Renault on 6/2/2014 at 05:01
Quote Posted by GodzillaX8
Most of the bad previews I've seen were from a couple months back.
Trust me, I've been reading just about every preview that's come out in the past couple of weeks - there's a boatload of negative stuff. It's almost to the point where I wonder if EM regrets inviting the press in for the recent preview session. Read up (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=143053) here if you need some examples.
FatSpy on 6/2/2014 at 05:16
Quote Posted by Brethren
Trust me, I've been reading just above every preview that's come out in the past couple of weeks - there's a boatload of negative stuff. It's almost to the point where I wonder if EM regrets inviting the press in for the recent preview session. Read up (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=143053) here if you need some examples.
The only recent bad recent news I heard was the linear level design. Oh, and they lied about removing the XP system.
Honestly it's so far from a thief game it's not even funny. I never did get a solid answer for the noisy surfaces question, but I'm pretty sure it's not in this game at all partly because no mention of it and the silent slide is kind of enough evidence on its own it wont make an appearance.
Why do reviews even matter though? Doesn't anyone who is half competent when it comes to games know they're always full of shit?
Renault on 6/2/2014 at 05:30
Most of the complaints deal with the game not being clear on what you can and can't jump over (and just wonky navigation in general), but also on small levels and the really bad escape sequences. There's other things too though, like criticism of some of the animations taking too long, the lame "alert musc" that starts up when you're caught, and one even said the game was just kind of boring.
SubJeff on 6/2/2014 at 09:21
Quote Posted by FatSpy
Why do reviews even matter though? Doesn't anyone who is half competent when it comes to games know they're always full of shit?
That's not true at all.
Yes, they've got worse over the years with far to many OFFICIAL XBOX magazine type nonsense that is going to score every hyped big game highly. But you can't totally dismiss them. You may hate RPS (as many here seem to do) but they do pretty good job of aping the late 1990s PCGamerUK in that if they like something I'll usually find that I do too (if its in a genre I like with an idea I like).
I'm not championing RPS as such, but just saying that not all reviews are FoS and to say, and believe so, is tantamount to "all police are corrupt" type blanket silliness.
Quote Posted by FatSpy
...t gauge on a 1-100 scale, it's more of like 70-100, anything lower being an unplayable mess.
Which is why I gauge on 1-5. What's the difference between 83 and 87, really?
jay pettitt on 6/2/2014 at 09:44
err, 4.
At the end of the day, Brian, it's all going to be a bit subjective (not intended) - so what can you do? Listen to the various opinions floating around and probably weight them based on some criteria that suits you. So you might give RPS a bit more weight if you've found that's worked out in the past. Maybe fellw TTLGers are the only views that matter for you. Maybe those guys are too pompous (come on, it's disposable entertainment for gawds sake) and Video Game Retailer Monthly is your go to source, or pewdiepie or whatever. Perhaps you have to try it yourself.
So yeah, I think it's okay to take 'em or leave 'em. I've never, for example, found film reviews anywhere that reliably guide me to films I'll almost definitely like.
Thirith on 6/2/2014 at 10:14
To me, the mark of a very good review/reviewer is that when I read the review I get an understanding of whether I'd like the thing that is being reviewed regardless of whether my taste is pretty much the same as the reviewer's in this particular case. To me, the questions that are more relevant to a good review than "Do I like this thing?" are: "What does this thing set out to do?" and "Does it do it well?" Obviously individual preference isn't entirely irrelevant, as it colours a reviewer's response to these questions, but neither is it the be-all and end-all of a good review. A good reviewer who isn't into action/adventure movies should still be able to say how Raiders of the Lost Ark is a better film than, say, Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold.
That's also why I don't put all that much more faith into forum commenters, because too many people don't distinguish between X being crap and X not being according to their personal taste.
SubJeff on 6/2/2014 at 10:53
Quote Posted by jay pettitt
err, 4.
Do you really want to do this?
jay pettitt on 6/2/2014 at 11:06
Do you really want not to?
SubJeff on 6/2/2014 at 11:39
Yeah, I'd prefer it if you just talked sense.
With that line you're either showing some failure to understand or you're trolling. You're not really a troll so...
jay pettitt on 6/2/2014 at 12:29
You're particularly fragile this morning.
But seriously, if we accept that review scores aren't happening on a linear scale. If average nets you ~75% instead of 50% for some reason then where does that leave a 1 - 5 scale? What's average on that... 3 or 4 maybe? And then what... 5 is above average? Maybe some finer granularity is useful.
Though I think RPS is adorable gets it best by sticking with words. Though that's not gonna be so easy to metascore. Word clouds perhaps?
Besides, the difference between 83 and 87 is twice as big as the difference between 3 and 5.
<embed src="//www.youtube.com/v/-7jS7X-2ggA?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed>
Elementary.