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Are reviews of AAA games too generous or are gamers too critical?

Drizzlehell

Banned
The reviews are far too generous, and the gaming press lost its edge a long time ago. If you want honest takes and more evenly balanced opinions, then you should look to independent YouTubers who don't really have anything on the line when being more critical about the latest triple-A release that everyone's raving about.

I actually talked about the topic of "am I out of touch or did games just got worse?" with my brother last night and reached the conclusion that it's due in part to these games no longer aligning with my preferences but also because the industry has veered towards shallow and lackluster experiences as well. Nowadays it seems like the vast majority of games aim to maximize player retention and longevity, but it comes at the expense of cohesive and meaningful experiences that prioritize quality over quantity.

Another thing that doesn't help is the cultural influence that has taken its toll. Game devs simply started bitching out and shoving THE MESSAGE into every game, due to fear of causing offense among the overly sensitive and terminally online audience that doesn't even play the games that they always complain about. All of this comes at the expense of compelling storytelling in modern entertainment in general.
 
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Fabieter

Member
They are somehow hype and hate inflated. If a game gets too much hate pre release it will show in the metacritic score. So I go with both
 
Reviews are too generous. Reason: They want to maintain good relations/ get indirect bribes from publishers/ devs. Also, the quality of reviewers has also gone down. Instead of hiring competent people, they hire people whose political views are in line and/ or have colorful hair. Same reason why game quality has gone down; competent devs are fired, and incompetent ones with the appropriate political/ social views are hired.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Game reviewers are nothing more than shills of the industry, most of the big sites anyway, more of often than not plastered with ads for the game they are reviewing. So there is a lot of conflict of interest and for those smaller ones, they are in danger to get blacklisted by publishers. This sort of thing makes it not really much sense to follow the reviews of the games, but at the same time, from trailer you are not going to find if the game is buggy.

Billion dollar idea. Since there are sites, which enables you to login with your Steam/Xbox/Ps account, so what how about doing "Steam reviews" for the whole industry? It is not perfect, yet the best thing which exists.
 

Heimdall_Xtreme

Jim Ryan Fanclub's #1 Member
Too generous, they only use one half of the scale. In their defense theyre less likely to review a shit game than a good one, but how the hell are redfall and anthem 54 on metacritic? why are they so insanely overrated? Those are opinions anyway so ill give them a pass.

The real problem is how most reviewers completely ignore performance issues. There are no opinions when it comes to performance, only measurable facts. They even mention how game is in an unplayable state and still give it 9/10, there is no defending that as those aspects are measurable facts. Facts are objective and not opinions.
I still can't get over the nerve of giving 9 to Pokemon Scarlet-violet... Right meristation?
 
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