Flower Comments by Tom Bramwell

Though I don't think we should criticize a game for having higher aspirations than just braining terrorists or monsters, it is pretty funny that this "game version of a poem" sounds--in terms of its artistic content--like a rote regurgitation of Wordsworth by a first year English major who happened to miss the lecture on romanticism (and then all subsequent lectures discussing the progress we've made since).

Brilliant, at last another flower i can play with without the wife threatening to divorce me.

It's really quite disturbing that so many people are getting angry or offensive over a game that has been tagged as arty. So fucking what?

Go back to whatever the hell it is you get enjoyment out of and let other people enjoy what they want. Jesus, it;s like a totalitarian state in here at times.

I do consider X360 as a better gaming machine overall to date, but hell I m excited by PS3 with this game coming up and Killzone 2!

Sony do need to be praised for encouraging creativity to blossom more on their console!!

My wife and kids are simply gonna love this as well.

"It's really quite disturbing that so many people are getting angry or offensive over a game that has been tagged as arty. So fucking what?

Go back to whatever the hell it is you get enjoyment out of and let other people enjoy what they want. Jesus, it;s like a totalitarian state in here at times."

Of course you're right, but happily free speech works both ways ;)

/ Grants Goodfella's wish and f**ks off to play GAMES (on Dreamcast - thanks EG!).....

@Bad09

If you have a look around on youtube, there's a quite nice little interview with ThatGameCompany creative leader Jenova Chen, you should have a look at it as it might help you get past your problems with what they are trying to do. You might be surprised how unpretentious his intentions are.

The heart of what he's getting it is that like movies, games should be allowed to entertain us with a broad spectrum of emotional experiences - not just one thing. You want a laugh, you go and see a comedy, you want action and spectacle you go to a blockbuster, chills and shocks, a horror movie and so on. As long as its clearly labelled as offering a particular type of experience there's really not much to complain about.

The key thing about games is that they are interactive. Not that they are built around a specific type of content. The premise of Flower is that its basically an interactive chill-out experience. Rather than excitement, its about relaxation, and that's not especially pretentious or high-falutin!

Free speech doesn't quite work like how you think. Being a dick and (repeatedly - eg farticus) saying something to get a rise out of people for whatever bizarre reason is beyond free speech, it's just outright moronic and baffling.

How about I go up to a police officer and call him a cunt and see what happens. That's free speech right?

I slightly agree with farticus in that Flower probably isn't that great game, but imo games like Wipe Out HD, Tekken 5 DRO, GT PRologue, Warhawk or Siren have shown that the PS Store has better games than any other DLC system except PC. There is not better DLC game today than WO HD, except maybe some Steam titles as TF2.

In fact, I'm not interested in Flower or the review -which I haven't read-; I have only come to read the comments, to see how important is to people as farticus to trolling about a so insignificant game as Flower.

"How about I go up to a police officer and call him a cunt and see what happens. That's free speech right? "

Actually yes.

/ from experience.

You may end up in a small room with a sponge mattress and a toilet that doesn't flush and no bog roll. But you are "allowed" to do it.

"The premise of Flower is that its basically an interactive chill-out experience."

smoke a spliff FFS ;)

GreyBeard


Bit of a shame to end the review with a criticism of price. I don't know how much cinema tickets cost in Brighton, but £6.29 is substantially cheaper than a peak (evening performance) ticket round here.

Yup, v good point. Anyone been to the Hop Poles lately? £3.60 for a pint of Guinness

@farticusmaximus

what a cock.

/hits ignore

oooh. loved flOw and still "play" it sometimes, will be downloading this on the 12th for sure :D

Games are art. Games are not art.

Games are applied art. Games are a medium. Some games will be art. Some will be entertainment. Some will be just rubbish.
Some even two or more of the above.

Me, I'm just happy there are games that are not brown and full of monsters that need shooting. I just wish that every game would be released for every format, so we could stop comparing hardware and start comparing games.

Really pleased this sounds like it has turned out well, will definitely be getting this. Just the breath of fresh air I was looking for from a game.

''Needs a demo''

+1, I'm on the fence about this.

I was concerned that this would be beatiful but without enough game to back it up. The review makes it clear that there is also a strong (and emotive) game in there, so I think this will be going onto the list of games that I'll download, and another reason why I love the variety of the PSN catalogue.

(And Farty, I really do think you just say these things for effect, but I wish you wouldn't.)

It looks like a nice tech demo and it is something that I would like to experience, but the price is just above what I would consider to be an impulse purchase and, therefore, will have to wait until I have a little more spare money knocking around.

Of course you're right, but happily free speech works both ways ;)

Unfortunately rather than happily in some cases, but still true. So knock yourself out.

How did this, a most inoffensive game, become the subject of a fanboy rant...?

I think this looks like a winner - a nice escape from the grit and adrenaline of the next few Killzone months. I'm gonna buy it...

Free speech is a myth and a pipe dream, much like Communism really. You do not have the right to verbally abuse anyone, try it on with a cop and see what happens; they'll quite happily inform you of the laws that mean you can't. You have even fewer rights on privately owned forums, though (un)fortunately our EG overlords rarely seem to (ab)use their powers ;-)

edit: Oops, bringing this back somewhere near the original topic; I'm quite looking forward to this, flOw is stupid addictive

@ farticusmaximus

You haven't even played Flower. Once you have, if you still don't like it, don't worry, there are more than enough mindless games to satisfy your simple mind.

Farticus is clearly an absent minded, snot nosed, childish hermit who feels the need to attention hunt in the most tedious and insufferable way he can to make his weedy, pointless existance that more unjust.

Snap - i'm vicious.

why do I see so many x360 kiddy trolls in here? I never felt the need to go to the xbox part and start whining there about games I will never play in the first place!

Ah well, I guess it's all different when you are 24... *cough*

moaning aside - and in fact only a very few are actually being particularly troll like in this thread - quibbling over £2.80 at the end of the review really seems incongruous. I seem to remember flow being a 2d type game .. i wouldn't mind paying the equivalent of a pint for this level of immersion and it feels justified... If I had a ps3 that is.

'Though I don't think we should criticize a game for having higher aspirations than just braining terrorists or monsters, it is pretty funny that this "game version of a poem" sounds--in terms of its artistic content--like a rote regurgitation of Wordsworth by a first year English major who happened to miss the lecture on romanticism (and then all subsequent lectures discussing the progress we've made since).'

This. 'Exploring the tension between urban bustle and natural serenity' is rooted in the 19th century.

Still, sounds rather pleasant.

See, this actually makes me want to play it. And I have no doubt that by the end of the PS3's lifespan, as with the PS2, there should be half a dozen games like this that I want for it, and I'll be able to pick one up second hand for 50 quid to play them.

Will buy game enough said:

These comments sections are a right laugh to read through. It's interesting how a game trying to offer something besides the arbitrary shoot this, kill that-gameplay is getting slagged off so harshly. IMO we need more games like this. More independant companies to produce games like this, fl0w, Pixeljunk Eden, Braid and so on. I've spent way more time with games like this than some of the AAA-titles by huge companies, simply because they offer a fresh "feel" and impression. I'd like to this this kind of mentality in bigger titles too, instead of just following the same old formula. I mean, I look forward to Killzone 2, but honestly, KZ2 is not the future of gaming. It might be prettier and technically superior, but still highly formulaic.

Ign - 9.0

http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/952/95252...

"Lol, I'm a gamer, I have no reason to own a PS3."

You said it : LOL

(jesus christ on skates)

@Beano

I'm glad you concentrate on that particular acronym. It's the only of part of the sentence that isn't factually correct, as I didn't actually laugh out loud.

Why do you guys insist on quoting people I have on ignore? ;-)

Unfortunately, in my case Flower will be the victim of me having impulse-bought too many games online which I hadn't bothered to play afterward.

Might give this a look in; sometimes it's nice to take a step back from the games that require lots of concentration and just relax with something like this.

wtf this game has no guns, cars, blood, zombies or tits.
can they seriously expect anyone to buy this?

Seriously now. Why do you pay for this? What's it's gaming sence since we are all gamers I supose, aren't we?

I'm not sure, because you make about 0% sense.

I'm going to check this out, for £6 it's bound to fill an empty drug fueled come down at 4am one Sunday morning.

;)

Flower and Little Big Planet, two system sellers in just a few months and not FPS's, go Sony go.

Flower sounds good but hardly a system seller, or even LBP. Now KZ2 (which you conveniently missed out) is probably the closest to a system seller Sony has to date. Some of the best games on 360 or PS3 this gen can be found on their respective download service. Maybe it's the reduced expectation and price that brings out more enjoyment or maybe the financial limitations bring out more creativity.

"Brilliant, at last another flower i can play with without the wife threatening to divorce me."

Post of the ever.

Christ, I'm so excited for this game I headed straight to the PS store to download it and when I couldn't find it I downloaded Linger in Shadows instead O_o It might have made more sense if I wasn't so pissed (I'm on a continent far, far away btw. it's much later here)

Anyway looking forward to flower.

IRT Merkdot

I'm clearly a retard...

IRT Bad09

I think the 'art' thing came in when games became graphically good enough to look like art. Space invaders doesn't really have the graphical power to look like art (except maybe some Jackson Pollock rubbish) but games like Flow and say, Okami, look beautiful for their artistic merit.

And I agree, Tracy Emin is an idiot. That is definatly not art.

Careful with confusing "art with which you don't engage" with "not art" or even "bad art." Difficult lines to draw, admittedly.

Anyway. Are games art? Some of them. Should they be art? If they want to be. That's about all there is in the debate, isn't there?

@Gormless, classic line lol

Ah, farticus, how are the mighty fallen. I remember not so long ago you were picking on big, khaki meathead shooters like Resistance 2, games with a bit of fight to 'em, not brightly coloured budget-priced lunch-break-fillers like this one. Your standards are slipping, you abysmal little testicle sack.

God this is terrible, ok mgs4 was a fantastic game though the cutscenes were rather long, and it got the same score,

Fable 2 a 10, and it had terrible multiplayer and a fair few glitches, seriously what is with eurogamer?

Racism towards japanese developers?????? who knws

rydek: Are you serious? Really?

yes I am real

I love fable and I can admit flaws and mgs4 but come on how can a moving flower score the same as a game that pushed the boundaries, I'm from the uk everywhere in Europe gets along with america, but no place to the east if you think of it, so come on really. How do we rate games now, do we rate them on being new to a genre, a game with rather big flaws but don't knock it, or a game with small flaws but in affect are meant to be there aka long cutscenes and gets pulled down for it. Metal gear is a cinematic experience (cinematic).

So really am I wrong to point out the obvious no, I'm not. I'd like a gm of eurogamer to get in touch on their point.........

rydek, a rant like that gets you nowhere
EG is a weird bunch, agreed, but you need to calm down and think.


Is games always put on PSN at a certain time? I was looking fot Flower just now, but found nothing.
(Also, is the Lumines Classic Pack out today(12th) aswell?)