What do we want from game reviews?

[Sigfried1977]

Well I finally completed the game.

Overall I thought it was a solid game - 7.5/10 - I don't understand the bad reviews at all, I can see this getting a 6 from some areas but lower seems like clickbait rubbish.

Why is a negative review automatically clickbait rubbish? I think GTA IV is a 4/10 game at best. I think I can back that up pretty well too. Why do game reviews have to exist in some arbitrary, inoffensive Goldilocks Zone to be taken seriously? Film reviews are all over the place most of the time too.

Here's another aspect of this particular business people conveniently ignore when they make their baseless clickbait accusation: harsh reviews may generate a bit more traffic for your site, but they also threaten the incestuous relationship any given site has with a publisher. Jeapardizing vital ad campaigns from the folks you've just pissed off over a couple more clicks is not worth it.

 

[goonergaz]

It's my opinion, there's no way this game is a 4/10 for example (Edge)...there's games I don't like that others might like, I suggest if a game is disliked that much by a reviewer maybe that person shouldn't be reviewing it - just look at the Drive Club review on Eurogamer vs the Digital Foundry comments (IIRC) - you are representing your mangazine and readership and as such need to offer a balanced review and score, not a personal one.

It's much like when asking recommendations on games, I'd rather listen to someone I 'trust' which Ironically is a forum (be it here or GAF).

 

[Sigfried1977]

I can totally see how someone might despise The Order. More so than with most other games. And what's the point in even having reviews if liking them first is a prerequisite for writing about them? Sure, I wouldn't let someone review a FIFA game if that person dislikes soccer or sports games in general, but that's most likely not what happened in the Order's case. Jeff Gerstman is pretty much Giabtbomb's shooter guy, so why should he not have reviewed it.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Why is a negative review automatically clickbait rubbish?

You know very well this isn't about negative reviews. It's about reviews with contradictory arguments about whether or not the game is good, and how far away those arguments stand from all the other reviewers (which is not an absolute evaluation but certainly a raised flag)

I think GTA IV is a 4/10 game at best. I think I can back that up pretty well too.

You should be reviewing videogame genres that you don't enjoy as much as I should be reviewing different types of broccoli. Which is none.

Film reviews are all over the place most of the time too.

And look how well that went.

Here's another aspect of this particular business people conveniently ignore when they make their baseless clickbait accusation: harsh reviews may generate a bit more traffic for your site, but they also threaten the incestuous relationship any given site has with a publisher. Jeapardizing vital ad campaigns from the folks you've just pissed off over a couple more clicks is not worth it.

Citation needed.

 

[chris1515]

I can totally see how someone might despise The Order. More so than with most other games. And what's the point in even having reviews if liking them first is a prerequisite for writing about them? Sure, I wouldn't let someone review a FIFA game if that person dislikes soccer or sports games in general, but that's most likely not what happened in the Order's case. Jeff Gerstman is pretty much Giabtbomb's shooter guy, so why should he not have reviewed it.

A tester need to be a bit objective. It is not totally a personal opinion. After I like site with specialist by type of game. It gives some credibility to a review and consistency between review on the same genre. Another interesting things could be a little box with second opinion. I give the Order a 6,5/10 after finishing the game three times. After the first time I would have give it 7/10 because some good things and impress by graphics but many weakness.. I disagree with only two review for the Order 1886 , the 20/100 and the 95/100... I am not shocked by the mixed metacritic average.

DriveClub is a bit underrated, I think it was a 80/81 game when the review without online problem were done. After all update and a GOTY version can be a 90/91 games. I play a little to Forza Horizon 2 at friend house and I don't understand how this game receive only a metacritic of 88, it is a 93/94 games at least.

Another problem with review they never punish enough a too easy game like Infamous Second Son.

I find most of the time Metacritic average is a good indication.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Another problem with review they never punish enough a too easy game like Infamous Second Son.

1) Easiness is subjective.l Some people have better skills than others. 2) Some people like an easier game that's stress free. So why should different values be 'punished'? Just mention its easy/not and let the buyers decide if that's a good or bad thing based on their own values.

 

[chris1515]

1) Easiness is subjective.l Some people have better skills than others. 2) Some people like an easier game that's stress free. So why should different values be 'punished'? Just mention its easy/not and let the buyers decide if that's a good or bad thing based on their own values.

The problem with Infamous Second Son is a too easy hard mode. We have different level of difficulty and I can't understand hard mode playing like normal. I think all game need a true hard mode and another very hard mode with soul's difficulty. I don't ask normal to be difficult. I like the game but it was too easy.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

I finished Second Son a month ago and I didn't find its "easiness" to be a problem at all.

Yes, the game was rather easy and that just meant I rarely felt frustrated with it. Some of the race events were practically impossible do beat without certain upgrades, though.

 

[goonergaz]

I gave up on Second Son because I found it too hard (don't laugh!) - the new powers meant the buttons I grew used to doing one thing started doing another - my brain had a mental break-down and in the end I gave up. It's why I only ever play one game at a time, because switching between games means re-learning the buttons and I spend too much time floudering than enjoying myself.

Having said that, I will give it another go at some point - probably from the start.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The problem with Infamous Second Son is a too easy hard mode.

I finished Second Son a month ago and I didn't find its "easiness" to be a problem at all.

I gave up on Second Son because I found it too hard (don't laugh!).

See? Easiness is subjective! Chris1515 finding it too easy doesn't mean it is inherently too easy - it's just too easy for him. And a review written by chris1515 giving the game 6/10 saying the game is too easy wouldn't be valid for ToTTenTranz who'd say it was 8/10 even if not too taxing, and goonergaz would say chris1515 was posting click-bait because the game's too hard as it is.

Reviews are inherently subjective. Unless scientific methods are used to generate a mean score based on significant population samples, they always will be. eg. A single reviewer can only express how they found the difficulty. A review that gets 100 people of different gaming backgrounds to play the game and feed back can present an objective average difficulty rating. Well that's basically what aggregate scores do! Read a lot of reviews, you get a lot of different impressions. If 20% say the game's too easy, 60% say it's fine, and 20% say it's too hard, you'll get an idea of where perhaps you fit into that spectrum.

And reviews of reviews are equally subjective. The perfect review for you will be a crap review for someone else.

The solution is easy - Diversity, where people are free to find and choose the material that suits them best and let others find and enjoy different material. No need to force anyone to conform to an ideal.

Spoiler

(and curiously, a philosophy that solves a lot of violence and bloodshed with people having strong views shitting all over history with their attempts to make the world 'perfect')

 

[Deleted member 13524]

I gave up on Second Son because I found it too hard (don't laugh!) - the new powers meant the buttons I grew used to doing one thing started doing another - my brain had a mental break-down and in the end I gave up. It's why I only ever play one game at a time, because switching between games means re-learning the buttons and I spend too much time floudering than enjoying myself.

Having said that, I will give it another go at some point - probably from the start.

As the years passed, I learned that it's better to just be conservative in the difficulty level for single-player games than to spend lots of time adapting to different difficulty curves and getting frustrated frustrated.
Unless you're a pro, games are here to have fun. Don't let a (rather futile) sense of achievement (I beat it on ultra-mega-hard yay..) get in the way of having fun and playing more games.

That said, until I finished college, I'd waste terrible amounts of time playing everything on hard and getting all stupid achievements from all games.
What did I achieve with that? Well my job has nothing to do with games, no girl I met was ever impressed by my skill in videogames. My wife actually avoids playing games with me because she feels the difference in hand-eye coordination using gamepads/KM is too big between us and she hates being a hindrance.
In the end, I just played less games and got angry at a stupid computer more often.


So go ahead and play that thing on Easy. You may think someone will care, but no one does.

 

[goonergaz]

Shifty, I know it's not a 'real' magazine - but I like C&VG because you get the main review and then often and second opinion - I think this is a really good idea, it's only a svery short summary but at least you get more than a single and potentially biased opinion.

ToToTTenTranz, cheers (I might show my son your post!) - I tend to play on normal from the off but it might be worth considering easy for a game I struggle with - like you say, its about the enjoyment

 

[Deleted member 11852]

ToToTTenTranz, cheers (I might show my son your post!) - I tend to play on normal from the off but it might be worth considering easy for a game I struggle with - like you say, its about the enjoyment

I initially had the same problem with ISS. inFamous and Infamous 2 were two games that I loved so much, because the mechanics were just spot on for me, that I played and replayed them both many, many times.

That muscle memory is hard to break. I didn't find the game too hard except the third (?) boss in the arcade playing as good. It's much easier playing evil if you have certain powers.

But I agree with ToToTTenTranz. For me it's a very fine line between challenging and where I'm still enjoying myself and frustrating, where I'm not. I play games to unwind, not to be wound up.

 

[London Geezer]

I gave up on Second Son because I found it too hard (don't laugh!).

BAHAHAHAHAH. Ok sorry. Second Son was perfectly easy/hard enough for what it was. I found it very balanced, and if you spent time upgrading your powers you'd get to the last boss in a very good position. On my second/third play I didn't bother going after the shards so I got to the last boss a bit too underpowered and it took me a little while longer to get through.
In the meantime, I find Alien Isolation a complete pain in my ass-olation.
Very subjective.

 

[Metal_Spirit]

Some of you may remember Crash. A British Speccy magazine. It was a purchase I could not go without!

If memory does not fail me, this magazine evaluated the following:

Graphics:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Value for Money:

Well. even these parameters are a bit subjective, so Crash played with them to fit the game in a score inside this scale (again, from memory):
This, off course, if just a criteria. But better than what most websites do, since they have no criteria at all!

0 - 9 - A seriously flawed game. Not even worth spending time.
10-19 - Several flaws make the game troublesome removing all possible fun from it
20-29 - Seriously flawed product. Frustration is bigger than fun 3
30-39 - Low quality game. Bugs and problems are a constant, killing all the fun
40-49 - This could have been an average game. But its troubles or lack of fun prevent it from reaching a positive score

As you can see, a bellow 50 score was only given to games with problems. An exception was the 40-49 range in which games with no big problems, but with lack of fun would be placed.

50-59 - Average quality game. Could have some small bugs, but is playable and even has some fun, but it fails to stand out.
60-69 - A game with some quality. It also fails to stand out, but has some potential.
70-79 - A quality product. It deserves to be played
80-89 - This game stands out. High quality and a game everybody should play.
90-99 - One of the best of its kind. It stands out. You cannot miss it
100 - A perfect game (theoretical score only)

Reviewers avaluated the game, and placed it inside one of these scores (units were used to compare the game with others of the same type and within the same score range). This was achieved by messing with the partials scores of Graphics, Sound, Gameplay, and Value for money. The last two the most subjective of the bunch.

At a later date, Crash started making reviews using two or even three reviewers (sometimes one of them a woman). Final score was averaged from all the diferente reviewers with diferent tastes.

I believe reviews could be better if they reflected an average of tastes, and used people that like diferent kinds of games. If game reviews had some sort of criteria like this (and not saying this was perfect), and used several reviewers, maybe, just maybe, people took them more seriously.

 

[Xmas]

It's my opinion, there's no way this game is a 4/10 for example (Edge)...there's games I don't like that others might like, I suggest if a game is disliked that much by a reviewer maybe that person shouldn't be reviewing it - just look at the Drive Club review on Eurogamer vs the Digital Foundry comments (IIRC) - you are representing your mangazine and readership and as such need to offer a balanced review and score, not a personal one.

It's much like when asking recommendations on games, I'd rather listen to someone I 'trust' which Ironically is a forum (be it here or GAF).

I'm not sure I understand that last sentence correctly, but let's say you've found a reviewer you can trust, someone you think has a similar taste to your own. Would you then prefer them not to review any game genres they may be biased against?

Personally, I do like to go beyond my comfort zone sometimes, and I think it's valuable information how someone who isn't a fan of the genre might perceive a game, as long as that detail is clearly presented.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I believe reviews could be better if they reflected an average of tastes, and used people that like diferent kinds of games. If game reviews had some sort of criteria like this (and not saying this was perfect), and used several reviewers, maybe, just maybe, people took them more seriously.

That's just stupid though because you average out the diversity.

Marmite review
Reviewer one : Love it! 10/10
Reviewer two: Hate it! 0/10
Reviewer three : Great! 10/10
Reviewer four : Worst 'food' ever! 0/10

Average score from Food Weekly - 50%

Tells you nothing about whether you personally would like it or not. Whereas the source scores, 100%, 100%, 0%, 0%, shows you'll either love it or hate it. If you want an average, you have to provide the range too. And TBH few ordinary Joes probably appreciate how to apply and interpret such info.

 

[goonergaz]

I spit on your Crash and present you with ZZap64!!

Elite Review:

Presentation 94%
Marvellous booklets, informative, funny and convenient
Originality 87%
3D shoot-em-up and trader game, but what a brilliant combination.
Graphics 91%
Wonderful vector graphics showing great 3D action.
Hookability 95%
From your first space flight you know this is a winner.
Sound 52%
Laser blasts, crashing noises, hyperspace and docking sounds.
Lastability 98%
8 galaxies, 2000 planets, endless trading possibilities and tireless action.
Value for Money 95%
Just under ten pounds for an alternative way of life.
Overall 97%
Even at £ 14.95 it's a must.

 

[goonergaz]

I'm not sure I understand that last sentence correctly, but let's say you've found a reviewer you can trust, someone you think has a similar taste to your own. Would you then prefer them not to review any game genres they may be biased against?

Personally, I do like to go beyond my comfort zone sometimes, and I think it's valuable information how someone who isn't a fan of the genre might perceive a game, as long as that detail is clearly presented.

The problem is they are representing a magazine, if you have a blog or youtube reviewer you like fine, but a magazine should be different.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I spit on your Crash and present you with ZZap64!!

Elite Review

Ha, you beat me to it. The Elite review was issue 1 of Zzap!64 which was only played by one reviewer, Bob Wade. Most Crash and ZZap!64 reviews were played by two ore more of the reviewers with the editor compositing their views into a single reviews, for example here is the review for Paradroid from issue 7 where Julian Rignall, Gary Liddon and Gary Penn all played it. Not perfect but the more perspectives you add, and the reviewers often did have differing views of games, the more you mitigate any heavy bias - positive or negative.