First of all, let me say that I find 90% of your reviews to be spot-on and very well-reasoned, often covering more in the couple hundred words you allow yourself than most reviewers do in a couple thousand words. I also sincerely appreciate that you updated your Night Trap (3DO) review a while back in response to my criticisms. And I really should be posting more often to let you know when you do a good job. Part of it is that most of the games you review are ones I haven't played, but that's an insufficient excuse.
All that said, I found that your review of Psychic Detective has several inaccuracies:
1. The comparison to "a young Jim Carrey" really made me raise my eyebrows, and I had a hard time thinking of an actor who bears less resemblance to Kevin Breznahan than Jim Carrey. "Harrison Ford? No. Kurt Cameron? No. Chris Farley? No. Leonard Nimoy? Mmm... Close, but..." If Jim Carrey had some radical plastic surgery when he was young, then forgive me, but even if that's the case the comparison creates more confusion than anything.
2. "Yeah, this is not the most politically correct title, but if it makes you feel any better, she immediately apologizes after you hit her." You misheard her. What she actually says is "How could you?!" Also, the overwhelming majority of video games are politically incorrect with regard to gender; there are always either women getting rescued by men, or women serving as comic relief, or women who are scantily clad, or fewer women than men. So it's a strange comment to make.
3. "Swapping between the three discs gets annoying though." This I really don't get, because you only have to change discs in Psychic Detective as many times as there are discs. Were you expecting Discs 2 and 3 to be just paperweights?
Beyond these specific issues, I got the general sense that you'd only played the game once or twice before reviewing it, mainly because some of your comments are things that I said on the 3DO Zone message board after my first playthrough, and which I recanted as soon as I'd had a decent number of runs through. Like all games in the surveillance genre, playing through Psychic Detective once is roughly comparable to playing the first 40 minutes of Final Fantasy VII; it's not enough to even get an understanding of how the game is played, much less what the core game experience is.
To end on a positive note, I haven't played the 3DO version of Primal Rage, but just based on my experience of the arcade version and on general objective analysis, I think your review of Primal Rage in this issue is excellent. Your descriptions make it very easy for me to understand how the 3DO version differs from the arcade version.
2013/11/11: 3DO: Primal Rage, Psychic Detective
-
MartinIII1
- Posts: 17
- Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm
-
VideoGameCritic
- Site Admin
- Posts: 18181
- Joined: April 1st, 2015, 7:23 pm
2013/11/11: 3DO: Primal Rage, Psychic Detective
Martin,
Thanks for the thoughtful critique. I love messages like this. However, I think I can address your three criticisms.
1. About the guy looking like Jim Carrey. He is a lanky, goofy looking guy, so I don't think it's much of a stretch. Actually my friend Scott make the observation and I agreed.
2. Actually the girl DID apologize! Being familiar with the game you should know that the dialogue varies based on your actions throughout the game. This is one of those instances.
3. Actually you need to swap MORE TIMES than there are discs. The sequence goes from disc 1 to 2 to 3 and then BACK to 1.
Funny how you suggest I didn't play this enough and yet your observations suggest you need to play it more.
Take care
VGC
Thanks for the thoughtful critique. I love messages like this. However, I think I can address your three criticisms.
1. About the guy looking like Jim Carrey. He is a lanky, goofy looking guy, so I don't think it's much of a stretch. Actually my friend Scott make the observation and I agreed.
2. Actually the girl DID apologize! Being familiar with the game you should know that the dialogue varies based on your actions throughout the game. This is one of those instances.
3. Actually you need to swap MORE TIMES than there are discs. The sequence goes from disc 1 to 2 to 3 and then BACK to 1.
Funny how you suggest I didn't play this enough and yet your observations suggest you need to play it more.
Take care
VGC
-
MartinIII1
- Posts: 17
- Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm
2013/11/11: 3DO: Primal Rage, Psychic Detective
[QUOTE=videogamecritic]2. Actually the girl DID apologize! Being familiar with the game you should know that the dialogue varies based on your actions throughout the game. This is one of those instances.[/QUOTE]
There are instances where scenes vary due to previous actions, but they're invariably significant, e.g. Eric detailing how Chad's murder took place versus not having a clue, Laina coming to pick Eric up vs. Mokie coming to pick him up, etc. Individual lines of dialogue don't hang upon your path through the game. Anyway, you'll have to be more specific: What course of actions do you think led to your hearing Laina apologize? I can't repeat your experience if I don't know what you did.
[QUOTE=videogamecritic]3. Actually you need to swap MORE TIMES than there are discs. The sequence goes from disc 1 to 2 to 3 and then BACK to 1. [/QUOTE]
Right. That's three times for three discs. One, two, three.
[QUOTE=videogamecritic]Funny how you suggest I didn't play this enough and yet your observations suggest you need to play it more.[/QUOTE]
I've played it 14 times, and also did some testing of the psychic duel by repeatedly playing the second half of disc 1 with the same save file. Not enough to write a FAQ for the game, but enough to know the basic ins and outs. Anyway, it's your review, so it's really only whether you've played it enough that counts. (Of course, if you want to critique my review of the game, I have no objections. You can find it on GameFAQs.)
There are instances where scenes vary due to previous actions, but they're invariably significant, e.g. Eric detailing how Chad's murder took place versus not having a clue, Laina coming to pick Eric up vs. Mokie coming to pick him up, etc. Individual lines of dialogue don't hang upon your path through the game. Anyway, you'll have to be more specific: What course of actions do you think led to your hearing Laina apologize? I can't repeat your experience if I don't know what you did.
[QUOTE=videogamecritic]3. Actually you need to swap MORE TIMES than there are discs. The sequence goes from disc 1 to 2 to 3 and then BACK to 1. [/QUOTE]
Right. That's three times for three discs. One, two, three.
[QUOTE=videogamecritic]Funny how you suggest I didn't play this enough and yet your observations suggest you need to play it more.[/QUOTE]
I've played it 14 times, and also did some testing of the psychic duel by repeatedly playing the second half of disc 1 with the same save file. Not enough to write a FAQ for the game, but enough to know the basic ins and outs. Anyway, it's your review, so it's really only whether you've played it enough that counts. (Of course, if you want to critique my review of the game, I have no objections. You can find it on GameFAQs.)