So, Polygon 'playing' Doom...

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So there needs to be a skill threshold for reviews?

I think there must be a certain knowledge, I am not saying the guy playing is terrible, he is bad, but in order to do a fair review of a game you have to be able to complete it at least in normal/hard difficulty which is how most devs intend players to play their games. If they play it on easy the critic can be way different.
 
It's like they're actively trying to make the game look bad. Seriously, this is like one of those old people react videos where they just can't cope with the controls.

So there needs to be a skill threshold for reviews?

Not necessarily no, but I think you should at least be holding the controller with both hands...
 
It looks like me playing a game with keyboard and mouse

Nah, even if you don't play with mouse and keyboard would aim better than the person in this
This actually reminds me of those very early dual stick shooter games which on some phones couldn't work precise on some smartphones because they didn't have good multitouch so you needed to move and aim separately.
 
Probably someone on the video team working on their steam controller competency. Typical workplace continued development and training type stuff.
Or not.

Don't want another Star Fox Zero existential crisis to occur again when you can't adapt to different control schemes (widespread or otherwise).
 
Eh, I wouldn't be so quick to judge - could be lag due to a setup not properly optimised, or maybe the player was a PC gamer not familiar with using a controller (or whatever they were using to play the game). Also that gif loop is god like
 
Did the reviewer criticize the game's playability or controls in a write up while playing below GAF standards or something? If not, I fail to see any real issue.
In my opinion, the person reviewing the game should have experience and credibility. I am not going to pick up a tennis racket and give a review on one with zero tennis experience, and I would not expect someone to take my review of an FPS seriously if I were completely incapable of playing one.

These guys don't need to be experts, but they should have a basic grasp of how the genre plays.
 
So there needs to be a skill threshold for reviews?
I mean, shouldn't any critical analysis that has value come from a source that has some level of knowledge/skill/reputation?

I wouldn't expect high quality, nor weigh heavily, on a 5th grader's book review of any work of Literature.
 
There was also this:
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Which just felt inappropriate, especially since this was during the height of the protests.
I just spit coffee all over the place.

Overall, I don't have any strong feelings about Polygon in particular though. I've liked some of their articles.
 
This does look weird. I mean you don't need a good player to review a game but at least you should find someone who has played a FPS before.
 
Discussions aside, you guys have to admit that the whole "I'll use the shotgun, but switch to the pistol once I'm REALLY REALLY close to the enemy" thing going on in the video is kind of adorable :)
 
If I could hazard a guess: People were busy at the office, one person was available to quickly record 30 min of the game, isn't experienced with shooters and/or recorded the footage while doing something else e.g. talking with someone and mainly focusing their attention on that conversation because he/she was busy as fuck that day, too.

Probably shouldn't have uploaded that footage, though. Maybe no one else saw it other than the person who recorded it?
 
I understand perfectly how to play basketball. I still shoot bricks every time I pull up jumpers.

That doesn't stop me from saying, "oh, the 76ers are making terrible basketball moves" or "the Spurs are really good at basketball for these reasons." Same way with games - I realize that reviewers are all shills who actually hate games, but I believe most reviewers can separate their skill from the quality of the game.

Would you feel confident to review a basketball ball?
 
This reminds me of pre-release of Halo 5, watching the press play multiplayer was absolutely egregious. The game has a steep learning curve and high skill gap and they were at the bottom. That didn't seem to stop them from praising the mulitplayer though.
 
Put as much faith into reviews as you want but anyone has the right to put one up.

You don't have to be a musician to critique music.

You dont have to be able to cook to judge whether food tastes good or not.

He might not be good at the game but that doesn't mean he cant be having a good time with it.

Also, what does it matter at this point? The footage is out there so people who want to ignore his review can. One bad review doesnt mean much.
 
I think there must be a certain knowledge, I am not saying the guy playing is terrible, he is bad, but in order to do a fair review of a game you have to be able to complete it at least in normal/hard difficulty which is how most devs intend players to play their games. If they play it on easy the critic can be way different.

THis is correct. Then again we have not seen the person beat it nor the skill progression likely to occur. I just watched 5 people playing this game and performing fairly poorly but within 1 hour they were doing extremely well and I assume after 10+ hours would be doing great. Also all seemed to have an issue with that characters height and thinness.
Also hot damn at the sensitivity right at the starting as well. Felt really off.
 
Wait the end of your post contradicts the beginning of your post. It's important that people see the opinion of, "Well, I lost a lot and that was miserable and I didn't have any fun," because that informs someone's decision.

Apologies if this has already been covered but it really doesn't given the fact that people had to dig up his history with the game to find out why he didn't have fun. If the guy came out and said why and that it was due to him doing poorly at it then sure.
 
Maybe whoever was playing was drunk as balls, the other day I was blasted and played some Revenge of Shinobi and didn't make it through the first fucking boss.

Hopefully the review isn't a shitshow.

You know it's going to be. They'll talk about how the game is juvenile and we've moved past this as a medium.
 
That should indicate that Paradox didn't do enough to highlight that menu rather than that the reviewer is so dumb. The fact that someone could play the game in a fundamentally flawed way and not be corrected by the game or that the menu wasn't very prevalent is a flaw.

Being ignorant of that kind of thing for *that* many hours doesn't mean that he's 'so dumb'. But it (along with his public comments about the game, and the genre) are the kinds of things you'd want to know prior to reading someone's thoughts about a game/book/movie. I wonder if it wouldn't be a bit more helpful for a review to contain a blurb about the author's favourite and disliked genres/other games, and what he/she is expecting from the product.

As for it being a flaw in the menu design - sure, it may be - Paradox games are notorious for their user-unfriendly aspects. It's just that in this case, it's a menu that is on the main screen, all the time. Wouldn't you expect a reviewer to have, y'know, clicked on everything he could?
 
Put as much faith into reviews as you want but anyone has the right to put one up.

This is true and goes for all kind of media coverage. But when you get to a certain level you're expected to put some effort into your work. Notice Giant Bomb's video on Doom: even with Brad being Brad (as the enabled comments point out), he shows off how the game plays and their is commentary explaining the mechanics, it's relation to other previous Dooms and contemporary FPS games, and in general gives an impression of how the game is for people interested. TotalBiscuit also did a brief video on his thoughts after a 3 hour stream in a similar vein to GB, but Polygon just lazily throws up 30 minute random footage for clicks, which is where a lot of people take exception - the poor gameplay being a symptom of wanting to get their first. At least they didn't have a spoiler in the title this time, I guess?
 
Put as much faith into reviews as you want but anyone has the right to put one up.

You don't have to be a musician to critique music.

You dont have to be able to cook to judge whether food tastes good or not.

He might not be good at the game but that doesn't mean he cant be having a good time with it.

Also, what does it matter at this point? The footage is out there so people who want to ignore his review can. One bad review doesnt mean much.

Isn't this a damn sorry excuse though? I know people who sleep walked through college and will be considered doctors soon. Does that mean you want some asshole operating on you just because he's able to?

Somebody with some sense should've flagged this before it came out.
 
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