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View Full Version : Gamespot needs to fire one of its reviewers...



Mr Buckshot
July 6th, 2007, 07:17 PM
http://www.gamespot.com/ds/action/brothersinarmsds/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary;review

The game is Brothers in Arms for the DS. I'm not some fanboy cursing that the rating was too low. What I'm criticizing is some of the things the reviewer pointed out as "flaws" in the game.


Eventually you'll come to grips with the control scheme, but you'll never become physically comfortable with it. You're forced to hold the DS with just one hand--more specifically, with the sides of your fingers while your index finder is crooked over the left shoulder button. After a few levels, the pain can be excruciating to the point where you may have to take a break to rest your hand.Uhh...hello? The Nintendo DS is a touch screen gadget with a stylus - of course you hold the thing in one hand, dickface! Have you even used a PDA before? Or do you happen to have arthritis?


Dragging the stylus to aim works OK if you're only dealing with a few stationary enemies, but it takes several swipes of the stylus to turn completely around (there's no option to change the sensitivity), and your enemies are so tiny that it's tough to aim with any level of precision, even with the game's somewhat generous auto-aim feature.The touch screen is not an analog stick, deal with it. You'll eventually run out of room on your mouse pad (many desk surfaces are not good for optical mice) so you have to lift the mouse anyway. Besides the screen is only a few inches wide, so what's wrong with lifting the stylus and setting it down again? Anyway this is a third-person game, so you'll rarely come into a situation when someone backstabs you.

"enemies are so tiny." Wow, like the DS's top screen is an under-used gargantuan high-def display. This a portable system with a small screen. If the enemies were any bigger, there'd be visibility issues. Plus, MP:H had the same aiming style and BiA is equally precise. Trust me, aiming with the touch screen beats aiming with an analog stick any day even if it can't compare to the mouse. If you hate the touch screen aiming so much, go sell your DS.


And there's plenty of reason to be concerned about controlling your character, because the controls can be quite challenging. You view the action on the top screen, move with the D pad, and fire with the left shoulder button--that's simple enough. Here's the complicated part: You use the bottom screen's touch-sensing capabilities to look around, aim, change weapons, reload, use your weapons' sights, and throw grenades.Wow...so if you're using the stylus to aim, you still want to use the face buttons for those actions? Ok, if you use the thumb strap, you can still hit the face buttons, but DS Lites no longer have the thumb strap so such a control option is unavailable. I don't think the icons on the touch screen are that painful to tap...

Basically, whoever reviewed this game obviously does not know a DS from a console gamepad.

ExAm
July 9th, 2007, 01:26 AM
Even though I haven't even played or heard of this game, I agree that that reviewer is being a dick. He's basically reviewing the DS, not the game. He needs to focus on the game. I enjoy playing the Metroid Prime Hunters demo every now and then, and I'm completely comfortable while playing it. It's basically got the exact same control scheme as what's being described. To me, it's just like using WASD and a mouse. I feel at home with it, and feel that it is a great platform for the handheld FPS.

Pooky
July 9th, 2007, 01:32 AM
I'm some fanboy cursing that the rating was too low.

lmfao








so didn't you mean you're NOT a fanboy? :|

Mr Buckshot
July 9th, 2007, 06:01 PM
yeah, this review is more like a review of the system instead of the game.

I can agree that as a game, BiA DS has flaws such as the bad draw distance and lackluster AI, but the control "issues" are not issues at all - they're just personal preference.

IGN's review was more justified (8.0/10). The game doesn't deserve a super-high rating, but it deserves maybe a 70-ish or 80-ish rating as one of the best shooters on the DS.

I'd rate it a 7.5/10. - good effort, but there's room for more.