Reviews
Reviews are
a really a hard thing, either they are right on or they are way off. I do have
to say that reviews do help me in choosing a game that I would like to buy and
play, but I feel it is the game reviews that are posted on line or just another
player’s review on it, are the ones that I value the most. Major newspapers
tend to be either really weak in the details, or have the stupid ten point grading
scale. I do agree that comparing new games to old games doesn’t always work. For
me, it doesn’t work because I might not have played them before that, or I didn’t
like that game. I am not a huge gamer,
so I do not really like the comparison point of view because I do not run out
and buy all the major titles so it tends to be rather useless to tell me its
like this and that game combined.
As for the
grading scale, who really decides what the ranking means? Is it like doctors
pain scale where a frowning face with a tear drop is a six? I don’t know. It
seems like a quick fix to someone who doesn’t have time to play the game and
tell you how they really feel about it. I can disagree with the rating scale as
well, because something that has been giving an eight I might not like playing,
but something given a five I might love to death. So yes the ten out of ten
scale is just pointless and a copout.
I do like reading
reviews from people who actually played the game. People who have devote a lot of
time and energy, tend to go into a lot of details, and it helps you get a better
sense of the game and describes to you about the game play and provides to you
the background story. They also tend introduce the characters and their roles
in the game. The more in depth the review is the better. A great review to me
would list the games faults as well as the games successes. You can’t have a
perfect game so having the flaws pointing out to you; you are warned before you
purchase a game. It is when they give you
the pros and cons to a game you know that they have a good grasp of what you
are looking for.
I also like games reviews that are based from people's experience with playing the game. They are the ones who I would listen to. They have devoted many hours to playing these games and look for every flaw as well as every great milestone in games. I feel as if they know what they are talking about more than the experts; I'm referring to the newspaper writers who probably never laid a finger on a sort of controller. They are the ones who are being paid to rate games. Who knows, I'm sure this is not the case, but maybe big gaming companies pay those people to write good reviews and make bias comments. Just a thought but I totally agree with trusting the person who has played the game.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the grading system. The review shouldn't focus so much on how good the reviewer perceives the game to be so much as describing what makes the game good (or bad) and why it is (or isn't) fun to play. They can put whatever rating they want on the review of the game, but the reader knows what he or she likes, and will decide for themselves if it's worth playing.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you on the whole pointing out the flaws of games bit. I also do not like the 10 out of 10 point system. But I understand that it is used, maybe not for someone like me, but for someone who needs that type of information to help them make a decision. I think you did a good job on the blog though can't wait to read more.
ReplyDeleteAbout the ten point scale, I agree. Giving a game a low score makes the statement "This game is bad." Well, maybe, but only according to the one person reviewing the game. I personally, might think this is the best game in the whole world. I think, as far a reviewing goes, we should move away from ten point scales, to talking about games more like "If you like this type of game, you might like this." or "If this aspect of gaming is important to you, stay away from this game."
ReplyDeleteI agree with your take on video game reviews. They're good for getting an idea what a game is about but you should never base all your thoughts on one review. I have no use for the 10 point scale because the person reviewing the game may not be a fan of the genre or series if it's a sequel or based on a pre-existing story such as comic books. When I read reviews I can usually tell whether or not they are a fan so I take that into account while reading through their comments. For example, I just bought Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 which didn't get great reviews by the "average" reviewer, but I loved the game because I'm a fan of Marvel. Almost every reviewer is biased in some way or another. That's just the way the world works.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a big fan of reading on-line reviews either. Most of the time it seems like that person just wants to be heard or feel like they're important.
ReplyDeleteAs for the grading system, yeah I like your analogy, it really is an iffy topic. Some people like them some do not. If sure if you found a game reviewer that tended to like the same games as you, and feel the same way about them, then the grading scale might not be so of. However just reading anyone's grade for a game probably isn't the wisest idea.
While I don't really like the value statement that comes from scoring games ("In my opinion, game X is worth a 8/10), I still find them useful on occasion. When you're familiar with a publication or individual's style and begin to understand them as a gamer/institution, then you can, generally, gauge how you'll feel about a game by the score. This is because in situations like this, the score is standardized; excellent artistic design and execution might net at most +2 points, sound +1, and any variant in between for other metrics. What this does is create an aggregate score that lets you know, in general, how the game stacks up to others that group has looked at.
ReplyDeleteThis idea completely collapses when you take into consideration even a second website or review - each of them seem to have their own system. I think that the x/10 metric would be far more valid if the industry as a whole could decide on a common standard, like the rail industry did with the size of rail lines in the early 19th century.