Fallible Reviews

Brian sans kotaku gets into a bit of a debate with Kyle the VGOmbudsman over at the RedAssedBaboon about the fallible nature of reviews in gaming:

[11:26] Brian: but if you hand out a 45 percent to any game ANY you really need to justify it
[11:26] Kyle: but even if a game meets those, some people juts won't like it
[11:26] Brian: and if it completly disagrees with all of the other reviews out there, you're wrong
[11:26] Brian: :)
[11:26] Brian: lol
[11:26] Kyle: heh, a minority of one and all that

Which makes me wonder what Brian does for work all day.

But seriously, look at the difference between this IGN review and this Gamespy one. For one thing, we can definately rule out that Gamespy and IGN are in collusion for their reviews.

Not having played the game ... and not really intending to since all things Star Wars gives me a bit of nasuea these days ... I gotta say that while I don't disagree with Brian, I enjoyed the IGN review much more. The IGN review really gets into details about the game, citing extremely specific examples of gameplay mechanics which are farcical or annoying. The Gamespy edition is much more shallow and almost reads like it's an adaptation from a press kit. OK, perhaps that's a bit harsh ... but I didn't get nearly as much of a grip about the game than I did with Ivan's take on it.

Is IGN wrong? I think Kyle responds well. People keep reading reviews because they trust their opinions. I usually read several reviews if I'm questionable about a game to try and find specifics like Ivan reports. Whether or not I would have the same reaction to these mechanics is completely impossible for IGN to determine. All they can do is publish a review and if I play enough games where my opinion is counter to the what they post ... then I'll probably stop reading them.

Opinions on games don't mean much. I've heard so much nonsense about why X was so horrible (like, there were too many LEDs flashing on the gun model ... true story). Best you can do is take in the view and make a judgement for yourself.