This week Zero Punctuation goes in the zone to nuke S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky. - by Malleus
TafferLing on 16/10/2008 at 17:45
He didn't bash it too badly; usually for bad games (or games that he doesn't like) his reviews tend to niggle much more on the botched gameplay aspects. That means it has decent gameplay!
Koki on 16/10/2008 at 17:50
This means he thinks it has decent gameplay.
I like ZP as much as the next guy, but when all is said and done, it's just another random internet dude saying whether he liked a game or not. Whoop dee doo.
TafferLing on 16/10/2008 at 20:30
True... I guess that we just have the same taste for gameplay (Witcher excluded, I quite liked it).
D'Arcy on 17/10/2008 at 11:10
That made me laugh :cheeky:
mothra on 17/10/2008 at 12:15
I love him. It's just easy to bash bad games and praise the little good things in other games. he's just very funny and intelligent in his hate. I couldn't care less if he gives a (for me) good game some bad review. well, CS aint such a good game so he's actually right. but his Half-Life fanboyism is ridiculous just like the "BS is awesome: stfu" apologists articles.
Scots Taffer on 17/10/2008 at 12:24
Without having played Clear Sky it seems that he feels the same way about it as I do about STALKER; incredibly immersive and atmospheric and challenging but not exactly doing itself any favours in the gameplay design, lots and lots of dying and a plot that makes less sense than a monkey on acid.
TF on 17/10/2008 at 12:51
I was almost afraid he was going to own CS too much but it's a pretty funny and fair review
242 on 17/10/2008 at 13:24
Quote Posted by Scots Taffer
a plot that makes less sense than a monkey on acid.
Well, it makes sense, it's just pretty obscure and delivered completely unobtrusive unlike most of games (through easy to miss or forget lines in dialogues, journal/PDA entries, objective descriptions, very obscure movies). For me, such way of delivery seems very natural, the game doesn't shout in player's face - "I'm a game, here is my plot, listen". Also, it's useful to know what the (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noosphere) Noosphere is. If you haven't understood something in the SoC's story, welcome, I'll try to make it clearer for you. Clear Sky's plot is the other matter though, it's simple and straight as a railway sleeper. From the other hand, add-ons rarely have good or complex stories.
Muzman on 18/10/2008 at 00:52
It's also because it's an incredibly convoluted explanation for everything that's not really presented as a mystery. You don't learn a damn thing about anything until right at the end (if you open the right door) and then it's Holy Cow infodump! conspiracy! Illusions! Clerical error! Strangely easily ended massive reality breaking experiments! (I've just noticed I'm saying pretty much the same thing as above. oh well)
Sure the psy emitters and strange rooms full of weird embryos in tubes have some relevance after that, but there's not much to go on. I knew of the noosphere concept going in and it didn't help much.
I should say I don't mind really. It's cool. But structurally it's going to seem really weird, to westerners in particular.
Anyway, that was practically a positive review by zeropunctuation standards. Quite encouraging.
