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  #42  
06-18-2019, 09:16 AM
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Michael
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: May 2010
: Birmingham, England
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It's a difficult balance here. Nobody wants to jump to conclusions, but it's perfectly reasonable to form opinions on what we have seen, and to say what we prefer. We know a clip isn't necessarily reflective of the whole experience (though, gameplay effects like visual cues for gamespeak would presumably appear throughout. I hope there is an option to disable them in settings).

Any game will have pros and cons. I'll no doubt enjoy Soulstorm on release regardless, despite some design choices I might personally disagree with. I don't like the double jump, I don't like the visual effects too much, and I'm not sold on the speed/animations. But these things aren't a deal-breaker overall, and might change with further marketing. Abe was a bullet-sponge in NNT until we learnt that Hard Mode would have the classic 1-hit-kills, and that's probably the same with SS. Probably.

For game marketing, even film marketing, things usually gear towards the mainstream. The thinking is that the hardcore fans are on board regardless, so why waste time/resources preaching to the choir. That money is better spent trying to attract new customers and build an audience. And that's not to say that the companies view new customers as more important. It's a strategy, nothing more. The difficulty I expect is not leaving those true fans in the lurch.

As a long time fan, I too want the marketing to be geared to my tastes. Because even though I'm on board, I still have some doubts like have been expressed by others. After seeing more footage, perhaps I'll change my mind on the things I'm not currently keen on. And that's the marketing's job. It's not about someone's opinion being valid or not. I want OWI to convince me that the game will be what I'm looking for. For that, I need (and want) to see more.

Of course, there's a risk of letting one's expectations dictate our opinions. You see it a lot with movie reviews nowadays - people rate the movie according to what they wanted, and not what they actually got. There are elements of SoulStorm so far that I'm not keen on. However, I can't deny that objectively it does look like a very good game.
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