Reviews Bite

[numbuheightbitstar]

So, I just found this article on Penny Arcade where the webmasters diss review sites.

You know what? I've been saying that for years. I don't know why people are so crazy about review sites. After all, the reviewers are only capable of judging things according to THEIR tastes.

I mean really, what's the point of reviews? There's no such thing as objective criteria for game reviews, and there's no such thing as an unbiased review, no matter what fanboys say. In fact, the word "opinion" by definition implies subjectivity and personal bias.

In fact, most of the time when I read a review--particularly a negative one--and then play whatever video game the reviewer hated so much, I often find that reviewers pan perfectly good games. And even when they praise games, I find that most reviews are full of completely wrong and misleading information--the game they're describing is almost never anything like the game you're going to play.

Bottom line is, the only real way to tell if a game is good or not is to actually PLAY IT and SEE FOR YOURSELF. Taking the word of reviews is little more than letting other people make up your mind for you.

[cottoncandy486]

Reviews aren't meant to tell you which games you must play and which ones you shouldn't. It's just an opinion or suggestion. It's is always nice to know what someone else thinks and why because you may have never realized that before.

[numbuheightbitstar]

Yea, but--as Penny Arcade so greatly pointed out--most reviews are full of BS and will complain or praise the dumbest things. And as I said, I find that people who get too critical of games often didn't really understand the game they were trying to play.

[diala]

Reviews are meant to entertain, not really form your opinion for you. For instance, I watch X-Play, not because I judge which games I will buy because of it, but because it amuses me. The only reviews I bother reading are those that are amusing and interesting. Even if I disagree, I enjoyed reading it.

Few gamers determine their buys based on reviews. If they want opinions, most ask their friends or gaming message boards. Most just rent the game in question. High and mighty reviewers are basically the self-important class of video games: they think they're important, but few people actually take their suggestions to heart.

[iguana]

Actually, they mostly rate it on amounts of glitches, lasting time, visuals and everything else. Let's take a review of, say, Wind Waker. A bad review would be, "I bloody hate these new kiddy graphics, anyone who plays this is stupid." A good one would just take the good and the bad and rate it accordingly, letting personal taste out of the review.

I mean, if I were to review something like Sonic Adventure I'd have to give it a pretty low review because of the tons of glitches and stuff, even though it's one of my favorite games of all time for other reasons. Reviews aren't about whether you'll find the game fun or not, it's just a rundown of its best and worst.

Fake edit: The funny part about that comic is that Square DID work on a Mario RPG and it was more fun than any FF.

[numbuheightbitstar]

iguana said:

Reviews aren't about whether you'll find the game fun or not, it's just a rundown of its best and worst.

Yea... in one person's opinions. You can't write a review and leave out personal opinion, especially if you have to decide what the "best" and "worst" parts are. If all a review did was describe the gameplay and features it would be different... but I doubt anyone would read that.

Fake edit: The funny part about that comic is that Square DID work on a Mario RPG and it was more fun than any FF.

Too bad Luigi wasn't in it. POOR LUIGI!!!

[NumbuhInfinity]

I don't tend to take reviews too seriously, either. Some ARE entertaining to read, especially the Game Informer ones (no bashing me if you hate it, please; it is only my opinion and the only gaming magazine I really read/subscribe to anyway). I often read reviews if I want to know a little more of what the game is all about as far as gameplay and story (previews don't say much because no one has played them yet).

[iguana]

numbuheightbitstar said:

Yea... in one person's opinions. You can't write a review and leave out personal opinion, especially if you have to decide what the "best" and "worst" parts are.

I'm not sure if the fact that you can fall through the ground in some games is a personal opinion, really.

But yeah, I recall the Sonic Adventure GC/PC port getting a lower score on Gamespot just because the writer didn't like the voice acting and the plot. Same goes for loads other games.