360plex Score: 18258
Join Date: May 2007
The other side of wigan
Member #: 6
Total Posts: 602

Discuss: Game Reviews Are Broken Please Fix !
Posted: 13 months ago

This is a really interesting article, and when you considor a good or bad game review can affect shares in a company:

(Wall Street is also paying attention to them. On a Friday in early May, Activision's Spider-Man 3, a game based on the movie of the same name, hit store shelves to generally mediocre reviews. Metacritic gave the PlayStation 2 version of the game a 50, compared with an 80 for Spider-Man 2 for the same console.

By the following Monday, several financial analysts had noted Spider-Man 3's low scores as a possible concern for Activision. The Santa Monica, Calif., company's shares dropped 5% that day and continued sliding for the remainder of that week. In August, shares of Take-Two soared nearly 20% the week after its new game, Bioshock, got a nearly perfect Metacritic score, a 97 (it has since fallen to 96 as more reviews were included in its average).

Then you can understand the pressure on Gamespot by a major sponsor, with that in mind how can you trust any big site reviews anymore.

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360 leads to wife neglect !!!!

360plex Score: 2941
Join Date: Jun 2007
North Carolina
Member #: 56
Total Posts: 262

You're right, was really interesting. I stopped reading reviews a long time ago, yes, I do still browse the scores/messageboards when there is a game I'm on the fence about but I never read actual reviews anymore, in fact I avoid them even if I see a messageboard post that reads "my review of ____ ". It's all just peoples opinion and what some like others don't, which is why I go by scores and word of mouth(if you a whole page of posts saying how bad it is, you can usually avoid it) and even then if I like the concept of it(yes, as in Bulletwitch) I will play it anyway. I haven't bought a game in I don't know when, nothing is ever really good enough to me to warrent the pricetag when I can just rent it. Oh wait, Halo 3 but that was for my husband, and a waste of money.

Does anyone even look at just one review when they are going to get a game?

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My husband is an Italian Hero... the person not the sandwich.

360plex Score: 5581
Join Date: Oct 2007
Stockton on Tees, England
Member #: 298
Total Posts: 528

I use metacritic and this gives review from all magazines so gives a more balanced opinion.

www.metacritic.com

Alot of friends opinions does not sway me either. Everyone's taste is different and you might not like what I do. Unless you said a game is truely awful then i would probably still try and see for myself.

360plex Score: 1060
Join Date: Sep 2007
Kent, England
Member #: 285
Total Posts: 91

I do read reviews but never from an official magazine. I always get a few different reviews from different places before making my mind up and you tend to get a feel for the people who have similar opinions.
It's another reason i listen to this podcast as the guys have played enough games to know whats good and whats not - most of the time!