What Makes a Game Review a Game Review?

An anonymous reader writes "Kotaku asks Do Game Reviews Have to Be Puerile? in a short editorial about the state of game reviews. The article points to a recent story in The New Gamer about Silent Hill 4 as an "experiential piece of writing about the emotions and thoughts that swirl through a gamer's head as they play a game over time" The Kotaku article ends on this note: 'The problem with many reviews is that both their writers and readers expect a formula. They don't want to be challenged, instead, they want to have the ideas swirling in the writer's head synthesized and explained. But critical thought, in its truest form, should be something that inspires others to think critically, not just accept what has been handed to them.' What are your thoughts on game reviews? Do they need to have scores and a summary of what's good or bad about the game to be counted? Is experiential commentary more or less useful than a breakdown of the game's design?"

Comments

Not a problem

[Richie1984]

Any review of any service or product is simply someone's opinion, regardless of their writing style, whether it be detailing certain aspects of the product in detail, or having rather abstract ideas based on one's own gamimg experience. I feel it important to find reviewers that you can often agree with, and that you can trust to be impartial. So, I think that a game review is a game review if you think it is, and if you are more informed after reading it.

You know...

[tsanth]

When I read a game review, I want to be told information that will either push or pull me away from buying (or playing) that game. If it so happens that they can accomplish this while giving me some kind of stream-of-consciousness tour of their mind, then more power to them.

What works for me is this: tell me what games the reviewer tends to like, and let the reviewer tell me what he likes about the game.

I'll take it from there.

Simple

[mopslik]

What are your thoughts on game reviews?

If I already own the game, then I can play it and draw my own experiences from it. No need for the review, obviously.

If I don't own the game, I need to understand why I should or should not buy/obtain it. Whether the reasons for this involve gameplay, graphics or some random gamer's personal experiences is largely irrelevant, as long as the reasons are clearly stated. Both can be good or bad.

Good:

• "Sound is horrible, like the developers carefully tuned each sound inside a tin can while wearing earmuffs."
• "I felt as if I was a part of the game, rather than a casual observer, because of the well-developed storylines and character development."

Bad:

• "I didn't like the graphics, especially compared to similar games." Great, but why not? Too cartoony? Not cartoony enough? Painful to the eyes?
• "I felt waves of emotion running through my core as my character leapt from miniscule platform to platform." Way to wax the poetic there, but this really tells me nothing. Oh, except that there are platforms. Apparently they're small.

Re:Simple

[antifoidulus]

Mario and I became quite close over the ensuing days and months. He became like a friend to me, he would do whatever I ask of him, and all he wanted in return is a nice mushroom or flower and he so desired to avoid getting hit on the head by a hammer. We spent many a long summer night together, you know the kind where the air just kind of hangs there and the crickets are the moons only companion.
It was in the heady days of my youth that I first discovered Mario. I was at a toystore with my parents when, underneath the glowing halogen lights, and above the pristine reflective floor, I saw him. It was in that austere environment that I fell in love for the first time. Although he was wrapped in plastic, that round face and bright eyes called to me. It was as if he was saving himself just for me. I decided then and there that I would not leave without my beloved. I screeched, "Mommy, mommy, I need Mario!". At first she resisted, perhaps out of a misguided notion that a boy does not need a greasy Italian video game character as a friend, but she eventually found out that there was no consoling me and politely requested the game from the pimply face teenage store clerk.
The whole ride home my heart palpitated with anticipation. "It's real! It's real!" I kept on repeating as I rocked back and forth in my mother's 81 Ford station wagon, you know the kind with the wood paneling and guady interior. What innocous surroundings for my dear...dear Mario. I clutched the box covered with twilight and screen shots to my chest dearly and rocked back and forth. Come to think of it, maybe my mother was right.
Home was a split level in a planned community in pretty much any northeastern city you can think of. We lived in the back of a cul-de-sac where everyone knew what toys everyone else had. As we pulled into our driveway next to the spotlessly manicured lawn my mother opened the garage door. Finally, the last gate to pass before I could finally get to know my precious Mario. Unfortunately, much like the real gates of heaven one has to pass by Saint Peter first. In this case, my Father...
"I thought I told you to rake the fucking lawn!" he bellowed.
"But dad....Mario...this is the most important day in my young life!" I pleaded.
"I am going to pretend I didn't hear that" he replied as he threw a rusty rake into my chest, causing me to drop the treasure I had so carefully been clutching.
"Finish and you can do whatever you want." he said coldly as he went inside.
After about an hour that seemed like an eternity, I asked him to survey the job I had done. He said that it was acceptable, but that if I don't start doing a better job, I'll end up a failure in life. I tried to comprehend the statement, but there was Mario afoot. I slid open the glass door and stepped inside the kitchen. It was a cramped space with slightly dingy tile floors, a refigerator that ran too loudly, and a microwave that just flashed 12:00 over and over again. The picture of imperfection. I walked past my doting mother who was making stuffed cabbages for dinner. Not very Italian, but we are Polish. I guess some people just cannot get over their roots.
I tore open the box with the veracity of a lion ripping open the side of a gazzelle. After taking a second to marvel at my dream machine, which had not 1 but 2 different shades of grey on it, I thought, "Nintendo", that is Japanese. Imagine, a totally alien culture, a country that my nation had gone to war with not 40 years ago, was now the home of the manufacturer of dreams come true.
I was sitting there, staring at the box on top of the plain brown carpet, in the plain living room, 7 feet high, about 4 times that long and wide, with the plain floral print furniture, the plain tables, the non-descript lamps. It's comfortable, but a dangerous kind of comfortable. The neutral shade of green painted haphazardly on the walls called for one to relax, but to never leave. The throwpillows in the love seat comforted you but mocked you at the same tim

Re:Wow, a meta game review

[dresgarcia]

If a reviewer feels a certain way about a game I want to know why. Just because the graphics aren't perfectly polished doesn't necesarily denote a -1 from its base score of 10. What made you FEEL this way about this game? Was it that you just didn't plain like the main character and his personality? Was the story overall just uninteresting? What made you decide you would never play this game again after you reviewed it or better yet what astonished you and brought you to decide to make this game a part time job?

I feel the same way about movie reviews. A movie isn't shitty just because it has bad acting. Movies don't need a clearly defined plot to be good (napolean dynamite eh?).

I have picked up several games in the past that got astounding reviews and put the controller down 30 minutes later knowing that game would never be played again. And yet I have also picked up games that did horrible and played them for months. No one is saying a review has to be perfect, but you can't just label it as good or bad.

Sound, Video and More!

[Goyuix]

Personally I tend to stop at Gamespot for the large part of my initial game reviews, not because I like their editors (I think they generally fall somewhere between mediocre and stink) but because they have lots of easy to access screenshots and movies, and quite frankly - their video reviews are pretty decent. They also have reader reviews, forums and other informational bits all nicely tied up so I can explore as much or as little as I want.

The bottom line in my opinion is that we really need both hand fed, just give me the stinking average rating of the game, and immersive, make you think and decide for yourself movies and demos .

And for my soapbox speech, reviews very rarely mention the in game music (partly because it isn't part of games like it used to be). Sound effects generally get a mention, but music rarely. When a reviewer actually reviews the music, and heaven forbid actually takes it into account when giving their stamp of approval on the game - the nostalgia runs thick and rich. Lets not forget about all the elements of gameplay, not just story and graphics!

Re:My own reviews...

[Black Pete]

The problem is, most of the time game reviews simply read like an instruction manual. For example, take this snippet out of your DoR review:

DoR uses the same striking and grappling system from XIX, which is good, but still not as robust as the SmackDown! grappling system on the PlayStation 2; but it does work, and works well. The B button is used for strikes, tap to do light strikes and hold for strong strikes; also pushing the control stick in a direction while striking will make you do a different weak or strong strike. You can also make combos from strikes and chain them together for up to 10 hits, depending on your wrestler. The A button is used for grapples, tap for light grapples and hold for strong grapples. You have five weak front grapples, and five strong front grapples, and the same goes for rear grapples, five each for strong and weak. The grapple done is dependent on if you move the control stick when pressing the button for weak grapples, or not, or if you move the control stick or not after initiating a strong grapple and pressing A. You can also use B to do strikes while in a strong grapple, and depending on the type of strikes the wrestler has been given for the strong grapple, they can be chained into a grapple move.

That really doesn't tell me much of anything about how the game feels. By reading that, I can only glean the following information:

- there are grapple moves
- there are strike moves
- there are strong and weak versions
- etc.

Only the real hardcore wrestling gamer will really care or even understand the button mapping stuff. Even then it tells you nothing about how it feels while playing it. You know the saying: Just because it looks good on paper...

Another thing: I've never played XIX, so comparing it to that game just goes over my head, so once again only the hardcore fan will understand this reference.

When reading a game review, I don't need a rehash of the game manual since it comes included with the game; what I really want to know is: Is the game fun? How does it make you feel while playing it? Is it worth buying?

I think this is the point this article's author was trying to make.

Game Reviews

[queenb**ch]

The major factor that seems to be lacking in a lot game reviews is honesty. Far too many of the commercial game reviews seem to be either written by the devlopers or their marketing cohorts. I know of one game who had to get an employee to put up their first fan site!

If there are problems in the game, I'd like to see them reported. I've yet to see anything like that in anyone's reviews, unless they are another end user who's not associated with the game or a web site who sells the game. None of the magazines or on line review sites give you this kind of information. Just to illustrate, I'll name some examples.

I've purchased several games only to be severely disappointed. I purchased Morrowind III Bethesda Softworks and it took me 3 months just to get to a point where I could create a character without the game causing me to get the BSOD thanks to an illegal call to my video driver. I was not alone in this problem. How hard it is to tell people that your game isn't compatible with the NVIDIA chipset? At the time the NVIDIA chipset was the hottest card around and in order to meet their sales projections, they kept mum.

I purchased Sacred by Ascaron Entertainment and it's so full of bugs as more annoying than fun to play. The on line forums are full of people who state that they have moved on to other games because of the bugs. Their patches only seem to make matters worse and many of the bugs only affect high level characters (over lvl 100).

Guild Wars is still in beta because of issues. Worlds of War Craft recent extended its "grace" period for paying customers because of it's problems. The whole Prince of Persia series has been problematic for me and I've never been able to get even their demos to work properly for me, so I've been spared shelling out $50 for something that didn't work.

Lest everyone think I only flame, I will list some of the positives. I've purchased I of the Dragon and it's been nearly flawless even though it's written by a small team who's relatively new to game development in Russia. It's also one of the more inventive games I've played in a while. Nothing like being able to eat your enemies! I also purchased Rise of Nations and it too has been nearly flawless even though its just a nicer version of AOE. I'm also a big fan of Neverwinter Nights and the Gothic series.

2 cents,

Queen B

Re:Game Reviews

[FortranDragon]

If there are problems in the game, I'd like to see them reported. I've yet to see anything like that in anyone's reviews, unless they are another end user who's not associated with the game or a web site who sells the game. None of the magazines or on line review sites give you this kind of information. Just to illustrate, I'll name some examples.

I've purchased several games only to be severely disappointed. I purchased Morrowind III Bethesda Softworks and it took me 3 months just to get to a point where I could create a character without the game causing me to get the BSOD thanks to an illegal call to my video driver. I was not alone in this problem. How hard it is to tell people that your game isn't compatible with the NVIDIA chipset? At the time the NVIDIA chipset was the hottest card around and in order to meet their sales projections, they kept mum.


The thing is, is it a widespread problem or a single user's problem? A reviewer needs to look at the broader picture. If a big only happens on their PC and not others then should they report it? Maybe.

To use your example of Morrowind, in my house we were playing it on three different PCs (all legit, we all wanted the goodies in the collector's edition :-D) with three different Geforces (a GF2 Ultra, a GF3 Ti300, and a GF4 4600). All were using the latest WHQL drivers for the particular OS (XP and 98SE). No bluescreens or illegal operations.

So, the question becomes as a reviewer, does one report that Morrowind won't work with "the NVIDIA chipset" or just assume that the problem lies with one's personal PC? After all, we all buy a lemon part once in a while. It doesn't mean that entire line of parts is bad.

My preference would be for the reviewer to state they had a problem, list the hardware and software used (w/version numbers), and then continue the review with another (stock setup) PC.

Good quote - One typo

[awtbfb]

The problem with many Slashdot posts is that both their writers and readers expect a formula. They don't want to be challenged, instead, they want to have the ideas swirling in the writer's head synthesized and explained. But critical thought, in its truest form, should be something that inspires others to think critically, not just accept what has been handed to them.

Re:My own reviews...

[Ra5pu7in]

I think this is why the reviews I like best incorporate both. I definitely want to know how smoothly the control scheme works or the length of load times. However, I also want to know if the game was fun and involving.

I never rely on a single reviewer. When I'm dealing with a new reviewer (one I haven't read before), I try to look at how they rated various games I already own. Do their impressions match mine or are they a complete opposite? What is their bar of excellence? What kinds of games do they seem to prefer? It's just like movie reviews - where we like to know that the special effects were "WOW", but we also want to know the reviewer had a good time and would watch it again.

Finding reviewers you can trust

[WoBIX]

I'll typically look at reviews for games I already have, and see which reviewers tend to look for the same things in a game.

When I lived on the east coast, one of the few stations we received (rural, no cable) had a movie reviewer named Tom New who I trusted implicitly, because I never found myself in disagreement with any movie I watched. If he said it wasn't worth paying for in a theatre, I'd catch it on TV eventually, and lo and behold he'd be right. His opinions obviously wouldn't be useful to everyone but they suited me just fine.

It doesn't hurt to find reviewers who aren't getting free copies of games from companies as well. The Shacknew review system comes in handy, although sometimes you'd be hard pressed to make sense of what the person was trying to say :)