Saturday 21 May 2011

Everyone's a critic

So if game reviewers are no longer getting to play a game before it's released, (see also: zero day patch) and top-selling games come out without any fanfare (select the Top Sellers tab), what exactly is the function of a game review again?

(My 2c: What it has always been. Reassuring you that you've made the right decision buying/not buying a game).

6 comments:

William said...

For me, they've always been about finding out what people hate about the game. Then I decide if that's something I care about before I decide to purchase or not.

Certain titles skip the process and are pre-orders for me, but most wait until I can get a few professional and a few gamer reviews to help me decide. A demo is even better, but they're shying away from that lately.

The lack of fanfare and pre-release reviews has actually cost them a lot of my money. Now, I quite often don't even learn about a game until it's discounted. Their loss.

Isaac said...

Well, I can only speak for myself. Given that I never pre-order anymore and I'm not worried about waiting a couple weeks or months to play most games, it doesn't really affect my purchasing habits. It's been years since I seriously personally looked for reviews to find out about games; I mostly just listen to what the people I know are playing or anticipating.

Indie game blogs are probably the closest thing to traditional previews that I still read.

Unknown said...

No fanfare? For Terraria? Seriously? I've barely seen anything else mentioned for the past week.

Andrew Doull said...

Will: Aside from the previous post where I said I was falling in love with the game you mean?

I'm starting to write a deeper analysis, but I end up playing instead... :)

Definitely more to come. I'd be curious though, as I'm having difficulty finding anyone writing about Terraria...

Andrew Doull said...

I mean: I'd be curious though where you're seeing the game written about...

Alastair John Jack said...

Journalists shouldn't be allowed to make reviews, all they do is hype, point out wikipedia facts and complain about difficulty.