Topic: Team [404 - Team Name Not Found] Deliberation Station

@Frigate Guess I was too slow! I'm conflicted on Blood Stone anyway; some days I think it's amazing, some days I hate it, so I'm happy for Captain @Jaz007 to remove the quandary for me.

I'll return with research on LittleBigPlanet Karting shortly.

LittleBigPlanet Karting is difficult to get a handle on; most of the reviews were favourable, but there are a couple key outliers, including IGN which gave it a 5/10.

Criticism stems from the fact that the same developers were responsible for ModNation Racers two years beforehand, and that this game therefore feels like more of the same, only with Sackboy shoved in the driving seat. Still, kart racers were few and far between on PS3, and those with user-generated content should be applauded (especially on the eve of Dreams, a potential landscape-changer if ever I saw one). They also managed to integrate the grappling hook from LittleBigPlanet 2 to offer verticality and climbing mechanics to some of the tracks.

The positive reviews do seem suspiciously gushing, however, so I'm taking them with a pinch of winter road salt, and the servers were shut down last July, leaving a somewhat hollow experience for curious retro gamers in future. All of this is pointing me towards a middling score.

But let's be generous; I reckon a low Important, rather than a high Existing, is valid.

LittleBigPlanet Karting Important
The Godfather: The Don’s Edition Existing
Jane's Advanced Strike Fighters. Pointless
Doom 3 BFG edition Not Important

@Jaz007 just waiting on your result bro.

So I’ve been thinking about Bloodstone. I’ve been jumping between existing and important. I’ve played it 4-5 times. I all but finished the last level (lost interest) on the hardest difficulty were three shots means death.
So I really like the game obviously, it’s a solid shooter, story isn’t great but the story miners help cement that you’re James Bond. Driving segments are pretty good and add variety. Now personal bias aside, this would make it a strong existing, but one element has convinced me to make it important.
The melee. You just press square, but the number of animations is astounding. Rivaling Arkham Asylum or City and putting Uncharted and many games today to shame. It changes depending on momentum, environment, position, number of enemies around you that you’re meleeing, anything that could change it. There are a few you see more often, but there at least (probably more) of those that you would see in Uncharted. Given that the game is a third-person shooter and not a Arkham style combat game and it still has more melee animations than a lot of those type games, is simply unprecedented and taints me seeing the same few melee animations in a game to this day. I haven’t seen it be matched. It’s standard I wish Uncharted had been held to and would have done a lot of the melee if it had.
So, on the basis of an insane number of melee animations, I was still seeing new ones on the second play through, it’s important.
Sound right @rogerroger?

@Jaz007 Sounds very right, yes. Thanks for asking!

I like your reasoning to upgrade your categorisation; to be honest, I'd have had a similar struggle between "existing" and "important" even without considering the melee animations (which, admittedly, are excellent for conveying Daniel Craig's signature brutality as Bond).

The game does have some top quality attention to detail in many parts, moreso than the overall package perhaps deserves. I'm always torn whenever I play Blood Stone because I have a blast whilst doing so, yet stepping back and being analytical about the game reveals a fairly-average, relatively-short affair which trades on a lot of borrowed ideas (Uncharted's gunplay and set piece level design, the Arkham detective mode, short bursts of the developer's own Blur driving, etc.) without bringing anything new to the table, beyond the Bond licence itself.

But I do like the story, and I like Joss Stone's character, even if it ultimately goes nowhere (the planned sequel, continuing the cliffhanger ending, was cancelled after poor sales, and Activision shut down the developer). The original soundtrack by Richard Jacques is also note-perfect from start to finish; I can practically guarantee that it'll always remain one of my top five. And those driving levels, holy Christmas Jones! Escaping that oil refinery as it explodes... no, that hardly does it justice, as it erupts around you is one of the most pulse-pounding 90 seconds in gaming history.

In those brief flashes, like running from the tunnel drill or, as you say, whenever Bond's kneeing a goon in the gut, it approaches genius. When you put it like that, perhaps, it's the greatest tribute to the franchise; spectacular and breathtaking for a couple hours, but won't hold up to any kind of logical critique. If that isn't Bond, I don't know what is.

It was either gonna be a high "existing" or a low "important" so yeah, I'm more than happy to agree with a fellow Bond fan's fair assessment.

Looks like that makes this week's rankings complete!

Doom 3 BFG Edition - Not Important
The Godfather: The Don's Edition - Existing
James Bond 007 Blood Stone - Important
Jane's Advanced Strike Fighters - Pointless (poor Jane)
LittleBigPlanet Karting - Important

Nice work, team! Sounds good to me.

Great work. Done and dusted.

Our games for this week

Street Rod UIG
Summer Stars 2012 Maximum Games
Summer Challenge: Athletics Tournament PQube
SuperCar Challenge Eutechnyx
Superstars V8 Racing Milestone
Supremacy MMA Kung Fu Factory
Surf's Up Ubisoft Montreal
Tales of Symphonia Unisonant Pack Namco Bandai Games
The Bigs Blue Castle Games
The Bigs 2 Blue Castle Games
The Bourne Conspiracy High Moon Studios
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Traveller's Tales
The Cursed Crusade Kylotonn Entertainment
The Shoot Cohort Studios
Thor: God of Thunder Liquid Entertainment
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 EA Redwood Shores
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 EA Tiburon
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 EA Tiburon
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 EA Tiburon
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 EA Tiburon
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters EA Tiburon
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13: The Masters EA Tiburon
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14: The Masters Historic Edition EA Tiburon
Time and Eternity Image Epoch
TimeShift Saber Interactive
TNA Impact! Midway Studios – Los Angeles
Tornado Outbreak Loose Cannon Studios
Trinity Universe Nippon Ichi Software / Gust Corporation
Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll Koei
Trivial Pursuit EA Bright Light

A pretty awful selection but with @Th3solution picking ours next week we will get the pick of the litter in 7 days time!

I have only played a fraction of the games listed

Summer Challenge: Athletics Tournament PQube - Pointless

The controls didn't work. I expected a ton of fun like Daley Thompson decathlon from way back but I couldn't get the controls to work accurately enough to enjoy the game. Very average graphically with little redeeming qualities.

The Bigs 2 - Important

One of the best sports games last gen. Loads of bombast, amazing graphics and solid gameplay make for a great time wherever you are a baseball fan or not. My disc scratched so I could never play past a certain point in the season but what I did play was fantastic.

Timeshift - Existing

A tough one to grade as personally I enjoyed it. That said until I seen the game in our list I have given it little thought for 8 or so years. A solid fps with a Timeshift mechanic suffice the name, the initial impressions are amazing but it does fade the more you play.

Trivial Pursuit EA Bright Light - Existing

A decent take on the board game, I would argue its actually better as you can't blag dice rolls to land on literature! (that's my family on board games folks). I found the questions to be fairly easy compared to the boardgames due to the nature of the multiple choice as you use a controller. Fortunately that gives the thick people playing a chance. It's well presented and you have a few modes to play. It could be knocked to not important but it would do trivial pursuit a disservice as it is a good solid game I had in my collection for years (strangely in a combo box with burnout Paradise).

@themcnoisy Good start, comrade (and by the way, first chance I've had to say this, but I like your new avatar... although it's taken a while to adjust, you had the last one for so long!).

If nobody else steps forward with first-hand impressions, I'll slog through the Tiger Woods games in the next couple days. I (very, very casually) play golf and got my father one of them for the Wii (can't remember which, but I'm sure it'll all come flooding back).

Beyond that, I've got zero experience or recognition this week. Oh well.

@RogerRoger with the FF8 remaster being announced I had to change my avatar! Its my favourite jrpg. Thank you for taking the Tiger Woods games.

Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll Koei

I haven't played this but have done some research. Its a bland and average RPG with things we have all seen before. The reviews are weak but dragged down on meta critic by 2 outliers. To me this is...

Not Important.

Trinity Universe

Another RPG I haven't plaued, this time of the turn based variety. For a Nippin Ichy developed game this is an average example of the stuff they churned out on the Ps3, little effort from the developers with a negligible story. Only saved by its cut scenes and cast of characters.

Not Important

Initial impressions

Street Rod UIG
Summer Stars 2012 Maximum Games

Summer Challenge: Athletics Tournament PQube - Pointless

SuperCar Challenge Eutechnyx
Superstars V8 Racing Milestone
Supremacy MMA Kung Fu Factory
Surf's Up Ubisoft Montreal
Tales of Symphonia Unisonant Pack Namco Bandai Games

The Bigs Blue Castle Games - Existing

The Bigs 2 Blue Castle Games - Important

The Bourne Conspiracy High Moon Studios
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Traveller's Tales
The Cursed Crusade Kylotonn Entertainment
The Shoot Cohort Studios
Thor: God of Thunder Liquid Entertainment
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 EA Redwood Shores
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 EA Tiburon
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 EA Tiburon
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 EA Tiburon
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 EA Tiburon
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters EA Tiburon
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13: The Masters EA Tiburon
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14: The Masters Historic Edition EA Tiburon
Time and Eternity Image Epoch

TimeShift Saber Interactive - Existing

TNA Impact! Midway Studios – Los Angeles
Tornado Outbreak Loose Cannon Studios

Trinity Universe Nippon Ichi Software / Gust Corporation - Not Important

Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll Koei - Not Important

Trivial Pursuit EA Bright Light - Existing

@Jaz007 @Frigate @RogerRoger @Th3solution due to the nature of the games selection, I'm presuming we have not played many of these games. Rog is going to rate the Tiger Woods games and we will periodically look into the rest. Maybe we should just copy and paste this list into sequential posts and update accordingly unless someone disagrees.

@themcnoisy That sounds good to me. I also have not played a single one of these.
I probably won’t have time to research much until later today. But yeah, if we keep a running list of what’s been looked into then it will make it easier for us to pick a game or two when we have a free moment.

@Th3solution thanks mate. Next week we can get our own back. No pressure lol.

I’ll post more later, but I’ve played The Bourne Conspiracy.
I just can’t believe they took all the Transformers games. I’ve played them so much. It was almost such a good week...

@Jaz007 seeing is believing. We will get a better batch next week.

FORE!!

Instead of doing a big paragraph for each game like I usually do, given the sheer amount of mostly-repetitive digital golf needing to be analysed, I'll do a franchise overview and then just put rankings beside each title below. Hope you all trust me enough for that to be sufficient; if you have any specific questions, let me know and I'll justify my decisions.

Things start out alright, with EA Redwood Shores (the developer of the greatest Bond game of all time, the PS2 perfection James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing) introducing golf to the PS3, but also still having to make it work on older consoles. The result was deemed a solid entry in an EA Sports series which had reached its all-too-familiar mediocrity phase; as IGN eloquently puts it, "it feels like Season Five of The Sopranos. It's still the greatest show on TV, but it's starting to feel a bit stale." Switching developers for the next entry didn't shake things up in the way EA probably wanted, as Tiger '08 caused consoles to freeze and crash at launch. It's also packed with bugs, including a famous one where Tiger Woods could take a shot from the middle of a lake; in a rare moment of self-aware (yet religiously offensive) humour, EA Sports spent money making a video claiming that Tiger could actually walk on water... y'know, instead of quickly patching the damn game. No publicity is bad publicity, right?

After getting settled in, however, EA Tiburon delivered a well-received entry the following year, having gotten the hang of the core game enough to start adding neat bells and whistles with each subsequent entry (like integrating The Weather Channel in Tiger '10, because no true golfing experience is complete without a cheeky windproof stashed in your bag and periodic, nervous glances skyward). There were a few bumps in the road, including one against the Tournaments switching up player progression to consider time spent playing more important than actual skill, but overall critic and player goodwill remained as consistent as the games themselves. Seeing an 8/10 every year became par for the course.

With personal problems limiting Tiger's exposure on box art, the series added the Masters subtitle and a new caddy system, but changed few other lines of now-perfected code (although the PC version of Tiger '12 was apparently a nightmare, causing EA Sports to permanently drop PC ports of all future golf games). Then things got a little murky when an insidious and downright-confusing microtransaction system was added to Tiger '13, responding to criticisms of locking courses behind DLC paywalls in the previous game; instead, you now rented time on each course, using various different types of currency, and it didn't go down well at all. Other tweaks to the gameplay caused technical shortcomings on PS3, and the gradual chip shots towards a bottomless sand trap began.

Things finished on PS3 as they had started; with a solid entry in a long-running, if a little tired, franchise. EA Tiburon would take a year's break before returning to PS4 with a new cover star (Rory McIlroy) and a new set of problems that saw its extensive, feature-rich signature game reduced down to an underwhelming disappointment. With the dissatisfying, hollow clunk of a hole in twelve, it killed EA Sports golf games for good.

And that, dear comrades, is the history of digital people hitting little digital balls with digital sticks during the PS3 era... and honestly, it turned out better than I was expecting.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 - Existing
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 - Not Important
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 - Important
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 - Important
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 - Existing
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters - Important
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13: The Masters - Existing
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14: The Masters Historic Edition - Existing

Updated list

Street Rod UIG
Summer Stars 2012 Maximum Games

Summer Challenge: Athletics Tournament PQube - Pointless

SuperCar Challenge Eutechnyx - Existing

Superstars V8 Racing Milestone
Supremacy MMA Kung Fu Factory
Surf's Up Ubisoft Montreal
Tales of Symphonia Unisonant Pack Namco Bandai Games

The Bigs Blue Castle Games - Existing

The Bigs 2 Blue Castle Games - Important

The Bourne Conspiracy High Moon Studios
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Traveller's Tales
The Cursed Crusade Kylotonn Entertainment
The Shoot Cohort Studios
Thor: God of Thunder Liquid Entertainment
Historic Edition EA Tiburon

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 - Existing

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 - Not Important

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 - Important

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 - Important

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 - Existing

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters - Important

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13: The Masters - Existing

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14: The Masters Historic Edition - Existing

Time and Eternity Image Epoch - Pointless

TimeShift Saber Interactive - Existing

TNA Impact! Midway Studios – Los Angeles
Tornado Outbreak Loose Cannon Studios

Trinity Universe Nippon Ichi Software / Gust Corporation - Not Important

Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll Koei - Not Important

Trivial Pursuit EA Bright Light - Existing