It seeming apparent that .hack//Link will probably not make its way stateside, Heath Hindman tells readers what they are missing...or rather, what they're NOT missing.
"In the movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray plays a man forced by the cruel hand of Fate to repeat the same day over and over again; on many of these repeat days, his inability to escape Feb. 2, or change his destiny in any way, drives him completely insane. Such is the feeling of playing .hack//Link." -RPG Land
.hack (Dot Hack) is a gaming series that started when technology was still evolving and growing. These games showed us some of the horrors but also the best parts of online gaming. But these games are decades old, and perhaps it's time for a remake, a remaster, or even a game in the series.
the OG games, yes they do.
but.. they are very niche to begin with.
bk then, i only knew one person who played the games, beside me.
You guys might be right. I could be wrong, but you guys definitely might be on to something here. Who knows??? Pretty sure i heard something about that years back, but i could be wrong.
The Xenosaga trilogy also needs a remake or at least a remaster. I never got into .hack when they came out on the PS2 I would try them out. A remake or a remaster would be great I am not paying an arm and a leg for the original games.
Back in 2010, Bandai Namco released .hack//Link for PSP in Japan, developed by CyberConnect2, but it never came west.
"Whenever a Japanese game has a high anticipation level, Western gamers can't wait to cite the high Famitsu score. There's a problem with this, however, and I'll show it to you." -Heath Hindman discusses overworked reviewers, deals with game shops, a slanted scale, 2-sentence reviews, and other problems with a magazine that seemingly everyone puts on a pedestal.
LMAO, when gamers got on a couple of review sites about their reviews, the US gaming media went "It's all opinion, respect that. Don't judge they way we review games". Yet here, they're telling the Japanese reviewers that they don't know how to review games and that they're basically incompetent. Gotta love the US.
Edit: @ Capt
So true. No one questions US journalists/reviewers when they pick CoD as the best FPS or even GOTY each year claiming "innovation" (*cough* GT *cough*).
The article does a pretty good job of describing why Famitsu is a special case though. The described review conditions are crazy =/
I am going to move to Japan and start a business where I shit on a plate and sell said shit-plates for $60 each. You might want to start buying stock.... now.
Eh. I don't think anybody takes Famitsu that seriously tbh. It's just interesting seeing what review scores are given to games from a Japanese perspective. And since Famitsu is the most popular gaming mag in Japan, that's the one everyone pays attention to.
I actually respect Famitsu. There one of the only reviewers I trust. They gave FF12 and 13 good scores because they ARE GOOD games. The only reason that I think a lot of people hate them is because they weren't like a regular FF's. So they actually don't just give a game a good score because of the title. It usually does for most other websites or magazines though. They are the most fair reviewers imo. But I can see how some people don't like them because they review some of those really obscure games that only the Japs like.
What have they said in reviews that you have agreed with?
Edit:
Not sure how one "disagrees" with a question, but OK.
No I'm honestly curious for a discussion here. Please let me know what sorts of views their reviewers have shared that have really struck a chord with you.
(Side: Props for FF12 love -- I'm with ya there ^^.)
Tbh I don't really agree with any reviewers. Each reviewer has his or her bias. I don't always agree with Famitsu, but I like there scoring system and when they give a high score to a game I usually like that game. The games Famitsu likes I like. I guess I like japanese games.
To me game reviews are broken. If you look at movie reviews not a lot of movies get perfect scores. Yet when you look at games, anything remotelly enjoyable gets a 100%. Say CoD gets a 10 of 10 and then a game like Uncharted gets a 10 of 10. In my eyes that means they are both as good as the other. There is something wrong there. CoD is in no way even close to being as good as games like Uncharted, FF's, or a lot of games. The whole system is broken.
Btw I'm actually not that 1 disagree if you thought it was me.
Well said.
I didn't know if you'd read some or what, from the comment and am always looking for in-depth discussion on the matter.
I'm right there with you on game reviews in general. There are a lot of reasons they've gone downhill in recent years. This Mega64 video speaks volumes:
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
It's funny, because it's all too true.
You have got to be joking. They gave FF13 a 39/40, a near perfect score. FF12 got a 40/40 and FFX got a 39/40. You're telling me that FF13 is top 3 best FF game of all time? That's insane. There's a big difference between as you stated "ARE GOOD games" and near perfect games.
In addition, Hirokazu Hamamura, the former Famitsu editor-in-chief, is the current president of Enterbrain, the company that publishes Famitsu. He also appears in an ad campaign for Peace Walker from the game's publisher, Konami. A two-page spread. And he's even on a Konami Peace Walker website.
They gave Peace Walker a perfect 40/40. There's something terribly fishy going on there, like the score could potentially be bought.
But, i think Peace Walker deserved that score. It had a lot's of variety and i had a blast with it. One of the most fun MGS i played in recent years (even topping MGS 4, for me).
...Oh wow...
Maybe they'll make it into a movie? Didn't they do that for //GU, at least in Japan?
Shame. The PS2 ones were quite good I thought...
Well they compromised a lot ...with the psp system
way to review a 1 year old psp game guys...........
Ive been playing it and its quite awesome. Its not as good as the ps2 games but its still fun
Why does it matter its not out in english? its irrelevant. I am playing the game and there biggest complaint is the gameplay, which is a bull