Plutonia 2 reviewed

Not sure if that 8 means much though. From what I've seen so far, he gives all of the wads he reviews fairly high scores. Perhaps I missed one, but a brief glance at the list of reviews showed that the lowest score any of them got was a 6.

Craigs said:

Not sure if that 8 means much though. From what I've seen so far, he gives all of the wads he reviews fairly high scores. Perhaps I missed one, but a brief glance at the list of reviews showed that the lowest score any of them got was a 6.

Look at the wads he's reviewed. I don't think I'd give any of them lower scores either, or if I would, it's just by matter of opinion. I can't find any downright bad wad in his entire list.

In fact, the one he gave a 6, Genesis of Descent, I'd rate considerably higher. It even won a Cacoward back (I think) in '07! Meanwhile, I can actually find a considerable number of wads he's reviewed that I'd consider worse that Genesis. But as I said, that's all a matter of opinion, and I think every level on his list is at least OK.

EDIT: In fact, I took a count and over 25 of his 92 wads reviewed have received Cacoward recognition (or top 10 in years '03 and prior). Another 2-4 or so (not exactly sure) received honorable mentions.

So the whole message here is I think he doesn't bother with bad levels (at least in terms of reviewing them).

A nice honest review, I think. :)

doesn't work with jDoom (1.9 beta6 or whatever I just downloaded yesterday...)


:(

kaneda said:

doesn't work with jDoom (1.9 beta6 or whatever I just downloaded yesterday...)

Doomsday doesn't support about 99% of the Boom additions. The developers are busy rewriting large parts of the port's architecture, and they'll look at adding Boom support afterwards. In the meantime, you can try Risen3D, it's based on an older version of jDoom but it does support Boom.

Gez said:

Doomsday doesn't support about 99% of the Boom additions. The developers are busy rewriting large parts of the port's architecture, and they'll look at adding Boom support afterwards. In the meantime, you can try Risen3D, it's based on an older version of jDoom but it does support Boom.

Plutonia 2 is a vanilla wad, though.

He gave a 10 to "Final Heretic - Chapter One: The Docks". This, under his rating system, indicates that "you can't do better". Alright, I accept that a rating is an opinion, but a reader still assumes that the holder of that opinion has some capacities of aesthetic judgment.

Creaphis said:

He gave a 10 to "Final Heretic - Chapter One: The Docks". This, under his rating system, indicates that "you can't do better". Alright, I accept that a rating is an opinion, but a reader still assumes that the holder of that opinion has some capacities of aesthetic judgment.

If 10 meant you can't do better no game would ever get a 10. It means the media, whatever the art form, will go down as a personal favorite of him for the years to come.

For example, I'd give a ten to Deus Ex while accepting all of its constituents could be improved 1000x.

But no matter what a 10 stands for, I wouldn't even give The Docks a 5.

Gez said:

Doomsday doesn't support about 99% of the Boom additions. The developers are busy rewriting large parts of the port's architecture, and they'll look at adding Boom support afterwards. In the meantime, you can try Risen3D, it's based on an older version of jDoom but it does support Boom.

I will try that, thx!

Creaphis said:

But no matter what a 10 stands for, I wouldn't even give The Docks a 5.

It's just his opinion, not anybody else's (and you certainly have the right to disagree with him), and I think for the most part, he is giving fair scores out in his reviews. I certainly don't see anything in his list that is just downright bad, and that alone makes the fact that he has given a minimum assesment of 6 believable. Of course others are bound to potentially find a few stuff in the list that they think is worth fewer points, but that's a matter of opinion. I certainly can't find that much in his list that I think is worth less, and I even can find some reviews he wrote that I think are underrated. It looks like he just doesn't bother spending time to review bad levels, which I find perfectly reasonable, since all you'd be doing is telling people why they should not play the level. So I don't see anything wrong with his reviews - after all, I'm sure I could find reviews I disagree with on any other review site as well.

then how did this become news'd?

Creaphis said:

But no matter what a 10 stands for, I wouldn't even give The Docks a 5.

Indeed, definitely makes you question his judgement. :p

40oz said:

then how did this become news'd?

That's what I wondered. I just figured everyone would jump on me so I had my post deleted.

Thanks for the review, Ismaele.

By the "then," Johnny's sounds like a rhetorical question: "If, as you say, this is just another opinion, why is it newsed?"

And, yeah, it's better to just post about talk topics (on topic or deviating) than to "metapost" about what's published.

DuckReconMajor said:

That's what I wondered. I just figured everyone would jump on me so I had my post deleted.

How dare you! Stating the bleeding obvious then wimping out! Coward! :P

I had my own reservations about the thread's newsworthiness but chose to keep them to myself. Then again - whoever news'd the item probably knew we'd spend the next few days arguing over the review, which almost makes it a surrogate T/nC.

GreyGhost said:

How dare you! Stating the bleeding obvious then wimping out! Coward! :P

You people terrify me. I'm not taking that chance.

myk said:

By the "then," Johnny's sounds like a rhetorical question: "If, as you say, this is just another opinion, why is it newsed?"

Though I misinterpreted his intentions, I understood what he meant. I figured with Ismaele's review being newsworthy, he must be a respected reviewer. Then people came in and criticized his criticism and I was confused.

I kinda agree with GreyGhost. Do0minat0r probably got bored of watching speed demos and decided to start a flame war instead. Just look at him, snickering at us as he opens a Reese's cup and puts more butter on his popcorn.

He grades too easily. I only see 9's and 10's domination when I scroll. I always make a '10' worth something. A 10 on my scale would be my only 10, and if I found anything better I would reduce the previous ten to a nine.

DuckReconMajor said:

Though I misinterpreted his intentions, I understood what he meant. I figured with Ismaele's review being newsworthy, he must be a respected reviewer. Then people came in and criticized his criticism and I was confused.

Same. I'm not familiar with Ismaele's reviews.

Chrispaks said:

He grades too easily. I only see 9's and 10's domination when I scroll. I always make a '10' worth something. A 10 on my scale would be my only 10, and if I found anything better I would reduce the previous ten to a nine.

That's not really fair... there are varying degrees of a "10". I think only 3 wads have ever been given a "10" in the past 5 years when I rate things for the Cacowards (you never see these scores). A 10 I've given one project (I think it was a megawad) was a totally different 10 than the other project received (a couple map project). One was a 10 as far as classic Doom gameplay went, the other was a 10 because it was something entirely different... but still amazing.

40oz said:
I'm not familiar with Ismaele's reviews.

Well, there they are for you to see. He's been newsed in the past, as well. I think many of them are pretty meh in their conclusions or focus (and the AV review I just read is just silly... though it seems to be an older review) but at least he generally puts effort into covering all sorts of aspects, thus being thought-provoking by getting relatively specific on what he's talking about, and deals with WADs that draw attention (which is relevant in regard to a news post.)

You see here, I rate things on how much I like it. I think that is the best system to use.

Personally, I thought the detail in plutonia 2 was consistent and appealing, I would have scored it higher (like a 9.5, I really fucking liked how it looked) and probably giving the overall rating a 9.5 or 10, because I really fucking liked it. There is no way to review something purely analytically and unbiased.

Why is "The Docks" so bad?

Because it's ugly and it got bad game play.

Scuba Steve said:

That's not really fair... there are varying degrees of a "10". I think only 3 wads have ever been given a "10" in the past 5 years when I rate things for the Cacowards (you never see these scores). A 10 I've given one project (I think it was a megawad) was a totally different 10 than the other project received (a couple map project). One was a 10 as far as classic Doom gameplay went, the other was a 10 because it was something entirely different... but still amazing.

But that means that you divide it into two categories, and thus you have only one single wad max out in each category-- which sort of follows what my post said by having one max, no?

Speaking of Plutonia 2, was there ever an updated release of it? Or is it still version 1.0? And any word on whether or not it will be updated?

v1.0 is truly awesome already, but it would be really cool if maps such as 11 and 27 would be fixed so you can finish them with 100% kills & secrets.

There was going to be a fixed version, but there hasn't been any activity since... april? So it's possible it will never be finished...

t.v.: That's too bad, but I can understand it. The 1.0 release still blows me away, though (both in terms of its quality and in terms of the gameplay literally blowing me away :P ), so if an update never happens you've still got a fantastic release out there.

Chrispaks said:

But that means that you divide it into two categories, and thus you have only one single wad max out in each category-- which sort of follows what my post said by having one max, no?

Not really. It's really just a gut reaction when I play the project... I never compare one to another and say "Well... that one was better. I don't divide it along lines like, "Doom-like and non doom-like". I regard a 10 as "doing everything right" not "This is the best ever".

esselfortium said:

The 1.0 release still blows me away, though (both in terms of its quality and in terms of the gameplay literally blowing me away :P ),

as for the blowing away...did you mange to beat lvl32? The ending is rather insane....
Otherwise very nice wad....