As an avid gamer, I'm also an avid reader of gaming media. I regularly check N4G for material to satisfy my insatiable hunger for gaming media. I also regularly visit sites like IGN, Gamespot, Kotaku and more.
This lends itself to being a game review junkie. I love reading game reviews and finding out which games are worth my money, and which games aren't. I regularly base purchasing decisions on reading reviews. Some people might say 'how retarded- game reviews don't mean squat'. Believe me, I know. I often purchase games only to find out this point. I've been slowly learning this lesson too. For example, some major gripes a reviewer has won't annoy me too much or some elements they consider a weakness I consider a strength, and so on.
So naturally with the release of GT5 recently, I was a little perturbed at the scores it was getting. This was one of the most hyped games of the decade, with one of the longest production schedules and it got mostly 8's. In context, that seems like a let down. I have to admit here, that I have what I consider to be a fair sized PS3 library at 23 games (most of my friends don't have close to 10 games), and most of them I've purchased based on reading reviews.
Gran Turismo 5 I purchased without reading its review, as I pre-oredered it- not something I do often. A pre-order locks in your decision to purchase a game, and once it arrives at your door there's no turning back. So a game I figured I'd hold out on, I ended up getting. Reviews I read the night previous had me believing I'd be more than a little disappointed with GT5. But how wrong I've been.
I personally am loving GT5 right now. I'm really into just about every aspect of the game. The standard/premium car divide isn't bothering me that much at all (one of my favourite cars to drive right now is a 'standard' Mugen/Motul Honda Civic), I think the graphics are stunning and the driving experience is just unrivalled. I personally like the course editor and the way it creates tracks, I really dig photo mode and I think the way online is set out is actually a good thing. I can see where a lot of the criticisms lie, but the point is- I really don't care about them. I'm not bothered by loading screens, jagged shadows. In a day and age where every big release game seems centered around killing or maiming people, aliens or monsters in some way or another, GT5 has been a breath of fresh air for me.
Then it got me thinking. Those review scores. Did they matter? Not in the slightest. What matters is how much I like the game. Not how much some guy does, who is paid to play games and write good and bad things about it.
Then how about all the other games I own? Well many that have had great review scores didn't turn out so good. Heavy Rain for example. The reviews I read labeled it as revolutionary and a great game. I played it and found it was just poorly executed and I never finished it. I just didn't like it. One day I might try at it again- but that's just my opinion of it.
Another game I previously owned, NBA2K10, was reviewed very highly at the time. But I found it to be horrible, and wished I had not traded NBA2K9 for it (sports games are the only ones I trade). It was full of glitches and issues and really pissed me off. Luckily 2K11 saved the franchise.
Black Ops is another classic example. Gamespot's review in particular is that it's a tremendous game worth every accolade, and many sites gave this game a glowing endorsement. Yet to me its the most disappointing release of the year. It's buggy, it has worse graphics than its predecessors and its campaign is confusing and at times very boring. This isn't to mention its near unplayable (on PS3 at least) multiplayer, which is plagued with issues, glitches and bugs. I loved Modern Warfare 2 (online at least, I didn't touch the campaign), and in comparison Black Ops is just a let down to me.
The point is, reviews in many cases don't matter. For someone who bases a lot of decisions on reviews, I often come to a different conclusion to the reviewers. It's not to say I don't agree with all reviews either. Many encapsulate exactly how I feel about a game too. Yet what needs to be remembered is they're just opinions, and opinions will always differ.
So the lessons learned? Review scores don't determine what a good game is- you do. If you think GT5 sucks and was a major disappointment, then it is, because your the one that matters. If you love Black Ops to death, then it's the best game ever- to you at least. But just don't be too peeved to find out that someone thinks differently to you and writes it down in a review,.
Best Way’s Men of War II is a direct sequel to the original game released back in 2008/09, bringing a whole new choice of missions from World War II.
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EA Sports prepares to launch College Football 25 in July. However, there is a surprising development - the game will not be coming to the PC platform
This just saved me $60. Nice!
Real talk, im sure the game will be A$$, its almost a guarantee for anything EA releases anymore.
It's not worth it to release on PC day 1. The technical nightmare juice isn't worth the squeeze.
Reviews usually overrate and underrate some great games- looking at GTAIV and Nier as two examples. I'd point out some more games that got, in my opinion, underrated. That didn't stop me from enjoying said games, though, albeit I know they are flawed. Even with these flaws, they're enjoyable, wich is why I usually find myself disagreeing with reviews.
However, as a side-note, I do not think any review up until now has even said GT5 is a "bad" game. The scores GT5 got are not bad, people. In fact, they usually mean the game is good or great, getting mostly 8s. So, yeah, people, stop overreacting.
As I said, sometimes you just overlook flaws the games have, and are great experiences. Even so, reviewers, as critics, have to point out these flaws, and usually lower scores because of them (though alot of reviewers usually don't give mediocre scores to high profile games, yet give smaller games bad scores without fear, god knows why). I can totally understand that, and even so, it doesn't affects my enjoyment while playing a game.
52 on Metacritic. I also loved WKC, Folklore, Kingdom Under Fire COD and Bulletwitch. Reviewers are adequate enough at determining the general reception of a game/ movie/ whatever, but they almost always miss the niche market or whatever opinion isn't popular. If your tastes veer from the norm (and everyone's do to some extent), chances are the review will not match your own opinion.
I have noticed though, that the gaming media are particularly aggressive and polarized in their views. I think that this comes from the fact that the media are made up predominantly of people who are gamers themselves, so they have difficulty separating their own preferences (consoles, genre, whatever) from the subject that they are reviewing.
Knowing this, and seeing as the level of education, ethics and integrity is likely not to change anytime soon, I think reviews should generally be handled by a gamer who is passionate about the genre that they are to be examining. Having the FPS guy review FPS titles will give the fans an idea of what they're in for. Having the FPS guy review a JRPG or party game is just a recipe for frustration.
Ideally, we would have balanced, platform-agnostic, intelligent gamers who could look at a game, outline it's merits and flaws and explain their reasoning behind them.
Oh, and numerical review scores should be abolished. We'd have far more civil discussions around here if people could only argue "merits" and "flaws" instead of resorting to harping over a number.
I agree with your blog. It comes down to personal preference on what you like or not. However review determine two major things.
1st. How the game is going to be received. Is there going to be tons of praise for the game or is it going to be cast off.
2nd. They determine how much a game sell. Take a look at Medal of Honor After IGN and others (I say IGN because they're one of the biggest gamming sites) gave Medal of Honor "bad" reviews the value of EA's stock dropped 10%.
The problem with many reviews it that someone will play a game once and love it. While still in the Adrenaline of the game they will write a glowing review for it. Than later never play it again. I'm not sure about IGN but I'll willing to bet that they get excited over major games like Mass Effect, Gears, COD, AC, and they play them once than do a review.
Another major problem with reviewing sights is that the review lets their own personal opinion get in the way of review. Take for instance the inFamous review. The person who reviewed it marked the game down because he thought Cole's voice was to "rough". I personally liked Cole's voice. Another example would be Rock Band 3 where the review bashes on people spending money for the new guitar.
We should all just decide what we want to play and not let a reviewer influence our decision. I have bought and played several games that IGN didn't like but I loved.
After seeing GT5 and Castlevania LOS reviews from big sites like IGN and Gamespot... No my friend. Hell, no.
Not even in a thousand years. They don't determine anything at all. It's solely the writer's opinion, nothing else.
There's an old saying around here, a bit rude, that says:
Do you have sex with someone else's dick or with your own ???
Think about it.
the sooner you learn the truth, the better off you are.
With journalistic integrity at an all-time low, review scores are absolutely meaningless. Personally, i find review articles useful only for assessing the amount of content,bugginess and features of a game. Subjective quotes like 'it's a blast to play' or 'derivative,boring and uninspired gameplay' are best left ignored. Obviously even that doesn't work sometimes since there are retarded sites like IGN who are hellbent on spreading misinformations and half-truths.
GT5 is everything i wanted in a driving sim - hard,satisfying,chokefull of content,jaw-dropping gfx and lighting,superb presentation....f*ck the haters, i'm having an awesome time with the game! :)