Topic: Team Microtransactions (MTX) PS3 Library Deliberation Thread

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy You're doing great! Thanks for putting so much thought and research into your analysis.

By the way, be sure to edit the spreadsheet and, once you've placed a game, highlight it in orange (the non-placed games aren't highlighted). Thanks!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14uRdE72JtbW4N3dPmgzaf...

@Rudy_Manchego ill take the last three then

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Damn! 10/10 for dedication there! Can tell you are a teacher!

Cabela’s North American Adventures
This will go into pointless. Bad graphics, bad voice acting. Did not really add much to the series & the controls are apparently really crap.
Cabela's Outdoor Adventures
I will drop this in the Existing category as it really changed the formula. It is funny reading criticism that a hunting sim is to real so the "Adventure" series only focuses on the key, exciting areas and was a hit with fans. Has a Trophy Creator mode that allows you to create custom hunts after you have finished the story

Cabelas Survival: Shadows of Katma
Not Important.
It tried to become a story driven narrative hunting game but tripped over trying to be something different.

Sorry for lack of details, past 2 days have been crazy!

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy 😂
I have been busy sorting out my kids rooms. Chaos!

Call of Juarez: The Cartel - Pointless (1) - from reading reviews and watching a couple of videos, this one has dropped the civil war/western setting, and moved it modern day LA/mexico where you play as DEA agent taking on the war on drugs. it seems to have been a bit of a bug ridden technical mess (even by techland's standard), and from 42 reviews on metacritic there is not a single positive one, and about 60% of them are negative. it seems to have been a bit of a rush job that was slapped together, that lost any charm the series had. the previous entry was a fairly unassuming game, not bad, and maybe if you're a seriously avid FPS fan worth a playthrough, but this one seems to be much worse on just every level.

Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle - Pointless (1) - i could only find one review of this on PS3, by the official playstation magazine, and it was less than complimentary ("Point & Click elsewhere"). looking through a few reviews of the PC version, they're not much more favourable, seemingly it's got a case of monkey island envy, with a bland story and bad character models. suffice to say, for point-and-click games there has been much better before and after it, so its influence seems to be zero.[/em]

Carnival Island - Existing (3) - playstation move exclusive game, seems to be a compilation of party games and fairground attraction games. one common theme from reviews seems to be that it's probably a much more fun and attractive game for younger gamers, 'playing with family' is mentioned regularly in reviews. this came out around the time sony was doubling down hard on targetting PS3 at families, and PS move game like this and the likes of wonderbook were part of that strategy. in general, reviews are fairly mixed, with some design flaws (clunky interface) and technical issues (poor loading times) mentioned. art design seems to be fairly decent (santa monica studio provided development support to magic pixel games). motion control gaming (outside of VR) seems to have had its time in the spotlight (MS sold kinect with X1 at launch and has there even been a game use it since 2014?!), so the importance to gaming in general was probably pretty limited to the very short term. but i feel i shouldn't rate it too low, for families with younger children, games like this can provide a valuable experience with hand/eye coordination, and show that games are not all about shooting things in the face with a shotgun. right here on pushsquare, it was summarised as "An inviting mini-game compilation that gets a lot right. Its slick PlayStation Move implementation is a stark reminder of the device's potential, and the entire package is buoyed by a strong art direction and a good variety of activities. Sadly it's let down by a poorly thought out interface and some inexplicable loading issues."

Ok I had a look at the buzz! video games. They look ok, but they really don't seem to do very much at all to stand out, certainly not bad games but not in any way memorable. And it seems very little changes between releases as to how they play.

Generally a fastest buzzer first and make sure you get the answer right to get the most points and win.

Personally I'm thinking not important for all 3. The only achievement is it's a rare ps3 game that even those uncomfortable playing console games should be able to play relatively easily with the family with the simple unique controllers.
But no points for artistic merit or technical achievement here.

Cabela's Adventure Camp Cauldron

Interestingly, this is not a hunting game and wasn't widely reviewed for PS3 or any other platform. However PushSquare gave it a solid if uninspired 6 and said it was good for kids. Other reviews seem similar.
Verdict = Existing.

Cabela's African Adventures Activision

Poor to average reviews citing a simplified system and two reviews calling it an upscaled PS2 game.

Verdict - Pointless

Cabela's Hunting Expeditions Fun Labs

This has a fantastic user review on Metacritic here https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/cabelas-hunting-expeditions

Anyway, apart from that gem, not many reviews that are positive so I am saying pointless though to be honest, that is based on how little I can find online about it.

I can't get on the excel at the moment but will update it.

Alright, I updated the rankings in the first post and cleaned up the spreadsheet.

There are still four games that I didn't see rankings for. Did I miss them, or did we just overlook them?

The games are:
Cabela's Big Game Hunter 2010 Cauldron HQ
Cabela's Big Game Hunter 2012 Cauldron HQ
Cabela's Big Game Hunter: Pro Hunts Cauldron
Cabela's Hunting Expeditions Fun Labs

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy So he did.

Thanks!

I'm looking forward to the next bunch not mostly being borderline shovelware.

I just gotta say, I’ve found the whole Cabela’s soap opera fascinating to observe from a distance 😂. Kudos to your team for grabbing the deer by the horns, so to speak, and taking each game seriously.
Although I’m not a hunter, I have extended family and many friends who really enjoy the hobby. It’s definitely a regional thing, but in sections of the U.S. it’s a part of life, so I try to respect that. Even if I don’t particularly enjoy hiking around in the woods in the cold, sleeping on the ground, and the worst part - the skinning and gutting after a successful kill. Anyways, fantastic job with a tough list guys and gals.
I do think the accessory gun that measures your heart rate and adjust the accuracy accordingly is a rather interesting idea, if not unfair. (Don’t drink an energy drink prior to playing 😜). I researched some games on our list with peripheral accessories and it’s just amazing how many PS3 games had these throw away ideas. I mean besides the PS4 VR stuff, this gen has significantly less of these random extras (thankfully).

Are well happy with the placements?

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy With how the games get split, we will be left with crap games 🤣

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy I did and thank you!

@ZeD you ready to stamp that result in place Zed? If so post the final result in the main thread. Your team has done amazing you will get a boss list next time out.

@kyleforrester87 we are missing your three.
@themcnoisy I have copied the list to the main thread and will update once we have the placements.
When will the next batch be released?

@ZeD Tuesday night from here on in! Thank you bro.

@ZeD really sorry I hoped to have some time to look at it but I’ve been flat out decorating since I got out of bed! Just had a pizza on a dusty floor, bath and now bed. Same again tomorrow by the looks of it. And works been mad through the week.

If it can wait i’ll endeavour to get it done Monday?

Sorry for the let down, was worried it might happen.

@kyleforrester87 No worries. Update them Monday. @themcnoisy that ok for this one off?

@ZeD Yup. Funnily it's on Monday night when the laptop comes out and everything is updated so that's cool.