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[PS3] Flower

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[PS3] Flower

Unread postby icycalm » 18 Nov 2010 23:59

My review is going up tomorrow, but here's the first paragraph to whet your appetite until then:

I wrote:<i>Flower</i> makes for an excellent case-study of the diabolically cunning tactics of the indie bums: Take an old and venerable genre, dumb it down almost beyond recognition, to the point where it'd take <i>a genius</i> to discern what you've done, so that everyone else loses all points of reference and it appears to them as if your game has suddenly materialized out of nowhere, then dress it up in some effeminate theme that panders to the sensibilities of women, fagots and mentally stunted men-children the world over — and voilà: sit back and watch your <i>Metacritic</i> score blow past <i>Civilization</i>'s, <i>GTA III</i>'s and Deus Ex's, and your bank account swell into six-digit territory. Neat trick, isn't it? Someone should write a book about it — it's not even illegal.


It's pretty damn epic, at least as far as game reviews go.

Bonus points if you guess the game's genre before my review goes up.
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Unread postby duckman » 19 Nov 2010 01:11

Flight sim.
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Unread postby icycalm » 19 Nov 2010 18:49

That wasn't so hard, was it?

http://insomnia.ac/reviews/playstation3/flower/

I dare anyone to find me a reviewer who saw that. I am not going to ask for the impossible -- i.e. for a reviewer who not only saw that, but also drew all the conclusions from it -- but simply a reviewer who acknowledged the game's genre in his review.


And while you are looking for this imaginary person, get a load of this as well:

http://thatgamecompany.com/games/flower/

IGN - 2009
"thatgamecompany has created one of the most elegantly crafted gaming experiences of all time..." - IGN

Kotaku - 2009
"...the most breath-taking moment I've yet to experience on the PS3." - Kotaku

MSNBC - 2009
"...as artful and artfully implemented a game as I’ve ever seen. Its dazzling graphics drop you into the middle of a magical-yet-familiar place that comes alive with music as you swoop through it. And the controls are as intuitive as they come." - MSNBC

Playboy - 2008
"If that's not trippy enough for you, in Flower you play the wind inside a tulip's dream. Seriously. In one of the few successful uses of the PS3's motion-sensitive controller, you push a cloud of petals in gorgeous swirling patterns through a verdant, dreamlike landscape. It may look girly, it may look weird but, trust me, playing is believing." - Playboy

GameSpot - 2008
"Although it has a simple premise, Flower has technical and artistic prowess. The PlayStation 3's Cell processor is put to work rendering 200,000 individual blades of grass, and combined onscreen they move in a highly convincing manner." - GameSpot


Flower has "ARTISTIC PROWESS". Thank God for that. Pilotwings lacked this "ARTISTIC PROWESS" thing, but thanks to the brilliant efforts of the children on the TIGSource forums, we now have at least a few games with "ARTISTIC PROWESS" in them. Hooray for "ARTISTIC PROWESS"!
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Unread postby chb » 20 Nov 2010 00:26

This guy came close in his review:

http://ps3.nowgamer.com/reviews/ps3-network/7149/flower

Each flower you pass through activates a musical note, too, adding a rhythm-action facet to a game that is essentially a Sixaxis flight simulator.


However, he still listed it as a puzzle game. Maybe looking for the next flower to pick up is already a puzzle to him.
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Unread postby icycalm » 20 Nov 2010 23:58

A "rhythm-action facet" lol. Can none of these clowns tell the difference between aesthetics and mechanics? Is every game with sound effects now supposed to be a "rhythm-action" game for christsake? I guess Rez was probably the game that started this particular inanity.
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