By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Gaming - Here´s why we shouldn´t trust game reviews...

Take a look of these examples :

Disney Infinity:  (PS3: 81,7 %  WiiU: 77 %  Xbox360: 72,6 %)

http://www.gamerankings.com/wii-u/695535-disney-infinity/index.html

 

Just Dance 4 ( Xbox360: 75,4 %  WiiU: 68 %  PS3: 77 %)

http://www.gamerankings.com/wii-u/673017-just-dance-4/index.html

 

Duck Tales Remastered (PS3:  71 %  Xbox360: 77 %)

http://www.gamerankings.com/ps3/708530-ducktales-remastered/index.html

 

Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed (Xbox360: 83 % WiiU: 77 %)

http://www.gamerankings.com/xbox360/669063-sonic-and-all-stars-racing-transformed/index.html

 

Those are only a few examples, there´s a lot more around those aggregate scores websites.

We all know and discussed how reviews are basically personal views / individual opinions etc. but it´s kind of strange to see such discrepancy between reviews / scores of pratically identical games in different platforms

I just think that reviews should at least TRY to be the least personal and more technical when reviewing a game, simply because personal opinions are too subjective and people have different tastes. So a reviewer should never say a game is bad just because he doesn´t like its cathegory (rhythm, action, puzzle, sports etc) or its art style, but because its design have flaws (gameplay, graphics and sound, controls, etc).

Unfortunately the vast majority of reviewers always put their personal feelings before a technical analysis of the, let´s call it, product, and the result are unprofessional and highly biased reviews. That´s why I think we should never trust reviews.

 



Around the Network

You are forgeting or not mentioning the fact that most reviewers review only 1 version of the game. In this generation it happens a lot with xbox360. When the game is identitical and i dont mean grafically, they just keep this version for all. So xbox360 version gets like 50 reviews and ps3 version gets 10-20. Hence we get these diferences.

*check the reviews on cross play games of ps3 and vita and u will get my point



Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed only 83% man I loved that game, best karting game I've ever played actually....Then my save got corrupted :( same thing must have happened to the reviews for them to score it so low lol



That review where the WiiU version of Rayman Legends an 80 while the PS360 version has a 90. For fucks sake, it's the same game but the WiiU version has extra levels and OPTIONAL Gamepad controls!
And don't get me started on those Wonderful 101 reviews that say the game is too hard, smh



I understand your point, golfgt170 , I see that the number of reviews recieved may distort some of the scores. A game with very few reviews may get a low score just because among those reviews a moron rated it very low because he doesn´t like the type of game. (this is clear with the JD4 example)

I just believe that the discrepancy comes more from the excessively focus on personal tastes than on technical achievements/features when reviewers do their "job". This gets even more clear when games have more than 9 or 10 reviews.



Around the Network

Discrepancies like that really only arise when one platform has only a handful of reviews. I really think they should go back to the system of listing a review of a multiplatform game for every platform unless there are significant differences, like in The Force Unleashed. That would largely eliminate the problem.

As it stands, the best method is just to trust the GR score based on the greatest number of reviews.



(Former) Lead Moderator and (Eternal) VGC Detective

Rogerioandrade said:

Those are only a few examples, there´s a lot more around those aggregate scores websites.

We all know and discussed how reviews are basically personal views / individual opinions etc. but it´s kind of strange to see such discrepancy between reviews / scores of pratically identical games in different platforms

I just think that reviews should at least TRY to be the least personal and more technical when reviewing a game, simply because personal opinions are too subjective and people have different tastes. So a reviewer should never say a game is bad just because he doesn´t like its cathegory (rhythm, action, puzzle, sports etc) or its art style, but because its design have flaws (gameplay, graphics and sound, controls, etc).

Unfortunately the vast majority of reviewers always put their personal feelings before a technical analysis of the, let´s call it, product, and the result are unprofessional and highly biased reviews. That´s why I think we should never trust reviews.

 

No, this is actually VERY wrong! A review is a personal thing where a person explains the strenghs and weaknesses the game has, according to his personal taste. The reviewer should like the genre, true, but if you only look at scores it's your fault you are misinformed by reviews.

This is only logical if you only look at a number. A reviewer could give a game a 6 because according to him, it has several major flaws. Another reviewer could give it an 8, because he didn't make a big deal about the flaws or he didn't noticed them at all. Now it's up to you to decide if the strenghs of the game are important to you and if the flaws described by the reviewers will be a deal-breaker to you or not.

The worst thing that could happen is that reviews stop being personal, the reviews would look like Amazon descriptions then.

 

Overall I think you are very wrong, which is a subjective opinion of mine



Game of the year 2017 so far:

5. Resident Evil VII
4. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
3. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
2. Horizon Zero Dawn
1. Super Mario Odyssey

well, you have to look at the number of reviews. i mean, do you really compare the 360 and ps3 version of disney infinity with only 3 reviews for the ps3 version?

it is pretty obvious that only 3 reviews can show a very different average score to 20 reviews

about the other games, i would have to read the reviews to know if there are really no differences.