Final Fantasy XVI (FF16) [PS5]

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This game is gonna be one of a number of recent examples, many PS5-exclusive titles coincidentally or not coincidentally, that are far more mixed in reception by real gamers in reality than their ultra hyped review scores would suggest.

Seriously, review scores are becoming completely useless nowadays. It seems like everything is scored by hype and little else. It's not that I'm saying FFXVI is a bad game or anything, but like with some other titles, that it has almost nothing but 9/10 or 10/10 scores is ridiculous. When you actually read what people are playing it are saying, it clearly should have had more than a few reviews giving it a lower score and not liking it that much.

Major review outlets really just do seem to score games by hype nowadays. And again, I'm not suggesting FFXVI is a bad game. It seems very clear many people really like it. But there should at least be some reviews out there representing the flaws better. And this seems very rare. Which is a huge failure of the games media. If you're really wondering if you should buy a 'super hyped' game, dont look at major outlet reviews. Wait til real people are playing it.
 
This game is gonna be one of a number of recent examples, many PS5-exclusive titles coincidentally or not coincidentally, that are far more mixed in reception by real gamers in reality than their ultra hyped review scores would suggest.

Seriously, review scores are becoming completely useless nowadays. It seems like everything is scored by hype and little else. It's not that I'm saying FFXVI is a bad game or anything, but like with some other titles, that it has almost nothing but 9/10 or 10/10 scores is ridiculous. When you actually read what people are playing it are saying, it clearly should have had more than a few reviews giving it a lower score and not liking it that much.

Major review outlets really just do seem to score games by hype nowadays. And again, I'm not suggesting FFXVI is a bad game. It seems very clear many people really like it. But there should at least be some reviews out there representing the flaws better. And this seems very rare. Which is a huge failure of the games media. If you're really wondering if you should buy a 'super hyped' game, dont look at major outlet reviews. Wait til real people are playing it.
The Metacritic differential between editorial and user is only .5.
 
I can certainly see this game being many people's GOTY for 2023. Of course, the year is only half over, so there's plenty of time for more challengers.

Regards,
SB
 
So, the demo let me down, but I bought the game, and I'm approx. 25 hours in now.

I really don't get how so many gamers can hype this game so much. On the tech side, even if it's not the most important thing, while it's quite good in some cinematics, it's most of the time last gen level overall. It's pretty soft even in resolution mode, it's pretty empty, the animations are subpars. The lighting is weird. In some scenes/places, it's very good, you may have the impression ray tracing is involved, but most of the time it's really a let down. I was a fan of FF15, and going back to corridor style FF16 is a deception for me. Mostly because the corridors have nearly 0 interesting thing to do or to discover. It's not even pretty, so I won't roam around like I can do in Witcher 3 for exemple.
The loading are quick, but I'm pretty sure the dev started on PS4, because you have a lot of fake loading zone (the classic go under some debris, slow opening of doors (why to I have to press R2 for 2 seconds...), etc).

Most importantly, is it fun ? Well, for somebody like me who like discovering a world, nope. It's pretty boring, and not as interesting as FF15 was. It's pretty un-ambitious. I remember Yoshi P saying that the dev was easy. Well no sh*t. The combats are very action oriented. I'm not a fan, I could deal with them if I liked the game better, but they're doing nothing for me. You have a lot of skills and techniques possible, but it's pretty useless, you can do fine with 6-7 of them. Not that I was never a fan of devil may cry or stuff like that. So, since I'm not a fan of the combat, the gameplay loop is not good for someone like me. Combats that I don't care about => walking from A to B in a empty world (thx god I've a chocobo know so it's faster), waiting for the next cut scene and the next plot point, aaannnd that's it. The story seems decent so far, but nothing surprising or out of the ordinary.

In a maybe weird way, I feel like I'm playing God of War again, in a fantastic/medieval setup. Which is not bad on paper, but for all the above reason, I'm really not clicking with any of it. I'm finishing the game despite of that, but it will be quickly forgotten by me. Less by my wallet.
 
The Metacritic differential between editorial and user is only .5.
Most people are likely still playing it. And really, Metacritic? :/

Anybody paying attention to widespread opinions online from those playing it will be able to see that opinions on the game are a LOT more mixed than the reviews would suggest would be the case. The consensus is still generally that it's a good game, but so many issues people have with it are absent in basically all major reviews of the game.

I dont know why people are gonna keep pretending that hype doesn't heavily impact reviews at this point. They so very clearly do. And the problem seems to be getting worse.
 
There's this little indie game called Tears of the Kingdom that released a couple of months ago. Then, later this tear there's Spider-man 2, Starfield.

Those are different games with different target players, imo. Unlike when titanfall 2 got released so close with cod and Battlefield.
 
Major review outlets really just do seem to score games by hype nowadays. And again, I'm not suggesting FFXVI is a bad game.

Corporate game journalism (traditional publications) has atracted a lot of consoomer types that are very conformist to whatever the trend or fad of the day is. The kind of people who honestly say shit like "read the room, duh" as if going along with everyone else is justification enough for an opinion. And they ain't even good at room reading actually.
Whenever I watch them talking live they remind me of this guy:

 
that's why we need more demos of games, so people can make their own judgement.
Honestly i was not interested in the game that much, the trailers did not convince me, and I never read reviews because it's always a subjective matter.
But the demo did sold me the game, and i don't regret it.
Perfect game ? Far from it, but i really enjoy my time with with, 50hours in, and almost at the end of the main story, i should finish it this evening after work.
 
probably thats why "influencers" are a thing, and its a huge business. the mass of people, simply cant think for themselves.

also probably why a bunch of publishers will do anticompetitive stuff to control the review scores (e.g. blacklisting media that give low scores). although this is not limited to video games, but also happens on cars....
 
Not everyone likes the game for various reasons. But there are plenty who do, and they shouldent be called shills, consoomers or whatever just because they like what the game is offering

Trust me I'm well aware that there are plenty of reviews dictated by hype out there despite the game itself being mediocre and suffering through constant dev hell (BioShock infinite). I don't think that's what's happening here. Certain people just like what ff16 offers more than others.

And I say that as someone who is excited for rebirth far more than I am to play this title.

If we are going to talk about mass consumer culture and people who can't think for themselves, we can go into much more serious and society reaching matters than disagreeing on a game review
 
So, the demo let me down, but I bought the game, and I'm approx. 25 hours in now.

I really don't get how so many gamers can hype this game so much. On the tech side, even if it's not the most important thing, while it's quite good in some cinematics, it's most of the time last gen level overall. It's pretty soft even in resolution mode, it's pretty empty, the animations are subpars. The lighting is weird. In some scenes/places, it's very good, you may have the impression ray tracing is involved, but most of the time it's really a let down. I was a fan of FF15, and going back to corridor style FF16 is a deception for me. Mostly because the corridors have nearly 0 interesting thing to do or to discover. It's not even pretty, so I won't roam around like I can do in Witcher 3 for exemple.
The loading are quick, but I'm pretty sure the dev started on PS4, because you have a lot of fake loading zone (the classic go under some debris, slow opening of doors (why to I have to press R2 for 2 seconds...), etc).

Most importantly, is it fun ? Well, for somebody like me who like discovering a world, nope. It's pretty boring, and not as interesting as FF15 was. It's pretty un-ambitious. I remember Yoshi P saying that the dev was easy. Well no sh*t. The combats are very action oriented. I'm not a fan, I could deal with them if I liked the game better, but they're doing nothing for me. You have a lot of skills and techniques possible, but it's pretty useless, you can do fine with 6-7 of them. Not that I was never a fan of devil may cry or stuff like that. So, since I'm not a fan of the combat, the gameplay loop is not good for someone like me. Combats that I don't care about => walking from A to B in a empty world (thx god I've a chocobo know so it's faster), waiting for the next cut scene and the next plot point, aaannnd that's it. The story seems decent so far, but nothing surprising or out of the ordinary.

In a maybe weird way, I feel like I'm playing God of War again, in a fantastic/medieval setup. Which is not bad on paper, but for all the above reason, I'm really not clicking with any of it. I'm finishing the game despite of that, but it will be quickly forgotten by me. Less by my wallet.
I find your rant unjustifiable personally. It has nothing to do with hype. People just like it more than you do
 
Corporate game journalism (traditional publications) has atracted a lot of consoomer types that are very conformist to whatever the trend or fad of the day is. The kind of people who honestly say shit like "read the room, duh" as if going along with everyone else is justification enough for an opinion. And they ain't even good at room reading actually.
Whenever I watch them talking live they remind me of this guy:

I love those actors :ROFLMAO:
They are the best
 
The more I progress into the game the better looking environments get.

I could almost buy this game for the music! It reminds me playing the first time some SNES games with glorious music. I thought it was nostalgia speaking but apparently it's just about talent. :unsure:
 
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