Up late talking games & writing? You're...

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Games: Just a few words on Rise of the Argonauts tonight.
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I'm in the middle of playing it right now, and truth be told, I'm having a pretty good time with it.
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I knew that there'd been some wonkiness with its release date having been bumped up and bumped back a few times, so I headed over to MetaCritic to see what kind of reception the game is getting after having been sort of rushed to market, and I have to say that I'm utterly shocked that it’s rating is at a miserable 50.
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I'm especially shocked to see that 1UP gave it a 25, and Destructoid a 30. I pride myself on being one of the toughest-to-impress critics on the net, but these scores are so low to me that it's ludicrous…
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I have the PS3 version and like just about every PS3 game these days, it forces an install to the hard drive. Although it kind of pisses me off that we don't even get the choice, there must be something good about it in this case since I don't seem to be encountering any of the reported glitches, bugs and framerate drops that people with the 360 version are reportedly having.
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Technical issues aside, I'm finding it hard to understand why people are going so aggro on the game, when something like Fable 2 has a very comfortable 89 average. I mean, these games are generally in the same ballpark, but Fable 2 was so buggy on my 360 that it was unplayable without an install, and it was so dull and malformed that I quit it after four hours or so (sorry, Doug.) I mean, tastes certainly vary, but the 39-point-gap between these two games makes no sense.
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Honestly, I feel pretty bad for Liquid Entertainment right now. They put a lot of time, effort, research, and soul into the game. It's pretty obvious to see, to anyone who spends a little time with it and isn't expecting the next God of War. I mean, the game is first and foremost an RPG in the sense that it's telling a story with a cast of characters, and that's the primary focus. It doesn't have all of the stat-crunching and obsessive management of its JRPG cousins, but I find that one of its charming aspects. It also doesn't go crazy on the combat, and that's all right with me too… if I wanted to play a DMC, I'd be playing one. Tom Price over at Team Xbox (who gave it a 52) says:
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“In fact, early in the game, you’ll go a whole hour without fighting. You know, I’m not lugging this spear, this mace, this sword and this shield around not to use them.”
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“Going long stretches without having fun is Rise of the Argonauts final error. This game could have used a lot of tightening, perhaps even a little grinding.”
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Well Tom, I guess it all depends on what your definition of fun is. Any game that includes grinding is one that I'm not up for, and it's perfectly fine with me that I went a whole hour without killing something. During that hour, the time was well-spent filling gamers in on what life was like on Jason’s island of Iolcus and properly framing the beginning of the adventure. This game is a repurposing of Greek myths, and anyone familiar with those myths will really appreciate the time taken to include elements other than stabbing things with swords.
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I'm not done with the game yet and I'm not prepared to give my final judgment on it, but based on the time I spent with it today, I am comfortable in saying that the game is getting a pretty bad rap, and an unjustified one at that.
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Now, back to the Argo… I need to plot a course to Mycenae.
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