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I'm absolutely of the opposite opinion. Stop listing shit about the game like it's a fact sheet. That tells me nothing I need to know "Graphics are good, sound is OK, you play it with a pad, it is 16 levels long, there is multiplayer, these are the modes..." Fuck off. If I wanted to know that I'd go read the PR. Tell me how it makes you feel. Tell me what makes it special, is it special? What does it evoke? And so on. |
Where are all the reviews? • Page 10
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Acidizer wrote:
no, i'm saying that reviews written in this fashion are not from a relavant perspective. this hasn't been the case from the year dot - in the print media age, critics were given more time to review because you couldn't print your review instantly. just because they CAN now, doesn't mean they SHOULD. again, my example of music reviews - none of those websites operate in this way.
@gravearchitecture This is basically BS.
Up until this groundbreaking move by Eurogamer to delay reviews by a few days, are you saying that up until now, all games reviews have been a sham?
this 'day one' pre-order culture has been taken up by consumers and critics alike, but the critics, at least, should not use that as their model for urgency. i'd argue that this thinking created - or at least, re-enforced, this practise.
As I've said before - what great insight will these late EG reviews bring us that contemporary reviews wont? Not a whole lot I'm guessing - if anything!
so you think you'd experience games exactly the same if you played it at a 15 hour review event or at your home, over the course of a few months? i've played geometry wars 3 for probably 50 hours and i love it, but that game played for 15 hours straight = some sort of Sisyphean punishment.
Devs are working on games right up until they go gold - and beyond. So a review copy will always be cutting it fine.
BECAUSE of day 1 pre-order culture. if they knew that no reviews were published for a month, they would hold off on retail releases, just like they did in the magazine era.
Edited by gravearchitecture at 16:10:17 27-08-2015 -
PurpleShurple wrote:
Just the sort of flippant strawmanning I'd expect out of you Deck. But the point is that, especially these days where you're bombarded with information about a game from many sources, the dry reviewing style which focuses mainly on technical information and game mechanics is increasingly worthless. Just go watch a let's play video instead. TotalBiscuit has got lovers of options screens sorted for instance.
I just want to know whether the game will have a positive impact on society as a whole.
A review that tells you more of the experience, of it's influences and it's emotional impact etc. is far more useful. Stick some information about how it differs from other games in the genre (the aforementioned "what makes it special?") and we're golden. -
Acidizer wrote:
you've already said you don't care for reviews so i don't know why keeping them disposable and irrelevant is so important to you?! i'm sure it makes the quickest money, but why should i care about that? there's no money in criticism anyway.
Day one culture is there. You have to like it or lump it. Games reviewing is a business and it's only sensible that you reach your target audience when it is at its most demanding.
There's nothing stopping more in-depth pieces appearing later, I'm sure that's what they were doing with Destiny, but reviews are ultimately disposable. Best get them out when people are hungry for them.
the demand is only there because all internet videogame websites have created it. again, look at music - also media that cannot be reasonably critiqued in a sort or condensed space of time, so the critical output is slow to publish, yet considered. if videogame critics gave their own work the same respect, we'd start seeing a divide between the rushed, buyers-guide nonsense we see today, and more honest, and ultimately useful critique. that stuff is out there, but it's not here, or any other mainstream site. -
barrylyndon 163 posts
Seen 2 days ago
Registered 14 years agoMrTomFTW wrote:
I wish I could ignore this guy. Everything he says I find depressing. He is like the Tony Blair of Eurogamer.
I'm absolutely of the opposite opinion. Stop listing shit about the game like it's a fact sheet. That tells me nothing I need to know "Graphics are good, sound is OK, you play it with a pad, it is 16 levels long, there is multiplayer, these are the modes..."
Fuck off. If I wanted to know that I'd go read the PR. Tell me how it makes you feel. Tell me what makes it special, is it special? What does it evoke? And so on. -
No offence taken at all, but you've always got to be in there with your try-hard humourous comments eh? 
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Not unless I can suddenly move backwards through time. -
Are the mouthbreathers still banging the objectivity drum?
They can fuck off back to the primordial ooze. -
barrylyndon wrote:
Put him on ignore then. Unless it's not possible to ignore a mod?
MrTomFTW wrote:
I wish I could ignore this guy. Everything he says I find depressing. He is like the Tony Blair of Eurogamer.
I'm absolutely of the opposite opinion. Stop listing shit about the game like it's a fact sheet. That tells me nothing I need to know "Graphics are good, sound is OK, you play it with a pad, it is 16 levels long, there is multiplayer, these are the modes..."
Fuck off. If I wanted to know that I'd go read the PR. Tell me how it makes you feel. Tell me what makes it special, is it special? What does it evoke? And so on.
I completely agree with Mr FTW though. Dry fact sheets are fairly useful if you want specific information about a game (e.g. does it have co op?) but utterly useless at determining whether you'll enjoy it or not. Knowing whether it manages 60fps or whether the Sound is a 8/10 doesn't matter unless the game is enjoyable, which can only be portrayed through personal experience.
Still, in the age of the internet it's not particularly difficult to mix and match reviews to find information that's of interest to you. I very rarely find any professional games reviews that inspire me to buy a game as most writers seem to write in a dull, generic style. Generally the best ones I've seen are on RPS, although they're still a bit hit and miss. -
Failman strawmancy
Edited by mAc6 at 19:23:28 27-08-2015 -
mal 29,326 posts
Seen 4 years ago
Registered 20 years agobarrylyndon wrote:
Yeah, yeah? Well, your movie was shit!
I wish I could ignore this guy. Everything he says I find depressing. He is like the Tony Blair of Eurogamer.
I'm not sure when this halcyon day of print media was. When I was reading Edge still, they always had reviews of the big releases up in the month of release. We now know they couldn't have been using final code for a lot of that stuff, although I guess it tends to be less important when you're only talking single player - multiplayer's introduced a lot more scope for game-breaking bugs it seems. -
hillbilly66 3,502 posts
Seen 1 day ago
Registered 6 years agoI read EG reviews. They add to the hype for me. -
MrMattAdz 3,671 posts
Seen 5 years ago
Registered 8 years agoYeah but as has been said multiple times already, the later reviews don't mention any of the problems or mark that game down.
If the reviews had actually been impacted by these policy changes then that would be fair enough, but there have already been a number of opportunities for that to happen and it didn't, so at the moment the changes look entirely pointless. -
mal wrote:
edge post-print being defeated by the Internet, perhaps. when I was reviewing ps1 era games I got promo copies sometimes months before the release date.
I'm not sure when this halcyon day of print media was. When I was reading Edge still, they always had reviews of the big releases up in the month of release. We now know they couldn't have been using final code for a lot of that stuff -
mothercruncher 19,475 posts
Seen 22 hours ago
Registered 15 years agoI didn't read the planned review changes because front page, but, if the plan involved going back and amending reviews later once they'd been played in greater depth then why the shit aren't we getting a launch day review?
They're genuinely extremely useful. I used to occasionally realise a game was out a certain day, quick look on Eurogamer to see what they thought and then PPP out at launch to buy it. Not any more.
Here's a plan. Write an initial review, if you have code, and once you've written the whole thing, select and delete all of the first paragraph. No, I don't remember that arcade in Margate where you first felt up a girl, your first paragraph wasn't remotely amusing or clever, it never, ever, is.
Then check you've got a good balance of MrTom's emo-tions and some facts and figures. Little facts and figures like does it fucking run, is it broken, can you walk forwards and backwards etc. because that shit has become important in these sell now fix later days.
Publish it, then go back in a week with an update if needed.
Don't write that first paragraph next time. -
RyanDS 14,074 posts
Seen 15 hours ago
Registered 13 years agoMrTomFTW wrote:
You make it sound like a zero sum game which is not true. You can have your emotive review and also list the tech stuff in a sidebar or cover it in one paragraph.
PurpleShurple wrote:
Just the sort of flippant strawmanning I'd expect out of you Deck. But the point is that, especially these days where you're bombarded with information about a game from many sources, the dry reviewing style which focuses mainly on technical information and game mechanics is increasingly worthless. Just go watch a let's play video instead. TotalBiscuit has got lovers of options screens sorted for instance.
I just want to know whether the game will have a positive impact on society as a whole.
A review that tells you more of the experience, of it's influences and it's emotional impact etc. is far more useful. Stick some information about how it differs from other games in the genre (the aforementioned "what makes it special?") and we're golden. -
GloatingSwine 3,916 posts
Seen 7 days ago
Registered 14 years agoRyanDS wrote:
But there's no point because everyone can just go and look at the youtube videos and see it for themselves.
You make it sound like a zero sum game which is not true. You can have your emotive review and also list the tech stuff in a sidebar or cover it in one paragraph.
So why waste time? -
Also, Digital Foundry covers that side anyway. -
@mothercruncher Actually, they do already do "first impression" articles in lieu of a full review. Here's the MGS V one from Monday for example: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-08-24-metal-gear-solid-5-review-impressions -
RyanDS 14,074 posts
Seen 15 hours ago
Registered 13 years agoGloatingSwine wrote:
I fucking hate game videos. Especially on walk-throughs and such. If I want too know where something is show me on a picture with some text. Don't make me sit through a shitty video riddled with adverts with some annoying nasal voiced geek trying to be cool speaking over it. Also spoilers.
RyanDS wrote:
But there's no point because everyone can just go and look at the youtube videos and see it for themselves.
You make it sound like a zero sum game which is not true. You can have your emotive review and also list the tech stuff in a sidebar or cover it in one paragraph.
So why waste time? -
there's already stories out about critics at the mgsv review events speed-running through the game using the chicken hat (makes you invisible) so they could see everything in the time. that's the beast that's been created by day 1 hype culture.
bear that in mind when reading any of the reviews out in the last week. -
MrMattAdz 3,671 posts
Seen 5 years ago
Registered 8 years agoWhat are the odds that eg's review says more or less exactly the same as those day one reviews though. -
MrMattAdz wrote:
I think the homogenisation of game reviews is a separate debate. metacritic score is basically a mode at this point. burn the whole lot down and start again.
What are the odds that eg's review says more or less exactly the same as those day one reviews though.
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