[General Discussion] The Death of the Game Review

These days, with downloadable game demos being so accessible, and in particular, free, is there honestly any point to game reviews anymore, other than to amuse oneself with the ego of a publisher or what advertising money can buy?

Pretty much all of my purchasing decisions have been made by demos I've downloaded off Live or PSN in the past year. Although most of the demos are short, it tells me all I need to know...how great it actually looks, how it controls, etc. And I will always know the feel of the title, something that a review will never be able to portray.

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Well, some people have bad taste. They could play the demo, love it, and buy the game.

But the general public around him could hate it, want to burn it, and kill him for liking it. Either way, demos aren't exactly accessible to everyone. Especially Wii users.

We wouldn't know if NBA Live 08 was bad on it, unless we actually bought the game. And we all know how horrible the controls are for that game with the Wii-mote.

So to answer your question, yes. We do need reviews for the people who can't get these demos for games, regardless of the system.

How ya doing, buddy?

The only time professional reviews have been useful is when they stick to facts (such as game features or stuff that was gutted at the last minute) or they show me a game that slipped under the radar I might have interest in. Once they get into the realm of opinion, they become useless (unless it's something that just begs for an attempt at humorous writing, like a laughably bad licensed game or something like Unlimited Saga). I can just use message boards for that or other people who have the game, which I always do, since I believe most "professional" reviewers have shown favorites for a long time (or at least have been highly encouraged to). Or I can just find a way to sample the game for myself if I'm interested enough.

Normally though, my own instinct and the pretty pictures online are more than enough to tell whether or not I'll like something and if I'm wrong...I lose a few bucks or break even dumping the POS on ebay to someone who wants it and move on.

I think the problem lies more with the people who don't really know what they want and base a lot of their purchases using professional reviews as a main guideline (read: hype).

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Demos have been available for more than a decade now and I still don´t see the death of the game review. But I see the death of the classic review magazine, with the claim of the oh-so-neutral, scientific, comparable game test.

Actually, I like some ego and personality in my game review - I don´t really need the scores, something like "Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down" is more than enough. Plus I really like some game-related journalism. Like... writing stories and not just working through the the pile of whatever the game publishers put in the mailbox of the publishing house. Background stories, Retrospectives, features like Zero Punctuation and VGN.

Here in Germany I really like the GEE mag. It has a review part, but are more a mag about game culture. Once they hired a Feng Shui expert to tune their houses in The Sims. Great stuff.

For me demos are an just additional part of the preselection process. After all, someone needs to point me to the demo first. Playing a demo is also much more time-consuming than reading a page of text.

I´m pretty new to the current generation of consoles - I just bought a PSP for SH0 and it´s not online, yet. AFAIK the demos come from some portal site by the manufacturer, not the game publishers / developers. This would make it a very "filtered" service. Demos of smaller titles might not be available.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

If you ask me, demos are when you want to give a game a try, to see at least a little of how it'd play. They are not the best way to judge a game, but it's a decent little window into the gameplay and visuals at least.

Game reviews on the other hand are when you want to read what someone thinks of the game.

I generally don't base my purchases on reviews or scores, but it's always interesting to see what certain media have to say on something I'm interested in or have already bought.

I do agree that a good 90% of game reviews out there are completely useless, but not because of playable demos. Most magazines and websites simply have nothing interesting to say. Most people want useless facts and a brief synopsis of what's superficially good about the game, and if anything, that's killing game reviews.

You don't read (good) movie reviews for a plot synopsis, followed by "the acting is subpar, the special effects are pretty decent and some of the plot twists are usually predictable" and a score. Yet this is the format and focus of most game reviews out there, and it's no wonder they're pointless.

When game reviews go the way of Sight & Sound (like the UK magazine EDGE), writing reviews and articles that are interesting and entertaining to read even if you don't agree with the reviewer or even care for the game in question. Text that goes beyond only the superficial elements and talks about what actually matters, or at least what should matter if the industry is ever going to hope to mature. That's what I like to read. But then, 90% of gamers apparently don't, so no wonder we can't have any nice things

How ya doing, buddy?

Reviews these days are just opinions that no one should take to heart. Anyone who does really needs to have a mind of their own.

I skim through reviews on occasion. It's like reading an editorial. You either agree with the person's opinion or you don't. Simple as that.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Yeah, Q pretty much nailed it. Demos are hardly new. Sure, they're mainstream for systems now (ie: PS3 download), but folks will still cling to reviews for details. Reviews are heavily biased too, such as that fellow who got canned for shitting on Kane & Lynch, but folks will still pay attention to them. Hell, in all honesty, I figured the gaming magazine avenue would've dried up. Sure, magazines are still very useful, but a large majority of gamers have internet access and I'd figure that the internet would be a better way to get information... But it persists. And reviewers will continue to critique (although questionably). "Nobody likes a critic," but I don't think they'll be going the way of the dodo quite yet. It is too busy fueling bragging threads on Gamefaqs. "LOLOL 9/10 THIS GAME RULES, FGTS." "WTF 9/10 WHY NOT 10. STUPID REVIEWERS."

Although I still think that most reviews are as useful as a crank on a hammer.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Megalith

These days, with downloadable game demos being so accessible, and in particular, free, is there honestly any point to game reviews anymore, other than to amuse oneself with the ego of a publisher or what advertising money can buy?

Pretty much all of my purchasing decisions have been made by demos I've downloaded off Live or PSN in the past year. Although most of the demos are short, it tells me all I need to know...how great it actually looks, how it controls, etc. And I will always know the feel of the title, something that a review will never be able to portray.

All you'll know from a demo is a general feel for the game.

What you won't know:
-Game Length
-Multiplayer quality
-Unlockable/bonus stuff
-Final Build quality (since demos are often released months before, and are not indicative of the final product)
-Whether the beginning of the game (or whatever section comprises the demo) is just a slow part.

Some games have great/crappy demos and end up being crappy/great instead.
Also, there is a large majority of games that don't ever release a demo.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I remember LOVING Star Wars: Battlefront multiplayer. Long after the game came out (probably a month or so), I was at a friends' house watching him play the demo, which had cutscenes from the movie (a feature not in the original game) and a much greater graphical polish IIRC, along with a drastically different interface.

This game is the first thing I think of when I hear about a demo that is much different from the final product.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I find reviews more useful for RPGs than other formats. If I'm going to spend 80-100 hours in a game, I want to know if the first 10 hours are great but the rest is fluff, etc. Also, elements that may not annoy you after an hour of play may become mind-numbing after 80 hours of play.

I do agree that you have to give weight to the opinion of the reviewer, however. Saying that a battle system is in "real time" is a fact, but I'd rather hear whether or not that real time battle system adds or detracts to the fun of the game than just whether or not it's "there." I don't agree with the theory that a review should be nothing more than a factual list of game elements. It's the sum of the whole that matters...

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I think game reviews will never go out of style. Even if their influence on sales is questionable, they can still give you lots of info you wouldn'y know on your own; stuff like who directed or produced it, which developers had a hand in it's conception, background info, early ideas or features that didn't make it in the game - you know, obsessive geek stuff. Plus, reviews foster discussion on the game, especially if their on a blog or message board, and can be critiqued and debated on the spot.

Of course, if a written review is worth a thousand words, a playable demo is cetrainly worth a million. I agree that it can be a huge factor in actually buying a game, but I always like to read reviews to kinda get that extra bit of info.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Megalith

These days, with downloadable game demos being so accessible, and in particular, free, is there honestly any point to game reviews anymore, other than to amuse oneself with the ego of a publisher or what advertising money can buy?

Pretty much all of my purchasing decisions have been made by demos I've downloaded off Live or PSN in the past year. Although most of the demos are short, it tells me all I need to know...how great it actually looks, how it controls, etc. And I will always know the feel of the title, something that a review will never be able to portray.

I agree to some degree, what if the demo only shows a good part of the game (as trailers to movies show the interesting parts of the film). Example being Timeshift, while the game was enjoyable the full version felt very tedious and boring; hence why I still look to reviews. Also, I've played demos that left a very bad taste in my mouth, but once I tried the full version I really enjoyed the game (Perfect Dark Zero, as that game grew on me as I played it more)

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I think reviews can be a pretty useful resource when determining whether you'd like a game or not. Demos of course can give pretty decent ideas of what the basic gameplay is like, but often are too little to base a final impression off of. They don't tell you anything of how long the game is, how varied the gameplay is throughout the game, the pacing or the story, the optional features, etc. It's sort of the equivalent of a movie trailer: you might be able to tell how exciting a movie's action sequences look from it and the general theme of the movie, but you won't really know of anything else until you watch the whole thing.

Some demos do a better job than others, for something like Battlefield 2 where you essentially get the full game but limited to one level, you'll know without question whether or not you'll enjoy the full version. But for something like Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders, where the only demo showcases the most basic aspect of the gameplay and the real fun comes in later on in the game when you're given options on upgrading and commanding a variety of troops, a demo can be quite worthless and you're practically better off just looking at a review.

The more resources you have for determining whether or not you'd like a game, the better decision you can make from it. I generally tend to look up reviews, videos, and if available a demo of a game if I'm debating whether or not to buy it. But sometimes it's easy enough to tell whether or not a game appeals to you just from the basic concept and look of it.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Reviews are a resource and even if you can't trust every source from which they come, there's no harm in factoring them in an overall purchase decision. It's interesting to compare and contrast different views, especially when demos don't do the things that JazzFlight has pointed out. Reviews in an age where we have massive amounts of media to scrutinize a game from every perspective are as much a tool now as they were back then, we just don't place so much importance on them.

There isn't ever going to be one definitive source for a game. Some games don't have demos released, some games have media which only misleads the consumer. You have to be a smart consumer, declaring game reviews as dead is asinine.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Yes.

Because there are people that I do trust with game reviews.

And bad reviews are generally reflective of the game, no matter who they come from. Kane and Lynch was 50/50 on my list, mainly because I loved Freedom Fighters, and robbing banks seems like a cool way to spend the afternoon.

If it weren't for reviews, I would have picked the game up on day one. Now I'll wait for it to hit the bargain bin.

Demos are a pretty sweet deal, though. I got into the Call of Duty 4 BETA and went out to preorder soon after. They're also not very representative of a game, either. The Jericho demo got some buzz for the game, but only because people didn't know that the entire game experience was bundled up into that sample you downloaded onto your hard drive.

So, in the end, both reviews and demos are needed for me to make decisions on my game buying.

FELIPE NO

I tell you one thing, I would have never picked up on the Ace Combat series if it wasn't for GFF Members.

Fuck maybe we should all do reviews.

GFF GAMING MAGAZINE, DECEMBER ISSUE: IS MARIO GALAXY ALL UP TO ITS HYPE. WHAT SORT OF PROBLEMS PLAGUE MASS EFFECT. IS THE SHORT TIMES RUMORED ON HEAVENLY SWORD TRUE? AND AN INTERVIEW WITH THE WORLD OF WARCRAFT GFF GUILDMASTER. ALL THIS AND MORE INSIDE. PRICE: 3 CHOCODOLLARS.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I still turn to reviews for the smaller release games that don't even get advertising let alone a dem-oh wait no review site even touches those games.

Originally Posted by Dark Nation

Fuck maybe we should all do reviews.

Please do!

Jam it back in, in the dark.