Author Topic: Video game reviews are just pathetic  (Read 12785 times)

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Offline Unknown Target

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Video game reviews are just pathetic
I'm sorry, but I had to let this out. I was browsing through digg and saw this. "The Best Shooter of 2007". I'm sorry, wasn't that Bioshock a few months ago? And another game a few months before that? And Crysis coming up soon? Since when did video game reviewers become so completely biased that every game with a large studio behind them with a lot of advertising dollars behind them immediately gets a 10/10 score? I know other people are bothered about this too, maybe we could post some "trustworthy" game review sites that aren't all hype? Personally, I use Gamespot, which is generally quite good for PC games.

EDIT: Moved, even mods make mistakes :D
« Last Edit: November 06, 2007, 03:46:01 pm by Unknown Target »

 

Offline CP5670

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Re: Video game reviews are just pathetic
We have a "best game of all time" coming out every few months these days. 10/10 is the norm for any major release, regardless of its quality. I bet Big Rigs would have gotten 10/10 if it had been hyped as much as Bioshock or Crysis. :p

Gamespot was good at one point but has become increasingly useless over the years. I don't trust any one site these days. I generally look at Metacritic, which just averages the scores of 30 or so other review sites, along with user opinions on forums that I frequent.

This should be in gaming, by the way.

 

Offline Nuke

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Re: Video game reviews are just pathetic
its easy, the reviewer gets a free copy in exchange for a good rating :D in the engd you get a string of 10/10 games and thus the rating system is useless. play the demo, if you like it, buy/steal the game. easy as pi. let it be sorta known that i usually dont pirate games because i respect the effort that goes into them.  when i do pirate a game though, its usually because i find their buisness practices distasteful (microsoft) or the game is so old its hard to get
I can no longer sit back and allow communist infiltration, communist indoctrination, communist subversion, and the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

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Offline Jeff Vader

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Re: Video game reviews are just pathetic
let it be sorta known that i usually dont pirate games because i respect the effort that goes into them.  when i do pirate a game though, its usually because i find their buisness practices distasteful (microsoft) or the game is so old its hard to get
I hear that. FreeSpaces are one example. You just can't find either of them in Finland without cats and dogs and Aragorn, and even then it's kind of tricky. As for Nitro$oft, I actually bought Freelancer. Of course I waited for the price to drop to 14.95€ (=$21.75 =20.06CAD =2 495JPY). No way I'm ever going to pay full price for a product that says Microsoft somewhere along the manufacturing cycle.
23:40 < achillion > EveningTea: ass
23:40 < achillion > wait no
23:40 < achillion > evilbagel: ass
23:40 < EveningTea > ?
23:40 < achillion > 2-letter tab complete failure

14:08 < achillion > there's too much talk of butts and dongs in here
14:08 < achillion > the level of discourse has really plummeted
14:08 < achillion > Let's talk about politics instead
14:08 <@The_E > butts and dongs are part of #hard-light's brand now
14:08 <@The_E > well
14:08 <@The_E > EvilBagel's brand, at least

01:06 < T-Rog > welp
01:07 < T-Rog > I've got to take some very strong antibiotics
01:07 < achillion > penis infection?
01:08 < T-Rog > Chlamydia
01:08 < achillion > O.o
01:09 < achillion > well
01:09 < achillion > I guess that happens
01:09 < T-Rog > at least it's curable
01:09 < achillion > yeah
01:10 < T-Rog > I take it you weren't actually expecting it to be a penis infection
01:10 < achillion > I was not

14:04 < achillion > Sometimes the way to simplify is to just have a habit and not think about it too much
14:05 < achillion > until stuff explodes
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15:47 < EvilBagel> butt
15:51 < Achillion> yes
15:53 <-INFO > EveningTea [[email protected]] has quit [Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client]

18:53 < Achillion> Dicks are fun

21:41 < MatthTheGeek> you can't spell assassin without two asses

20:05 < sigtau> i'm mining titcoins from now on

00:31 < oldlaptop> Drunken antisocial educated freezing hicks with good Internet == Finland stereotype

11:46 <-INFO > Kobrar [[email protected]] has joined #hard-light
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11:51 <-INFO > Kobrar [[email protected]] has left #hard-light []

 

Offline BloodEagle

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Re: Video game reviews are just pathetic
Never trust any review for a game before it is released. Always wait at least one week after a game is released before looking for reviews.

 

Offline Sarafan

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Re: Video game reviews are just pathetic
Are you realizing this now? ;) Take a look at the reviews of Unreal 2, one of the worst games ever and they gave it 9s and 10s. :rolleyes:

The worse of it was what the reviewers got from Microsoft to review Halo 3. Nothing less than $800 gifts, for me that's the same as a bribe.

 

Offline Mars

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Re: Video game reviews are just pathetic
I'm proud to mostly play a 8.9 / 10 game  :D

ETQW ftw

 
Re: Video game reviews are just pathetic
Stuff like this is exactly why I don't listen to game reviews. At least, those made by people actually paid to review something. I tend to listen more intently to player reviews, like they have on GameFAQs, since they don't have to write the review, the review is more likely to have some elements of truth in it.

But then again, I often enjoy games that most people seem to not like, so I don't give reviews all that much heed, if I give them any at all.
"You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?" -DEATH, Discworld

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Offline Mefustae

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Re: Video game reviews are just pathetic
Personally, I use Gamespot, which is generally quite good for PC games.
Yeah, I sorta gave up on Gamespot after they gave Perfect Dark: Zero a 9 out of 10. :doubt:

 

Offline Polpolion

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Re: Video game reviews are just pathetic
Are you realizing this now? ;) Take a look at the reviews of Unreal 2, one of the worst games ever and they gave it 9s and 10s. :rolleyes:

I liked Unreal 2 :(.

 

Offline Mr. Vega

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Re: Video game reviews are just pathetic
Gamespot has been susceptible to overrating the really overhyped games, but outside that they're pretty damn accurate. Well, ok, they've always way underrated the really great games - they gave Thief I a 9.1, The Longest Journey a 9.3, and Deus Ex a frelling 8.2! And they used different scales for different genres- their FPS ratings were pretty accurate after you took off three to four tenths of a point - but they were pretty consistent within each genre, and a lot of times they gave high scores to games that deserved it when a lot of other sites wouldn't - they did give FS2 a 9.4 after all.

But the best game reviewer out there is without a doubt Steerpike. Read his Bioshock review, and rejoice:

http://fourfatchicks.com/Reviews/Bioshock/Bioshock.shtml
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Offline Dark RevenantX

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Re: Video game reviews are just pathetic
Bloody ****ing hell...

Now THAT'S a review.


Comes to show how much all the other reviews suck...

 

Offline BloodEagle

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Re: Video game reviews are just pathetic
That's a nice find.  :)

 

Offline Sarafan

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Re: Video game reviews are just pathetic
Are you realizing this now? ;) Take a look at the reviews of Unreal 2, one of the worst games ever and they gave it 9s and 10s. :rolleyes:

I liked Unreal 2 :(.

Well, boy, sorry to break it to you but the truth is that thing sucks. A lot. :blah:

Joking of course. ;)

No offense, I just dont like that game.

 

Offline watsisname

Re: Video game reviews are just pathetic
If only more game reviewers could be like Yahtzee Croshaw. :D 
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Offline Dark RevenantX

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Re: Video game reviews are just pathetic
Unreal 2 was too short and limited.  Aside from that, though, it was fine.

On the subject of reviewers, it is my belief that there is a hidden market for stars or points going on between reviewer sites and publishing companies.  $500 to change a 7 to an 8, $1000 to change an 8 to a 9.

 

Offline CP5670

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Re: Video game reviews are just pathetic
Quote
Are you realizing this now?  Take a look at the reviews of Unreal 2, one of the worst games ever and they gave it 9s and 10s.

Unreal 2's average score on Metacritic is 75/100, which I wouldn't call overrated at all. It had some very unique weapons and level environments for its time, even if the story was lousy and the game had no connection to the first Unreal.

Quote
Gamespot has been susceptible to overrating the really overhyped games, but outside that they're pretty damn accurate. Well, ok, they've always way underrated the really great games - they gave Thief I a 9.1, The Longest Journey a 9.3, and Deus Ex a frelling 8.2! And they used different scales for different genres- their FPS ratings were pretty accurate after you took off three to four tenths of a point - but they were pretty consistent within each genre, and a lot of times they gave high scores to games that deserved it when a lot of other sites wouldn't - they did give FS2 a 9.4 after all.

But the best game reviewer out there is without a doubt Steerpike. Read his Bioshock review, and rejoice:

http://fourfatchicks.com/Reviews/Bioshock/Bioshock.shtml

You're looking at Gamespot's old reviews when they were generally very good. They have come down a long way since then.

I don't see what's so great about that Bioshock review. It exhibits the same flaws I see in most reviews these days; it goes into lots of unnecessary detail about the story without talking much about the game itself, and it's done by a console reviewer with obviously lower standards than a dedicated PC reviewer. This particular one is admittedly a general, platform-independent review but I see this in most reviews of PC games these days; they simply review the 360 version and slap the same review on the PC section of the site. The most extreme example of this in recent times was probably Splinter Cell: Double Agent, where the PC version got quite high scores on most of the major sites despite being essentially non-completable due to bugs.

I'm only through about a fourth of the game (haven't had much time to play anything recently :() but my impression so far is this game is to SS2 what Invisible War was to Deus Ex. A pretty good game, but considerably dumbed down and consolized from its predecessor. It's similar to SS2 in many ways as people say, but it seems to have retained too many of the bad things from SS2 and not enough of the good things.

My favorite review of this game is the Zero Punctuation one. I don't agree with some of the finer details, but he's got the general idea dead right. :D
« Last Edit: November 06, 2007, 11:12:12 pm by CP5670 »

 

Offline Unknown Target

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Re: Video game reviews are just pathetic
I found that review pretty lousy, actually (the four fat chicks one). It was essentially him stroking his literary ego, hardly talking about the game itself - basically trying to turn what should be an article for consumers to get an easy picture of the game and whether it's worth their money into their own English essay.


Zero Punctuation is amazing though.

 
Re: Video game reviews are just pathetic
Are you realizing this now? ;) Take a look at the reviews of Unreal 2, one of the worst games ever and they gave it 9s and 10s. :rolleyes:

I liked Unreal 2 :(.

I liked Unreal 2 too... far better than that horrible farcry... farcra*
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Offline Mefustae

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Re: Video game reviews are just pathetic
Zero Punctuation is amazing though.
QF-****ing-T.

Honest, succinct, and some of the funniest stuff i've seen in a good long while.