Words Of Wisdom said: I sometimes think I'll be the only one happy when all the GTA4 hype dies.

 Now you know how the PS3/X360 owners feel when their were hundred threads about SMG, Brawl, MK WII.

Sqrl said: As someone who loves the GTA series and has been looking forward to GTA IV I can honestly say you're not the only one....the sheer amount of ass kissing this game has received so far is impressive and most of the reviews sound more like endorsements of a political candidate than a review. A lot of so-called professionals have let themselves get wrapped up in the hype. With that said I pretty much expected it and you really have to just step back and let them have their day in the sun. A lot of people have waited a long time for this, and once the hype dies down and the "Z0MG Z0MG Z0MG" mentality chills out a bit towards the end of the year we should be able to get a fair GoTY ballot. The game is definitely worthy of consideration, and possibly a shoe-in for most other years, but this year it will have competition.

Mark this sentence, people. That´s what most industry people I talked to said independently. You know, the big review sites are nothing more than fans of console gaming just like us. (Whatever that means...)

the game has a huge shot at GOTY but it will be tough to become the best reviewed game of all time

has anyone played the game yet? Just asking cause maybe this GOTY is a little pre-mature (added to the fact that we're not even in May yet)... I'm excited as anyone about getting my hands on it (I'm going for PS3 version btw) but this hype is getting very annoying!

Nope and no.

I hope that a few others will compete for that honor.

GTA hasn't changed much, but neither has Mario Kart and Zelda. Points should be knocked accordingly.

Mirson said: Gamespot will screw it up. I hope it's the highest ranking game of all time.

 I saw GTAIV ads in Gamespot, so I don't expect their score to be lower than 9.8

Sqrl said: As someone who loves the GTA series and has been looking forward to GTA IV I can honestly say you're not the only one....the sheer amount of ass kissing this game has received so far is impressive and most of the reviews sound more like endorsements of a political candidate than a review. A lot of so-called professionals have let themselves get wrapped up in the hype. With that said I pretty much expected it and you really have to just step back and let them have their day in the sun. A lot of people have waited a long time for this, and once the hype dies down and the "Z0MG Z0MG Z0MG" mentality chills out a bit towards the end of the year we should be able to get a fair GoTY ballot. The game is definitely worthy of consideration, and possibly a shoe-in for most other years, but this year it will have competition.

What Sqrl said. But I'll add a little more for some context.

Big game releases have pretty much reached the point where they're identical to big movie releases. Media blitz campaigns, product tie-ins, "midnight launches" for the diehard fans, and so on. I've come to expect this, and while it can be irritating at times, I can live with it.

The HUGE difference between big-budget games and movies is that there's still no kind of objective review system whatsoever for evaluating games. Professional movie critics usually have their salaries paid by newspapers, and thus can be counted on to stay (relatively) neutral in evaluating their subject matter. If the reviewer from the New York Times writes that "Pirates of the Carribean 3" is an overhyped pile of garbade, he's not going to get fired or demoted from his position. And we've come to expect that from reviewers, the ability to trust that they will give us an honest opinion not influenced by money contributed by movie studios.

But "gaming journalism" (and I use that term loosely) is a complete joke by comparison. The same websites that review games are dependent upon the big game publishers for advertising revenue. How can you possibly get an objective review score for Halo when Gamespot depends on ad money from Microsoft to stay in business? (Quick answer: you can't.) Everyone has known for years that big publishers exchange favors to gaming websites in return for good scores, and several of them have actually gotten caught doing it recently. The ridiculous number of perfect scores that Grand Theft Auto is receiving is merely the continuation of the trend that's been going on for years now. This is of course why the review averages have been steadily increasing over time, as everyone is afraid to give out bad scores to their clients. It's not even that GTA4 is a bad game (I'm sure it's a very, very good game). The problem is that we can't possibly trust any of these scores, since the same "reviewers" are writing preview after preview screaming that we should buy/preorder the game immediately.

Until gaming journalism can secure independent, outside sources of revenue to eliminate their dependance on publishers, their scores can never be taken seriously. And I mean that for ALL games, not just Grand Theft Auto.

kingofwale said: waron said: kingofwale said: Final-Fan said: @ kingofwale: Mike's not saying it SHOULD happen, but it DOES happen. More than one Wii game has gotten smacked by the reverse attitude. I hope LBP escapes that fate. Hmm, what game of Wii has gotten that? Galaxy is one of the highest rated game last year, same with SSBB, I personally think they were pretty fairly reviewed. Sure, developers of Escape from Bug Island and Kidz Sports game can whine all they want, but the truth is, those games are BROKEN to begin with. pes 2008, fire emblem, godfather, wii sports, elebits, medal of honor heroes 2, excite truck endless ocean, link's crossbow training, dewy's adventure, mario party 8, wii play(and so on, and so on) anyone? wii fit and mario kart probably too. all wii games suffers, mostly because graphic, controls or because being to hard(dewy's adventure, fire emblem anyone). many party games suffers simply because they're party games(rayman raving rabbids series) and there is endless ocean who suffers just because it's a simulation about diving and not killing-deadly-creatures-under-water game. I can only comment on games I've played before. First of all, when you have bad graphic, you will lose score in GRAPHICS category, it's just the way it is, Happened to every game ever made. I don't think it's a Wii issue. PES08 for Wii has higher score than both PS3 and 360 version, so I don't know what you are talking about. Wiisport lacks story and is repetition. the fact it was fun enough secure it a 7+ rating, name another game with only 5 mini-games of 5 minutes has ever achieved such score. Endless Ocean recieved pretty alright score, lack of interaction with the environment was what stopped it from being an A title. If you can "rub" it, why can't you feed it and lure it around? Why aren't sharks do they do? Mario Party 8 is just a broken game, poorly ported and tacked on Wii controls.

I can't argue the ones you mention since I haven't played them except Wii Sports, which I think we'll have to agree to disagree on, and just a little bit of Mario Party 8, and it didn't seem broken at all to me but admittedly I didn't play it a great deal. 

But are you really saying that there is not a significant number of Wii games that got unfairly rated because of "teh waggle" or "last gen grafx" or what-have-you?  (And no, kingofwale, giving them all bad scores because of the PS3/360 comparison doesn't fly or DS games would never get "10" for graphics next to the PSP.) 

Rayman Raving Rabbids has 77% gamerankings, when it should be in the 80s somewhere.  In fact a lot of places DID give it ~85 which is fair, and ~80 which is far from outrageous.  But then the sevens start popping in, and the most inexplicable of all -- a GLOWING review from Thunderbolt (seriously, from the text I'd expect a 9 or something) that ends in a big fat SIX.  (The same site gave MP3 a 7, though that review actually sounded like it.)

Words Of Wisdom said: I sometimes think I'll be the only one happy when all the GTA4 hype dies.

Nope. I'm in the same boat. I can't wait to play the game so I can escape this site for a small while and hopefully return when this dies out. Maybe ioi can give us a GTAIV forum so the Gaming Discussion forum can go back to sanity.

 

Words Of Wisdom said: I sometimes think I'll be the only one happy when all the GTA4 hype dies.

 You definitely won't be the only one. I've never understood the "ZOMG WORLD SIMULATOR" hype. I play games to escape from the real world for a little while, not to have a second virtual life.

Oh how I long for the days when people actually liked artsy games...