Video Game Criticism

[JonPorobil]

My in-laws got my wife Crosswords DS for Christmas. I had occasion to create an account and start playing a little. And oh my god it's awful. I guess there's some people who would enjoy mindlessly tapping in the letters to absurdly simple clues, many of which repeat from puzzle to puzzle (for instance, three times I saw the clue: "CCC, DDD, _ _ _"), but after about thirty or so of them, I realized that they weren't getting any more difficult, and I wasn't finding it at all a fun or productive use of my time. So I quit.

But look at some of those Metacritic reviews! This guy claims to be a "bona fide crossword geek!" But didn't have anything to say about the lack of challenge, or the clunky letter entry system, or anything. And among more professional outlets, I find IGN's reluctance to point out flaws very puzzling.

It's just one relatively obscure example, but I notice the trend pretty much everywhere. Sometimes I get to thinking that game companies can just put out any ol' crap, and at least one publication will enjoy it.

Where do you turn to find out whether a game is worth your money? Pretty much the only critic I trust anymore is Zero Punctuation, and as entertaining as his weekly videos are, it's not too often he reviews a game I'm much interested in. What about the rest of you? How do you do your homework?

[HeuristicsInc]

Pretty much only friends, but I hardly ever buy games (but I do play the heck out of the ones I do buy).
Sometimes I'll check a series of reviews on somewhere like Amazon, just to get an idea of what a lot of people think, but I'd rather try a demo version before buying.
-bill

[No Horse Town]

Zero Punctuation is entertainment. I wouldn't take his advice too seriously.. he's primarily focused on hyping up his own persona. Usually, his formula is: pick an easy target, tear it to shreds, some variable level of hilarity ensues. What I do, is read a million user reviews on gamefaqs, scan the boards if that's not enough. Sure, I gotta sort through a bunch of random jackasses' opinions, but if there's enough of them, I get a pretty good picture. I don't trust professional reviewers much. Usually, they'll get it *kinda* right, but give or take a few points on a ten-point spread, based on how much they're getting paid/coerced to hype the game. Or maybe I'm just paranoid about an industry that grew up too big, too fast.

[john m]

Penny Arcade, hands down. The ONLY gaming critics left who have both great taste and no bias.

If Tycho hasn't covered your game in question, look to 1up and Gamespot only to see what features the game has, and decide for yourself regardless of their final opinions. (All their good editors have been fired for not selling out their reviews to major game companies, so only look for facts, not opinions.) If you've been playing games for any decent length of time, you should have a good understanding of your own tastes. You shouldn't need a contrived score to tell you what is and isn't worth playing.

Get to know your local video game store clerks. Figure out which ones are trying to sell you something for their numbers and which ones are trying to sell you a great game that they loved playing. Once you can tell them apart, deal with the latter exclusively. Be wary of your local used video game store. Some of their clerks can be really awesome (those who were passionate to offer an alternative to Gamestop with a focus on out-of-print titles), and some can be elitist pricks (those who want to be able to say "I work in a video game store" but couldn't cut it working for a real company).

Speaking of Gamestop, as long as they haven't changed their policies since I worked there, you can return a used video game (that is, which was used when you purchased it) within 7 days for full price. My coworkers and I all mentioned the policy often, but somehow most people still didn't know about it, so it might not be widespread knowledge. It's pretty much a free rental; there's no better way to judge a game than to play it yourself.

Finally, never go to ign. Ever. If you need a catchy mnemonic to remember this: "You can't spell ignorant without 'ign.'" There; now, you have no excuse ever to return to the worst reviewers in the industry.

[The Weakest Suit]

Zero Punctuation is entertainment. I wouldn't take his advice too seriously.. he's primarily focused on hyping up his own persona. Usually, his formula is: pick an easy target, tear it to shreds, some variable level of hilarity ensues. What I do, is read a million user reviews on gamefaqs, scan the boards if that's not enough. Sure, I gotta sort through a bunch of random jackasses' opinions, but if there's enough of them, I get a pretty good picture. I don't trust professional reviewers much. Usually, they'll get it *kinda* right, but give or take a few points on a ten-point spread, based on how much they're getting paid/coerced to hype the game. Or maybe I'm just paranoid about an industry that grew up too big, too fast.

i tried to read this post really fast with his voice in my head. you sound just like him.

[fluffy]

I don't read any of the game review sites. Ars Technica (which I do read) occasionally reviews games but usually not ones I'm interested in, and Penny Arcade is good for a laugh the rare times they're funny but I hardly ever check out games based on their recommendations. Mostly I find out about games from coworkers and forums and reading the Playstation blog.

[JonPorobil]

All the advice above is very practical, and I'm grateful for it, but it's also mainly stuff I already knew. I wasn't aware of the Gamestop 7-day policy, and here in Austin, there's a Gamestop every four blocks, so thanks for that tip, John|m.

But I think most gamers (myself included, to a certain extent) have already learned to fend for themselves, learn their tastes, rent when in doubt, etc.

My frustration is that there's no legitimate venue for intelligent discussion of video games. Look up almost any game (at least, any game that doesn't have "Mario" in the title) on Metacritic, and you'll turn up an embarrassing number of reviews with huge glaring grammar and punctuation errors, and even those that are properly proofread are often written so dryly that they read like a grade school book report.

Movies, Books, Theater, and to a lesser extent Music and TV all have a wide body of respectable body of criticism about them. Why not games?

[john m]

Games had extremely respectable reviewers. The same thing happens every time:

1. Review site takes years to build respectability
2. Review site is taken over by conglomerate parent company
3. Review site editors are gradually all fired for not altering their reviews favorably for parent company's sponsors

1up was the best, Gamespot used to be great, and I will even say that many (MANY) years ago, ign was fine. All their authentic editors are gone.

As long as video game review sites are sponsored by video game studios, we will never again have unbiased writing. That's why Penny Arcade is so good. They only accept sponsorship and advertisement from games they've played and enjoyed.

Really though, the more I've moved away from reviews and towards learning facts and features of a game and judging for myself, the more success I've had in purchasing games I really enjoy.

(Also, Generic, I'd advise you to double-check the 7-day policy on used games. I know many things were changed after the rebranding of all EB Games stores as Gamestop.)