G4 Gives Uncharted 3 a 4/5: Madness Ensues

[Soviet Heavy]

In opposition to IGN's love letter to the game, Xplay's Adam Sessler did not give Uncharted 3 a perfect score. And lo and behold, the comments section goes up in flames. See it here. [http://www.g4tv.com/games/ps3/64706/uncharted-3-drakes-deception/review/]

I really couldn't care about the Uncharted Series (make another Jak Game dammit!), but I just hate it when the posters on G4 turn on the reviewers like this. Especially when it is Adam giving the review, because he is one of the very few reviewers on the internet who I trust to give an honest opinion.

This isn't even the first time this has happened. It was an opposite reaction last time, when loads of people were bitching about Killzone 2 getting a perfect score on their site.

So, after being amused at the inflamed egos of some people, I guess we need some discussion value. Who here is getting sick of the relentless fanboyism that has destroyed rating systems to the point where a numerical statistic means more to the developer than the quality of their product?

EDIT
As a matter of fact, Sessler himself made the same statement at GDC 2009.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

I pretty much dont trust any reviewer who gives out a perfect score.
So im glad there are still bastions of reviewing hope out there.. shame people have to go ruin it by being fanboys.

 

[Amnestic]

Review site gives super high rating, gets a shiteload of clicks and ad revenue for drumming up dramallamas.
Opposite review site gives slightly lower rating, spawns even more dramallamas and gets more ad revenue and clicks.
The internet over, fanboys are screaming at each other for one reason or another.
Meanwhile, G4 and IGN are laughing all the way to the bank.

You (that is, people who follow these sites and give them these clicks and revenue) are getting played. They are effectively trolling you and making money from it. If you're (anyone, not just the OP) sick of it, don't go there. Never click on their site, ignore it entirely. Get your news from elsewhere.

Don't willingly get played and then complain how bad games journalism is by the big names these days. That's just silly.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Review site gives super high rating, gets a shiteload of clicks and ad revenue for drumming up dramallamas.
Opposite review site gives slightly lower rating, spawns even more dramallamas and gets more ad revenue and clicks.
The internet over, fanboys are screaming at each other for one reason or another.
Meanwhile, G4 and IGN are laughing all the way to the bank.

You (that is, people who follow these sites and give them these clicks and revenue) are getting played. They are effectively trolling you and making money from it. If you're (anyone, not just the OP) sick of it, don't go there. Never click on their site, ignore it entirely. Get your news from elsewhere.

Don't willingly get played and then complain how bad games journalism is by the big names these days. That's just silly.

I would do that, if Sessler put reviews up anywhere else. As it stands, I go to G4 to get his opinion, because I love his talks on the soapbox and on Feedback. I'm not against his views, but against the people who ignore everything he said and focus on the arbitrary number.

 

[Deathninja19]

Perfect scores are way too common, anyone remember when people gave a shit about Famitsu giving 40/40s?

 

[GloatingSwine]

I pretty much dont trust any reviewer who gives out a perfect score.
So im glad there are still bastions of reviewing hope out there.. shame people have to go ruin it by being fanboys.

If only review scores were meant to be a quickly apprehended summary and not some divine mathematical expression that completely describes a game using only a five point scale, eh?

 

[Giest4life]

Game experiences do not translate into numbers. A "review score" is the bastard representation of the experience a gamer had with the game. A lesser review score simply means that the gamer did not have the appropriate experience with the game to warrant a 100% score, no matter how arbitrary the reasons may be.

In summary: grow the fuck up, people.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

That's why X-play is really the only place I go for reviews. They simply seem to be in the same mind set as I am, and I tend to agree with them more than anyone else.

That said, every time I get annoyed with the forums here, all I have to do is look at X-play's and realize it could be so, so, SO much worse. Still, it did make for a great song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWRxJ28biNY

 

[RagTagBand]

Can't say i'm surprised - every game has this kind of thing happen. Just look at Skyrim threads on this site. People haven't played the game and they're decreeing it the best game ever, literally jizzing everywhere if anyone mentions it, instantly foaming at the mouth if anyone suggests "Hey, its probably not going to be the perfect game, nor a life changing experience"

When the BF3 reviews dropped commenters on Kotaku were flailing about like retards because IGN only gave it a 9/10, screaming that they must of been paid by activision, or that the reviewer was nothing but a COD fanboy or OBVIOUSLY he would have given it a perfect 10. People were shitting themselves because some other sites gave it a 98/100.

Seriously, I hate gamers when shit like this happens and it -always- happens, They are a pathetic embarrassment and its not even the goddamn minority.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I pretty much dont trust any reviewer who gives out a perfect score.
So im glad there are still bastions of reviewing hope out there.. shame people have to go ruin it by being fanboys.

If only review scores were meant to be a quickly apprehended summary and not some divine mathematical expression that completely describes a game using only a five point scale, eh?

Sessler himself is against using score charts to designate quality. He has admitted on the soapbox that he only uses the five point scale for the needs of the show. And he HATES Metacritic.

 

[Amnestic]

literally jizzing everywhere

Literally jizzing everywhere? Oh dear, that must be quite a mess. I hope they clean up after themselves.

 

[Normandyfoxtrot]

I always thought Mr. Sessler was the only good part of G4.

 

[Sylveria]

Gaming in general seems to suffer from Chester A. Bum syndrome where every new thing that comes out is the best thing ever. Well Uncharted 3 just came out.. its a AAA console game and it's the best game ever.. it DESERVES a 10/10 from everyone.
Then next week some other AAA console game will come it, it's the best game ever, it DESERVES a 10/10 from everyone.
Then next week some OTHER AAA console game will come it, it'll be the best game ever, and it'll DESERVE a 10/10.
Of course, when the actual best game ever comes out, it'll be from some small developer that didn't have a massive advertising budget, and it'll get a 6/10 and everyone will swear it's shit; tossed by the wayside of history for the next best game ever, Call of Duty 74, Revenge of the Returning Vengeance Ops: Reloaded Resurrection Vol. 4.
So on and so forth until the vast majority of people who buy and play games pull their heads out of their asses and get some perspective and, better yet, some standards.

 

[Atmos Duality]

You (that is, people who follow these sites and give them these clicks and revenue) are getting played. They are effectively trolling you and making money from it. If you're (anyone, not just the OP) sick of it, don't go there. Never click on their site, ignore it entirely. Get your news from elsewhere.

Bingo.
It's just another day of sensationalist journalism. It's sad how futile it is to even try to combat this bullshit; given how many stupid marks there are out there waiting to be had.

If nothing else, this should give you an idea of how meaningless and marketing-driven even a simple numeric scaling is for reviews.