Telefragged Review 86%

[CriPPleR]

http://www.telefragged.com/reviews/jediacademy/

 

Telefragged posted there opinion about JA. Check it out.

 

CriPPleR

[txa1265]

Originally posted by CriPPleR

Telefragged posted there opinion about JA. Check it out.

 

I think that the TeleFragged score is fine, 86% is a great game score. My issue is upon having read the article and some of the particulars.

 

What it made me think of was their review of Elite FOrce II, so I looked it up again, just for reference. The same person reviewed both games, and scored against the same categories. Given that the reviews are only just over two months apart, based on the same engine, in basically the same genre, are both sequels to other Q3-based successful games, and use high-profile sci-fi franchises, it seems fair to do a comparison of scoring.

 

One thing - the reviewer freely references JKII as a comparison point, but never does EF1, except for the title.

 

Technology: EFII - 83%, JA - 74%

================================

If the standard to be applied as as follows:

- 100% is for excellent use of next generation technology (e.g. Doom 3, poss Source)

- 90% is for excellent use of generation bridging technology (e.g. Unreal II, poss Source)

- 80% is for excellent use of current generation technology (e.g. Unreal, Q3)

Then I have no problem with both JA and EFII getting an 80% for this. But the same person talking of 'the venerable Q3 engine' in one review and the engine as 'years old' and 'hope fully the last game using it' in another, and docking JA basically 10 points for no particular reason ... that is not good. Another thing - in the EFII review he talks about the large amount of crashes he had, and in JA he says that because of the age of the engine there shouldn't be crashes.

My Tilt - 75% EFII, 80% JA.

 

Interface: EFII - 90%, JA - 87%

===============================

I think that Interface means things like controls, savegames, load screens. So did the reviewer when he did EFII. However, when doing JA, it became about character customization, gameplay and the like. In terms of the basics, things like saves & controls, I think both games are excellent ... better than most.

My Tilt - 90% EFII, 90% JA.

 

Graphics: EFII - 86%, JA - 79%

==============================

My feeling here is that if you are going to separate 'Technology' from 'Graphics', then grade based on performance against technology. To do an absolute grade is to double-penalize current generation games and double-reward next generation games. Oh wait ... that's what most reviews do I loved the EFII graphics.I also really like JA's graphics. To say JA looks the same as JKII is to admit not having played both on the same machine one after the other. I played some of JKII, from the Yavin Trial on up, before getting Jedi Academy. JA is definitely improved. However, if I had to pick 'what's the best Q3 game in terms of graphics', it would still be EFII.

My Tilt - 92.5% EFII, 90% JA.

 

Single Player: EFII - 87%, JA - 89%

===================================

I can't begin to review JA yet, not having finished, but giving EFII's problematic SP, with mediocre AI and lousy enemies an 87% ... at least it got somewhat better later in the game.

My Tilt - 80% EFII, ?% JA.

 

MultiPlayer: EFII - 84%, JA - 87%

=================================

Again, EFII an 84% for MP? It has DM, Team DM and CTF, and is *SO* much worse than EF1's MP it is just plain sad. JA has DM, Team DM, CTF, Duel, Power Duel and Siege. The maps in EFII were lousy, the gameplay mediocre, and so on.

My Tilt - 60% EFII, ?% JA.

 

Sound and Music: EFII - 90%, JA - 87%

=====================================

Both of these games made access of the excellent sound and music libraries they have available. Also, they both have some excellent voice acting. Each has minor issues. First, JA has a 'design choice' language issue (I'll not go further for fear of spoilage), but EFII had a distracting issue of the abrupt switch between 'explore' and 'battle' music. I still think that EF2's overall sound is very good. Again, not having played through JA I can't review it yet.

My Tilt - 90% EFII, ?% JA.

 

Overall: EFII - 86%, JA - 86%

=============================

It seems clear that the reviewer really wanted to score EFII higher than JA, but because of the content of the game was not able to do so. I liked EFII, it was a good solid FPS, better than Unreal II (which got better scores due to hype and the 'bright shiny engine' factor.

My Tilt - 80% EFII, ?% JA.

 

Summary:

I actually like the review format this person uses, it tends towards being detail oriented. However, the JA review was not very organized, as items that belonged in one section kept spilling to another.

 

Just my thoughts ...

 

Mike

 

Quote to remember when (HL2, Doom3, whatever) comes out:

- GameSpy, referring to many of their '25 most overrated': "The game enjoyed 9s and 10s around the world ... leaving us ... to marvel at the effect that pretty graphics and massive pre-release hype can have on the minds of gamers ... ourselves included."