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the pc zone uk review in more details
hercules
Member UncommonPosts: 4,925
Hi,first some background on pczone uk and its stance with british made mmorpg.
I been reading this magazine on and off for a long time now and this is what i founs about it.
First,they are one of the 2 biggest selling pc gaming magazine in the UK.They are found on all major store stands along with pc gamer.This 2 basically are the top dog magazines in pc gaming in the UK.
Secondly,pczone is indeed the magazine who last year or so talked about the innovative crucifixtion.
Thirdly,they have for years been screaming about UK slow entry into the mmo buisness and gave a passionate article when WAR(remember it was not first in mythic hands) and dragons empire both made by uk companies closed down.So if anything they are pretty much pro uk made mmorpg.
And yet in oct 2006 they gave a review of RV (page 80 on dvd edition) of one of the lowest scores in the history of the magazine to any game (counting all types).Yes folks it was indeed 8%.8% out of 100%
I would not be able to scan and post the article because this breaks copyright laws but can easily be confirmed by any one in UK that can stroll into wh smith ,tesco etc and flip thru to page 80.
However,i will give some quotes .
"roma victor is one of the most staggeringly lacklustered and awkward-to-play mmorpg ever made"
"despite its receny,RV stinks graphically of everquest circa 1999"
"repetitive textures,bland skies and 2 dimensional sprite environs"
"names for its non-player characters as "legionary A3598"
"RV is a circus of badly thought-out ideas"
"fighting,its a pointless real time affair"
"the game world is emptier then a helium balloon"
"when you come across a body of water,you just walk along the bottom.thats how polished this is"
"its boring ugly,counter-intuitively designed waste of time"
Now here is the shocker of all.If you read this article you will see this guy actually played it for a bit before writing as he talks about this which you will only know of after playing at least a bit post attending.But the real shocker of all is that the article was clearly written at least more then 3 weeks ago and he never even touches on the lag/performance issue at all!
A reviewer could have had a field day with the lag/performance at the time he wrote the article (which the die hard fans keep saying is the only issue with the game.HAHA!).But he either
1)decided that this will eventually be sorted and no point adding it.
2) saw the horror of the game and realised the game was so badly done overall that it became pointless to go any deeper as regards performance/lag.
And as a side not he renamed the game "victor mortis " lol.
Comments
Ed zitron
the title of the article is "ed zitron experiences victor mortis"
-----Zero Punctuation Eve Online Review-----
So the 'review' comes down to:
'the graphics suck and the interface is clunky'
brilliant
Pretty typical of most game mag's reviews of MMOG's...shallow and superficial.
If the reviewer did not mention the lag during release, then it is likely he did not even play after release; either that or he is horribly bad at reviewing. How could he have missed the lag? Nobody that played did. This reviewer and review have no credibility. One of the very first things that should have been mentioned was the lag that was preventing playing!
Bad review, bad reviewer. Probably played the game once or twice during test, didn't get it, had to get a review out by a deadline and gave birth to this crap.
Come on, I'm a fanboy myself and I can admit that this review was pretty much spot on.
"roma victor is one of the most staggeringly lacklustered and awkward-to-play mmorpg ever made"
True
"despite its receny,RV stinks graphically of everquest circa 1999"
True"repetitive textures,bland skies and 2 dimensional sprite environs"
True
"names for its non-player characters as "legionary A3598"
True"RV is a circus of badly thought-out ideas"
Sort of.
"fighting,its a pointless real time affair"
True
"the game world is emptier then a helium balloon"
True
"when you come across a body of water,you just walk along the bottom.thats how polished this is"
True
"its boring ugly,counter-intuitively designed waste of time"
True
Sure Roma-Victor has vast potential and gameplay elements that hardcore MMORPGer's demand, but when you release a game people expect it to be finished.I was expecting bad reviews; because I can't imagine a commercial PC magazine saying:
"I'm giving this game 70%, because it has potential to be a great game in a years time!"
He did not mention the lag, he did not play.
What were some of the good things he said about the game, hercules?
best i can find holding the article in front of me that he said which is not even good but nearest you get(after all he gave it the rarely given dump award and 8%) is
"its based on a good idea but pulled off as if RB have never played a game before"
"you probably know RV as the game that snuck its way into the press by crucifitying a player earlier this year.However,like the idiot who drops his trousers in a pub,just because everyone is looking doesn't mean its clever"
Its a whole page review so hard to get it alkl written but i am sure anyone who bought or read the magazine can testify, this is as good as he said about the game.
As for not playing well i doubt a serious magazine like pc zone uk will dare to post a review without trying it .Also he had some screenies posted and lets face it he did have some insight in the game so he must have played .You can debate if he played it for a week or a day thats another matter.
Roma Victor Forums: WHere fanbois attack!
What is interesting is that 'victor mortis' means the conqueror
of death in Latin.
Its clear to see from the 'positive' quotes from that review, that it is a fairly worthless review, highly bias and unobjective.
That is aside from the fact that the reviewer somehow missed the biggest problem with the game during release - the lag. Nobody that actually played the game missed the lag, but somehow the reviewer, who's job it is to actually review, completely failed to mention one of the game-stopping problems!
Therefore, the review is not only not accurate, but unfair and bias.
If you were reviewing a car and it broke down during the test drive, wouldn't that be something you mention?
However, of note to those that have not tried RV yet, the lag has been largely reduced.
The steve hill section makes it worthwhile lol.
Sempiternal and Anarchyart, you guys need to shutup. You are showing people how retarded the RV fans are.
PC Zone UK is a very reputable magazine. Don't try to bash their negative review. If they made a positive review you would be praising how great they are. Everyone reading your posts can see right thru you. You guys are so biased and defensive, it's bordering on psychotic. With fans like you, RV doesn't need any haters. You are digging the hole deeper and turning away potential players.
Well i am pretty sure if any other reputable site or magazine does another review of RV and dare it be negative the fans will immediately attack the site and call the magazine useless depite never having read it before.
If its postive then ofc they will praise it even if its some rarely visited site and will call it the "site of wisdom and glory".
Lets see.
Honestly I can't see why he would mention the lag. RV is so fundamentally flawed that a post production problem that can be fixed like the lag is of no consequence in big picture of the game. The quote about if the devs have ever played a computer game was the one that struck me the most.
To me game design and development is an art form. More so a combination of many art forms(graphical art, story telling and programming). From a purely programming perpective they've done a pretty good job, all the functions that the program would need are there and it works fairly well. There are bugs but thats to be expected. Key word there is program though! this isn't a program we are talking about here this is a GAME. The skeleton of the game is there, where is the heart and soul though!! Nothing has been done story wise in this game. To me legionare_2830480384 is a big deal! Not to mention there is nothing in game to make a setting, to create ambience or anything else that would make the game enganging. The community does make up for it a bit, but then why do I need the game at all?
The barbarians are in the midst of their second civil war, a roman legion that set up shop in a fort on the Wall was smashed and beaten back, a little known barbarian guild has taken ownership of a map board south of the Wall, raids and assasinations on both sides have taken place, some disputes have resulted in players being exiled, the first official law suit on the roman side has been filed, the roman magistrate has been accused of corruption, new guilds are forming every week, farmers in Corstopitum have formed a council to divide up valuable farm land, some hard working crafters have become wealthy, player built huts are beginning to populate the outskirts of towns, etc, etc, etc.
Yea, you're right. Nothing has been done "story wise" in this game at all.
Sandbox.
The red flags that went up for me were that a month after the game was released the game's official website didn't even say conclusively that the game was live. The most recent "news" feature on the RV site was a bit about how the game was going to use a leaf rendering system.
There have been no other professional reviews of the game that I could find. anywhere. The official site had no links to reviews or positive media. The silence is deafining.
I was really really looking forward to this game, but from what I've heard (and more importantly, what I *HAVEN'T* heard) makes me unwilling to shell out 40 dollars to try the game. Thats 40 dollars I could spend on beer.
Agricolae filia donis bonis capis Romani civis.
While the lag has been fixed now, nobody knew how long it would take. An honest and objective review would have mentioned the lag that was preventing play. There is no point complaining about anything else if you cannot play.
This reveiw is a sham, if anything a preview, thrown together by Ed Zitron from PC Zone UK that played RV once or twice during beta and was too busy playing WoW to actually review a great game like RV post-release.
Shame on you Ed Zitron! Good job ruining your credibility. An actual review would have mentioned any technical problems.
While the lag has been fixed now, nobody knew how long it would take. An honest and objective review would have mentioned the lag that was preventing play. There is no point complaining about anything else if you cannot play.
This reveiw is a sham, if anything a preview, thrown together by Ed Zitron from PC Zone UK that played RV once or twice during beta and was too busy playing WoW to actually review a great game like RV post-release.
Shame on you Ed Zitron! Good job ruining your credibility. An actual review would have mentioned any technical problems.
Also possible 2 things.
1)he saw so many problems with the game he did not want to pick on something that eventually gets fixed no matter how bad.Name one mmorpg that lag issues were not sorted out to a reasonable degree after a few months?None.
2) he ran out of space .You get the impression from the article he had more to say but couldn't fit it in.
However,that said this is the only professional review of RV to date .RB said some reviewers are waiting to review (which i think is great rarely does any mmorpg or game have the luxury of a delayed review done on purpose .it either gets reviewed soon after launch or it never does).
Lets see which magazine or site will give it its next review and will be it be positive or negative.They have a high ladder to climb to catch the number 1(or 2.some say pc gamer is 1 some say pc zone) selling pc gaming magazine in the UK though with huge european distribution