TotalBiscuit explains AVWW in one sentence.

[Hyfrydle]

It's already back in the top ten on Steam!!!

[zebramatt]

Reading this youtube comment made me explode out of laughing 

"The music makes me want to break things."

Music is really great!

Maybe that's a compliment? 

[PVega8]

Haha, somehow I doubt that. But, like we've said, it's not for everyone, and YouTube for some reason gives people an open canvas to complain about things in the most petty ways. I find it hilarious when people say things like "it makes me want to break something" because... let's be honest... is there really any music that would entice a normal human being to start breaking furniture? It's pretty ridiculous. I'm moved by music daily, and I've never felt the urge to break my love seat hahaha!

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Haha, somehow I doubt that. But, like we've said, it's not for everyone, and YouTube for some reason gives people an open canvas to complain about things in the most petty ways. I find it hilarious when people say things like "it makes me want to break something" because... let's be honest... is there really any music that would entice a normal human being to start breaking furniture? It's pretty ridiculous. I'm moved by music daily, and I've never felt the urge to break my love seat hahaha!

I think people are more likely to break their seats by dancing in them than actually trying to break them because of music

King

[Coppermantis]

"Is your character randomly generated as well? Is it the same guy every time? Do you customie it? I can't help but notice that your guy is black despite? being from the Ice Age. Don't know how that works..."

This is my favorite comment.



Seriously though, yeah, Youtube comments are full of idiots that no one should take seriously. Doesn't mean that there aren't  certain people whose comments have made me want to slap them though. Curious that AVWW got amazing critic reviews and yet all the user reviews seem to be negative.

[x4000]

"I can't help but notice that your guy is black despite? being from the Ice Age. Don't know how that works..."

This is my favorite comment.

Oh, my.  That certainly does take the cake, yeah.

[nanostrike]

Like most TB videos, while I tend to agree with a lot that he says...

He seems absolutely terrible at the game and tends to often blame them games for him being ungodly bad at it.  Look at his WTF is The Walking Dead he uploaded today.  He turns off the UI then...complains that he has no UI.  *HEADDESK*

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Like most TB videos, while I tend to agree with a lot that he says...

He seems absolutely terrible at the game and tends to often blame them games for him being ungodly bad at it.  Look at his WTF is The Walking Dead he uploaded today.  He turns off the UI then...complains that he has no UI.  *HEADDESK*

Well, no, he complained that the UI choices were somewhat poorly done for the UI minimal option in that game. I will agree, having a button in the mid-center of the window seems like a confusing UI choice for the "minimalist" UI option when you have a giant freaking window right there, its just odd. You also have to remember, his videos are first impressions. I don't believe he reads the manuals in depth on games so its literally what do you get when you play this game for 15-30mins. And that comes with all the good and confusing parts about it. Not defending him, he certainly doesn't need it .

King

[BobTheJanitor]

Like most TB videos, while I tend to agree with a lot that he says...

He seems absolutely terrible at the game and tends to often blame them games for him being ungodly bad at it.  Look at his WTF is The Walking Dead he uploaded today.  He turns off the UI then...complains that he has no UI.  *HEADDESK*

He had a point though. There has to be a happy medium between flashing arrows saying CLICK HERE TO PLAY GAME and playing hunt the pixel. I mean unlocking those handcuffs was just silly. Click the chain. Click the cuff. No wait click the chain again. Clicking anywhere outside the designated dot does nothing at all. I wish he would have switched on the other mode just for the sake of comparison. (I'll surely be buying Walking Dead either way, but I'm going to wait for the sale. Those episodic games from Telltale are great, but they do probably lose out on money since I know for certain that once the entire game is out, there will be a sale. Anyway, tangent.)

That said, he is admittedly pretty bad at some types of games. And he's the first to point this out. He's always quite fair, though. When a game is something that he doesn't like because it's not his type of game, I find that he trips over himself explaining that everything about it seems good for people who like that sort of game, he just personally can't stand it. I've bought some games based off of his sort of backhanded recommendations in the past.

[Mánagarmr]

That's the nature of Youtube comments for you. When over half a million people post, you have 400 000 trolls that are falling over eachother to make the funniest comment to get "top comment" and this is usually done by being a complete and utter jackass in every way possible.

Also, with Internet, you usually don't think before posting. You jump on initial reaction, which is more often than not, daft.

[TotalBiscuit]

Like most TB videos, while I tend to agree with a lot that he says...

He seems absolutely terrible at the game and tends to often blame them games for him being ungodly bad at it.  Look at his WTF is The Walking Dead he uploaded today.  He turns off the UI then...complains that he has no UI.  *HEADDESK*

I'd love an actual example of where I've blamed a game for my own ineptitude because I go out of my way NOT to do that. Your example with Walking Dead is particularly poor since you don't seem to have actually understood the criticism. The criticism is that the two choices are two extremes and there is no reasonable medium. On the one hand, UI on holds your hand too much and tells you too much about the decisions you're making. On the other hand, UI off doesn't work well because the interaction points don't actually relate properly to the action you're taking so they're not remotely intuitive. You don't unlock handcuffs by poking the chain in the centre with your key, you unlock them by putting the key in the lock, yet the game seems to think otherwise which makes interacting more of a guessing game than anything else because it doesn't make any logical sense.

It seems that some of this analysis is too complex for some people and they completely misinterpret it, which is a shame. Thankfully the developers and such do not and understand where I'm coming from.

[zebramatt]

Hello Biscuit, old chap! Welcome to the forum. 

[Scorcher24]

Like most TB videos, while I tend to agree with a lot that he says...

He seems absolutely terrible at the game and tends to often blame them games for him being ungodly bad at it.  Look at his WTF is The Walking Dead he uploaded today.  He turns off the UI then...complains that he has no UI.  *HEADDESK*

I'd love an actual example of where I've blamed a game for my own ineptitude because I go out of my way NOT to do that. Your example with Walking Dead is particularly poor since you don't seem to have actually understood the criticism. The criticism is that the two choices are two extremes and there is no reasonable medium. On the one hand, UI on holds your hand too much and tells you too much about the decisions you're making. On the other hand, UI off doesn't work well because the interaction points don't actually relate properly to the action you're taking so they're not remotely intuitive. You don't unlock handcuffs by poking the chain in the centre with your key, you unlock them by putting the key in the lock, yet the game seems to think otherwise which makes interacting more of a guessing game than anything else because it doesn't make any logical sense.

It seems that some of this analysis is too complex for some people and they completely misinterpret it, which is a shame. Thankfully the developers and such do not and understand where I'm coming from.

Ohai TB.
I think the majority of your fanbase understands your critics in a WTF and for me personally, it is the best way to determine if I would like a game or not.
Keep it up .
And yes, you are always fair to the games normally.
But, you are more fair to games you like, latest Example Gotham City Imposters where you revisited it after it was patched properly.
You don't do that always. Of course, it is your freedom to do so, but if you give a slating review first, it would be fair and also interesting for most people if you revisit that game after a few patches. Example would be Gettysburg. I am highly interested in that game, but after your review I don't take chances.

[x4000]

Cheers, TotalBiscuit -- thanks for stopping by the forums as well as for taking a look at Valley.

I think there is indeed some inherent risk of doing a "first impressions" piece on any game, and you're always going to catch some flak for that.  I think it's also one valuable way to look at things from the point of view of a consumer, and as a developer it's extremely valuable.  One of the biggest things we got out of our showing at PAX East was hundreds of first impressions -- we had to really keep things moving through in terms of giving each player about 15 minutes to get in, play around, and leave, so we captured a lot of first impressions.  In its own way that was just as valuable as people who had been a part of our beta for 6 months and commented the whole way.  You only get to make a first impression once, after all.

I will say that I think some games lend themselves fairly poorly to that sort of format -- AI War, for instance, which you never did a WTF for (thank you).  Any sort of game where there's 5+ hours of tutorials is pretty damn hard to review in general.  With Valley we really tried to hit something more in the middle: where players could come in and just explore around and have some fun for a while, and then eventually get to doing the missions and so forth when they felt like it; but which has the depth for those who want to sink their teeth into it in a major way.

It's always a tricky balance, and in our case in particular I felt like your WTF was evenhanded and took a look at the basics of the game while commenting numerous times that there was more.  Even going into things like how the maps work and such was something a lot of folks wouldn't have bothered to do, so I appreciate that.

The comment on wanting a Terraria-like control scheme option is something we've just started hearing in the last couple of days from some players shortly before your video.  Go figure!  Not having played Terraria, I didn't know how they did it.  We're looking at some options for ways to make it so that everyone can play in a mode that is most comfortable for them: I don't think there's any way to please everyone with one control scheme, and we don't try.  Mostly we use the default control scheme that we have because it is pretty powerful in its own right, but it's also the one that most players seem to pick up intuitively right from the start.  So if they can at least be competent, and then later realize they want to tweak this or that, that's better than the alternative I think.  It's always a tricky balancing act when you have lots of people with differing gaming backgrounds that you're trying to make sure all have a smooth transition into a game.

At any rate, I know a handful of indie developers who you've ruffled the feathers of with what they felt like was an unfair WTF, but I'm not among them.  I wasn't over the moon about everything you said, but I also don't think it's the job of anyone claiming to do a review to say exactly what the product-maker wants to hear.  This is turning into a serious wall of text so I'll leave it there, but I did want to say that I appreciate the coverage and the fairmindedness of how you went about it.


P.S. -- In the case of AVWW, I don't think anyone can claim you are inept given how well you kited the shadow bats while narrating.   I've played games while narrating before, and it can be bloody hard to do at the best of times.

[nanostrike]

Like most TB videos, while I tend to agree with a lot that he says...

He seems absolutely terrible at the game and tends to often blame them games for him being ungodly bad at it.  Look at his WTF is The Walking Dead he uploaded today.  He turns off the UI then...complains that he has no UI.  *HEADDESK*

I'd love an actual example of where I've blamed a game for my own ineptitude because I go out of my way NOT to do that. Your example with Walking Dead is particularly poor since you don't seem to have actually understood the criticism. The criticism is that the two choices are two extremes and there is no reasonable medium. On the one hand, UI on holds your hand too much and tells you too much about the decisions you're making. On the other hand, UI off doesn't work well because the interaction points don't actually relate properly to the action you're taking so they're not remotely intuitive. You don't unlock handcuffs by poking the chain in the centre with your key, you unlock them by putting the key in the lock, yet the game seems to think otherwise which makes interacting more of a guessing game than anything else because it doesn't make any logical sense.

It seems that some of this analysis is too complex for some people and they completely misinterpret it, which is a shame. Thankfully the developers and such do not and understand where I'm coming from.

Overly defensive much?  I think you completely mistook my post.

I understood alright.  You turned off the UI before even seeing what the UI looked like, then didn't like it.  Yeah, the icons are a bit off, but if you'd played with the UI on first and seen that, you would've known and been prepared.  As for your own ineptitude, it usually comes up in the form of "I don't know what I'm bloody doing!", where you have no clue what's going on or what you're supposed to do because you read nothing from any documentation that came with the game or ignored/didn't understand a tutorial.  It happens frequently.

I'm not saying the reviews are bad or giving misinformation by any means.  Or unfair at all.  In fact, I was more or less pointing out that the little idiosyncrocies and imperfections crack me up.