I wish I could spend this entire review talking about how South Park: The Stick of Truth is one of the funniest games I’ve ever played.
I wish I could stick to telling you how the story feels like one 10-hour episode of South Park; how the world is a blast to explore; how the combat blends the best parts of Paper Mario with the crude-yet-smart humour that has made South Park so appealing over the years.
But Stick of Truth, out Tuesday for 360, PS3, and PC, is a game marred by bugs and technical issues, and it is impossible to separate the art from the faulty product surrounding it.
During the 10 hours I spent playing Stick of Truth, I ran into dozens of glitches ranging from minor to major. Sometimes my main character would pop in and out of cut-scenes. Sometimes the music would randomly stop playing during boss fights. Once I loaded up an old save file and learned that my newer file — saved manually, not via an auto-save that might have been overwritten — had suddenly disappeared.
Worst of all, playing the game on Xbox 360 led to constant stuttering that made the whole game feel one turbulent aeroplane ride. I wanted to take a Dramamine after playing.
I captured some footage to show you what it’s like. Note the major stutters at 0:04, 0:11, etc., and the minor stutters throughout. That’s not YouTube. It’s the game.
Isolated these stutters aren’t so bad, but when they happen every few seconds, they become unbearable. I couldn’t walk anywhere in Stick of Truth without feeling like I was sitting through an earthquake. That’s on Xbox 360, with my game installed to the hard-drive, and the day-one patch installed. Your experience may vary, and some people might not even run into this stuttering — I asked a few other reviewers, and only one had run into the same problem — but for me this was a critical flaw.
The PC version runs more smoothly, but has its own technical issues. Kotaku‘s Kirk Hamilton couldn’t get through one mid-game cut-scene without his game crashing. He had to skip it. Other PC reviewers have also reported save glitches and other bugs, and one reviewer playing on PS3 told me he couldn’t load out of a boss battle. Playing Stick of Truth felt like walking through a china shop; I was constantly worried that something would break.
Maybe in a few weeks, or months, when the patches are out and the bugs are squashed, we can talk about Stick of Truth for what it is: a wonderful, funny RPG that does some really clever, surprising things. For now, I can’t recommend it.
It’s a real shame, because Obsidian has created something special here. Not only are the writing and voice work are top-notch — as you might expect from anything devised by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone — the game itself is just straight-up satisfying. Everything is very quick — combat, dungeons, cut-scenes — and outside of a few annoying QTEs, nothing ever drags.
Stick of Truth is also full of South Park references ranging from obvious (Kyle’s Mum Is A Big Fat Bitch) to obscure (the Mexican Staring Frog from Southern Sri Lanka). Most of the game’s items, enemies, and locations are taken directly from the show, and the voice acting is all impeccable. There are some great little touches, too — that South Park banjo twang plays whenever you load up a new save file, for example. Every character has a unique reaction to your physical and magical attacks. Cartman’s mum is really into being hit.
In fact, hardcore South Park fans might not enjoy Stick of Truth as much as casual viewers or people who haven’t watched it in a while. More than a few of the game’s scenes and jokes are taken verbatim from the show, and you’ll collect tons and tons of items that all reference episodes from South Park‘s 17-season reign over foul comedy. I imagine it’s not easy to find the perfect balance between innovation and fan-service, but Stick of Truth leans a little too far toward the latter, even if there is something charming about getting to stuff your inventory full of South Park throwbacks like Sea People and Cherokee Hair Tampons. (Also, as you might expect, just about everyone in this town has a copy of Butters’ best-seller, The Poop That Took A Pee.)
I suppose I should note that yes, I am a diehard fan of South Park, and I’ve seen all 247 (!) episodes over the past couple of decades. More casual fans might not notice all the references, or duped scenes, which actually makes Stick of Truth perfect for people who maybe used to like South Park back in the day, or just watch it when it happens to be on.
On the other hand, if you don’t like crude humour, or fart jokes, or seeing… uncomfortable things, this isn’t the game for you. Stick of Truth pushes the boundaries of taste to do some things that I’ve never seen in a video game before, all for the sake of comedy. And it works — several scenes left me sitting in front of my television, alone, giggling, wondering just how the hell they got away with some of this stuff. (Although I guess in some countries they didn’t.)
The basic concept of Stick of Truth is this: you, the New Kid, have just moved to the quiet little mountain town of South Park. Your parents tell you to go find some kids to play with, and you wind up joining a live-action role-playing game conducted by Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Kenny, and all of the other children. You pick a class — Fighter, Mage, Thief, or Jew — and fight to find and protect the Stick of Truth, which is a stick. Events escalate, and eventually you wind up doing all sorts of ridiculous things, none of which I will mention, because they are best experienced when you don’t know what’s coming.
Stick of Truth does an excellent job of playing up on the fact that you are a kid pretending to be in an RPG, and the game is at its finest when it’s mocking video game tropes. Stick of Truth‘s best jokes are about turn-based combat, silent protagonists, and silly quests, all of which are also features in Stick of Truth. One early section on audio-logs — experienced by listening to audio-logs — is particularly hilarious. It’s clear that Trey Parker isn’t just a fan of video games; he’s very aware of the structural narrative limitations that video games create.
You also get to go to Canada, and it is just delightful.
Because you are role-playing, you can only fight enemies in turn-based combat — “just like in medieval times,” as Cartman sagely points out — which is essentially an R-rated version of Paper Mario. Like in those Mario RPGs, you attack and block through micro-games and mini-QTEs, except instead of using shells and hammers, you get to use farts and circumcisions, because this is South Park. The system works well, and it’s almost always hilarious. The balance gets a little out of whack toward the end of Stick of Truth, when it’s easy to kill most enemies with just a couple of big moves, but battles are way too funny for that to matter. (It’s never quite explained why meth-heads and rabid rats participate in the same LARP combat system as children, but hey, that’s just part of the fun.)
And that is what really matters in a game like this, no? Stick of Truth is hilarious, through and through. It’s a little shorter than I was hoping — I beat Stick of Truth in about nine hours — but that’s because there’s no padding. Every scene is just as long as it needs to be. No punchline drags on too much — except when Jimmy’s around — and every ridiculous moment, from Butters’ nebbish whines to the wonderful absurdity that is South Park‘s Canada, is timed perfectly.
The little jokes all add up, too. Stick of Truth‘s item descriptions are always good for a laugh, and there’s an ongoing Facebook feed filled with comments from the people of South Park, not to mention the random little things they’ll all say and spew as you explore the town. One throwaway line that’s just too good not to share: “Wow, a sewer level! Now we’re really playing in a role-playing game.”
In general, wandering through South Park is a ton of fun — which, for me, just made those stuttering issues even more annoying. I wanted to take my time, saunter around the city, and soak in every moment of the game, but it’s tough to really get into a game like Stick of Truth when things don’t run smoothly.
So if you’re thinking about getting this one, especially on consoles, wait it out. Give Obsidian a little while to patch the game, or else you’re rolling the dice in hopes that your experience won’t be as broken as mine. Stick of Truth is a foul, wonderful, hilarious game, and it’s worth your time — just not until it works properly.
Comments
88 responses to “South Park: The Stick Of Truth: The Kotaku Review”
Out of curiosity, did you only play it on the X-Box? I’ve read PC reviews which haven’t mentioned bugs at all, so I’m wondering if it may be console (or even X-Box) limited in terms of glitches and so on?
The game sounds like a blast so I may have to pick it up when I’ve actually got some more $$$
There’s a good chance it’s his Xbox playing up. But why blame the console when it sounds so much better to blame the game itself?
This is Obsidian we’re talking about here. They’ve got a fair bit of form behind them when it comes to bugs, glitches and defective products. Great at ideas, horrible at execution.
They do have a reputation for that, I was just curious as I’ve read a couple of reviews and didn’t see any mention of bugs (not in the manner referred to here at least). That said, some people have no issues overlooking them if the game is enjoyable enough (Fallout New Vegas anyone?) so… yeah?
Woulda been nice if Obsidian just did the “Early Access” thing on Steam and used the community as their QA. For every whiney wanker who goes “you’re making us pay for a buggy, incomplete game!”, there’s a person willing to pay to make sure the game is 100% before launch.
“I want this game to be good so your review doesn’t count. Your Xbox must broken. I’m going to ignore the part of the review where you asked around and found similar issues on other consoles and platforms. I didn’t even read your review because it was too negative. Obsidian have never released a buggy product. This is the best game ever.” – Guy who’s never played the game
Game stuttering is a hardware issue, not software. Frame rate drops on the other hand are software and hardware.
I did read the review from start to finish several times before putting anything down, and all I saw was someone who was expecting something he didn’t get and went out of his way to make the tiniest of flaws (game save issues withstanding, cause that’s majorly screwed up and I agree with the comments on that) and turned it into a complete reason to take a crap on the game as a whole.
You do remember that this game was purchased in partly created form by Obsidian from THQ when THQ closed down. So if there are bugs in this thing, blame the old THQ crew who are more known for game breaking bugs than Obsidian… But yes, Obsidian does send out some buggy games too, but the blame is not 100% on them.
And finally, I’m not going to say this review doesn’t count, but the way it reads is something that should also be taken into account when people think about this game. Jason went out of his way to pan this game because of one problem that he claims “ruined his enjoyment” of the game.
But hey, you’ll just throw up a derogatory comment and get me downvoted to the point where my comments will be moderated again because I dared to stand up and call out a bad review for what it is. Since 90% of the Kotaku comment makers are on the level of 12 year old COD players in mentality anyway.
Ok this is so silly on so many levels. Made much worse by the fact that you’re being critical of other people for being 12 year olds.
Obsidian are a DEVELOPER. THQ were the PUBLISHER.
The game had development issues, Ubisoft ended up taking over the publishing rights and there was some staff turnover, but Obsidian entertainment have been at the helm since day one. There was no ‘old THQ crew’ sabotaging the project.
When they made Fallout: New Vegas Bethesda gave them a (fairly) solid engine and a game template from Fallout 3, added their own patches over time AND then Obsidian had well over a year of their own time to refine the engine.
End result? A game far buggier than Fallout 3.
They’ve got a long record of releasing buggy software, I don’t see why you feel the need to defend them when you haven’t even played the game.
I have played the game, on PC, for about 5 hours. Have not seen a single bug, not one.
Given that I have not played it on XBOX I am of the opinion that this review is unnecessarily harsh.
That’s cool, since you’ve actually played it then I’m happy to listen to your opinion.
To be fair to the reviewer though, he DID have problems (he even recorded them) and he did do his research in contacting other writers who were playing the game on other platforms. He states that he lost his save file on the Xbox and that other reviewers have also had issues while playing the PC version, he states that Kirk couldn’t get through a cutscene without the game crashing.
Unless you either want your review in a month’s time or you think he’s making this stuff up, I think that he’s done a reasonable enough amount of checking to report that right now the game has several technical issues which detract from the experience.
I wouldnt recommend listening to that crash on every single cutscene, yes sure ive had some weird pop in pop out bugs with the cutscenes but ive never crashed a single time while playing this game.
Bethesda? Fairly solid engine? While bugs themselves might be objective measures, our experience of them is wholly subjective and unfortunately we’re never going to get entirely accurate % representations of how many people out of the total who played game X experienced bug Y. Personally I purchased New Vegas close to release and experienced 2 or 3 bugs in my entire playthrough, I didn’t grab FO3 until 3 full years until after the game released and spent more than an hour trying to figure out why the game wouldn’t launch without crashing, then why I couldn’t play without it crashing, then dealing with periodic crashes to desktop every few hours that I just couldn’t fix period. Skyrim was better but nowhere near as solid as my New Vegas experience. Bit tangential but I think it’s a massive stretch to claim the gamebryo engine was anything but an extremely buggy platform. Certainly Obsidian make some less than perfect games, but taking vocal minorities coupled with my personal experience and those of my mates into account I’m hard pressed to believe they’re far an away the worst offender. Review seemed a bit harsh unless you consider it purely within a vaccum, which exactly what you should never do with reviews. 🙂
iv been playing the pc version and iv had a couple of bugs 1 of which was in the tutorial and required a reload of my save
Ah……how? Steam hasnt unlocked it yet and wont activate it. Is it out elsewhere in a different way?
iv got a vpn
*jealoussssssssssssss*
You can have one too, ya know? :p
It’s super easy.
If it’s only the one game you want to try, there are a LOT of free trials out there which will serve you for the time you need. Try CactusVPN, worked real well for me.
I’m about 6hrs in on xbox360 there is only occasional stuttering nothing too bad,
The ps3 version has a horrible game breaking glitch that currently prevents people from passing the elementary school main quest.
PC has audio video problems with x86 Other than that stick of truth is a perfectly highlarious game that all SP fans will love
Btw the mr kim summon will have you crying of laughter!!
I am coming across this now (the ps3 glitch) is there any word on how to overcome it because I have had to reload my game
The Rock, Paper, Shotgun review mentions plenty of issues on the PC version, although it sounds like it’s a bit better.
I’m playing the US steam version now and there have been zero hiccups in about 5 hours of playtime. So far so good, and that’s with me running it on a low spec Macbook Pro hahaha.
Defs worth the money, reminds me a comedic Secret of Mana.
So it’s possible to play South Park The Stick Of Truth on my MacBook with Steam? Or do I have to play it through Windows?
play through windows… I just duel boot with Win8
I’ve played 4 hours on PC and havn’t encountered a single bug. Complete bs about not buying it because of bugs.
A couple of minor issues that he ran into is enough to crap all over the game? Wow, such a butthurt reviewer. And of course he pulls the “it’s too short” excuse. Every other reviewer so far has said 16 hours of gameplay if you do side quests, I have no idea how he got 9 hours unless he kept to main story only and skipped all the cutscenes.
Indeed, Ive even read 16 – 20 if you do side quests, explore etc etc. To me, that’s a bloody good length for a game like this.
I’ve been watching Boogie2988 play this for the last 2-3 hours and I don’t even think he is close to done. It’s been an awesome watch
Butthurt? Constant screen stutter and files deleting are definite issues and would affect consumers decision whether to purchase or not – as it should.
He also said that whilst it was a little shorter than he was hoping, it was still timed perfectly and no padding at all. That paragraph about the length of thr game was extremely positive.
I’ll give you that the game saves issue are major, but screen stuttering is something that is a HARDWARE issue, not software. Anyone with a tiny bit of technical knowledge can tell you that.
I’m still wondering how he got 9 hours though. Every other review is saying 15+ hours of game play. I know he was being positive about how the jokes don’t stick around too long and all that, but 9 hours seems like either he rushed through it or skipped content.
^^^ This bloke accuses people on the Kotaku forum of being 12 and then calls the reviewer “butthurt” because he’s found glitches in the game (and went out of his way to contact others to see if they were also having issues, which they were).
Then he decides that the stuttering issue is a hardware flaw because “Anyone with a tiny bit of technical knowledge can tell you that”, despite the fact that the reviewer checked that at least one of his fellow writers had the exact same issue. It’s also being reported by other Kotaku users who are playing the game.
He also blamed any glitches on poor coding by THQ despite the fact THQ were just the publishing house.
Basically, you’re a complete muppet.
I dunno, 10ish hours is acceptable for a FPS, but not an RPG I think. I’d expect upwards of 30 hours for an RPG.
If you want a “proper RPG” then go play Final Fantasy. This game is a love letter to the fans, there is not one thing in this game play wise that is meant to be taken seriously… Hell, it’s South Park! If you are taking any of this game seriously then you miss the point completely.
This, I originally had this pre ordered, then the BS with all the censoring made me cancel. So I decided to wait see if the US 360 copy is region free or if the asia version is censored too.
Now every review i read is about lists bugs and its short length, I’m glad I waited. I buy single player only games that actually take time complete, I’m sure as hell not paying $65 to import or upwards or $90 locally for a game I will finish in 10-15 odd hours. This is one reason i love rpg’s they are typically long. Which I usually finish MUCH faster anyway, hell whenever a game is quoted by its creators to have a 30-40 hour length I assume 15-20 even when i do every side quest in the game.
At least I find myself in a favourable position this time, now that I know the game isn’t worth touching for months till its 100% fixed not only will I get a uncensored version but I’ll pick it up at 1/3 of launch cost. Plus with PvZ garden warfare tiding me over till Titanfall in a couple weeks I won’t even miss it.
You canceled a pre-order of a fantastic game because 2 mins of content is missing? Your loss. This is on of the best games to come out in years.
Yes because it would seem unlike you I have principles and will not buy a censored product. Hence the reason I said I was waiting to see if the US version was region free (because its not censored), but apparently that was too hard for your limited reading skills to comprehend and so you made a smart ass comment trying to act superior.
>Obsiidian
Well theres your problem.
Has it got any transphobic shit in it? That’s all I want to know. I stopped watching South Park after that. Pity, I quite liked the early seasons.
Unnecessary umbrage detected
I dunno…. I haven’t seen every season in full, but I don’t know that the episodes involving Garrison’s sex change were transphobic as much as they lampooned some very specific attitudes through exaggeration and magnification – which is kind of their M.O. Their brand of dealing with issues is more like holding up a magnifying glass to the most unflattering parts of anything, then running it through a funhouse mirror of varying degrees of absurdism, with a specific eye for stereotypes.
There’s one episode where Garrison complains that if he doesn’t have a womb and can’t have abortions then he’s not actually ‘a real woman’, just, “a freak with mutilated genitals.” He goes back to being male. Is that what you consider transphobic? Maybe if it’s something that you TELL someone they are, but what if it’s coming from them, themselves?
I don’t know about your experience, but what I do know is that the very thought expressed (albeit crassly) by Garrison isa very real fear and insecurity that many folk going through transition struggle with and worry about.
A friend of mine has discussed that very same fear with me at length; a thought which occurred to her and challenged her commitment to her transition. And at the end of the day, she had to face certain ugly facts: though ‘mutilated freak’ is the worst wording possible, there is a horrible, disappointing grain of truth to that thought. The science is limited in this area. There are only so many changes you can make to your body, and if you really look for them, or you desperately require a ‘full’ conversion in every possible measure, you’re going to be disappointed. But you only get one life, and there are things you can’t change, things you can’t do. So you can live your life in denial or some quixotic pursuit of ‘purity’, or you can take charge on the things you can change, and make peace with the things you can’t. (Or at least find the perspective that keeps you happiest and most comfortable, and the dismorphia at bay.) Some people get pretty hung up on setting hard and fast rules for themselves (and everyone else) on at what point you become a ‘true’ man/woman, and sometimes that’s their only barrier to happiness – one they set for themselves.
Just because Garrison confronted that thought and reached a decision on it opposite to other trans folk for reasons contrary to their own philosophy doesn’t diminish their commitment. Challenging popular attitudes and perceptions by making fun of them is… kind of what South Park does. Nothing is sacred. Nothing. If anything, they’re ecumenical in their lambasting. Take the episodes about the war in Iraq. They smash both pro/anti war sides, exaggerating and highlighting the worst each has to offer, in the same episode. No-one comes out smelling of roses. It’s just another angle. One which some folks don’t want to see acknowledged, let alone agreed with. And that’s not healthy.
Unless your objection was to some other episode I didn’t see, in which case yeah, probably a fair call.
…
Anyway, enough preaching for tolerance of an intentionally insensitive and offensive TV show…
To answer your actual question:
I haven’t got to the part in question yet, but you start as a male character and I believe you can actually undergo SRS later in the game. So I have no doubts there will be some triggers in there somewhere if it’s something you’re sensitive about. But I will also say that my trans friend who played the game before I did – the same one I mentioned above – didn’t find it objectionable. But she also enjoys the show. So your mileage will obviously vary.
Thanks.
To reply to the everything else: I’m going to put this behind a spoiler tag because this is just my opinion and it’s inconsequential to what I was asking:
To answer your direct question, “he’s not actually ‘a real woman’” is what trans people get told all the time. It gets used all the time against us, it gets used to deny us fair treatment under the law, it gets used to deny us healthcare, it gets used as an excuse for violence to be committed against us. Is that “challenging popular attitudes and perceptions by making fun of them”, or reinforcing them?
“a freak with mutilated genitals.” Society on the one hand won’t give trans people the respect they deserve unless they expect them to get expensive surgery, and on the other hand, degrade trans people just like this by calling them freaks and calling their postoperative genitals “mutilated”. To answer your point about things not being perfect, having unrealistic expectations, sure, that’s a thing that trans people who are considering surgery have to make. Should it be made by South Park? Should it be made by a counsellor who evaluating a trans person for their surgery letter?
There’s some other comparisons to be made of the Garrison debacle and how they did it, but I don’t really feel like rereading all the shit they did, back then.
South Park “picks on” Jews, but that’s okay, the Holocaust is inconceivable these days and Jews aren’t dying because they’re Jews, Black people, but that’s okay, because even though there’s shitloads of racism these days, at least Black people aren’t being lynched any more, thank goodness. South Park “picks on” gays, but that’s okay, people aren’t getting killed for being gay every day — well, maybe not in Uganda, but at least everyone hates on Uganda for that. South Park “picks on” trans people, but trans people are still dying . Trans people are still being abused in the media, trans people are still being joked about, trans people are still being considered second-class citizens, trans people are still suffering. That’s what I find transphobic.
But I get South Park’s “mission”, in some sense, I really do. I just draw the line at their transphobic shit; they just jumped the shark for me. You can still enjoy it, that’s fine, but for me, that’s the point where I nope out. And I love Obsidian, as a developer, I really do. I just wanted to know whether they stooped to that shitty level that South Park did, and whether my view of Obsidian would tarnish because of it.
That makes sense – that the marginalization is on-going. Fresh, and raw, which makes pretty much anything ‘too soon’ in the eyes of folks suffering to that degree. (Caveat: Obviously not everyone is; certainly not the folks I know. Which explains their good humoured or unaffected perspective.)
Also, having an idea of that confronting thought about reality meeting expectations and its effects before I saw it, I guess I just felt a resonance – though the response was definitely a bit more flippant in Garrison’s case.
But the whole, “Well shit, if I’m not ever actually going to get what I want, why should I even bother?” seems like a really good question, with no right answer. And a lot of folks would say he gave the wrong answer for the wrong reasons. Some folks ask that question, then decide the prep therapy is ‘enough.’
But that’s knowing the depth of the issue beforehand… I imagine that to see it without that context, where it could be taken as a blithe reinforcement of some prejudice? Yeah, I can see that, and how it would be a slap in the face.
Edit: Oh, and I’m playing more tonight, I’ll take the option and see how it’s handled, give you a more informed choice. Maybe they’ve learned some sensitivity since back then. Unless there’s like… a youtube video of it somewhere. Can’t check here.
Harden up buttercup, it’s a game … and a cartoon.
“The PC version runs more smoothly, but has its own technical issues. Kotaku‘s Kirk Hamilton couldn’t get through one mid-game cut-scene without his game crashing. He had to skip it. Other PC reviewers have also reported save glitches and other bugs, and one reviewer playing on PS3 told me he couldn’t load out of a boss battle. Playing Stick of Truth felt like walking through a china shop; I was constantly worried that something would break.”
No, he didn’t. It is stated in the article. Information was gleaned from others (as per the article), but I refuse to accept the “perhaps your xbox is siffering minor cardio problems!!!11!” excuse. It appears to be shit performance cross platform. This is very sad, but I will still buy the game when it works properly.
I tried, but I’m just not noticing the stutters in the linked video. Is it just me and my shitty monitor?
I didn’t notice them either. Maybe a slight frame rate dip? That said, I don’t doubt that there’s some technical issues, given the list of complaints he listed across various platforms.
Watch the edges of the building’s rather than the characters, it’s a lot more noticeable.
Yeah, but if that’s all we’re talking about, I don’t think it’s anywhere near as major an issue as the review makes it out to be.
Although to be fair to the reviewer, I was watching it on my phone on the bus on the way to work. It may be worse watching it on an HDTV in your lounge room.
I just watched it on a big screen and I think it’s one of those things that once you notice it you can’t stop staring at it. The stutter is barely noticeable but is constantly going – making me think that it’s actually a really a low framerate that isn’t noticeable on the characters due to the art style.
yup, add me to the list of people that didn’t notice it. And for the reviewer to call it “major stutters” and for me not to even notice it, it kinda makes me question the validity of his other glitch problems. I’m not saying they’re not there, but I’m doubting the impact it would have.
I couldn’t really see any issues in that video. There was one very slight hitch towards the end, but if there’s more it’s pretty much covered up entirely by the wobbly Southpark walk-cycle.
I could see a few bits stuttering, near the middle of the video and the end, it’s nothing to dramatic but to someone who likes smooth games, they’d get quite annoyed with it. IMHO It wouldn’t bother me as much.
Hey Jason! Hand me that dice, will you?
Congrats Jason, You are the first person to give this game a shit review. Have read nothing but good things about it else where, I expect better from you Kotaku.
In what way do you expect better? He says that he enjoys the content greatly but his experience (and that of others he spoke to) was marred by numerous bugs, and perhaps you should wait to see if they get fixed.
This is exactly the kind of balanced information I want from a review. Allows me to make an actual decision, rather than confirm my hopes. In this case, I’ve decided to wait a few months and hope that it’s all fixed up by the time I buy it.
Damn it man, your logic deserves no place in this tactful and well thought out criticism on the expectations of Kotaku!
Why are you getting so upset?
Gamespot’s review is worse. Sounds like someone gave this review to a high brow intellectual and he was insulted he had to play something so below his station
Whoa… gamespot gave a negative review about something? How long has this been happening?? I thought they were like ign and only gave good reviews, no matter how shitty the game. At least, that’s what you pay for when you get them to review anything.
Obsidian release a buggy game…. Tell me it ain’t fucking so… Who woulda thunk it!
Who gets the blame this time Obsidian?
Even when they are buggy, more often than not their games are bloody awesome. I fail to remember a game released by Obsidian that has let me down.
Alpha protocol
I loved Alpha Protocol…
The conversation & influence system were brilliant.
It had these moments where you could see how great that game could be… and then it would crash, or do something else janky.
Me too, and I never had the game crash (that I remember).
It’s one of only a few games that I finished, and then immediately started a second playthrough. There were so many permutations depending on what order you did things, and who you were friends with that most other games with “choices” lack. I felt like my decisions had much more impact than in something like Mass Effect.
Kotor II. While the game itself was absolutely fantastic, the bugs and the total lack of an actual ending to the game sort of spoils it for me. I was left with a pretty bad taste in my mouth after that.
Sort of like ME3.
i’d download it if the US store let me.
It was fine with me downloading the Lego Movie Game on 360 if I wanted to just now.
Um, no, cos I downloaded the Xbox One version two weeks ago.
So the youtube trailer shows scenes too hardcore for AU and EU audiences?
That’s certainly what the hand-wringers in government would have you believe. Our fragile minds will shatter in the face of uncensored filth, and we will degenerate into a Lord of the Flies society.
“Our fragile minds will shatter in the face of uncensored filth, and we will degenerate into a Lord of the Flies society”.
The Kardashians will see to that, don’t you worry.
Will it be censored on pc on aus steam?
I heard no pc versions are censored?
Australian version is censored on all platforms
The stuttering in that clip didn’t look bad at all, to me. In fact, it looked kinda appropriate for South Park.
is it just me. or has there only been 1 article since this last night? seems odd.
never mind… the top two articles are reposts / stickies from 9pm and 1am… yeah that seems clever.
I would be playing it right now if Steam unlocked it when they said they would, it’s been 5th March ever since you could pre-order it, it even says it’s available now on the steam store.
I watched the TotalBiscuit video, and his thoughts have changed my mind from maybe, to maybe when it’s on sale.
I’m having a great time. PC, uncensored, no bugs yet (8 hours in, doing all side missions), and loving it. Paid for it based on the first 30 minutes, but playing a pirated copy because the anal probe minigame is actually pretty fun.
No stuttering on the PS3 so far…
Loving it. So good!
PC version no glitches, stuttered once literally and it was the tiniest blip so I won’t even count it.
Game is totally freaking awesome. 10/10 for SP fans who get the truck load of references, 9/10 for everyone else.
This game is fucking fantastic! Playing it on PC and have had no issues what so ever.
The only thing that burns me more than the censorship is how Steams store can’t stay online long enough for me to place my pre-order. It keeps going down constantly and won’t process my information before crashing. Not even my friends can get through. Come the hell on Steam, jesus. I coulda just gotten it in a store you know.
Welp, I think I found a game breaking bug in this game… and I have no idea how it happened!
Basically, I can’t progress the story at all because the Earl of Winnipeg won’t start the cutscene for “O Canada.” If there’s a fix to this, I would like to know, because I do not want to start all over again 🙁
And now I can’t even progress through the bloody tutorial fight (countering) in my new game because Cartman will not tell me what to do (even though I already know what to do, but have to wait for Cartman to progress with the tutorial… ugh). I think I’m done with this game until a patch comes out. I can’t handle disappointment after disappointment in a game I was enjoying.
Having the same issue with the earl! Did you find a fix?
Got to play this last night – Digital copy PSN. It is only minor but when you enter a new area there is some slight stuttering if I try to run around. And i stress that is MINOR, this game is BRILLIANT, I feel really sorry for the reviewer and anyone else downloading this to their 360. Such great fun, I am loving the exploration of South Park with all the little references. Think I am going to go for platinum on this.
Make multiple saves, just in case. This game has a few game breaking bugs that will completely stop you from progressing through the story (I’m playing the PS3 version).
Yeah I have only just come across one of these. Was in Canada and couldn’t seem to get an automatic cut scene to start…. Hadn’t had any other issues.