Why all the hate on JP:TG?
NOTE: It's a little long! 
Intro:
Now I know we all love and are looking forward to the wonderful, "Jurassic Park: The Game". Otherwise we wouldn't be on here discussing and analyzing the JP movies and related medias themselves. But every time I see a site posting up something JP:TG related and it has a comments section, you tend to see a lot of negativity and criticism to the game and how it's being developed or shown.
Arguments:
So far the only arguments are:
*Bad Graphics
*Bad Animation
*Wrong Type of a Game (IE:Interactive Adventure)
*Wrong/Bad Gameplay (IE:QTE)
*Copying Heavy Rain
*Looks Boring
*The standard variants of: This Game ______ (Sucks, Is Bad, Is Sh!t, Is Crap, etc.)
Question:
Question is, how would you even respond to this (Not that you really should, cause they'll ignore you). You know stating these things won't change their minds. But why do you think they keep repeating these statements?
---
Response:
My personal opinions:
*Bad Graphics - To allow for the most time for developing and getting the game out, Telltale managed to update their engine as best they could without sacrificing time to make the game's core gameplay and designs as best they could. In addition, great graphics does not always mean great gameplay.
*Bad Animation - Because of it not being a high budget game (IE: Call of Duty, Halo, Mass Effect, Force Unleashed) the animators are doing the best they can within the time and effort given as mentioned above. It's not like they have a mo-cap studio either, they make do with what they can.
*Wrong Type of a Game (IE:Interactive Adventure) - Some of the people who state this are then asking for a sequel to a past JP game (IE: JP:OG), which isn't bad. But it couldn't be more perfect to have an interactive adventure game that parallels the experience in the movies.
*Wrong/Bad Gameplay (IE:QTE) - You couldn't get a more perfect formula for a game based on a movie. You've got the cinematic aspect with player input through the manipulations of varying prompts and triggers. Not only this, Telltale even rewards the player for failing by bringing forth an entertaining demise so the play will never be frustrated.
*Copying Heavy Rain - Well the developers already stated that they would draw inspiration from Heavy Rain, so this one seems attributed to ignorance of research.
*Looks Boring - First off it's a demo, this is only one small segment out of a much larger game, not everything it going to be like this. These people judge because they didn't want to play a JP game in the first place that was an FPS with high-end graphics. These are the COD generation of preteen-teen games who are adrenaline junkies with ADD complexes who need constant action/violence on the screen. In their world if it's not the aforementioned criteria, it is boring.
*The standard variants of: This Game ______ (Sucks, Is Bad, Is Sh!t, Is Crap, etc.) - Again this can be attributed to judgment by a demo and the aforementioned audience of today's youth in gaming. This isn't to say every teen is like that, but a vast majority of kids are and if you've been online in say Xbox Live or PSN you would encounter such an example. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it appears that some opinions should not be taken into account when research and lack of analysis brings forth a one sentence judgment of such.
Conclusion:
I enjoy the FPS genre a lot (Especially Halo), but I also love other types of games as well. I don't feel that JP:TG is any less better than those types of games. But it's once we actually experience the games for themselves with no bias that an appropriate response can be developed. I'm not here to say that Jurassic Park: The Game will be the best Jurassic Park game out there; I hope it will be, but I can't have a final judgment yet. So far, everything I've personally seen from the Gameplay to the Concept Arts and Videos all imply a group who are as passionate about Jurassic Park and Games in general that are trying to develop a "definitive JP game". But we'll just have to wait and see how it actually turns out.
I also have to note the level of criticism and feedback from fans that Telltale seems to be listening to as well, which is a key aspect in appealing to the buyers/players of the game. Here's hoping it all not for naught.
Intro:
Now I know we all love and are looking forward to the wonderful, "Jurassic Park: The Game". Otherwise we wouldn't be on here discussing and analyzing the JP movies and related medias themselves. But every time I see a site posting up something JP:TG related and it has a comments section, you tend to see a lot of negativity and criticism to the game and how it's being developed or shown.
Arguments:
So far the only arguments are:
*Bad Graphics
*Bad Animation
*Wrong Type of a Game (IE:Interactive Adventure)
*Wrong/Bad Gameplay (IE:QTE)
*Copying Heavy Rain
*Looks Boring
*The standard variants of: This Game ______ (Sucks, Is Bad, Is Sh!t, Is Crap, etc.)
Question:
Question is, how would you even respond to this (Not that you really should, cause they'll ignore you). You know stating these things won't change their minds. But why do you think they keep repeating these statements?
---
Response:
My personal opinions:
*Bad Graphics - To allow for the most time for developing and getting the game out, Telltale managed to update their engine as best they could without sacrificing time to make the game's core gameplay and designs as best they could. In addition, great graphics does not always mean great gameplay.
*Bad Animation - Because of it not being a high budget game (IE: Call of Duty, Halo, Mass Effect, Force Unleashed) the animators are doing the best they can within the time and effort given as mentioned above. It's not like they have a mo-cap studio either, they make do with what they can.
*Wrong Type of a Game (IE:Interactive Adventure) - Some of the people who state this are then asking for a sequel to a past JP game (IE: JP:OG), which isn't bad. But it couldn't be more perfect to have an interactive adventure game that parallels the experience in the movies.
*Wrong/Bad Gameplay (IE:QTE) - You couldn't get a more perfect formula for a game based on a movie. You've got the cinematic aspect with player input through the manipulations of varying prompts and triggers. Not only this, Telltale even rewards the player for failing by bringing forth an entertaining demise so the play will never be frustrated.
*Copying Heavy Rain - Well the developers already stated that they would draw inspiration from Heavy Rain, so this one seems attributed to ignorance of research.
*Looks Boring - First off it's a demo, this is only one small segment out of a much larger game, not everything it going to be like this. These people judge because they didn't want to play a JP game in the first place that was an FPS with high-end graphics. These are the COD generation of preteen-teen games who are adrenaline junkies with ADD complexes who need constant action/violence on the screen. In their world if it's not the aforementioned criteria, it is boring.
*The standard variants of: This Game ______ (Sucks, Is Bad, Is Sh!t, Is Crap, etc.) - Again this can be attributed to judgment by a demo and the aforementioned audience of today's youth in gaming. This isn't to say every teen is like that, but a vast majority of kids are and if you've been online in say Xbox Live or PSN you would encounter such an example. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it appears that some opinions should not be taken into account when research and lack of analysis brings forth a one sentence judgment of such.
Conclusion:
I enjoy the FPS genre a lot (Especially Halo), but I also love other types of games as well. I don't feel that JP:TG is any less better than those types of games. But it's once we actually experience the games for themselves with no bias that an appropriate response can be developed. I'm not here to say that Jurassic Park: The Game will be the best Jurassic Park game out there; I hope it will be, but I can't have a final judgment yet. So far, everything I've personally seen from the Gameplay to the Concept Arts and Videos all imply a group who are as passionate about Jurassic Park and Games in general that are trying to develop a "definitive JP game". But we'll just have to wait and see how it actually turns out.
I also have to note the level of criticism and feedback from fans that Telltale seems to be listening to as well, which is a key aspect in appealing to the buyers/players of the game. Here's hoping it all not for naught.
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Comments
Stereotypes and teenager intellectual egocentrism.
Basically you shouldn't give a damn, unless you're part of them.
Sure RPG games such as Fable, Knights of the Old Republic do well, but come no where near the popularity of a game where you are expected to spread someones brains out on the road.
This game has violence in it, but its a different kind to shooting someone COD style. For some that does not interest.
I'm really looking forward to this game. I've been a fan of JP as I went to the cinema for the original film.
As with life, let the haters hate, and the players play.
As for the gameplay, some just can't go beyond FPS. Which is bad for them. If they can't try anything new or worse (refuse to try anything new and say that it sucks because it's not their type of gameplay) the that's their fault. And screw them. This game will be awesome.
And honestly, I can't see a traditional style FPS for JP. An open roam first person game could be interesting, but you'd need to find a balance between shooty and puzzles that are challenging, but not hair-rippingly frustrating. Also might add tranquilizer effects if going that route, since most of the stuff on the island was animal control stuff. If you went with trespasser/lost world style stuff then there's more potential for the shooting aspect, but I think the tendency would be too much to the shooting aspect for most developers.
Then, uh, I dunno, do not have SIX projects on hold at the same time to, you know, put more consideration to what you ARE doing, so that you can offer better animations? It's not like Telltale CAN'T do it. Look at ToMI or Sam and Max Season 1 and 2... Everything looks so lively. And then, you take a look at BTTF and see how choppy ALL the animations are. I'm sorry, I agree with everything else but here, it's kind of Telltale's own fault.
This, at least, is nothing new. In another dinosaur game I had circa 1992, the object was largely survival, but I knew people who would go out of their way to attack every dinosaur they saw, and refused to believe me when I told them that all they were doing was risking their safety unnecessarily. Everyone knows that computer games give you points for killing things, right?
I'm still sceptical about the degree to which Telltale seem to be headed into ‘interactive movies’; yes, their source material is a movie with an element of constant danger, but the same was true of the Indiana Jones films, and that didn’t stop Fate of Atlantis from working as an adventure game. And it’s a bit discouraging that most of the reviewers seem to enjoy the death animations more than the game itself. But all we’ve seen so far is a small dmeo, and I’m willing to give them a chance — it may be a lot more impressive when it comes together as a whole.
Games these days are all about high graphics and multipalyers shooting.
When i was younger it took months to finish a game, now even the "hardest" of the new games out takes me max one day.
I'm glad Telltale takes time to create a story..not just mindless blowing dino's to pieces.
As for the grafics, yeah maybe they could be beter, but i rather have a good game then a game that looks good.
So thanks Tellgame for all the effort they put in this game, so many designers creating games for movies don't even have seen the movie themself. With the interviews i've seen from telltale i can see that JP fans are creating this game.
I am a Jurassic Park fan and I am very excited about this release because I want a Jurassic Park experience. I want to feel like I'm back in the park with true dinosaurs and characters. If Telltale needs the extra time to create a game that gives me that feeling, then I am willing to wait a little longer. I also don't expect movie quality graphics from a video game, we all know that will either cost a fortune or crash most of our computers. I love that I will get a solid story and enjoyable gaming experience for such a reasonable price. Besides, from what I have seen so far, the details look pretty amazing to me!
Maybe, but it could have been a decision based on the agreement/deal with Universal. "We're giving you license to this game but you have ___ months to have it out (and/or meet this checkpoint in development) or we'll revoke said license." Telltale is a fairly small game company compared to most, and a chance to acquire and develop big license games is probably a lot harder than a big company with a lot under it's belt already.
With that said, if your point were true I'd agree that it is not smart to do such a thing. But I highly doubt Telltale is the type to overload themselves more so than they could handle. Especially with the bad reputation most licensed games turn out to be, cheap with minimal effort in order to cash in for opening night. You've seen the effort they've put into the games, from staying true to the original source, to maintaining contact with the license holder, as well as listening to the fans. You don't get that with too many companies, and Telltale has thus far been a company devoted to putting at least that much effort into it.
I was believing in the same things. Then I played BTTF:TG.
I think it's clear that BttF was a major misstep for the company, design-wise. They pushed the "interactive movie" idea way too far, to the point where there essentially is no actual "game" left. Another major problem is the fact that what IS there is not very high quality (poor animations, lifeless environments, repeated character models, etc. etc. etc.)
Here's hoping JP isn't plagued with the same issues. From the excuses Telltale has been giving regarding BttF, it seems that Universal's insistence on appealing to casual non-gamers was the driving force behind those terrible design decisions.
Go figure, let's license material to a game company and then ask them to do the exact opposite of what they do best, which is making GAMES.
There's no demo!
We just want the fu***** game!
Making an interactive movie which does not have;
-Animations in mediocre fluidity at best,
-Rewards for players exploring the playground and doing unexpected things,
-ANY brainworking puzzles other than "hit this switch and hit that one later", in which case switches are ALWAYS in the same scene;
...is, in my opinion, lazy work. It's lazy work, because they can't mess around with their schedule anymore, they have to get everything in time. The design decisions are not made because developers thought such ideas would work "well", they are made because they wanted to finish with the game in a short amount of time. Animations were done within a rush, NO thought were given for little anectodes and all effort went into the main storyline of the game, puzzles were cheaply implemented on the storyline (if you get rid of all those puzzles, the storyline could still drive itself; meaning puzzles feel like they were placed in the last minute just to give the players to pass time between scenes). Designing such a game is NOT a hassle, at least, not a hassle for a company that also designed Sam and Max Season 2 (the season I like the least out of all Sam and Max seasons, to be fair). It's so obvious that they went with these design choices just to save time. And there I come and say; if you want time, DON'T CRAM YOUR SCHEDULE UP.
I also think "Universal only gave us 3 months ;-;" is a throwaway excuse. Apart from the Bluray set of Back to the Future which has the first episode of the game in it, there is NO reason why Universal should hassle them. First episode was easy, wasn't being worked on that well but in the end; it was a "first episode" and made the season's introduction, it was expected to be easy and all. After that point they could just borrow theirselves another month to wax things up... or no no no, they could STILL deliver BTTF in a monthly schedule. How, you may ask? Simple. By NOT dividing their staff into several groups that are working on different games so that more considerate effort could go into only one or two games. If they're a small company (which is their excuse when they don't satisfy the already lowered down expectations), they should know it better than myself that they shouldn't divide the staff into even smaller groups.
People preordered BTTF either because they trusted Telltale or they trusted the name of "Back to the Future". If you look at all the sales, BttF:tG is a success, and that might be why Universal gave them a THIRD license. But what I believe is that they won't get as many preorders for upcoming games, and their profit will be dependent on the game's quality. And if they continue to offer such easily forgettable gaming experiences, that won't be really good for the company's future.
I can't wait to play it!!!
No.
Quoted for the truth. I really hope Jurassic Park doesn't fall into the same shortcomings.
I found almost nothing to be wrong with BTTF: The Game. To me it looks very lovely crafted and I enjoyed the first 3 episodes heavily.
@topic:
To me the definite JP game is Trespasser and I'd have prefered a sequel to that game but I'm looking forward to TT's Jurassic Park game.
I played Heavy Rain and it was an awesome game. I think it is great that TT got inspired by it (David Cage wanted other devs to get inspired by his work on Heavy Rain).
If BTTF and TT's previous games are anything to go buy JP will not disappoint!
You must not be able to read then.
He said almost nothing about JP in any of his posts in this thread. He was talking exclusively about the disappointing BttF, and more generally about Telltale's strict episodic business model, which is now very clearly starting to adversely affect the quality of their games.
Would that really be an unexpected disappointment?
After years upon years, Duke Nukem Forever better be f****** great.
I could not disagree more.
I'd think TTG would get some respect for their work with Lucas Arts and Monkey Island. Also, Sam n Max, and I guess BTTF... But people "hate", and I don't feel like pushing into the envelop right now, to pull out why...
*sighs*, people really are getting carried away with the hate. They've been upfront with the type of gaming genre this is, I happen to like it , and it looks like they nailed it! It looks perfect for a Heavy Rain type of JP game...
Might be Portal 2. I haven't bought it myself, but there are people bashing it as well as praising it. I guess single player campaigns were too short and easy, and two player mode has Valve's infamous trading system which had ruined Team Fortress 2.
new to telltale, and gaming in general. I just wanted to say that though i can fully understand why these games may not satisfy the dedicated or advanced gamers out there, that can be a positive.
i myself know loads of gamers. the director of the film im currently crew on actually works in game development as his day job (we're an indie production) but gaming has never attracted me.
i get bored very easily with games, especially FPS because i just dont get it. i wholeheartedly admit that its not the games fault. i just dont understand the attraction.
however
being a bttf and jp fan since i was a child, ive decided to give these a go purely because theyre NOT fps games which involve high end graphics and more buttons that i have fingers! as a result, i played through bttf episode 1 in one night! i know that may sound like it was too easy, but i really enjoyed myself.
the criticism of the games "push buttons and complete tasks to advance the story" process is actually one of the reasons i love it. i found it like abook i couldnt put down. i really wanted to know what happens next, and do do that i had to work. i also love the fact that there are lots of in jokes that hardnend fans like myself will recognise. i also love the fact that alot of the choices made you think what would MARTY do, not what would i do... the writers have kept true to the character's personalities.
again, i totally get why regular gamers are finding this a bit slow game wise, but just think of the new to gaming people like me who are getting drawn in by these games. who knows, one of us might get so involved with gaming that we make the next halo! ok maybe not me, but someone might.
i totally had the same thing myself with guitar hero. i hated it as im a proper musician and i felt it make kids think of guitar as something that it isnt. however, i have since decided that if it gets kids listening to decent rock and pop classics instead of westlife and the x factor types, and maybe even inspires them to pick up a REAL instrument, wheres the harm in that?
cannot wait for jp game!!!
It's pretty much the equivalent of if id Software were to release Doom 4, and instead of fast twitchy shooter action, all you had to do was find the enemies and click on them once, and they would die. The reason we like adventure games is for puzzles that make us think. Without any puzzles that require any real logical thought, what is the point?
There is little, if any, thought required to complete BttF. The reason Heavy Rain is far superior to BttF and JP:TG is that in Heavy Rain, you are not just pushing buttons to keep watching, you are making choices as the story progresses, and the way you play the game can affect the storyline drastically. There is nothing like this present in BttF, and I highly doubt they have done anything similar with JP:TG.
You got it all wrong. Telltale always delivered quality adventure games and most of us are in fact, similar to you. I don't like FPS as well, I find it redundant. I believe the adventure titles show the creativity the best, out of all other genres of gaming. From what I read, I guess you're a newcomer to adventure gaming, which is great. Adventure fandom needs to be a lot more crowded.
Adventure gaming is NOT push buttons and go forward. Although, yes, there are people ACTUALLY saying it, and they all are simply hypocrites, since there is more repetition to sports games or FPSs than to adventure games. However, there is one thing me and some other people disagree about; BTTF being a good game (and JP turning out to be a good game). Now, I'm not sure, but it seems to me that BTTF is the first adventure game you've ever played. That's great, but if you browse through the forums you'll see that more veteran players have many complaints about it. The reason of that is that BTTF is surely NOT the first adventure game THEY have played, so they compare the title to other games. Which other games?
When there weren't dual core processors and hell, DDR RAMs; when there were NO 3D games (some of them just tried to give you the illusion of third dimension while being 2D but whatever), one of the most acknowledged genre of gaming was adventure (there were also Nintendo and Sega, Dungeons and Dragons type of board games and FMV action titles for PC I guess, I'm sorry if I'm listing things from totally unrelated gaming eras but I believe they're close enough) and there were many classics titles from that age, such as Maniac Mansion, Sam and Max: Hit the Road or Secret of Monkey Island. Now in the gaming era we're in, most of people are oblivious to those titles, but there ARE people STILL playing such games on their PC for nostalgia. They were brilliant, classic, made for artistic reasons instead of economical reasons. And those games were hard. Item combinations, dialouges, and sometimes getting your timing right; those games were more tough than your brain training puzzles in your sunday newspaper.
And we're back on today. In an era where everyone makes games about blowing up cars or holding pistols, one company, namely Telltale Games, started to make games about such discontinued classics from back in the day, the ones that were about being a pirate or rescuing Giraffe-necked girls from evil country stars. They made sequels to the old games, like Sam and Max (most successful series Telltale has produced, inb4 "Monkey Island is bettuh") or Monkey Island. They got the attention of the fans of old gaming. They got successful, for a really small gaming company that's a real accomplishment.
After that point onwards, they got new licenses that may rocketboost their fame even further. But unfortunately; 1) those licenses were not even remotely related to the ones Telltale offered until now, and 2) they got so many licenses at once the quality of each game they release seems to decrease. And that's where old fans started to complain. In this case we're talking about the second reason. BTTF is a choppily executed game compared to the other brilliant games this genre offers, INCLUDING what Telltale has done before. There aren't many places to go, things to do, brainworking puzzles to solve, and fluid animations to see which helps building the atmosphere. It's not about, like, we don't like adventure games, we're FANS of adventure games for years. You see, don't get offended or anything, but you're seeing the top of the iceberg.