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"Fallout 4" Release Raises Questions About Reviews of Buggy Games (kotaku.com)

Posted by timothy on from the assume-it-was-great dept.

RogueyWon writes: Fallout 4, the latest instalment in the long-running video-game series and one of the most hyped titles of the year, was released on 10 November. The game has generally been reviewing well, currently holding a Metacritic score of 89. However, a number of reviewers have noted the very large number of bugs present in all versions of the game and have, in some cases, reflected on the difficulty that these pose for reviewers, despite still awarding positive overall write-ups. Can it be ethical to recommend a product to consumers on the basis of its strengths, despite knowing that it contains serious faults?

4 of 367 comments (clear)

  1. Reminds me of this quote by ThePyro · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I find myself reminded of this quote:

    MILLIONS OF BUGS! We're only eliminating the crash-bugs, everything else is hilarious and we're keeping it

    - Goat simulator devs

  2. Re:Yes? by Kjella · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Disclosing or dismissing? "Sure it has a few bugs, but I'm sure they'll get fixed soon and it's a great game 9/10", please put me on the exclusive interview/preview/kickback list and not the shit list for your next game. Game reviews don't have the greatest reputation for integrity, to say the least. Oddly enough launch sales are crazy high despite except for first to level in MMORPGs there's rarely any hurry. So if you give it a kick in the teeth because it's buggy and not very playable right now the publishers tend to not like you. And content is king, if you don't have anything special except the post-release reviews everyone can do you're likely to go out of business.

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  3. Re:Terrible User Reviews by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Metacritic user reviews are a cult of negativity and cynicism against human existence. Any game with a positive user score on metacritic is guaranteed to be stale and unimaginative, almost always appealing to the nostalgia of 20-30 year old gamers by directly copying the style and gameplay of a specific title from their youth. Frabout, a Post Apocalyptical Action-RPG Adventure would get a 9/10 but Fallout 4 is guaranteed never to break 7. It gets penalized extra hard by going the wrong way against nostalgia - invoking Fallout without being identical? HERESY!

  4. Kotaku? Ethics? by EvilSS · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So a Gawker property is posting an article about ethics and journalism? Wow. Pot meet Kettle.

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    I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.