FEZ is Boring, Buggy, Badly Designed Bullshit

[system11]

Dropped to the dashboard during the intro as the camera follows the tower downwards - frame drops on something that simple are pitiful.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

and just think it's a completely new game that nothing before is ever like.

Which is pure bullshit, of course. The platforming is poorly implemented, especially when in a New Game + there's a secret cheat code to simply fly around, reducing the time it takes to get from puzzle to puzzle.

If you want a logic puzzle game, there's far more polished options out there (Myst, Zork, Starship Titanic, tons of games in the genre), let alone ones with endings that are at least somewhat satisfying compared to Fez.

[bcass]

Game is amazing.

Absolutely. Spent over 30 hours over 3 days completing it this week. Absolutely essential game which exhibits the kind of depth rarely seen in games these days. Hilarious seeing the usual ignorant hypocrites (most of whom haven't even played it) slating it. Their loss.

[Ed Oscuro]

Hilarious seeing the usual ignorant hypocrites (most of whom haven't even played it) slating it.

Like who? Like the fat guy said, "I know nossing!"

But most of what I've seen seem to be comments from people who have played it.

Glad you like it though! I'd hope that for so many people buying it that at least some of them would get their money's worth.

[Udderdude]

So the PC version is finally out, and it's got the same crash/save corrupt glitches as the console versions.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/224760/di ... 142478461/

Show of hands .. who's surprised? :P

At least they can't hide behind a $40,000 patch cost this time ..

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Pfft, who needs bug fixes for a piece of shit that's so trendy it sells itself? Just release a barebones port (people complaining it has the original bugs? just call it a 'faithful' port!) and watch the money roll in. It's like printing money, and just as ethical!

[Udderdude]

It amazes me people are still willing to buy the thing despite it being utterly lacking in anything but twee indie atmosphere, the developer being a world class douche, and the game having more bugs than a roach motel.

Also, I never had a chance to laugh at this, so I'll do that now!

Absolutely essential game which exhibits the kind of depth rarely seen in games these days.

BWAHAHAHAHA

[Friendly]

It amazes me people are still willing to buy the thing despite it being utterly lacking in anything but twee indie atmosphere, the developer being a world class douche, and the game having more bugs than a roach motel.

Not me. Fish ain't gettin' none of my money, not even for the upcoming Vita port.

[bcass]

Hahaha. More faux outrage ensues. Pathetic.

[Udderdude]

[bcass]

Get over yourselves. It's not very becoming. Actually, it's down right ugly.

[Udderdude]

So how about you explain this amazing depth not seen in games these days? I'm dying to hear it. Seriously, you could change my opinion of the game in one fell stroke if you did that.

[AntiFritz]

Phil also posted this a week or so ago.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/224760/di ... 094418300/

And he expects people to buy his game?

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Remember that flash game that did the whole 3D rotation thing before FEZ did? Or all those puzzle games with brain bustingly insane puzzles (Myst, various Infocom games, etc)? All FEZ did was mash the two together in a bad way, with neither one really being done well and neither one complementing each other (the platforming isn't very engaging or rewarding because there's no real difficulty and the puzzles aren't really that fun or satisfying to solve, some like the clock one are downright badly made). People thought "It's new, it's pixellated, it's indie, it must be good!", and thus it got a lot of recognition.

Shmups are by no means groundbreaking, as really they're all based on the core concepts of shooting stuff and dodging bullets, but good shmups (fuck, good games in general) tend to be polished. That's a word that simply doesn't apply to FEZ.

Phil also posted this a week or so ago.

or his PR abilities, lol (but he probably did it more for drama attention, any attention is good attention, he knew he'd get fanboy sales galore)

[Specineff]

VVVVVV owns that steaming pile of vomit. Maybe it should be renamed "Feces"?

[system11]

Remember that flash game that did the whole 3D rotation thing before FEZ did?

Hah - I didn't know about this game at all. I expect most of the gaming media fawning over Fez didn't either.

[bcass]

So how about you explain this amazing depth not seen in games these days? I'm dying to hear it. Seriously, you could change my opinion of the game in one fell stroke if you did that.

Nah, your mind is already made up, hence the faux outrage. Seriously your loss though, I thought it was one of the most amazing games this gen. I was one of those who was particularly affected by the bugs too - having to reload every hour or so due to increasingly crippling slowdown. Even if the game reset itself every 30 minutes I'd still think it was one of the most amazing games this gen.

[Hagane]

You guys don't get it. It's art. You are just too accustomed to games based on arbitrary stuff like skill and thought; you play this game for the experience.

[ptoing]

Remember that flash game that did the whole 3D rotation thing before FEZ did?

Hah - I didn't know about this game at all. I expect most of the gaming media fawning over Fez didn't either.

That game is from 2011, FEZ was in development and known about well before that. You could still point at stuff like Crush and Super Paper Mario, and that still does not invalidate FEZ in any way. I have to say I am with bcass here, tho I would not say most amazing this gen (have not finished it yet), but certainly it is refreshing. You guys who dismiss it outright seem to not value anything that falls outside of your narrow view of what a game should be. Video games are still a very new medium and it's still more or less prepubescent in a lot of ways, and narrow mindedness like this wont help the gaming industry or community grow up much.

[bcass]

You guys who dismiss it outright seem to not value anything that falls outside of your narrow view of what a game should be. Video games are still a very new medium and it's still more or less prepubescent in a lot of ways, and narrow mindedness like this wont help the gaming industry or community grow up much.

Spot-on. What's even more surprising is seeing such small minded pettiness from a group of shmup fans who are aggressively slating such a niche title. The same people who constantly complain that their favoured genre isn't appreciated more by the mainstream. It's all hilariously hypocritical.

[Udderdude]

certainly it is refreshing.

Seeing as it takes most of it's puzzle cues from Myst, a game which doesn't stand up at all anymore and is about as refreshing as a dog fart these days, I'm wondering where you're getting this from.

You guys who dismiss it outright seem to not value anything that falls outside of your narrow view of what a game should be.

I wouldn't even call it a game. What we're dealing with here is a "Vaguely interactive experience". Where you're not sure if anything you're doing in-game actually makes sense, but you keep playing anyway because you're a sucker for 3d pixel textures and chiptunes.

help the gaming industry or community grow up

And it's going to take a bigger man like Phil "Suck my dick, choke on it" Fish to show us the way.

[ptoing]

I know what you mean with "I would not call it a game", but that does not really matter in my opinion. It's good fun to run around and find all the secrets and such, and the world is well designed, plus 10 euros or dollars is really not a whole lot of money, esp when people who bitch about it spend silly amounts on new PCBs, or LE games imported from Japan.

What it is about is whether people enjoy something. Some people will enjoy stuff like FEZ, some will enjoy shmups, some will enjoy both. No one forces you to play "games", another good example is Kentucky Route Zero, of which only the first episode is out so far, but it is a lovely piece of interactive fiction imo.

A lot of you guys remind me of icycalm, not quite at his level, or anywhere near there, but the feeling of entitlement and self-righteousness is the same: "What I do not enjoy is pointless shit and should not be enjoyed by anyone else."

I am not saying FEZ is super brillant or anything, but it is good fun and charming. And I for one like to play something relaxing every now and then to take a break from more hard core games like Dark Souls or shmups.

[ratikal]

Here's a great review on Fez.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_5Ex7J-3Z8

[bcass]

Over 200,000 sales on XBLA alone. Far more than any Cave title ever sold. Maybe it's not niche enough for the hardcore...

You're right about the levels of entitlement and self-righteousness from the haters though. Funny that the people accusing Fish of it are actually a hundred times worse than him when it comes to small minded insular pettiness.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

You guys don't get it. It's art. ...you play this game for the experience.

oh wow, the experience of playing a bug-riddled mess, how could I possibly not enjoy that?!

I can point to countless other games that are just as much a sensory experience as they are for the gameplay, specifically ones that aren't filled with constant crashing, savefile-breaking, yougottareloadeveryhour bugs.

having to reload every hour or so due to increasingly crippling slowdown. Even if the game reset itself every 30 minutes I'd still think it was one of the most amazing games this gen.

Any game with this sort of bullshit that's promising some sensory/art experience would completely ruin the experience for me, full stop.

plus 10 euros or dollars is really not a whole lot of money

Are you prepared to argue that I should buy a shitty iPhone game and not complain about the quality if it's only one dollar? That's my hard-earned money, money I could simply save to buy a more expensive and more competently made game that's actually been playtested thoroughly. Saying 'it's only 10 dollars!' doesn't really excuse its flaws, especially considering the time Fez has been in development and the amount of hype it has received, it's a little shocking that it was released with such a numerous number of issues.

[Hagane]

You guys who dismiss it outright seem to not value anything that falls outside of your narrow view of what a game should be. Video games are still a very new medium and it's still more or less prepubescent in a lot of ways, and narrow mindedness like this wont help the gaming industry or community grow up much.

What a game should be is narrow. Leaving standards aside is what is hurting this medium so much. I don't want games to end up like art, where talentless people without standards make most of the money with random doodles and the skilled artists with actual knowledge and good craftsmanship are considered inferior.

If somehow these "artgame" guys manage to get more relevance and influence, gaming will end up being much much worse than it already is. Because you can still have good games in the current FMV / narrative hungry video game world, but if somehow this kind of stuff becomes the norm videogames will end up losing the "game" bit forever.

So yeah, as far as I'm concerned they deserve all the hate they get. I hope they never get relevant in the industry and disappear forever.

[bcass]

Any game with this sort of bullshit that's promising some sensory/art experience would completely ruin the experience for me, full stop.

Who said anything about sensory/art experience? The only people hurling those sorts of buzzwords about are the nerd-ragers. Most of whom have either not played the game at all or have only played it for a short time. Generally, I hate pretentious "art games". Fez isn't one of them.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Who said anything about sensory/art experience?

Most of the people I've seen excuse the lack-of-a-challenge platforming or the game-crippling bugs have said it's more about appreciating the art, the gameworld, etc. But what does it matter what genre game it is? Any game with that number of bugs (especially if it's been overhyped to hell) I'd find unenjoyable. Could you imagine playing a shmup port that gradually dropped in framerate and crashed every hour? Fuck that shit, I'd play something else.

[bcass]

Typical comments from people who either haven't played the game or haven't played much of it. There's actually some pretty challenging platforming later in the game, but then again, the game isn't really a platformer. It's definitely more of a puzzle game.

Also, the comparison to bugs in a shmup game is not a good comparison as Fez generally isn't a game requiring much in the way of reflexes or time critical coordination.

[Udderdude]

Over 200,000 sales on XBLA alone.

http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacie ... arity.html

You're right about the levels of entitlement and self-righteousness from the haters though. Funny that the people accusing Fish of it are actually a hundred times worse than him when it comes to small minded insular pettiness.

Entitlement? What the hell are you even talking about? I'm mostly just having a laugh at how crap it is and how many "it's all about the magical expeeeeeeerience" gamers are forking over the cash ..

There's actually some pretty challenging platforming later in the game

Got a link to that? I find it extremely hard to believe ..