Psychonauts = 9.5 from OXM

[pj-]

Ripped from GAF

I just got my May issue of OXM...I'll post some info and scores and stuff...Here we go...

- First screens of Elongation in Halo 2 (Remake of Longest)

- Half-Life 2 Cover Story

- Article on Star Wars games, including Battlefront II andEpisode III

- Feature on Full Spectrum Warrior 2.0

And Scores...

Psychonauts- 9.5

NARC- 3.1

MX vs. ATV Unleashed- 7.6

Constantine- 6.3

Cold Fear- 8.1

Lego Star Wars: The Video game- 7.0

Top Gear RPM Tuning- 2.2

Drive to Survive- 4.8

Close Combat: First to Fight- 2.8

Demos include...

- Doom 3

- Psychonauts

- Darkwatch: Curse of the West

- Pariah

Enjoy!

Parts that matter are bolded

I subscribe, so I'll post my UNBIASED impressions when I get it........

[Jake]

Yeah, nice. Can't say no to the one-two punch of a 9.5 review and a playable demo in the same issue.

[Wormsie]

What I wonder is why anyone in that thread is talking about something else than Psychonauts.

[pj-]

Psychonauts Review Summary

- "Hands down best art direction you've ever seen in an Xbox game."

- Very immersive

- Great voice acting, good writing, and lots of humor

- Awesome gameplay balance between thinking and button mashing, that "hasn't been seen around these parts since who knows when."

The pluses literally say..."EVERYTHING"

The minuses are "Rats, Censors, Personal Demons"

Doesn't sound like they had too much to complain about

Looks like brute force has been dethroned as best art game

[Chris]

Well that's good to hear. I don't think there's much reason to put lots of stock in officially sponsored magazines, but Jake is right that the demo/solid review combo is great. Just a quick glance at the linked forum thread is encouraging based on the posters' reactions.

[RLacey]

I'm not going to get excited before Majesco announce the UK distributor. Dammit, hurry up Majesco!

[MrHoatzin]

Vivendi, if I am not mistaken.

[Thrik]

Let's hope Vivendi will put the same effort into marketing it as Majesco, in that case. Although I'm not sure how much of a role they take in the actual marketing. I'm not really that knowledgable about how it all works when two (fairly) major publishers are involved.

[Chris]

I'm slowly starting to get worried that Majesco is going overboard with their campaign... Even if the game sells well, the more money they put into marketing the more the game is going to have to sell to be a profitable and I think with a quirky game like this there might be a sort of inherent upper sales limit. After seeing the president of Majesco talk about Psychonauts, Double Fine, and Schafer, I just hope this publisher isn't setting itself up for a fall.

Also, in regards to the PS2 port being pushed back, I think it's for the best. The game deserves to ship out as polished and bug-free as possible and if that's what's necessary then it's worth it.

[Moosferatu]

I'm seeing gold.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Shit. I made the stupid mistake of watching the intro cutscene. And I had just pre-ordered Jade Empire. Ah well, in another few weeks I'll have some more money.

[Jake]

Hehe

Drawing you in.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Shut up.

[MrHoatzin]

Shut up.

I don't know how you can manage not being excited.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

It's not my excitement, it's my frustration. That I won't be able to play it for a while.

[netmonkey]

You fool! In Jade Empire all you're going to be able to do is to COMMAND your character to kick and punch and do all that kung-fu shit, because you can't do it yourself. Also, if it's like KOTOR, be ready to expect 17 hours of talking about your feelings with your best girlfriend so you can decide wether you're good or bad.

[OftenK]

God damn, the OXM demo is awesome. Dogan has very quickly become my favorite character (next to Raz, of course). Oh, also the Russian kid. But I don't know his name.

[Simon]

Where's your avatar from, OftenK? Not seen that Raz art before. Looks awesome in thumbnail.

[Jake]

It's from one of the memory vaults in the game. You can unlock little stories from people's memories, but they're told in the form of little illustrated Scott Campbell comics.

[tabacco]

Heh... that's one of my favorites

[Jake]

good old

world's smallest pony

note: genuine spoiler

[Moosferatu]

[Bc9b]

Bc9b's Hypoanylsis:

The Xbox magizine's score is higher than EGM's because the Xbox has not had a great platformer like the PS2 and Gamecube games like Rachet and Mario, which EGM compared it to.

[netmonkey]

Think about it, though: it's Official Xbox Magazine. Just like Nintendo Power, they're not going to give any Xbox game bad reviews with their 'Xbox is the bestest!' attitude... it's just a magazine to get good publicity.

[Chris]

Think about it, though: it's Official Xbox Magazine. Just like Nintendo Power, they're not going to give any Xbox game bad reviews with their 'Xbox is the bestest!' attitude... it's just a magazine to get good publicity.

Yeah, nice one...

(resorted in descending score order)

Psychonauts- 9.5

Cold Fear- 8.1

MX vs. ATV Unleashed- 7.6

Lego Star Wars: The Video game- 7.0

Constantine- 6.3

Drive to Survive- 4.8

NARC- 3.1

Close Combat: First to Fight- 2.8

Top Gear RPM Tuning- 2.2

Psychonauts is the only game that scored a 9 or above, only one game scored in the 8s, and almost half the games scored in the 4s or below. That's great publicity. Close Combat was even a game that a lot of Xbox users were looking forward to, so if they were in fact simply looking to boost Xbox sales that would be an ideal game to pimp. Instead, they reamed it with a 2.8 and gave the highest review to a quirky platformer that doesn't have half the mass market appeal of most of the other games to which they gave much lower scores. Official Xbox Magazine, while not being a paragon of great journalism, is not in fact owned or operated by Microsoft. Nintendo Power is owned by Nintendo. OXM is just the magazine that gained Microsoft's sponsorship, they're owned by a publisher who publishes other magazines that are not "official". Had they not gained that sponsorship, they probably just would have been another unofficial Xbox mag.