PixelJunk Eden Comments by Ellie Gibson

I have no problem with this review. Reviews represent the reviewers opinion, Ellie's opinion is as valid as anyone else's. Moreover I think it's possible for everyone else to state their own opinion of the game without resorting to insults.

+1

The review is the epitome of what's wrong with game reviewers.

This thread turned into a classic one. EG should recruit some of the people here for a Big Brother special. You can make money with that.

I disagree. I think we need more like this. Reviews are taken as too holy anyway, they need to be personalised liked this in some way. It's not as if there's only one review for a game, there are dozens, and if they all were bland it'd be very dull.

RedSparrows +1

Gone back and tested something, demo = 9/10, full game = 7/10

They appear to have broken something along the way... ie controls and physics.

Pretentious as in review style that has ideas above its station?

That review reeked of media student wanting a big break.

(must learn to spell when trying to be a smartass)

Anyone played PixelJunk Monsters? That is infuriating as hell.

Anyone played PixelJunk Eden? That is infuriating as hell.

...I see a pattern.

Both great little games in their own right. Utterly addictive, yet utterly annoying at the same time.

Well, I don't know that the fanboyism label is SO undeserved.. after all we've seen at least points 1, 2 and 4 from the list here, so far:

http://www.destructoid.com/ten-golden-ru...

"darc buddy, you misunderstand. I couldn't really care less about what you say."

Then I have to imagine I'm not your "buddy".

"I saw something you wrote as silly..."

It was intended to be silly. Hence all the rest. Whatever...

@ InsoFox

That is awesome, when did you come across Bligs' bible? ;)

I loved the line:

"With great fanboyism comes great responsibility"

I can imagine Uncle Kaz sat them all down and told them that before evil Bill Gates shot him dead.

With that A race of PS3 superheroes was born! :)

I'm not going to say anything about how good Ellie is at the game, or about her opinion of the game. But there are some inaccuracies in the review, like the physics, but worst of all, why the pretentious argument?!

Also, the game is no where near as hard as the review makes out, it can be frustrating, but it's perfect for playing once every few days. Perhaps that was the issue, Ellie was playing for a review deadline, and not just for fun.

Hmmm...looks like that ex-Eidos guy might have been on to something...

EG. You suck. Really. This is the best game I have played in years. 10/10 without a doubt.

while I think discussing the merits of a review is healthy, it looses all its positive points when one figures out that this is solely because of being a PS3 game. Put the same game on a MS system and the opinions change 180š.

God, I do miss th berlin wall, todays caviar left left is boring, they whine about money, and monopolies, and open fridges. They bash Bill gates and they say their next computer will be a Mac. Linux is supposed to be the politically corect OS too. They play on a PS3, where every game must be good, Nintendo is ok too. They have higher morals, and they donīt read books with pictures. Damn..., bring dogmatic left back!

please miiguel, spare us the psycho babble, the review is scandalous. It lacks proper analysis.

macgamerslol oxymoron of the century...

BAck to being slightly on topic, Insofox's link is awesome! It really made me realise how much of an PlayStation Wii60 fanboy I truly am!

Oh yeah, and @old skool:

Having bought the game, and played it for a while, it's not that great. Like I said, the demo is great. The full game is broken.

Seriously, some of you children (like Arbiter and his preteen chums) are a real embarrassment to the human race...

/Despairs

I can appreciate what Ellie tried to do: To give us her gaming experience. I don't have a problem with the score. I do have a problem with her experience. It's lacking, incomplete, just too many elements missing. Sounds like she never finished the game. She became too 'frustrated' and focused too much on that. Obviously the game elicited that state of mind. So is it the game's fault then? Some paradox we have here!

Do an exercise: chose the most passionate Ellie-bashing comments (read tasteless insults) and check the posters profile 90% of them are part of that non-pretentious; non-segregational group called "PS3, I choose you".

Really, it isnīt much about the game.

"This one is perhaps unfair."

Yeah...no shit.

I don't have an issue with Ellie's opinion or her style of writing (she's probably the funniest writer on this website), but I still don't understand why she gave this game 7/10 after absolutely ripping it to pieces for 90% of the review.

And yes, I have read the last paragraph. But even there she's more intent on emphasising the negative than really explaining why she actually likes the game enough to give it 7/10. If I hadn't played the game, I'd have absolutely no idea why I should even consider buying it from reading this. Apparently it's little more than an exercise in frustration. For that reason, this review fails.

Which is a shame, because I feel a lot of people will be missing out on a beautifully crafted, addictive and fun game because of this. It's far from perfect, and 7/10 is a fair score, but couldn't you have spent just a *little* more time explaining why you liked it, Ellie? Even 20% would be double ;)

Oh, and sorry but you are rubbish at the game Ellie. And so is Oli. No disrespect, but failing to get past the second level is equally as shameful as messing up on the first so many times. It's really not that difficult, especially during the early stages. Mind you, that would explain why you're convinced the physics are broken...

If this is the first review from Ellie that the PS3 bods have seen, go check out the Family Ski review for the Wii then read the comments...her reviews are entertaining, yes, but they do worry me a bit.

@miiiguel

Like Ellie's review is a testament of the lack of substance in it, so is your comment.You clearly don't know much about people.

@ JHuxley

My thoughts exactly. You just were able to elaborate it in more nicely manner.

I will apologise for all my comments about a broken game. It's only me, apparently.

I like Ellie's style of review, however. I grew up in the 90's, and so had such gems as Mean Machines, CVG and the Official Nintendo Magazine (Mk. I, containing a pic I drew for a competition).

For people like me, we know what games we like. We know good games when we see them. It's nice to see some personal view for once.

Keep up the good work Ellie, and please marry me ;)

I think I'll stick to the forum from now on. With willfully misleading inflammatory news headlines, a "no hive mind" review policy that is actually more akin to a "headless chicken" review policy, and comments cnuts that would best serve the internet by severing their own hands so they can't stink up the interwebs typing their shit, the front page is basically unbearable (nice layout though).

Two things:-

Ellie's gender is irrelevant. No defense of that stupid "leave it to the men" comment is possible.

Reviews based on the first couple of levels; that make a giant CAPS LOCK bullet point about a Ģ4.99 game being overpriced, which is immediately followed by small font caveats that it isn't overpriced at all, is, frankly, shit work.

Unfortunately, Braid and PixelJunk Eden are exclusive to competing platforms. This means that objecting to one achingly pretentious piece of wank, with an unusually high price getting a 10/10, when one where the pretension is entirely in the eyes of the reviewer, which offers a significantly longer campaign, for less money getting 7/10, could, in the eyes of a total dickhead, look like the result of fanboyism.

There are fanboys in this thread, objecting; you'd expect that. That does nothing to redeem the review. To argue that Ellie's great style should be enough to circumvent the need to actually represent the game accurately, to impart some useful information about the gameplay other than that the reviewer was shit at it, and whether the game is worth what it costs (which Ellie suggests it is, underneath a gigantic subheading saying it isn't).

Maybe Ellie has spent too long reviewing shovelware shit, and is so in the habit of being sarcastic about games that she's forgotten that there's more to reviewing than just witty invective? I wouldn't want to lose that for anything, but there should be a real review to go with it.

Anyone reading this review, who then goes onto defend it, by using, of all phrases, "fanboy" needs to familiarise themselves with the photonic reflective capabilities of pots and kettles. There is really nothing to defend here, which is why the term "fanboy", and the wank excuse of "I played the demo and I agree" (I get the feeling that's all Ellie played too) are the only rallying points the ever present comments section trolls have to cling to.

It's better than the Folklore review though, that shoddy "I couldn't understand Japanese so it's crap" effort was EG's lowest point ever (so far).

Post history tells no lies. And... PS3, I choose you!

I mean, I can understand meself, as someone said, I canīt do much substance, but... no one who is bashing Ellie actually talked about the game.
Talk about "on-topic substance"...


Even the pseudo-non-fanboys.

Why don't you do me a favor and just show me some of my post history that's supposedly biased. And please do show me where I'm supposedly bashing Ellie. My reasons for joining that forum, which btw I hadn't visited more than 7 months ago, might be for some other reasons.

How you can judge a person on some forum he rarely visits...all I can say is WOW. You need to stop defending Ellie and just face up to the poor review she wrote.

I LOVED the demo but after buying the game i couldnt help but feel that was enough... the games is much too unforgiving with both time and swing rotations... i dont like being punished in a game i have been playing perfectly up to a point only to make one tiny mistake i possibl;y didnt even make

@Hughes : ++

.....though it seemed like more than 2 points, I totally agree with all your points :)
I want to add that there's an overload of reviews for each game nowadays (sometimes there are 50 for each game on Metacritic).
And I doubt that someone buys a game solely on EG reviews, so why such a brouhaha?
As Hughes. said....for the whiners, it's more about the console platform than the game itself.

I love you, HUGHES.

I think the problem is not Eliie, nor the game, nor the score. The problem was the fact Braid came first. Have this one been printed beforehand, and things would have been quieter, imo.

@ old skool

To be fair I don't think miiiguel was aiming that at you, rather a sweeping reference to the wallies who always complain about the reviews especially when it's a PS3 game.

Ha Ha. People still not getting that a review is someones opinion, not gospel. I find that very funny. I wish they would stop scoring these things then we wouldn't get al this controversy. Ha Ha.

old_skool, badīs right, as you correctly said I donīt see you around enough to have such an opinion.

That said, I came here just to see why many posts, and what I saw: "go play women systems"; "MS is funding EG"; "oh da bias!"; "you suck"; "you probably only played the demo"; "Braid is not that good"....


I mean..., do (some) of you still remember what game are we talking about?

@bad09

That is awesome, when did you come across Bligs' bible? ;)

I loved the line:

"With great fanboyism comes great responsibility"

And then you spoil it by defending miiiguel.

In my opinion its a marmite game but the review was utter shit. Akin to asking the 3AM Girls(and no not because she's woman but, due to the quality or lack of it,in said review) to review Hamlet starring Patrick Stewart and David Tennant.

"Its reeeeeally boring, well 'spensive and they talk funny but I stayed 'cos that Star Trek Wars fella and the fit Docta When's in it and he's got luvly eyes, innit!"

I love the game but can see why others don't. All I got from Ellie was, 'I'm shit at it, it's shit but I'll spread that over a couple of pages to sound earnest'. Just because she's droll doesn't make this a good review.

As people are drawing parallels between the two games and the issue of biase has crept into the thread, why did Braid get release day review while Eden was reviewed a whole week later?

this review is wrong... plain and simple and yet another example of the journalistic demise of EG.

Eden is a simple and sublime game that seems difficult at first then becomes comfortable, hypnotic and almost therapeutic the more you play it... i was shocked by the review... I wondered if they played the same game.

And all that nonsense about inconsistency was ludicrous... the game is built on consistency it's what makes the simple game-play work...

EG I'm shocked.

Fucking hell, this comments thread is full of stupid.

"The problem was the fact Braid came first. Have this one been printed beforehand, and things would have been quieter, imo."

Maybe, but but one of Ellie's main criticisms was the fact she thought it was (and I quote) "3. PRETENTIOUS". That's surely something you can level and Braid and its developer (as Ellie seems to take issue with PixelJunk also)? Most people comparing this to yesterday's review are merely highlighting that discrepancy, which is a fair point.

"I mean..., do (some) of you still remember what game are we talking about?"

That's quite amusing, because you haven't said anything about the game at all. You've played it, I presume? What did you think? Did you agree with the review?

"That's quite amusing, because you haven't said anything about the game at all. You've played it, I presume? What did you think? Did you agree with the review? "
I told you (see quoted posted) my reasons were merely voyeuristic. And I can add another, I *realy* want to buy a PS3, money is itching in my pocket, but Iīm still scared of most PS3 fauna I know. Personal attacks and stuff, is kinda scary.

Once again, no particualar target.

@ belziah

"And then you spoil it by defending miiiguel."

Ah miiiguel is OK, his posts make me laugh quite a lot!

Kudos to you sir for I actually want the 3am girls to review Hamlet now for a laugh :)

idiot... this is the best game on psn... and is certainly not overpriced.

From the comic convention pictures I got the impression that this lady would consider anything that doesn't come in a plastic mug, or isn't microwaveable to be a tad pretentious. Either that or she needs a good once over, just to dust the cobwebs south of the border, and clear her mind. Question is who's going to take one for the team?

Yeah I thought it was a funny review too.

Yahtzee provides more informative reviews than this.

I must really be missing something, i've not heard of this game before today and yet it is proving incredibly divisive (although perhaps I shouldn't be surprised with the high praise an original xbox live game received yesterday.)

I'm loving the fact that when Ellie reviews Big Beach Sports or their like on the Wii she gets commended for taking the piss with her irreverent simillies and personal attitudes towards playing the game but when it happens to a game which apparently quite a lot of people had high hopes for she is shouted down.

I'm equally sure you could edit the review to take out every comment not related to gameplay, graphics and story etc quite easily and still come up with a review where 7 would be a fair mark, for instance re-read the review starting from point 1. confusing and continue reading until when Oli enters. Resume reading at "so why can't I leave it alone" and you have a review which is a critical analysis of the gameplay without any personal touches where the resulting 7 seems a fair mark.

Obviously I haven't played this but quite frankly this comment has nothing to do with the game itself and everything to do with people blaming the fact that the reviewer has allowed a little colour into their review of the game for an review score less than they'd hoped.

I think the problem with this review is that it is written in the style of a troll post. It over-emphasizes the little things to try and be funny and interesting and stir people up. It's like a review of Battlefield that complains that you are shot all the time, or that you crash the helicopters too easily so it's crap.

Perhaps that is the angle eurogamer is going for - they just want all the attention (which is why trolls do what they do)?

I personally have no problem with the score - but the majority of the review contradicts the score!! Get some balls, if you are going to write a review like that then give it 5/10 or less! Don't troll and then say it is actually not bad.

Someone mentioned marmite - that is definitely a factor I think. We're not being pretentious with PixelJunk, we are simply making the games we want to make without being dictated to by publishers or the public (this is really rare in the games industry). This means they are very personal creations so some people simply won't be able to get into our minds and they won't like it (like the eurogamer staff it seems), it doesn't make them bad people, but they need to move onto the next game and get over the fact that a lot of people love Eden - like this chap: http://www.brainygamer.com/the_brainy_ga...

My god it's a little scary how many people are mentioning Ellie by name here. This never used to happen quite extraordinarily as much with the other reviewers. How nice it must be to be a girl gamer with hundreds of guys lining up to get to know you... If it were me I think I’d stop doing video reviews...

Now then, dear. Why don't you sit down and have a nice cup of tea.

From the demo, I couldn't see inconsistent physics, just me b*ggering it up. In fact, the physics are too accurate, and not "videogamey" enough (double jumps cough) and tricky until you get used to them.

Yeah, the instructions are a bit weird - for about 10 seconds until you play and it's pretty obvious from then on in. Compared to FlOw (none) or Everyday Shooter (no clues on enemies), it's not a hard ask.

My only complaint would be that it would be nice to be able to shoot a silk when in flight (like R&C's swingshot or Spidey) to save the long falls to the bottom, and would make it a more flowing game. But it's hardly a GTA style 20 minute slog to get back to where you were - a couple of jumps and that's it. You just have to learn to use the environment and physics properly.

I personally put it in the vaunted games/art crossover box where I keep Ico, Everyday Shooter, FlOw, Echochrome and Okami (and would probably stuff Braid in there if I had a 360). Relaxing, simple but challenging. Brilliant.

Give Ellie a chocolate hobnob, and she'll give it 9/10 tomorrow.