should the videogames have reviews????

[Luis]

lately everyone is doing reviews from video games, games awards, everyone following the game industry sales and whatever but for me this is going to far and its not like the way it was 5 or 10 years before.

First of all i know that i love certain games, and i know other people would love some games than i play like PSO, Castlevaina, RE4 but i know that not everyone would love to play Castlevaina or some of them even hate PSO or RE4 (just naming one of them), and since they are a lot of reviews from now, this is when i made my point, there are going to be totally diferents reviews or awards from diferents editors or critics what i belive that should be done for now is besides a review (yes reviews should stay) is added to the review a poll from lots of players or tester with a yes or no awnser recommending the product or no.

If i made a review of the halo series i would give it a lower score than the quake series but thats me, but i know that for sure someone else would give the halo series a higher score than the quake series.

And some posters right here doesnt pay attention to the reviews they just rent it or test it and thats it, and when i played TMNT2 for the NES i didnt need a review to knew that i would love that game.

[EphekZ]

Theres tons of gamers around the world. The actual competent ones can give good reviews. On the other hand Ive seen someone give a game a 1 out of 5 becuase it was too hard for them on easy. Depends on who the writer was.

[Solstis]

I am intelligent enough to understand that people will have different opinions on a game. So, I think that reviews are great ways of learning more about a product. For those that have the common sense of a turnip... well... too bad.

[Link00seven]

I don't see a problem with people reviewing a game. Everyone has their own opinion and they should be allowed to express it.

However, it's how people interpret the reviews thats the problem. You need to be able to comprehend an actual review from someone who knows what they're talking about, and from someone who complains because a game is too hard (same example as above)

For the people buying a game, and looking for reviews, you can't judge one site or one place for a review. You need to research many different reviews and information on the game to get a successful match as to whether or not you will like a game.

However, always remember the best way to find out if you will like a game or not is to try it yourself! http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[Eihwaz]

A good review shouldn't say "OMFG THIS GAME/CD/MOVIE/MULTIMEDIA SUCKS"; rather, it should discuss the good and bad points of the game, explaining just why you should shell out your money for a copy.

[HAYABUSA-FMW-]

I have a problem with every publication handing out reviews these days.

Leave the videogame reviews to the videogame magazines.

There's also some weird advertising going on concerning what an editor may have said- taken way out of context.

For example an EGM preview giving hype to a game and the advertisements for the game showing one or two words from the preview making the game sound like the best game ever.

I have no problem with review scores used in advertisements, but text taken out of context in previews is pushing it.

Another thing going on is cover stories being bought by respective publishers. If they don't put X game on the cover or give it a high review, the company might pull advertising from the publication.

Companies withholding reviewable copies of games until after it gets released has been a staple for some time as well, but I guess it makes sense for them if the game isn't any good. Sell as many copies of it they can before word spreads that the game is bad.

There's a lot of shady dealing going on in this industry now, just like any other industry I guess though.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: HAYABUSA-FMW- on 2005-12-28 01:10 ]</font>

[Shadowpawn]

(Um...games have been reviewed since the pong era d00d.)

I personally like the attention the game industry is getting now. It signifies a change that's needed, more and more people are beginning to see gaming as something else than a "child's hobby" and starting to view it as, dare I say...a lifestyle (lifestyle might be pushing it however.)

It also forcing the industry to change, in both good and negetaive ways. The industry is now beginning to carter to the gamer, back in the Genesis-SNES era the industry did what it saw fit and you pretty much forced to comply with their will. Now the industry is finally beginning to listen the gamer's needs. Things like online play being made a standard and HiDef enabled visuals from the start of a consoles life, to me it shows the industries attempt to comply with the gamer's pallet.

Of course, this has a negative effect as well. Many gamers are well aware of the waves of clones being made off the most popular titles, however this stems from a reaction to the player enthusiasm to the latest hit. Why make a original title that might bomb when you can cash in on the Halo/RE/GTA/DCM/DOA/“whatever the hell, the sequel!” instead? The only ones that CAN do that are the major players, unless your name is Nintendo, Sony, Capcom, Namco, EA, SquareEnix, Konami or YOU KNOW WHO then you don't have a snowball's chance in hell of launching a new hit. Of course, unless you happen to be that RARE snowball who's chance in hell is amazing then you might turn out be a Katamari Damacy...oh wait...that's made by Namco. :/

Although I am inclined to agree with the awards show poping up out of nowhere, like G4's thing and Spike'TV...thing. I don't like award shows that:

1.Let's the public vote on a category.
2.Has celebrity hosts skits (I'm looking at you MTV!)
3.Tries to had to be trendy. (Buzzwords are SO passe.)

If you are going to do an award show do in a manner that can be respected. Have the industries best decide which game gets what award and do so in a formal manner. No firewords, no cars with bling-bling to hell and back and no Star Wars kid (for God's sake no Star Wars kid! >_>) Also the game industry new found popularity has seemed to spawn the mess of intangible shows called G4. At first it was okay...even a bit nerdy but then it started to get “tendy” with shows like Street Fury and Fastlane and dropped things like Pulse, Portal and now G4tv.com...what's next...Icon's? Even worse, they are replacing some of the slots with the old Star Treks...huh? I'm lost here....isn't this a channel about games, who's watching this: a hip-hop loving celebrity praising speed demon wearing bling and speaking Clangon that JUST happens to play games (while having an unhealthy hots for Asians?)

But it looks like I'm digressing from the main point at hand, despite the obvious flaws this change may bring it's still better than what we had. When the most impressive change was instead of pixels we had hand drawn sprite pixels...wow, isn't that amazing! When just saying you were a gamer shunned you from even the AV club (damn them and their video editing technology!) Nintendo was associated (and still is) with kids and if you said you played Nintendo you were told to (and I quote) “WTF get in da corner you nerd and play our Ninteo!” Well THAT never actually happened but still, now you don't have to be ashamed. You don't have to hide in that den you call a room and bottom feed of the pizza box cardboard, you and your friends can be geeks TOO!

If that doesn't cheer you up then consider this: Games are still being played for spawning Satan's children by politicians (finally, an issue that both Reps and Dems can agree on together) and movie games and game movies still suck. See, the industry has its traditions too!

(DAMN, see you made me do, someone drag back me to fkl and get me some GOD!)

[Neith]

Games reviewing is mainly subjective, I have to review games as part of my course- usually games I'd hate (RTS, Puzzles I can't stand)

When reviewing, you shouldn't be casting your opinion, rather you should be highlighting novel ideas, new implementations, possibly a plot analysis. You'd also look at things like stability, sound, and use explanations to back you points, rather than simply saying: 'This game owns' or 'This sucks'

I've never been a fan of TV shows reviewing games, they never complete a review without being opinionated about everything. One of my favourite fighting games, Bloody Roar 4 was given a 2/5 simply because: 1)The reviewer found it hard, and 2)The lip-synch was bad. I will admit that the lip-synch was awful, and let the game down a lot, but slating it because it was 'too hard' isn't a review.

Also, you could guarantee that any football game (soccer for you Americans http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif ) would get an instant 4/5 or 5/5 because it was football. That is not a review.

One of the best review magazines I've ever read was Amiga Power, back in 'the day'. They weren't afraid to speak their mind about a game, no matter which company made it. I seem to remember frequent reviews of games getting 10% or less, and the truly great games getting 85-90ish%. I don't think there was ever a 100% review, though I may be wrong.

I remember one Playstation 2 magazine (I forget which) giving Gran Turismo 3 100%. I mean, I loved the game, being a car fanatic, and spent hundreds of hours on it, but was it worth 100%? No. Far from it. There wasn't enough cars, and the infamous 1000km/h+ glitch. This took realism away from the game. Even being a GT fan, I'd only give GT3 around 80-85%. It was very, very good for most driving fans, but not perfect.

What I do when I buy a game is check online reviews, and check a lot of them. If numerous sites give a terrible rating, I'll either not buy the game, or rent first. Most reviews in magazines are just either by fanboys of a particular series, or haters, so I don't bother with most of them.

[Otis_Kat]

The problem I'v had with reveiws lately is, they just dont tell you how much fun it was anymore. You get tons of reviews raving about the telignalpolyhedraltextural count(lol made up word) of the objects in the game, but never if they had fun playing it.



And as a funny side note in an old issue of EGM they had an ad for Fight Club right next to a review that said it was horrible.

[Tystys]

I'd rather read a review than buy a piece of crap, don't ya think?
XPLAY FTW

[Mixfortune]

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