

Of course this is the first time Amazon misses the pre-order guarantee; won't get my BB CE till tomorrow. Guess I will continue reading reviews.

 

[Omnipunctual Godot]

someone doesnt like the game

He is truly insufferable.

 

[Caja 117]

Unpopular opinion time.

I'm genuinely curious why Bloodborne is getting such high praise - a metacritic score on par with Dark Souls. While I love the Dark Souls series, and they are some of the best games I've played, it just feels the same. The core mechanics are the same and overall it's just more Dark Souls, very little has changed. It's similar to people praising Call of Duty every year when very little has changed and they haven't really done anything differently until Advanced Warfare came out where it brought in a nice change of pace.

I just think there is a double standard going on where other games are shit on if they don't reinvent themselves, while we have Bloodborne that has had minimal changes since Demon Souls came out. I know some people will argue against, and tell me, "BUT IT'S NOT THE SAME THERE ARE SO MANY DIFFERENT THINGS, LIKE GUNS!" To an extent sure, but if you deny this is a Dark Souls-esque clone, you are sadly mistaken.

Regardless, I'm going to play this game because I love the Dark Souls games, but it's just been bugging me.

That could be said for a lot of Franchises, In my opinion if the core gameplay is close to been flawless, the developer shouldn't change that formula too much, and rather, evolve on what they have or play around on what they have, games like Batman, GTA, Mass Effect, amongst other don't change too much because the gameplay is that good, I feel that Souls series falls into this.

 

[Wagram]

Dan Stapleton from IGN seems to have a major agenda towards the product. It's fine to dislike it but he's spent the better part of the past 24 hours doing nothing but bitching and moaning. Move on Dan, you dislike it, it's ok.

 

[Anoregon]

Fuck, I hate saying thiss but that's actually a genuinely terrible opinion. Sorry, McIntosh, but you're an idiot.

Why? The internet is full of them.

 

[Piano]

That's the point, violence in Bloodborne is neither of those things.

But the guy didn't write about the excessive violence in a review for a major outlet. He was trying to start a public dialogue about there being yet another beautiful video game world that we're only able to interact with through violence, a discussion that's been going on for years. I recall there being lots of similar criticism of Bioshock Infinite.

Regardless, yes, it's obvious the type of game Bloodborne is and it wouldn't be a Souls-successor without the violence. But he's not wrong about our industry pouring so much beautiful art into what are essentially killing floors.

 

[PBY]

Dan Stapleton from IGN seems to have a major agenda towards the product. It's fine to dislike it but he's spent the better part of the past 24 hours doing nothing but bitching and moaning. Move on Dan, you dislike it, it's ok.

Maybe he doesn't like the thing that everyone is talking about. Hes allowed to be a part of the conversation.

 

[viveks86]

Seems not

lol. "I'm so tired of violent games being violent"

 

[vin-buc]

Unpopular opinion time.

I'm genuinely curious why Bloodborne is getting such high praise - a metacritic score on par with Dark Souls. While I love the Dark Souls series, and they are some of the best games I've played, it just feels the same. The core mechanics are the same and overall it's just more Dark Souls, very little has changed. It's similar to people praising Call of Duty every year when very little has changed and they haven't really done anything differently until Advanced Warfare came out where it brought in a nice change of pace.

I just think there is a double standard going on where other games are shit on if they don't reinvent themselves, while we have Bloodborne that has had minimal changes since Demon Souls came out. I know some people will argue against, and tell me, "BUT IT'S NOT THE SAME THERE ARE SO MANY DIFFERENT THINGS, LIKE GUNS!" To an extent sure, but if you deny this is a Dark Souls-esque clone, you are sadly mistaken.

Regardless, I'm going to play this game because I love the Dark Souls games, but it's just been bugging me.

Isn't this a new IP that's a "spiritual successor" to Dark/Demon Souls? Maybe the call outs for gameplay reinvention are intended for yearly franchises. I don't think anyone is denying where it got its roots from. If Bloodborne 2 comes out next March and is the same then I think your point is validated (unless it's called out for being the same game). But for now it's kind of unfair to put it against other IPs.

 

[Jawbreaker]

"Transformative media maker. Pop culture critic. Producer and co-writer on the Tropes vs Women in Video Games YouTube series."

 

[Wagram]

Maybe he doesn't like the thing that everyone is talking about. Hes allowed to be a part of the conversation.

True. It just seems silly to me to continue needlessly beating a dead horse. He doesn't like it so why not move on to something else?

 

[SolidSnakex]

Dan Stapleton from IGN seems to have a major agenda towards the product. It's fine to dislike it but he's spent the better part of the past 24 hours doing nothing but bitching and moaning. Move on Dan, you dislike it, it's ok.

This guy?

 

[PBY]

True. It just seems silly to me to continue needlessly beating a dead horse. He doesn't like it so why not move on to something else?

He's a critic? Its a hugely zeitgeisty game? You're basically saying- shut up if you don't like this. I love this game, but its still interesting to hear different perspectives.

 

[Docflem]

But the guy didn't write about the excessive violence in a review for a major outlet. He was trying to start a public dialogue about there being yet another beautiful video game world that we're only able to interact with through violence, a discussion that's been going on for years. I recall there being lots of similar criticism of Bioshock Infinite.

Regardless, yes, it's obvious the type of game Bloodborne is and it wouldn't be a Souls-successor without the violence. But he's not wrong about our industry pouring so much beautiful art into what are essentially killing floors.

He specifically stated that he wanted reviews to consider the violence while critiquing the game so I think that's a weird point to make. Also there are plenty of great games that have no violence in them at all, besides art reflects life, which can be extraordinarily cruel and violent.

 

[gaugebozo]

I just do not like this fellow even though I adore the video series he works on.

This is in particular a bad critique of souls games, where if you just kill everything you might end up killing a really helpful npc

 

[Guymelef]

This guy?

That avatar needs more Murrica.

 

[Chobel]

someone doesnt like the game

Who is this guy?

 

[Irishmantis]

Why is my EU PSN version only Pre loading now?

 

[hawk2025]

This guy?

...whoa.

That crosses a line.

 

[silva1991]

Why is my EU PSN version only Pre loading now?

It supposed to pre load 6 hrs ago.

 

[TheChillyAcademic]

This guy?

"Even though Japan weirds me out" What in the gay hell? And he's a PAID journalist?

 

[djplaeskool]

someone doesnt like the game

Uhh...
kill or be killed is the raison d'être of the Souls series.
There's a reason no one is proffering this type of critique of Bloodborne...

 

[BennyBlanco]

Dan Stapleton from IGN seems to have a major agenda towards the product. It's fine to dislike it but he's spent the better part of the past 24 hours doing nothing but bitching and moaning. Move on Dan, you dislike it, it's ok.

Maybe he doesn't like the thing that everyone is talking about. Hes allowed to be a part of the conversation.

Of course it's ok not to like things, but he's legitimately having a meltdown over it. I hope he keeps going because it's fucking hilarious.

 

[Wagram]

He's a critic? Its a hugely zeitgeisty game? You're basically saying- shut up if you don't like this. I love this game, but its still interesting to hear different perspectives.

24 hours worth of endless ranting? That seems overboard. I'm not opposing his criticism.

 

[silva1991]

This guy?

Weirds him out?

 

[taybul]

Nope. I have 100+ hours in Demons Souls and 60 hours in Dark Souls 1.

My body was not even close to ready. 4 hours and I haven't beat the Cleric Beast yet

I felt so cocky strolling in

But now I'm like

Don't feel too bad. I tried killing the first werewolf with my bare fists before realizing you can pick up weapons at the hub place. Chalked it up to the difficulty curve this series is notorious for.

 

[Zombie James]

This guy?

This guy's feed has been a non-stop stream of Blodborne hate for nearly 24 hours now.

 

[Jawbreaker]

Who is this guy?

Producer and co-writer with Anita Sarkeesian on the Tropes vs Women in Video Games series.

 

[madmackem]

Why is my EU PSN version only Pre loading now?

Because it's not out till Friday uk and Thursday mainland?.

 

[vin-buc]

He's a critic? Its a hugely zeitgeisty game? You're basically saying- shut up if you don't like this. I love this game, but its still interesting to hear different perspectives.

It's a game that involves death and killing. It's somehow implied in the title itself and the cover art has a masked man with an oversized meat cleaver dripping with blood in one hand and a firearm in the other. What are the expectations there?

 

[PBY]

24 hours worth of endless ranting? That seems overboard. I'm not opposing his criticism.

Of course it's ok not to like things, but he's legitimately having a meltdown over it. I hope he keeps going because it's fucking hilarious.

He's not? I just went back and read the tweets. The comments hes getting are so terrible too.

 

[sasliquid]

Dan Stapleton from IGN seems to have a major agenda towards the product. It's fine to dislike it but he's spent the better part of the past 24 hours doing nothing but bitching and moaning. Move on Dan, you dislike it, it's ok.

Eh he's aloud to have an opinion. Then again he seems to be one of the few journalists who doesn't seem to be distancing themselves from Totalbuscuit, they're having a nice conversation about how they both don't like the game.

 

[LiK]

This guy's feed has been a non-stop stream of Blodborne hate for nearly 24 hours now.

It'll be delicious when the reviewer gives it a 10

 

[Servbot24]

Every post responding to McIntosh just makes him feel a little more smug.

 

[Jomjom]

Your run of the mill newspaper review isn't going to mention it, no, but there is an immense amount of ongoing writing and dialogue amongst film critics over the level of violence in movies. You'll see it creep into reviews now and then if the violence is particularly excessive or out of place.

You're talking more broadly about the industry in general. The same conversations are being had in the game industry as well. However, going into a movie review of a movie whose sole purpose for existing is violence and then saying it's gratuitous is silly; if that's the reviewers agenda the review could have been written without seeing the movie.

 

[JudgmentJay]

This guy's feed has been a non-stop stream of Blodborne hate for nearly 24 hours now.

He seems really upset that people like what he doesn't like. Like he's seriously taking it personal.

 

[Devilgunman]

Unpopular opinion time.

I'm genuinely curious why Bloodborne is getting such high praise - a metacritic score on par with Dark Souls. While I love the Dark Souls series, and they are some of the best games I've played, it just feels the same. The core mechanics are the same and overall it's just more Dark Souls, very little has changed. It's similar to people praising Call of Duty every year when very little has changed and they haven't really done anything differently until Advanced Warfare came out where it brought in a nice change of pace.

I just think there is a double standard going on where other games are shit on if they don't reinvent themselves, while we have Bloodborne that has had minimal changes since Demon Souls came out. I know some people will argue against, and tell me, "BUT IT'S NOT THE SAME THERE ARE SO MANY DIFFERENT THINGS, LIKE GUNS!" To an extent sure, but if you deny this is a Dark Souls-esque clone, you are sadly mistaken.

Regardless, I'm going to play this game because I love the Dark Souls games, but it's just been bugging me.

You can say the same thing to almost every popular franchise: Mario, Pokemon, CoD, Monster Hunter etc. I don't see how it is a bad thing. The core design of Soul series is already solid so why change it? Bloodborne offers much more than many other sequels of the popular franchise I mentioned did.

 

[Lionel Richie]

"Even though Japan weirds me out" What in the gay hell? And he's a PAID journalist?

Isn't this xenophobia? People don't lose their jobs over this stuff? Maybe Dan is just too much of a good writer.

Spoiler

Bwahahaha

 

[PBY]

It's a game that involves death and killing. It's somehow implied in the title itself and the cover art has a masked man with an oversized meat cleaver dripping with blood in one hand and a firearm in the other. What are the expectations there?

The comment you quoted was about the other dude, stapleton