This week, we'll be joined in the studio by a special guest to be named later and the topic will be game reviews. We're looking for your questions and thoughts concerning what you look for in game reviews, and whether or not you find them useful in your purchasing decisions. Fire away in the comments below!
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notoriouslynx
I really like the Escapist's Zero Punctuation reviews. In his show, he doesn't give games scores or grades. Instead, he takes five minutes to explain the game. Have you ever thought about reviewing games without scores? I think its better for the consumers because scores can be misleading and people usually just pay attention to the score and blow off most of the actual review.
Ted_Dancin
I recently read on wikipedia that Patton Oswalt is going to play Pit in the upcoming Kid Icarus game for the 3DS. Might not be true, but I was wondering what your thoughts would be on Nintendo possibly using voice acting more in their franchises. Most of their games lack voice acting and I wonder which of their titles would suffer or benefit from more voice acting (i.e. Zelda, Mario, DK, ect.).
MJfromCIsland
The website ArsTechnica use a three-point scale of Buy, Rent or Pass that bypasses the need of a numerical grade scale, removes itself from the MetaCritic crunch and manages to have a clear-cut verdict that, as a gamer, I appreciate.
Has G4 ever considered dropping its use of a numerical scale?
justingraphix
I love game reviews to help me look at things that are covered by the marketing team. I value reveiw from people who has played the game and can tell me if the controls work or not. It is like Just Cause 2 I would not have played it if Adam have not said that the grappling hook is a new standard for hooks. I am thank full for the investigative testing then I can decide if it is worth my time or not.
Cornish
My beef with the grading of games is that it's being used as a summery of the review or preview; which is it's biggest sin. Several numbers or letters or even phrases aren't going to convey in any proper way why a game is bad or good. I frankly feel that it's time to do away with the whole idea of it and just make a summery of the review or preview much like the back-cover of a book...
BENonG4
If an Xbox red rings in the warehouse, and nobody see's it, does it red ring?
BENonG4
Would you rather be crucified or eaten by buffalo?
GoldenSun92
I believe this number problem is an affliction of our society as a whole. I recently graduated high school, and I dont know if some of you can think back that far, but the entire grading spectrum is only 50% to 100%, and if you get below an 80% most times you are considered an idiot.
thor9356
What I want to see in game reviews is have a game designer thats from the company that the game was made and ask him why are there certain defects like this? or why did you decide to do that? Sure we see that in the previews but I would like to see a bit of debate between the game reviewer and the game designer.
Darkreaper1
For me game reviews don't have complete control over me. With so many games out there it would seem easier to have a review tell me what games are good and bad. I will take into consideration what they have to offer in opinion but ultimately it is my curiosity and willingness to buy that makes the decision. My question to you is what do you look for in a review that pushes your decision to buy a game and how many do you look at before saying yes to it .
guyfromtrinidad
We are so critical of games and their reviews, if a movie gets a 50% on rotten tomatoes most likely people will or even if its worse than that (Transformers 2 I am looking at you). If a game gets a 3 out of 5 on X play most people wont pick it up. And thats the major problem with game reviews we have no problem chucking down money for the movies but games are seen as luxury purchase and game reviews have a huge impact.
abluehaze
I'm close to Adams age and one thing I have noticed the older I get is I'm more jaded now and it takes a lot more to impress me now with games than it did 10 or even 20 years ago. Should reviews perhaps be skewed this way ie based upon age and or gamer experience? After all what might be new and fresh to someone new to gaming might be a stale and overused idea to someone my age. I feel like a lot of the games that deserve more attention because they are unique and or experiment more get lower review scores because they might not be as polished as a more profile recycled shooter like modern warfare.
I think it all boils down to the same thing though we need more innovation and experimentation in the video game industry to keep things progressing. In the past few years sequels are king and experimentation is discouraged in favor of big budget sure fire hits that more often than not are sequels or clones of established genres.
guyfromtrinidad
Being an older gamer (okay I'm Adam's age we are not old, I mean seasoned gamer) I really look for quality in my games. Even though I can afford more than 2 -3 games a month easily I still try to be very discerning in my purchases. I love character driven games and enjoyed RDR (I cried a little at the end) and Arkham Asylum so for me game scores are not as important as the reviewer telling me if my 8 - 12 hour journey into this fantasy world would be worth my time. I can forgive clunky controls or other flaws because I view games like I view my other entertainment, I want to have a good time but I am not looking for perfection.
guyfromtrinidad
Being an older gamer (okay I'm Adam's age we are not old, I mean seasoned gamer) I really look for quality in my games. Even though I can afford more than 2 -3 games a month easily I still try to be very discerning in my purchases. I love character driven games and enjoyed RDR (I cried a little at the end) and Arkham Asylum so for me game scores are not as important as the reviewer telling me if my 8 - 12 hour journey into this fantasy world would be worth my time. I can forgive clunky controls or other flaws because I view games like I view my other entertainment, I want to have a good time but I am not looking for perfection.
guyfromtrinidad
Being an older gamer (okay I'm Adam's age we are not old, I mean seasoned gamer) I really look for quality in my games. Even though I can afford more than 2 -3 games a month easily I still try to be very discerning in my purchases. I love character driven games and enjoyed RDR (I cried a little at the end) and Arkham Asylum so for me game scores are not as important as the reviewer telling me if my 8 - 12 hour journey into this fantasy world would be worth my time. I can forgive clunky controls or other flaws because I view games like I view my other entertainment, I want to have a good time but I am not looking for perfection.
deleted_376A971C-FB2C-4E2C-B850-6F38074C92ED
What I look for in a review differs from ether if its written in a mag or on the net or its taped.If its written having a interview with the developers in it is nice to get some in site into the game and what they are shooting for.maybe some back story into how they came up with it or something along those lines.If its taped there has to be of course game play.I've seen reviews with nothing but still shots and that just kills it for me.If there will be DLCs for it will sway me.I can live with buying a 60$ if its on the short side if I'm told I'll get more if it later on.Tell me about any trouble with the game like really bad camera or frame rate or something along them lines.I cud give two shakes of a rat's ass about the graphics now cuz of one game that I'm still thanking you guys for Deadly Premonition.I don't care about small things like that anymore cuz if its fun it cud be 16 bit for all I care.I mean I can deal with it if the camera is a little off but it seems like reviews go after camera angles like Adam after fudge.(look up a old X-Play skit about Resident Evil and fudge)Most of all unbiased I know its hard to put your personal likes and dislikes aside but its a job and your getting payed to tell me a what the game is in a nut shell.Granted its nice to have a little personal input in it but some are just drenched in it.Have a nice day!
BatmanGotham
Singularity came out a couple of weeks ago and still hasn't been reviewed yet on this site. That is a game I took a chance on and it paid off because I like the game. That deserves to be reviewed before it is forgotten.
Usually I like to see a review of a game before I buy it, just to see the general reaction. For me, game reviews help me choose smaller games that I knew nothing about. I was considering buying Deadly Premonition just based on the price, but the reaction on Feedback was the deciding factor in buying it.
Sin and Punishment is another example as well.
Rubiksman
The problem is us, the consumer, not the reviewer. We want short and sweet, and a number rating scale is a way to do that. Another fault of the number system is that it is arbitrary, each reviewer has their own scale and every reader has their own thoughts on what that number means. With that number I think we need a few comments that sum up the game or there should be a breakdown into certain categories (graphics, story, etc).
I'm curious as to what you guys think would remedy the problem.
Take42
I understand Adam's point about how numbers can be misleading. It's true that just by looking at a number someone assigned as a score, one does not get a good idea of the quality of the product. Metacritic.com is a prime example of this. I know a lot of people who won't buy a game unless it gets over 85 on Metacritic, which is really sad, because games like Borderlands and Darksiders (with scores of 83 and 82 respectfully) are very good games in my opinion and in the opinions of many others.
I for one, am a big supporter of READING reviews rather than looking at a number. Some of my favorite recently released games (Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands and 3D Dot Game Heroes) both got 3 out of 5s from X Play, but after reading each review I determined that I could overlook the flaws and thoroughly enjoy the game. Had I just gone with the score, I never would have given the games a second glance. The best thing about reading a review is that you get to see both the good and bad in a game before you make a judgement.
plague102
For me game reviews are just another tool for me to check out what others thought of the game. It shouldn't be used solely to judge whether or not someone buys the game. I tend to look first at live gameplay footage if there is any, play a demo if at all possible, check out its features and core components, then check out the reviews. To me reviews should be the last place to look since they truly just reflect an opinion of the game, and really the only opinion that matters is your own since its your money and time that's being invested. Now for my question: Would it make the decision on whether or not to buy the game easier if everyone who reviewed the game used the same grading scale, that way across the board reviews could be comparable, versus the present model of every website/ game reviewer using his or her own system to review a game?
Displaying 1–20 of 100
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