Skip to main content

Control Freaks

Forum

Did anyone else watch that on sunday.
I did and was fairly dissapointed, especially with their reviews and the console "head to head comparison". Everything was scimmed over in the head to head and went only into the cost of the machine and when it was released. Rather than getting into really comparing the console based on various strengths of each and weaknesses.
The reviews to me also sounded a bit more than 2 bits bias.
It was like they were trying to help shift units of each game which is a HUGE NO-NO for any game reviewer.
The news section was a bit of a shining light for the show and they should of put a little more focus into that.
It was interesting to here about the world gaming championship [8D]

It is infact ants who are the true rulers of this world!!!

Submitted by Daemin on Mon, 16/12/02 - 10:36 PM Permalink

Lucky then that I didn't get to watch it. I was at a lan all day, with a 1.5 meg internet connection too :-)

I guess it was all for the best.

Submitted by souri on Mon, 16/12/02 - 11:32 PM Permalink

Yeh, it seemed they were trying to fit in as much as they can in half an hour. I didn't mind that it was so brief though, I was just happy to get to see some of the games on tv. That rally game looked impressive. It's interesting how much detail get put into games now.. For that rally game, you get to see the guy next to you reading the turn information [:)].. oh, and the Sunday midday time slot is a very interesting one too.. I saw an advertisement with lots of fast cars, women, and action happening - and it was for a Panadol ad!! They showed a glimpse of next weeks show, with some bits at Ratbag Studios - they sure do have a nice office!
Actually, I had a look at my referrers log yesterday, and notice a tonne of aol/google search hits on Sumea from people looking for 'Control Freaks' & 'channel 7' , right after the show. [:)]

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Tue, 17/12/02 - 1:07 AM Permalink

yeah my dad went to ratbag about a month ago.
The one thing he noticed was they have their like fridge full of red bull [:P]
well i will still watch the show this sunday still
anyhow me want to go play MOHAA now
even if its a pretty standard FPS i love the sniping levels [:D]

It is infact ants who are the true rulers of this world!!!

Submitted by Daemin on Tue, 17/12/02 - 2:12 AM Permalink

Hehe, I've been inside the ratbag offices a total of two times I think...

They layout keeps on changing in the main area :-), and its always dark inside.

Submitted by Brain on Tue, 17/12/02 - 2:37 AM Permalink

I missed the beginning of it (what was that Dreamcast bit about? Only saw the end) but what I saw wasn't too bad. I'd have to agree with the product-moving comment, as there weren't any bad games; they were all rated highly and any quibbles were quickly dismissed.

I'm sure next week's ep will be pretty similar, but I'm still looking forward to it. (Ooo, Souri, do a reminder for next week too. I only remembered cuz I saw it here @:-)

Chris Bowden
http://brain.gamekey.com/

Submitted by souri on Tue, 17/12/02 - 9:26 AM Permalink

They were babbling about how some people have been able to hack Dreamcasts.. I think you could see it booting Linux (well, it just had some text on the screen).. it was pretty much a 10 second rush segment with no real in-depth details, but hey, it's a kids show [:)].
A lot of the games were 'brought to you by' publishers, like Vivendi Universal. So yeh, you couldn't really expect any terrible reviews. [:)]
You gotta watch this weeks show! Ratbag's on! Anyone got a video capture card? [;)]

Submitted by StrkEagle on Tue, 17/12/02 - 10:07 AM Permalink

i have a capture card
Leadtek Winfast TV200XP

Submitted by Gazunta on Tue, 17/12/02 - 10:09 AM Permalink

I really liked it.

I mean, yeah, there are tons of quibbles, but you're always going to have problems talking about any non-TV medium on TV (have a look at shows about books, for example).

And as far as reviewers trying to shift units, well...yeah, it's a no-no, sure, but hell it's almost industry standard. I used to work for one editor who had a strict "say nothing negative" policy. You learn to damn with faint praise :) I think also when you have 100+ games to choose from in a tight half hour space, you really don't want to waste valuable time on a game that's crap. I'd rather spend the time promoting the good stuff.

Stuff I think they got right:

No presenters - YAY. Good idea. I really like how 95% of all the visuals werein game / FMV footage. It's absolutely the right way to go. Very visually engaging and it's what we tune in for anyway. (on a similar tangent, nice video capture hardware, guys! Very clean, especially with the PC stuff which is typically a pain to get right on TV)

Fresh content - Besides Warcraft 3, it was pretty close to the current scene. Nice stuff. The news section was particularly good, and props go to them for the Dreamcast mention.

Speed - It never got boring, which is a hard task. By continually moving onto the next game / topic, you didn't have a chance to get bored even when you didn't like the topic on hand.

Research - This is where I'm _really_ anal but the show didn't dissapoint. Usually I'm picking out factual errors at a mile a minute but I didn't catch any while watching the show. (Well, besides saying that This Is Football is any good, but I'll let that one slide)

Bad stuff:

Hyperbole: I'm paraphrasing here, but stuff like 'the wonderous soundtrack will tug at your emotions while the eye-watering graphics will redefine reality' belongs on the side of a Kleenex box - ie, it's a bit of a wank. I know I fall prey to it myself in my writing (sometimes!) but it sounds a million times worse when it's read out aloud. Tame it down and DESCRIBE the graphics / whatever instead. Are the realistic? Cartoony? Capture the style? Do they use colour to describe emotions or just full of eye candy? Etc.

Indecisevness - The console war thing just shouldn't have been done at all. The final ratings were meaningless. You might as well have said that while the Xbox is a red monkey, the Gamecube is a banana and PS2 comes in a solid telephone place. I'm sure the intention was to explain the consoles to a new audience but...bleh. Oh, and there was no need to describe the Gamecube as a kiddies console. It's lazy writing for one thing.

No Super Guile!!! Oh wait, that's just a The Zone flashback. Damn I miss that 12 inch stupid plastic doll.

Submitted by Brain on Wed, 18/12/02 - 4:38 AM Permalink

Gazunta's hit it on the head methinks, and he's just gotten a +20 cool factor in my book for being a Zoner. Bring back Adster, Mutlee and Guile and I'll be a happy little gamer. @:-D

Chris Bowden
http://brain.gamekey.com/

Submitted by souri on Wed, 18/12/02 - 10:49 AM Permalink

Ok, I'll bite.. what is the 'Zoner' or 'The Zone' that you two are talking about?
StrkEagle - would you capture and divx it for me ? [:)]

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Wed, 18/12/02 - 7:04 PM Permalink

I was really dissapointed with that console war thing, i was looking forward to an in depth REAL comparison. But oh well.
It probably wouldn't of been anything i don't already know [:P]
EG they made that dbz game look quite interesting, but they never went into the mechanics of how it plays, i have read a couple of reviews which says it has nice ideas and lots of those extras which no one had to put in but its still a shit fighter with terrible gameplay. Oh well [^]

It is infact ants who are the true rulers of this world!!!

Submitted by StrkEagle on Thu, 19/12/02 - 1:09 AM Permalink

Souri, what time and channel was it on again ?

assuming the reception is ok... shouldnt be a problem

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Thu, 19/12/02 - 7:02 PM Permalink

My dad is a tax assessor, he goes in and checks out places when they ask for a tax break claiming research (at least im pretty sure thats what he does)
I have never tried red bull, i go for red eye which is like a tame version of red bull [:P]

It is infact ants who are the true rulers of this world!!!

Submitted by Brain on Fri, 20/12/02 - 2:43 AM Permalink

The Zone was a games show a few years back on Channel 9, airing around 8 or 9am on Saturdays. Reviews, cheats, news, previews, and general shenanagans. Most of the crew were Megazone and Gamestar magazine reviewers. I actually still have most of the episodes taped. Sentimental old fool I am. @:-)

Chris Bowden
http://brain.gamekey.com/

Submitted by Daemin on Fri, 20/12/02 - 4:10 AM Permalink

That show yeah, I kinda remember some of it...

Oh well, we don't have enough channels to have enough decent content for gamer society shows. I.e. the fringe shows like Americans have on Cable.

Submitted by AndrewM on Sun, 22/12/02 - 10:59 PM Permalink

If this is any kind of indication of the state of the game industry in Australia, then this is a sad state of affairs.

:-)

---------------------
Andrew McGregor
Engine programmer
Tycom Studios
andrewm@tycomstudios.com
www.tycomstudios.com
---------------------

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Sun, 22/12/02 - 11:35 PM Permalink

well they aren't going to have much about PC games cause anyone with a pc that plays games will more likely than not get their info of the internet rather than watch TV.
Yeah the revies do seem to be simply there to help shift units but you can see they do try to get some critism in there. They are a new show with a small audience so they have to appease the companies that support them (and those that don't yet incase they do need their support later) otherwise they will die [xx(]
I certainly would never buy a game based on their reviews [8]

It is infact ants who are the true rulers of this world!!!

Submitted by Daemin on Mon, 23/12/02 - 4:17 AM Permalink

I missed it again, this time I slept through it...

Oh well, I missed stargate as well, which is far more interesting.

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Mon, 23/12/02 - 4:33 AM Permalink

quote:Originally posted by Daemin


Oh well, I missed stargate as well, which is far more interesting.

Nar you didn't
it wasn't on.
It was that shitty caroles crap show.
besides they are only showing repeats [:(]

It is infact ants who are the true rulers of this world!!!

Submitted by souri on Mon, 23/12/02 - 10:14 AM Permalink

quote:Originally posted by AndrewM

Watching control freaks right now. Seems like a pimp show for console games, and young gamers.

Well, if a show is coming after "Saved by the bell: the new class" and "Planet X:trials" (crazy extreme sports), you can guess the audience it is targetting [:)]. I like the show for the eyecandy. I don't have broadband to download mpegs or demos of games, so this is a good alternative for me to check out some of games around..

That Ratbag segment at the end was interesting. They have a nice roomy office.. I thought they would be much bigger though (they're working on 2 or 3 games at the moment, I think)..

Submitted by AndrewM on Mon, 23/12/02 - 6:38 PM Permalink

Souri: I thought the ratbag segment was quite useless. You would have learnt about 10x more by emailing them then watching the show, altho they showed some flicks of their office. :)

And, well, the gamers web sites seem to cover most stuff in fairly great detail, plus you can choose your favourite site to visit as well (to get a balanced review of a title).

---------------------
Andrew McGregor
Engine programmer
Tycom Studios
andrewm@tycomstudios.com
www.tycomstudios.com
---------------------

Submitted by souri on Wed, 25/12/02 - 11:54 AM Permalink

Yeh, that Ratbag feature didn't really give too much insight on Ratbag. The individual profiles were a bit too general knowledge stuff, eg "I'm a tester, I check the games for bugs"... but seeing their office and some Ratbag'ians was pretty cool. Didn't get to see any new game details from them though..

Submitted by Daemin on Wed, 25/12/02 - 10:41 PM Permalink

Yeah, thanks for that Meatex, but they're actually a new series now of stargate, not repeats...

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Fri, 27/12/02 - 12:12 AM Permalink

What state do you live in?
cause the new season has already come and gone for us
unless you have cable TV or something

It is infact ants who are the true rulers of this world!!!

Submitted by Daemin on Fri, 27/12/02 - 1:10 AM Permalink

SA, its seasaon 5 if I remember correctly, which hasn't been shown so far.

Season 6 (maybe 7) is the latest AFAIK.

Submitted by Maitrek on Fri, 10/01/03 - 9:21 AM Permalink

I remember the show called "The Zone" (at least that's what I think it was called :))...that was some kind of gaming show that reviewed games way back in the early/mid nineties, had a couple of "cool" young hip game reviewer people with cynical attitudes, that didn't last very long though.

Was totally for young gamers though, as I was young at the time and I enjoyed it, I don't remember it being particularly poor when it came to content reviewing and stuff.

Haven't seen Control Freaks tho. Sounds crap.

Submitted by souri on Fri, 10/01/03 - 10:31 AM Permalink

If I had it my way, there'd be a 24 hour games channel with intelligent interviews, reviews, behind the scenes, tonnes of eye candy, and plenty of tutorial segments.. 2 hour segment on how to skin,bone,animate a character today! Now that would be cool. [:)]

Submitted by Brain on Sat, 11/01/03 - 3:04 AM Permalink

Perhaps you should throw that idea to your potential sponsers. I'm sure it'd go down REAL well. @;-)

Be nice though...

Chris Bowden
http://brain.gamekey.com/

Forum

Did anyone else watch that on sunday.
I did and was fairly dissapointed, especially with their reviews and the console "head to head comparison". Everything was scimmed over in the head to head and went only into the cost of the machine and when it was released. Rather than getting into really comparing the console based on various strengths of each and weaknesses.
The reviews to me also sounded a bit more than 2 bits bias.
It was like they were trying to help shift units of each game which is a HUGE NO-NO for any game reviewer.
The news section was a bit of a shining light for the show and they should of put a little more focus into that.
It was interesting to here about the world gaming championship [8D]

It is infact ants who are the true rulers of this world!!!


Submitted by Daemin on Mon, 16/12/02 - 10:36 PM Permalink

Lucky then that I didn't get to watch it. I was at a lan all day, with a 1.5 meg internet connection too :-)

I guess it was all for the best.

Submitted by souri on Mon, 16/12/02 - 11:32 PM Permalink

Yeh, it seemed they were trying to fit in as much as they can in half an hour. I didn't mind that it was so brief though, I was just happy to get to see some of the games on tv. That rally game looked impressive. It's interesting how much detail get put into games now.. For that rally game, you get to see the guy next to you reading the turn information [:)].. oh, and the Sunday midday time slot is a very interesting one too.. I saw an advertisement with lots of fast cars, women, and action happening - and it was for a Panadol ad!! They showed a glimpse of next weeks show, with some bits at Ratbag Studios - they sure do have a nice office!
Actually, I had a look at my referrers log yesterday, and notice a tonne of aol/google search hits on Sumea from people looking for 'Control Freaks' & 'channel 7' , right after the show. [:)]

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Tue, 17/12/02 - 1:07 AM Permalink

yeah my dad went to ratbag about a month ago.
The one thing he noticed was they have their like fridge full of red bull [:P]
well i will still watch the show this sunday still
anyhow me want to go play MOHAA now
even if its a pretty standard FPS i love the sniping levels [:D]

It is infact ants who are the true rulers of this world!!!

Submitted by Daemin on Tue, 17/12/02 - 2:12 AM Permalink

Hehe, I've been inside the ratbag offices a total of two times I think...

They layout keeps on changing in the main area :-), and its always dark inside.

Submitted by Brain on Tue, 17/12/02 - 2:37 AM Permalink

I missed the beginning of it (what was that Dreamcast bit about? Only saw the end) but what I saw wasn't too bad. I'd have to agree with the product-moving comment, as there weren't any bad games; they were all rated highly and any quibbles were quickly dismissed.

I'm sure next week's ep will be pretty similar, but I'm still looking forward to it. (Ooo, Souri, do a reminder for next week too. I only remembered cuz I saw it here @:-)

Chris Bowden
http://brain.gamekey.com/

Submitted by souri on Tue, 17/12/02 - 9:26 AM Permalink

They were babbling about how some people have been able to hack Dreamcasts.. I think you could see it booting Linux (well, it just had some text on the screen).. it was pretty much a 10 second rush segment with no real in-depth details, but hey, it's a kids show [:)].
A lot of the games were 'brought to you by' publishers, like Vivendi Universal. So yeh, you couldn't really expect any terrible reviews. [:)]
You gotta watch this weeks show! Ratbag's on! Anyone got a video capture card? [;)]

Submitted by StrkEagle on Tue, 17/12/02 - 10:07 AM Permalink

i have a capture card
Leadtek Winfast TV200XP

Submitted by Gazunta on Tue, 17/12/02 - 10:09 AM Permalink

I really liked it.

I mean, yeah, there are tons of quibbles, but you're always going to have problems talking about any non-TV medium on TV (have a look at shows about books, for example).

And as far as reviewers trying to shift units, well...yeah, it's a no-no, sure, but hell it's almost industry standard. I used to work for one editor who had a strict "say nothing negative" policy. You learn to damn with faint praise :) I think also when you have 100+ games to choose from in a tight half hour space, you really don't want to waste valuable time on a game that's crap. I'd rather spend the time promoting the good stuff.

Stuff I think they got right:

No presenters - YAY. Good idea. I really like how 95% of all the visuals werein game / FMV footage. It's absolutely the right way to go. Very visually engaging and it's what we tune in for anyway. (on a similar tangent, nice video capture hardware, guys! Very clean, especially with the PC stuff which is typically a pain to get right on TV)

Fresh content - Besides Warcraft 3, it was pretty close to the current scene. Nice stuff. The news section was particularly good, and props go to them for the Dreamcast mention.

Speed - It never got boring, which is a hard task. By continually moving onto the next game / topic, you didn't have a chance to get bored even when you didn't like the topic on hand.

Research - This is where I'm _really_ anal but the show didn't dissapoint. Usually I'm picking out factual errors at a mile a minute but I didn't catch any while watching the show. (Well, besides saying that This Is Football is any good, but I'll let that one slide)

Bad stuff:

Hyperbole: I'm paraphrasing here, but stuff like 'the wonderous soundtrack will tug at your emotions while the eye-watering graphics will redefine reality' belongs on the side of a Kleenex box - ie, it's a bit of a wank. I know I fall prey to it myself in my writing (sometimes!) but it sounds a million times worse when it's read out aloud. Tame it down and DESCRIBE the graphics / whatever instead. Are the realistic? Cartoony? Capture the style? Do they use colour to describe emotions or just full of eye candy? Etc.

Indecisevness - The console war thing just shouldn't have been done at all. The final ratings were meaningless. You might as well have said that while the Xbox is a red monkey, the Gamecube is a banana and PS2 comes in a solid telephone place. I'm sure the intention was to explain the consoles to a new audience but...bleh. Oh, and there was no need to describe the Gamecube as a kiddies console. It's lazy writing for one thing.

No Super Guile!!! Oh wait, that's just a The Zone flashback. Damn I miss that 12 inch stupid plastic doll.

Submitted by Brain on Wed, 18/12/02 - 4:38 AM Permalink

Gazunta's hit it on the head methinks, and he's just gotten a +20 cool factor in my book for being a Zoner. Bring back Adster, Mutlee and Guile and I'll be a happy little gamer. @:-D

Chris Bowden
http://brain.gamekey.com/

Submitted by souri on Wed, 18/12/02 - 10:49 AM Permalink

Ok, I'll bite.. what is the 'Zoner' or 'The Zone' that you two are talking about?
StrkEagle - would you capture and divx it for me ? [:)]

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Wed, 18/12/02 - 7:04 PM Permalink

I was really dissapointed with that console war thing, i was looking forward to an in depth REAL comparison. But oh well.
It probably wouldn't of been anything i don't already know [:P]
EG they made that dbz game look quite interesting, but they never went into the mechanics of how it plays, i have read a couple of reviews which says it has nice ideas and lots of those extras which no one had to put in but its still a shit fighter with terrible gameplay. Oh well [^]

It is infact ants who are the true rulers of this world!!!

Submitted by StrkEagle on Thu, 19/12/02 - 1:09 AM Permalink

Souri, what time and channel was it on again ?

assuming the reception is ok... shouldnt be a problem

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Thu, 19/12/02 - 7:02 PM Permalink

My dad is a tax assessor, he goes in and checks out places when they ask for a tax break claiming research (at least im pretty sure thats what he does)
I have never tried red bull, i go for red eye which is like a tame version of red bull [:P]

It is infact ants who are the true rulers of this world!!!

Submitted by Brain on Fri, 20/12/02 - 2:43 AM Permalink

The Zone was a games show a few years back on Channel 9, airing around 8 or 9am on Saturdays. Reviews, cheats, news, previews, and general shenanagans. Most of the crew were Megazone and Gamestar magazine reviewers. I actually still have most of the episodes taped. Sentimental old fool I am. @:-)

Chris Bowden
http://brain.gamekey.com/

Submitted by Daemin on Fri, 20/12/02 - 4:10 AM Permalink

That show yeah, I kinda remember some of it...

Oh well, we don't have enough channels to have enough decent content for gamer society shows. I.e. the fringe shows like Americans have on Cable.

Submitted by AndrewM on Sun, 22/12/02 - 10:59 PM Permalink

If this is any kind of indication of the state of the game industry in Australia, then this is a sad state of affairs.

:-)

---------------------
Andrew McGregor
Engine programmer
Tycom Studios
andrewm@tycomstudios.com
www.tycomstudios.com
---------------------

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Sun, 22/12/02 - 11:35 PM Permalink

well they aren't going to have much about PC games cause anyone with a pc that plays games will more likely than not get their info of the internet rather than watch TV.
Yeah the revies do seem to be simply there to help shift units but you can see they do try to get some critism in there. They are a new show with a small audience so they have to appease the companies that support them (and those that don't yet incase they do need their support later) otherwise they will die [xx(]
I certainly would never buy a game based on their reviews [8]

It is infact ants who are the true rulers of this world!!!

Submitted by Daemin on Mon, 23/12/02 - 4:17 AM Permalink

I missed it again, this time I slept through it...

Oh well, I missed stargate as well, which is far more interesting.

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Mon, 23/12/02 - 4:33 AM Permalink

quote:Originally posted by Daemin


Oh well, I missed stargate as well, which is far more interesting.

Nar you didn't
it wasn't on.
It was that shitty caroles crap show.
besides they are only showing repeats [:(]

It is infact ants who are the true rulers of this world!!!

Submitted by souri on Mon, 23/12/02 - 10:14 AM Permalink

quote:Originally posted by AndrewM

Watching control freaks right now. Seems like a pimp show for console games, and young gamers.

Well, if a show is coming after "Saved by the bell: the new class" and "Planet X:trials" (crazy extreme sports), you can guess the audience it is targetting [:)]. I like the show for the eyecandy. I don't have broadband to download mpegs or demos of games, so this is a good alternative for me to check out some of games around..

That Ratbag segment at the end was interesting. They have a nice roomy office.. I thought they would be much bigger though (they're working on 2 or 3 games at the moment, I think)..

Submitted by AndrewM on Mon, 23/12/02 - 6:38 PM Permalink

Souri: I thought the ratbag segment was quite useless. You would have learnt about 10x more by emailing them then watching the show, altho they showed some flicks of their office. :)

And, well, the gamers web sites seem to cover most stuff in fairly great detail, plus you can choose your favourite site to visit as well (to get a balanced review of a title).

---------------------
Andrew McGregor
Engine programmer
Tycom Studios
andrewm@tycomstudios.com
www.tycomstudios.com
---------------------

Submitted by souri on Wed, 25/12/02 - 11:54 AM Permalink

Yeh, that Ratbag feature didn't really give too much insight on Ratbag. The individual profiles were a bit too general knowledge stuff, eg "I'm a tester, I check the games for bugs"... but seeing their office and some Ratbag'ians was pretty cool. Didn't get to see any new game details from them though..

Submitted by Daemin on Wed, 25/12/02 - 10:41 PM Permalink

Yeah, thanks for that Meatex, but they're actually a new series now of stargate, not repeats...

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Fri, 27/12/02 - 12:12 AM Permalink

What state do you live in?
cause the new season has already come and gone for us
unless you have cable TV or something

It is infact ants who are the true rulers of this world!!!

Submitted by Daemin on Fri, 27/12/02 - 1:10 AM Permalink

SA, its seasaon 5 if I remember correctly, which hasn't been shown so far.

Season 6 (maybe 7) is the latest AFAIK.

Submitted by Maitrek on Fri, 10/01/03 - 9:21 AM Permalink

I remember the show called "The Zone" (at least that's what I think it was called :))...that was some kind of gaming show that reviewed games way back in the early/mid nineties, had a couple of "cool" young hip game reviewer people with cynical attitudes, that didn't last very long though.

Was totally for young gamers though, as I was young at the time and I enjoyed it, I don't remember it being particularly poor when it came to content reviewing and stuff.

Haven't seen Control Freaks tho. Sounds crap.

Submitted by souri on Fri, 10/01/03 - 10:31 AM Permalink

If I had it my way, there'd be a 24 hour games channel with intelligent interviews, reviews, behind the scenes, tonnes of eye candy, and plenty of tutorial segments.. 2 hour segment on how to skin,bone,animate a character today! Now that would be cool. [:)]

Submitted by Brain on Sat, 11/01/03 - 3:04 AM Permalink

Perhaps you should throw that idea to your potential sponsers. I'm sure it'd go down REAL well. @;-)

Be nice though...

Chris Bowden
http://brain.gamekey.com/