Personally I generally skim reviews to get a general idea if the game is enjoyable or not (and if it's not a completely buggy mess); I don't care about the nit-picks, or some reviewers' personal political/cultural biases, or the difference between a 70 and an 80 score, I just want an idea if a game is worth my consideration. After that I'll generally watch some gameplay videos on youtube or twitch to see what the game's like and then make my purchasing decision.
I don't usually read or watch reviews. Most reviews that I have seen are very poorly constructed and often have significant flaws anyway.
On the other hand, I've had bad reviews flip me somewhat as well. For example, for the longest time I preferred A Link to the Past to Ocarina of Time. Then I saw Egoraptors terrible "sequelitis" episode, which has the journalistic integrity of a wet paper bag paired with over-the-top, stupid googly-eyed gags, and thought "I wonder if I'm internally using this horrible, inconsistent, and idiotic logic in my own preference?" And now I prefer Ocarina of Time.
As far as stuff like public opinion of the Wii U, I couldn't care less. People buying the Wii U, or ANY console at launch when there are no games they want to play to justify it are impossible to label while remaining within forum rules. I still don't understand who would do that. If a Console has no games you want, you can't seriously think that buying the system expecting there to be games you want is an "investment". What return do you get? Not much. You buy it early you also miss out on price drops later, too. I bought a Wii U because I wanted Mario Kart 8. it justified the system for me. I also got other titles, but MK8 was the one that made it worth it.
I don't have a PS4 or an XBox One and have never owned a PS3 or a XBox 360. I have no plans to buy one. Because there aren't many games I'm interested in on any of those consoles, and those that I am interested in are on the PC as well anyway.
The "NX" doesn't affect me at all. my NES still works and the games are just as good, even though there is an SNES. the existence of a possible successor a few years down the line doesn't somehow affect my enjoyment of the current stuff. We don't even know anything about the system, all we have is the same idiot reviewers I mentioned in my opening sentence coming up with wild speculations based on rumours. It's not even information you can make a decision based on.
As far as the Wii U 'flopping' here's the thing- it doesn't matter.
No, really.
See, I bought a Wii U because I wanted to play Mario Kart 8. I didn't buy stocks in Nintendo. I'm not "invested" in the success or failure of the console. That's entirely in the interest of Nintendo, not me. The only people who would care are the goofballs who buy consoles as an "investment" because they expect to get games they like on the system. That is such a foolish notion it is almost not worth entertaining. So you have people who bought the Wii U expecting to get games who are now declaring that it failed because it failed to deliver on the imagined expectations of those who bought it as an "investment". Like the people who bought a Wii U because they expected a Zelda game or a Metroid game. I'm sorry but those people do not get my sympathy. You don't buy something as an 'investment' because you expect that the ecosystem that it supports with go in a certain direction. Buying a system because you expect it to get certain franchises is foolish because you don't lose anything by waiting and buying the system when and if those franchises actually get released. What did people who bought a Wii U at launch because they expected a Zelda title gain? They gained nothing. What did people who bought a Wii U at launch because they expected a New Super Mario Bros. Game gain? They also gained nothing. They eventually got the game they bought the system for but they didn't gain anything by buying it early. Buying a console before it has a game that you want to play is stupid, and is solely the domain of people who are still stuck in the high-school mindset where what game console you own is some sort of social statement.
As far as the Wii U "failing" or doing worse than the other consoles- the PS4 and to a lesser extent, the XBox One are more successful in terms of sales and revenue, and meeting the expectations of Sony and Microsoft than the Wii u has been at meeting the expectations and hopes of Nintendo.
That's great. But neither of those consoles doing better than the Wii U has any impact on whether those systems has anything I would want to play. That only matters to business people, and yet there are so many people who would describe themselves as gamers who put themselves in a mock suit and somehow base their decision about what entertainment device to buy on how well the product is selling. That isn't how you make product decisions. The Wii U doing poorly doesn't suddenly make MK8 stop being worth it for me. Again- I'm not an investor. I don't care. I'm not interested in third party games and I didn't even know about many of the cross-platform games that are on the Wii U even existed.
Hell, if I didn't have a Wii U, I'd be buying one for next Friday, because Mario Maker would be another System-worthy purchase. Mario Maker is going to be huge. This is actually shown pretty strongly already- PS4 and XBox 'investors' are already building mock barriers about now it's just a bad Little-Big-Planet clone and obviously the Wii U is going to fail and is terrible and why are you questioning their investment decision to purchase a PS4 or XBox that doesn't have any games they actually wanted to play.
Regarding old games- sort of tying in with Mario Maker above, even- I still play my NES, SNES, and N64. Just yesterday I finished up a SMW save file on one of my SMW cartridges. just two hours ago I was playing Mario Advance 2 on my Wii U's VC; a few hours before I was playing a bit of Pokemon Blue on my Game Boy Color, or Megaman 2 on my NES. Some of these games I had as a kid (Super Mario World) others I did not (Megaman, Super Metroid) A few weeks ago, over the weekend I beat Mario brothers 3 twice warpless; first on my NES, and then on my SNES via Mario All Stars. I revisited Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Banjo Kazooie, etc.
Many of the games I like have poor reviews or a lot of criticism. really Most games do in general. Pick any game and you can probably find some blowhard ranting about how it is the game equivalent of Satan and those responsible should be shot. I could criticize some of my favourite games very easily; Smash 64 is incredibly poorly balanced and throws have too much power; Mario Kart 64 has awful Rubber band AI. Super Mario World has pointless collectibles in the form of Dragon coins that serve zero purpose in the game except to provide you with an extra life when you get all five in a course, despite extra lives being practically given away anyway. Goldeneye has framerate issues in many areas and the controls are a tad strange. Mario Kart Double Dash is slippery and weird. Snowboard Kids lacks content. Metroid Prime has too much backtracking, weird controls, and bosses that require very fine control that requires exceptional response time, and you have to fight against the game itself- the Stone golem boss guy for example has you fighting against the targeting system because it likes to NOT target the part you have to shoot. Tropical Freeze has arbitrary difficulty where you have to memorize platforming layouts in order to proceed properly, 3DW and New Super Mario Bros. Suffers from this same issue. The Superstar thing in NSMBU isn't even real difficulty, it's arbitrary difficulty added by require precision timing that is just terrible Level design. Wind Waker has a terrible fetch quest in both versions that is an obvious filler for a dungeon or dungeons that they couldn't be bothered to create. Metroid Prime 2 is yet another installment in Nintendo's library where a game uses Light/Dark Worlds or variants thereof as part of it's theme, something Nintendo does repeatedly (A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, ALBW). Both Metroid Prime 1 and Metroid Prime 2 have stupid fetch quests for macguffins right near the end, because journeying all over the game world once clearly wasn't enough. Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA) is a bad ROM hack of one of Nintendo's other games that is too short and features the glaring issue of not being anything like the predecessor; Zelda II suffers from this similarly and adds RPG elements, but not enough to actually make the RPG elements particularly great. Unlike SMB2 Zelda II suffers from being far too long and far too big for an NES game, especially an NES game that takes you right back to the beginning when you get game over. A Link to the Past is too linear and has poor dialogue- also Princess Zelda looks like a Nurse. Secret of Mana is a buggy mess. I could go on.
This doesn't affect my enjoyment of any of these titles. Being aware of the shortcomings of a game or a piece of software just makes you an informed consumer, rather than a 'fanboy'.
When it comes to buying a new game, I usually never read reviews. One website might praise it as this years next big game, while another might say it is complete garbage. That's why I always look at actual footage of the game. If it looks pleasing, I buy it. If not I skip. I don't like reading a whole article that does nothing but nitpick the game to hell and back.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"For I am a sinner in the hands of an angry God. Bloody Mary, full of vodka, blessed are you among cocktails. Pray for me now and at the hour of my death, which I hope is soon. Amen." - Sterling Archer, aka "Duchess", aka "world's most dangerous spy".
I would like to start off with 2 disclaimers;
1. I am not entirely certain where this thread belongs so it will be posted in general gaming due to the majority of this
topic focusing on games.
2. This is solely my observation and opinion.
Now tha we have that out of the way, lets begin.
I would like to pose a very simple question, have you ever been excited about something, whether currently in existancw or
in development/beginning stages, only to have your excitement drowned out by critics or negative reviews? If you have
then you have suffered from what I would like to call critical deflation.
Now you may not be so super stoked or totally hyped about any given product, feature or item. But maybe you had a
general interest in the particular entity. So how does an overly critical or negative review effect you in this manner?
Did you go against the grain and go for it anyways? Or did you heed the previous opinion(s) and decide against it?
Of course where would we be in society if everyone simply turned a blind eye and only trusted their original feelings?
But how much is too much? And on what scale can it be measured in terms of all around usefulness if one only
allows others' opinion, or their own, impact one's decisions.
To give a personal testimony to this, I was a Nintendo fanboy for a long time, I still am at heart. However, when the Wii U
debuted, I chose against buying it at first due to cost. Later, I had found several people were having buyer's remorse
or just simply giving up on Nintendo entirely.
This led me to believe the opinions of the majority and go against my own personal desires. But it did not only impact
my choices. It also impacted how I viewed Nintendo as a whole and the company's capabilities to remain a viable
source of entertainment. It also impacted how I viewed gaming on Nintendo platforms. Often I found myself
scrutinizing each game for any downfalls vs. enjoying what I loved.
For instance, Metroid Prime for gamecube. When I used to play it I was astounded by the details of the envirnment and
visuals, plus gameplay and combat was very effecient and enjoyable. My view on it now is that the graphics can be
clumsy and/or clunky and some animations seemed lazy plus the story-line really does not have much replayability.
Two very different perspectives. One influenced by sheer personal enjoyment. The other influenced by outside opinions.
Even Xbox has fallen victim to this in my gaming library. At first I had no intentions of getting an Xbox One because
of the penalty system and I just do not feel ready to upgrade just yet. I didn't want to invest in a PS4 simply because
the PS4 had no games that interested me. Now, instead of investing toward an Xbox One I am going to invest in
a PS4 for one sole game that I can imagine burning months on. This game being No Man's Sky
(I'm certain that any of you who regularly read my posts are sick of hearing me talk about this game, I'm sorry, I am just
super excited about it).
I have also decided to go with my gut on the NX and I will be looking into 3ds and a Wii but still no Wii U. There is no
denying how epicly the Wii U flopped. So what do you think? How has reviews/criticism impacted your choices?
Or do you stick to your guns? What were the consequences of those decisions?
Youtube-eonwolfx9, Twitter @eonwolfx9
Personally I generally skim reviews to get a general idea if the game is enjoyable or not (and if it's not a completely buggy mess); I don't care about the nit-picks, or some reviewers' personal political/cultural biases, or the difference between a 70 and an 80 score, I just want an idea if a game is worth my consideration. After that I'll generally watch some gameplay videos on youtube or twitch to see what the game's like and then make my purchasing decision.
I don't usually read or watch reviews. Most reviews that I have seen are very poorly constructed and often have significant flaws anyway.
On the other hand, I've had bad reviews flip me somewhat as well. For example, for the longest time I preferred A Link to the Past to Ocarina of Time. Then I saw Egoraptors terrible "sequelitis" episode, which has the journalistic integrity of a wet paper bag paired with over-the-top, stupid googly-eyed gags, and thought "I wonder if I'm internally using this horrible, inconsistent, and idiotic logic in my own preference?" And now I prefer Ocarina of Time.
As far as stuff like public opinion of the Wii U, I couldn't care less. People buying the Wii U, or ANY console at launch when there are no games they want to play to justify it are impossible to label while remaining within forum rules. I still don't understand who would do that. If a Console has no games you want, you can't seriously think that buying the system expecting there to be games you want is an "investment". What return do you get? Not much. You buy it early you also miss out on price drops later, too. I bought a Wii U because I wanted Mario Kart 8. it justified the system for me. I also got other titles, but MK8 was the one that made it worth it.
I don't have a PS4 or an XBox One and have never owned a PS3 or a XBox 360. I have no plans to buy one. Because there aren't many games I'm interested in on any of those consoles, and those that I am interested in are on the PC as well anyway.
The "NX" doesn't affect me at all. my NES still works and the games are just as good, even though there is an SNES. the existence of a possible successor a few years down the line doesn't somehow affect my enjoyment of the current stuff. We don't even know anything about the system, all we have is the same idiot reviewers I mentioned in my opening sentence coming up with wild speculations based on rumours. It's not even information you can make a decision based on.
As far as the Wii U 'flopping' here's the thing- it doesn't matter.
No, really.
See, I bought a Wii U because I wanted to play Mario Kart 8. I didn't buy stocks in Nintendo. I'm not "invested" in the success or failure of the console. That's entirely in the interest of Nintendo, not me. The only people who would care are the goofballs who buy consoles as an "investment" because they expect to get games they like on the system. That is such a foolish notion it is almost not worth entertaining. So you have people who bought the Wii U expecting to get games who are now declaring that it failed because it failed to deliver on the imagined expectations of those who bought it as an "investment". Like the people who bought a Wii U because they expected a Zelda game or a Metroid game. I'm sorry but those people do not get my sympathy. You don't buy something as an 'investment' because you expect that the ecosystem that it supports with go in a certain direction. Buying a system because you expect it to get certain franchises is foolish because you don't lose anything by waiting and buying the system when and if those franchises actually get released. What did people who bought a Wii U at launch because they expected a Zelda title gain? They gained nothing. What did people who bought a Wii U at launch because they expected a New Super Mario Bros. Game gain? They also gained nothing. They eventually got the game they bought the system for but they didn't gain anything by buying it early. Buying a console before it has a game that you want to play is stupid, and is solely the domain of people who are still stuck in the high-school mindset where what game console you own is some sort of social statement.
As far as the Wii U "failing" or doing worse than the other consoles- the PS4 and to a lesser extent, the XBox One are more successful in terms of sales and revenue, and meeting the expectations of Sony and Microsoft than the Wii u has been at meeting the expectations and hopes of Nintendo.
That's great. But neither of those consoles doing better than the Wii U has any impact on whether those systems has anything I would want to play. That only matters to business people, and yet there are so many people who would describe themselves as gamers who put themselves in a mock suit and somehow base their decision about what entertainment device to buy on how well the product is selling. That isn't how you make product decisions. The Wii U doing poorly doesn't suddenly make MK8 stop being worth it for me. Again- I'm not an investor. I don't care. I'm not interested in third party games and I didn't even know about many of the cross-platform games that are on the Wii U even existed.
Hell, if I didn't have a Wii U, I'd be buying one for next Friday, because Mario Maker would be another System-worthy purchase. Mario Maker is going to be huge. This is actually shown pretty strongly already- PS4 and XBox 'investors' are already building mock barriers about now it's just a bad Little-Big-Planet clone and obviously the Wii U is going to fail and is terrible and why are you questioning their investment decision to purchase a PS4 or XBox that doesn't have any games they actually wanted to play.
Regarding old games- sort of tying in with Mario Maker above, even- I still play my NES, SNES, and N64. Just yesterday I finished up a SMW save file on one of my SMW cartridges. just two hours ago I was playing Mario Advance 2 on my Wii U's VC; a few hours before I was playing a bit of Pokemon Blue on my Game Boy Color, or Megaman 2 on my NES. Some of these games I had as a kid (Super Mario World) others I did not (Megaman, Super Metroid) A few weeks ago, over the weekend I beat Mario brothers 3 twice warpless; first on my NES, and then on my SNES via Mario All Stars. I revisited Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Banjo Kazooie, etc.
Many of the games I like have poor reviews or a lot of criticism. really Most games do in general. Pick any game and you can probably find some blowhard ranting about how it is the game equivalent of Satan and those responsible should be shot. I could criticize some of my favourite games very easily; Smash 64 is incredibly poorly balanced and throws have too much power; Mario Kart 64 has awful Rubber band AI. Super Mario World has pointless collectibles in the form of Dragon coins that serve zero purpose in the game except to provide you with an extra life when you get all five in a course, despite extra lives being practically given away anyway. Goldeneye has framerate issues in many areas and the controls are a tad strange. Mario Kart Double Dash is slippery and weird. Snowboard Kids lacks content. Metroid Prime has too much backtracking, weird controls, and bosses that require very fine control that requires exceptional response time, and you have to fight against the game itself- the Stone golem boss guy for example has you fighting against the targeting system because it likes to NOT target the part you have to shoot. Tropical Freeze has arbitrary difficulty where you have to memorize platforming layouts in order to proceed properly, 3DW and New Super Mario Bros. Suffers from this same issue. The Superstar thing in NSMBU isn't even real difficulty, it's arbitrary difficulty added by require precision timing that is just terrible Level design. Wind Waker has a terrible fetch quest in both versions that is an obvious filler for a dungeon or dungeons that they couldn't be bothered to create. Metroid Prime 2 is yet another installment in Nintendo's library where a game uses Light/Dark Worlds or variants thereof as part of it's theme, something Nintendo does repeatedly (A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, ALBW). Both Metroid Prime 1 and Metroid Prime 2 have stupid fetch quests for macguffins right near the end, because journeying all over the game world once clearly wasn't enough. Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA) is a bad ROM hack of one of Nintendo's other games that is too short and features the glaring issue of not being anything like the predecessor; Zelda II suffers from this similarly and adds RPG elements, but not enough to actually make the RPG elements particularly great. Unlike SMB2 Zelda II suffers from being far too long and far too big for an NES game, especially an NES game that takes you right back to the beginning when you get game over. A Link to the Past is too linear and has poor dialogue- also Princess Zelda looks like a Nurse. Secret of Mana is a buggy mess. I could go on.
This doesn't affect my enjoyment of any of these titles. Being aware of the shortcomings of a game or a piece of software just makes you an informed consumer, rather than a 'fanboy'.
Some very valid points. But the general problem is with advancements in technology and graphics, more and more gamers
are indeed throwing on that perverbial monkey suit and buying into the education caps. Even I have found myself doing
these things. Not so much as to be educated or in the know, but rather because it is a social norm.
However, I attempt to not look too deeply into these matters much anymore due to the effects it was having on how I
enjoyed my gaming experiences.For example, I had found myself sinking into the black hole that is undue criticism
and opinion based rants a few months ago with minecraft. I had to literally stop playing it for a bit over a month to
shake the whole entire feeling of pointlessness that had been created.
It is extremely hard to not fall in line with any new trend really. Everyone wants to feel worthy of acceptance and praise
and often times in order to gain those things, we must adopt outside opinions as our own. Even as much as some
say that uniformed socialogical complexes died in the early 2000s in response to how the new generation had
changed style, preferences and basic individuality. We still find flocks of people falling in line. Developing
fanboyism/fangirlism.
But you are correct in how idiotic these behaviors are. It basically just restates an old line our mothers would tell us
when we followed a friend into a stupid situation or circumstance, "Well if your friends jumped off a bridge, would you
follow and do the same?" I enjoyed my wife's comical answer to this. "It depends. How tall is the bridge and why are
they jumping to begin with? Because if we are talking jumping off a 3 foot bridge to do a fundraiser to prevent bridge
accidents or to help fund bridge construction then I'm in"
Perception seems to be a dying trait. Especially when it comes to gaming, music or movies/tv. A lot of things to me
seem to just be poor rehashes of popular titles which is fairly ironic. I have known many people who stated they hate
their parents' old music but as soon as the next Riahnna?(spelling) or the next Eminem or the next whoever releases
a remake of those exact songs, suddenly people salivate over it.
It sometimes drives me nuts thinking about it. I wish I could just go up to one of these people and shake them vigorously.
Just to see how much nonsense will pour out. Like shaking a can of soda. I think that if more people did what glargenheimerstein
had mentioned, we would have a more factually educated society. It really is not that hard to do your own research
and come to an educated theory as to whether or not you would enjoy any particular game or whatever.
Youtube-eonwolfx9, Twitter @eonwolfx9
When it comes to buying a new game, I usually never read reviews. One website might praise it as this years next big game, while another might say it is complete garbage. That's why I always look at actual footage of the game. If it looks pleasing, I buy it. If not I skip. I don't like reading a whole article that does nothing but nitpick the game to hell and back.
"For I am a sinner in the hands of an angry God. Bloody Mary, full of vodka, blessed are you among cocktails. Pray for me now and at the hour of my death, which I hope is soon. Amen." - Sterling Archer, aka "Duchess", aka "world's most dangerous spy".