Boom Blox Comments by Ellie Gibson

LoL, what the heck is that?

You should have cut off a couple of points off the score, because the game lacks enough AA and runs at less than 720p!

That makes a game shit! Really!

Ellie, reviewing a game that isn't shit? What is the world coming to!?

Wow... that's a surprisingly good score.

Boom Blox has got rather great scores all around.

hooray for Spielberg!

@Psychotext: surely it is only surprising if you haven't played it :)

Better than gears then?

Did Spielberg have any real involvement in this other than name value (apologies if it is mentioned in the review as I went for the glance and quick question here first before reading)? I've seen things like on Gamer.TV/Plyer (whatever it's called now) with Spielberg playing the game, but nothing that couldn't have just been Steven visiting once a year to film some promotional vid's for TV/Internet to pretend he had an active part.

What about the head-tracking? Did that make it into the game?

@Scrumhalf: Mostly surprising as I haven't seen any hype for it so I didn't know it was coming.

Boom Blox has got rather great scores all around.

Apart from in China, where the reviewers there are in a crusade to demean any products associated with Spielberg.

Game factor: 9/10
Speilberg factor: -10/10
Total score: -1/10

Woah, woah, woah...

"I don't care for Super Mario Galaxy"

All my sympathy for 'crap game Ellie' has suddenly gone straight out the window...

It's a really great game but it won't sell unfortunately (and that's EA's own fault).

The art style is bland (EA could have done much better), it's £40 (which is too much for a puzzle game)...and it's the type of title that needs heavy TV marketing to get the casuals to buy it (I have seen no tv ads at all). It's a game that doesn't really hook you until you actually play it.

It's 32 euro's in the Netherlands. That's even less pounds...

@SeanLB

Yep, he was involved in the games development since day one. Basically he 'directed' the game by pitching ideas and seeing if they could be implemented into the game and so on. So no, he hasn't just out his name on it to generate a bit of hype, he has been involved in the bulk of it's development.

Nice review, Ellie. Still don't agree about Tomb Raider: Anniversary but I'll let you off! ;)

Sounds great. In fact, I was seriously thinking about going out to buy it but... £40. That just seems expensive for what seems to be screaming out for a nice £20-25 price tag to place it into that "impulse buy" bracket.

You've got to be kidding me!!! Ellie of all people...

its £29.99 on play and amazon and blockbusters have it at £35 and so most game and gamestaion stores will price match blockbusters

Huh?! I had this pegged as being a pointless piece of shovelware, but I'm seeing great scores coming in everywhere, and more to the point, it actually sounds like a lot of fun. The price tag is prohibitive, unfortunately; still, it might be worth a look in when the price falls a little.

Bloody hell, I was expecting a positive 7 and hoping for an 8 from this, but a 9?! Fantastic! AND I was sent a copy at work today, too!

Hayya....?
O_o
I used to love building towers and crashing them by the clever removal of abrick at the top when I was a kid. This game always seems like it could become the modern hasslefree version of that. Now it sounds like a buy.

Great news, will wait for it to get a bit cheaper though.

Slightly disappointed with the "doesn't have much depth" comments directed at Wii Sports though, I still strongly disagree with that statement (particuarly with regards to Tennis)

Told you so, whoever-that-guy-in-the-forum-who-said-this-would-be-crap-wa
s.

Can't believe Wii games like this and Bust-a-Move retail on the high street for £40 - same price as most 360 games. What ever happened to Nintendos promises to keep Wii software prices low? If this was £30 I would have picked it up at luncthime.

When it's considerably cheaper I might give it a go.

Considerably cheaper, mind.

I'll buy it! (When it's £20)

Was expecting a ten, seeing as pretty much anything gets it these days.

I actually saw footage on Playr (on Bravo) at the weekend and was instantly charmed by the sound effects alone (very Nintendo sounding).

It was lucky I heard the game at all because the presenter of Playr is so appalling it really encourages you to watch it on mute.

I thought that this idea had great potential and it's good to see that EA have knocked the ball out the park on this one. Another nail in the crap, misguided "Wii has no games" coffin!

Been playing it far more than gta 4 in our house. Excellent game just a shame it lacks online multiplayer

"Some can be solved on the first go while others will take many attempts, or for someone else to come in the room and instantly see the trick you've been missing for the past 40 minutes (thanks, Oli)."

40 minutes? Yeah whatever. Two hours, more like.

As an aside, why do you think people are reluctant to pay full price for puzzle games? You will get more hours' enjoyment from a good one than you will from most action games, especially if it has a good multiplayer mode.

I do agree with Ellie on this (not about Super Mario Galaxy, though). Boom Blox is excellent.

Typical spielberg's way: made to make money. The man has no talent but he turns everything he does into someting very very good. (i worked with him in a movie in budapest btw).

the man has no talent

Indiana Jones, Jaws, the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and ET say you are wrong!

Anyone know how much this is going for in-store at Tesco's...?

ulov3 - Spielberg has more talent than you could dream of.

And when you say you worked on his movie in Budapest, I think we can safely assume you were a fairly minor crew member at best.

Tea boy, per chance?

Woo! Ellie totally right about Mario Galaxy - the spin mechanic is rubbish and thats not all.

Nice review but still I'd pay £25-30 for this tops not £40.


"Companies with pedigree like Nintendo and SEGA can get away with this sort of nonsense; sorry, EA, but you can't."
they could 15 years ago when they were actually very good until they started with all the shovelware

As an aside, why do you think people are reluctant to pay full price for puzzle games? You will get more hours' enjoyment from a good one than you will from most action games, especially if it has a good multiplayer mode.

Development costs assumed to be less? Puzzle games don't often have the best graphics or sound. In fact, quite often the audio is distinctly shite, and drives you up the wall when you get stuck on a puzzle for x-amount of hours.

I had this pegged as being a pointless piece of shovelware,


Why?

I don't really get why everyone's suddenly all defensive and suspicious when the name Spielberg crops up. First of all, I don't get how it's so inconcievable that he could have some ideas for a fun, cute puzzle game. I mean, why not. But also, how many games has be been involved with? There's The Dig (which perhaps isn't the greatest Lucasarts adventure, but is also not half bad) and then there's this.

Too many people have dismissed this thing before even seeing it. If it was Uwe Boll, I'd kind of see the basis for their suspicions. But yeah, this game is great fun. The cutesy element hasn't bothered me at all... in fact, the only part that caused me to cringe at all was mentioned in the review... the level with the EA logo in blocks made me roll my eyes - it's just not what I want to see. (Speaking of that level, I must have played it about 15 times before realising I was missing the totally bleedin' obvious 1-hit solution.)

Anyone know how much this is going for in-store at Tesco's...?

I think its £34 instore

best price is play and amazon £29.99 online

But which version has the best framerate for christ's sake!

Actually, on reflection, about that 'EA' level, the thought of actually toppling EA to the ground in a big heap is in some ways pleasing...

...then again, if there are people there making games like this then I'm happy for them to stay. If only we could do something about their publishing arm.

@richardiox

All the first party titles are 35 notes. I think it's up to EA/retailers how much they will charge for it.

Wasn't Spielberg involved in the early MOH games as well?

Spielberg was also involved in The Dig, insofar that it was going to be a short and then a movie at one point but the budget would have been too big. The writing development was thus transferred to a game production.

Hooray! I had high hopes for this and will get it on the way home tonight.

Sod the sun! There are way too many good games at the moment...

Another "i'll buy it at 20 quid" comment here

Nikanoru: Why did I peg this as shovelware? Now that I think about it, I think it's pretty much entirely because of the name; there's just something very uninspiring about the concept of a modern console game with "blocks" (or, er, "Blox") in the title. I know it's a perfectly fair thing to call the game, but words like "brick" and "block" just make me think of cheap Tiger-handheld-level crap that uses blocks as their interface because the developers were incapable of programming anything more elaborate. Combine that with its status as a game for the Wii, a system often known for attracting just such talentless developers, and I guess I jumped to conclusions.

Basically, I'm an enormous blockist bigot who couldn't look past his deep-rooted preconceptions about blocks. Hopefully quality block-based titles such as this will help me overcome my prejudices and lead my down the path towards spiritual rehabilitation.