Thanks whiterabbit for all the alternative suggestions!

#22
I worked in a library and yes, people do complain to the librarian if all the books, movie and music aren’t to their liking. And they certainly had no problem coming up and requesting specific items to be purchased if we didn’t own it. Matter of fact, while I worked there there was at least one major series by a major author banned by the entire county system because one person complained (probably more were removed but this one garnered lots of publicity.) Oddly enough this occurred not long before Banned Book week and our director nixed all the displays.

Users do have a right to complain in a forum/comment section. That’s the purpose of it. Though oftentimes to me, it doesn’t seem as if GAOTD pays any attention to the complaints, bad sign to be acting like a huge company when you aren’t yet. If I ran a business I would rather people let me know their complaints rather than they just voted with their feet, even if they just say ‘I don’t like this.’ Not everyone has time to sit down and write out the pros and cons and such for every item they use. Sometimes they only have time or desire to say ‘this suxs.’ Anyway, otherwise how would businesses improve? Commenters here have made this point (and many other very rational points) over and over again but yet we get other commenters telling others to stop complaining. Me, I will complain when I want and I certainly won’t tell anyone else to stop complaining about the complainers!

Sg,

Please comment only on todays Giveaway here. If you have technical problems (including issues with activation) or suggestions on our project, please leave us a note in our forums.

As it says – If you have suggestions on our project – please leave us a note in our forums. Even a librarian should be able to read that…

Rgds, BuBBy.

The first thing that I noticed about this game was that it is in 3D. Normally, 3D games are supposed to be more interesting than 2D ones, but this game was quite boring.

For starters, the ball moves very slowly. I don’t like many 3D Breakout games due to their ball speed, but this is the worst that I’ve played. According to the game’s “prizes” list(which doesn’t even describe the powerups apart from listing their names), there’s a powerup to increase the speed, but I never encountered it – in other games I’ve been able to increase it from the options menu, which is a much better setup.

Level design is also very boring – rather than taking advantage of the game’s 3D level capabilities, DreamDale decided to simply drag out level times by just having a gazillion layers of bricks. As if the ball wasn’t slow enough, when you hit a block it takes forever to fall. I should be able to bounce my ball between two stacks and clear them after six ricochets – in this game my ball just runs under the block that I bounced it off of and I have to take another pass at it. Add to that the ball’s slow speed and you end up spending five minutes on a level that should take two.

With regards to graphics, they’re pretty dated. The main menu says that it was made in 2004, but it looks years older. The blocks are all the same basic wedge/brick shapes – the only difference between them is the use of different colors. Some cycle colors, which would be interesting if it didn’t look so horrible. The textures are awful.

Another problem with the graphics is that powerups are barely differentiated – and some don’t even affect gameplay. Take, for example, the lightbulbs – a lightbulb with a minus sign makes the game darker(actually, it makes it look dimmer), while one with a plus sign makes it brighter. That’s it. You can still see all of the bricks, no matter how light or dark they are. As mentioned before, half of the powerups look practically the same.

The sound effects are annoying – the breaking blocks have annoyingly loud explosions, the “boing” when you hit it sounds like something out of a Looney Tunes short, and there’s a weird breaking-glass noise when you die. The music is also hardly worth hearing.

Apparently, the look that the designers were going for with this game was DATED. Everything about it – from the wobbly credits at the bottom of the main menu, to the weird pseudo-wireframe background, to the actual bricks and balls themselves – looks like something developed for Windows 98. I know that this is more a complaint about the graphics, but they’re so generic that I don’t know how else to describe them. I could sprite better graphics in MSPaint.

Overall, I give this game a four and a half out of ten(seven for gameplay, four for graphics, four for sound, and three for theme). This is one case where the sequels are definitely better than the original.

>robyn/Da Wife/Cyndee

Look, I don’t tell you not to voice your opinions, but you tell me that I can’t? Come on, this is the “comments” section, not the “sycophantic drivel” section. I say what I think, you say what you think, we leave each other alone.

Da Wife, it’s not like that at all. It would be like the library only letting you pick out books from one shelf each day, and spending a month going through all of the picture books.

>Fuller

Nobody’s mentioned Neverball because it’s not a Breakout game, duh. It’s still fun, though – thanks for mentioning it.

>Justin

WhiteRabbit’s a guy. At least, I’m pretty sure that “Stephen” is a guy name.

>Ernie LaVallee

Don’t flame Phil, or anyone else for that matter. I’m surprised that you got past the mods with that one.

The only people that can really be into this are those that have never played a decent computer game in the last 20 years – those that have attention spans of a gnat – those that just want to hoard games no matter how bad they are – or the very very young and inexperienced – or those that just want something to do which doesn’t take any higher brain function.

Alawar doesn’t even have the common decency to make this a freeware title although they’ve released newer versions of this.

If you can download for free and directly from the makers GTA 1 and 2 then why does Alawar still want 20 USD for something as crappy as this?

To the those that don’t have a life and just need to complain about those of us that ,although appreciating GAOTD’s efforts, think that not all things they can put up are up to scratch, let me qoute B. Simpson :’Eat my shorts’

@ Everyone who posted “OMG THIS GAEM SUX”: At least post some darn criticism. Saying “lol graficks blow nevurr playz” does not help. This game wasn’t made in 2005. It’s not even DX 7.1. At least post pros and cons.

PROS:
1. 3D gameplay makes for some creative “worlds” that the player has to blow apart. This makes the game more interesting as levels literally collapse on themselves.

2. Addictive gameplay, like most Breakout games.

CONS:
1. Boring stock sounds. The “boing” and explosion sounds come from the same library of stock noises that I use for my VB games that I make in school. Almost any stock library of sound bites has these same noises. And they don’t even randomize. It’s the same sound, over and over and over and…

2. Yes, I will say the graphics are a con. As someone who plays Bioshock and AoE III, this game just hasn’t got the same hook in me as they do.

Overall, a 55/100 (because I want to feel special and not post on a scale of 1-10). If you like the genre, or have the sequels, I say get it. However, if you are a hardcore gamer that plays WoW, C-S:S and Bioshock all the time, I would bear left away from it.