Video Game Reviews

[chillv]

In my opinion, reviews are becoming way too biased nowadays. It seems that critics are forgetting the definition of "review". You are reviewing the game itself, not just your personal opinions about the game. Also, it seems they are forgetting that their opinion is just "their" opinion. They need to acknowledge that what they might think is absolute garbage can be a masterpiece to another person. Things like this is why I do not recommend using reviews to justify whether to get a game or not. To be honest, even with the reviews, it all boils down to your personal thoughts.

An example of reviews that I am talking about are these. These two focus way too much on their personal opinions instead of the game itself to the point that they use their opinions as facts and base the whole review on them, forgetting about the fact that people may have opinions contrary to theirs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21L_WPKNhpU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9TwE7iuCKc

Anyway, how you do feel about reviews for video games. Do you agree with me? Do you disagree? Explain why, in all honesty, that is why this thread is for.

 

[superheroantics]

The whole point of a review is to offer your personal opinion. It's you grading the game, not just giving an objective summary. If you don't agree with a review it doesn't mean it's "biased", it just means you don't agree.

Take Sonic Lost World for example.

It got a 5.8 or something like that on IGN, right? I see people freaking out and hating on IGN more than usual now. But have they even considered that the reviewer(s) just simply hated the game, that their score was justified?

tl;dr reviews are opinions and they are meant to be viewed as such

 

[Zeiro]

This is why I don't read reviews.

 

[Unidentified Floor Orange]

Sometimes I do use reviews to help me figure out if I want to buy a game (or go see a movie). But it's never one or even a handful of reviews. I look at aggregates of reviews, because if a large number people complain about the same thing, I think it points less to bias and points more to a flaw in the game/movie.

 

[Byngo]

As long as humans are giving reviews, it's all subjective. It would be kind of impossible for one individual human being to create a review for any game that represents a majority of people's opinions.

 

[Psydye]

It's best to look at as many reviews as possible to get the whole picture so to speak, to see what people complain the most about and what people cherish the most, and to see what those are that they cherish the most and hate the most, to see if you would agree with those and find the game a worthwhile buy or not based on many people's opinions about different things and aspects of a game, and yeah....something like that. Of course simply renting a game firsthand is always the surest way to see if a game is a worthwhile buy or not w/o having to sacrifice the dough for it and be disappointed!

 

[cannedcommunism]

So true. Instead of, "The controls are OK," it's turned into, "The controls are not as good as the previous game." They're reviewing one game. No need to get all IMO on us.

 

[chillv]

Well if a review is to give your opinions, I still have to say that critics use their opinions as facts too much.

 

[Midoriya]

Well if a review is to give your opinions, I still have to say that critics use their opinions as facts too much.

If you were to play a game, complete it, and review it right now, would you describe the information in the majority of everyone else's opinion, or your own? You can't describe it in the majority because that product hasn't been established yet. That's why you're reviewing it in the first place, after all. So it might seem like the reviewers are a little arrogant at times, but they're really just describing it in the only way they can. And if you don't like their review because they say the game is bad and you think it's good, then that simply means you have a different opinion than theirs. Yours isn't wrong, and neither is theirs.

As for reviewing it in fact-form that's literally impossible because we're humans and not computers. We make mistakes.

 

[aegis]

aren't the big issues with current reviews the fact that they obviously are made to sell certain games or make the less-informed buyers want to purchase certain games? for me, it's always been best to make my own decisions based on how i experience a game instead of reading what someone else wrote about it, and that reviewer could actually be paid to say something they don't actually think.

 

[DJStarstryker]

I've ignored video game reviews for the past 10 years or so because there's too much bias. I think you're better off judging games by what you like and dislike and what you see of it. If it looks interesting and you have the money, buy it.

Maybe it's because I've been playing video games for so long, but I very, very rarely end up buying a game I dislike nowadays. If I want a game but I'm unsure about it, I'll just wait for it to get cheaper. That way, if I don't like it, then I didn't waste as much money.

 

[Midoriya]

aren't the big issues with current reviews the fact that they obviously are made to sell certain games or make the less-informed buyers want to purchase certain games? for me, it's always been best to make my own decisions based on how i experience a game instead of reading what someone else wrote about it, and that reviewer could actually be paid to say something they don't actually think.

You're right on this.

 

[chillv]

If you were to play a game, complete it, and review it right now, would you describe the information in the majority of everyone else's opinion, or your own?

Why don't we have both?

 

[Midoriya]

Why don't we have both?

Because the majority of everyone else's opinion is unknown until they make a review, and by that time nobody would be doing reviews anymore. My point is hating on critics is kind of dumb because they are human beings like us and will make mistakes.

 

[Orogenes]

I do enjoy watching/reading reviews from both "professionals" and amateurs alike - just to get a hint of what to expect. That being said, if I'm really interested in getting a game I will go out and by it regardless.

Everybody has opinions, but that doesn't make them reviewers. What distinguishes a good reviewer from just somebody with an opinion is not related to if the game (or movie/play/album/book) gets a lot of praise or not, but is more more about weather or not the reviewer brings up legitimate points that he/she can back up with examples.

For example, if I go to an Indian restaurant and afterwards write a review saying "It was a bad restaurant" with the main argument being that "the food was too spicy", it reveals more about me and my dislike for spicy food (and maybe inability to read the menu) than it says about the quality of the food itself, the service, atmosphere, range of dishes, pricing etc. Such a review is bad not because it approves/disapproves of the product in question, but because it focuses on one (highly subjective) point, then extrapolated this negative feeling to encompass every other aspect of the establishment and then made a simple summary of good/bad.