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Forums - Sony Discussion - Gran Turismo 5 Reviews: Can They Be Trusted?

Cross-X on 24 November 2010

NowGamer Columns: NowGamer Team Blog

Gran Tursimo 5 Reviews: Can They Be Trusted?

There was, of course, a minor meltdown this morning when the review scores for Gran Turismo 5 – the longest-awaited of all the Gran Turismos ever (mainly because it took so bloody long to come out) – were unleashed. Some high numbers, some less-high numbers and a lot of discussion came out of it as a result. But I have one question in particular I think is reasonable to ask: can these reviews really be trusted?

The game arrived in our office on Monday, and I seriously doubt it arrived much, if any, earlier in the hands of other games writers across the UK and Europe. This means a conservative estimate would put the review at two days of play, one day of writing. If you’re not a typing idiot, two-and-a-bit days play, the end of Tuesday writing it. Sony specifically requested that online was included with all reviews of the game – a fair request, and something a lot of places would clearly do anyway.

But online was only activated yesterday, meaning those who have put their reviews up this morning really haven’t caned the game in the online world as much as they maybe should have. There will be teething problems, there will be issues with lag, stability and whatever else – these might be ironed out, they might not. Either way it’s a huge disservice to your readers to write off an online mode based on less than a day’s play, on what I would call (from what I’ve played) ‘something that needs a bit of work’. If it’s still dodgy after a while, fair enough – the system is flawed. But if it’s fixed swiftly, all these first-past-the-post reviews will look a bit… well, wrong, in comparison.

Now I’m not stupid enough to think a person is incapable of coming up with a genuinely held, honest opinion on a game from a couple of days of play. I’m not stupid enough to claim people are incapable of coming up with a genuinely held, honest opinion after just a few hours of play. I know I still hold opinions from games I only put a couple of hours into – that’s not what I take issue with here.

What I take issue with – what I’m questioning – is how much faith you can put in a review of a massive title like GT5 that has literally only had a couple of days put into it. It’s a release that’s been five, six years in the making, and people are shitting out reviews as quickly as possible just because it’s the internet and they have to.

I’m sitting here in my ivory tower of print publishing casting judgement down on the world around me, which is a little unfair. I know how the ‘net works – I’ve worked there for many years. If you’re not first, you’re nothing. But in the case of Gran Turismo 5 I think a more careful, considered approach is the right way to do things. Take a few extra days, make sure you’ve seen everything the game has to offer – or just as much as you can fit into a reasonable amount of time. That’s ‘reasonable’ as in ‘enough to do the game, and your audience, justice’.
Ian Dransfield

http://www.nowgamer.com/columns/casual-games/580/gran-tursimo-5-reviews-can-they-be-trusted

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mrpapaye on 24 November 2010

The game arrived in our office on Monday, and I seriously doubt it arrived much, if any, earlier in the hands of other games writers across the UK and Europe. This means a conservative estimate would put the review at two days of play, one day of writing. If you’re not a typing idiot, two-and-a-bit days play, the end of Tuesday writing it. Sony specifically requested that online was included with all reviews of the game – a fair request, and something a lot of places would clearly do anyway.

Well, the game is in every french shop since last friday and almost all french gaming sites have it since that day so it probably means it arrived in the hands of many reviewers 2 or 3 days before that monday...



Zones : I still don't understand all the love for Blizzard, what was the last game they developed worth playing?
snakenobi on 24 November 2010

they are all rushed

 

and alot of nitpicking

 

 

oh,it is better than every other game but from GT5 we expected better so we give it a low score

 

 

if SHIFT can hit a 9.0 then how the hell can't GT5



The Fury on 24 November 2010
mrpapaye said:

The game arrived in our office on Monday, and I seriously doubt it arrived much, if any, earlier in the hands of other games writers across the UK and Europe. This means a conservative estimate would put the review at two days of play, one day of writing. If you’re not a typing idiot, two-and-a-bit days play, the end of Tuesday writing it. Sony specifically requested that online was included with all reviews of the game – a fair request, and something a lot of places would clearly do anyway.

Well, the game is in every french shop since last friday and almost all french gaming sites have it since that day so it probably means it arrived in the hands of many reviewers 2 or 3 days before that monday...

That might not be likely, the reviewers would have waited for the review copy to be sent to them, not willing to spend money on a store copy just to review it. If sony only jsut sent out the review copies to in a way force and embargo on them reviews would have been rushed as the article states.



Hmm, pie.

milkyjoe on 24 November 2010

Not everyone received it the same day. CVG stated they received the review copy 'over the weekend', but granted that's not much longer for a game with as much content as it has.

With regards to whether the reviews can be trusted, what does it matter? If the people who've been looking forward to this since E3 2006 find it well worth the wait, then what do review scores do to change that?



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--OkeyDokey-- on 24 November 2010

Gamespot aren't posting their review until next week because they haven't had enough time to playtest. Good on them. You need more than a few days to reflect on a game as huge as this.



snakenobi on 24 November 2010
milkyjoe said:

Not everyone received it the same day. CVG stated they received the review copy 'over the weekend', but granted that's not much longer for a game with as much content as it has.

With regards to whether the reviews can be trusted, what does it matter? If the people who've been looking forward to this since E3 2006 find it well worth the wait, then what do review scores do to change that?


thats an arrogant way to look at it

if the reviews don't matter then they shouldn't even take them out

 

it wouldn't normally matter to super-hardcore gamers but it matter alot otherwise and alot of sales are dropped if some big publication rates it low

 



snakenobi on 24 November 2010
--OkeyDokey-- said:

Gamespot aren't posting their review until next week because they haven't had enough time to playtest. Good on them. You need more than a few days to reflect on a game as huge as this.


that will be the review to look out for

 

and if the IGN original come out with one



Reasonable on 24 November 2010

Yes, but with some caveats.

Online reviews in particular want to be up quickly and generating site activity and hits.  For many games, with reviewers getting the game early, this isn't too much of an issue.  But some games really need a long time to judge - GT5 being one of them - and therefore early reviews are almost certainly based on a far higher degree of assumption from a relatively small time with the game.

I've had GT5 since Monday (yah) and online only can on yesterday.  What I can tell you is the game has a lot of content and a lot of that content is tied to being unlocked over time.  For sure, reading some of these reviews its apparent that they've only taken a fairly cursory view of some areas then made assumptions.

I note for example most reviews are focused on the traditional driving mode vs the mode where you give instructions to a driver.  Trying this mode myself I can see it's going to take a while to get to grips with.

Then there are the special events which only unlock slowly but contain a lot of new stuff - karts, Nascar, etc.

I'd say trust the reviews, just be sure to understand that in this case - as with other titles that are very broad in modes that also have deep levelling - that you are getting impressions and assumptions based on relatively little time vs what you will be putting in if you really want to get the best out of the game.

TBH I doubt it'll matter.  GT is in some ways review proof I suspect.

Personally, I'm amazed that even playing it a fair bit since Monday there are so many areas I keep pushing back having a look at due to time.  I've barely played with the course editor, or tuning cars, for example.



Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...

ethomaz on 24 November 2010

No.

Your taste was always better than any review for any game.