I hate biased game reviewers.

[unicorn]

So I got my a copy of Game Informer (since they persisted to sell me one at gamestop) and I check out the reviews.

Harvest Moon Wii/Ds comes out. I love me some Harvest Moon games.

Reviews? 6.5.

NHL 09? 9/8.5!!! Wooo.

Rock Band 2? 9!!! Yeeeah.


I don't like people who know nothing about my games rating them. American gamers are going to prefer more Americanized gaming (sports, action, etc).

Its like me reviewing a sports game? I don't like sports games, so obviously I'm going to give it a bad review. I dunno, I just disagreed with the reviews on the kind of games I like, because the reviews left me under the impression that the reviewer knew nothing about the game or cared much about it.

[Sord]

Well, of course they're going to review in favor of americanized based games. They sure as hell aren't shipping their magazine to Japan. Just stick to reading a few CONSUMER reports from various sites (to weed out site bias) and make a judgment call from there.

[CelestialBlade]

Stick to online reviewers who play domestics and imports at a fairly equal ratio, if you want accurate reviews. Trusting a fairly popular magazine is a bad idea; not only is it heavily americanized, they're going to structure their reviews such that it's biased towards high-selling games. It's just economics.

[Weeaboolits]

Stop reading the scores and read the review, that's the only part of it really worth attention.

[ShinMaruku]

Stop reading the scores and read the review, that's the only part of it really worth attention.

Most people are stupid and only look at the reviews and that is why all these reviewers are too pussy to remove scores.

[TheOneHero]

I saw the other day in a Nintendo Power magazine something along the lines of, "Dragon Quest IV is a all right RPG, but no where near the cream of the crop. If you really want something great go with Final Fantasy IV or blah blah."

Buwah?

Yeah, Final Fantasy IV rocks, but DQIV kicks ass too. I don't know, maybe those people spending 50-100 dollars for the NES version on eBay are on crack. :wacko:

I hate bias BS too, but that's how it's going to be. If you want a game represented right, pass it along yourself. :3

[Seority]

Try this.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation
He generally dislikes all games, but has good reason. Plus, he makes you laugh. ^^

[Lyrix]

Theres no way in hell you will find a reviewer of ANYTHING that lacks bias, so just screw the reviews and play what you think looks good XD

[Adriano]

Zero punctuation is silly ;P

[Aisha379]

Reviews are meant to be taken as a suggestion, not as freaking LAW.

Read the review, see what the person dislikes about the game, if its something that personally does not bother you, then ignore it. If they have complaints that you could see getting to you, perhaps you should forget the game or rent it first.

And why are you paying for Game Informer? If you get a discount card at Gamestop (which is like, ten bucks) you get a years worth of Game Informer for free - coincidentally, the discount card lasts for a year. So you can practically generate infinite free GI issues while saving money.


EDIT: Also, Yahtzee is just a disgruntled loud mouth who nitpicks games in general, half plays them, and then gives them horrible reviews. While giving good reviews to games he admit are bad (See: Painkiller).

In other words, Zero Punctuation is just for comedic entertainment, and should never, ever be taken as serious reviews.

[SpikeOtacon]

Stop reading the scores and read the review, that's the only part of it really worth attention.

I've actually refused using any type of "lazy person score system" in my reviews. I used to do a "What it all boils down to" section but I even started cutting that out because I worked on giving my honest opinion behind something and like hell i'm going to let someone forgo my entire work for a number at the bottom of the page. It isn't very popular though, because everyone really is just that lazy these days.

The problem with Bias is that someone will find a way to pin bias on you. They will always look for a way.

Now let's take a look at what you posted as your example.

You said you "love me" some Harvest Moon, but they gave it 6.5. Now you're upset. Biased reaction, on your part? You bet your ass. You even said you hate sports games, so of course you won't find the score NHL 09 got justified. You're just gonna have to deal with it.

[Alastor_Haven]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60YrgYEqNyU

Really it's just a suggestion, OF WHAT THEY think of the game

Not you

If you think the games good

Then alright cool

Play what you think is good haha

[Weeaboolits]

I prefer Nintendo Power's system of having a team of reviewers and listing the types of games they prefer, then you can favor the one that is closer to your own preferences, also the number is less important than what is actually said about the game, pointing out its flaws and merits and telling you how it plays, not just if they liked it or not.

[Darkly]

I think its important to remember it IS an opinion, if your a score hunter just go on gamerankings etc. and get a healthy average.

For me, i read reviews just to leartn about the game, ultimately it doesnt matter what they think seen as its me playing the game. Reviews to me are just part of the research of whether or not im going to buy a game.

[Toadthroat]

You said you "love me" some Harvest Moon, but they gave it 6.5. Now you're upset. Biased reaction, on your part? You bet your ass. You even said you hate sports games, so of course you won't find the score NHL 09 got justified. You're just gonna have to deal with it.

This.
Why does the review matter to you? Are you enjoying the game? Then enjoy it.
Ol' Spike here plays Too Human. One of the most hated on games in the industry currently. Not once have I heard him rage about all the bad reviews its been getting.
Why is that? Cause he DGAF's. He plays the game cause he enjoys it, not cause some reviewer gave it a high score.

[unicorn]

Well of course I should just play what I find fun, and not care about anyone else's opinion. But if you were thinking on buying a game, and it has mediocre reviews, would you buy it?

Thats why PSU has population problems, it had bad reviews. NO one is going to play something with bad reviews if they have no knowledge of the game outside its reviews.

Bias is always there, but I wouldn't want someone with a bias AGAINST the games I like making a review. If I were a game reviewer (which I shouldnt because I fail), I wouldn't be reviewing sports, action games, etc because I don't play them and I'll just give them bad reviews.

If a game sucks, it sucks, thats all there is to it.

Whatever, they get paid for giving a good/bad review eitherway.

[Toadthroat]

If you were a game reviewer, you would review any game that you were assigned to. Its your job.
And really, you aren't expecting Harvest Moon to get a high score, were it? Its such an incredibly niche game.
BTW, 6.5 isn't a bad score. Its just average.

[Chuck_Norris]

Hah, yeah I know what you mean. Look at this: http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/armyoftwo/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary;read-review

A truely awesome game, yet this dumbass gave it a bad score based purely on it's story. :disapprove:

[Blitzkommando]

Reviews are personal interpretation of goods or services. Unlike things like computer hardware where numbers are important to judge quality, games have no such need and are purely subjective. Read the review itself and at least try to understand the reviewer's reasoning for the grade. But the best way is by reading multiple reviews and see if they all notice different, or similar, problems with the product.

[Alastor_Haven]

Reviews are personal interpretation of goods or services. Unlike things like computer hardware where numbers are important to judge quality, games have no such need and are purely subjective. Read the review itself and at least try to understand the reviewer's reasoning for the grade. But the best way is by reading multiple reviews and see if they all notice different, or similar, problems with the product.

Exactly what I do

I read multiple

Not just one

[Kent]

I saw the other day in a Nintendo Power magazine something along the lines of, "Dragon Quest IV is a all right RPG, but no where near the cream of the crop. If you really want something great go with Final Fantasy IV or blah blah."

Buwah?

Yeah, Final Fantasy IV rocks, but DQIV kicks ass too. I don't know, maybe those people spending 50-100 dollars for the NES version on eBay are on crack. :wacko:

I hate bias BS too, but that's how it's going to be. If you want a game represented right, pass it along yourself. :3

Now, I've never played Dragon Quest IV. However, if it's anything like the previous ones, it's probably boring and shows no real advancement of the RPG genre for its time. Kinda like Dragon Quest VIII.

[Kylie]

I don't base my game purchases on reviews at all. If I did, would I be playing PSU? No. Would I have played Resident Evil Outbreak for over two years? Hell no. If reviews are done to sell magazines or because it's true journalism, it doesn't matter to me, but it is a shame some journalists have sold their souls... like with everything else these days.

[Sord]

I don't base my game purchases on reviews at all. If I did, would I be playing PSU? No. Would I have played Resident Evil Outbreak for over two years? Hell no. If reviews are done to sell magazines or because it's true journalism, it doesn't matter to me, but it is a shame some journalists have sold their souls... like with everything else these days.

I'm looking for some alf pogs...

[TheOneHero]

Now, I've never played Dragon Quest IV. However, if it's anything like the previous ones, it's probably boring and shows no real advancement of the RPG genre for its time. Kinda like Dragon Quest VIII.

Totally different from the others. How game play and story progression are set up, they weren't like anything at the time. (Still could be considered unique nowadays in some respects.)

Anyway, it pretty much revolutionized how Dragon Quest games are now and influenced other RPGs.

[Seority]

EDIT: Also, Yahtzee is just a disgruntled loud mouth who nitpicks games in general, half plays them, and then gives them horrible reviews. While giving good reviews to games he admit are bad (See: Painkiller).

In other words, Zero Punctuation is just for comedic entertainment, and should never, ever be taken as serious reviews.

This is the age when we critic the critics. x3

[Solstis]

Thats why PSU has population problems, it had bad reviews. NO one is going to play something with bad reviews if they have no knowledge of the game outside its reviews.


I think that has more to do with PSU. They gave PSO rave reviews, and it still petered out and died.

Then again, I only played PSU (for the short time that I did) because I played PSO.

[Outrider]

I mean, opinions are opinions. I generally understand where a review is coming from, even if I don't like the game. I dunno, the only time I can remember really disagreeing with reviewers was with Jak 2. That game is nigh unplayable and everybody gave it 9s and above.

The odd thing is the only review I DID agree with was Gamespy, and they're generally the least professional site on the web when it comes to game reviews. (I remember they gave Super Monkey Ball Jr. for GBA a low score because it didn't have X, Y, and Z features... except that it DID have those features. They were unlocked after getting a certain number of points which would usually take about an hour or two and it even stated that in the Options menu. Yeah, they're uh... they're not really on top of the whole journalistic integrity thing.)

[Sharkyland]

I never pay attention to the game magazine reviews (I only look for what the game screenshots look like)... so what if they give my game a 4 out of 10. I enjoy it, they don't.

[Broodstar1337]

PEOPLE DON'T LIKE THE SAME THINGS I LIKE; SOMETHING MUST BE WRONG WITH THEIR BRAINS.

The fact of the matter is everyone has different opinions and biases. Unless you were paid under the table to give a game a good review for hype's sake like every motherfucker out there who reviewed Super Smash Bros Brawl, your job as a critic is to criticize. Your job is to take a good, albeit quick, look at a game to find all the good things and bad things you can about a game and pass swift judgement on it and then move on to the next game.

The funny thing about guys on forums bitching about how reviewers don't know what they're talking about is that they think reviewers have all the time in the world to find all the good things they can to boost that meager numerical score to higher levels, but the fact of the matter is they don't. They have maybe a week to play a couple games and then the rest of that time goes into preparing their reviews. If a game is only as fun as a 6.5 score warrants, why would a reviewer invest their free time into playing that game instead of just getting a first impression. Hell, to say reviewers should go through that torture would be hypocritical because I bet you never played Barbie's Horse Adventure to 100% completion either.

I had a look at Metacritic and checked out some of the scores for the Harvest Moon games and I knew immediately that GameInformer wasn't the only reviewer out there who thought these Harvest Moon games didn't deserve a 10/10 anytime soon. I'm assuming you're talking about Tree of Tranquility since that just came out and even Nintendo Power thought it was mediocre with a score of 65/100.

Now you will always be your own best critic but come on, guys. This is getting a little ridiculous.

[HAYABUSA-FMW-]

You need a review if you were planning on buying anyway?

Plus Game Informer gave Turok a 9.75 a few years back, so there's no reason to read that publication. (They probably took in plenty of developer money to make a good review for that game with the racist dinosaur mounted android bad guy.)

The only number that matters is how much $ you spent on bad game X, review read before purchase or not.

[Dre_o]

Play the damn game and shut up.

Don't tell other people how to do their job.

If you don't like what they write, tough crackers. Don't read it.

*Edited for profanity

*Edit #2 You can obviously see who I like to get what little reviews I intake from.

[Weeaboolits]

Don't tell other people how to do their job.It's a bit different when their job is to convince us that their opinion matters enough for us to read their reviews, I think.

At any rate, there's little point in worrying about what a reviewer says after you already played and enjoyed the game, unless it's something like an online game where they could be scaring off potential players.

[Deissa]

So because you like something they didn't, they're wrong and biased and you're impartial.
I mean, since you're saying they're biased you're implying you're impartial, after all.

That's not how it works in the real world, I'm afraid.

I'm sure they'd love this topic down at GameFAQs, though.

[Solstis]

So because you like something they didn't, they're wrong and biased and you're impartial.
I mean, since you're saying they're biased you're implying you're impartial, after all.

That's not how it works in the real world, I'm afraid.


That is exactly how the real world works.

See: Politics.

[Deissa]

Yeah, I guess I did word it badly.

Doesn't make it any less stupid though.