Talk:Serious Sam: Next Encounter

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Serious Sam: Next Encounter has been listed as one of the Video games good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Review: November 11, 2020. (Reviewed version).

A fact from Serious Sam: Next Encounter appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 2 December 2020 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the developers of the video game Serious Sam: Next Encounter kept up morale by sharing their highscores via internal message boards?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2020/December. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Serious Sam: Next Encounter.

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GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Serious Sam: Next Encounter/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Alexandra IDV (talk · contribs) 00:42, 10 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I'll review this one as well - I hope to have it done within a day or two.--Alexandra^IDV 00:42, 10 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Alexandra IDV, thanks in advance for this. One quick note: The printed Game Informer source is not in the Internet Archive but Climax produced a 1:1 text copy here. I also have a scan of the page that I can send you if you need it. Regards, IceWelder [✉] 12:01, 10 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you.--Alexandra^IDV 22:10, 10 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Infobox

Seems fine. I wonder what's up with the lead designer bit, but if there isn't any source covering that I guess there isn't much we can do.

Lead

If you want to keep the "positive atmosphere" bit in the lead, make sure that the opinion is attributed to Barlow and not presented as an objective fact in Wikipedia's voice
Done by removing it. IceWelder [✉] 08:50, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Gameplay

Next Encounter contains twelve weapons, among them ten ranged weapons and a chainsaw for melee. So what is the twelfth weapon?
It is the "Serious Bomb" that wipes all visible enemies, but no review seems to cover this. Should I just exclude the number?
I would do so, yes - as is, the wording just makes readers wonder what the remaining one is.--Alexandra^IDV 13:21, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
amouns "amounts".
Done. IceWelder [✉] 08:50, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Unless multiplayer modes feature characters other than Sam, I would suggest just saying "Sam" rather than "the player character" after he's been introduced; if they on the other hand do feature other characters, I would be explicit about that and consistently use "the player character"
Done. IceWelder [✉] 08:50, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Plot

when the scientist suddenly announces - "suddenly" is a filler word that rarely adds anything. If you mean to say that it takes someone by surprise, and that that is important, say so instead.
Done. IceWelder [✉] 08:50, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Link Cicero
Done. IceWelder [✉] 08:50, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
It feels like overlinking to link "spanking"
Done. IceWelder [✉] 08:50, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Sirian/Sirians are not explained
Done. IceWelder [✉] 08:50, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
The plot summary seems to end a bit abruptly. I'm assuming this is something like a sequel hook (in which case that's fine), but wanted to check.
After the clone duplication scene, the image fades to black and says "The End ... Maybe" (see here). Should I amend the ending? IceWelder [✉] 08:50, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
If that is how it does end, I think it's fine already.--Alexandra^IDV 13:21, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Does the minion have a name?
The character is never named and not revealed to be a clone until the very last cutscene. IceWelder [✉] 08:50, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Development and release

Employees help up morale through playtesting - seems like an issue with tense and/or missing words
Done. IceWelder [✉] 08:50, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Reception

Would recommend cutting the scores from the prose, as there isn't a massive score difference between the two versions that we would want to illustrate, and we already have a review table
Done. IceWelder [✉] 08:50, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Jeff Shirley of Nintendo World Report said that the textures were enhanced through bump mapping. - I think we should be clearer that NWR appreciates the bump mapping and texture work - just saying that the textures are enhanced with bump maps almost comes off as factually describing how the game was developed.
Done. IceWelder [✉] 08:50, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

References

Seems fine

External links

The official website does not load for me - I only see copyright information and links to the websites for the developer, the ESRB, Nintendo, and PlayStation. Unless you can find a working replacement, it might be worth considering removing the link.
It is an archived Flash site (if you were not using Chrome, the Flash embed was likely not displayed for you). Considering that Flash is being shut down in lass than two months, I removed the link instead. IceWelder [✉] 08:50, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Images

Images and fair use rationales seem fine
Would recommend taking the opportunity to use the cover art to visually identify Sam with a caption
Done. IceWelder [✉] 08:50, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Looks good! I will put this on hold for the standard seven days - @ me when you have addressed the above, or if you have any questions. Thank you, --Alexandra^IDV 22:10, 10 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Alexandra IDV: Thanks again. I did some fixes and left two questions above. Regards, IceWelder [✉] 08:50, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@IceWelder: Thank you, I responded to your questions above and confirmed that the other issues are fixed. We're close to a GA!--Alexandra^IDV 13:21, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Alexandra IDV, fixed the weapon count wording by using "various" instead (indicating that there might be more). Regards, IceWelder [✉] 14:01, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@IceWelder: Excellent, I will promote this to GA now!--Alexandra^IDV 19:48, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Yoninah (talk) 19:36, 21 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

(

Comment or view
Article history

)

... that the video game Serious Sam: Next Encounter was inspired by GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark, Smash TV, and Ikari Warriors? Source: The Making of ... Serious Sam (corresponds to ref #2)
- ALT1:... that the "Super Combo" system in Serious Sam: Next Encounter was introduced late in development and "completely changed the game"? Source: same as ALT0
- ALT2:... that the developers of the video game Serious Sam: Next Encounter kept up morale by sharing their highscores via internal message boards? Source: same as ALT0

Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Royal Space Force

Improved to Good Article status by IceWelder (talk). Self-nominated at 20:52, 11 November 2020 (UTC).[reply]

Recently promoted to GA status (neutral, no copyright issues), QPQ done, hooks are good and are cited. I prefer for ALT2, as it appeals to a broader audience. Le Panini ^Talk 14:18, 20 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Le Panini: if you want ALT2, you have to make sure it has an inline cite in the article per WP:DYK#Cited hook. Yoninah (talk) 18:54, 21 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Yoninah, the in-line source is ref #2. It appears after a couple of sentences that all pertain to the same source, since its repeated use on subsequent sentences is unnecessary. Regards, IceWelder [✉] 19:03, 21 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@IceWelder: well, I've gotta follow the rules. Could you point out the sentence in the source that verifies ALT2? I'm having trouble locating it. Yoninah (talk) 19:09, 21 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Yoninah, of the source sentence, "Employees kept up morale through playtesting" from page 108:

The Next Encounter team was around 20-strong, and the atmosphere was pretty good [...]," recalls Barlow. "That's the advantage of making a game like [Serious] Sam - if we hadn't have had the option to take a five-minute break and shoot a few hundred mutants in the head, it would have been a different story."

"... and frequently shared high scores on internal message boards." from page 110:

"It completely changed the game," he remembers. "People stopped playing the game like GoldenEye and started playing it like Serious Sam - running and gunning, trying to kill as much as possible as quickly as possible, posting up best times and scores on the office message boards. It was really cool to see that working pretty much as planned the second it went in."

Regards, IceWelder [✉] 19:28, 21 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. The URL was opening up on a different page so I missed it. Restoring tick per Le Panini's review. Yoninah (talk) 19:34, 21 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]