As a journalist student, I both agree and disagree with you. A review must be objective. That's the whole point of a review; however, one must acknowledge two things: one; that with a score system the objectiveness (?) is broken, and two: that is not possible to achieve a completely objective review. No matter how you put it, you'll end up falling into subjective. And you need to understand what moment this is, so that you don't go too far from objectiveness.

As an example: imagine a man who has never played a videogame before in his life (but would like to) is in charge of reviewing Dark Souls. These two things can happen:

a) It's too damn difficult, he bashes the game for it. If he can realize this fact, and say it in its review, then it is a fair, objective review. Far from perfect, but that's what it is.

b) He has never played before and he thinks this is how games are. A totally inhumane learning curve, but that leads to progression and victory. He writes a review admitting he loved it because of the challenge. That's subjective too (Difficult should not mind in a review), but again; if he admits it, it is a fair review.

Both reviews are totally different: one bashes the game; the other, praises it. But they're fair reviews, both. They understand what makes one review different from another. This review here - Carolyn's - does not understand its own subjectivity. It is either a biased thing, a bought review or a bad review. I'd like to thing its the latter. It is a subjective review. It is not fully explained, and does not understand itself. That's why we, the consumers, have to criticise this review. A reviewer must listen to feedback and improve upon these things. My complain is that Carolyn is actually a very good reviewer; yet this one here is bad. I don't mind its score as long as it is justified and you can explain your own subjectivity. This review doesn't explain these two points.

You can have an opinion, but you must back it up if needed. I respect her, but it is a flawed one, and I have the right to point it.

But both reviews would point out the same thing. Wheter the reviewer bashes the game for being to difficult or praises it because of that doesn´t matter. You gotta decide for yourself if you like high difficulty or not. I know an objective review would be ideal but reviews are written by Human beings and it is impossible for a human being to be objective. And to be honest I´d rather read and honest review then one that tries to please the crowd.

But I mean overall I do agree with you. But until we get a standard rating system those problems will appear.

I'd have to play the game or watch a Youtube of someone playing it in a real world situation to see whether the criticism in this review has weight... that's a problem if you're not doing a video review. I think that's one of the problems getting worse with website reviews. They are used to being able to do video reviews and the standards for a written review have gotten lower and lower... it's like, "we know you read multiple websites, so I'm not going to put all my effort into being objective, and instead make this more like a blog and fill it with my unfiltered thoughts and it'll generate views (See: Gawker media). However, watch our videos, because then you can see our faces and we can feel important and personality counts! ♪"...just my 2 cents.

Other than that, OK... I usually weigh my decision based off of numerous reviews anyway, not just one... so no biggie.

I had a friend who thought games that were too difficult was unacceptable. He says 'It cheated me!'... when goombas/platforms did stuff to make him fall in a pit, etc... so keep in mind, not all audiences are play games just like us. This review fits someone lol.

Edited for clarity

But that's my complaint. She says it is a challenging game. But does she not like challenging games or was just unpleasant with this one I don't know, and that's what she fail to accomplish. I don't understand the Con's in this review.

But yep, that boils down to the score. I'd say ditch the score, and just make some final lines highlighting the good and the bad about the game and just that. Reviews would got waaay better.

A woman who can't play video games, who would have guessed lol.

Moderated,

-Mr Khan

Two women I know are actually pretty good at games. One of them is freaking hardcore at Uncharted 2 and 3 online. Kicking butts left and right.

The irony in this is that the 3DS Castlevania game had points taken off for NOT doing this.

However, I wouldn't be annoyed by having to redo solved puzzles because that way it discourages you from dying.  Isn't Dark Souls not much different, where if you die before you make it to the next level, you have to do everything over again?  I mean, you can try to say they aren't with the same purposes in mind, but that really isn't that good of a point because the game, from what I've read from multiple people, is supposed to have an element of challenge in it so putting that in there helps from making the game where you can die without any consequences.

Exactly!!! Lemme repaste for emphasis:

Same here since there is so many opinions.  

As far as video reviews vs written reviews, how many sites actually do video reviews?  I can only think of a few.  Gametrailers, IGN, and gamespot.  And Carolynn Petit usually does a phenominal job at reviewing games with a lot of details. Not saying you said she did a bad job.

@everybody_else I reccomend the people who does not agree with this review to read or watch other reviews. If you guys don't like this review then fine, but there is no reason to attack her on a personal level.  She has had to deal with the same constant attacks since joining gamespot and it is immature guys.  No reason to attack her based off of her looks.