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[Principate]

Publishers don't just spend all this money and then send the game out there in the wild with their fingers crossed, they hire freelancers to do "mock reviews" to give the publisher an idea of what the "real reviews" will look like.

Here's an excerpt from Schreier's piece on Destiny from just a few days ago:


http://kotaku.com/the-messy-true-story-behind-the-making-of-destiny-1737556731

Bahaha that mock reviewer clearly didn't earn his pay check. Shouldn't these type of deals aim to be more critical, to A) sort out any major problems that are fixable before launch, B) give you a rough lower end of the games review scores which is far more useful than an inflated high end.

 

[Fata1moose]

I don't mean to be a devils advocate but I have only heard of one of those review sites and the one I do recognize I haven't agreed with since their Dark Cloud review, so for me thats worrying.

Plus:

This guy gave Halo 4 a 9.7 and called it the best in the series, so that kind of speaks for its self as far as opinions go. If you don't align with that I wouldn't be too worried. We'll see I guess.

 

[Nameless]

Console war... console war never changes.

Outside of one or two posts it's mostly Franchises Warzz tbh

The Tomb Raider and Fallout threads should be fun

 

[superNESjoe]

I'm sorry but Ryan is probably one of the worst Halo 'fans' out there. He talks about how much he loves the games and franchise but rarely knows what he's talking about when discussing story nor seems to care about it very much. Now from IGN, Sean Finnegan and Destin actually seems to care about the story of Halo and actually know what they're talking about.

For what it's worth, Destin hated it too.

 

[Fata1moose]

After his Halo 4 review I can't take anything he says seriously. In fact the only review that matched my feelings about Halo 4 was written by Tom Chick. Has he reviewed Halo 5 yet?

The guy who complained that Halo didn't have ADS? I hate that guy as we now have ADS in Halo. Yay for homogenization.

 

[Kssio_Aug]

I don't mean to be a devils advocate but I have only heard of one of those review sites and the one I do recognize I haven't agreed with since their Dark Cloud review, so for me thats worrying.

Plus:

I just looked at the some of the reviews in the OP order. There are many other reviewers out there who enjoyed the campaign as much as these. EGM reviewer for example seems to have enjoyed it a lot!! I'm just answering to one of those hyperbolic post saying that 90% of the reviewers out there didn't like the campaign cause you don't play most of it with Master Chief. It seems to me that there are MANY reviewers out there who enjoyed it anyway.

I won't deny Chief is totally important to the franchise. But playing as Chief is not Halo. Halo is much more than just playing with the iconic chracater! It's is also very important to take note that, as some already stated, the story still puts Master Chief in the center.

People say that they can't play Halo without playing with Chief, I wonder if they have skipped Halo 2 Arbiter missions aswell as Halo ODST and Reach (that for lots of players these are even between the best of the entire franchise).

And I don't care for one guy opinion. He may have been called a MS or Halo fanboy before, but that is not even what makes someone feels credible to me.

 

[SuperBanana]

The only way it could be worse than Halo 2's campaign is if the disc melted your console upon starting the story.

 

[Deception]

For what it's worth, Destin hated it too.

I'd trust his opinion over Ryan's any day, at least Destin actually seems to care.

 

[Gascoigne]

The guy who complained that Halo didn't have ADS? I hate that guy as we now have ADS in Halo. Yay for homogenization.

You're thinking of EGM's review, which was as equally bad as IGN's.

 

[foxtrot3d]

I just looked at the some of the reviews in the OP order. There are many other reviewers out there who enjoyed the campaign as much as these. EGM reviewer for example seems to have enjoyed it a lot!! I'm just answering to one of those hyperbolic post saying that 90% of the reviewers out there didn't like the campaign cause you don't play most of it with Master Chief. It seems to me that there are MANY reviewers out there who enjoyed it anyway.

I won't deny Chief is totally important to the franchise. But playing as Chief is not Halo. Halo is much more than just playing with the iconic chracater! It's is also very important to take note that, as some already stated, the story still puts Master Chief in the center.

People say that they can't play Halo without playing with Chief, I wonder if they have skipped Halo 2 Arbiter missions aswell as Halo ODST and Reach (that for lots of players there are even between the best of the entire franchise).

And I don't care for one guy opinion. He may have been called a MS or Halo fanboy before, but that is not even what makes someone feels credible to me.

I don't think people are down on the campaign because you don't get to play as Master Chief.

 

[PerezDeCorcho]

I find it funny that certain people in this thread are suddenly going on a crusade to detest metacritic and its relevancy.

 

[VinFTW]

I find it funny that certain people in this thread are suddenly going on a crusade to detest metacritic and its relevancy.

Suddenly?

Metacritic is a plague on the industry. Shit, even bonuses are based on Metacritic. It's trash.

Rottentomatoes is the gold standard.

Halo 5 would be high 90's ^

 

[spootime]

Interesting to hear that, but I really doubt they have enough people write reviews to give them a solid idea of how Metacritic will turn out, as evidenced by that article, and also Naughty Dog anticipating a "82-85 Metacritic on The Last Of Us" (via Conversations With Creators). Goes to show those internal projections mean absolutely nothing, and are commonly off the mark by a considerable margin.

If they meant absolutely nothing then I doubt publishers would pay for them. Just because some games werent predicted accurately doesnt mean that they all are.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

I find it funny that certain people in this thread are suddenly going on a crusade to detest metacritic and its relevancy.

Oh, please speak on that.

Subposts are the best posts.

 

[VincentMatts]

I just looked at the some of the reviews in the OP order. There are many other reviewers out there who enjoyed the campaign as much as these. EGM reviewer for example seems to have enjoyed it a lot!! I'm just answering to one of those hyperbolic post saying that 90% of the reviewers out there didn't like the campaign cause you don't play most of it with Master Chief. It seems to me that there are MANY reviewers out there who enjoyed it anyway.

I won't deny Chief is totally important to the franchise. But playing as Chief is not Halo. Halo is much more than just playing with the iconic chracater! It's is also very important to take note that, as some already stated, the story still puts Master Chief in the center.

People say that they can't play Halo without playing with Chief, I wonder if they have skipped Halo 2 Arbiter missions aswell as Halo ODST and Reach (that for lots of players these are even between the best of the entire franchise).

And I don't care for one guy opinion. He may have been called a MS or Halo fanboy before, but that is not even what makes someone feels credible to me.

Having played 2 this weekend i can tell you that 2s campaign is easily the worst in the series. As soon as the arbiter level starts i had to force myself to play through it. The character and idea weren't bad, but the level the design is though. From start to finish.

 

[Dee Dah Dave]

What's the resolution in multi?

Is it variable like the campaign or locked at 1080pr or something?

Anyone know?

 

[PerezDeCorcho]

Oh, please speak on that.

Subposts are the best posts.

if you account for franchise fatigue and the general negative trend in metascores recently it doesn't seem too bad when compared to the rest of the franchise.

though, the fact mcc has a 85 metacritic and this, what sounds much, much better than that mess, has a 86, just shows how irrelevant metacritic really is.

.

 

[hawk2025]

Suddenly?

Metacritic is a plague on the industry. Shit, even bonuses are based on Metacritic. It's trash.

Rottentomatoes is the gold standard.

Halo 5 would be high 90's ^

Why?

Why is one statistic that aggregates up to 100 better than another statistic that aggregates up to 100 -- to the point that it becomes a "plague"?

 

[Kssio_Aug]

I don't think people are down on the campaign because you don't get to play as Master Chief.

There are though...

lol i have no idea. These guys man....they just dont get it. Ive come to accept it now. If i wanted to play a fucking halo game without Chief, id play ODST. They take the idea from the worst halo game (Halo2) and make a new game out of it. Who makes these decisions at 343........

Are you sure that arent you who "don't get it"? It seems like it to me!

Not according to 90% of the reviews out there im not.

 

[Spieler Eins]

I'll just see for myself. Some think it is great, others not so much. Yep, that's opinions alright. All I care about is mine.

Does anyone have a Bingo already?

 

[Windom Earle]

Oh god...what have I done


im never going to post opinions anymore

You are not wrong, GTAV was a downgrade in many ways. Anyway, not the right thread.

 

[GulAtiCa]

The only thing I'm concerned about is the campaign. I just hope they learned from Halo 4's campaign issues and it's insulting ending QTE.

 

[Pattycakes]

The only thing I'm concerned about is the campaign. I just hope they learned from Halo 4's campaign issues and it's insulting ending QTE.

Spoiler

There's no QTE bullshit.

 

[firehawk12]

I was wondering if someone would post the Halo 4 review. lol

 

[TRI Mike]

2 years out and still no 90+ Metacritic XB1 exclusive :/

Who the hell cares about Metacritic averages¿ Jesus Christ...

 

[Flarin]

From the few reviews I've watched from IGN and Gametrailers [Spoilers?]

Spoiler

You only play as Chief for 3/15 missions.

YIKES.

 

[Pattycakes]

Spoiler

From the few reviews I've watched they said you only play as Chief for 3/15 story missions

. YIKES.

Spoiler that shit.

 

[Mikey Jr.]

When their game of choice gets a low score metacritic is the escape goat. If their game is high, metacritic is praised. It's like in every review thread ever since the dawn of timeeeeeee!

Just read the reviews or rent/borrow the game...

Seriously.

Game scored low? Ohh well, metacritic is fucked because X, y, and z. Fuck that site.

 

[Vooduu]

Spoiler

There's no QTE bullshit.

Right? Swear people blowing it out of proportion lol.

 

[Mattenth]

I would prefer it if more sites just gave a "yea or nay" approach like Kotaku's reviews. Weirdly, interpretation of numerical scores seems more subjective.

That's the goal. Using Net Promoter Score also lets us bring publications like Kotaku and Eurogamer back into the fold. Even though neither of those publications are willing to assign numerical verdicts, they are willing to make recommendations.

But yeah, it's silly - 90%+ of critics would recommend this game to gamers. That's the metric we should use. Not "Oh what numbers did they all dish out?"

 

[User 73706]

That Reclaimed Hub review convinced me to buy a copy of Halo 5: Guardians with how expertly-formatted it was. There are no words (except the ones in the review). I bet the guy responsible for designing those pages is some adonis with a massive dong, too - an adongis, even. I sure wish I could speak to the brilliant team behind humanity's crowning achievement that is Reclaimed Hub Dot Com Slash Writeup Slash Halo 5 Review.

 

[link2021]

I'm sure some reviewer is out to get ms at any cost no matters what and some people are just done with fps

 

[PerezDeCorcho]

Suddenly?

Metacritic is a plague on the industry. Shit, even bonuses are based on Metacritic. It's trash.

Rottentomatoes is the gold standard.

Halo 5 would be high 90's ^

Uh, more like every major release would be in the high 90s...

How is that better? Do you know how lenient Rotten Tomatoes is?

For example: The Avengers (2012) has a 92% on RT.

On Metacritic, it averages to 69.

 

[bananafactory]

Suddenly?

Metacritic is a plague on the industry. Shit, even bonuses are based on Metacritic. It's trash.

Rottentomatoes is the gold standard.

Halo 5 would be high 90's ^

Rottentomatoes is better but still flawed

If a movie got a 6.5 from every outlet it would be at 100%, which is misleading (even though they have an average score rating too, most people don't read that)

 

[SEGAvangelist]

That's the goal. Using Net Promoter Score also lets us bring publications like Kotaku and Eurogamer back into the fold. Even though neither of those publications are willing to assign numerical verdicts, they are willing to make recommendations.

But yeah, it's silly - 90%+ of critics would recommend this game to gamers. That's the metric we should use. Not "Oh what numbers did they all dish out?"

Hopefully enough publications adopt the no score approach in turn forcing a +/- aggregator to become popular for video games.

Rottentomatoes is better but still flawed

If a movie got a 6.5 from every outlet it would be at 100%, which is misleading (even though they have an average score rating too, most people don't read that)

I don't see it working like that. A Rotten Tomatoes style aggregator would have to take some things into account. An Edge 6 can possibly count as a positive while an IGN 6 would not.

 

[hawk2025]

That's the goal. Using Net Promoter Score also lets us bring publications like Kotaku and Eurogamer back into the fold. Even though neither of those publications are willing to assign numerical verdicts, they are willing to make recommendations.

But yeah, it's silly - 90%+ of critics would recommend this game to gamers. That's the metric we should use. Not "Oh what numbers did they all dish out?"

What happens when reviews say "I recommend it if you like _____, but not if you like ______"?

 

[Japanmanx3]

I find it funny that certain people in this thread are suddenly going on a crusade to detest metacritic and its relevancy.

This is the first review thread I've ever really been in and yeah its quite enthralling on multiple angles. People for and against scoring aggregation, numbers, words, opinions, stated "facts" = more opinions, etc. etc. Not sure what I expected but its entertaining nonetheless.

 

[Fallout-with-swords]

Suddenly?

Metacritic is a plague on the industry. Shit, even bonuses are based on Metacritic. It's trash.

Rottentomatoes is the gold standard.

Halo 5 would be high 90's ^

If Rotten Tomatoes included games everything would be Certified Fresh because in game criticism scores below a 7 are reserved for absolute trash.

 

[Mattenth]

Uh, more like every major release would be in the high 90s...

How is that better?

Oh man, I can't wait to show you OpenCritic's infographics. I'll be sure to PM you them directly.

~60% of games fall between 70 and 85 on Metacritic/OpenCritic.

Using Net Promoter / Rotten Tomatoes, you get a very nice bell curve - 1/3 are below 40%, 1/3 are between 40% and 60%, and 1/3 are above 60%.

(The % here is "What percentage of critics would recommend this game unconditionally to general gamers?")

If Rotten Tomatoes included games everything would be Certified Fresh because in game criticism scores below a 7 are reserved for absolute trash.

You fix that by just raising the cutoff to 8 or higher.

The biggest flaw of Rotten Tomatoes' system is that it magnifies very small score differences. The difference between a 7.9 and 8.0 isn't a "tiny margin on the overall score" because it changes you from a "neutral" to a "promoter. But the difference between 8.9 and 9.0 is completely meaningless.

 

[VinFTW]

Rottentomatoes is better but still flawed

If a movie got a 6.5 from every outlet it would be at 100%, which is misleading (even though they have an average score rating too, most people don't read that)

Flawed? Sure. No opinion can really be "graded" or "scored" flawlessly.

It IS however a far better system than metacritic.

 

[User 73706]

What happens when reviews say "I recommend it if you like _____, but not if you like ______"?

"I recommend it if you like Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg 2: All Outta Cocks: Unleashed, but not if you like what Donkey Kong can learn from Tomb Raider (2014) Booty of the Forsaken DLC"

 

[oti]

I'm sorry but Ryan is probably one of the worst Halo 'fans' out there. He talks about how much he loves the games and franchise but rarely knows what he's talking about when discussing story nor seems to care about it very much. Now from IGN, Sean Finnegan and Destin actually seems to care about the story of Halo and actually know what they're talking about.

He's a fan, yes, but he isn't a REAL Halo fan!!!!!!

 

[foxtrot3d]

There are though...

Well, I was speaking more about reviewers and not random MC fanboys.

 

[VinFTW]

If Rotten Tomatoes included games everything would be Certified Fresh because in game criticism scores below a 7 are reserved for absolute trash.

So you alter the number that shows what's fresh and what's not, problem solved.

Listen, there's no perfect way to score opinions and subjective material. It's just a better way to do so.

 

[valkyre]

With every major AAA game released it becomes more and more apparent, just how damaging websites like Metacritic are to the industry...

 

[Sai]

From DF:

"We certainly enjoyed playing through Halo 5 but there are some gameplay related nits to pick that keep it from matching the sublime experience we typically associated with Bungie's series entries. Human weapons, for instance, still seem prone to running dry, forcing players to scavenge whatever the enemy of the moment is using instead. We were also disappointed with the approach to level design in the campaign. Similar to Halo 4, each level consists of a series of arenas strung together by hallways. While the quality of each arena is a huge step up from Halo 4, we never seen anything on par with the Scarab battles from Halo 3 or the Silent Cartographer from Halo Combat Evolved. With the engine clearly capable of delivering such large maps, this feels like a missed opportunity."​

I was really hoping for something that at least matched that string of awesome, large scale missions from Halo 3. I'm still excited, and know that Halo 5's kicking things up in other ways, but that still numbs my hype for the Campaign a smidge.

 

[Stinkles]

He's a fan, yes, but he isn't a REAL Halo fan!!!!!!

He's no Scotsman.

 

[Gascoigne]

Uh, more like every major release would be in the high 90s...

How is that better? Do you know how lenient Rotten Tomatoes is?

For example: The Avengers (2012) has a 92% on RT.

On Metacritic, it averages to 69.

Rottentomatoes actually makes you read the reviews to find out what a reviewer liked or disliked about something. Metacritic just encourages console warriors to read a score and then start shit-posting. That's one of many reasons why RT is a better mechanism than Metacritic. The fact that you're just seeing complaints about Metacritic now isn't proof that people haven't been complaining about them for years.

 

[EGM1966]

Spoiler that shit.

It's a tricky one though. That probably constitutes a point of information that some would use to decide whether to purchase or not. On the other hand it does - very obliquely really as no actual plot point is directly referenced - spoil an element of the construction of the SP.

 

[Pathfinder]

Some great scores here. Gonna get me some Halo!

It's been awhile, old friend...