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In our 30th episode, we discuss the highs and lows of 2014. What was the best moment for Sonic fans and which was the lowest point of the year? Join Jason, Alex, GX and special guest, Evil Dr. Reef. Also, extra special guest, Spanish Sonic! Also, try out our new game, “If Platinum Games made _____”.
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Listened to the podcast before bed last night, and personally I love playing Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric, and agree with some points made. Such as the game being a “licensed game” and on the reception the game got, as well as reviewers making it out to be worse than it actually is (an average game based off cartoon for lack of a better comparison).
If anything, the critic response and gaming media reaction to Sonic Boom did encourage me to not trust gaming media again. Sorry, when a review tells me a game is a buggy mess, and I only run into two minor bugs that don’t ruin the experience, why should I trust it? It feels kind of like someone lying to me about something.
This is only the second time I’ve listened to Sonic Talk, this is definitely one of the better fan-run podcasts I’ve heard. Keep it up guys.
By the way, you don’t want to read Jim Sterling’s review. All he did was bash the game, he didn’t even review it properly.
I don’t know if I’d throw all games media reviewers under the bus all the time, I think there are some fair interpretations out there. Just understand, a reviewer can only describe their experience. I have no reason to believe that any given reviewer didn’t experience bugs, but it just isn’t reflective of my experience, which, honestly, is a rough thing to make consistent since games as a medium are interactive software. No two experiences are going to be exactly alike as they could for a movie or book or album.
This is just simply a case where, what I seek in games, or at least in this franchise, isn’t what other people are apparently seeking. Heck, part of the disconnect in opinions might simply be because there are so many, so big games releasing anymore, that reviewers aren’t even exposed to these kind of odd, limited licensed-type titles; if they do review them, they’re often handed off to freelancers. So when a -Sonic- game comes out, and one that someone, Nintendo or Sega, seems to be promoting to… whatever extent you want to say it’s been publicized to, and then suddenly someone who is used to reviewing games of a far grander scope gets Sonic Boom on their desk, the perspective is probably skewed.
I still don’t think the game is great. Or even good. It is buggy, and that in itself is unacceptable for a game of this scope. But nothing about this game is just so detrimental as to warrant the level of hyperbole it gets. (Except for maybe the price tag).
I did use bugs as an example. Everywhere I went to get info on Sonic Boom, most portrayed the game as overly buggy. Example, I would just be playing the game and bugs would pop up. While I played the game start to finish and all I ran into was a 2D section glitch in Lyric’s Weapons Facility (which fixed itself after I respawned from falling) and one boost pad not working. Maybe I got lucky in terms of bugs. Dunno if it will change since clicking the game did download the patch last week.
Thanks for your response GX, at least this helps keeps give me a little more insight on reviews and some of the ways games get reviewed. I was unaware that some games went to a freelancer, while “bigger” games go to someone else.