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.
Hi guys,been too long,ive changed career paths during and before that time.
SO the PS4 is out,what featuresdo you think will be more prominent.
make that PS4 PLANS
@Sony unveils PS4 at “See the Future”
Hey, Radeon and games DO go together. I’m using Radeon cards since 2004, and I didn’t run into any issues.
@Sony: Pre-owned game blockage “up to publishers” on PS4
Translation: we’re just going to give the publisher all the tools they need in order to block used games, so that you’ll not blame us.
Despite the fact that it’s our hardware, and we’re the guys developing those tools. Riiight …
@Fans express outrage at offline/LAN play for console version of Diablo III
Outrage? Why?
Sure, they did give PC gamers enough reasons to be upset, but outrage? I for once vote with my wallet.
@QOTW:
Heh, PlanetAVP.com, but of course.
Hey guys, long time first time 😉
@Sony unveils PS4 at “See the Future”: I really don’t understand why Paul is so upset about Sony not showing the actual console. They told us some details of the specs so what difference does it make how it looks like. Maybe it’s the PS fanboy in me speaking but I really enjoyed most the show, I like the idea of integration of the PS4 with the Vita (which I own and which is not dead as you like to say 😉 ), I like the idea of Gaikai being an integral part of the system, I like the share button, etc. The tech demos were mostly unimpressive, especially the Media Molecule Move thingy but the Quantic Dreams old man demo was amazing.
I agree that knowing the price levels of the new hardware would be nice but I understand that there are still some things to be solved on Sony part and it’s simply not reasonable to more or less guess the price at this moment.
@Sony: Pre-owned game blockage “up to publishers” on PS4: I also believe the idea of getting a re-activation code from Sony or the game publisher is a good one, if it comes to it that the games will be blocked, which I don’t think is a real threat for now. As you mentioned, the fact that people are not buying new games now doesn’t mean they will once the used game blocking is implemented. They will wait for price cuts and that’s all. It’s the same story with movie and music piracy and how much the companies are ‘losing’ due to it. They always assume that people would buy the original CD/DVD if it wasn’t available for download.
@Rumor: Microsoft revealing next-gen console in April: I wonder if we’ll see a larger difference between the XBOX720 and PS4 than in the current generation. Sony’s conference focused mainly on games while the additional content was only briefly mentioned. I don’t own an XBOX but my impression is that it puts more emphasis on that additional content (i.e. not games) and maybe the new iteration will move even more in that direction.
@QOTW:
I’m from Poland and the one magazine I’ve been subscribed to for several years has been CD Action. They always put full games on their CDs and later DVDs and the reviews and additional in-magazine materials were of high quality.
@Sony’s blind vision of future
Stayed up till 1am to watch most of the show. It was very developer centred. If you don’t get off at PC specs, it will be mostly irrelevant. PS4 has a few interesting ideas (share button) but like many others I see it as bringing up the PS to the speed of Xbox. As someone who had an Xbox 360 for 3 years before PS3, I found Sony’s console a step backwards. Crappy on-line, no integrated party system/chat and a cross-media bar which loads every time you access it. PS4 is effectively getting everything that Xbox 360 had in 2006. Overall, I have seen Sony’s future. And I am not tempted to be a part of it.
@New Xbox rumors
It would make sense for them to show it off in April. Sony jumped the gun to grab the spotlight before the E3. Now Microsoft has to make a move. I have high hopes for Xbox. So far the future generation looks a lot like yesterday. Fingers crossed Microsoft will impress us with it’s show. Otherwise, things are looking bleak for the console gaming.
@Fans express outrage at Diablo 3
Diablo 3 was out?
@Gamespy good bye
I tried to use it to play PC games on-line but it never worked for me. It became largely irrelevant when Steam appeared. Steam has it’s own integrated system which allows you to fail to play games on-line without exiting the game. Progress…
@QOTW
I started using Gamespot around 2005. Since I was poor, I would only buy games after ensuring they are good i.e reading reviews. Gamespot was a good source. Stopped me from making a lot of stupid mistakes. It is often unnecessarily harsh but I like it nevertheless. I still use it because it has a good mobile website and I can read it anywhere via 3G.
@Arthur – I wonder if the fact that you had an XBOX and I own a PS3 has something to do with the fact how we saw the conference 😉 I am excited about the specs because I don’t own a powerful PC and I’d rather had a high-end console that last 6-8-10 years than an ultra-high-end PC I need to upgrade every year or two.
I don’t know if you guys come here for post-show replies but if you do there are a couple of things I’d like to add.
@Jonah – Why do you assume that something WILL go wrong with the locking the disc to the console mechanism, if it comes, which I don’t think it will? Anyway, doing this would be like shooting yourself in the knee (with an arrow). If Sony does it and Microsoft doesn’t this is the worst think Sony could bring upon themselves. If they all do it it sounds like collusion. As far as I am concerned, I almost never buy used games and I don’t trade them in for new ones (call me sentimental… 😉 ) so I’m not that worried about all this, personally. Still, I think it’s a bad marketing direction if they are contemplating it.
@Paul – you replied that you had felt everything about the PS4 had been rushed and unprepared. I didn’t see it that way and I guess it’s just a matter of perspective. I’m 100% sure the console isn’t done yet but who cares about the hard drive size at this point? There will probably be different versions so why talk about it? Tweaking the hardware a little bit here, a little bit there is going to happen but we saw what the console can do and that’s the most important part, not the size of the drive, the number of USBs or what it comes bundled with. There will be variants and retailers will also come up with something.