It's time to review!
At the end of the day, I have never had a huge interest in reviewing or people who review simply because we all have our own opinions over a game that won't correspond to what the reviewers say. Yet, just because I personally don't particularly care for them, that doesn't mean they aren't important when it comes to sales. That is pretty much what reviewing is all about, money.
You are sitting back watching TV and an advert comes on advertising a movie, what do we look at? What the rating is of course! Why? Because it tells us as potential customers whether or not the product is worth our money. If a movie at the cinema is only rated with two stars chances are you won't want to see it as much as a movie with five stars, especially if they cost the same. Well, the world of gaming is no different, the people who buy the games want to know if it is worth their money, as a single game can become quite costly.
One of the main problems I find with reviews is that they tend to be bias, especially if they are a big company or site, such as IGN. They play a game, they review the game, they get paid for reviewing the game, people then buy the game. Pretty simple, except the fact that a lot of the opinions they present say the best about a game. Say the new Assassins Creed game that came out recently. They aren't going to post on their site, made to sell the game "2 Stars, Bland characters and glitches!" No! They would pick the best review they could find, or even pay somebody to write a review to promote the game. In the end we are pretty much brainwashed into thinking a game is amazing, when in reality it has major issues.
Hence the reason I don't try to watch reviews too often, if it is a game i am interested in I will play it for myself. Then watch a review afterwards, usually so I can spam my opinions in the Youtube comment section. Which I do, frequently!
People quite often follow what reviewers say be it in a magazine or video and seem to suddenly know everything about the game without even playing it! Which I too am guilty of. I get so sick of seeing people posting how amazing COD is, yet I haven't properly played it, so why do I have the right to moan? Because we like debate, we like to fight, it's in our nature. Or so I think.
I myself have bought games due to them having good reviews. Mass effect 2 being my prime example. Everybody hyped over it i thought I was majorly missing out on something. I got bored, very quickly. I am particular over what I play, I prefer horror gaming to RPG and action to long, speech related or puzzle games. (Give me Amnesia over Mass Effect any day.) Hence why I have learnt to just play them for myself.
For example, lets look at this blog here on the guardian... oh no, lets not. Another dud link...
Lets try another then. Ah, here we go! Eurogamers review on Project Gotham Racing 3. It starts "in love. Everything is so perfect with it there is not one bad comment I can say about it, graphics are lush, framerate is stunning and controls are like silk." - Sounds pretty good, this person seems to really like the game. "Not a glitch" is later mentioned... Ok, well there isn't usually a game without a single glitch, this person then goes on to say that two of his friends agreed that the game is good. Wow! Ok, I must buy it then! sounds really good! No. This review is too superficial. It is just too positive for a review, its as if the person was a robot all along, working for the company that created this game. However, if it is so superb, why was it only rated an 8/10? Surely if it is so perfect then it would be given an instant 10/10.
Note to self: Reviewers lie for money, they work the same way as everybody does in this world. Everything is about money, if it wasn't then big gaming companies wouldn't exist. At the end of the day, a review is a review, written well or badly. This whole blog is pretty much a review, of reviewing. My verdict? It sucks. Form your own opinion, get out there and play the game. You'll never know until you try.
References:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/SWiAYcTHVxI9I
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/game_culture/2005/03/ten_unmissab
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/egrr_550_62798
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