Better you than diff/Ninjas/KotP/etc.
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Better you than diff/Ninjas/KotP/etc.
<insert rant about how you should ignore them>Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeremy
OH SNAP SQUARED
Of course, because someone who couldn't even dribble a basketball is the best person to criticize you on your game.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeremy
I'm not sure using grading systems which were designed to apply to other media really translates. Even if Half Life 2's script & story suck, it could still be a remarkable experience because of AI routines or its physics model. Advancement in film or music isn't as definable, and given that games cost me 6x as much as going to a movie does, I require more information and clear assessment of a game's various features, strengths & weaknesses before I'm going to drop money on it. Numbers state that in a black & white way that not every writer is capable of expressing in word, or with just their two thumbs.
I like this system the best. It breaks things down into several identifiable categories, and gives room to rate games relative to one another within those categories.Quote:
Originally Posted by haohmaru
I generally enjoy Gamespy's reviews, but think that's the trap with the five star system - if you enjoyed something and want to recommend it as being worth a shot, you're given a very limited range in which to do so. You either give it the 3-3 1/2 star treatment, which as you pointed out most of your audience will shrug off as being not worthy of real attention, or you bump it up to four stars, in which case you've just given one of your highest possible ratings to a game which may not necessarily be one of the best games ever.Quote:
Originally Posted by skelly
I mean, using GSpy examples, are Ninja Gaiden and Burnout 3 really only a half star better than Gladius? Do Tiger Woods 2003 & NBA Street vol. 2 truly deserve the same rating (5 stars) as the very best games ever made; the OoTs & Halos, whatever one decides those are? An larger-range system allows you to give those games a 94% or whatever that screams "MUST PLAY!!!11" without sacrificing the relativistic integrity of the editorial big picture.
Behave.Quote:
Originally Posted by diffusionX
IGN gives out scores for every single game they review, and they have a page that outlines what scores are supposed to mean. Yet, the editorial staff cant decide what a 5.0 actually means. Im just calling a spade a spade.Quote:
Originally Posted by StriderKyo
We'd give it the 3 treatment. That's what the 3 is there for.Quote:
Originally Posted by StriderKyo
To be honest, I don't care what the audience thinks concerning scores ... or rather, I don't care if they misinterpret them. The meaning of the scores is linked right there in every review. If they choose to remain ignorant that's their choice. We try to make the meanings as clear as possible.
Not everyone at GameSpy shares this uncompromising attitude, which is one reason the 5-stars / no halves system is (regrettably) no longer in place. I may come off as a hardass, but I'm sick of people not bothering to think before they take a shit into our feedback form. -_-I like 5-stars / no halves because each of the five possible scores means something. Bad. Iffy. Good. Sweet. Radical. It doesn't get much clearer than that. And thus it's relatively easy for the reviewer to attach the appropriate score to their review. No meaningless dithering between 81 and 83, looking up past scores to see if an 83 would put it above something it shouldn't be above. (What meaningless BS!) Just five simple scores.Quote:
Originally Posted by StriderKyo
Sure, this removes your "ability" to compare games on a microscopic level, but that's all an illusion anyway. So NBA Street Vol. 2 gets a 94 and Zelda gets a 97. Can you feel that three points of difference while you're playing them? Of course not. Could other reviewers have reversed those scores? Sure. It's all arbitrary numbers. Switching to a coarser system is an acknowledgement of this, and goes a long way toward eliminating that meaningless "noise."
And no, I really don't feel bad at all about Zelda or whatever classic untouchable golden child of a game sharing space with stellar sports games, because people who enjoy sports titles tell me these games are just that great. I can accept that. Gladius ... well, that was before halves came in, I think. I can accept someone saying it's more of a 4 than a 3. It has its fans, or so I hear. I guess that's a little tradeoff of a coarser system. Some games are going to seem like "low 4s" while others are "high 4s."
I think some people are really over-complicating things. Do you really need to know exact scores for the story, graphics, sound, things like that? Do you really need to know, "Well, the first game was an 81, the second an 84, which one is this closer to?"
It really does come down to this: Is the game worth playing, yes or no? A simple score system, to differentiate a "good" and a "great," or something like "buy it" or "rent it" I can see, but honestly, any more than that is just excess. Use your review to tell me what's good and what's not, and use your score to make yourself be clear on if I should be playing it or not.
It's kind of like girls. When you first meet a girl, you know if you'd hit it or not. Simple as that. There's none of this, "Well, Suzy is about an 81 on the hitability scale, so maybe I'd put this girl at a 86 or so." You'd hit it, or you wouldn't. End of story. I say the same works for games. Either it's worth putting out the effort to experience, or it isn't.
One thing that bothers me with scores is how so many people actually base purchases soley on scores. When I'm buying a game, I'm not thinking, "well, this game got a nine...", I'm thinking about the facts involved with the game. Is the story interesting? What compelling reason is there to play Game X over Game Y? and so on. I simply can't imagine basing my spending on the numerical representation of one person's opinion on a game, or anything else for that matter.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kano on the Phone
T_T
Actually, it wouldn't. Most private or prestigeous schools in Quebec give extra credit most of the time. A Quebec 50 is really a 65 everywhere else in Canada. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Brisco Bold