Death Smiles: Countdown to North America Invasion

[PC Engine Fan X!]

It's really strange how the people in this forum claim have not time to play and do any thing decent in one game but find time to write useless stuff.

B/c you can write on forums at work, but it's hard to play your console/super gun w/o getting busted.

Quick, hide the supergun and PCB. Oh shit, the boss is here. Ooops, busted big time. Is it time to get fired or is it just another stern lecture/warning this time around? Is the boss' bulging vein on the shiny forehead going to pop with all those hot flames spewing from the mouth? Just might have to convince the boss that it was on employee break time/lunch time hour -- yeah, that should do the trick to getting out of this jam. It's gotta work this time around -- either that or muck around with the company's CCTV system and erase that damned video footage evidence anyways. Hmmm...what's it gonna be?

You have three options to choose from:

1.) Play kissy-kiss with the boss and get him/her to cool down them flames/temper with a chill pill. Treat the boss out for some drinks after work to butter 'em up and let the supergun gaming incident slide by.

2.) Commit sabotage and try to save one's ass in the process deleting the damning videotape evidence. You're royally fucked big time if said company uses an outside service to save videotaped footage offsite as a backup to protect themselves. An adventure into itself right there with added riskyness factor of getting into more trouble than originally anticipated...who knows the outcome of what'll happen if this second option is implemented?

3.) Just say the ol' magic phrase "Take this job and shove it up your ass" to the boss and walk off. Works wonders in a very heated/stressed out enviroment, especially, if you work for a boss that's one of those infamous "bosses from hell" types.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[emphatic]

1.) Play kissy-kiss...

You had me at "kissy-kiss" ^_~

[meancode]

The Japanese version of Death Smiles has been updated to 1500, adding the new MBL 1.1 achievements.

I've yet to boot mine up, but I see people on Mygamercard.net already have some of the new achievements so I'm assuming they're working correctly.

Guess it is time I should boot up my J-360 then.

[Warp_Rattler]

You have three options to choose from:

You forgot the fourth option, the one guaranteed to save your ass:

Just hand your boss the controller and ask if he wants to play.

[MachineAres 1CC]

The Japanese version of Death Smiles has been updated to 1500, adding the new MBL 1.1 achievements.

I've yet to boot mine up, but I see people on Mygamercard.net already have some of the new achievements so I'm assuming they're working correctly.

Guess it is time I should boot up my J-360 then.

They are showing up on the servers, but since I earned all of them while it was fucked up, they don't count! I booted up the game and even played a round of MBL 1.1 and nothing registers, yet when I click on my profile, they all are still showing as unlocked, but they still don't count towards my Deathsmiles total or my Gamerscore total and don't show up on Xbox.com either. In other words, they didn't really fix the problem. CAVE will still have to release a patch to get it to register for people who already did it.

I was going to try to unlock another achievement after those to see if that would force it through so it recognizes that I have them, but I'm only missing the really hard ones. The only ones I can see within reach are get 100m score, etc. but I can't do them on my small TV, since the big one is broken right now.

EDIT: There is one way around this. If you recover your gamertag from xbox live, it will clear out all the MBL 1.1 achievements and you have to get them all again.

[brentsg]

For what it's worth, the game got an 8/10 in the Official Xbox Magazine this month.

[MachineAres 1CC]

For what it's worth, the game got an 8/10 in the Official Xbox Magazine this month.

A lot of people are very skeptical of OXM's reviews, especially of 360 exclusive games, so I don't know that it'll matter a whole lot, but it'll probably help the Metacritic score, which will probably be fairly low.

[evil_ash_xero]

Well, on Game Rankings it already has an 8 from Edge, and a 10 from Honest Gamers. So, that's good.

[njiska]

Well, on Game Rankings it already has an 8 from Edge, and a 10 from Honest Gamers. So, that's good.

No shit? Well, things are looking up.

[TaygetaVendetta]

Well, on Game Rankings it already has an 8 from Edge, and a 10 from Honest Gamers. So, that's good.

!?

If Gamespot and IGN's (the largest/most read game sites) scores are anywhere near as generous I will be truly blown away. I honestly didn't even see the smaller sites/publications like Honest Gamers rating it that high, though, so things are off to a good start.

Also any ETA on when that interview with Aksys is supposed to go up? I remember yall saying you were going to talk with them on the 22nd I believe? I'm looking forward to it.

[njiska]

Also any ETA on when that interview with Aksys is supposed to go up? I remember yall saying you were going to talk with them on the 22nd I believe? I'm looking forward to it.

I haven't heard a confirmation from Cherie yet, but it should still be on for the 22nd at 9:30pm EDT. It will be live and we'll post a link before it airs.

[Rob]

Well, on Game Rankings it already has an 8 from Edge, and a 10 from Honest Gamers. So, that's good.

The HG review is written by someone who is registered to this forum.

[mannerbot]

Well that doesn't sound very honest.

[Malc74]

If Gamespot and IGN's (the largest/most read game sites) scores are anywhere near as generous I will be truly blown away.

If Gamespot and IGN's reviews are anything other than uninformed, badly written bullshit the entire fabric of the universe will be torn to shreds.

[brentsg]

Well that doesn't sound very honest.

What, you'd prefer only uninformed people who don't like the genre do all the review? That makes sense how?

[Elixir]

A website called Honest Gamers has a biased fan of the genre giving a game attached to it a perfect score.

Can somebody please wake me up when people aren't constantly retarded.

[Rob]

Can somebody please wake me up when people aren't constantly retarded.

Read any thread that isn't this one.

[MachineAres 1CC]

Well, "honest" doesn't mean "non-biased." They're two completely different things.

[BulletMagnet]

A website called Honest Gamers has a biased fan of the genre giving a game attached to it a perfect score.

Just because you're into a particular genre doesn't automatically mean you're more likely to give those types of games more leeway than other ones...heck, if this forum is any indication I'd be tempted to think the opposite.

[Zigfried the Trizealot]

A website called Honest Gamers has a biased fan of the genre giving a game attached to it a perfect score.

Can somebody please wake me up when people aren't constantly retarded.

This is the first time I've actually seen someone claim that a non-fan should review a genre -- normally it's the other way around, in reaction to a negative score. Most large sites openly admit that they assign games to genre fans when possible. Small sites often don't have enough writers to do that.

I wrote that HonestGamers review several months ago, based on the Japanese version, before Aksys had even hinted at a US release. I admit that I am biased. So are you. So is Jonathan Ingram. If someone were truly unbiased or completely objective, they would be incapable of producing useful criticism. They would either be a neophyte with no past experience (and thus incapable of placing a game in perspective) or they would be a spineless maggot unwilling to form a firm opinion. "Honesty" doesn't just mean an absence of lies; it also means recognizing the magnificence -- for what other creature in this world can produce such a thing -- of reasoned opinions. If we disregarded all preconceptions and all foreknowledge, then responded purely on "feelings of the moment", we'd be dogs. Cats if you prefer. I don't look to dogs and cats for advice on buying videogames.

Reviewers who claim to be unbiased are devious tricksters. Fight the power!

If anyone here is interested in reading the review and hasn't already, I'd prefer you read the version at my blog. Thanks to the magic of hindsight, that version's better-edited, better organized, and less pandering (it assumes a bit more knowledge and intelligence on the part of readers). I still give the game a well-deserved top rating -- seven Hokuto stars out of seven Hokuto stars!

[emphatic]

If anyone here is interested in reading the review and hasn't already, I'd prefer you read the version at my blog.

Great review, a fun read.

[Jockel]

--

don't do that, it gives me cold icycalm flashbacks

[moozooh]

Can somebody please wake me up when Elixir isn't constantly criticizing things.

[gs68]

Can somebody please wake me up when people aren't constantly retarded.

Welcome to Shmups Forum, where people are either retarded or a dick or a retarded dick. Pick your poison.

[Zigfried the Trizealot]

Great review, a fun read.

Thanks -- glad you liked it!

[Elixir]

A website called Honest Gamers has a biased fan of the genre giving a game attached to it a perfect score.

Just because you're into a particular genre doesn't automatically mean you're more likely to give those types of games more leeway than other ones...heck, if this forum is any indication I'd be tempted to think the opposite.

It generally does. Shmups forum cycle is something like:

Is it CAVE? → no → is it an euroshmup? → yes → is it by a forum member? → yes → good game
Is it CAVE? → no → is it an euroshmup? → yes → is it by a forum member? → no → bad game
Is it CAVE? → no → is it by Treasure? → yes → good game
Is it CAVE? → no → is it by Treasure? → no ↓
Is it CAVE? → no → is it by a Japanese developer? → yes → 8/10
Is it CAVE? → yes → do you like it? → no → don't worry, you'll force yourself to since everyone else is
Is it CAVE? → yes → do you like it? → yes → 10/10
Is it by Treasure? → yes → can you play it effectively? → no → complain about how memorization based they are
Is it by Treasure? → yes → can you play it effectively? → no → do you find Ikaruga "art"? → yes → 10/10
Is it Touhou? → yes → do the story and characters have redeeming qualities? → no → is it CAVE?
Is it Touhou? → yes → do you like it? → yes → too bad, welcome to the shmups forum
Is it Touhou? → yes → do you dislike it? → yes → welcome to the shmups forum
Is it Psikyo? → yes → do you like it? → hi rob
Is it Psikyo? → no → is it CAVE?
Is it Raizing? → yes → are you good at the game? → no → 8/10
Is it Raizing? → yes → are you good at the game? → yes → 10/10

This is the first time I've actually seen someone claim that a non-fan should review a genre -- normally it's the other way around, in reaction to a negative score. Most large sites openly admit that they assign games to genre fans when possible. Small sites often don't have enough writers to do that.

I never said that a non-fan should review them, I said that a fan of the genre giving a game of the genre a perfect score on a website called "Honest Gamers" is a retarded thing to do. Don't worry, most people here can't give a good review without furiously masturbating all over the game for being attached to their favourite genre.

I wrote that HonestGamers review several months ago, based on the Japanese version, before Aksys had even hinted at a US release. I admit that I am biased. So are you.

Pardon? I don't review games, but if I did, Deathsmiles wouldn't be getting 10/10.

[CStarFlare]

Can somebody please wake me up when Elixir isn't constantly criticizing things.

goodnight sweet prince

[Zigfried the Trizealot]

I never said that a non-fan should review them, I said that a fan of the genre giving a game of the genre a perfect score on a website called "Honest Gamers" is a retarded thing to do.

Dick response: I assumed you were (poorly) trying to make a rational point. If I were a lesser man -- ie, one who thought your opinion on retardedness actually mattered -- then I would be sure to dishonestly assign lower scores to super-fun shooters in the future. Just to bolster my street cred, yo.

Sadly, that's what many writers already do. Such videogame "journalists" (thank god I'm not one of those) don’t want to be seen as idiots or troublemakers, so they flee from scorn in pretentious ways since, having already abandoned intellectual honesty, pretension allows them a facade of intelligence in the masses’ eyes: “as a gamer, I enjoyed Deathsmiles more than anything else all year, but Uncharted 2's technical achievements are more meaningful. It deserves Game Of The Year for 2009. Oh, and more of my readers happen to care about Uncharted, so I will receive less flame mail. Fancy that.”

Such spineless writers do not believe, but are instead parroting the thoughts of others -- they are not critics, and they are certainly not honest.

Non-dick response: I don't understand why such a thing would be retarded. It would be helpful to clarify your statement with an explanation of your rationale. Otherwise, the reviewer who enjoyed Deathsmiles (and spread his positive feelings across the internet) might interpret your comment as an insult and respond negatively.

Pick whichever response you prefer. Don't pick both unless you have multiple personalities.

I don't review games, but if I did, Deathsmiles wouldn't be getting 10/10.

So you admit that you are biased!

[CptRansom]

Game gets bad reviews - people throw a fit.

Game gets good reviews - people throw a fit.

Thread title just needs to be changed to Deathsmiles: Bitchfest Thread.

"Holy shit, a game in (at least one of) our favorite genre got a positive review for a fucking change! Let's be sure to whine about it!"

Damn...

Just... damn.

I, for one, enjoyed your review. I think you did a good job with your explanations of appealing to more seasoned players while not alienating people unfamiliar with the genre. It's obvious that you enjoyed the game and your review reflects that.

[Elixir]

I don't understand why such a thing would be retarded. It would be helpful to clarify your statement with an explanation of your rationale. Otherwise, the reviewer who enjoyed Deathsmiles (and spread his positive feelings across the internet) might interpret your comment as an insult and respond negatively.

The issue I'm seeing here is that you haven't played the game enough. You mentioned in your review that Rosa has big breasts yet nothing of how her option works or how the character operates. So why take light humour over core gameplay aspects? Speaking of, Follett isn't slow, either. You ended up linking an image of the hardest attack in the game, Jitterbug's final attack, available in Mega Black Label only, which is DLC. This is meant to entice newcomers how? Moreover, wasn't even available when you wrote that review. The majority of the time you talked about how the stages looked and how easy it was over how the scoring system worked and various modes. This is because you reviewed the game a whole week after the 360 release.

So, a game which you didn't fully understand and therefore was reviewed inaccurately deserves a 10/10 because of the variety of difficulties and stages? No, it's given a 10/10 because you favour the genre and are biased.

I'm not even going to address that "dick response" of yours, no awareness of self-irony really sets the tone for the rest of the response. The reason why you just gave us two responses is because you didn't know how to respond properly, just like how you don't know how to review properly.