We promised you two guest pieces this weekend, so here you go. Our second offering comes from Foxhound.
Reviews are becoming somewhat of an annoyance, if not a sore subject for every man, woman and child at moment. What with high flyers being ridiculed for being compromised and low flowing articles being mocked and heckled with the COD Viral style remarks. You know the ones, it’s a remake, short campaign, rehashing of a game, 10/10 is a joke-style comments, these tend to be followed by a string of sour comments which inevitably end up with someone being advised that their family tree stems from a Nazi. The review is slowly becoming the ‘Poisoned Chalice’ of articles and in some cases (myself included), you find yourself bracing before you post any labour of love which ends in a score, grade or opinion.
From a personal perspective, I enjoy them and see them as an insight, albeit an insight from someone who is looking through their eyes, with their views, analyzing with their attitude, their tastes and ultimately it’s their experience. I have always thought of reviews in the same way I think of Marmite. I love the stuff, on toast and especially cheese on toast; it’s literally ‘awesomesauce’. My girlfriend loves it more than I do so the odd sprint to the kitchen occurs; followed by a duel at the toaster, butter knives at the ready. However, if I stuck someone in a room who had never tasted nor heard of Marmite before and presented them with it, for a non biased opinion, there is a good chance that they would give it 0/10, saying it was the ‘Sauce of Satan’ and has caused them to completely reconsider how important eating actually is. If I had absorbed this idea, as a hypothetical review and used it to lead my curiosity, I would never enjoy the hangover cure that is ‘Marmite on Something’.
I do think that sometimes the written word can be taken the wrong way due to the readers frame of mind at the time, the way they perceive the brand, their chosen allegiance, you get the picture. I think that it can be a difficult task trying to really portray exactly what you are thinking in a clear and concise manner. I mean I sometimes revisit articles and think ‘damn, I missed that off’ or ‘I wish I had really pushed on that point’.
Reviews in many ways, are seen as real disposable areas of media, which most people visit just to see the Grade. I have some friends who don’t even read the reviews. They just hit Metacritic, take the average and make their purchasing decision on whether the average is high enough. I must also add, their expectations are much higher than they used to be. A score around 7/8 would cause most of them to grimace and ponder over whether a title is worth a punt.
I think that we should appreciate the time, patience, ‘wordsmithery’ (excuse my alien talk) and efforts someone puts in when they look at a game objectively for us. I have always thought we should see reviews as a clump of guidance notes, nothing more, nothing less.
I say this, as when I look around on t’interweb, as well as the occasional sign of appreciation and nods of approval, I see rants, raves and in some cases abuse for someone giving us their thoughts and views. A much more constructive approach would be for all or us to relax a little; take some air in and remind ourselves why we are involved with the wonderful world of gaming in the first place. A review is simply a thought which someone has taken time to put to paper. Intentions and hopes are the foundation of any review but I think you can work out the truth from the fan boy rants, the work from the rubbish as we are all an inquisitive bunch.
As a closing thought, how do you absorb reviews? Do you duck and dive to avoid them until you have played your chosen adventure? Do you sit at your laptop, Credit Card at the ready, hitting PAGE DOWN, PAGE DOWN so you can eyeball that all important score before you hit the check out on your chosen website for gaming retail? It always interests me to see what readers visit a review for and what they take away from it.
What are your thoughts where reviews are concerned? Do they actually have an impact on your choice making?
toutski
There are two main problems with reviews. There are the sites that are sponsored or have some sort of early preview of the game (usually associated with a positive review) and the sites that will be very harsh when reviewing, possibly to gain page hits or make some more news.
Simple answer, stick to TSA for reviews!
ToastEggsBacon
The biggest problem I have with reviews now is the rat race that ensues when embargoes lift.
Even accounting for the week or twos advanced review code, I’d be VERY interested to know how many websites actually, genuinely completed games like Final Fantasy XIII or Fallout before reviewing them. Particularly smaller websites whose staff don’t just get paid to sit and sink hours on end into a game for their job or for review purposes. People who have actual jobs and other stuff to attend to..
I write for a small, independent games blog and know that completing a game, between my work, family and other commitment, then writing about it, is incredibly tough. Especially to do it by a specified release date. The upside of that is because we aren’t listed on Metacritic, we have the freedom to take our time and aren’t under pressure to deliver a review by a set date. It might mean reviews land a couple of weeks or maybe months after a games release, but if it means the reviewer can take their time with the game and soak it in, then sometimes that can be advantageous,
As far as reading reviews, I generally know what games I’m interested in anyway, and will use reviews from publications I trust (Eurogamer, TSA, GamesTM, Edge and Joystiq) to support my purchasing decision. I never use reviews by themselves when deciding whether or not to spend £40 of my hard earned.
Michael
Generally, I think I already know if I’m getting a game or not. I read the reviews to find out if there are Michael-Annoyers present, I suppose. And for the jokes. Which is usually the score. Badum-tish!
Kidding about the score, of course.
Joe
i give this article on reviews a 9/10.
i will post a full review of this article on reviews after i review my days plans.
DJ-Katy
Here’s how I select games to purchase:
1. I generally am up to date from reading the gaming news on TSA and know what is coming out, so I can make an advance shortlist of what games seem interesting to me in the coming month or two.
2. I ignore all previews because they tell nothing about whether the finished game will be any good or not.
3. When the game is due to come out, I refer to TSA, GameSpot and IGN usually the night before purchase to check the reviews. The latter two I use mainly because they have video reviews, and I usually just go straight to YouTube and do a search on ‘xyz review ign/gamespot’ rather than their sites directly.
4. If a game’s been out a few days and I haven’t picked it up, I will check how it is doing on Metacritic. Often I will check this some time later after I buy the game as well when the dust has settled and all the reviews are in. Any average score of about 55% and up to me merits consideration. I will always read the majority of the review summaries and click on the ones for certain trusted sites. I try to pick one lower and one higher review score and then read the two articles to see the differences between them.
That is my general process. Find out what’s coming out, make shortlist, check video reviews, check Metacritic, read subset of interesting reviews. I also often ask my friends on PSN if a game is good or for a quick summary review.
Sometimes I get a situation where I’m given a release list or browsing a web store’s coming soon section, or am in town, and see a game on the shelf I’m completely unaware of. If it’s a spot purchase situation like that, then I will pull out my phone, check Metacritic and know that I have 10 days to bring it back. I do the same thing when I see a new release and am in the store and haven’t checked any reviews yet. This is how I avoided buying Quantum Theory.
As to the reviews themselves, I adjust the scores upwards in my head if they complain about any of the following:
– No online, offline multiplayer or co-op
– Short campaign
– Too easy
– Poor graphics
Foxhound_Solid
Wow,
Very interesting to see how this process is stabdard method, you know it comes naturally for you before buying a game. Quantum Theory…..the ‘HAZE’ of the 3rd person shooters…
A shame, a real shame….
DJ-Katy
It’s like a ritual yeah, I pretty much do it on auto-pilot now.
PriceKitty
TheSixthAxis is advertising the Xbox 360 only Fable 3?
Welp, this site is going to loose it’s shine quick.
CCasey123
I don’t understand.
TSA wouldnt exist without the help of advertising revenue, and since the site is multiplatform why not advertise upcoming Xbox exclusives?
Dan Lee
@pricekitty Why wasn’t there any fuss when we were advertising ‘cut the rope’ or the other iPhone game? Just because theres an xbox game there suddenly TSA are on the take? Christ, this is really starting to annoy me. I don’t like what’s being implied.
Juelz345
So a gaming site, gets paid by a game publisher/developer/promoter to advertise a game and that somehow bothers you?
You shouldn’t be allowed to use the internet unsupervised.
minerwilly
Great article , what makes me laugh is the way people go off their heads when a game gets an 8/10 like its a terrible thing .
It is getting crazy though when you just know that Black ops is going to get a 9/10 before a game is released . And if you dont give it a 9 then you will be ridiculed across the net .
Its like someone pointed out the other week -1 because its not chav of duty .
plutoniumdragon
It’s rare that a review would persuade to buy a game but it frequently puts me off buying one…
I have put off buying the last three PS3 games I was originally interested in because of the reviews.
Mainly becuase they highlighted bugs that I have a pet hate of in each case.
Quinlank
I have pretty much zero trust for reviews these days, as too many reviewers are far too led by their own agendas or preferences to give anything resembling a useful, objective opinion.
Good example is a review I just this moment finished reading of Sonic Free Riders on IGN, where the reviewer talks about how the game is nothing special and the motion controls don’t work correctly(This being the game’s central thing keep in mind), and yet somehow it scores a 7/10.
Further adding to my distaste of reviewer score vs text dissonance.
Lord_Gremlin
The real problem is that reviews are meant to help decide – is this game worth $60, or $20? Or it’s not worth any cash at all?
Reviewers are bribed – it’s a fact. Not all, no, but many. Look at Fallout New Vegas PS3 reviews. PS3 version is broken. It’s 5/10 at best with a warning about freezes and broken main quest. Yet look at reviews. I don’t respect reviewers who such publisher’s dick.