Posted by Sid Shuman // Social Media Manager -
It’s easy to forget that “tactical espionage action” is a relatively recent innovation in the videogame medium, with trailblazers like Metal Gear Solid and Syphon Filter emerging in the late ’90s to great acclaim and even greater influence. A more realistic, open-ended philosophy towards combat soon spread through the action genre, permanently impacting the development of artificial intelligence, level design, and narrative — ultimately paving the way for everything from Sly Cooper to Assassin’s Creed.
Days Gone director John Garvin blamed "woke journalists" for the poor reception to the game, but developer Bend Studio doesn't share his opinion.
The game got bad reviews because most reviewers played a buggy build of the game which there was a massive patch for on day one. I played the game on day one and didn't experience any issues that were talked about in a few reviews I watched. Days gone is an amazing game and the developers should have sent out a build of the game without a lot of the issues to reviewers.
I was referring to this article and how the director accused reviews of being "woke" only to have that studio distance themselves from him.
Days Gone wasn't a bad game .... technically it was a really well made UE4 game that had a terribly buggy launch.
Yes, compared to other Sony first party of that gen, like horizon, god of war and spiderman, it was no where close to those. So if those games can be awarded 8.5s-9s-10s, then .... Days Gone (in its current iteration) is 7.5 at best (without delving into the silly controversies and politics).
Wouldn’t you distance yourself from angry old morons who don’t know who “woke” people are.
Of course the studio won't share his opinion even if it's accurate. Far easier to throw someone under the bus and pretend to be the innocent good guy.
However it isnt accurate, unless you have something substantial to add to the discussion, that is. Do you have anything substantial, adding to these claims?
Since I've shared a couple times in previous DG article, I'll bring it up here again.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Ko...
^This collection is the best evidence I've seen when talking about Garvin's woke criticism. He's also relying on one of Sam Witwer's quotes regarding the whole "they didn't even finish the game." Witwer saw one unnamed review that never mentioned the Horde gameplay and had some plot-related tells.
Personally, I can understand where he's coming from even though he's still making an unfair generalization against *CRITICS* as a collective. When the Gamespot reviewer gives a scathing score and then provides supplemental commentary like "omg girlfriend flaunting her ass to boyfriend" on Twitter, it's just... weird. There's an odd fixation some of these writers have that - I believe - harms their professionalism.
It isn't accurate at all though.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Release Date: Oct 26, 2018
Metacritic: 97 (7th highest rated game of all time)
Main character: straight white male protagonist.
Days Gone
Release Date: Apr 26, 2019 (exactly 6 months later)
Metacritic: 71
Main character: straight white male protagonist
"We all know that this game was docked points by the woke mob because ... Deacon is a straight white male protagonist!"
ffs
When are people going to drop this? The game came out years ago.
The game didn't magically get dropped from a 10 out of 10 across the board because a couple dumb reviewers tried to stir up identity politics.
Way to pull a random comparison out of your butt. Did Red Dead receive numerous internet articles docking points from it for the fact that he was white? Or that he stared at his GF's butt when she bent over? I sure can't find any.
Did Days Gone? Absolutely. I even recall one pointing out the fact that none of the zombies were black or other colors besides white lol
The game gets very very good in the back half, but of course reviewers didn't get that far to notice.
It was heavily compared to The Last of Us and Left 4 Dead as well. Both of which are better games on their own merits.
It was a couple reviews that went the woke route. Not a big deal in the end. Anit wokeness is more annoying then actual wokeness. I swear
But it is accurate because there isn't any mention of straight white male in red dead redemption but there is mentions of it with days gone. Red Dead redemption is not a new IP and days gone was a new IP. It was the opening they needed to go against any kind of white male protagonist and especially a biker. All you have to do is look at the user reception versus the critic reception and there's your answer. And if you actually want to be informed just read all the articles written around the time of days gone release and prior to its release and you'll start seeing some patterns. Unless of course you're unable to see the patterns but that's not my fault or anyone else's
And the someone mentioned to your comment there was an article about how the zombies were somehow racist or at least the design of them was racist because there were no black zombies. Which was of course ridiculous as they're not exactly zombies and it goes with a lore. If that isn't enough to convince you that they were clear narrative against the game based on wokeism I don't know what else to tell you.
And yes a few or in this case quite a few articles stirring up identity politics and pointing their wagging finger at a game can and does influence other reviews. You think review sites will praise a game that's being labeled as racist, toxic masculinity and a bunch of other crap? No. They won't praise that game. It would place a cross hair on their heads.
I remember the main criticisms of Days Gone forms critics was the presence of bugs and performance issues. Many critics had issues with the gameplay too. Docking points from games for perceived gameplay faults, bugs, performance and other issues is perfectly fair. Days Gone director is overly disgruntled, as the game released 3 years ago.
Tell me you didn't play Days Gone, without telling me you didn't play Days Gone.
For a game to get 7s and 8s by some, thats pretty good imo. Back then was a little harsher to. Today you have whack games like pentiment getting 9s and 10s lol. Ill take days gone over that anyday. Days gone I played after about a year from release and enjoyed the hell out of it. There was one review I remember from poloygon that killed the game(kayliee something or other) but we must of played different games. Thats also one of the reason I dont trust reviews.
@shinoff2183
"Today you have whack games like pentiment getting 9s and 10s lol"
have you ever thought that simple low budget games can be really good?
example Hades, Celeste, Disco Elysium, Dead Cells etc etc ...
and AAA games being really mediocre?
example Callisto Protocol, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Order 1886, FO76
and AAA being also bad?
example Anthem, Metal Gear Survive, Marvel's Avengers
Days Gone was one of the BEST last gen games. As for reviews? Gavin was absolutely right. You could tell some reviewers hadn’t played the game through to completion.
Just like Rico’s swearing in Killzone 2. I guess in times of war. You’re not aloud to swear. Well F that
Rico is definitely an asshole. lol
He messed up everything at the end of Killzone 2.
https://youtu.be/uhg9eJoR_L...
No one said you can't swear while at war. It's just about the absurd frequency of it. Literally every sentence, sometimes multiple F bombs in the same damn sentence. It was cringe, reminds me of Kane & Lynch which had the same issue. It didn't take away from Killzone 2 being a great game but it was still annoying.
It's funny because my dad was special forces and he curses every other word, the same as his team. Perhaps there is some validity in the depiction of Rico to the men who put their lives on the line for people too offended by their linguistic vanacular choices. They're hard enough to fight for our freedoms but let's dissect their vocabulary to diminish their contributions. I guess speech is free as long as it doesn't rub anyone the wrong way. Why would the way someone communicates annoy you if they're getting the job that you're not doing done. Art often imitates life.
If the reviewers are too sheltered to realize that a individual's communication style is usually determined by their life conditions they shouldn't be reviewing it. They did crucify Deacon/Rico every chance that they got as society does to any masculine depiction today. They were just victims of the beginning stages of what we're witnessing currently.
I swear alot, alot of people actually do, not a reason to knock a game cause your panties rode your ass about it
@surgical
"They're hard enough to fight for our freedoms but let's dissect their vocabulary to diminish their contributions."
Wtf are you talking about? No one is diminishing anyone's contributions.
"They did crucify Deacon/Rico every chance that they got as society does to any masculine depiction today."
Masculine? Since when is swearing an exclusively male trait?
@shinoff
1) I'm not knocking the game. I literally said it didn't take away from Killzone 2 being a great game.
2) I swear a lot as well. I don't have an issue with swearing, hell two of my favourite films are Casino and Goodfellas. I know plenty of people who drop a lot of F bombs, again myself included. Rico was on an entirely different level though. I know several veterans both younger and older, and while they all swear profusely like me none of them swear as much as Rico.
If his dialogue felt natural it wouldn't have been an issue but instead it felt like it was written by a teenager who just learned to swear. Guerilla admitted they got it wrong and toned it down for Killzone 3, though if I'm being honest I think they cut it back too much.
@Swinechop
Only if you've been under a rock or are already effeminate there's no way that you haven't encountered the double standards concerning the conduct in masculine men that are found in females as well. If I have to explain it to you, it's too late as there's no way to come back from being neutered. Or maybe you prefer your women to exhibit qualities more associated to men.🤷🏾♂️
Speaking on the diction of soldiers, who gives a fuck how they talk in an environment of life or death. Hell, since you put your life on the line you can talk however the f*** you see fit. This is my meaning as both men where not depicted to be Nancy types who gets offended when they hear too many naughty words.🤣
@SurgicalMenace
"Since you put your life on the line you can talk however the f*** you see fit"... Wow, spoken like a true wannabe.
Also you can say "fuck" on this site, in fact you just did a sentence before that, why you backing out? Afraid too much swearing like cheapens your argument or something? According to your own bullshit you better watch out that weak ass swearing don't have you growing a vagina or something.
I will never believe and or trust a director (or whatever he was) that says his game is way better than what people thought it was. It's arrogant and childish. He acts like everyone thought the game was trash and had a political agenda with their reviews (some of them did, but the do that for every game) and now tries to justify the "lower" metacritic score that it's not because the game wasn't good enough.
Day’s Gone was an 8/10 at best. Many reviewed don’t play these open world games to completion unless they get a review copy weeks in advance. Doesn’t help that Day’s Gone doesn’t have options to fight hordes until the endgame. No amount of “wokeness” changes that. (Also, why is caring about other people a bad thing? Societies are built on positive human interaction.)
The sad thing is, he was actually right. I read some of them and even watched some youtube reviews and the fact that the protagonist was a white male was a bad point for a lot of them. As for the bugs and glitches, somehow Bethesda games and Bioware games, which are so much worst, get a free pass, but this doesn't? Yeah, those reviewers were clearly biased.
The critic score is 71, yet the userscore is 8.4. This is definitely one of those games were the userscore is correct and the critics just got it wrong.
Following the announcement by NetEase of a game called Ashfall, controversy ensued with Liithos, which had pitched an Ashfall of their own.
John Garvin and Michael Mumbauer announced a new studio called Lilithos and its highly ambitious first open world game, Ashfall.
I just bought this today.
A game ahead of its time even for today games standards is pretty impressive in some areas considering the time it came out.
Love everything about this game,the weapons,the levels, voice acting, story, the gun sounds and soundtrack are awesome.
Metal Gear Solid , the game which was directly inspired by it , as clearly a better storyline and characters (and 007 goldeneye according to John Garvin) but when it comes down about gameplay i still keep coming back to this game after so many years because its chalenging and fun.
Such a memorable game from its time that will be never forgotten by many gamers.
The train level in Syphon Filter 2 (I think it was 2?) Was soo good! Loved these games.. we definatly need another from the franchise.
I still have my copy of Syphon Filter II somewhere, unfortunately it's the US version and won't play on my EU PS3.
It was a great game, well, series probably, but I only ever owned SF II. I wonder why SCE never made a sequel for the PS3?
And why isn't Gabriel Logan available to play in PS All-Stars Battle Royale???