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From: dripton@netcom.com (David Ripton)
Subject: Re: GPL Review Avault
Message-ID: <driptonF1Fy5t.K3D@netcom.com>
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Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 15:39:29 GMT
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In article <36348666.5187122@news.sgi.net>, dafney <dafney@mail.sgi.net> wrote:
>Avault has a review of GPL.  Basically his review was
>
>Waaaaaaaaa	too hard to drive
>Waaaaaaaa	too demanding on machine	
>Waaaaaaa	Too hard to learn to set up cars
>
>Back to micro machines for him

He obviously did the review in a hurry, and just flat-out made stuff
up.  For example:

DORK>Musical Score:  The musical score is spartan at best. I don't 
DORK>really think that it matters much in this type of game, 
DORK>however. I can say that the music does nothing to set the 
DORK>mood of the game nor does it give me any sense of enjoyment 
DORK>just for music's sake. I quickly turned it off. 

Um, there is no music in GPL.

DORK>Do I look like a grease monkey? Well, you obviously don't 
DORK>know for sure, but I can tell you I don't and I have little 
DORK>knowledge of how the different settings on these cars 
DORK>affected their performance. Sierra expects the gamer to
DORK>know how to set up the car for each track in order to obtain 
DORK>the best track times. The manual has nothing in it to show 
DORK>people what each setting does and how to go about 
DORK>setting up a car for a certain track.  Worse than that, 
DORK>there is no middle-of-the-road setting provided for each 
DORK>track. You are on your own in finding out how to set up 
DORK>your car for any given event. 

I guess he was too busy bashing the docs to bother reading them.
"Four Wheel Drift" contains a large and very well-written 
chapter about setting up the cars.  Easily the best setup guide
I've seen in any racing game.  And the default setups aren't bad.

The reviewer seems not to have read Avault's review criteria for 
"intelligence and difficulty."  He gives it 2.5 stars because he's 
too dumb to play it and it's too hard for him.  Avault mentions 
that "This is more a measure for advanced, hardcore gamers who 
like a significant challenge," so he should have given it 5 stars.

Gotta wonder why this guy signed up to review this game, if he
was too busy to read the docs, play with detail settings, etc.

-- 
David Ripton    dripton@netcom.com
spamgard(tm): To email me, put "geek" in your Subject line.
