THE GRINDSTONE TRIBUNAL:

While not short on Grindstone players, we are certainly short on tribunal members.  Only Dreskar, Dobar and I have anything to say this time, apparently.

Setch Dreskar:
Oh Rocket League, you are in that perfect position for me not to like you but you are put together well, have good value for the investment players place into you and you look rather pleasing.
For those that don’t know I hate sports games, I have never found them appealing and would rather do pretty much anything else, and sports games with bad controls are an extreme pet peeve of mine. Well rocket league is both, it’s a sports game thus making me wary to even play it, and it has fumbling awkward controls but that is because they are cars jumped up on speed to add to the chaotic nature of the game.
I will be perfectly honest, I probably won’t continue playing Rocket League, hell I already have it uninstalled but this is perhaps the one sports game that has me interested enough to at least check it out some more once it gets its hockey update, which is far more than I can say for anything else.
Recommended?: YES, assuming you are interested in sports to begin with.

Dobar:
I was a bit interested in Rocket League when it came out, but since nobody in Grindstone had the game, I decided to not buy the game then.  After members of Grindstone started playing the game, I decided to pick it up and I had a lot of fun just playing random matches online, not counting the stuff we did as a group that was absolutely insane.  While I barely touched the bots outside of getting a few achievements when I played solo, I will agree that it is more fun to play with other people, whether it is just a random online group or with friends.
While I do enjoy the game, I got burnt out on it fast, it is a game you want to play in short bursts.  It takes about a minute to load up the game and start a match, so if you got 30 minutes to an hour to kill, it is great to just play a few matches.  The problem with the matchmaking, however, it it seems like the community quits matches at a drop of a hat, and you might enter a match down 3-0 through no fault of your own.  Though probably the most fun in randoms I had in this game was where I joined the match down 3-0 with 3 minutes left, and we won 5-4.  This game does have some fun moments when you just play with randoms, though like with any community, you have jerks and nice people throughout, though I would guess there are more jerks in ranked matches, because wins and losses matter more, though I did not bother with it, because I am not into that style of gameplay.
My other complaint about the game is I swear the cars are made of rubber, where someone taps you and you get flung half a field away.  I find that I have more fun just playing the standard game with randoms rather than the mutators, just because you can get a rule-set that is not fun sometimes.  I think this is a game I will be playing off and on and I think I got my money’s worth from it, though I would definitely say buy the game if it goes on sale.  It is great if you got some time to kill and just want a simple and fun game, though I know I am not that good at the game.
Recommended?: YES

ChaosD1:
I don’t know what to say about this game. I… honestly don’t think I would have bought it out of my own volition. Again, I only have and looked at this game because it was a free gift for preordering the Steam Controller and Steam Link. (Along with Portal 2 but there’s only like 12 people on earth that don’t own that game by now.)
Would I have paid 20 dollars for it directly? To be very blunt… No.
It’s kind of one of those games that’s only fun with friends, and I don’t think I want to bother with any sort of regular online competition. You saw that video right? I’m fucking terrible.
Yet… I find this a very enjoyable game. Even reviewing the footage while editing and checking the video before uploading it had me jonesing to play a few rounds (it was too late in the evening to do that, but I digress). It has a very strong appeal, but I can easily see why someone would not want to play it.
I can already see people harping on me for that claim. There’s this weird gamer issue where people who think because some players are extremely good at a game or are just fun to watch somehow give that game absolute merit. Just because someone is good at a game, doesn’t make the game good, S4 League players. Just because someone is bad at a game doesn’t make the game bad, nor does it excuse someone’s issues with a game. Thankfully Rocket League has the technical competence, excellent polish, and universal charm to back up any style of play you’d come across… which is far more than I can say for that other “wacky ‘sports’” title.
Recommended?: YES.