There are no news items in this podcast. Instead, it’s just post-E3 discussion. Everything is E3. What the crew liked, what the crew didn’t, and T.J.’s reports from doing the show floor. The episode is almost 2 hours long, so there was a lot to talk about.
Episode 541: E3 Reaction 2019
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Users Pwn MetaCritic Review SubmissionsUsers Pwn MetaCritic Review Submissions
Although we’ve found Metacritic a userful resource for game reviews, many folks have gone on a user submission rampage to discredit games that haven’t even launched yet. Their first attack was on LittleBigPlanet followed by Resistance 2, now their hitting Gears of War 2.
While Gears of War 2 has a Metacritic score of 94/100 the user’s have reviewed it to be a 3.5 out of 10, with a bright red box around the user review due to its low nature we’re sure. Although users are free to give their own honest representation of the game from their perspective, Gears of War 2, as of the review dates, hasn’t been released yet – these reviews are bogus.
This style of attack was popularized in Spore, when Amazon got nailed with poor reviews of the game because Spore’s “Draconic” DRM made people angry. However, it’s more reasonable for people to voice their opinion on a known issue with a game; Gears of War 2 review spamming is just mean.
We use Metacritic as guidance when we do our gaming podcast to understand what games are rated in the industry, but we don’t use user reviews as our main guide. There are plenty of folks out there that may utilize these reviews in more seriousness because they may feel journalists reviews are tainted by advertisers or “the man” and want the common gamers opinion.
The common gamer cannot possibility be reviewing Gears of War 2 before the title has arrived. This is bogus. Metacritic has this to say:
“My advice for our faithful users is to focus your attention on the Metascore for this game and not the thousands of user votes, most of which have been submitted before said users have played the game. This is a gaming community, and if people want to stuff the ballot box, there’s not much I can do at this point. When we upgrade the registration requirements for participation on the site in the near future, this type of thing won’t happen. We’ll post the full legitimate user reviews upon the game’s release. As always, thanks for using the site.” (1up)
So, to those looking for holiday gaming gifts, keep this in mind while you start hunting down games you’ll want to buy.
Episode 658: Sony’s CallEpisode 658: Sony’s Call
Sony’s in the news again, but not in a positive way. Meanwhile, a classic game may be remastered and bitcoin fraud continues to be a problem.
- Indonesia has blocked Steam, Epic Games, PayPal, and more
- Sony doesn’t sound thrilled Microsoft is buying Call of Duty maker Activision
Let us know what you think.
Episode 614: Virtual E3 2021 RecapEpisode 614: Virtual E3 2021 Recap
The bizarre streaming E3 2021 is over, and the guys discuss all of it. Yes, all of it. The conclusion they have is that Microsoft and Nintendo actually had something to say, and everyone else were basically unprepared — for something they should have had months to prepare for.
Apologies for the bad audio.
Let us know what you think and post a comment at our Facebook page.