FiringSquad review Pontifex

[gog]

I know we don't need to be convinced to get the game, but they are saying that we are right to neglect the Big Blue Room for this thing

FiringSquad's review

[panther]

I think I speak for all users of Pontifex, in saying the Pontifex demo deserves pride of place on the free CDs with gaming/PC mags.

Certainly one of the BEST shareware titles on offer today!!!!

[JohnK]

It's good to see that other people might catch on to the Pontifex craze. I made disks of the demo and gave them to all my friends and the couple of them that didn't have crappy are now hooked. Has anyone thought of submitting the game to PCGamer or the like for a review? CL any thoughts? They mentioned the original once in thier magazine. Could be worth a try.

[mendel]

Latka, remember: Mark Twain describes how Tom Sawyer could make his friends pay for painting a fence,so much fun it seemed to be at the time :-)

[MrBerious]

Home of the Underdogs have also posted a review of the game.  That's where I first found out about BB BTW.

The review is here

[Calis]

The problem with these gaming magazines probably is: They want to see money before they write a good (positive) review. At least this is what I know from a big German magazine. If you want to know the ´real´ percentage a game deserves, better subtract 2-3% for each page of advertising in that mag from the same producer or distributor ;)

I always wondered why crappy games can get away with good scores until I saw a letter: A friend of mine asked a mag to review his game, and they answered something like - ok, we give it a rating of 65% [which means it is crap], but if you are going to place [expensive] ads in our mag, we can discuss better ratings up to 85% [of course depending on the amount of ads].

BTW: That doesnt mean, every mag uses such a policy. But it is the only Mag for which I know how games are ´rated´...

Home of the Underdogs is a great site! I think I've only bought about 3 games in the past couple of years, all of which I found out about from there. I've downloaded lots of the free ones from them too (which is mainly why I've bought so few!).

[JohnK]

This doesn't hold up with all magazines. PCGamer has given high marks to some games that had a little known publisher with one or even no ads in the magazine. Mindrover is one that comes to mind. I could see this happening with the smaller magazines, where most of their money comes from advertisers, but seems a little more unlikely with the large magazines, who would lose subscribers if they felt the reviews were not accurate. But I may just be fooling myself.

[MrBerious]

Yeah, HOTU is essential viewing for any gamer of more than a few years!  Or not, for any newcomer who wants to see how good some of the oldies are.

[JohnK]

People who like Pontifex seem to also like HOTU, I wonder if there's a connection..........

[MrBerious]

Must be something about quality over hype.

Anyhow, another review found.  This time in Need To Know.  Oh no, they've changed the page just after mailing it out.  Oh well, here's the text.

" For anyone who wouldn't fall over so much if they got twenty
        goes at each tottering step, the original BRIDGE BUILDER was
        great. You got a closed 2D surface, with a riverbank on each
        side. You clicked up a bridge out of girders, watch it fall
        under its own weight, then fiddled and fiddled until it
        stood the stress test of a train crossing. It felt very
        intellectual, and now it's peerrrty too: PONTIFEX, the 3D
        sequel is here. Of course, the openGLy stuff is all just
        "SuperTetrisDeluxe" window-dressing - underneath it's still
        the same old, plain old, in-one-plane Bridge Builder. The
        main differences are two new materials (including long-
        dreamt-of steel cable), and - acting as a massive
        disincentive to build stable creations - a flotilla of
        3D-illustrated splashes, creaks, and twangs when it all goes
        wrong. Oh and you can watch it go SPANG from the comfort of
        the train too. And you get more money in your budget.
        Talking of which: Twenty New World Order Dollars buys you
        the registered version: funkier bridges (with high-rise
        decks), a kilobrunel of bad-ass creeks to cross, keeps
        the designers from having to eat each other to survive, etc.
        http://www.chroniclogic.com/
- all other reviews will say "fits on a floppy" as though it is a bad thing"

You can find NTK here BTW

[Latka]

I'm here because of the Firing Squad review.  At first I thought, "A bridge building sim?  <yawn>  That will be as much fun as "Painting Fences in 3D!" http://www.pontifex2.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>  But then I tried the demo.  Played that for about an hour... had to run out and do some errands, then came home and bought the game.  It's hard to describe to some who haven't tried it just how much fun it is.  http://www.pontifex2.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>

-Andy

[JohnK]

Just think, if every user was to send an e-mail to the web site or magazine of their choice, they would almost have no choice but to review it! If you do send a letter though, make sure it is well typed (use all those great letter writing skills you learned in high school. ) People tend to be more responsive if you ask them nicely. :cheesy: