Game Reviews

Game Reviews What goes into a game review? Who are the so called "reviewers"? Is there a science to becoming a professional reviewer of games? There's no other answer to these questions other than to say that there nothing more than inflated opinions. We as gamers turn to these reviews to decide on what games we will spend our money on and get an idea of what new games are like. In the early days of gaming for me you had to pretty much wing it when getting a new game and hoped it was good. Often word of mouth from friends is what you went with, if you were privileged enough to have a subscription to Nintendo power magazine you got the lowdown on all the most popular games. But what about other systems and games? The internet wasn't around yet and there weren't a dime a dozen reviewers out there. Renting games was an option for trying out a game before buying but you only had a day or two to try it out. Now I'm by no means an expert when it comes to games and systems, but I do know my stuff as I've been a gamer for almost 35 years. I know what types of games I enjoy and what I look for in a new genre. But what I don't like are these reviewers out there that don't give games justice. Not every game has the budget of a Call of Duty or Halo title. Does that mean these lower tier games aren't worth playing? No. Does that mean every lower budget game is good? Also no. But I think gamers should take reviews with a grain of salt. Reviews are opinions, just like everyone has different tastes in music, movies, food and clothes, the same is true for games. I grew up loving rpg games, I would recommend dragon warrior and final fantasy to all my friends. Now a lot older I don't have time for an rpg such as xenoblade chronicles X. But a quick game of madden or doom will suffice. Not every gamer is going to go bonkers for dark souls 3, and others love super smash bros. We need to understand that professional reviews are other gamers playing thru a game and giving us there opinion about it. I don't think every gamer out there puts all there game buying decisions on frame rates or lighting in a particular game. I know there are those select few that do but not everyone really cares. Is the game fun, have an interesting story, does it have multiplayer and so on, we want these reviews to read to see if a particular game is worth our $60+. But not to the extent that we read a review and completely miss out on certain games that may very well be titles we would enjoy . Case in point this past week Homefront the Revolution was released and I was particularly looking forward to it. Read a few reviews to get some insight and the bashing began. Poor title, no polish, very buggy, not worth the time, 3 out of 5 stars. Now to most people they would read that and pass on it. I waited a week and read other reviews, a little buggy but overall fun, not perfect but good storyline, pretty good game despite early reviews. Hmmm? I found a used copy and had a 20% off coupon and bought it. Guess what? I like it. Is it perfect? No but is any game perfect? No. The reason the gaming universe is stuck with cookie cutter sequels every year and nothing different to play I believe is because of these types of reviews that kill new ip's before there even given a chance . I had a disagreement with a Twitter follower over the indie title Kholat, he had seen screenshots and said the game was crap, really? We are going to judge an entire game on some screenshots now? I like Kholat and the atmosphere of the game. I guess it isn't his cup of tea, ok fine. What is it gamers want? I want a fun and interesting game that I haven't played 100 times before. But if a game isn't given a billion dollar budget it's labeled poor or not worthy. I've played these "budget titles" and yeah some are poor but I've also enjoyed some very much just because of the story or direction the game took. I'm not saying all reviews or the people that do them are bad or wrong , I read the reviews as well but I also play the game then go back and read them again to see if i agree, about 75% of the time I find the reviews questionable. People like different things so not everyone will agree with other people's opinions. The fact of this whole rant is play what you want, if you enjoy a particular game then go with it. Gaming is a hobby about distraction, escaping the real world and all its headaches for a bit to do something else. If you base all your decisions on what someone else thinks that's fine, or give a lesser known game a try and decide for yourself. Reviewers are just other gamers giving there two cents about the game there playing. We all have our opinions about everything so don't get to involved about all these so called review scores. There just numbers, so keep playing and give all games a chance! Game on people! The Champ @jsquyres33