I know I tend to like games that get 6's and 7's more so than the AAA titles that get near perfect reviews.
Rumored "bad news" incoming about Sony review event, game reviews, or something completely different
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This reminded me of that NoelGallagher fellow that would pop in to TXB every so often and create a BS thread about how some game sucks because he watched the whole thing on YouTube.
I do feel bad for journalists. They are the ones that have to fight this and not agree to it knowing that their reviews will pan out to be more accurate in the long run. For the most part, I'll continue to get impressions from communities I trust and base my purchases on that. The sites that do go along with these new policies will become obvious if this is truly the new norm.
Thanks, MW.
Gaming fanboys have pushed the idea that reviews are inaccurate or biased, but I have found them to be incredibly accurate over the years based on my own experience. Some of you don't like the fact that Shadow Run or Alpha Protocol got bad reviews (for example) and that destroyed those games. Some of you would rather have people going in blind and wasting a ton of money each month on crappy buggy games instead of being able to read reviews and check out a median score to determine if a game is worth picking up or not.
A lot of great developers would have been lost in the shuffle if not for their games being a favorite of critics. Irrational Games, Bethesda, Bioware, etc. etc. all probably wouldn't exist if all we had to go on was a cool looking box cover.
I understand why Sessler is so upset. It's incredibly dishonest to write a review for a game you haven't played. On top of that, having a secret review contract is even worse. This is the kind of stuff that will destroy gaming.
Gaming fanboys have pushed the idea that reviews are inaccurate or biased, but I have found them to be incredibly accurate over the years based on my own experience. Some of you don't like the fact that Shadow Run or Alpha Protocol got bad reviews (for example) and that destroyed those games. Some of you would rather have people going in blind and wasting a ton of money each month on crappy buggy games instead of being able to read reviews and check out a median score to determine if a game is worth picking up or not.
A lot of great developers would have been lost in the shuffle if not for their games being a favorite of critics. Irrational Games, Bethesda, Bioware, etc. etc. all probably wouldn't exist if all we had to go on was a cool looking box cover.
I understand why Sessler is so upset. It's incredibly dishonest to write a review for a game you haven't played. On top of that, having a secret review contract is even worse. This is the kind of stuff that will destroy gaming.
I don't fell sorry for them. Go read Jeff Gerstmann of Giantbomb's blog. He's not getting worked up over it (if it is true) because it only effects those sites that rely heavily on the number of "page views" generated on reviews posted prior to a game's launch. Journalists can still write all they want and whatever they like......once the game has been released. I honestly don't have a problem with a developer protecting their product (even if it is sh*tty) from some of these crappy sites (IGN) that destroy it before it even hits the open market. Then again it is a double edged sword, because developers do rely on these same sites to promote their product while it is in development. Interesting to say the least.
Yeah, most of the time. Still, there are times when I like to see the reviews for a game I'm anticipating. Even if it doesn't change my purchasing decision, it's interesting to see how the game turned out, and it makes for good discussion. And sometimes, I use reviews to alert me to a game's shortcomings, so that I can either wait longer to buy or lower my expectations going in.
So it's limited to reviews that are published prior to release? That's not so bad.
Yeah. If theres a game Im heavily interested in, a great review of it only confirms my decision. Thats what happened with GTA V recently.
Unfortunately that is what I did with games like COD 4, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, etc. Reading IGN and other review sites, I bought into the hype over and over again only to be let down in the end. Shame on me. I have nobody to blame but myself. I'm changing things up this gen. I'm just going to come here and see what all you knuckleheads have to say
More reason to believe the gaming industry needs to crash IMO.
I think it's that devs want to either focus on their review scores, or remove Metacritic out of the equation.
Take the recent reviews of Sonic: Lost Word. It was filled with mixed opinions (both good and bad) but all people are looking at is "Dat 63..." on Metacritic.
Adam Sessler has mentioned several times that the industry take the scores on that site incredibly seriously, and even base some business decisions off them.
At the same time, this pretty much amounts to clear reviewer dishonesty, because if they are allowed reject the bad reviews, and only include the good ones, then the consumer is clearly being manipulated.
I don't see how that is not clear to some of you.
Take the recent reviews of Sonic: Lost Word. It was filled with mixed opinions (both good and bad) but all people are looking at is "Dat 63..." on Metacritic.
Adam Sessler has mentioned several times that the industry take the scores on that site incredibly seriously, and even base some business decisions off them.
At the same time, this pretty much amounts to clear reviewer dishonesty, because if they are allowed reject the bad reviews, and only include the good ones, then the consumer is clearly being manipulated.
I don't see how that is not clear to some of you.
If it does come to pass, it's certainly going to make me very skeptical of any pre-release reviews. If I were a reviewer, I would never agree to those conditions, and I would have to wonder about the ones who did.
Maybe MS and Sony will incorporate a "rate this" option like we've seen on Netflix. Different individuals in the community who own the game can rate it for themselves, and that is translated in a 1 to 5 star rating based on the general opinion of those who've played the game and so forth.... That'd be pretty cool especially for DD's.
Right. There's really no way they can do this for anything post release. Anyone can write a review about a game they bought themselves.
With that said, I'm not too concerned about this at all. Like Bunz said, I usually know which games I'm getting long before they come out. If I do wait on reviews, then I'm not getting the game right at launch anyway so nothing will change.
That would be cool, actually having a netflix style recommendation algorithm would be great.
Wow, could have sworn I had seen like a rating system before (done in stars like Amazon). Maybe I was dreaming? lol
Probably seen so many sites and such using it. But no, I dont believe its a feature on Xbox Live. Not to my knowledge.
I'm 100% positive you are correct that there are ratings on XBL. I don't think there are on PSN, though.
Bad reviews, even if accurate, cost the game industry lots of money. This is a deliberate ploy, by one or more members of the industry, to blunt the negative effect of pre-game release publicity--and pre-console release publicity for that matter. If you're proud of your product, you're not going to be ashamed of showing it. If, however, you fear it's quality may be off the mark, you would want to limit public access, pre-launch, to blunt the effect negative publicity would have on initial sales.
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Yes, 1-5 stars and they are pretty much on every game, dlc, and video page on Xbox store whether online or on Xbox.
Edit-Just checked and PSN has them, too.
Does this apply to new games or most recent releases too? If not, that could be the difference I think. I'm not searching for them on live. My wife is on my damn 360..... Friggin Continuum
Pretty sure its available for everything. I don't really pay attention. Id much rather get impressions from you guys.
Is it still all about Sony and that controlled environment for the reviews? We haven't heard anything about MS doing something similar yet, which would be a very good thing, kinda setting a better example i guess. And they did after all say on Twitter that it doesn't have anything to do with Xbox. Next week should bring a lot more clarity. Is it known if its only for the third party games or first party too?
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