DmC “Is a reflection of our times”: Ninja Theory explains the game’s satire

@50 It’s one thing to have an opinion, it’s another to say that someone else is wrong about a game that you’ve never actually played yourself.

I’ve judged plenty of games on an equally halfcocked basis. I’m not buying Torchlight 2 because the demo sucked and the beta sucked, but then I feel like I’m being pretty clear about that basis being precious few hours spent with the game, and I’m not saying the game isn’t perfectly fun to someone else.

I also think the guy in this story is totally uncredible, and merely saying whatever PR told him to say, just like everybody else in his position.

It’s funny how when you listen to developers unscripted, they’re often the harshest critics of their own games. This isn’t a guy talking about his game, this is a guy trying to sell his game, and it’s naive to think otherwise.

Steam tells me I’ve played 30 minutes of my copy of Devil May Cry 4 that I bought on a whim during one of the sales.

It’s really one of the most braindead games I have ever wasted my time on, and I don’t see why anyone else would do it. I also don’t see why anyone would feel it was worth all this attention. But that’s just my opinion based on 30 minutes with the game, it’s not like I have a great argument there.

Whether DMC is worth a fuck has never been my angle though. I just think there’s a lot of bullshit flying around that has nothing to do with the game itself, and I do like to draw attention to bullshit whenever I see it.

That’s fair enough but it goes both ways. You can’t blame people for not taking a liking to what you found perfectly likeable and call them deprived-in their mommy’s basement-beard necks who has some growing the fuck up to do. It’s equally bullshit.

@52 Did Brenna do that? If you look at the article, she seemed to be addressing:

“… vocal minorities keen to espouse their insanity and ignorance”

I also thought it was well and truly clear that she wasn’t being entirely serious, once she went for the size of their dicks.

If you really see that as a reason to fly up and curse her name, then isn’t it safe to deduce that some sort of nerve has been struck?

Between the people judging a game they’ve barely touched, and mostly just watched on YouTube, and the guys who readily accuse VG247 staff of taking a bribe simply for posting a trailer (as if any publisher would consider that money on the dollar) isn’t it safe to say that some people were indeed guilty as charged?

There’s nothing insane or ignorant about not liking a game that you’ve actually played, and there’s nothing wrong with telling people why that is. That’s perfectly normal. I don’t see why people who conduct themselves so rationally would ever feel targeted by Brennas article.

Beyond that I don’t see why it’s somehow a slap in the face. I mean, do you see yourself in those words?

You’re actually playing the game, and you’re capable of critisizing it on a perfectly rational basis. Unless you’re sending death threats from your moms basement and crying about your small penis all day long, how is that possibly aimed at you?

i was on the hate wagon for this game all the way from it’s announcement up until its release. I didn’t understand why anybody had any interest in it. Then i came home and my loving wife had a new copy waiting for me. Now, i said to her “Thanks love but i think we should take it back, im not really interested in this game.” Seeing her face sadden as she really wanted me to be happy for surprising me because she watched me play DMC 1-4 all over again the past few months, made me reconsider and tell her “Well, until now! JK pop it in and lets give ‘er a test drive.”

I COULD NOT PUT THE GAME DOWN AFTER THAT!!!!

It was so much fun. I had a blast. Sure, the dialogue wasn’t brilliantly written BUT the action was awesome! the gameplay was intense from start to finish and there is so much to do. I also thoroughly enjoyed the story, really. It played on whats happening in society as we speak. Yes, it did so in a satirical manner but either way, i dug it.

Definitely a good game. I think its Ninja Theory’s best work yet. I enjoyed Heavenly Sword and thought that Enslaved was so-so but yeah, this game rocked.

@54: While I’m disappointed that you don’t see why DmC is a bad thing despite any quality it may have if taken as its own product separate from Devil May Cry, I do have to say that I can respect your decision to play it in this case. It would be kind of jerkish to not play it or at least give it a try when your wife got it for you because she looked forward to making you happy.

@#49 Now concerning “demo’s”
Its not my fault a game developer chooses a weak ass “demo” to show me. If I go to the car lot, they aren’t going to show me a piece of crap car, and promise me that the car I buy will be a thousand times better.
Basically what you’re saying, “Is I have to OWN the car before I am “qualified” to have an opinion about it.” Is it not?
I’ve been gaming a long, long time, and believe me I can formulate my own opinion on it by the demo alone.
Can’t I see the graphics? Can’t I see the animations? Can’t I get a feel for the gameplay, and an idea of how loose, or tight the controls might be?
So all the demo’s I can down load on X box live, or PSN are not there for you to have a demonstration of the game, to which you can formulate an opinion. Nope! According to your logic I have to own the game and play it forwards and backwards before I can have a “valid” opinion in your eyes?

(Watch out with your opinion here fellas, now they are telling you how you can have one, and not have one.)

@DSB As I said before my issue was more with how she said what she said rather than her whole point. I even acknowledged that there were some truth in her article, my comment is I think in the first 50′s and so many people can’t be all just wrong in taking the whole article the wrong way. My excuse can be that I’m not as good as I think I am in English but there were many others who have expressed similar understandings.

It’s quite simple read the entire rage face part to the last. Her target is everyone who didn’t take a liking to the reboot. Not just the vocal minority, striking a nerve you say? “You’ve lost it gamers. I’m ashamed to be sharing an arbitrary demographic grouping with such raving imbeciles.” I didn’t like it either but I never went on every forum board and comment section that I could get my hands on ranting about it.

Anyway, this whole DmC shit has gone on for far too long, and outlived its importance, dwelling more on the subject won’t make you see my point, even though I already acknowledged yours in the first comment I made on the subject.

@56 If you’re gonna tell me how the new Ford drives, I’d prefer it if you had something to base that on, beyond having sat in one for a while, and looked at it on YouTube, yeah.

You’re judging Die Hard as a movie when you haven’t even gotten past the christmas party.

It’s just not very bright, and while you’re entitled to your opinion – however premature it might be – you still don’t get to be taken seriously if that’s all you got.

Again, I’m going to go with the guy who actually has something to base it on, rather than the guy who claims to be a videogame genius with psychic powers.

@57 I gotta say I read it a bit differently.

When she says “gamers” (and those are actually her quotes) I still see her referring to the group she singled out earlier.

I don’t agree with her last paragraph, though. I think it’s legitimate to have certain expectations going into a franchise, and I think it’s obvious that publishers do take a lot of liberties using old IPs to sell entirely new games, and they can be held accountable for that.

But is this really the worst example of that happening? To me it looks like a pretty honest attempt to revitalize the series, regardless of whether it’s good or bad.

@#58 I ONLY buy FORD!!! (=

Everyone still defending Brenna’s article I see. Hilarious when it almost certain she knew exactly what it was intended to achieve (hits wise), and people are still arguing about its journalistic ‘merit’…

I don’t know what’s worse. The shitty, mildly provocative article on a generally good website or the legions of people trying to make it into something even the author didn’t intend it to be.

On and off topic, people still arguing about this shitty game and I can’t find a single person online in the soon to be cult classic ‘Anarchy Reigns’… Sad state of affairs in gamer land…

So what you’re really saying is that you know exactly what was in her head at the time.

I can’t really compete with that. Apparently we have a mind reader and a psychic videogame reviewer in our midst. Slap on some spandex and you’d make the two least impressive superheroes in history.

Its a sad time when something with less wit, intelligence and humour than the Slurm episode of Futurama is held up as satire.

Video games then for intelligent adults who do not read, or watch TV or listen to music or follow cinema. Or go outside.

YEAH VIDEO GAMES.

Also say if I read the entire script of a movie could I pass judgement on that?

What about if I hear all the voice acting from cartoon, could I say conclusively if I disliked them?

Would that effect my choice to purchase or not. Everything that I have taken in about DmC has been nothing but poor quality in my eyes, the story is both lazy and hilariously po-faced in places, the visuals are horrible, the combat decisions from both a style and pad position are confusing etc etc

Is that enough for me to call it a bad game and expect to be taken part way seriously? From a stranger perhaps not, but if my friend told me that I would steer well clear of whatever it happened to be that he was discussing. I would’nt go “We’ll have you played the full game? FUCKING HAVE YOU? CUNT.”

Perhaps you should.

It would be worth it just to see the reaction.

I thought Hitman Absolution looked terrible from more or less its first reveal. Having actually played the full game, shockingly its terrible. My opinion now holds more weight than before because I wasted 40 quid. I had people in the know, intelligent people of the right royal games media telling me it was good. Of course I had to completely go against my initial reaction. I mean how could they be wrong? Mass Effect 3 was a classic right? Right?

@#65absolutezero Dude, I wish I could give you a “thumbs up” on your comments. lol… good stuff!

@61

Of course I don’t know exactly what she was thinking.

But by the quality and direction of the article it isn’t exactly hard to work out.

If she wanted to turn it into something with slightly more credence, why not go with;

Should gamers feel entitled?

Maybe an article summing up some of the pros and cons surrounding gamers attitude towards changes in franchises? Would have added more weight and integrity to the piece.

Rather than a shameless cash in and hatchet job on a certain stereotype with zero focus on the main problems with a franchise change.

At worst she is misguided.

At best she was trolling.

I think it’s the latter as her other articles can be well written. It’s purely weighing up averages which is all I can do given the evidence of her previous work. She took this job remember, you do put yourself on a podium for better or worse, it’s part of the bit.

What’s worse, is people blindly making it into something it’s clearly not. It wasn’t deep, it wasn’t thought provoking, it wasn’t clever. It was a trashy article at best and the defence of it truely shows that certain people would buy a lump of shit if you told them it was gold.

@absolutezero Lulz

That was really killing me when Mass Effect 3 came out, because I was pretty confident that I would’ve hated it every bit as much as I did Mass Effect 2. But since I didn’t play it, I couldn’t exactly argue with a bunch of people who had.

Doing so would’ve made me look pretty dumb, I think.

@67 No doubt, and I don’t think Brenna gives half a fuck what anyone thinks about it either way.

It was opinion, not fact. You can agree or disagree, that’s up to you.

Personally I thought it was great, but what really clinched it was definitely the reaction.

If people hadn’t blown their lid, then maybe you could make the argument that Brenna didn’t have some kind of a point.