I disagree to some degree.
The only think you HAVE to do is stay honest. You can't say "it doesn't work" because you didn't take the time to read the manual. Or criticize an aspect of the story that you didn't understand just because you lack the background needed to understand it. In this case, you have to do some research.
But I really think that "I didn't find the game enjoyable" is far better than trying to guess if others people will like it. Honestly: you don't have a clue.
Yes, you can say you didn't find the game all that enjoyable. And you should give the reasons why you find it this way. The people that doesn't like the game is part of your audience too, so giving reasons why you may not like (or just the flaws in the game, no matter if you mind them or not).
I'd say the eurogamer Destiny review is quite good. They tell the good and bad things about the game despite his tastes. Finding the sweet spot between opinion, facts and appealing to the different sides.
With honesty and critical thinking (which is/should be boosted in any Journalism Degree) you should be able to achieve what I'm talking about.
And if you don't like the kind of game you're testing, either be honest with this from the start, or refuse to test it. If you're REALLY accustomed to a genre, be honest about it too.
(and by the way, I don't think critics are journalists... not just for videogames, critics in general. Journalists usually states the facts. Critics and columnist express an opinion. Or at least, that's my take on it)
Cold, I agree.
Maybe the problem is that in gaming the line is too thin. If you go to film critics, you usually have a important personality that just writes a piece each week.
And there is the fact that usually in films people rely more in word of mouth than in videogames. And sometimes marketing, obviously.
In books it's the same but with a really smaller amount of marketing.
The thing here is that, for some reason, gamming is not there yet. Maybe it's a combination of price and it being a smaller market (in terms of nº of people, not revenue)
Niche =/= Bad, even more.
I'm just saying that, while trying to be honest and thinking about your readers, you shouldn't try to guess what others people will like/dislike.
I agree, even if I still think that reading why you disliked it may be more informative for some readers than reading bland praising of the game of someone else.
You should probably read several reviews, not rely on one. Or read a review of a reviewer that you know will share most of your views.
I think if you're honest, you should be able to usually find what is good (or even great about something) in most cases. Unless you absolutely hate it, but then you'll be honest if you politely ask for a coworker to exchange it for a game in his list.
And I agree with the fact that you should read more than 1 review, in the same way it'd be nice if people read more than 1 newspaper (since most of them if not all take a position). But, sadly, we can't expect that this is going to happen. So trying to have a review that is as complete as posible is your best bet.
Overall, I don't think our views are so different, in fact.
Nope, I think there are mainly different in wording and all that. Our opinions are not equal (i'd be worried if they were!) but we agree in more than we disagree.
Then what's the point in reviews at all if you can't give an honest review? Your logic basically says all "core" games should get high marks and great reviews? What?
Not everyone likes the same games. It's not a hard concept to understand.
I've put it above. Honesty and critical thinking are key in journalism. And you need to be honest not only with your own opinions, but with your audience. Saying a game is bad, clunky and you don't understand how the hell did it past QA because you don't like it may be honest with your opinions, but you're not being honest with the people that read you and might never play a game they could like because you choose to write a rant.
In the same way, saying a flawed game (let's say Tales of Xillia 2, which I loved, by the way) is awesome, a 9.5/10, GOTY material, OMG you all buy it or I'll chase in you in your dreams is as bad. It's ok to love something, you may be honest to yourself saying you love it.
But you're not being honest to your audience since you're ignoring the many flaws the game has. Like the reused assets, the debt system (who wasn't an annoyance to me at all, but could annoy others) or the bad dungeon design. People could buy the game and find that they can't get into the game due to some of those reasons above.
Even if I love the game and it could end up being one of my 10 favorites JRPGs ever, I wouldn't put it a 10/10 if I was writting a profesional review.
He clearly doesn't. He's basically just saying that people who have only played Bejeweled before shouldn't review Dark Souls (there's no problem if they can provide a worthwhile second opinion though, while being open about their background, it can be pretty interesting).
Thanks for understanding and defending my opinion. That's what I was talking about.
A video game reviewer should not be able to hide their incompetence, inexperience or bias (or even simple mistake) behind this "reviews are just opinions" crap. Yeah they have opinions but you should also know what you're talking about. Mistakes are unavoidable but no one should pretend they don't exist. Not really that complicated. If someone reviews a game and, say, they cannot find an objective because they couldn't be bothered to look at the in-game map and continue to shit on the game, they should certainly come out and apologise for making a mistake in the review. And if they continue to be an ass and never even acknowledge their mistake, it's still ok, because it's just an opinion?
And I agree with this part too.
He straight up says "you can't give Dark Souls a bad review because you don't like it".
I haven't played Dark Souls. That should tell you everything. It was an example. I took a game that gaming enthusiasts often like but is different enough from the norm to make some controversy.
And I precisely choose something I haven't played because I wanted to avoid that kind of reaction. Maybe I should have put it on my original post. Whatever.
That's the industry's problem, not game reviewers. I don't think I've personally read a review about a game in years but reviewers can't give reviews that are basically "I didn't like this game, it bored me for 20 hours here's why but I'm giving it an 8 because some people will like it". I'm not talking about mistake, they're amateurish and shouldn't be in any respectable reviews, but reviews are in essence one person's reaction (let's not say opinion) to a game. That reaction may be "this game wasn't very intuitive and objectives were hard to understand" which is an absolute 100% valid criticism. Now it may not matter to you or me who are balls deep in tough games, but it does matter to a lot of people. That doesn't automatically make a review a bad review it means that this game may not be suitable for new players.
Do you know what's critical thinking? It's like the most important thing you need if you want to be a journalist.
You may not like something, and it's cool. You should say why you don't like something, since there probably is plenty of people that have similar tastes to you and you need to serve them.
But you can't just stop there. Even if I hate Monster Hunter I can't say it's shit. I can say why I hate it, that's ok. But you're doing a service to both the people that won't and the people that will like Monster Hunter. So giving both sides is important.
Journalism are supposed to give a service to their audience.
Now on the other hand if you have a "core" gamer reviewing a game that has a lot of handholding and he goes into detail about that, is that a mistake? Just because that one reviewer hates handholding and games that show objectives straight up and show the way? Is his reaction any more credible? No. Different gamers like different games and system. Same thing goes for reviewers as they are at the end of the day, gamers.
But a reviewer is not a gamer. Is a profesional. His articles craft other peoples opinion. That's a responsibility.
But instead of just writting another wall of text, I'll drop this review here. It's
Eurogamer Destiny review. I think it's quite a good example of how I think reviews should be. Ignore the final score. Just read it.
I think you'll get my opinion better after reading it.
