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[hey_it's_that_dog]

out of the 56 reviews listed on MC 48% of them are perfect scores. 76% of the total scores are 95% or higher.

Perfect Scores = 27
98-95% = 16
90% = 9
85-80% = 3
75% = 1

Hmmmm what's an outlier?

If you want to talk about statistical anomalies, how about 48% of the scores being the maximum value?

That's far more suspicious than a 7.5.

I suppose there have been some people in the thread expressing suspicion of reviews and overhype in general, but I think more people could stand to adjust their expectations about score distributions.

 

[Canis lupus]

How has a mod not fixed the spelling of embargo in the thread title after all this time?!

Because emargo is correct.

 

[Andrew.]

Is anyone else going in with the mentality of hoarding everything they find, crafting only when absolutely necessary and using a gun when there is no other alternative?

Im actually really glad theres no bullshit kill trophies. I really cant wait to put myself into fight or flight scenarios. Even running away from that group in the demo was unnerving and tense as hell.

 

[Bomb-Threat]

Uncharted 3 was basically the same game as 2. Maybe a bit worse but still. So please stop the hyperbole.

Wow!!

 

[DeadRockstar]

I don't hide the fact that I'm pissed off that GTA IV is a piece of shit and a dark day for games journalism. When I reflect back on this generation, I want the aggregate score of a game that I truly love to be at the top. Just like any one else. If it doesn't reach 98, It's no sweat off my back. I just am rooting for a team.

So you're blindly(I'm assuming. Have you played it?) championing a game(or "team") and would like reviewers as a collective to do the same, for the primary purpose of dethroning a game they put there in the first place.

I honestly wouldn't even know where to start on that, but I will say that being a self-confessed sycophant doesn't make it any less deplorable.

 

[bhlaab]

Do any of these reviews praise the way the game plays or it is all about how the story and atmosphere and setpieces made them cry and Feel, etc?

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

Is anyone else going in with the mentality of hoarding everything they find, crafting only when absolutely necessary and using a gun when there is no other alternative?

Im actually really glad theres no bullshit kill trophies. I really cant wait to put myself into fight or flight scenarios. Even running away from that group in the demo was unnerving and tense as hell.

I did this in Deus Ex lol. Saved all the magnum rounds thinking they were extremely rare like in RE4 and needed it for the final boss. Got to the final boss with 60 rounds and killed it with plenty to spare :/

 

[Clear]

I can't believe people are still talking about Polygon's score. Who cares? Its not like they were a bastion of integrity and insight before this review was published!

 

[hey_it's_that_dog]

Uncharted 3 was basically the same game as 2. Maybe a bit worse but still. So please stop the hyperbole.

Without making a value judgment of any kind, I can refute your statement with the fact that the encounter designs clearly followed very different philosophies. UC3 relied heavily on open sandbox combat arenas and UC2's were usually narrower with most enemies approaching from in front of you. This difference has a lot to do with people's opinions of the two games.

 

[antitrop]

I can't believe people are still talking about Polygon's score. Who cares? Its not like they were a bastion of integrity and insight before this review was published!

What else would you like to talk about in the Last of Us Review Thread?

 

[Sethos]

I can't believe people are still talking about Polygon's score.

Who cares?

Well that pretty much answers itself.

Its not like they were a bastion of integrity and insight before this review was published!

It's about building a case and calling them out for their bullshit.

 

[Metalmurphy]

Not this shit again...

That shit is correct. The bulletsponge complaints have always been exaggerated.

1 shot to the head
3 to the chest

Additional armor/mini bosses are obviously different. For example, with helmets it's obviously not 1 shot to the head, but once the helmet comes of it is.

 

[cameron]

Or maybe the guy just gave his honest opinion.

The reviewer also gave Tomb Raider a 9. Which is fine on it's own and is in line with most reviews, but the the complaints against TLoU could easily be applied to TR. At the very least, the dude is not very consistent with his reviews of games in similar genres.

 

[Gintoki313]

Just went to GS and reserved my copy. If my graduation wasn't tomorrow making me super nervous, I would be hyped as heck for this game right now. Those review scores would make anyone interested in a game whether they like it or not.

Hopefully the game turns out to be as great as the reviews are saying. Also I hope its true that the game is lengthy. I love adventure action games that are long, makes me really feel like I spent my money on something that'll last me a long time.

 

[Sn4ke_911]

Because emargo is correct.

wat?

 

[hey_it's_that_dog]

That shit is correct. The bulletsponge complaints have always been exaggerated.

It is a fact that in UC3 enemies react differently (or, rather, don't react) to being shot than in UC2, and at the very least the weakest enemies in UC3 take more shots to bring down than those in UC2.

Maybe there's are videos we can use to compare. I'm going from memory and I'm not as confident in my second point as my first.

 

[revolverjgw]

Without making a value judgment of any kind, I can refute your statement with the fact that the encounter designs clearly followed very different philosophies. UC3 relied heavily on open sandbox combat arenas and UC2's were usually narrower with most enemies approaching from in front of you. This difference has a lot to do with people's opinions of the two games.

They're different games and I definitely have my preference (2) because of it but it's really hard to take the whole binary/black and white/perfect or shit stance seriously in comparisons like these

 

[Rocwell]

Why so low?

I can't wait for this game to be released and then the backlash can truly begin.

 

[Tallshortman]

The equivalent of a summer popcorn flick stretched out over 10+ hours. That does not make for good writing I'm sorry to say, and the stories are far too shallow and lack much in the ways of background information delivery to flesh anything in the world out. Everything is delivered to the player by cutscenes. The games are very cinematic, impressively so, but to say they are well written or particularly well told is a slap in the face to every game that actually does have an interesting or thoughtful story told in a competent way.

So you're saying anything that isn't deep enough to explore the human psyche isn't worth shit writing wise? Once again, it is entirely stupid to discount the great dialogue and writing just because it's done in a certain genre. The stories are what they are, you certainly don't need a super deep storyline to make a great game or great movie. Execution is just as much part of any game or film as is the plot it's trying to follow.

 

[hey_it's_that_dog]

They're different games and I definitely have my preference (2) because of it but it's really hard to take the whole binary/black and white/perfect or shit stance seriously in cases like these.

Yeah, I only wanted to refute the claim that they're the same, not support the claim that one is drastically worse than the other. I also like 2 a lot better, but 3 is only considered "horrible" because it failed to live up to incredibly high expectations set by 2.

 

[zoukka]

Really you have to boil it down to Polygons complaints.

A.) The gunplay sucks and you can't aim for shit.

False. We have played the demo, gunplay is awesome.

B.) The game is too violent.

For me that's a positive, but there's an option to turn off the violence/gore. Non complaint.

The gunplay in Uncharted games is generally praised, but very divisive among gamers. Don't see how Last of Us is immune to the same potential situation.

Turning off gore does not turn off violence.

 

[Fenderputty]

UC3 wasn't as good as 2, but we're acting like it's a bad game now. Man ...

The gunplay in Uncharted games is generally praised, but very divisive among gamers. Don't see how Last of Us is immune to the same potential situation.

Turning off gore does not turn off violence.

Why buy a game like this if you don't want the violence? That's like buying Banjo or LBP and complaining it's too kiddy.

 

[kick51]

Plenty of reviews are worthless because the reviewer didn't properly play the game.

Jim Sterling's Vanquish review, for example. His Resident Evil 6 review is also full of holes, even though I hate that game.

God Hand?

I'm sure if we put our brains together we can find plenty of video game reviews where the person who was reviewing it obviously wasn't fit to do so.

Is it so hard to believe that Polygon's TLoU review might end up in the same collective group of "poor reviews"? I'll certainly find out next week when I get the chance to play the game.

I look forward to comparing my own opinion on the game to Phil's.

Those are good examples, I admit.

The reviewer also gave Tomb Raider a 9. Which is fine on it's own and is in line with most reviews, but the the complaints against TLoU could easily be applied to TR. At the very least, the dude is not very consistent with his reviews of games in similar genres.

....and I no longer care much for Phil Kollar's opinion on games.

Not gonna say his review is invalid or throw a hissy fit, but I can't respect a 9 for the new Tomb Raider.

 

[Pranay]

If you want to talk about statistical anomalies, how about 48% of the scores being the maximum value?

That's far more suspicious than a 7.5.

I suppose there have been some people in the thread expressing suspicion of reviews and overhype in general, but I think more people could stand to adjust their expectations about score distributions.

In general sense, out of all sites which many expected to give a harsh review or who were very critical of uncharted 3 have given 9.5 and 10.

Polygon problem was not about giving 7.5 but it was because they have written some horrible reviews , have been very shady and are noy liked by gaf.

Also people have played the demo, seen the gameplay and a lot of points made by polygon made many skeptical because people feel issues are not huge as polygon make out to be and are backed 98% reviewers as well on that.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

I will say that if there's anything I'd really like to see more of in game reviews, it's the mechanics and controls. Telling me what abilities there are and what buttons they are tied to (and whether or not everything can be customized) is a nice addition which would go a long way to helping me imagine how something plays.

Probably unimportant for a lot of people, but for me it helps me conceptualize the game. There's several games I would have known better to have bothered renting if I'd known the controls are a nightmare unless you're on mouse and keyboard, or that fucking Y axis couldn't be inverted.

 

[hlhbk]

Woo up to 96 on MC! I am 2 points away from my predicted 98!

 

[bhlaab]

YOU ONLY.

GAVE TWILIGHT PRINCESS.

AN 8?!?!

GOD DAMN YOU. YOU WILL RUE THIS DAY.

 

[Pranay]

Why so low?

I can't wait for this game to be released and then the backlash can truly begin.

We can pretty much see your intentions

 

[antitrop]

I will say that if there's anything I'd really like to see more of in game reviews, it's the mechanics and controls. Telling me what abilities there are and what buttons they are tied to (and whether or not everything can be customized) is a nice addition which would go a long way to helping me imagine how something plays.

Probably unimportant for a lot of people, but for me it helps me conceptualize the game. There's several games I would have known better to have bothered renting if I'd known the controls are a nightmare unless you're on mouse and keyboard, or that fucking Y axis couldn't be inverted.

It took me an embarrassing amount of time to get used to R2 being reload in Uncharted 2 last night instead of Square.

 

[revolverjgw]

The Polygon review sucks because it totally seems like they got the wrong guy to do it. Bad review that gets me even more hyped because the reviewer is such a dweeb and his criticisms suck, his negatives hardly seem like negatives at all

 

[zoukka]

Why buy a game like this if you don't want the violence? That's like buying Banjo or LBP and complaining it's too kiddy.

Not that simple. You can expect violence in almost every single video game that has character driven action, but still be disgusted by some scenarios.

The Polygon review sucks because it totally seems like they got the wrong guy to do it.

Not sure if serious.

 

[lucius]

I deleted all those Plus fighting games I got free that I never play, free up about 60 more gigs. TLOU theme they let you download right away but the Sights and Sounds pack with the soundtrack you get with the game you have to wait till 12:01 am on the 14th. Still does not show the full size for me anywhere or in info.

 

[Andrew.]

It took me an embarrassing amount of time to get used to R2 being reload in Uncharted 2 last night instead of Square.

Yeah and there's no alternate control options. I really hope ND added that in options for Last of Us. I personally can't stand aiming/shooting with L1 and R1.

 

[hlhbk]

http://www.gamingexcellence.com/ps3/games/the-last-of-us/review 9.5

 

[Tom Penny]

The amount of complaints over a review that is .5 lower than the 2nd lowest score is amusing. You'd think they gave it a 5 for a score.

 

[revolverjgw]

Not that simple. You can expect violence in almost every single video game that has character driven action, but still be disgusted by some scenarios.



Not sure if serious.

Early on reading video game magazines, I was trained to expect the "RPG guy" to review the RPGs. The sports guy did the sports, different reviewers with different preferences and insights. I want the right reviewer on the job. This review simply read like a guy that didn't get it. Which is fine, this isn't a game for everybody, but I want somebody with a better grasp of what the game is trying to do.

But I don't think the reviewer is "wrong" or biased or crooked. Simply, his insight doesn't sound valuable to me given what I read. It's a shit review, in short.

But maybe I'll end up agreeing him, we'll see.

 

[Dragon]

The amount of complaints over a review that is .5 lower than the 2nd lowest score is amusing. You'd think they gave it a 5 for a score.

You're completely missing the point of a lot of the complaints. nib earlier on this page summed it up nicely.

 

[Dragon]

http://www.gamingexcellence.com/ps3/games/the-last-of-us/review 9.5

ABOUT THIS REVIEW
The primary platform in which our evaluation was conducted for the basis of this review is the PlayStation 3 version of the game.

Well thank goodness!

 

[Bomb-Threat]

The amount of complaints over a review that is .5 lower than the 2nd lowest score is amusing. You'd think they gave it a 5 for a score.

You folks are right there complaining about the complaints... If the scores were close to that average then it probably wouldn't have mattered..

 

[giancarlo123x]

Well thank goodness!

360 version preorder cancelled!

 

[zoukka]

Early on reading video magazines, I was trained to expect the "RPG guy" to review the RPGs. The sports guy did the sports. I want the right reviewer on the job. This review simply read like a guy that didn't get it. Which is fine, this isn't a game for everybody, but I want somebody with a better grasp of what the game is trying to do.

But I don't think the reviewer is "wrong" or biased or crooked. Simply, his insight doesn't sound valuable to me given what I read. It's a shit review, in short.

Considering this game IS for everyone your reasoning is weird. This is not a niche game that you require some specific knowledge or skills to play and appreciate. It's a blockbuster game.

 

[revolverjgw]

Considering this game IS for everyone your reasoning is weird. This is not a niche game that you require some specific knowledge or skills to play and appreciate. It's a blockbuster game.

There is no such thing as a game for everyone, there never has been. There are no universally loved and enjoyed games. And different people have different values and expectations, and I simply prefer reviews done by certain types of people. It felt to me like this guy did not have the best possible kind of insight for me.

 

[JWong]

The gunplay in Uncharted games is generally praised, but very divisive among gamers. Don't see how Last of Us is immune to the same potential situation.

Turning off gore does not turn off violence.

The Last of Us isn't gun focused.

And the complaint is too much violence. There's an option to dial it down. Maybe Polygon should have read the ratings.

 

[nofi]

The Last of Us isn't gun focused.

And the complaint is too much violence. There's an option to dial it down. Maybe Polygon should have read the ratings.

You can't dial down the violence in the cut-scenes.

 

[Dude Abides]

Oh, probably true. I saw the video. He played it like a shooter. He couldn't get into the actual mechanics the game wanted you to use, so, it wound up being unenjoyable.

Still doesn't legitimize his review. Reviewers are supposed to play games as they're meant to be played. If I played a CoD game as a slow paced stealth game (totally possible, using the knife only), then I'd have a damn bad time.

He explicitly said he didn't want to play it like a shooter, but toward the end it threw him into shooting gallery situations.

He also wasn't complaining about violence per se, but that the amount of violence Joel has to commit is incongruous with the tone the game tries to build.

It's fine to reject the criticisms, but you should at least understand them.

 

[Massa]

Has Mama posted a wall of shame yet? I haven't kept up with this thread.

 

[Figboy79]

I don't care about a single review score, or reading a review. It's just one person's opinion, and the only opinion that matters on games, movies, books etc. is mine--as I'm either going to enjoy it and get my money's worth, or not.

I really only look at the aggregator sites like Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes etc. If a game/movie/etc. is in a genre I love and at 90%+ I pretty much always love it. In the 80s is more of a mixed bag. 60-70% is very hit and miss. 50s and below I seldom like anything.

Only time I'll delve more into reading reviews is when I'm hearing good things about a game that's in a genre I don't typically play as I want more info on the gameplay, difficulty level (hate hard games) etc. before deciding to check it out for myself.

Oh, I agree 100% and have said as much about reviews. My opinion on a game is the only one that matters, because it's my money, and my time being spent on the game. I usually don't bother reading reviews until after I've gotten and completed the game myself (and also to avoid potential reviewer spoilers).

I find aggregate sites interesting, but don't really like to use them for anything either. Whether it be movies or games. Some movies I love have terrible aggregate scores. Ditto for games. I like seeing what other people think of things I find interesting, but I'll never use that as a metric for purchasing something. Although I do have a few really close friends who know me well enough to know what I may like, and suggest things accordingly. A large portion of the time they are right, so I do hold their opinions on games and movies to a bit higher regard than profession reviews.

 

[Coolbgdog12]

I can't understand too much violence being a valid complaint. You bought the game, it was rated M for mature and it was known for a long time that it would take in a very violent setting that fits the narrative.

It's like complaining about too much text in a RPG game.

 

[Fenderputty]

Not that simple. You can expect violence in almost every single video game that has character driven action, but still be disgusted by some scenarios.

It's being pushed as gritty and dark. It's pretty simple.

 

[antitrop]

I can't understand too much violence being a valid complaint. You bought the game, it was rated M for mature and it was known for a long time that it would take in a very violent setting that fits the narrative.

It's like complaining about too much text in a RPG game.

He's talking about a feeling of dissonance, not being disgusted by "too much violence". He felt that the tone of the game and the progression of the characters did not feel proportional to the acts that they were committing and the frequency of which they were occurring.

I could see him being right about that.