Game reviews
I used to like this one video game magazine called EGM. The thing I read most in their mags was their reviews. Since they've gained new and inexperienced editors, though, things have gone downhill. Some of you may remember their 3-score-review method. Well, guess what happened to Perfect Dark Zero here:
6.5, 8, 9
Is that confusing or what? I mean, a general opinion from editors can't just range from mediocre to excellent like that. It's like an average gamer's review that varies dramatically. If you think that's my only form of evidence, Mario Tennis got an 8, 8, and <b>4</b> (un)respectively.
In the end though, should we really trust the media to buy games? My brother recently bought Final Fantasy IV, and even through playing it once I knew it was going to be good. Heck even better thanks to the new translation. I admit I'm a score freak, but from this point I just shouldn't care anymore. Why? Because I don't want to blow $5 on some mag that isn't even worth that much.
I never buy print mags anymore... I just use the Internet to find out how games are being scored nowadays.
www.gametab.com
www.gamerankings.com
those are two sites that compile and average games' ratings. Of course sometimes all the mags are way off base like with Deus Ex 2, which everyone gave a score of 8, but from playing the demo i could see it was quite obviously a horrible game.
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www.gametab.com
www.gamerankings.com
those are two sites that compile and average games' ratings. Of course sometimes all the mags are way off base like with Deus Ex 2, which everyone gave a score of 8, but from playing the demo i could see it was quite obviously a horrible game.
That is quite a good morale you've got on your sig. I'll keep that in mind.
Anyway, yes you're right about that. I played Gran Turismo 3 on a booth once. Maybe it was the easy difficulty setting, but I found it to be pretty blah myself.
My basic feelings on the Gran Turismo series:
I'll never understand why everyone else in the known universe is so ga-ga over them, or racing games in general
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I'll never understand why everyone else in the known universe is so ga-ga over them, or racing games in general
Probably because they stink at Mario Kart and want to look for another alternative.....
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I'm just being myself. Nothing more.
I'll never understand why everyone else in the known universe is so ga-ga over them, or racing games in general
Probably because they stink at Mario Kart and want to look for another alternative.....
Ahh Mario Kart. Tis such a fun game.
http://www.pczone.co.uk/
havent read it in ages, but the reviews always used to be the best and most independant in the UK. Theres a LOT of back-handers in this industry.
Actually I quite liked Deus Ex 2. It came free with my computer, and I probably wouldn't have tried it otherwise. The beginning was kinda slow, but once you get into it it becomes fairly involving.
The only thing I hated was the endings- I tried them all, but SPOILERS
.
.
.
.
.
The earth and humanity kinda gets screwed up in all of them. There was no "everything stays the same" option, and that kinda pissed me off. It was like everyone gets a shared consciousness and loses all individuality, or everyone becomes identical cyborg robot things, or the world gets taken over by a constrictive facist society, etc etc ... no ending that I actually liked.
havent read it in ages, but the reviews always used to be the best and most independant in the UK. Theres a LOT of back-handers in this industry.
Pretty good, though they are based in Europe their articles are quite different.
_________________
I'm just being myself. Nothing more.
I also highly recomend gamespot. I find that many magazines these days have disappointing reviews written by a certain crowd of gamers I simply don't relate to any more. I hate PC Gamer's editor, for instance, and think he spends too much time being full of himself. When PC Gamer gave Arcanum a percentage rating somewhere in the 90's and said it was "Arguably better than any game in the Baldur's Gate or Fallout series", and ended the review with "If you don't find something about this game you love than throw your PC in the trash right now", I pretty much disowned the magazine. That's basically the equivalent of a movie critic giving Pitch Black 4 stars and saying it's arguably better than Aliens. Arcanum, IMHO, was a horrid game that was ill-conceived, poorly executed, had terrible graphics, and on my computer at least, wouldn't stop crashing long enough to let me play it. Also, although they gave good RPGs good reviews Planescape: Torment got a 93% or somesuch), they are so hot on stupid hack n' slash RPGs that appeal to munchkins, like the Diablo series (the most overrated games in existence), Dungeon Seige, Neverwinter Nights, and the like, while failing to point out any of those game's shortcommings. Their excessively positive review of American McGee's Alice (one of the most overrated games of 1999) and indifferent review of Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (one of hte most underrated games of 1999) also made me cringe.
So overall, I recomend reading online reviews (these are a mixed bag) of games you already know and love, find some of the most well-written and insightful reviews, remember who wrote them, and refer to them frequently.
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"And lo, the beast looked upon the face of beauty. And beauty stayed his hand. And from that day on, he was as one dead."
So overall, I recomend reading online reviews (these are a mixed bag) of games you already know and love, find some of the most well-written and insightful reviews, remember who wrote them, and refer to them frequently.
Very detailed. I'm doing that already and I find it helps much more than the usual crap EGM puts on their mag. I'm finding EGM worth much, much less than $5, yet the only reason it costs so is not good writing, but flashy printing and a plethora of adds.
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I'm just being myself. Nothing more.
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