I'll agree, user scores don't matter all that much, but the whole thing is still pretty shady. Let your game speak for itself, if you want to lend your opinion sometime down the line, do it then. Right up front like these guys did is just a bad idea.
Count me in. I still have yet to play this, though Chessa did. I love Rayman.
I'll be curious to see what the net effect of this is. I'm guessing nothing, but at face value it does seem like the Tales series is in serious danger. Only time will tell, I expect.
Hey Heed, I wanted to reply to some of your questions and concerns on behalf of Jesse. For one, you are correct, Jesse did not play through the entire game, nor was he expected to. The bottom line is that Jesse grew bored of the game after playing for a good chunk of time and drove his review around those points.
However, we did do our readers a disservice in not disclosing this fact up front. The fact of the matter is, it's unreasonable to expect completion of each and every game before a review is done. Not because there's not enough time or because we have some obligation to someone, but because not every game is worth completing. Sometimes a game is just so intolerably boring to the reviewer that they can't push further into the game. Going further isn't going to make the score any better for the game, so we encourage our reviewers to quit and move on if they don't feel further play time is going to be beneficial to evaluating the game.
All of this being said, I would say we complete the vast majority of games we review. In this instance, Jesse just wasn't feeling it and moved on. We wanted to play/review the game because we missed it and were genuinely interested in it. Because we're preparing our Game of the Year awards, we thought Dead Island, based on critical reception thus far, might be eligible for inclusion.
If you have any questions on this, please let me know. I'd love to answer any of your questions in regards to this point.
I'll admit, I'm still skeptical, but I really want this. Not sure I have the funds to buy it right now, but I'll keep it on the radar and grab it in the near future, whenever that is.
There's a Zelda timeline? Oh right, I guess there kind of is...
As far as I know Skyward Sword tells the story that leads into Ocarina of Time, but the two are only slightly more connected than any other two given games in the series. When they all feature the same characters, it's pretty easy to draw whatever parallels you want.
Reviews are an interesting subject and I've enjoyed what you have here, Jason, even the memory stuff. As I've stated a number of times in the past, Chessa and I thought long and hard about how we'd be scoring games on this site before it was opened.
At a point we had discussed even the Buy, Try, Avoid system, which we actually thought was pretty good - but there were a few problems. #1, a recommendation of that sort is a little ambiguous for one (who does it apply to, does every good game deserve to be bought, etc). #2, a recommendation is just that, a recommendation. It's not a critical evaluation of the game, it's just what you think someone should do. While your text should absolutely reflect your critical opinion, like it or not, it's a critic's job to provide a rating. #3,you can't get picked up on Metacritic. Despite anyone's feelings on the site, they are a key player in this industry and being aggregated there is extremely important.
Of course, this has resulted in the 5 star + Recommendation system we have here. We never quite go with the Buy, Try, Avoid wording, but try and steer recommendations to tell different players what's worth their money. Some games can hit all three recommendations given their content - Demon's/Dark Souls comes to mind.
Naturally, I agree with you in terms of using 5 stars. I think it's one of the best mediums to dispel a score. It has enough granularity to properly classify a game and leaves little to be ambiguous.
Now, let me share a story. Back when I was a kid, I also read Nintendo Power. If you remember correctly, for a long time they used the 100 point scale to rate games. I was really into this rating scale. In my mind, it helped categorize and order every game out there. The granular scores meant, to me, that I could definitively say one game was better than another and if you were to make a list, x game would come before y game because x got a 95 and y got a 93.
If you remember still, Nintendo Power switched their rating system to the same 5 star scale we use today. I was infuriated. How on earth could I possibly get an idea if I should buy one game over another? Both x and y now have a 5 star score - which one is better?
The fact of the matter is, it doesn't matter, it all comes down to preference because they're clearly made from the same stuff. What I didn't understand and maybe Nintendo Power didn't at first either, is that the 100 point scale may give you the flexibility to score one game over another by a minute amount and that works great for a while, but what happens when two games get the same score and you clearly state one is better than the other? Well the whole ordering system goes out the window, that's what.
Fact of the matter is, it's not our job, in my opinion, as critics to figure out where each game sits in the grand scheme of things. Metacritic should be worrying about that one. It's our job to score the game based on some quantifiable and well defined scale. I appreciate that you use our policy guidelines, as I consult them each time I write a review to help clearly designate how I feel about a game. I can't imagine having the burden of choosing a score out of 100. How do you justify it? What do you say to the inevitable ranking questions?
I think any system, outside of the 100 point scale, can work great as long as the guidelines are in place that define each score. I'll probably write a staff blog of my own on why I think scores tend to skew high and an interesting cycle I've begun to notice just within the PixlBit ecosystem.
Which way to the glue factory?
Hate you right now. Utter jealous hatred.
If you find an extra, I'll pay handsomely... not really.
Haha, glad to be of assistance. Hope you enjoy em!
