Gamereactors editor in chief "I was blasted over Uncharted 2 review" + review scores
- Thread starter darkwings
- Start date
zoukka said:
Maybe he should, or maybe the gods have forsaken him.
I'm not sure what's the point of all this whole sensitive genius "8 is great in our scale" thing, it's not like anybody can change what he wrote or the score he gave, some people didn't like his review, what's he going to do? Call the police.
honeymustardn
Member
I hate it when people have different opinions to me. What an asshole.
Chris Remo
Member
Sounds like the guy has a pretty reasonable view of games and how he approaches them. Saying things like "He should review this game for what it's trying to be, not what he wants it to be!!" is ridiculous, because that in itself is still a completely subjective argument that would allow almost any game to be scored extremely highly with some pretty simple justification as long as it has plenty of technical polish and isn't buggy.
Those games have plenty of other extraordinarily high review scores from plenty of other publications. This guy shouldn't feel obligated to have the same preferences as some other reviewer just because a game has a massive budget and sells really well.
This industry--its development, its critical body, its fanbase--is so ridiculously single-minded it's absurd. There are a couple (very few) different genre formulas for massive critical success, and if you don't follow those with a big enough budget, it's almost impossible to reach a certain level of acclaim.
It's pretty frustrating for people who aren't as interested in that take on games. You feel slighted because your favorite already-successful already-popular game didn't get QUITE a high enough score? Well fuck you, there are games that don't already have tens of millions of dollars of marketing behind them that some of us find far more interesting, and yet can never reach the same level of awareness and reach simply because they aren't part of anointed subgenres.
And of course the guy still gave these games high scores in the first place. Not high enough I guess!!
Those games have plenty of other extraordinarily high review scores from plenty of other publications. This guy shouldn't feel obligated to have the same preferences as some other reviewer just because a game has a massive budget and sells really well.
This industry--its development, its critical body, its fanbase--is so ridiculously single-minded it's absurd. There are a couple (very few) different genre formulas for massive critical success, and if you don't follow those with a big enough budget, it's almost impossible to reach a certain level of acclaim.
It's pretty frustrating for people who aren't as interested in that take on games. You feel slighted because your favorite already-successful already-popular game didn't get QUITE a high enough score? Well fuck you, there are games that don't already have tens of millions of dollars of marketing behind them that some of us find far more interesting, and yet can never reach the same level of awareness and reach simply because they aren't part of anointed subgenres.
And of course the guy still gave these games high scores in the first place. Not high enough I guess!!
AltogetherAndrews
Banned
honeymustardn said:
So you're for people criticizing the dude, then? After all, it's their opinions, man. Sacred and worthy of respect, I hear.
DCharlie said:
Yeah, but said fanboys are harangued for doing so, no? Any thread with not-so-hyperbolic reviews of an exclusive will be filled with fantards bitching about opinions on one side, and other tardwarks bitching about the opinions of the opinionated. The only difference seems to be that the latter side appears to in all seriousness believe that they are somehow levitating above the mud.
REMEMBER CITADEL
Banned
Chris Remo said:
Agreed, ridiculously single-minded and ridiculously immature. People like Roger Ebert might be wrong about the expressive potential of the medium, but the current state of the industry only gives credibility to their claims. The bulk of the core gaming audience (and also the critics and even the developers - as they are gamers themselves) is still made up of kids and man-babies, which threads such as this one and monthly Edge whinefests effortlessly prove. Seriously, GAF, what the hell?
sleeping_dragon
Banned
EmCeeGramr said:
Totally irrelevant? can you read? the thread title is about Uncharted 2, and im just pointing out what the game had achieved. The editor giving the game an 8 is his opinion and Im not gonna argue against it since is his opinion which he is entitled to even though it might go against the majority of reviews (41 out of 105 reviews gave it a 10 on metacritic and only 1 out 105 reviews gave it an 8 and the other one is an 89 so i assumes is a 9 :lol ).
AltogetherAndrews
Banned
No one cares about the magazine, but they drew attention to themselves with this little rant. Fanboys got worked up and a gamereactor/review/opinion defense force was born at the same time.
AltogetherAndrews
Banned
DCharlie said:and rightly they should. Complaining about "mi mi mi it shouldn't get an 8!" ... ffs.
Hey, I'm in support of anyone getting flogged. Critics, fanchimps or their opposing clown forces, flog them and flog them often.
But then I'm not known to respect the opinions of, well, anyone.
Chris Remo
Member
NOT GREAT ENOUGH, or HIS MAGAZINE MUST CONFIRM TO THE MEANINGLESS METACRITIC STANDARDHaunted said:
DCharlie
And even i am moderately surprised
THIS GUY HAS THE LOWEST SCORE, HE IS WRONG. SO LETS UPDATE HIS SCORE TO THE BASE 90.
NOW THERE IS A GUY WHO IS ON HIS OWN WITH 89%! HE MUST BE WRONG TOO, LETS BUMP HIM TO AT LEAST 90.
WAIT, NOW THERE ARE ONLY 10% OF REVIEWS WITH 90%, LETS BUMP THEM UP TO ETC ETC ETC.
.... <time passes>
SO WE ARE ALL AGREED, WITH ALL TROLL SCORES REMOVED, 110% METACRITIC SCORE FOR UNCHARTED 2!
So true -- and I've got the feeling it's getting worse and worse. The single-mindedness, the bitching about review scores / opinions, the reviewers themselves...Chris Remo said:
Fifteen years ago or so, I was really looking forward to what video games might become one day with all the technical possibilities and bigger budgets. Now, I'm starting to wonder what they could have become without all this crap.
AltogetherAndrews
Banned
Sloane said:
There is a pretty damned easy solution to that, though. Stop reading review threads, or better yet, avoid gaming forums in general. Truth be told, I enjoy talking about games on boards that aren't game specific a lot more than on, say, NeoGAF. People there couldn't care less about metascores or industry drama. This is mostly a place to argue about dumb shit.
Yeah, I've been trying to do that -- it has just become too much of a habbit, I guess, checking the forums every day, and you can't really avoid these discussions because they have spread so much. Also, I have to admit that I probably would have missed a few nice games, if it wasn't for gaming forums.AltogetherAndrews said:
REMEMBER CITADEL
Banned
AltogetherAndrews said:
Ignoring the morons doesn't remove the problem, it only makes you oblivious to the fact that a great deal of the development community and the so-called critics cater to those people - even worse, some of them are those people.
CecilRousso
Member
So are we upset with him, the magazine or just at ourselves?
Btw, he is an asshole, but that´s because of his angry rants in his blog, not because the mentioned scores.
Kul att folk ser oss svenskar iallafall.
Btw, he is an asshole, but that´s because of his angry rants in his blog, not because the mentioned scores.
Kul att folk ser oss svenskar iallafall.
Chris Remo said:
Oh come on. The guy whinges about the place of cinematic linear games like U2 and MW2 in the industry and previously gives Crysis, Gears2 and Killzone2 perfect scores? So his negative views were just an epiphany that happened when the two biggest hyped games are released? Pfft. The guy had an axe to grind, got called out for it and bitches about the people bitching about him.
Chris Remo said:
Not so. I would suggest Demons Souls didn't follow a formula. Or Scribblenauts. Or Shadow Complex and hundreds of other games this gen. Its not always about making a game that appeals to the lowest common denominator and selling a shitload. Certainly they didnt sell a shitload, but are critically acclaimed because they are great games. U2 was lucky enough to do both, and well deserved.
Chris Remo said:
He could have given U2 a 6 for all I care as long as he critically assesses why in the review. Not because it doesn't have a feature, or that its on one platform and not another, or that he doesnt feel games should be "moving in this direction", or that he is so obviously sick of the hype surrounding it and MW2 and wants to stand out from the other reviewers to get attention?
Most people are saying "So what, it's his opinion". If he takes enough of a swipe at a game that in the process casts doubt in the readers minds (however few they may be) about the game being worthy of a purchase, what then? What if its a well known publication with a 250000 subscriber base? Or a website with 5 million unique hits a month? It costs sales. All because an axe grinders spewing shit, or a fanboy is taking side in a ridiculous e-penis console war. The devs are the ones getting fucked.
Like I said, remove the score and make people read why you like or dislike a game. Then review the game, not the genre.
BlackTyrano
Member
faridmon said:
Oh, so you agree with DCharlie despite stating clearly in your post that you think the opposite of what he thinks on the subject. OK!
Grayman said:
Indeed. It could also be that the gamereactor guy loved Killzone 2 online, and Gears of War 2 horde mode, and because of that gave them massively high scores in spite of their cinematic single player campaign direction, whereas he didn't react so positively to the online modes in UC2 and MW2, so gave them just very good 8/10s. Unless you have the review text in front of you to dissect, then it is very hard to discredit someone by comparing review scores.
One of the editors of the German magazine I read had this to say about UC2 in their GOTY round up (UC2 finished 5th behind Trials HD, NSMB Wii, Cod MW2 and Assassin's Creed 2):
http://www.maniac.de/content/die-spiele-des-jahres-2009-%E2%80%93-platz-5-%E2%80%93-uncharted-2-among-thieves
This opinion makes that score of 8 seem generous. Thankfully he didn't review the game.
http://www.maniac.de/content/die-spiele-des-jahres-2009-%E2%80%93-platz-5-%E2%80%93-uncharted-2-among-thieves
This opinion makes that score of 8 seem generous. Thankfully he didn't review the game.
I wonder if this type of whinging happened back before the internets. I'd be interested to hear from veteran game journalists whether they used to receive thousands of letters after a review that people didn't agree with. Because I've been reading reviews since the 80s and don't remember it being an issue until I joined a few gaming forums.
I'm starting to believe the only reason this level of bitching exists is because there's so much information at hand before the game is released that people make up their mind before they've played it. And it's easy to find a group of people who feel the same way and in doing so instantly form a mob mentality.
It's all rather sad and embarrassing.
I'm starting to believe the only reason this level of bitching exists is because there's so much information at hand before the game is released that people make up their mind before they've played it. And it's easy to find a group of people who feel the same way and in doing so instantly form a mob mentality.
It's all rather sad and embarrassing.
I NEED SCISSORS
Banned
Now he knows the pain that EDGE face every waking second.
Mar said:
About 20 years ago when I first started reading gaming magazines I wouldn't have dreamed to question the opinions of a reviewer. I was young and they were old and experienced, so surely they must know what they're talking about.
These days I'm older than most reviewers and I've got the same or more gaming experience under my belt.
That fact encourages skepticism about opinions that aren't my own. Being grown up makes bitching about these differences of opinions all the more embarrassing though.
itsinmyveins
Gets to pilot the crappy patrol labors
darkwings said:
It's been a while since I read an issue of Gamereactor but that's definitely not my impression.
Yeah, and obviously this didn't happen in the 80s and (most of) the 90s because there wasn't shit like metacritics to compare every review to.Mar said:
It's almost kind of funny though, people always asking for better gaming journalism, and more critic opinions -- but once anybody dares to not give yet another hyped game a 9 or a 10, that person must be biased, a complete moron etc. etc.
Just read the publisher's PR text then and shut the fuck up.
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