Episode 3 of Sony’s The Tester has aired, and it’s time for a new review.
This week, we start with the gamers… actually playing a game! Whooo-hoo! Yeah, alright, now we… Oh… it’s only for a split second like last week, so it doesn’t count. Sorry for getting your hopes up that the videogame reality show would have videogames. My bad.
Star gets the message on their PS3, and it’s all about football (the crazy american version, not the one where you actually use your foot to kick a real ball). But we knew that already, since we have previews. Doc brags about how he used to played football, yada yada. They get jerseys, and the teams are:
Doc - Luge - Star - Nauseous
Amped - Big D - Famegirl - Cyrus
Doc and Amped are chosen as the ones manning the catapults. Yes, catapults. The game is all about throwing footballs over a field with a catapult (it’s actually just a stringy thingy, but “catapult” sound cooler so let’s pretend together) and catching them on firemen-style nets. Imagine a football has jumped from a building, and three firemen try to catch it before a female football becomes widowed. That’s the game, basically.
Anyway, Doc and Amped? When you see the choices you kinda wonder if it was a good idea to choose a girl to pull a huge elastic over and over. If it was me, i would’ve put the slowest people on the catapult and got the faster people to catch the balls. But… then you watch the show and realize Amped absolutelly demolishes Doc when it comes to throwing balls through the air. Oh well, guess i was wrong.
Catching those balls without a trial run seems fairly troublesome and clunky, by the way. People just don’t seem to work well together when you have six legs around a round net. Big D gets tired as hell and falls twice. He is running backwards, so we gotta cut him a slack. Also, he seems to be one of the most level-headed in the house, which should count for something. Doc is the most outspoken and all, but sometimes you wonder if he didn’t bang his head too much during football practice back in the day. He is entertaining in small doses, though. Nauseous still had no face time outside of going nuts over David Jaffe. FameGirl is starting to get on my nerves, as she seems to be in perpetual “OMG” mode.
Amped is worried she’s going to be bottom three, but frankly, she’s got nothing to worry about. She was solid. Famegirl and Big D are called by the judges, and Famegirl starts crying. Really crying, like “it-won’t-stop” crying. The kind that everyone goes home, comes back, eats a sandwich and she’s still there. Or maybe it was the editing, who knows. But anyway, here i was worrying that this would get the judges’ sympathy and D would go home.
Thankfully, it didn’t happen. Big D stays and Famegirl goes home. You know, I’m thinking Amped will win this thing. Not because she’s the best or anything, but because she’s the one member of the cast that isn’t busy with an ARG (Starslay3r - she’s being hunted for the movie Repo Men), doing youtube music videos (Luge) or posting on websites all over. Yeah, that’s my reasoning. Skill-wise, we don’t really know who’s actually good, as no gaming has happened on this thing.
By the way, the game was supposed to be about “commmunication” (same excuse as last episode, already?), but people were barely talking. All we heard were “slow, slow” and random grunts. I mean, seriously, guys. First episode had a small connection to game testing. Second episode had a miniscule connection to game testing. This episode? A joke! This has nothing to do with gaming! We’ve already covered communication and team-work last week (that one, as silly as it was, at least required communication to function)!
That being said, this was the most enjoyable episode so far. While it didn’t have as much face-time for the gamers as last episode, seeing them running around a field and tripping on each other was a lot more watchable than boring hamster balls and “Spot the Difference” games. This episode also had better production values than the first two (amazing what a difference having an actual location makes!).
Still, i can’t give a score that high, as this still is nothing more than a random, cheap, really short reality show that barely has anything to do with gaming. If this weren’t a gaming reality show, it would take a 7.2. As it is a show supposed to be for gamers about gamers… It takes a…
6.9 out of 10.
Next week, oh my God. It’s going to be awful. They’re going to pretend they’re vikings and stuff. Aaaargh!
The second episode of Sony’s gaming reality show, The Tester, was released this week. The first thing i noticed was that this episode was even shorter than the first (19 against 23 minutes). That’s really, really short. I don’t see why they couldn’t give this episode those few extra minutes to let us know the cast better.
Anyway. The episode starts with the crew hanging around, having dinner and discussing the previous elimination. Doc and Cyrus are already sitting by a corner, discussing an alliance. They try to pass it off as something harmless, but… yeah, it’s an alliance, and in reality shows that’s eeeevil. Doc remains his likeable self, but it’s clear now that he’ll do whatever it takes to get to the finals, something reinforced by the end of the episode. Keep reading.
Cyrus makes some comments about how hot Amped is. Eh, she’s the most “good looking” of the bunch, i guess, but i would take Star or Luge over her any day. Maybe it’s just me.
Speaking of good looking, the host cotinues to act hyper. Look, i know that she probably got hired to do that, but come on. It’s annoying. Even in SyFy’s WCG Ultimate Gamer (another gaming reality show), the host managed to play it cool while still appearing lively and genuine. I don’t buy that everything gaming-related needs to be so over-the-top. If you think i’m the only one bothered by it, you’re wrong - both the Wired and C Dump reviews brought up the same thing. I hadn’t read their reviews before writing mine, and i doubt they had read mine either. She’s just “too much” in such a subdued show.
It makes me think the “down-to-earth” tone of the show wasn’t planned at all, and it came to pass due to the contestants themselves being a laid-back bunch. That would explain a lot, by the way.
Doc wakes up the next day and eats Cheerios with beer for breakfast. Ok, Doc, we like you already. Stop trying so hard.
In response to Doc’s little show, Big D gives the best line of the episode: “When it comes to working with Playstation, they may want you to go with just the cereal“. Ooooh! Nice one, D.
They get a message talking about bubbles, and this time they have wised up a bit about retarded gaming predictions (probably because there are no gaming challenges in the show). Doc gets lucky, with Amped and Luge (two of his alliance partners) on his team. “Keep your enemies close, and your hot girls closer“, he says.
The challenge involves two teammates going into giant plastic balls blindfolded, while a third teammate barks orders on a megaphone (so they can knock obstacles on the field). Hal Sparks makes the obvious joke about how gamers “don’t get out much“, which is really sad, as those shows should be trying to present gaming on a positive light.
The teams are:
Doc - Amped - Luge
FameGirl - Cyrus - Nauseous
Big D - Star - Goof
Notice how they put the overweight people on the megaphone. Guess they didn’t think they would do too well on the bubbles? Personally i hope that’s just a coincidence, as i’m pretty sure they would do fine. As the challenge starts, you can see how pumped FameGirl is, screaming orders and telling where they have to go, really wanting to make up for the last episode. Thing is, being pumped is not always enough, and she misses a critical point of the challenge. More on that later. Besides FameGirl, Luge and Big D stand out as being really focused on the challenge… even when their teammates aren’t as effective.
Amped and Goof do really, really bad, not really listening or paying attention to their orders. That leads into a scene where the alliance sees Doc trying to figure out a way for Amped to remain in the competition. Basically, Doc wants Amped to throw Star unders the bus, saying that she did better than her.
Uh… i’m pretty sure that would backfire, Doc.
Amped agrees that it’s a shitty idea, and decides to simply talk about how much she wants to work with gaming. The plan works, as FameGirl is chewed for not calling their teammates’ names during the challenge (they’re blindfolded, hello!) and Goof is sent home. Seriously, the dude barely said a word in two episodes! Even when the judges asked him to defend himself, he looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Go join Barmy in creepy heaven, my friend!
And that’s the end of the show.
While this episode had more “face time” for the gamers, by the end of it we still knew nothing about Goof or Nauseous. That would be fine if we had been treated with some awesome challenge or something really cool and gaming-related, but no dice. Overall, i enjoyed this slightly more than the premiere due to the Doc + Cyrus + Amped alliance (Luge didn’t do or say anything on-screen), but the gaming connection was flimsy at best.
6.7 out of 10.
Next episode will have them throwing footballs and trying to catch them on a net. Uh… is it me, or does that seem even less gaming-related than the rolling balls challenge?
Oh, and if you’re wondering, here’s another one of the “nice” exterior shots in the episode. This kind of stuff shouldn’t bother me so much, but… it does. It does.
| The newest issue of Arcadia Magazine confirms that KOF XIII news are coming:
KoF XIII announcement The characters that were supposed to be in KOF XII (they were listed in the code) were Billy, Mai, King, Yuri, Vice, Takuma, Iori with a fireball, Dark Ash, Hwa Jai (remember him?) and the boss. Billy may have been Rage of the Dragons Billy, by the way. Dark Ash probably would’ve been the sub-boss. Characters that didn’t get far along to even show up in the coding were the three new characters (seen below in the early, Rumblefish-style sprites). Now… do i think we’ll actually see all those characters? NOPE! In fact, i really doubt we’ll see the three new characters. Why? Because it took SNK four years to animate 22 characters. That’s less than six characters a year, which is how long it has been since XII was finished. And that with SNK having hired extra sprite artists! The rest of the list i think it’s possible, since Iori, Ash, Vice and Hwa Jai are simply headswaps with a new move or two, and that leaves only 5 characters and a boss to fully animate. Such is the price of 5-tone shading and excessive detail in a 2D sprite, my friends. Streeet Fighter 3: NG, which only had 11 characters, many being headswaps, took over 2 years to animate. And that’s with half the resolution as KOF XII. That is also why the 720p BlazBlue has mediocre animation and shading. It’s too time-consuming (and hence, expensive) to animate detail well. By the way, at this point i wish they had stuck with those flat, cheap Rumblefish-style graphics. I bet XII would’ve been completed fully if they had stuck with those simpler sprites. My artist side would’ve whined, but the gamer side would’ve thanked them. The images below are official, straight from SNK. They are early versions of the sprites of KOF XII, scanned from the book “King of Fighters Character Encyclopedia“. |
A nova edição da revista Arcadia confirma que KOF XIII será anunciado dia 25:
Anúncio de KOF XIII Os personagem que deveriam estar em XII (listados no código do jogo) eram Billy, Mai, King, Yuri, Vice, Takuma, Iori com fogo, Dark Ash, Hwa Jai (lembra dele?) e o chefe. Billy supostamente é o Billy de Rage of the Dragons, não o de Fatal Fury. Dark Ash seria o sub-chefe. Personagens que não estavam nem no código foram os três personagens que você vê mais abaixo (quando o game ainda tinha sprites etilo Rumblefish). Agora, e eu acho que todos estes personagens vão estar em XIII? Que nada! Eu até duvido que todos eles apareçam! Sabe porque? Pois a SNK levou quatro anos para animar 22 personagens em XII. Seis personagens por ano, e isso tendo contratado sprite artists a mais! Como só faz um ano que eles terminaram o jogo, na melhor das hipóteses eles animaram 6 personagens desde então. O resto da lista eu acho possível, visto que Iori, Ash, Vice e Hwa Jai são headswaps, o que deixa apenas 5 personagens e um chefe para animar. Esse é o preço de colorido com 5 tons e detalhe excessivo num sprite 2D, meus amigos. Streeet Fighter 3: NG, que só tinha 11 personagens, a few being headswaps, levou mais de dois anos para animar. E isso com metade da resolução de KOF XII. É por isso também que os 720p de BlazBlue têm animação e cores medíocres. Demora demais (e logo, custa caro) animar detalhes. A propósito, neste ponto que quase preferiria que eles tivessem usado o estilo seco e sem detalhes de Rumblefish em XII. Eles provavelmente teriam terminado o jogo por inteiro. Meu lado artista teria achado ruim, mas meu lado gamer teria agradecido. As imagens abaixo são oficiais da SNK. São sprites de uma versão inicial do jogo, escaneadas do livro “King of Fighters Character Encyclopedia“. |
| Lots of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews for the Tekken movie with District 13’s insane coreographer (Cyril Rafaelli). If the editing deliver, this movie will have some kick-ass fights | Uma porrada de entrevistas e vídeos do filme de Tekken com o insano coreógrafo de District 13, Cyril Rafaelli. Se a edição for boa, essas cenas de luta serão fantásticas. |
The first episode of Sony’s reality series, The Tester, has aired yesterday. No, not on tv. The show is available on PSN. That’s the first thing that i don’t really get - Sony makes a show to advertise the Playstation brand, but then only airs it on the Playstation Network? Advertising the Playstation to people that already own a Playstation?
Weird.
That being said, the first episode was better than i expected. Not by much, but better. And saying that, i need to say one thing about reality shows that people don’t seem to get:
Every reality show will have drama.
Not because it’s “all fake” or because “everyone’s an actor” (people at NeoGaf literally said that). Nope (anyone that knows how to use google or youtube could do a search and go “oh, this Starslay3r girl is a gamer, and she is the number one female Guitar Hero player worldwide“). It’s not all made-up BS, and “drama” does happen.
The “drama” you see in reality shows is something that will always happen any time you lock people in a house together. Ever had a roomate? Yeah, and that drama will increase even more if they’re competing for a prize. Even a meager “5,000 bucks plus a job as a tester” prize. People will get on each other’s nerves, they’ll backstab and they’ll get into alliances. It’s just how it goes. Complaining about that is beyond retarded.
Now let’s adress the whole “being a tester is a shitty job and should never be a prize“. While i agree that a job that pays 10 bucks an hour is shitty, two of the competitors, Goof and Nauseous, have stated in youtube (one minute search, guys!) that the pay for the winner would be higher than that. How higher, we don’t know, but let’s assume it will be something decent.
With all that out of the way, let’s get to the actual episode.
The episode starts with everyone in a van, arriving on their warehouse-slash-house. That was the first thing that i thought was strange. I had gotten an impression the show was going to be kinda cheap, but to tell you the truth, things look cheaper than i expected.
I guess Sony didn’t get any sponsors, and since it was going to run free on PSN instead of on tv, they had to cut costs. It’s no big deal, so i shook it off and kept watching.
We get short snippets of gamers talking about themselves, and they meet the host. She’s kinda cute but good God is she annoying. Think of the stereotypical “hyper”, high-pitched female host, and you have this girl. The best part is when she happily talks about the 5,000 prize and everyone goes “yeeeah!“.
At this point the only people in the cast that stand out are Star (Starslay3r, mostly for her looks and the fact she’s a Guitar Hero champion), Doc, who seems like a really nice guy, and Barmy who just looks creepy. I’m sure he’s a nice fella and all, but come on, man. On tv your awkwardness is upped ten-fold and it becomes kinda grating. The rest of the cast didn’t get much face time besides the winner of the challenge, of which we’ll talk later.
The place is filled with tvs and Playstations… but nobody is shown playing anything, as this is a 20-something minute show and they need to get right into the challenge: a “spot the difference” game. Basically, each gamer sits on a barber chair, while the three judges watch. The screen shows you two images, and you have to find the differences between them as fast as you can. Every time you finish an image, you go to the next one. That’s it.
The thing makes some vague sense and the judges being there adds some tension, but that’s it. It’s not very exciting or fun to watch. And that’s the problem with the show. It’s kinda boring. I seriously think they could use more reality show-ness to spice things up. But at 22 minutes an episode, i don’t see the format changing much.
The gamers do the challenge, hop into the judging and two people get kicked out (i assume only one will get bumped from now on?). Doc gets chewed from cracking a joke during the challenge and Barmy is kicked out along with Roni. Luge was the best, followed by Star and Goof tied in second. Luge, i must say, has that geeky, cutesy thing going which is just nice.
Overall, it was “ok” (despite the fact nobody played any game at all). Hal Sparks (my least liked Soup host) does bring some small ammount of energy to everything, but his appearance is so short that it kinda feels lost in the overall boredom. In fact, everything is so short that you end up judging things from those quick snippets, so i’m not sure how this will reflect on everything. Doc and the fact most of the gamers do seem like nice people bring things up a bit, though.
A 6 out of 10.
Previews for next episodes show Doc hitting on Luge (and she says she likes it - Go Doc!), which should be entertaining. They also show some really goofy real-life games, like Viking roleplay and some giant plastic ball thingies, which isn’t that cool. I’m down for those things in a longer show, where they add variety and humor (see WCG Ultimate Gamer), but i’m not so sure i want to see those in a 23 minute show…
