The Warp Pipe - 14/12/08
By Matt Keller - Sun Dec 14, 2008 8:58am
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Speaking of bold proclamations, The Warp Pipe made a few just before the start of the second, third and final quarters of the year. I thought we’d use the final column of the year evaluating my ability to predict the quality of soon-to-be-released video games.
At the start of each quarter during this year, I dedicated a column that claimed to predict the quality of roughly 25 games due to be released during the quarter. A couple of you suggested in the feedback section that you’d like to see my predictions measure up against the final product. Since I’ve had the opportunity to play or review the majority of the games featured in those articles, I thought we could go ahead and do exactly that.The Warp Pipe 2008 Report Card
Each column contained a list of games which were subsequently rated on their current level of hype and my prediction as to their quality (ranging from Bomb to Excellent). For this little end report, I’ll be comparing my predictions to the reviews on Games on Net (and making notes in instances where I played the game, but we didn’t review it). I’ve tried to adapt the predictions to more or less mirror our rating scale (less than or equal to 3 is a Bomb, 4-5 Needs Work, 6 is Average, 7 is Good, 8-9 is Great and 10 is Excellent). Where a prediction is equal to the score, I’ve given myself a tick worth a point, and where the prediction was one step below the correct prediction (e.g. a Good prediction resulting in a Great score), I’ve given myself a half point. Wrong answers are worth zero, and stuff that didn’t get played is ignored.
It’s safe to say I didn’t start well this year, with a score of 10½ from a possible 19 (55%). Optimism directed at Alone in the Dark and The Bourne Conspiracy was clearly misplaced. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and Grand Theft Auto IV received unanimously high scores from other outlets, but our local reviewers where more critical of their shortcomings, and I support them; GTAIV didn’t have as much long term appeal as San Andreas, and Crisis Core came across as glorified Final Fantasy fan-fiction. The same cannot be said for Haze and LEGO Indiana Jones, which were both treated with a lot of leniency. Most would argue that I was lenient on Metal Gear Solid 4, but I do genuinely believe it is worth the 10.
There were two titles I feel that I completely misjudged in the quarter. Echochrome was a real surprise. The game looked fantastic in its debut and trailers, but once I actually got my hands on it, I discovered its remarkable simplicity. Battlefield: Bad Company seemed like it was going to be another half-assed console Battlefield, but the DICE team ended up bringing some nice toys to the party. The single player side of things is inexcusably easy, but the multiplayer is rather snazzy, even if it doesn’t have the numbers of the superior Battlefield 2.
Five games missed out on review coverage. Steven Spielberg’s BOOM BLOX turned out to be much better than expected; the idea behind the game is simple, yet it’s really fun to play. Wii Fit was one that was always going to be tricky to judge – I’ve spent the last month or so with the game and balance board and found it to be fairly useful, even a little fun at times. Top Spin 3 turned out to be completely different to what I expected. The new swing mechanics took hours to become accustomed to, and I never really felt at home with them. The single player aspect of the game was fantastic, but there seemed to be far too much effort put into the multiplayer side of things, particularly for a game with such a low-key pre-release campaign. Age of Conan and Ninja Gaiden II never made their way into my hands, but the former seems to be suffering an epic backlash.
My results improved in the third quarter, with a score of 15 from a possible 24 (62.5%). I did have a bunch of predictions that were totally off – Facebreaker turned out to be one of the worst games of 2008, LEGO Batman and Sonic Chronicles were very disappointing, Strong Bad brought the funny but not the gameplay and TNA iMPACT was missing a lot of vital features for a game that had been in development for more than three years. One large oversight is Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09; the prediction was done based on the Wii version of the game, but the review was done on the Xbox 360.
I think we were a little lenient on some titles – S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky has an abundance of technical issues, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed defecated on the legacy of the classic Star Wars trilogy. The Witcher: Enhanced Edition is a contentious one; it’s a good game, but perhaps the lack of good computer RPGs over the last few years elevates it to a level of acclaim higher than that which it deserves. Too Human is a marmite game; some people think it is lovely, but rather I’d shove my arm down a garbage disposal unit than play it again. Spore seems to be suffering a big backlash since its release, with most of us discovering that it’s just not really very fun.
We missed about eight major titles this time. My girlfriend came home with de Blob and Samba De Amigo in tow for her Wii in the later parts of this year, and both proved to be thoroughly entertaining games. I missed the other six, but most of them were tripe; Grimm seems to be rather ordinary, Soulcalibur Legends’ wretched status had been known due to its release 9 months earlier in North America, Space Siege was a big misstep from a developer that knows better and WALL-E was your typical THQ kids’ movie tie-in. Warhammer still seems to be proving to be a viable alternative to World of Warcraft.
We’ve still got a bunch of fourth quarter reviews due to hit the site, so I’ve tried to avoid spoiling the actual scores (though I’ve provided a few hints on the ones I did personally). I did a lot better this time around with 23 points from a possible 35 (65.7%). There weren’t too many surprises this time around; Dead Space turned out far better than expected, Gears of War 2 turned it up a notch, Midnight Club: Los Angeles really took open world racers forward, and Saints Row 2 proved to be a viable alternative to Grand Theft Auto IV. I even had fun with Call of Duty: World at War, which I thought would suffer from the usual Treyarch touch – maybe they’re turning it around at last.
A few titles turned out to be worse than I expected, and two came from Nintendo, which would have been a shock a few years ago. Wii Music is a horribly limited noisemaker that won’t prove to be interesting for more than 60 minutes, and Disaster is a half-baked load of nonsense. Mirror’s Edge just didn’t seem to have enough to it, relying a lot on trial and error, forcing poor combat sequences on players, and not providing enough pathways to each goal. Far Cry 2 is a good game at heart, but heavily marred by technical issues and some silly design decisions – it gets better if you bear with it, but it’s a bit of a slog at the start. I think we went a bit soft on Golden Axe: Beast Rider; it didn’t look that good to start with, and wound up to be a real mess.
There’s a few games around that we’ve missed this quarter, or are due to come up on the site in the next couple of weeks. Red Alert 3 has sat on my shelf for almost two months without being touched and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe was stuffed on the Christmas list. Animal Crossing is meant to be a glorified port of the DS version, The Last Remnant seems to be getting polarising reviews, Legendary is meant to redefine bad and SOCOM has some major server issues. Wrath of the Lich King is getting a lot of love, and You’re in the Movies is actually meant to be a lot of fun.
It was a remarkably average performance overall, with 48.5 points from a possible 78 (62.2%). The real surprise was that games actually turned out better than predicted this year, with only a handful of games failing to meet expectations. Perhaps we’ll do better next year – thanks for sticking around for the last 10 months, and have a happy and safe holiday.
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