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Breath of The Wild has enraptured fans and critics alike in the week since its launch. Touted as one of the greatest open world games in a decade, the most awesome Zelda since Ocarina of Time, and the most excellent video game to come out in recent memory.

Flawless and perfection are the adjectives that echo in everyone's words that talk about this newest iteration of Zelda. But not everyone has been echoing the same sentiment, and one man, in particular, is paying pretty dearly for his opinion.

Jim Sterling, known for his no-nonsense and polarizing views on the gaming industry, has taken fire for seemingly being responsible for Breath of The Wilds drop from 98 to 97 on Metacritic after publishing his review giving the game a 7/10. (Boy that sure looks familiar.)

“At its absolute best, Breath of the Wild offers some of the most absorbing experiences a Zelda game ever has.

“Unfortunately, it makes you work harder for it than you should, buried as it is under a pile of small but constant irritations that collaborate to form a thick crust of frustration around a delectable center.

“Breath of the Wild is a delightful adventure, one that tries its utmost to be as big a pain in the arse as possible.”

In the hours since publishing his review, Sterlings website has gone down and is currently inaccessible at the time of this writing. He has also received numerous public death threats and even has shared straw polls demanding he be hanged for his opinion.

Truly, I wish I could say I understood what all the critics were raving about in their onslaught of 10/10 reviews, but I don’t. I see too many things getting in the way of the brilliance, too much repetitive busywork and full-on dick moves for me to say this is even close to my favorite Zelda game, much less in the top five.

Close, but no Triforce.

Silencing criticism with DDoS's and hate speech is an unfortunate and unnecessary consequence of modern internet media. No one should be silenced for their opinion as everyone has a right to their views.

What does our community make of this recent news? How do you all feel about what happened to Sterling?

 

[Deleted User]

Jim is an asshole. He gave the amount needed to tank the score from 98 to 97. His negative points are durability and stamina wheel. That's it. He praises the game, says it's fantastic but "some flaws hinder it" and that's the two things he /talked about. No way in hell the game should deserve a 7/10 for that. But he did it anyway to fuck with the metacritic score.

DDOSing is pathetic but he's just as bad as the people doing it.

First thing is first, Jim (and most Youtubers like him) use a median=average scoring system meaning 5/10 is average, 10/10 is a perfect game, etc. so going off on him for his score vs "Professional" reviewers' scores isn't exactly fair on him.

Even then, I'd say Jim went easy on the game. there's far more that's just outright mechanically broken about the game than what he listed. for example, some of the towers are just nigh impossible to reach (one in the middle of water surrounded by electric enemies comes to mind), there's the problem of poorly communicated or just poorly designed game mechanics, progression isn't exactly signposted well, the game was very obviously designed without the glider and climbing mechanics in mind (you can very easily miss key story events and mandatory progression items like the fireproof armor by gliding/climbing too much), horses can easily get trapped half way up/down ledges (RIP Blaze the Horse, forever trapped on a ledge ;,-<) and likely far more that I have not discovered in my 15-hour attempt at beating the game proper (2/4 Vah completed, 28 temples, etc).

Edit: Oh! I forgot, it's also royally dicks with the rest of the Zelda timeline, ostensibly being placed sometime after Twilight Princess (and possibly Four Swords), it goes out of it's way to not only royal screw over the importance they had to Adult Era to "Have" them in the Child Era and the Zora they evolved from at the same time, but also outright turned them into the previously de-canonized Watarara (Previously from the Vis Manga) in everything but name! so anyone who's been closely following the cannon (Like myself) gets a big fat pole-slap to the face, and anyone who had a honest to goodness moment of sadness for the Zora's loss in the Adult Era is betrayed by their unexplained emergence in the Child Era.

 

[Foxi4]

I always feel like people's idea of quality with Nintendo is purely based on specs.

That's one part of it - the specs need to be adequate in order to support contemporary software, and they haven't met that requirement for a long time now. Due to a strong reliance on third-party games, consoles should be made to play the software, not the other way around - there's only so much you can do through optimisation. Build quality has decreased significantly as well - back in GBA times I knew I could hurl my Game Boy at a wall and it'd be the wall that'd get damaged. Immediately after that Nintendo released the DS with hinges that'd crack if you breathed at them wrong, and not much has changed since then. It's the overall package that declined in quality. Nintendo's been comfortably ridin' on the back of their bestseller IP's, but as the Wii U has proved, even those aren't enough anymore. They need more, and unless they catch up with the rest of the industry, they're never going to climb back to the top. I wish them well, but they really need to get it together.

 

[Sheimi]

97/100 too much grass

 

[Benja81]

That's one part of it - the specs need to be adequate in order to support contemporary software, and they haven't met that requirement for a long time now. Due to a strong reliance on third-party games, consoles should be made to play the software, not the other way around - there's only so much you can do through optimisation. Build quality has decreased significantly as well - back in GBA times I knew I could hurl my Game Boy at a wall and the wall would be the thing that gets damaged. Immediately after that Nintendo released the DS with hinges that'd crack if you breathed on them wrong, and not much has changed since then. It's the overall package that declined, Nintendo's been comfortably ridin' on the back of their bestseller IP's, but as the Wii U has proved, even those aren't enough anymore.

Eh, sorry but plenty of holes in your reasoning. The Wii U was really the only console w/ 3rd party support issues.The Wii had tons of 3rd party support and the Switch already has plenty of big name developers on board.

In terms of hardware, the Switch is about on par with Xbox One (Switch 1 TF, Xbox One 1.3 TF), not much difference that can easily be optimized. The Wii U by comparison was .36 TF going up against the Xbox One and PS4, of course that was impossible.

I have had a few DS and never had the hinge problem, but I guess that's why they eventually made the 2DS for ̶k̶i̶d̶s̶ people hard on their consoles. No hinges, no problems.

 

[DeslotlCL]

Eh, sorry but plenty of holes in your reasoning. The Wii U was really the only console w/ 3rd party support issues.The Wii had tons of 3rd party support and the Switch already has plenty of big name developers on board.

In terms of hardware, the Switch is about on par with Xbox One (Switch 1 TF, Xbox One 1.3 TF), not much difference that can easily be optimized. The Wii U by comparison was .36 TF going up against the Xbox One and PS4, of course that was impossible.

I have had a few DS and never had the hinge problem, but I guess that's why they eventually made the 2DS for ̶k̶i̶d̶s̶ people hard on their consoles. No hinges, no problems.

It still underpowered, there are no big AAA third party games coming to it. Devs will start to rush their ports and blame the console for the bad perfomance and bum, you got the wii u 2.0

 

[Deleted User]

It still underpowered, there are no (Exclusive) big AAA games coming to it. Devs will start to rush their ports and blame the console for the bad perfomance and bum, you got the wii u 2.0

FTFY

 

[Foxi4]

Eh, sorry but plenty of holes in your reasoning. The Wii U was really the only console w/ 3rd party support issues.The Wii had tons of 3rd party support and the Switch already has plenty of big name developers on board.

In terms of hardware, the Switch is about on par with Xbox One (Switch 1 TF, Xbox One 1.3 TF), not much difference that can easily be optimized. The Wii U by comparison was .36 TF going up against the Xbox One and PS4, of course that was impossible.

I have had a few DS and never had the hinge problem, but I guess that's why they eventually made the 2DS for ̶k̶i̶d̶s̶ people hard on their consoles. No hinges, no problems.

It's your reasoning that has holes, not mine. The Wii received a lot of third party content because it was a low-cost entry device in terms of motion controls - it's a 100-million-unit-selling dust collector. AAA content flew right over Wii owner's heads because the platform couldn't support it - what they got instead was a paltry selection of watered down ports and shovelware. You essentially had to own two systems in order to enjoy both Nintendo content *and* third-party blockbusters like Mass Effect, Skyrim or Battlefield, that's just the way it was, and that's hardly a good deal for customers. The Wii's success is easily one of the core reasons why the Wii U failed - customers got burned and didn't want to get burned twice. Nintendo succeeded in marketing, but still ultimately failed at delivering an all-encompassing device. The same can be said about build quality - perhaps you weren't affected, but many users were. It's indisputable that contemporary Nintendo systems are more flimsy than their predecessors. As for the Switch, there's a 300GFLOPs difference between 1TFLOP and 1.3TFLOPs, that's significant. That's almost a Wii U's worth of a gap. You're also not accounting for undocked mode - games have to effectively be playable at half of the total processing power, which equals 500GFLOPs. I'd like to remind you that both the XBO and the PS4 are already sweating bullets trying to run games at 1080p and 30FPS, what chances does the Switch have to do the same thing with significantly less resources? I'm not a doomsayer, I'm just looking at numbers, and the numbers are not favourable.

 

[DeslotlCL]

FTFY

Neat.

But being realistic, mario oddysey looks promising. Sadly is the only first party game that looks promising. No, i'm not counting xenoblade 2 since it is being developed by a second party studio. Splatoon 2 you say? Pfft, looks almost the same as the wii u one and yet people shit on cod for being the same.

B-but mah fire emblem warriors... EW, another dynasty warriors resking. Disgusting.

 

[DarthDub]

Why do weapons break so EASILY? Realistic physics? Almost.

 

[FAST6191]

Eh, sorry but plenty of holes in your reasoning. The Wii U was really the only console w/ 3rd party support issues.The Wii had tons of 3rd party support and the Switch already has plenty of big name developers on board.

They said they were on board for the wii u as well ( http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...he-collapse-of-the-unprecedented-relationship for one example) so I am at I will believe it when I see it.

Also the wii had loads of support, save for the last 3 or so years of its life where desert would be too kind... hard vacuum maybe.
The 3ds bled loads of developers that had done fine things on the GBA and DS.
The N64 is considered the epitome of this (Sony's massive push on the PS1 quite literally being to woo developers). Also because Foxi4 and I can't get enough I do have to launch the N64 was a failure thing again. If you are American, have a fanboy streak and squint it might have sort of just about did acceptably but everywhere else it was flop city.
The GC was not lauded at the time, though looking back it would be the last vaguely acceptable library Nintendo got on a home console.

NES, SNES, GBA, DS. All great, all great largely thanks to third parties.

 

[Benja81]

It's your reasoning that has holes, not mine. The Wii received a lot of third party content because it was a low-cost entry device in terms of motion controls - it's a 100-million-unit-selling dust collector. AAA content flew right over Wii owner's heads because the platform couldn't support it - what they got instead was a paltry selection of watered down ports and shovelware. You essentially had to own two systems in order to enjoy both Nintendo content *and* third-party blockbusters like Mass Effect, Skyrim or Battlefield, that's just the way it was, and that's hardly a good deal for customers. The Wii's success is easily one of the core reasons why the Wii U failed - customers got burned and didn't want to get burned twice. Nintendo succeeded in marketing, but still ultimately failed at delivering an all-encompassing device. The same can be said about build quality - perhaps you weren't affected, but many users were - it's indisputable that contemporary Nintendo systems are more flimsy than their predecessors. As for the Switch, there's a 300GFLOPs difference between 1TFLOPs and 1.3TFLOPs, that's significant. That's almost a Wii U's worth of a gap. You're also not accounting for undocked mode - games have to effectively be playable at half of the total processing power, which equals 500GFLOPs. I'd like to remind you that both the XBO and the PS4 are already sweating bullets trying to run games at 1080p and 30FPS, what chances does the Switch have to do the same thing with significantly less resources? I'm not a doomsayer, I'm just looking at numbers, and the numbers are not favourable.

I seriously doubt that overall performance will be hit 50%, running at lower speeds does not necessarily equate literally to overall performance. The performance will ultimately be less, but you could compare this to a PC game running at "high" quality settings (docked mode) vs "medium" (portable mode).

Look at the PS4 vs Xbox one in terms of TF difference and you'll see that .3 TF is not much at all. Plus the Xbox One uses 10% of its GPU power for the OS, so what you're really left with is about 1.1 TF.

 

[Foxi4]

I seriously doubt that overall performance will be hit 50%, running at lower speeds does not necessarily equate literally to overall performance. The performance will ultimately be less, but you could compare this to a PC game running at "high" quality settings (docked mode) vs "medium" (portable mode).

Look at the PS4 vs Xbox one in terms of TF difference and you'll see that .3 TF is not much at all. Plus the Xbox One uses 10% of its GPU power for the OS, so what you're really left with is about 1.1 TF.

That difference is exactly why the XBO can't hit 60FPS in the same games the PS4 can.

 

[Benja81]

That difference is exactly why the XBO can't hit 60FPS in the same games the PS4 can.

So do you think developers will cave and only produce for PS4, or more likely the other way around?

Not meaning to say they wont produce for PS4, of course they will, but mean to say games cross platforms will be made to run on the lower specs vs visa versa.

 

[jahrs]

While i agree that 7/10 is to low i also say 10/10 is too high cause no game is perfect there will always be something or a collection of things regardless of how small or insignificant it is to some people.

This is the first zelda game ive actually played and 4 days in i like it but there are some annoyances.... Although i wont go into it im not a "pro reviewer" just some guy whos played lots of games over his life. No game ive played deserves a 10/10 from the original mario to the newest CoD or even fallout. Maybe in the future when games auto adapt to the player using some sorta of ai that sets the difficulty equal to whatever the individual feels is good and or self corrects glitches and annoyances. Then that game can get a 10/10 if the gameplay is good. But for now from what ive seen, heard and experienced this game is the super mario galaxy 2 of the zelda series and i hope there will be a sequel.

Or DLC this is the one game i would pay for more of.

 

[DeslotlCL]

So do you think developers will cave and only produce for PS4, or more likely the other way around?

They are still producing more for the ps4... Just look at some of the ps4 ports for switch, they had to cut stuff out or use ps3 assets to make the game "playable" on both docked and undocked mode.

Can't wait to see how ugly skyrim will look.

 

[Foxi4]

So do you think developers will cave and only produce for PS4, or more likely the other way around?

You seem to think that I want some kind of a monster machine - I don't, I just want an adequate one. If I wanted a monster, I would build a beastly PC - I can certainly afford to do that, I just can't be bothered as my consoles fulfil all my gaming needs. The XBO appears to be adequate, but it goes without saying that XBO versions of multiplats are by and large the inferior versions, which is why I own one only to play exclusive content. I also own the Switch and the Wii U for the exact same reason. That doesn't change the fact that most users own one gaming machine - they're not like you and me. Consoles need to meet a certain par, and it's yet to be decided whether the Switch does meet it. 1TFLOP undocked would fill me with much more confidence. Then there's the issue of RAM - the competition has 8GB, the Switch only half of that. These are all legitimate concerns about the system, I don't know why you find my opinion questionable.

 

[Hells Malice]

Jim is an idiot but he's totally entitled to his opinion.
Shit always seems to happen to him though. At least this time it was just a DDOS and not a lawsuit.

 

[Mr Objection]

He gave a 7 to zelda botw because he wanted fame, and know he has it (in a not very good way). Or maybe he is just a honest critic.

 

[Benja81]

You seem to think that I want some kind of a monster machine - I don't, I just want an adequate one. If I wanted a monster, I would build a beastly PC - I can certainly afford to do that, I just can't be bothered as my consoles fulfil all my gaming needs. The XBO appears to be adequate, but it goes without saying that XBO versions of multiplats are by and large the inferior versions, which is why I own one only to play exclusive content. I also own the Switch and the Wii U for the exact same reason. That doesn't change the fact that most users own one gaming machine - they're not like you and me. Consoles need to meet a certain par, and it's yet to be decided whether the Switch does meet it. 1TFLOP undocked would fill me with much more confidence. Then there's the issue of RAM - the competition has 8GB, the Switch only half of that. These are all legitimate concerns about the system, I don't know why you find my opinion questionable.

Not much I can say about the RAM, that could be an issue I guess.

Maybe they'll release an expansion pack.

 

[Foxi4]

He gave a 7 to zelda botw because he wanted fame, and know he has it (in a not very good way).

He's an Internet celebrity, he doesn't need any more fame, or infamy, depending on how you look at it. Perhaps the fact that he already has it enabled him to be honest rather than attempt to appeal to people's sensibilities by gushing over a beloved franchise for no reason.