David Jaffe plays by his own rules, mister. So don't think you can go around town giving a 6.7 to Calling All Cars and he won't have anything to say about it. Because he totally will. In an admittedly pretty even-tempered blog response to Gamespot's middle-of-the-road score, Jaffe tries to explain why he thinks the problems that the site has with the game (lack of content, etc.) aren't really that big a deal.Jaffe's real beef is with the criteria by which his $10 game is being judged. He says he wanted to create "a trash talking fun ass time with your buddies," and feels like it's that goal on which the review should be based. (Surprising no one, Jaffe feels the game is between an 8 and 10 in this category.) But in the same breath (or is that keystroke?) he goes on to admit that it may not be fair for him to ask that. The post continues as an interesting, slightly schizophrenic, view into how a developer deals with watching their baby enter the world. Go ahead Dave, wear that heart on your sleeve, we still think you're a maverick. ... A maverick of caring.
(Page 1) Reader Comments
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I can only hope that these other people (Dennis Dyack)who act like their product is going to be the second coming and think they can do no wrong wind up in the same predicament.
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Fanboyism aside, I should read the gamespot review before speculating, but if GS rated an arcade $10 downloadable game relative to a real $50 game, it is unfair and Jaffe would have a point.
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Bomberman 360, anyone?
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No, he wouldn't. The Gamespot reviewer isn't dumb enough to think "people are paying 50-60 dollars for this?!" before reviewing it. It's in perspective. If you look at games just on the purely "cost to consumer" level, then the Burger King games would have been the 2006 Game(s) of the Year. Sure, they're just passable at best, but OMG THEY'RE THREE DOLLARZZZZ!!11
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Even for 10 bucks this game isn't worth it, there's no mistake in the review, Jaffe should just admit defeat.
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That's good and all, but when I realize that now or sometime soon in the future that $10 could net me Mario Kart 64 or Super Smash Bros. 64, respectively. And when Smashmania runs wild all over VC, ho boy...
But then Gamespot could be friggin' stupid like they were with Twilight Princess and I should just concede to Jaffe that Gamespot's full of hardasses.
Say I think Dennis Dyack would love them.
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Look, the point the blog was making was that the bashes against his game in the review were pretty much the bashes against the very nature of the game. I mean, I was reading the Gamespot review (because this news is like 3 days old. This blog went up saturday) and even I agree the overall score seems a tad harsh. It's actually as if the review score was punishing Calling All Cars for BEING a casual game. And the reviews text tends be be all smiles and giggles and saying how great the game is just to dole out a shitty score at the end.
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"Bomberman 360, anyone?"
"The game flopped! LOLL"
One major game website posted reviewed it as a mediocore game. While, IGN and 1up gave it an equivalent of a B letter grade. IGN and 1Up gave Bomberman 360 a decent score?
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Of the handful of reviews for this game so far, most fall on the favorable side of things, so it's hardly a flop. Hell, 7/10 isn't a bad score. Not great, but... average. If the low end scores for you title is average, it's not the end of the world. Even Jaffe seems to realize that in a few parts of his rant.
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In the review of the GC version, despite the GC version getting a higher score, they concluded that the Wii version was better.
GameSpot's always had the record for the most stringent review scores between themselves, IGN, 1up, GI, GameSpy, all those other sites. They're full of hardasses. So if Jaffe's game is a couple points lower on GS than it is on other sites, it should be considered pretty normal for GS.
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That aside, I appreciate what Jaffe has done, and eagerly await the GoW3 offering, whilest I rev up GoW2.
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"It's just a vertical shooter... 3.0"
"But it's a vertical shooter that accomidates all skill levels and even have a unique ship/power up design."
"These game types are like old.... 3.0"
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Can you morons shut the fuck up about their Zelda score? The score was fine, it's people like you who are horribly offended when a game scores oh-point-three (or whatever) less than what you think it should be that are an embarassment to the gaming community. End of story.
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* Weapons are useless.
* Very few levels.
* Extremely luck based.
How was this game delayed so much?
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- Sheppy
You know what the important fact in the comment is? Fans went ape when Zelda only got a score of 9.5 did Miyamoto hit the blogs bad mouthing people? Nope he didn't, did Reggie start crapping that the reviewers didn't understand their games? Nope he didn't, but David Jaffe upon seeing scores that he feels aren't up to his GAWD LIKE ability whipped out the box of Kleanex, and started to have himself a good little cry online.
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That alone makes him even more of an ass then if he truly was an ass.
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If you were a Zelda fan and saw the article that Gamespot had written JUST FOR YOU as a Zelda fan you would be a lot angrier than what the review itself stands for. The article they removed was a demonstration of pretty shitty journalism to be honest.
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In all fairness, Miyamoto/Reggie/Nintendo Designers don't have their own blog on which they post their thoughts. This isn't like Jaffe called up Gamespot and complained or called up kotaku/joystiq. He wrote his thoughts on his own blog site.
How dare someone write things like that on their own blog! /sarcasm
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Its quite shocking though that the first few posters don't think the reviewer can or should be held accountable for their review by the game maker. In the end jaffe just points out he disagrees, he does not bash them over it, i think thats quite legitimate, he created somethings and hes proud of it and does not want it to unfairly criticized, seems like a good developer to me. If you give reviewers free pass and never question them they will take advantage, such as with 1up and the neverwinter score untill they called out for it, but it seems some people don't care about that and feel the reviewers opinion does not have to be questioned...
And lol at all the Jaffe haters, yeah I know, God of war 2 got better ratings than Twilight princess, maybe thats why you Nintendo fans are outraged every time this man speaks well suck it up. Just because the man's more successful at his job then you are at life, does not mean he does not have a right to an opinion.
In the end he has made two very successful franchises, and at least 4 very very good games it just shows how pathetic you Nintendo fanboys are hating on the man, even sony/xbox fans will show this type of attitude in nintendo developer posts such as miyamoto.
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Alex is right. There's nothing to be upset about Jaffe writing in his own blog.
The guy's respectable.
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DOnt you know.....
$50 for a minigame is the true next gen.
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There is nothing wrong with Jaffe complaining about the review scores on his personal blog.
I'm sure Twilight Princess got the score it deserved in the reviewers eyes. Does it matter? I think it's a solid 9/10 game. Does that mean that if someone else thinks its a 3/10 game, all of a sudden I have to change my opinion to match theirs? Grow up.
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cooking mama- tons of recipes
Warioware- hundreds of micro games, over 10 levels, 7 great mini games
Raving Rabbids- 50 mini games
Calling all cars- 4 levels, 3 weapons.
Im not saying that any of the above may be worth 50 bucks, but there is clear content differences.
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you are damned right... it's laughable the price of some of the Wii games... imo the console itself is too expensive... but I digress.
Jaffe has the right to his opinion. Let's wait till Thursday to make your judgement on the GS review.
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This Bastard sat on a Video game online show and said, he expects better of the community, and that they should be more stringent of games, and more discriminating, in their taste. Upon Two sites Giving him the reviews he feels are favorable he then goes on to pick apart why GS the third site was wrong for their view of his Game.
Now I am no fan of gaming journalist, not in the least bit, But the guy is a hypocrite. Yeah Jaffe wants you to Judge games, Just not his games. His games get nine to tens and if not well he has to examine your journalism style. So we name Miyamoto as a developer that didn't cry and thus you Fanboys saw a way out so I diagress why don't we go through games that got lower than God Of war 2 and less than favorable ratings on Game spot which are popular. And See how their developer handled it. How much are you will to bet those guys didn't hold Cry Fest 2007 on their blog.
Seems Prince of Persia Rival swords only got a 7.1 I guess we are Ubisoft fanboys right? Cause we didn't comment on that developer....Oh yeah they didn't cry.
ELEbits very popular only 7.5 Wow Konami fanboys must be out in force? hmmm Lot of fanboys going after David Jaffe. ANybody have the link where they are crying?
Guitar hero II xbox 360 only got 8.9 RAGE ANGER RAGE!
I could do this all day people, but it doesn't change the fact that the man cries for people to mark innovation and art and enjoyment first, then complains when he doesn't get the rating he wants. It seems the above people got over their hurt of not getting a ten, why is Jaffe devoting time to call out GS on his blog for the same thing he would want them to attack on a different game.
He is a self absorbed, self impressive, Jack Ass, that thinks slinging obscenities when somebody asks him a tough question makes hims "HARDCORE". Personally I don't care what score it got, but damnit take it like a man, and don't run to your blog where you know you can fine solace and yes men ready to give you a pat on the back.
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Four levels is a bit on the light side. Even if it'd been six it would have been better.
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A. God-like ability? Dude, did you read the blog entry? He says the fucking game is between an 8-10. Reggie and Perrin Kaplan both said Pokemon Dash was a AAA title. He wasn't saying the game was perfect by any means and even goes as far as to say "thanks to the helpful reviews in regards to the magnet item, we've been able to tone this aspect way down, but only in the single player."
B. Nintendo developers don't have blogs. You understand the difference between a Blog and a news site, right? This is the equivelant of a livejournal post or a ranting via AIM. David Jaffe blogs. When he does, he's not representing a company or anything. He's representing himself and truthfully, he's a hell of a lot more human than majority of the other developers. Want a reference point? Itagaki. That's an unchecked ego.
C. Blogs from developers should be handled as blogs. Far too often, they are not. They usually act as an extension of a PR campaign. But when done properly, they let you into the real life of a game developer. Take, for example, the KojimaBlog. Seriously. One of his entries was about how his personal planner, given to him by his wife, was finally needing to be replaced. This was a personal planner that was with him since Snatcher so literally the entry was about how he was having a hard time finding a replacement just because of all the memories attached to the item in general.
D. Yes, yes Nintendo has gone on record with being upset with review scores in the past. Miyamoto has been upset, Reggie has been upset, Yamauchi actually wanted a magazine shut down once.
E. Read the blog entry, or the blog in general. In case you missed it, he both defends and bashes the view. He's even stated in the past that if a game isn't readily accessable as to it's exact nature within the first fifteen minutes of a game, then it's a failure. This means, by his own logic, there was a failing in the game as well. And his entry debates BOTH points.
@Geo
Hate to bash you on this. But I have Raving Rabbids and Warioware. So many of the games described as new minigames are simply variants of the same games. I mean, when they list the dancing minigames HOW many times? Not to mention the various Part 2's of many, many of their games. Not complaining, just stating.
But in my opinion, I'd rather a company balance out content instead of simply throwing it all together. And in Calling All Cars, majority of their time was spent in balancing rather than content creation. And the title is always expandable. I'd prefer a company to release a full game with 20 perfectly balanced tracks and 40 cars to a game that creates 300+ tracks and 500+ cars but none of them are balanced.
Then again, I have much lower expectations for $10. So instead of getting a game with 12 maps, all with glitches and exploits, 12 weapons that haven't been perfectly balanced, and 40 cars that pretty much look the same except for spoiler changes (ala Burnout and Ridge Racer), I like spending $10, getting an excessively balanced game, with real easy pick an play. If I didn't, imagine the hatred I would have for Microsoft. I swear I've dunked 4 $20 cards already into their marketplace and my friends and I have had much more fun in multiplayer Worms on XBLA than Gears Of War when friends are over. Personally, I think the industry needs more games like Calling All Cars and Worms.
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Why bring it up? Jeeze, looks like someone's jealous that the Wii is popular, and the PS3 is not.
Grow up PS3 Fanboys, please? Stop making the PS3 look bad.
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Mario Kart 64 is $10 on the VC. And it has more than 4 levels and 3 weapons.
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And don't think Zelda: TP is the first time people have started complaining about GS. There's also Soul Calibur II, Mario Kart 64, MGS 1&3, Zelda: MM, and countless other anal-retentive scores.
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Yeah there is a clear content difference, and that's why CAC is only 10 fucking dollars.
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MK64 was a full priced $50 game when it was released.
Anyway, just about the only person making any sense in these comments is Sheppy. Jaffe is a good dev. I'm glad he speaks his mind. I see no reason why devs can't defend their games against reviews. Why does everyone here act like they can't? Sometimes these reviews really don't make any sense.
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But I tell everybody what. Friday nights, I have friends over for some multiplayer gaming. This week is CAC and Worms (possibly Beatmania Red or Happy Sky). And this groups tends to be harsh. If they deem it $10 well spent, then so be it.
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Right back to the Nintendo thing Right? By the way creating a blog is impossible right? I mean David Jaffe's Blog had to be approved by the government? Then ten different secret clearances had to be passed to get one. Yes yes a blog is a national secret.
See if you jab at nintendo I will in some way what Lose it? F NINTENDO F THEM TWICE. I don't own a WII! So lets see what you have this time around. Because I did take time to list other games that got subpar scores that sucked it up.
Yeah He says he isn't Bashing them sure, Then goes on to say he finds their rating of his game UNFAIR! See I can apply his logic the same way.
President Bush is an accomplished man and Harvard graduate who worked his way to the Presidency doing an array of corporate political jobs. From working as a Oil company CEO, to being the Head of a major league baseball team, Finally being a Governor of Texas.
You see how I build him up just to do this?
To bad in his stint as a CEO in an Oil company he was so incompetent it was said he couldn't find Oil in Texas. As Governor of the fine state of Texas, he had the record for the most people on death row while having the worst record for educational standards, and health care in the nation. All culminating to his debacle in the war in Iraq in which he has caused his parties to lose seats in congress and created a never ending quagmire for American troops.
Oh yes I only think the Game is 8-10 and by the way I think Game Spot rating is unfair, but only take what I THE GAME CREATOR say with a Grain of salt.
Further more Fans like online games such as Dinner Dash yet Game sites rate them poorly (this is a jab at them not really knowing what the fans want) so really I think it is up to the fans.
So The guys that Gave 8.5 yeah they know what gaming is. But you guys 1. Don't know what the fans want 2. Are out of sync with others in your own industry, and 3. Didn't understand my vision so you are Unfair. BUT.... BUT I AM NOT BASHING YOU!
Let me clearly state this Again F NINTENDO! So you don't have any special wiggle room on this one. You think he mentioned IGN and 1UP For his health? He mentioned them as an example of what he thinks the game should have got, what game sites should be doing. He also mentioned them to point out Game spot was alone, think of it this way.
Hey Everybody else Likes it Something must be wrong with GAME SPOT. Ask your self something Why didn't he just handle Game Spot by them self, why did he go out of the way to mention Iup and IGN. I mean you yourself Said it, it is HIS BLOG nobody else put it there. HMMMMM yeah but he isn't BASHING their opinion, NO he is just doing his damnedest to discredit their rating.
Use the mentality that everybody else likes it, and you are the weirdo and other sites will think twice before crapping on it. That is why IGN and 1UP's name is even listed their with the scores entail. Hey fans don't listen to them they are out of touch.
The Best part is, How all of you ran to his defense Bashing Nintendo! WOW that was awesome, and yet in his little NON-Bashing of Game Spot he explains that maybe Reviewers won't like what he is doing with Calling all Cars cause it is not Like is old stuff.
So get that he believes his hardcore fanbase that is used to his God of war offerings might not even get the fun in Calling all Cars. Wow hmmm, I am not even going to pick that apart. Hey you Liked my God of war series SLAP! Get on ball bitch and like this to. Brillant Just wow.
So by all means come again how he is not bashing? Come again how he is not trying to use his blog broader than just his personal view points? You believe that one and, I got one about a bridge to sell you.
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