Well...That's Like...Your Opinion...Man

Game Reviews a Necessary Evil

WHAT DO YOU MEAN UNCHARTED 2 SUCKS!?!?

We all know the economy sucks. We're at a time where our pockets are not lined as deep as they once were, and we are slowly learning how to become smarter consumer in order to ride out this economic storm. For us gamers, it's hard to stay on a budget. There are so many games we'd all love to get our hands on, but with a $60 buy in, it's one of the harder commitments for a guy to make other than marriage. That's where online video game reviews come in. Gamers put their trust in certain organizations to tell them whether a particular game is good enough to warrant a purchase. Graphics, gameplay, presentation, sound, lasting appeal, etc., these are the things gamers take into account when determining whether a game is worth the hefty purchase, but just like most of the cops in the world, reviewers seem to be riding on an unnecessary power trip.

I love reading game reviews. Every time a new video game title is released, I immediately head over to my favorite sites to check out their review. Giddy with anticipation, I am always hopeful for a great review score. No one wants to see a bad game hit the market, but lately there seems to be a major disparity in every site's review. I respect game reviewers. It's a tough job that requires them to analyze every morsel of the game, just to please people they've never met. Not only that, most of the internet trolls that reviewers cater to don't even respect their opinion half the time. Still, it seems to me that over the past couple of years gaming sites are becoming too over-analytical with their games, and are ruining the chance for someone to enjoy a great game. Whatever happened to answering the sole question...is it a fun game?

If only Sheva didn't exist...this game would have so much potential

Some of the more polarizing reviews of the past include games like Resident Evil 5, Dead Space, the original Assassin's Creed, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, and as of today...Medal of Honor. These are high profile games that have a large following behind them, yet, when you look at a compilation of their reviews, they're like my old elementary school dodge ball...they're all over the place. Resident Evil 5 got a 9/10 on places like IGN and Game Informer, but G4 gave it a 3/5. Assassin's Creed got a perfect score on Game Pro, but received a B- on 1UP. The scores are too ambiguous, and when we see numbers like this, we as gamers begin to write off the possibilities of playing the game and thus miss the opportunity to try something new for ourselves. In my own personal experience, I was looking forward to a game like Dead Space. I'm a monster freak, and I had my sights set on this gore-fest of a sci-fi game. Once the game hit store shelves, reviewers were tagging Dead Space as too similar of a gameplay style to Resident Evil 4 with it's over the shoulder perspective. Fortunately, I brushed the reviewers off and committed to the game and low and behold it's still one of my favorite action-horror games of all time. The point is, reviews are subjective, and just because someone from a high profile gaming site says something sucks doesn't make it so. Sure the same can be said of a movie critic, but investing time into a 2 hour movie as opposed to a 20 hour game makes a big difference, especially since it's a much deeper form of interaction.

Many gaming sites seem to be be taking too much into account when it comes to reviewing a game. I just want to know if you had fun playing, and if you would recommend it to a friend. Besides that, many reviewers are arguably hypocritical when it comes to their style of reviews. For example, Gametrailers says Medal of Honor plays like a Call of Duty game, partly because it copies the controller layout, yet, they give the game an 8.1. Turn the clock back a week to their review of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, and they claims the game plays like a God of War/Uncharted hyrbid that plays well, yet they bump the score down to a 7.5. Both games were accused of copying other gameplay mechanics, but Medal of Honor gets the higher score. It a subjective system that boggles the mind, but when all is said and done, you're listening to someone else's opinion and not your own. Video game reviewers hold the executioner's axe when it comes to a video game's sales success or not. I mean, look at a game like Red Dead Redemption. Great game (even though it plays way too similar to Grand Theft Auto IV) but on the inside flap of the game's cover there's a pull-quote from IGN's review of the game. The review was made public no more than a week before the game's release yet that quote was already on a flap that was mass produced a month in advance. I'm not accusing anyone of anything, but the persuasive power is there. 

I'm no Superman when it comes to the Sith-like powers of reviews. I admit, I too am guilty of falling under a game reviewer's spell. Just today I started to see the reviews for Medal of Honor pop around the net, which I confess, I really wanted to try, but I noticed that IGN gave the game a 6/10, while Gametrailers gave it an 8.1/10. Now I don't even know if I even want to rent the game, ultimately catching myself thinking I should just hold out for Call of Duty: Black Ops in November. I just want people to know that sometimes you have to look past all the numbers and just take the review with a grain of salt because you can never please everyone. It's a fact. Grand Theft Auto IV got a perfect 10 on IGN, but I didn't find it to be such a perfect game. It was too similar to the old GTA games, didn't offer anything breathtaking in terms of gameplay or it's over-hyped multiplayer, and I decided to sell it back to Gamestop. 

Most gamers have online access on either their XBOX or PS3's. Many games in today's market allow you to download free demos so you can give the game a quick spin before committing. Sure some demos are also deceiving, but it's better to actually get a hands-on approach with the game for yourself rather than take the word of someone you don't even know. I'm not saying reviews are bad, but always try to keep an open mind. To put it in perspective, some people actually think Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was a good movie....Let that soak in your brain and tell me it doesn't make you shudder as the tasteless opinions some people have.