Review: Bulletstorm

See generally I adhere to the idea that opinions are opinions and there is no right or wrong. But in the case of Bulletstorm I firmly believe that in order to not enjoy it you have to be a bad person. The amount of conceited pretension you need to possess to look down on it would require you to be someone I don't have any ability to empathize with. Now if you are simply not able to play the game due to an inability to succeed in shooters you have an excuse. But if your disapproval of this game is predicated on the use of "dicktits" than you aren't a fun person to be around and I don't like you.

Sorry, just my side review of people that don't like Bulletstorm.

yakityyakblah wrote:

See generally I adhere to the idea that opinions are opinions and there is no right or wrong. But in the case of Bulletstorm I firmly believe that in order to not enjoy it you have to be a bad person. The amount of conceited pretension you need to possess to look down on it would require you to be someone I don't have any ability to empathize with. Now if you are simply not able to play the game due to an inability to succeed in shooters you have an excuse. But if your disapproval of this game is predicated on the use of "dicktits" than you aren't a fun person to be around and I don't like you.

Sorry, just my side review of people that don't like Bulletstorm.

Uhm, I'm hoping you aren't referring to me. I enjoyed Bulletstorm a lot. I'm going to assume you're targeting the controversy that this has spawned for some stupid reason? I actually saw it on the news the other night, and the local news station was backing up that bullshit that Joe Lieberman's wife (I forget her name) started that if a kid plays this game, they'll turn into a rapist because it says "TOPLESS!" and "GANG-BANG!" it makes me wonder why she didn't bitch at the Chain-sodomy thing from Gears of War 2, that'd still be ridiculous but it'd make more sense.

To make things clear for everybody. If I go on a rant in your thread, it's not always because of you or directed at you. A lot of the time you just sparked something in my brain. This is such a case.

So yeah, not saying anything about you. But there is a contingent of people outside of the "videogames are evil" crowd that look down on Bulletstorm. These are typically the type of people that love "art games" which are generally gameplay wise the bare minimum of what you consider a game, with a bucket of pretension poured on, for instance The Passage. So yeah, I was ranting against them, because they are seemingly incapable of both supporting the expansion of the medium while also enjoying the fun part of the medium.

yakityyakblah wrote:

To make things clear for everybody. If I go on a rant in your thread, it's not always because of you or directed at you. A lot of the time you just sparked something in my brain. This is such a case.

So yeah, not saying anything about you. But there is a contingent of people outside of the "videogames are evil" crowd that look down on Bulletstorm. These are typically the type of people that love "art games" which are generally gameplay wise the bare minimum of what you consider a game, with a bucket of pretension poured on, for instance The Passage. So yeah, I was ranting against them, because they are seemingly incapable of both supporting the expansion of the medium while also enjoying the fun part of the medium.

Honestly - I'm glad that Bulletstorm isn't a piece of high art. I enjoy artistic games - like Silent Hill 2 or Amnesia - but when I play a first person shooter, I want to unwind. It's a genre that doesn't mix well with the artsy fartsy stuff for me, nor the "Realism" or "Seriousness." I don't want them to be over serious. To me the definition of a fun first person shooter is "BLOW SHIT UP!" This is why I'd take Doom over Call of Duty, in Doom I can send a rocket sailing into a hallway crowded with Zombies and enjoy a little bit of catharsis. Call of Duty just feels like a realism mod for Quake 3 that removes everything that made Quake 3 fast and fun. The seriousness kind of drains me too. I forgive Battlefield because it actually has real team-play and gameplay that actually feels complex and rewarding. Call of Duty is just grinding for the next level. In fact - I loved "Duty Calls" - a promotional parody for Bulletstorm that makes fun of most modern shooter cliches.





"USA IS DOMINATE.
I CRY TEARS.
I CRY TEARS."

yakityyakblah wrote:

Sorry, just my side review of people that don't like Bulletstorm.

yeah...
I didn't like it. The humor was so unbelievably stupid and tryhard that it ceased to be funny and was just annoying. I love goofy shooters. Painkiller and the Serious Sam series are some of my favorite FPSs ever but this was nothing but a lame imitation of those experiences IMO.

also good review, but try trimming that wall of text down a bit. It is borderline tl;dr

Interesting you would say that considering People Can Fly is made up of the people who made Painkiller. Also, the dialog is a parody, it's not funny because dicktits is a funny word, it's funny because dicktits is idiotic. It's a refuge in audacity kind of thing. Just like Spinal Tap isn't funny because going to eleven or have a totally black album cover is cool, it's because it's ridiculous. The game constantly makes fun of itself and at it's core it's just a fun game.

yakityyakblah wrote:

Interesting you would say that considering People Can Fly is made up of the people who made Painkiller. Also, the dialog is a parody, it's not funny because dicktits is a funny word, it's funny because dicktits is idiotic. It's a refuge in audacity kind of thing. Just like Spinal Tap isn't funny because going to eleven or have a totally black album cover is cool, it's because it's ridiculous. The game constantly makes fun of itself and at it's core it's just a fun game.

NOPE
I think you forget what forum this is... I'm pretty sure everyone here understands the concept.
This is the kind of humor that is constantly saying "LOL look at us we said fuck AGAIN AREN'T WE FUCKING HILARIOUS" or "WE are SOOOOOO META. Isn't it HILARIOUS HOW META WE ARE. It's supposed to be terrible that makes it IRONIC GEEZ."

It's not funny when it's trying this hard. I know People Can Fly made the game but it was a joint production between them and EPIC, which I have a feeling is the root of the problem. The whole game screams Gears of War more than Painkiller in terms of writing and style.

I think the difference is more on the players part than the developers. I don't find the brotastic trappings of Gears of War to be intelligent, but I do have an affection for it, in the same way I like Commando. If you don't like those trappings having them turned up to 11 would irritate you, but if you like them because they're ridiculous Bulletstorm makes it all even more ridiculous.

I do understand what site I'm on, and it only confuses me more that I'd find people that don't embrace a game like this on here. Do I want all games to be like this? Fuck no, but I love that this game exists and I love that there is a shooter willing to revel in it's own stupidity. Games are supposed to be an escape, and sometimes I want to escape from thinking. I want to get myself to a state where a four barreled shotgun that rips a person's skin clean off is the coolest thing in the world. Sometimes it's fun to remember what it's like to be 12 years old and have a game that re enacts the shit you doodled on your binder.

And that's why I can't empathize with people that hate this game. I can't understand the sad existence where you take yourself so seriously that you can't like something not despite being stupid, but because of being stupid. We all need guilty pleasures.