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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Triple A Games overrated?

pearljammer on 23 October 2008

I hate talks of 'AAA games' and metacritic/gamerankings. Sure, the aggregate scores can be used as a general indicator, but it isn't the be all, end all. If a game had a 90 rating on metacritic I'd be sure to read up on it a bit more, but I wouldn't necessarily call it AAA.

I especially dislike when people set arbitrary scores for a ranking such as 'AAA'. Take a game like Uncharted for example, that felt like a top tier game to me and to be honest, that is all that's required for it to be AAA in my mind. It's a relative term, so what you think is all that really matters.

If we do judge AAA by aggregate scores then we completely ignore all of the cultural biases in our society which results in having basically only one consistent JRPG having a 90+ aggregate score. Of course, most of us JRPG fans know that Final Fantasy is the only AAA JRPG around. Right? (Sarcasm. And although FF is my favourite series, I can certainly acknowledge there are many other rpgs that lack the recognition they deserve. I'm sure there are many other games and genres that also fit this decription)



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Kantor on 23 October 2008
scottie said:
Kantor said:
scottie said:
I don't pay attention to review scores.

If I'm unsure about a game, in order of what i pay most attention to to least

i wiki the people involved in the game and see if i like their previous games
I ask my friends, because then I know exactly what their biases are, and i trust their opinions more than reviewers
I'll read around the user section of VGchartz
I'll check out the opinions of Penny Arcade and Zero Punctuation
I'll read a review. that's right, read the words. Not just the number at the top

Lol people take Zero Punctuation seriously?

 

 

I do actually, the guy has quite similar taste in games to me, and he's not afraid to tell the truth about a shit game just because it's popular. Just accept that he's a bitter man and thus take what he says with a grain of salt

Zero Punctuation is what I watch for a good laugh.

He manages to find things wrong with almost every game in existence (his COD4 review was a big letdown)

And he hates some of my favourite games. But he also hates Paradise, so all is well.

 



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CAL4M1TY on 23 October 2008

Personally, the only overrated AAA game I've played all year (on any platform) is GTAIV.

It deserves AAA status, it's just not the best game of all time (uptil now).

But I must say, more often than not, I agree with the "AAA" status system, whether that be because I get influenced by the status and more often than not, like games without it less, I don't know, but I find that if a game has gotten an average of 90% or more on granks/metacritic, I will enjoy it or at least appreciate the game.

Incidently, my 2 favourite games of all time have not been "AAA" games (KH and FF8 for those interested).

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, I can see why certain games achieve AAA status, because they are easily likeable to everyone and they are games anyone can appreciate on some level, but I wouldn't denote "AAA" as being a measure of "fun" though.