ScrewAttack can Screw Themselves - Free Riders SAGY '10

[Barry the Nomad]

Anyway, regarding Free Riders, like I said, it may not be "the worst game ever made," but it's widely regarded as being a bad game.

I agree that bad Sonic games need to stop, however my point was that many were voting Free Riders as SAGY despite not owning a Kinect or owning Free Riders. How do I know this? Because there is no way that the ScrewAttack community, who jump at the chance to bash any Kinect title (check the comments and forums) actually all own a Kinect. It was all based on gamers taking Angry Joe and ScrewAttack's opinions as the de facto judgement of the game. Meanwhile there were positive reviews of the game placing it around 7/10 and calling it completely playable and enjoyable despite being one of thew more physically demanding Kinect titles as it doesn't auto-play itself. But since these positive reviews are obviously written by biased Microsoft fanboys, they don't count. Only the rage filled videos filled with the LOLs and memes are the real reviews.

Funny thing is, every person I've talked to who has actually played the game places it in the "good" category, citing that the only real negatives are that the many actions take a few races to master and that one can only do three or four races before needing a break. Meanwhile, those who hate the game are either reviewers who are nigh impossible to have a normal conversation with (due to their "celebrity" status and lack of time) or people who haven't actually played the game, but "heard it sucks".

It works, but it's very physically demanding.

And so who's that supposed to be targeting? Who wants to play a video game that's "physically demanding"? A "fun" Sonic hoverboard racer should not be frustrating and physically demanding. That's always been my problem with the Sonic Riders series: I've never found them to be any fun.

nuckles87 never mentioned frustrating, he just mentioned "very physically demanding", which it can be in the challenge races and hard difficulty tracks. "very physically demanding" does not have to equal "bad and frustrating", for example, Samba de Amigo's Hard mode and Super Hard mode are very physically demanding, but the reward of beating the level makes it fun. Same goes for the many DDR games, Cool Cool Toon's later levels (with maracas) and Kinect's Dance Central hard mode.

[CosmicCastaway]

The reliance on Metacritic is also another thing I think is wrong with the game community.

I'm in support of Metacritic because it shows you a couple sentences from the review and invites you to click on, unlike Gamerankings, which is all numbers.

Developers can scan the Metacritic page to sort of see what people generally didn't like or did like about their game and improve these issues in future games. They can also click on any review and read it. It's easier than having to scan everywhere to look for critic reviews, this puts them all in one place.

I'm more referring to how people just look at the site and let it be their judgment. I wish people would just try out games if they sound interesting to them instead of just going by what the critics say. I would've missed out on so many fun games if I only went by stuff like Metacritic.
And games can be physically demanding and be lots of fun. Like Barry said, games like DDR and Samba De Amigo are tons of fun but you really have to work for it on the higher difficulties.

[TimmiT]

Most people don't actually play the games they choose for this award, because why would you buy a game you expect to be crap? Most people also pay more attention to big game franchises than new IPs. Now think of an exclusive Xbox 360 title that has a bad score on metacritic and is part of a big game franchise.

If everyone would choose from games they actually played, most people that only watch the video would most likely disagree.

[Sega Uranus]

I think this is the kind of stuff wrong with every medium right now. People who have played games since they were little begin to figure because all of their favorite games get massive praise that their opinion is just correct, and anyone who disagrees is wrong. I know personally, I used to be like that a few years back.

I came to realize that at the end of the day, none of it really matters. Why complain about the state of the industry when it is more enjoyable to actually play different kinds of games instead? Who cares if a game sucks, you should have thought about that before you spent $60 on a game you were not entirely certain you would like.

Even the crappiest games can have their positive points. There are always elements people can enjoy in different ways. I think a good example though is that MandeMang considers Sonic 06 the worst game he ever played, and Cube thinks it is one of the most enjoyable he has come across, what does this change? Pretty much nothing, if anything we should be happy someone is enjoying themselves, and for Mang, well he smartened up with his purchases in the future.

Of course it bugs me when crap like Prototype gets so many positive reactions when it is literally the exact kind of game as Shadow the Hedgehog, a game that everyone hates but barely anyone who complains actually played. I am not trying to say Shadow's game is great or anything, just that the "Gaming Community" is pretty much just a bunch of dinguses, and you would be best to avoid contact with them.

For Your Health.

[Ben]

Eh. A game being exhausting and demanding should take place on higher difficulties, it shouldn't be happening because of a control scheme. People shouldn't be feeling fatigue while playing on a standard difficulty.

You shouldn't have to struggle to go through a menu, either.

agree that bad Sonic games need to stop, however my point was that many were voting Free Riders as SAGY despite not owning a Kinect or owning Free Riders. How do I know this? Because there is no way that the ScrewAttack community, who jump at the chance to bash any Kinect title (check the comments and forums) actually all own a Kinect. It was all based on gamers taking Angry Joe and ScrewAttack's opinions as the de facto judgement of the game. Meanwhile there were positive reviews of the game placing it around 7/10 and calling it completely playable and enjoyable despite being one of thew more physically demanding Kinect titles as it doesn't auto-play itself. But since these positive reviews are obviously written by biased Microsoft fanboys, they don't count. Only the rage filled videos filled with the LOLs and memes are the real reviews.

I both agree and disagree with you. I agree that many people who voted definitely didn't play the game, however, they see another bad Sonic game and are just voting for it on principle.

I disagree with your 2nd part, though....sorry bro, but the game's averaging in the 40s, you can't blame that on a couple biassed critics, many of whom gave Sonic Colors positive scores, so....

Look, there are definitely a couple positive reviews. Sonic '06 had a couple too. Every game will have a couple positive reviews. The fact is, though, that the majority of the critical community (and many gamers, judging by user reviews) dislike the game. This dislike is pretty apparent, and people who then have an agenda to "stop the bad Sonic games" will jump all over it.

So meh. Just sayin' that I'm not too surprised to see the worst-reviewed Sonic game in years end up as "crap game of the year," lol. I wouldn't be too upset about it, at least you enjoyed it.

I'm more referring to how people just look at the site and let it be their judgment. I wish people would just try out games if they sound interesting to them instead of just going by what the critics say.

I do agree with that, though with the entry point for this game being a $150 Kinect device and the $50 game itself, that's a bit steep of a price to pay to try out a game that's, by all accounts, very flawed.

[Centrale]

Gee, I would have expected thoughtful, subtly nuanced content from a site called "ScrewAttack."

[Barry the Nomad]

I disagree with your 2nd part, though....sorry bro, but the game's averaging in the 40s, you can't blame that on a couple biassed critics, many of whom gave Sonic Colors positive scores, so....

I can't blame biased critics, no, but I can blame gamers who take review scores as their only source of opinion on a game. Especially when said gamers are using that as their only reason for voting for a game that they deem to be the shittiest game of the year. That was my beef, that the game was deemed "shittiest" despite being much better than a number of terrible titles out there. If Bayonetta is the best game of 2010 (imo), Fighters Uncaged is the worst game of 2010 (tied with Iron Man 2 and Naughty Bear, again imo). Free Riders falls inbetween there. It did have issues, mainly not being casual friendly and requiring far more actions than most other Kinect games, but it was still fun.

I just think that too many people in the gaming community like to jump on hater bandwagons. Personally I blame the internet and the series of tubes for making it so easy to tear a game to shreds despite never playing it. I remember hating Sonic '06 three years before actually playing it! I regret not forming my own opinion of the game, but once I bought it ($5) I was finally able to form my own opinion. (it was shit)  8-)

[Ben]

lol yeah I'm with you on that. I do wish I got to play Sonic Free Riders before judging it, but yeah....not buying a Kinect anytime soon, so unfortunatley, that leaves me out. I only have reviews to go by and they're not pretty.

I guess I know how you feel, though. If Sonic Unleashed 360/PS3 got this type of award, for example, I would have been angry too.

[Sharky]

Maybe ok but it still doesn't change the simple fact that Sega themselves cannot produce a good Sonic game lately. As long as that problem presists their "star vehicle" is always going to be a target to fan rants.

Sort of true, I had gone years with out buying a Sonic game before 2010. I actually really enjoyed Sonic Colours and I'm one of the people that thought Sonic 4 was 'good not great'.

If they can keep the Sonic Colours momentum going build upon its design I'll be excited for Sonic games again.

[CrazyT]

I agree on both SFR and FF13. Sonic free riders looks like a dumbed down casual version of the first riders game, which I actually liked. Dumbed down in the sense that the levels are made more straightforward and adepted to only the 2 things you can do, jumping and steering. While in the first you could also do a drift move.

Ff13 is one of the worst JRpg's i've played. I don't care if it becomes more epic after maybe 20 hours but the first 5 hours I spent were just boring. I couldn't help and feel that I was cheating throughout the whole playthrough with the "auto" option making the best decisions. Beside that the characters themselves were uninteresting and kinda gay.

*gasp*

[SOUP]

Ff13 is one of the worst JRpg's i've played. I don't care if it becomes more epic after maybe 20 hours but the first 5 hours I spent were just boring. I couldn't help and feel that I was cheating throughout the whole playthrough with the "auto" option making the best decisions. Beside that the characters themselves were uninteresting and kinda gay.

*gasp*

The auto battle option is pretty nessecary as the game progresses. The fights move way too fast to manually select each individual action the characters take. The battle system has more of a macro view. With the paradigm system, you've got plenty of other things too keep track of besides which fire spell Lightning is casting.

Just saying you shouldn't judge a 50/60 hour game by the first 5 hours. It's like saying Final Fantasy 5 sucks because you've only got a few jobs available to mess with near the beginning of the game.

[CrazyT]

I remember final fantasy V being instant fun though, the more jobs only made it better.

To each of their own you know but i'd rather play the most basic rpg with no inovation than a game that has an option for it playing itself. The auto option literally makes the best decisions. It uses skills, heals, uses potions etcetera. I believe you if you say it gets better, but the story/cast just didn't have that charm to get me back after the first 5 hours. I also own Resonance of fate which is pretty decent in it's own, but next to ff13, personally I thought it was 1000 times better.

Resonance has a complicated battle system which I don't think i'd give a chance if it weren't for ff13 bad taste making me crave for an rpg that actually required me to pay attention. It's really hard though

I know it may sound weird, but is it fair to call ff13 an interactive movie? I mean in the sense of that you could finish a "big portion" of the game by just holding forward(linear pathways) all the time and then mashing A all through the battles(auto option).

Edit: I went reading some impressions around the net after writing this post. I might give the game a chance. Is it true you get more control when you progres??

[ROJM]

Maybe ok but it still doesn't change the simple fact that Sega themselves cannot produce a good Sonic game lately. As long as that problem presists their "star vehicle" is always going to be a target to fan rants.

Sort of true, I had gone years with out buying a Sonic game before 2010. I actually really enjoyed Sonic Colours and I'm one of the people that thought Sonic 4 was 'good not great'.

If they can keep the Sonic Colours momentum going build upon its design I'll be excited for Sonic games again.

I don't play them, i just collect sonic titles now, so I have unopened sonic games since the advance/DS titles. Might get the wii version for collection's sake.

[Sharky]

IMO Sonic Colours is very much a worthy play.

[Ben]

Ff13 is one of the worst JRpg's i've played. I don't care if it becomes more epic after maybe 20 hours but the first 5 hours I spent were just boring. I couldn't help and feel that I was cheating throughout the whole playthrough with the "auto" option making the best decisions. Beside that the characters themselves were uninteresting and kinda gay.

*gasp*

Final Fantasy XIII is almost more like a SRPG in that you tell the characters what to do and they do it, but the challenge is telling them to do the right thing.

In battles as you get further in the game you need to constantly switch and adjust your paradigms, sometimes every 5 seconds, to keep up with the enemy.