Poll: Is ET as bad as people claim?

[Andromeda Stardust]

The Videogamecritic has posted a new review of E.T. which sums up the game quite well. There also is another review for the fixed version.

Only one proper video game review on the Internet exists for ET. This one pretty much sums it up. Warning foul language ahead...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCTJ5q6aMjY

 

Please notice when he plays the game apparently using an NES controller. WTF, mindblown!

Edited May 1, 2014 by stardust4ever

[bradhig]

My highest score so far is 11755 and I had 1000+ units of enegry left and 8 recess pieces and all three time you can be rescued by Eliott

[Andromeda Stardust]

I didn't vote, because I don't flat out agree with the verbage of either option, but I will say this - as someone who has played the 2600 version of the game, I thought it sucked. Badly.

Too many people focused on the exact verbiage I used. If you think it sucks, vote "Yes". If not, vote "No".

[bradhig]

Anyone else run into a glitch in which the bad guys get stuck on the bottom of the screen when you use the send humans home hot spot? They just walk in place.

[+Random Terrain]

Anyone else run into a glitch in which the bad guys get stuck on the bottom of the screen when you use the send humans home hot spot? They just walk in place.

 

Yes. You can use it to your advantage. Take a look at this:

 

randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-et-tips.html#scientist_and_fbi_agent

 

It's in the first paragraph of that section.

[Muzz73]

Yes, I read too much into it. I do that, sometimes. Sorry about that!

 

I voted!

[Keatah]

When I was a kid, and I had E.T., I never singled it out or put it at the bottom of the collection. It got played from time to time, like other games.

[WolfAmongWolves]

Only one proper video game review on the Internet exists for ET. This one pretty much sums it up. Warning foul language ahead...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCTJ5q6aMjY

 

Please notice when he plays the game apparently using an NES controller. WTF, mindblown!

Interesting. Somebody who hates ET and loves AVGN apparently went through the trouble of splicing together soundbits and video from other AVGN episodes to create a fake AVGN ET review. That's why you're seeing the NES controller - he's not playing ET. The commentary is hilarious in that it has absolutely nothing to do with the action onscreen, but it kind of fits. Thanks for sharing this.

[bradhig]

The problem is the generations who grew up with NES ,SNES ,Genesis ,Playstation ,and later look down on the earlier systems as inferior and see E.T. as inferior due to it being on older hardware.

[Jinks]

The problem is the generations who grew up with NES ,SNES ,Genesis ,Playstation ,and later look down on the earlier systems as inferior and see E.T. as inferior due to it being on older hardware.

Yeah.. there not real gamers... the after 2600ers.. cheat codes???? Atari had what zero true cheat codes.. the press X to win game generation is lame.. why even play and cheat the game??

[Andromeda Stardust]

Interesting. Somebody who hates ET and loves AVGN apparently went through the trouble of splicing together soundbits and video from other AVGN episodes to create a fake AVGN ET review. That's why you're seeing the NES controller - he's not playing ET. The commentary is hilarious in that it has absolutely nothing to do with the action onscreen, but it kind of fits. Thanks for sharing this.

Okay that's not the official AVGN episode from cinemassacre...

 

Skip ahead to 20 minutes and a few seconds for a short, sweet, and shitty ET review...

 

Surprised he didin't dedicate a full episode to ET alone. Maybe even the infallable James thought it wasn't worth it!

Edited May 2, 2014 by stardust4ever

[Andromeda Stardust]

Yeah.. there not real gamers... the after 2600ers.. cheat codes???? Atari had what zero true cheat codes.. the press X to win game generation is lame.. why even play and cheat the game??

Because some games, especially from the NES generation are brutally unfair. If it weren't for Game Genie, half the games in my collection I would never in a million years have seen the ending. Sometimes even with cheats, beating the game takes 2-3 hours, with no save points.

[RevEng]

My experience is 180 degrees from that. We used to have an NES game rental down the road that would allow my brother and I to change games we finished for other games if we were still in the rental period. (my brother was friends with the owner)

 

We frequently would finish 2 or 3 games in the span of a weekend - end credits and all - with no game genies in sight. Typically there would be a move that you could master and use to get past most of the enemies.

 

In the end we probably went through a hundred games. I'm not saying they were all easy, but a whole lot of them were.

[Andromeda Stardust]

My experience is 180 degrees from that. We used to have an NES game rental down the road that would allow my brother and I to change games we finished for other games if we were still in the rental period. (my brother was friends with the owner)

 

We frequently would finish 2 or 3 games in the span of a weekend - end credits and all - with no game genies in sight. Typically there would be a move that you could master and use to get past most of the enemies.

 

In the end we probably went through a hundred games. I'm not saying they were all easy, but a whole lot of them were.

Did you "beat" Battle Toads and Ninja Gaidan? Didn't think so.

[RevEng]

I'm not saying they were all easy, but a whole lot of them were.

[Jinks]

In my opinion cheat codes ruin games.. if the games are boring and unplayable than thats that. Going into zombie brain mode and playing thru with infinite lives is very boring.

I have done it with mame emulators for some games that pissed me off. All in all was a waste of time as no sense of accomplishment. Considering my Cat could have done a playthru versus me eating a box or oreo cookies in my gotch getting the controller all sticky pressing the x button for 3 hours till all the baddies are dead while I float thru walls and fly invisible and invincible to the credits is definitely NOT gaming..

 

Oh yeah one other thing avgn is not a gamer..hes more of a utube drama queen. His Mom should cut his sugar intake. I guess if my kids acted like that they would probably spend eternity in my basement as well swearing at a camera, while the rest of the world actually has a life. But then again who would represent the losers of the world??

Edited May 3, 2014 by Jinks

[Austin]

One thing I don't understand is how people manage to fall into the holes so frequently. There is ample space for E.T. to traverse between them, and assuming people can move either left, right, up, or down (FOUR DIRECTIONS. Mind. Blown.), it should be easy to navigate. Are people in general really that bad at videogames?

Maybe that's what the question should have been. "Do people suck at videogames and hate E.T. as a result?". I think that would have made for a much more interesting (and entertaining) discussion.

Did you "beat" Battle Toads and Ninja Gaidan? Didn't think so.

I'll give you Battletoads, but Ninja Gaiden is a cakewalk when you know how to play it. Of course, much like E.T., few seem to want to spend the time to get to know the game a little bit better, and thus Ninja Gaiden remains in many peoples' eyes as one of the hardest games of all time.

[bradhig]

I cheat frequently out of frustration. It i get frustrated and start throwing controllers around then I usually cheat. I broke my Wii U gamepad while doing those stupid bonus levels in which you have to race through in a short amount of time to rescue the three little guys at the end.

[Andromeda Stardust]

One thing I don't understand is how people manage to fall into the holes so frequently. There is ample space for E.T. to traverse between them, and assuming people can move either left, right, up, or down (FOUR DIRECTIONS. Mind. Blown.), it should be easy to navigate. Are people in general really that bad at videogames?

8 directions. You forgot diagonals

 

I cheat frequently out of frustration. It i get frustrated and start throwing controllers around then I usually cheat. I broke my Wii U gamepad while doing those stupid bonus levels in which you have to race through in a short amount of time to rescue the three little guys at the end.

+1. Sorry to hear about your gamepad dude. That's a costly mistake.

[Austin]

8 directions. You forgot diagonals

 

 

Except you don't need to use the diagonals in this game. Yeah, they are there, but all you need to do (and the safest and easiest way to play) is simply move in straight lines in the four basic directions.

[Torr]

We need to start another thread discussing CHEATING cause I'm in the boat that if you fell you HAVE to cheat just so you can see the cnematics (be they oldschool Ninja Gaiden Cinematics or modern day cinematics), just watch a youtube video of all the cinematics and save yoursaelf 20-40 bucks, if that's what you're buying the game for.

 

Cheating at video games is like playing poker where all your friends fold at every hand... pointless...

Edited May 3, 2014 by Torr

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Maybe that's what the question should have been. "Do people suck at videogames and hate E.T. as a result?". I think that would have made for a much more interesting (and entertaining) discussion.

Some people certainly suck.

 

But usually people hate a game because the frustration level is not compensated by motivation. And/or the game doesn't play fair to them.

 

Look at Pitfall! A big map with many shortcuts to test. You really feel like exploring a the jungle. Also it is pretty hard to go through without mistakes. But controls, collision detection, obstacle behavior etc. all working flawless. So you know that it is only up to you to master the game.

 

Even simpler is Cosmic Ark. The game gets really tough after a while, but you want to know how all those cute little creatures look like. That motivates you to get better and better. Nevertheless IMO the game has a flaw during the meteor showers, because sometime you seem to miss a meteor due to its movement pattern. Maybe that's why it is rated lower than really great games.

 

Or my own game Thrust. The game is really hard, but most people call it rewarding. They want to know what comes next (next cave, next major obstacle). So there is something to discover, some reward. Also the game is never unfair, you never feel cheated and know that you solely died from your own mistakes.

 

On the other side there is E.T. Here you know everything it has to offer within minutes (except maybe for the escape sequence). Also E.T. is unfair (due to the bugs and especially the collision detection) and therefore I regularly feel cheated by the game. Which overall makes it pretty boring and annoying.

Edited May 3, 2014 by Thomas Jentzsch

[high voltage]

But then of course the VCS had the first cheat cartridge for a console:

 

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-personal-game-programmer-pgp-1_20131.html

 

 

Edited May 3, 2014 by high voltage

[Andromeda Stardust]

Thing about cheating, is do so in moderation. Yeah if you go ape-sh** with infinite everything, it's freakking lame. But if you do minute tweaks like a few extra lives, boosted stats, larger health bar, extended time, enemies take less hits, etc, it can mean the difference between controller tossing rage and actual enjoyment of the game. Even infinite lives codes (not infinite health) allow you to continue playing, but you still have to reach the next checkpoint to progress. Instead of slogging through the game repeatedly only to game over in the same spot, and infinite lives code can allow you to replay that "same spot" until you beat it. But I agree, infinite health is usually a cop out since you're essentially invulnerable.

[high voltage]

You could say the prople who can't play ET properly also cannot play SMB, obviously they keep falling off the edges because they don't know the 'jump' button.