Firingsquad Review - Bias's Ugly head

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Munro

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Well folks, Thresh, the quake d00d, put up his and "Calbear"'s review of UT on firingsquad www.firingsquad.com

They gave it 4 out 5.

They claim UT's DM maps are no good, and have boring architecture and colors. Wait until the review Q3, and start going on and on about how great the maps and colors are. 4000 shades of brown do NOT make a sweet lookin game.

"UT is not the perfect game that the "other" sites say it is". Please. "It doesn't get OUR stamp of approval" What a surprise.

They even have a screen shot: "I caught it lagging". Whoopee. If there was ever a poor attempt to try and discredit a game, that is it. This review trys as hard as it can to (self-admittedly) nitpick at a great game, giving it an 80% rating (4/5). Come on...
 

Zaccix

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Nov 10, 1999
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After reading through the whole review (offline of course - that thing's 11 pages long!) the message that came across to me was that Thresh and his co-reviewer constantly had in mind the upcoming Quake 3 review they'll inevitably have to do. FiringSquad is a Quake hangout and fans of Q3 will be very interested in Thresh's opinion of the game.

It's one of the better reviews of UT though as it goes into detail (are you reading this Gamecenter?) and covers pretty much everything. To harp on about the DM levels was a bit off-key though IMO.

BTW, just as a quick sidenote, have a look at the NHL 2000 review on FiringSquad and tell me that guy doesn't hate Brett Hull /~unreal/ubb/html/smile.gif


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The sidewinder sleeps tonight....and frags tomorrow!
 

Munro

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I think the guy who did NHL 2000 is a canadian (I belive), and as such, has every right to hate Brett Hull, as most do /~unreal/ubb/html/smile.gif
 

BadAss

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UT is still kicking Q3Ass in their own poll. UT=59%, Q3a=41%

Know, we all know Quakes community is much larger than Unreals and yet UT is still winning the poll.

Putting things in perspective, if Unreal's community was as big as Quakes, then the poll would probably be UT=90%, Q3A=10%, haha.

BadAss
 

Ritz

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I expected nothing less of Firingsquad, that review was dripping with contempt for UT.

That poll shows the truth though...and thresh wont be able to make a living from Q3 if everyone else is playing UT /~unreal/ubb/html/smile.gif
 

BirddoG

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they said the maps suck!!!
are they blind or sumthin???
the UT maps are the best ones around
they hated dm-gothic!!!
thats the best looking map in the game and it plays pretty good

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Rikus

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Aug 18, 1999
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Here's how I imagine the conversation at FiringSquad:

Calbear: "Damn, UT rocks! It comes this close to totally owning Q3. It really is a better game overall..."

Thresh: "Well, we can't give it a higher score than Q3 will get. Quake is our bread and butter... If we give UT the rating it deserves, then we'll have to rate Q3 as near-perfect. Nobody will buy that! Hmmm... Find something to nitpick and we'll blow it all out of proportion."

Calbear: "Well, some of the levels aren't really all THAT great..."

Thresh: "There ya go. 'Many of the DM maps are just horrible.' Now we can write UT off as a good game, but flawed. There's our excuse to rate Q3 higher."

Flunkie [runs into the room, out of breath]: "Hey guys! Check it, I got a screen of UT where the game says somebody's dead but they're still running around!"

Calbear and Thresh [simultaneously]: "WE'RE SAVED!!"
 

Worst Ping

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Bias aside - I thought the review was the most detailed to date, and only sets them up for some serious flaming if they rate Q3 by more lenient standards.

The DM maps do leave a lot to be desired though I think they were unfair to Lava Giant and Facing Worlds (great CTF maps except the over-reliance on snipers). UT is just a much more developed game and is addictive as is - without any new mods.

Instagib? Rocks - great equilizer for us HPBs. Low-grav? Incredible fun - adds new dimension and is so cool to jump from up on high, fragging in spherical death around you!

Q3? Well... Ijust don't care for it. Still, for FPS newbies, it's easier to learn and if you only have 5-10 minutes, it's quicker. Some CTF or LMS games can take 30 minutes.

Anyway, I'm not bothered by the slightly negative press - it can only help to make developers strive to make future games better.
 

[OF]candyman

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They did make a bunch of good points though..I would email them If you thought it was wrong!!! I DID /~unreal/ubb/html/smile.gif It was very detailed but by there own standards it should have at least got a 4 1/2 outta 5. Its not gonna put an end to cancer??? It is not going to end world hunger??? WTF this is amazing breakthroughs with UT but come one that was just hitting below the belt. hmmmmm Q3 will what at best?? Lets just say after reading that UT is not the second coming of christ I dont know what to expect outta these guys....No-one and I mean no-one ever would think anything like this /~unreal/ubb/html/smile.gif
Make sure to put in a vote while your at their site!!!
 

Voyd-

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geezus....i read FiringSquad almost every day, they have great reviews and stuff, but this...this review was ****in pathetic. i cannot believe they started nitpicking like they did. they were really digging hard to find weak points. what really took the cake was this:

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica">quote:</font><HR> Hopefully without boring you, we'll do a quick run through of all the weapons <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

hopefully with boring us?? does it get anymore biased than that??

let me say this...if i read their quake 3 review and they give it higher then 4 out of 5, and say its a better game than UT, im never reading their site again.

[This message has been edited by Voyd (edited 12-10-1999).]
 

Worst Ping

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I guess since I'm a newbie to online gaming, I don't know much about specific mags or their biases. Still, my take on their 'without boring you'lead in was that most of these weapons *are not new* and they realized they were covering things most of us already knew.

It's common for writers to pepper their columns with caveats that acknowledge their reader's knowledge and expertise. Still, I also think the reviewers nitpicked and blew minor faults out of proportion - but I'll withhold my scorn and vitriol until they review Q3. If they fail to apply the same 'standards', then it is our holy duty to frag them!
 

Lanik

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Nov 27, 1999
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He nitpicked Sin to death too, a game that I really loved.

For instance...he didn't like the fact in Sin that hits to the head counted more than body shots. He didn't like how someone with a pistol shooting him could kill him before he could use his rocket...

I really thought they would also rip into UT being 'too difficult.' (ie: not dumbed-down the way Q3 is).