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shikamaru317 said:
The events of 2023 have unequivocally proven what Xbox fans have suspected for years, the Xbox tax is indeed a very real phenomenon. First Starfield reviewed somehow lower than Fallout 4 in spite of being a significantly better and more ambitious game. Then Forza Motorsport reviewed lower than the previous two Forza Motorsport games in-spite of making huge leaps forward in terms of graphics, physics, gameplay, and accessibility compared to FM6 and FM7 (also scored below Sony's GT7 last year which was absolutely packed to the gills with expensive microtransactions). Then the ABK acquisition closed and somehow CoD for the first time ever gets a review average in the 50's (previous lowest average was like a 73, and from what I've heard from several non-critics who have played MW3 already, it is better than several past CoD games that scored higher in both campaign and multiplayer). Now come the Game Awards, and multiple Xbox/Zenimax/ABK games get noticeably snubbed for nominations on several categories, from Starfield to Diablo 4 to Forza Motorsport to HiFi Rush. |
Eh, there is no such thing as objectivity in rating games. Because games are art. That's why I don't think the size and ambition of Starfield really counts. Yes, I think a lot of trashing Starfield gets online is completely overblown and hyperbole, it is not a bad game. But it has a Meta of 83 and 86 respectively, and this is the rating of a good game but not an amazing game, and I think that rating is totally fair. And it is not about size or technical stuff. A short Hike is IMHO a better game than Starfield, not because it has more stuff (it has a lot less), but because nearly everything can emotionally connect, it has a place, it has a sense. Starfield falls short here, it feels like a lot of Points of Interest with little to no connection and nearly no emotional investment. It is not all bad, but compared to Skyrim or even ESO Starfield connects a lot less emotionally. I see what Bethesda tried to do, they wanted something realistical, not only graphical but also something that could be our world. Which results in travel between planets taking hours, because that is realistic - so you make fast travel. In No Man's Sky I could reach everything in a solar system in minutes with the pulse drive, that is unrealistic, but makes playing more fun. And what is more, in No Man's Sky there is stuff on the flight from one planet to the other, asteroids, space lifeforms, pirates and other stuff. That is not realistic, but fun. On planets a lot gets samey fast. In ESO you can take a screenshot inside a city of random houses, and based on architecture and decorations you can deduce which region you are in, often which city, as even the dark elf houses for instance have differences in architecture. All that leads to Starfield ranking lower. Because ranking isn't about more and better technology, it is about what emotions can be evoked. And again: Starfield isn't a bad game, it just isn't holding up to other stuff, especially this year with especially strong games.
And Nintendo bonus seems also often overblown. Maybe Zelda gets a free pass sometimes, but Nintendo often pours a lot of work into Zelda, so it is hard to judge how much of this free pass is justified. But there is a reason I was genuinely surprised Mario Wonder is nominated for GOTY in the TGA, because the moment something has more than three colors (and that is often the case for Nintendo) it is relegated to family category, and family games never can be taken seriously, right? If you look at the GOTY-tracker here, than 2017 is the only Nintendo game winning with Breath of the Wild. Doesn't seem like much of a Nintendo bonus really.
What I see though is a lot of online trashing of MS and Xbox. And I understand some of it, there is fear of a monopoly for instance and while I see it in other areas, I don't see how MS can control the gaming market, so I am a lot more chill about that. Paradoxically MS/Xbox also get trashed for having no good games (so how should they control the market if true) and people ignore genuinely good games like Grounded, Pentiment and HiFi-Rush to arrive at that judgement. As if project size is somehow relevant - if a smaller game is great, than it still is a great game. And again, Starfield isn't a bad game either, it only pales in comparison to others this year. In 2022 Starfield, Diablo IV and Hogwarts Legacy all would have been nominated to GOTY. They would've lost against Elden Ring, because that is an outstanding game, but they would've been able to nominate. This year no such luck.
