Why bother with critic reviews?

FarligOpptreden said:
That's why I said it's MY view on things. I know many people do day-1 buys or even pre-order, but I'm not that kind of guy. Except when Guild Wars 3 gets released one day!
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Sure, I got that part, was just wondering what your reasoning was :p. My comprehension of this thread was that it's about discussions of how to get better reviews and make easier informed decisions instead of buying games that's been marketed in underhand ways and then depending on user reviews (bad idea).

That's why the bargain bin thing seemed like an option, for maybe, a non-gamer :P
 
qornea said:
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ah...sorry if I stepped on some toes with the thread...wasn't aimed at mygaming. And I didn't articulate it all that well either.

I guess it feels a lot like the grade inflation effect the US universities are experiencing (*average* creeping up from C and now fast approaching A). I guess if you give a bad rating to a big studio title & next time that studio doesn't give you a early copy / press pass etc.

qornea said:
Playing a game as a whole, as many do, some of these things go amiss. I would expect that many user-reviews have that sort of take.
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Agreed. Will I notice the things that the other (filthy) casual gamers miss though? I am after all also a casual gamer.

qornea said:
We're a smart bunch - I think looking at score aggregation is lazy decision making.
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You mean efficient decision making. ;)

qornea said:
If anything, it should be nothing more than a starting point.
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Fair enough. I don't think anyone is disputing that the professional reviewer will likely provide a superior & more balanced review. As an initial filter it seems that user scores seem like the only viable method though and then if the game does fine on that then maybe reading an actual review.
 
qornea said:
We're a smart bunch - I think looking at score aggregation is lazy decision making. If anything, it should be nothing more than a starting point.
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I can agree with this - Metacritic is a good place to start as it will highlight any major issues or pluses. I look at a general opinion - then check out some reviews (not just the score) and then also factor in asking "Is this MY kind of game?" being fully aware that my tastes are not always the same as the majority. Also, certain flaws don't bug me as much as they bug others - for example I thoroughly enjoyed Alpha Protocol despite public opinion being that it was a buggy mess (to be honest I've played far buggier games anyway).
 
HavocXphere said:
ah...sorry if I stepped on some toes with the thread...wasn't aimed at mygaming. And I didn't articulate it all that well either.
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Haha don't worry, I don't think we do enough reviews here to be grouped in with what you're saying.

I think the bottom line is that "professional" reviewers tend to look beyond whether a game is THE BEST THANG EVARâ„¢ or the absolute worst. Things are rarely as polarised as that (but it does happen). User scores tend to be more all or nothing - a game can do a lot right, but one bug, or one feature that's annoying and that rating becomes a 1.

That's why it's more about trust. Do you trust a publication? Do you know/trust the person reviewing a game? That's why I don't like Metacritic, it's just brief words and scores. I understand it's value - but like I said, for me it's a bare minimum starting point.

I find chatting to you guys here on the forum and reading posts here to be more valuable that most reviews. It's easier to get varied views when you don't have limited space and a desire to "score" something.
 
Was this thread started as a link to #GamerGate? Are we allowed to discuss that here? Honestly curious. Will not continue if not allowed.
 
Dead_Rebel said:
Was this thread started as a link to #GamerGate? Are we allowed to discuss that here? Honestly curious. Will not continue if not allowed.
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I'm not sure if this thread was directly linked to it, but you're welcome to discuss the whole affair on the forums. Perhaps start a new thread on it. There's already been some discussion about some of the related topics.
 
Ike_009 said:
Anybody else remember simcity and a certain gamer who hadn't played the game but was on a campaign to discredit the game ( even going so far as to tell people who had played the game that they are wrong for saying it wasn't that bad).

Why am I bringing this up?
There are gamers out there who corrupt the accuracy of user reviews. Saying that I don't totally trust reviewers since they look for different things in game, like movie critics, they have more boxes to tick compared to my 2 boxes (is it fun and does it look pretty)
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Yeah I remember that quite well. Was the game as successful as previous iterations of the franchise? How many people are still playing it today? Were there massive issues at launch? From your post I gather that people who have a vested interest in a game and are huge fans of the series, aren't allowed to voice any discontent with the new direction that a game is taking (whether they do or don't own the game)?

Were there enormous changes made to the game since release? Yes, there were. Massive changes were made to the agent system and the ability to play offline was added. The game that it is today would have scored far better than the game that was released on launch. Exactly the same goes for Diablo III. The game that that is today is a hundred fold better than the turd that they released on launch day.

I'm actually enjoying simcity 2.0 with the wife and a few friends. They deserved all the criticism that was thrown at them and obviously it had a significant enough affect for them to make a complete 180.

PS: I received your friend request the other day, what was that all about?
 
Wyzak said:
Yeah I remember that quite well. Was the game as successful as previous iterations of the franchise? How many people are still playing it today? Were there massive issues at launch? From your post I gather that people who have a vested interest in a game and are huge fans of the series, aren't allowed to voice any discontent with the new direction that a game is taking (whether they do or don't own the game)?

Were there enormous changes made to the game since release? Yes, there were. Massive changes were made to the agent system and the ability to play offline was added. The game that it is today would have scored far better than the game that was released on launch. Exactly the same goes for Diablo III. The game that that is today is a hundred fold better than the turd that they released on launch day.

I'm actually enjoying simcity 2.0 with the wife and a few friends. They deserved all the criticism that was thrown at them and obviously it had a significant enough affect for them to make a complete 180.
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I see your missing my point. I was commenting on how easy it is for public to raise negative publicity and mark down a game even though they haven't played the game. That's why I don't trust user reviews since its so easy for a fan to attack a game because they don't like the direction or something equally petty that doesn't answer the question "is the game fun?"
 
Recently saw two of Destiny by the same person. The first one gave the PS4 version a 1/10, the other gave the Xbox One version a 10/10.

Critic reviews are not trustworthy.
 
Ike_009 said:
I see your missing my point. I was commenting on how easy it is for public to raise negative publicity and mark down a game even though they haven't played the game. That's why I don't trust user reviews since its so easy for a fan to attack a game because they don't like the direction or something equally petty that doesn't answer the question "is the game fun?"
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Just because I hadn't bought the game at that stage doesn't mean that I haven't done research on it. Probably more research than most people who just throw money at the problem. Whose opinion would be more valuable to you? Somebody who researched the topic and played all the previous games in the series, or somebody who just threw money at it and might never have experienced how awesome simcity games were in the past?
 
Wyzak said:
Just because I hadn't bought the game at that stage doesn't mean that I haven't done research on it. Probably more research than most people who just throw money at the problem. Whose opinion would be more valuable to you? Somebody who researched the topic and played all the previous games in the series, or somebody who just threw money at it and might never have experienced how awesome simcity games were in the past?
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Someone who actually played the game and knows what he is talking about.

Would you buy a 2014 ford fiesta because the based on reviews and experiences from the 2008 model? I want to know how the car handles today, not how it handled 6 years ago.
 
Ike_009 said:
Someone who actually played the game and knows what he is talking about.

Would you buy a 2014 ford fiesta because the based on reviews and experiences from the 2008 model? I want to know how the car handles today, not how it handled 6 years ago.
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And from somebody who just bought the 2014 model, or somebody who actually researched the changes between the 2008 and 2014 model and decided not to buy it?

When you buy a new game in a franchise you expect it to be very similar to previous games in the franchise and not something completely different that's only similarity is the name.
 
Wyzak said:
And from somebody who just bought the 2014 model, or somebody who actually researched the changes between the 2008 and 2014 model and decided not to buy it?

When you buy a new game in a franchise you expect it to be very similar to previous games in the franchise and not something completely different that's only similarity is the name.
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Same answer, I would always trust someone who has driven the car. Why do you think F1 teams spend 3 days driving the car around the track before race day. The have years of history at the track, the engineers know every bolt and nut in the car and tell you how every slight change impacts the car and can give it the perfect theoretical set up before the car is loaded off the trailer. However until it hits the track they can only guess, and until you test drive a car or video game it's still a guess. Don't get me wrong it can be a great guess but it's still a thumb suck until you test it.

Reasearch from a book does not make one a surgeon, just like reading release notes does not mean you know how the game plays and reacts.
 
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If there was nothing wrong with it why did they make such sweeping changes? Things they said would take months of development time to accomplish.
 
Of course - this all really applies to "big" purchases - if it's in a bundle the extent of of my research is watching the youtube clip included on the bundle site and maybe glancing at metacritic to have an idea of it's reception - usually my response is "Ag, why not? For less than $5 what's there to lose."
 
DarthMol said:
Of course - this all really applies to "big" purchases - if it's in a bundle the extent of of my research is watching the youtube clip included on the bundle site and maybe glancing at metacritic to have an idea of it's reception - usually my response is "Ag, why not? For less than $5 what's there to lose."
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Yep, I feel that way about bundled games as well as indie purchases. I find myself supporting a lot of indie developers these days.
 
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