I give up with VG News Sites...

[Kageho]

Ok, I've absolutely give up with gaming sites. I frequent quite a few, but each one that seems decent eventually does something that just goes "wtf". IGN was fine way back when, before it went all Insider bullshit and now is an absolute joke. Moved onto Gamespot as it started its slide before the Kane and Lynch debacle that totally should've destroyed any reputation they have (yet people STILL consider them fucking reputable). So I jumped over to 1up, and the reviews degraded to the point that what I mainly read had become a joke of "talk about a game in like 500 words or less".

I finally go to Gametrailers, and they seem to have been competent. The reviews told me what I needed to know, I didn't really have any complaints until lately, some games weren't talked about politely yet got a somehow great score. Assassin's Creed II, Modern Warfare 2, I see you over there!

Then they just blew my mind by awarding Uncharted 2 with the Best Story award, the Graphics and say that its such a treat that I'm expecting it to win the PS3 and Game of the Year awards.

Nope. They give it to Modern Warfare 2. Oh yeah, Modern Warfare won ALL Game of the Year awards for every platform. Even the stupid port of the original won the Wii version. Hell, if there was a DS version, I'm sure it would've won it.

I don't get it. How the hell can I take any of these sites seriously anymore when they do something like that? And its every single one that eventually does something stupid like this.

 

[oldskool]

Disregard the scores. That's what I've had to do. I prefer their video reviews but the numbers they assign to things are just arbitrarily assigned to keep them alive.

They can't survive without new games to review, ad revenue is not going to cover them having to buy all the new games at $60 a pop & the only way they get them discounted/given to them is to assure them a review of at least __, then so be it.

The suits see the review score, give it the OK, and never watch the video that accurately depicts the game as deserving of a much lower score. The alternative is going Insider.

 

[Haws Bah Gawd]

What is the Kane and Lynch Debacle you speak of?

 

[oldskool]

Off the top of my head (complete with memory blanks!) somebody on GameSpot gave Kane & Lynch a bad review. Kane & Lynch had purchased a lot of advertising space on GameSpot. The guy got fired shortly thereafter.

 

[Haws Bah Gawd]

Hah! How'd I forget about that? Can't blame the guy for being honest.

 

[fazzle]

Jeff Gerstmann

 

[Kageho]

I know that they don't make any money besides ads for video games, but come on. I put trust in these guys to be respectful, honest, and worth my time. I know coming from this industry that's like asking for the Heavens, but seriously now. Can't one site do it right?

 

[Psycho Penguin]

I don't read reviews. Period. No review is going to tell me about a game that I can't gather from asking a friend quick or reading a message board topic on NeoGAF or watching a youtube video, and people really get into debates about what other people give games that it's just so annoying.

Oh, and the only video game news I get is a RPGamer feed I follow on twitter, and most of that shit I ignore too. Just tell me when DQ6 is coming out, I got enough shit to play until then.

 

[Psycho Penguin]

Oh and Gamespot gave Demon's Souls GOTY, if that matters at all. What won GOTY in 2006 on IGN? Doesn't matter one bit, does it?

 

[vivisectvi]

I like Joystiq.com - sometimes they can get a little pissy without reason but other than that it's good for basic newsbites throughout the week.

 

[Kageho]

Oh and Gamespot gave Demon's Souls GOTY, if that matters at all. What won GOTY in 2006 on IGN? Doesn't matter one bit, does it?

Its not so much that who won the GOTY, but the fact that they talked about a game and basically give it the "oh hey, this is the best game of the year" yet turn around and give the actual award to another game that had no business winning it, how do you take them seriously after that?

Also the fact that the reviews lately on Gametrailers talk about bad things and say "its the same game as last time, which is a bad thing" yet they got a better score than the original!

Its just that this GOTY thing was like, "seriously, now this?"

Also I use RPGamer too. Though I miss Q&A... ^_^ I used to read that with a passion.

 

[Obi Chris Kenobi]

Uncharted 2 won Eurogamer's game of the year, both fan's vote and website's vote.

 

[AndrewTS]

I'd say stop looking at sites and more try to get a feel for what the reviewers' tastes are. For example, I like 1up, but some of their reviewers are awful. I generally feel I can't go wrong with Jeremy Parish, as we have similar tastes and he's brought to my attention obscure games I'd have never played otherwise (he was one of the biggest NA boosters for Katamari Damacy, for instance). On the other hand, while he doesn't write reviews anymore James Mielke was the fucking worst reviewer, like, ever. Especially for fighting games. So completely full of shit.

However, anymore yes, word of mouth is a better way to go for the mainstream titles.

 

[Psycho Penguin]

Oh and Gamespot gave Demon's Souls GOTY, if that matters at all. What won GOTY in 2006 on IGN? Doesn't matter one bit, does it?

Its not so much that who won the GOTY, but the fact that they talked about a game and basically give it the "oh hey, this is the best game of the year" yet turn around and give the actual award to another game that had no business winning it, how do you take them seriously after that?

Also the fact that the reviews lately on Gametrailers talk about bad things and say "its the same game as last time, which is a bad thing" yet they got a better score than the original!

Its just that this GOTY thing was like, "seriously, now this?"

Also I use RPGamer too. Though I miss Q&A... ^_^ I used to read that with a passion.

MW2 came out after Uncharted 2. If a game is GOTY then another game comes out that's better, then that newer game will be GOTY.

 

[Kageho]

Wait, so just because MW2 came out after and is a GOTY candidate, it wins because it was later?

...I don't even what to say how stupid that sounds...

 

[Punch Rockgroin]

I generally don't read reviews much either. It's annoying that games don't seem to be rated on a scale of 1 to 10 anymore (if said publication rates games on that scale, I mean). Game Informer for instance seems to rate games on a scale of 6 to 10 with 5 being shitty and 10 being very good. IGN suffers from this as well IMO.

Doesn't really apply for Wii games though. Those tend to be rate somewhere between 1 to 6 with the rare exception. But that doesn't seem too odd considering the majority of its library.

 

[Star Ocean 2]

I don't read reviews. Period. No review is going to tell me about a game that I can't gather from asking a friend quick or reading a message board topic on NeoGAF or watching a youtube video, and people really get into debates about what other people give games that it's just so annoying.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/9471.html?type=4

 

[Black Lushus]

a 10/10 for TMNT Hyperstone Heist, PP? Yowza! Then you go and give Metroid Fusion a 5/10? Hyperstone Heist felt like the guys wanted to make a full fledged TMNT game on par with the SNES version but then stopped halfway through and went with whatever they had at the time. I understand the Genesis had limitations, but that was just a piss poor game they put out there.

The original NES TMNT only gets a 2/10? Sure it had some rough parts, but it was far from a bad game.

 

[Red Baron]

You gave OoC 5/10?

 

[Kageho]

Must, Buy, Ok, Flawed, Avoid. And the rating system is self explanatory! Its a win for everyone!

 

[AndrewTS]

What's OoC?

Anyway, yeah--number ratings are a real detriment because of two things: it boils everything down to subjective, ADD-like number scores that don't mean anything, and secondly, because when looking at scores we're locked into the grade-school-score mentality where 60 or below is an F (give or take), leaving over half the scale as redundant in most people's eyes. Really, though, 5/10 should be an "average" game.

I propose we make a Real TSM user reviews thread where folks don't necessary make big long reviews for a game they just played, but rather if a user has doubts about a game, they ask about it in the thread, and then other users post a few paragraphs about what they think of it. I would discourage people just posting scores, though.

Kageho's system is succint, but that's the problem. Not everyone is going to feel the same way about the same game, and posting opinions about why you liked or didn't like a game would give a better picture of the title than just a score.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/9471.html?type=4

Wow.

That's you, Psycho Penguin?

Cuz no offense, but the you of circa 10 years ago was a fucking idiot.

 

[Psycho Penguin]

So, I write reviews, I never said I didn't. It doesn't mean I read them. I also watch wrestling but I don't wrestle.

In response to everyone complaining about scores:

Cuz no offense, but the you of circa 10 years ago was a fucking idiot.

I'm sure all of our tastes have changed since we were teenagers. I just don't have motivation to rewrite reviews any more as I'm finding them to be more and more a waste of time as I get older.

Since you asked, I'll give the scores I'd give the mentioned games now
TMNT Hyperstone Heist - 8/10
Metroid Fusion - 6/10
TMNT (NES) - 2/10
Ocarina of Time - 5/10

Wait, so just because MW2 came out after and is a GOTY candidate, it wins because it was later?

...I don't even what to say how stupid that sounds...

No, if a game comes out later that's BETTER than the previous GOTY candidate, then it's a better game, duh. You don't crown GOTY in September or whenever Uncharted 2 came out.

 

[AndrewTS]

Since you asked, I'll give the scores I'd give the mentioned games now

Actually, what I found more offensive than that was the Yoshi's Island one. ;D

 

[Black Lushus]

wow...

 

[Psycho Penguin]

Since you asked, I'll give the scores I'd give the mentioned games now

Actually, what I found more offensive than that was the Yoshi's Island one. ;D

Most people do, yeah.

 

[AndrewTS]

Since you asked, I'll give the scores I'd give the mentioned games now

Actually, what I found more offensive than that was the Yoshi's Island one. ;D

Most people do, yeah.

Right-thinking people, yes.

 

[Psycho Penguin]

I'm surprised my Xenogears review wasn't brought up yet. =P

 

[AndrewTS]

I'm surprised my Xenogears review wasn't brought up yet. =P

Nobody cares about Xenogears.

 

[Psycho Penguin]

You gave OoC 5/10?

I just realized this was OoC and not OoT. What is OoC? I didn't give any games with those initials 5/10.

 

[AndrewTS]

I'm thinking it's a typo and he meant Ocarina of Time.