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Reviews are out...


Neef-GT5

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3 minutes ago, Aponac1987 said:

 

Then again, you could just as easily approach the whole matter from the opposite perspective: would you just blindly jump in because a game looks glossy and is marketed with flashy trailers filled with cool action shots? Some outlets do deliver proper work on informing people correctly about what to expect.

 

I'll tell you what I honestly think. I've been in the industry for over ten years and as such, I've developed a keen sense for sniffing out overmarketed games which are meant to hype you beyond reason and warm up your wallet to 100°C. My instinct warned me back in the day about big titles such as No Man's Sky, RAGE and Fallout 76: games that people were losing their minds over, especially the former. I was proven right on all of those cases when they turned out to be lackluster or even utterly disappointing. I am not claiming to have a flawless record, but I am noticing that I am right in a severe majority of those cases.

 

I was not surfing the same wave of hype that so many people have been on for Days Gone. I was expecting it to disappoint, and that does turn out to be the case. I smiled when I saw the polarizing - and mostly mediocre - scores. Not because I enjoy watching a AAA game trip and fall, but because I saw my instinct was right again. If there is anything I'd loathe, it's the blind mob mentality that so many people (or sheep, in some cases) fall into. If you're upset that a game you've been losing sleep over or losing your mind over is getting lukewarm reception, you did that to yourself. Plain and simple. Keep your eyes open, don't set your expectations too high, and you'll have a much better time dealing with whatever gets thrown your way.

 

The same goes for RAGE 2 ... That game may still surprise me, but it will most likely not tick off the boxes needed to be a classic or even a great game, not by a long shot. I'm very skeptical about that game as well, and if I were you, I'd wait to put down any money for RAGE 2(*).

 

 

(*) Granted, I have not played a preview build yet, and I do not have a promotional copy (yet) as of this very moment, so take this with a grain of salt. But I am being very cautious about that game as well. Just as I was with Days Gone.

 

I did this in the past back in the Playstation 2 days and early on with the Xbox 360. I've been disappointed on more counts than one, and I don't buy stuff on launch day anymore unless it's for a very good reason.

 

I knew No Man's Sky was bullshit because of the general lack of evidence that Sean Murray was clearly showing. This was one of the very few times where I basically agreed entirely with Angry Joe's review of the game, because everything he pointed out in his video was on point. Hell Sean Murray himself even made an appearance with Stephen Colbert on his game, and once the mob mentality went full circle he hid himself in his basement, going as far as to ignore Twitter posts and keep his audience in the dark regarding No Man's Sky.

 

Three years later the game is now a more proper space exploration title. But the damage that was done hasn't been fully repaired, and most people just took Sean as a liar and moved on to other things.

 

Interestingly enough, the bigger the video game industry has gotten, the less I am engaged with it. These days I find myself a lot more hooked and addicted to indie games and the occasional strategy game on Steam. There's a number of games on Steam that I find cater to my tastes much more than these AAA games have done for me. That's not to say I hated or even strongly disliked God of War 2018, but I knew fairly early on that I wasn't having fun with it like I used to have fun with the old God of War games. I will say that God of War is probably Sony's most respected and cherished franchise, and to see what it turned into has turned me off a good deal.

 

One point I will agree with you wholeheartedly with is the mob mentality. It's easy for them to follow what the most glamorous review is on YouTube, but they can't so much as make their own decisions and set their own standards. I feel this falls in line with people who fall blindly with the beliefs and values of a religion, and following a conservative or a liberal blindly without reading up on the politicians.

 

While I haven't read through many of these reviews, I think I can say the open world format is for now, getting rather stale and lazy.

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1 hour ago, KingGuy420 said:

There's one review there where a guy gave it a 30 because he personally found it boring. He knocked 70 points off for a completely subjective fault. I seriously fucking hate the modern review systems.

 

The day I let someone else tell me whether I like a game or not is the day I end it all lol.

that reviewer gave SEKIRO 40

 

https://www.metacritic.com/publication/slant-magazine?filter=games

 

they should ban him from list.

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This isn't addressed to Days Gone per se but sure reviews are subjective of one's opinion but it would be foolish to outright discredit the collective opinion of reviews or the average. 

 

Think of it as the average response of people who played it later down the line albeit at a smaller sample size which is why you take it with a grain of salt. 

 

They're good as a first impression to decide whether a certain game is worth your money and time both of which are hard to come by especially the latter so yes reviews aren't outright stupid as some people might think. 

 

Reading up on it and seeing where the reoccurring issues are between the reviews should be a solid indicator imo and then the subjectivity of what constitutes a good game would come from your own personal taste after reading up on the specific game features and what makes it unique perhaps

 

At least that's how I tackle buying a new game. Everyone may have a different strategy but that's mine. 

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Critics get a free copy of the game, they get paid to play it, they usually rush through it specifically looking for issues.. I have no interest in hearing what they think. Especially IGN, I’ve always had disdain for them. Taking payouts for good reviews, plagiarism, and whatever that RE2 review is classed as ?.

 

I just watch some gameplay, if it looks fun, I buy it. I’ve only been burnt once. That was recently with Generation Zero. But still I’ll happily throw £40 at something if I think I’ll like it. 

 

90% of the games I love are niche titles that get terrible review scores. We are all different, and we all like different things.

 

As for Days Gone, I always expected a somewhat lower score than other exclusives.

I think it’s just the kind of game that is great at first, but becomes a bit boring or repetitive later. 

I’m sure the story will be engaging enough to keep most people playing, I just expect that the side missions and open world gameplay may feel a bit more like a chore, once the story incentive is over. 

But again that’s just what I expected. I could be wrong. But even if that is what happens for me, it doesn’t mean it will for everyone else.

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26 minutes ago, Spaz said:

Pretty much the point.

 

I personally haven't been too bewildered with Sony's stuff since after Horizon Zero Dawn. I said enough about God of War 2018 already. Detroit: Become Human comes off as meh. Marvel's Spider-Man is okay I guess, but does nothing we haven't seen already from Batman: Arkham Knight and other open world games that have pretty much dominated this console generation.

 

I very rarely buy anything at launch anymore. Having to pay $60 plus $30 - 40 for Season Passes is just too much.

 

Yeah, I think Horizon Zero Dawn was the last Sony first party title I bought at launch. I haven't even played it yet, so that goes to show how little interest I have in it. :P God of War and Spider-Man received an enormous amount of praise and "hype" when they came out, but I have a hard time taking it all seriously. I'm sure they're good, but people were acting like they were these perfect masterpieces gifted from the Gods themselves. It's all very tiring to me listening to this stuff. :P I did play Detroit: Become Human (only after it had dropped in price significantly), and it really wasn't all it was cracked up to be tbh. Very medicore game.

 

While I think reviews can be useful when trying to make an informed purchasing decision, people take them waaaay too seriously sometimes. The score tells me nothing about the game itself, just how much the reviewer liked it, and that's very subjective.

Edited by Undead Wolf
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1 hour ago, STARLOVE said:

God forbid people look at reviews before they throw their money at games, right?

I think it’s better to look up streamers and lets plays than reviewers. If you’re going with reviews, it’s best to ignore the arbitrary number and read what they actually say about it. Then if they say something stupid, You can just disregard it. Often times they highlight an issue that isn’t even one (like whining about political things). Or they describe something as a negative when it reads like a positive for you. Like turn based combat. 

 

I’d much rather watch a streamer live and see how the game performs and get their impressions than read a reviewer from the type of people who whine about having to play a hard game and how challenging it is to do the job of play games then review them. Cry me a river, reviewers. 

 

Especially combined with talentless hacks who don’t even finish games (IGN Toukiden review), or play on easy then complain a game is boring, and other stupid things they get caught doing all the time.

 

edit: good grief triple post

Edited by Elvick_
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1 hour ago, imh007 said:

 

Slant is just there for clickbait and trash reviews tbh.. They gave Ni No Kuni II a 5/10, Sekiro a 4/10, Wolfenstein II a 3/10 - Zelda BotW a 6/10 and Xenoblades 2 a 4/10

http://www.metacritic.com/publication/slant-magazine?filter=games

 

 

I have been noticing the same trend with Slant Magazine. They gave Metro: Exodus (a very solid game) a 6/10, Kingdom Hearts III (despite its convoluted franchise plot) a 5/10, Darksiders III a 3/10 (I've played plenty of 3/10 games, and that game is definitely not among them), Red Dead Redemption 2 a 7/10, the Spyro trilogy a 5/10, Kingdom Come: Deliverance a 2/10 ... The list goes on for a while.

 

I don't want to diss any fellow reviewers or anything, but I'm pretty sure no one in this industry takes Slant Magazine seriously. Stay far away from them if you want to preserve your IQ.

 

43 minutes ago, KingGuy420 said:

 

I know a guy that gave it a negative review, when I knew for a fact that he liked it. When I asked him why he said "if I disagree with AngryJoe, I risk losing mutual subscribers, which means my kids might not eat next week. I'm not risking that". From that moment on, I've found it extremely hard to take reviews seriously. A system where someones paycheck is based on their opinion fitting a mold should be demonized IMO.

 

Can you tell us who that is? Just so I know who to avoid.

 

Compromising your credibility like that is a death sentence. Once people learn about you that you're a sell-out, you're marked for life. And rightfully so.

 

I can confirm that some big outlets dance to the tunes of big publishers. I've dealt with it firsthand as part of a big international outlet: in the past I wrote a lukewarm E3 preview article of a big title that shall remain nameless. The associated publisher complained against my boss, I got the short end of the stick an one of my colleagues got sent to a future press event to write a more positive article about said game. A few months later, I quit, because I disagreed wholeheartedly about how the editorial office is being run. If our integrity as journalists is compromised at a certain brand, I denounce it fully and I do not wish to be a part of it. And I pride myself on that.

 

But I do want to stress again: some big outlets are compromised. There are others who deliver good work, as far as I can tell based off of their articles and my own findings about certain games.

 

11 minutes ago, Dreakon13 said:

 

Was there really that much of a hype train for Days Gone?  I keep tabs on things pretty closely and I barely even heard the game mentioned up until Gamestop's 48 hour full credit return deal.  Which is neither a glowing endorsement for the game, or for the marketing leading up to launch.  Definitely the least anticipated of the PS4 exclusives by my own eye test.

 

Not to take any credit away from you, but I think most rational people who keep their expectations in check find themselves in the same "usually being right" boat.  It's just that most of the (vocal) gaming community aren't rational.

 

I do remember having read a lot of hyped comments on several recent Days Gone videos on YouTube. Plenty of people have been gearing up for it. And I genuinely wonder when the masses will ever learn. I suppose they never will.

 

Making mistakes is not the problem. Not learning from them, is.

 

It is a fact though, that keeping your expectations in check is always a very reliable path to tread. Which probably applies to everything in life. ;)

 

3 minutes ago, Spaz said:

 

I did this in the past back in the Playstation 2 days and early on with the Xbox 360. I've been disappointed on more counts than one, and I don't buy stuff on launch day anymore unless it's for a very good reason.

 

I knew No Man's Sky was bullshit because of the general lack of evidence that Sean Murray was clearly showing. This was one of the very few times where I basically agreed entirely with Angry Joe's review of the game, because everything he pointed out in his video was on point. Hell Sean Murray himself even made an appearance with Stephen Colbert on his game, and once the mob mentality went full circle he hid himself in his basement, going as far as to ignore Twitter posts and keep his audience in the dark regarding No Man's Sky.

 

Three years later the game is now a more proper space exploration title. But the damage that was done hasn't been fully repaired, and most people just took Sean as a liar and moved on to other things.

 

Interestingly enough, the bigger the video game industry has gotten, the less I am engaged with it. These days I find myself a lot more hooked and addicted to indie games and the occasional strategy game on Steam. There's a number of games on Steam that I find cater to my tastes much more than these AAA games have done for me. That's not to say I hated or even strongly disliked God of War 2018, but I knew fairly early on that I wasn't having fun with it like I used to have fun with the old God of War games. I will say that God of War is probably Sony's most respected and cherished franchise, and to see what it turned into has turned me off a good deal.

 

One point I will agree with you wholeheartedly with is the mob mentality. It's easy for them to follow what the most glamorous review is on YouTube, but they can't so much as make their own decisions and set their own standards. I feel this falls in line with people who fall blindly with the beliefs and values of a religion, and following a conservative or a liberal blindly without reading up on the politicians.

 

While I haven't read through many of these reviews, I think I can say the open world format is for now, getting rather stale and lazy.

 

It is exactly that: No Man's Sky has transformed into a good game. Had it gotten a few more years in the oven, it would have come out beautifully. First impressions matter, however, and like you said: the damage had already been done. People will think twice about getting another game of Hello Games at launch.

 

Well, here's the thing: a lot of games coming out are worthy of playing, in my opinion. It's the entry fee at launch which is at the source of the problem. Very few games are worth purchasing at 70 EUR/USD (I'm not sure what price point games are set at launch in the US, but I can imagine it's something along the European lines). But a lot of people are falling in the general "Want It Now" mentality that has taken hold of our society. Wait a few months, and you'll see big titles getting big price cuts. Which will happen even sooner if the masses decide to hold off their purchases at launch. It's simple economics. But as long as the majority of gamers keep paying full price at launch for most games, we're not going to see any change anytime soon.

 

And if you look rather closely at how the industry has progressed, you'll see that the open world format has become the new standard mold for a lot of franchises. Which translates into - a few more amazing, but mostly -  a lot more mediocre, and sometimes even bad, open world games. The formula is growing stale, indeed.

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People in this thread are responding as if reviews are supposed to tell them how they'll respond to a game as an individual. Reviews are just one person giving their take on a game, nothing more. Reviewers aren't telling you this is how you'll feel about a game (for the most part), they're simply stating their experience and it's up to the readers to find out which reviewers more or less share similar views to their own. 

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24 minutes ago, Aponac1987 said:

Well, here's the thing: a lot of games coming out are worthy of playing, in my opinion. It's the entry fee at launch which is at the source of the problem. Very few games are worth purchasing at 70 EUR/USD (I'm not sure what price point games are set at launch in the US, but I can imagine it's something along the European lines). But a lot of people are falling in the general "Want It Now" mentality that has taken hold of our society. Wait a few months, and you'll see big titles getting big price cuts. Which will happen even sooner if the masses decide to hold off their purchases at launch. It's simple economics. But as long as the majority of gamers keep paying full price at launch for most games, we're not going to see any change anytime soon.

 

There's a catch there.  Waiting on games is obviously better for the consumer, but paying good money for good games is what keeps the industry healthy.  Launch week numbers can make or break a game, a franchise and even a dev studio.

 

This is why, as long as I can financially do so, I'll preorder games I'm interested in and from dev studios I like.  I don't really care if people want to reap the benefits by getting great games half price 6 months to a year later... but it is kind of frustrating that people don't recognize that it's early adopters like me that help keep the industry going and good devs afloat, so that there are great games for you guys to cheap out on down the road. ;)

Edited by Dreakon13
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3 hours ago, Neef-GT5 said:

...and the critics are far from outstanding.

 

https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/days-gone

 

Among the main issues, the technical performance is the least understandable for a game specifically developed for the PS4. Especially when compared to other exclusives like God of War or Horizon Zero Dawn.

 

Never once have I gave a shit what a critic has said about a game. Every game isn’t going to be game of the year. All I care about is if I have fun. I’ve seen enough of it to know what to expect and that I’ll like it

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2 hours ago, imh007 said:

 

Slant is just there for clickbait and trash reviews tbh.. They gave Ni No Kuni II a 5/10, Sekiro a 4/10, Wolfenstein II a 3/10 - Zelda BotW a 6/10 and Xenoblades 2 a 4/10

http://www.metacritic.com/publication/slant-magazine?filter=games

 

 

They were 100% correct on that one. I've never played the other ones.

 

2 hours ago, STARLOVE said:

But to just dismiss them altogether and just throw money at it is just crazy to me.

 

Agreed.

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11 minutes ago, Dreakon13 said:

 

There's a catch there.  Waiting on games is obviously better for the consumer, but paying good money for good games is what keeps the industry healthy.  Launch week numbers can make or break a game, a franchise and even a dev studio.

 

This is why, as long as I can financially do so, I'll preorder games I'm interested in and from dev studios I like.  I don't really care if people want to reap the benefits by getting great games half price a 6 months to a year later... but it is kind of frustrating that people don't recognize that it's early adopters like me that help keep the industry going and good devs afloat, so that there are great games for you guys to cheap out on down the road. ;)

 

That is another thing entirely, yes: great games deserve the support. From my personal experience, you're always safe getting a launch title from Rockstar Games, Naughty Dog, CD Projekt Red and Santa Monica Studios, just to name a few. :)

 

It's important however, to equally punish the publishers that condone (and partake in) questionable practices, capitalizing on the average consumer.

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‘What Games to buy?’

- A short play, by DrBloodmoney

 

 

Act I

Scene I

 

Game Reviewer:

”I’ve played this whole game. It’s bad.”

 

Punter:

”I disagree!”

 

Game Reviewer:

”Have you played it?”

 

Punter:

”Shut up!”

 

Fin.

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19 minutes ago, Brawler said:

People in this thread are responding as if reviews are supposed to tell them how they'll respond to a game as an individual. Reviews are just one person giving their take on a game, nothing more. Reviewers aren't telling you this is how you'll feel about a game (for the most part), they're simply stating their experience and it's up to the readers to find out which reviewers more or less share similar views to their own. 

 

Agreed as well. One of the biggest issues with metacritic is this silly amalgam of reviews. Why would I read the review of a person who hated Dynasty Warriors 7, when he tells me that he hated Dynasty Warriors 8?

 

I don't mind that critics have bias in their reviews. That's natural. I mind that somehow all of the biases are expected to "average out" when a bunch of them are taken together. Critical reviews aren't worthless. Metacritic, however, is.

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Giving it some thought, I think I will pick this up tomorrow. I'm willing to support a decent single-player game with no microtransactions or political agenda. I've also played games with glowing reviews like Wolfenstein 2 and HZD and I found them to be very underwhelming. Also, it seems a lot of reviewers for this game played it pre-patch, so certain bugs and glitches may have been fixed.

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Between IGN's comments about "gruff white male" and Gamespots' "over-the-top libertarian" I'm kind of wondering if there's an agenda in these recent reviews?

 

Also to mention that Kallie Plaggie at Gamespot is former IGN. 

Edited by Afro_Gear
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1 minute ago, Afro_Gear said:

Between IGN's comments about "gruff white male" and Gamespots' "over-the-top libertarian" I'm kind of wondering if there's an agenda in these recent reviews?

 

Yeah, that stuff gets tiresome, and it seems to be pervasive in entertainment reviews. EW is almost unreadable now because of these types of comments

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2 minutes ago, Afro_Gear said:

Between IGN's comments about "gruff white male" and Gamespots' "over-the-top libertarian" I'm kind of wondering if there's an agenda in these recent reviews?

 

You tell me.

 

All I know is Gamespot has been ruined for me ever since the whole Kane & Lynch fiasco, and IGN pretty much blew it when they kept giving every Call of Duty game high ratings, and gave Alien Isolation (a damn good game) a 5,9/10 because "the Alien is too smart". They flushed their credibility down the toilet long ago.

Edited by Aponac1987
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21 minutes ago, Aponac1987 said:

 

That is another thing entirely, yes: great games deserve the support. From my personal experience, you're always safe getting a launch title from Rockstar Games, Naughty Dog, CD Projekt Red and Santa Monica Studios, just to name a few. :)

 

It's important however, to equally punish the publishers that condone (and partake in) questionable practices, capitalizing on the average consumer.

 

This is where previews, reviews, etc and general public opinion become important... to educate yourself and know (as best we can) these sorts of things ahead of time.  No matter how much some just want to trust their gut on everything.

 

That being said, the point stands about people demonizing pre-ordering across the board and the short sightedness of advocating for everyone to "wait for sales" to buy their games.  If you want to pay bargain bin prices for all of your games, bargain bin games is what you'll get... and no, things could be a lot worse than they are now.  Games like RDR2, God of War, Spider-Man, etc... don't happen on indie game prices.

Edited by Dreakon13
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