first MGS4 review:OPM

[SlumsofOhio]

PoppySan said:

Sullla said:

PoppySan said:

Frankly, that's not that different from other review formats.  Movies, books, restaurants, and records albums (even dancers on Dancing With The Stars) frequently recieve the highest ratings possible.  I doubt any are perfect.

Movie and book reviewers most certainly do NOT hand out the highest ratings possible frequently. Credible ones don't in any case (you can find some hack to shill for your product, of course). I'm not familiar enough with the other mediums to speculate on their situation.

Look, I have no interest in the Metal Gear Solid series. Never played any of the games before, don't plan to. I'm sure this game will be excellently made, with very high production values. But I'm at the same point as rocketpig: every single big-budget, high-profile game gets a 9 or a 10 nowadays. What's the point? The reviews are meaningless. This has nothing to do with one console or another; the last three Wii games I bought (Brawl, Mario Galaxy, and Metroid Prime) were all definitely over-scored as well.

Reviews are simply part of the hype machine for each new big release, little more or less. Don't you think that's a problem? Reviews are supposed to let you know if the game is good or bad, not make you feel better about yourself by validating your purchases. I'm just surprised so many people are vehemently denying that there's a clear problem with this system, even to the point that they've convinced themselves that today's games are SO much better in quality than ever before, EVERY high score is justified. Or by watering down standards so far, that any game that's fun and lacks glaring technical faults deserves a 9 or 10.

I find that depressing.

I never said movie or book reviewers hand out the highest ratings frequently.  I simply stated that other types of reviewers do hand out the highest ratings.  I've read many four star movie reviews and five star book and restaurant reviews. 

You and I are actually talking about different things.  My point was that a 10, just like a four star movie review need not be reserved for perfection.  You're talking about the fact that 10s are being handed out right and left (i.e. a frequency issue) therefore watering down the impact of a 10.  I actually agree with you on that point. 

At this point, none of us have played the game.  Maybe it deserves the 10 or maybe it's receiving a 10 because of the hype machine you describe.  Right now we don't know.  Maybe the game will blow all of us away.  If so, I think a 10 is approprate.  How can we pre-judge? 

 

 

We can't. We must play the game ourselves to see if it deserves a perfect 10/10.