New Game Journalism

Back in the day of secondary school, my good friends would frequently bring in their copies of a new gaming magazine that they’re subscribed to. That stuff was the shit and it probably filled my tiny brain with more things than school did.

I have to say though, during those days I looked at the pictures and features more than the reviews and what people said about games. That was the thing back then though, I bought games and played games on what they looked like and how it sounded to me. I was then able to draw my own conclusion on games on how good they are. That’s how I find out if I liked a game or not.

I have heard many people saying that they won’t buy a game because “it got shit reviews”. I don’t understand why people put their trust so much into these people writing about their thoughts on games; strangers they (probably) have never met, and taking in their ‘opinions’ as truth and fact. Well, in my opinion, that’s horse shit. I’ve always found reading game reviews interesting, reading about people like, don’t like, what they think works and what they think don’t work, etc. There are times I agree and times I disagree. But I would never judge a game before I play it based on reading up what people say about a game. If this was the case I would have never played and loved games such as Devil May Cry 2 (yes I know I use DMC2 a lot), Dynasty Warriors, etc. Both are games that are commonly slated as being rubbish.

With game journalism, you’ll be reading and absorbing information through the views of the writer. But people still trust and buy games through the words of the game journalist. There’s nothing wrong with that if that’s your thing, but personally, I’m wearier of game journalists being very biased towards game companies, fans of genres, franchises, very different tastes in games than me and many other factors. 

Who are they and why should I trust them?

Many times have I read up an article on a games review website like IGN or GameTrailers and they would completely miss out issues or under emphasise some large flaws in a game, whereas completely going overboard on the smaller issues of another game.

People may want to step back and consider who these game journalists really are, who pays their wages, are they connected to certain gaming companies or do they have a bias against a franchise or company.

Here is a game review that I almost completely disagree in and is a good example why I don’t buy games based on reviews:

http://www.g4tv.com/games/xbox-360/32525/resident-evil-5/review/

The reviewer of the vid, Adam Sessler

The guy clearly dislikes this game, what with his nonstop slander at the game for over 3 minutes with the last 40-50 seconds saying how he still enjoyed the game and gave about 3 reasons as to why (though he still kind of nit-picks at one of the reasons..=\). The website seems to give equal amounts of pros and cons for some reason.

Many angry fans of the game wanted the reviewer fired for his review. This could also factor in on how very popular franchises are reviewed in case of feeling the wrath of potential viewers and fans…

Game is utter shit: 5/8 star rating!

Game reviews are often followed with a rating. I don’t see the point in this… I mean if you had someone listening to you anyways about all the gripes and goodness of a game, is it really necessary to rate it? Maybe it’s to give the game some sort of value to what it’s worth? A lot of the game ratings don’t even make sense. Many cases they would shoot down a game in almost every way and then give the game say a 6/10 when they just made it sound like the worst game in existence.

Nowadays, I buy games through various ways, such as watching gameplay videos on YouTube. This is because I have a chance to see the game in action. Even the ones with commentary, I will take in what they think about the game, but what they say won’t have any effect on me buying the game if the game looks fun to me.

Looks good to me, think I'll try it!

I’d say if you are to look up reviews, take it with a grain of salt keep and keep an open mind. Try games out and see what you think, just as you would with trying new kinds of food to you, etc. It could end up being freakin’ awesome.

nomnom.