Game Reviews too light?
- Thread starter Untraditional
- Start date
This.
FrighteningEdge
PSLS Level: Newbie
If a game is good, then tell me it's good. If the game is OMFG GREAT! Then tell me so. Don't sugarcoat it.
Yeah, if you think Kojima fucked up, tell all of his fans and mention him on Twitter. Pity reviews are basically equal to not being reviewed. You don't just give a score based on what you hoped to find in the game or because you think it'll get better in the next installment. I really liked GZ on PS4, but I wouldn't give it a 7! That's bizarre!
Timewarp
PSLS Level: Bronze
Have you tried telling fans any form of criticism? Don't get me wrong as I mentioned I don't think reviewers should give out high scores based on what fans of the franchise might say, that's cowardly and is ignoring a big issue in the games industry but I wouldn't go directly to the fans.
That's just asking for trouble. Although from a psychological point of view I'd like to know what has to happen for a human being to tie the quality of a product into their own self-worth, hasen't anyone here ever thought of that? I feel generally bad for a person who's actually getting upset because Uncharted 3 got a 7/10, that kind of person has to have a terriable home life that a video game getting a positive review is part of what keeps them together mentally.
BigPete7978
PSLS Level: Silver
Well I think that's what's flawed with scores in general. A 7/10 is viewed as "bad" or "just ok". There have been games that have been ranked 4/10 that I have enjoyed. Yes I have reviewed games, but at the end of the day you can't please everyone with your viewpoint of a review.
My point was that MGSV:GZ is a good game, but it isn't good enough to be a 7/10. There are 9 numbers below 10, and 5 should be around average. In that case, I would give MGSV:GZ a 5. It didn't give me anything new beyond the beautiful graphics and tease for the next installment. Was it a solid $30 PS4 experience for me? Yes. Would I recommend it to fans of the franchise? Definitely. I would even recommend it to other people like me who played the first MGS on PS1 and then bailed on the rest of the series until this game came out. However, it's not that great as a standalone game for a new person entering the franchise, which limits its highest potential only to fanboys and people clamouring for The Phantom Pain.
I don't remember if I read a review on PSLS for it. Is there one up already?
Edit: By PSLS Review Policy guidelines, that warrants a 6.
It is coming
BigPete7978
PSLS Level: Silver
Exactly. A 5/10 is supposed to be viewed as an average title that people will still find as enjoyable. Yet it seems as if there is a 6 or 7/10 a game isn't worthy. Which is absurd.
Indeed. The social dynamic of the industry has been completely mucked up for at least a decade now. And it is only seemingly getting worse.
I know this - I've been playing some serious 5-7 tiered games, and they've been a lot of fun. People need to respect the 5-7 tier!
Timewarp
PSLS Level: Bronze
I know right? I have no idea where this idea that 5-8 are bad scores. I think for some guys it's since games reviewers have a closer relationship to their audience so some people think they've been directly betrayed when a game they like gets a bad review, also I'd say there's always been this negative opinion of critics from what I've seen the media displays the typical critic as a stuck-up jerk who only likes a certain type of movie/TV show/Game/Book so on and hates everything else.
You do get that for example there's been a few times where I'll see a review for a film like Thor: The Dark world and you can tell the critic was determined to hate the film from the opening credits. I don't know sometimes I think people would much rather ignore the problem then try and come up with a solution.
I do think there is some truth to this about the negative opinions of critics but a lot of those critics bring it upon themselves with an sort of elitest attitude.
That's easy. How many schools view anything below 70 as a failing grade? 69 or below was an F my entire school career, and that's the same for a lot of the East Coast. Game reviews are screwed right out of the gate because not only are the people reading the review taught to think any grade below a "70" (i.e., 7/10, 3.5/5 and so on) is bad; the very reviewers themselves may never have learned this lesson.
So a 70 is barely above passing, an 80 is good, but 90's and 100's are what people think is great.
Then this just tells me they failed at being properly educated.
MakaiOokami
PSLS Level: Bronze
Here are my 20 cents.
companies like IGN suck at their job. Disgaea 4 wasn't 3 or 4 points better than Disgaea 3. They just didn't like the graphics. They were one of the few companies that gave it lower than an 8. I think they even did a Vita review and gave it what it SHOULD have been reviewed the first time around. The guy doing Disgaea 3 didn't even know much about the series.
However an even bigger issue is that a lot of companies get paid for good reviews, and some developers don't get bonuses UNLESS they hit a metacritic minimum. You don't want to build your games to appease reviewers you want to make your games fun and addictive and know your audience.
So I think game reviews are a detriment UNLESS the video capture is done well enough that you can make some of your own judgements. If I watch a review it's from Gametrailers and I generally disregard the score. Some awesome games are 5s. Some cruddy games are 8 *cough cough* when you building a new engine for CoD? *cough cough*
And then you have stuff like the CoD Vita game which was reviewed horribly, deserved every bad review it got, but... for some reason people love it.
I won't talk bad about other websites but I do think some of these bigger websites tend to have issues giving JRPG reviews to the one guy on their staff who has ZERO experience with them. White Knight Chronicles and the Disgaea series are ones where I noticed some websites giving rather subpar reviews from people who had no idea what an RPG was.
MakaiOokami
PSLS Level: Bronze
Yeah IGN is the most active game reviewing site.
They are also 1 of the 14 that gave it lower than a 7.5 and they gave it a 67 which is one of the lowest scores of the "reputable" companies.
They churn out reviews. They don't actually care about helping people spend their money. The real question is how many people would have loved White Knight Chronicles without IGN's ability to make people IGNorant. Cross-Edge that had a lot of bad reviews, well a lot of people liked that game and peopel I didn't expect to like it liked it, and people I expected to love it hated it.
I will say one bad thing.. Their WKC review mentioned the online, which is a HUGE part of the game, in only a 2 sentence paragraph. In my opinion, you just can't do that.
Timewarp
PSLS Level: Bronze
The only problem I have with IGN is that so many people take them at their word when honestly I don't think you can trust any of their reviewers, the big games always get the big scores and while a few of them deserved them no doubt it makes you wonder how can anyone trust them when they say a game is a 9/10?
I don't think IGN are in anyone's pockets although I do think their afraid of how the publishers of some of these big games will react when we have stories like Gamespot firing a guy over a negative Kane and Lynch review. (I'll stop now before I go on another rant about how games publishers should have no say over how a games review is written)
I don't think IGN are in anyone's pockets although I do think their afraid of how the publishers of some of these big games will react when we have stories like Gamespot firing a guy over a negative Kane and Lynch review. (I'll stop now before I go on another rant about how games publishers should have no say over how a games review is written)
