all the colour and screenshots in the magazine make me a lot more excited to play a game than the dull plain text on both the modern and old web versions it's not like this is a technical limitation! You can format a web page just like those old magazines where
combination of no regulatory body and a low barrier of entry (due to the internet) means joe shmucks opinion is just as valid as a "Journalist", the difference being joe doesnt go on a tangent about politics, and he probably wasnt bribed either
I feel another thing about gaming reviews is how homogeneous the reviewers are. You can look at all of these game review websites, and the vast majority of their contributors are basically interchangeable: Upper middle class, West Coast, "journalism" majors. It gets to be a real problem when you see some niche game that doesn't get a fair shake because nobody who works there would actually be part of the target audience.
This is honestly my biggest redflag. Even if a journalist openly stated that they are more of a FPS gamer or RTS gamer while they are trying to review a JRPG game for example at least gives me more trust in their opinion than someone who is just a writer doing whatever is plopped in front of them.
You also don't know who's paying that journalist. Advertisers have strong influence and sometimes they're reviewing the advertisers product. Luckily we have vast social Outlets to discuss games now
I think numbers are a bad system for game reviews. It always results in a situation where people give a worse or cheaper game a higher score than a bigger budget overall better value game. It ends with most of the numbers not used and being a 7, 8, 9. They should just say Recommended/Play, and Bad/Don’t Play because that’s really what you want to know right?
I remember there was a review I don't remember the game but it was one paragraph about the game then two pages about how the writer felt when Donald trump won the elections and I felt like the entire industry could go fuck itself at that point
Coming from a non-English speaking European country that has a long history of printed gaming journalism, which for the most part is still free of the problems infecting the modern-day online journos, I can honestly say that just like gaming and culture in general, the oldschool reviews were way better as a whole. Reading some up to six-page-long, colorful epoch of a review for some guaranteed GOTYAY masterpiece was a sight to behold, and the writers REALLY went into great detail explaining their take and experiences, plus even recommending more games like it. These days, especially the Anglo-Sax journos online are too keen on virtue signaling and outright demonizing their target audiences, often outright admitting out loud (accidentally or not) that they do not play nor enjoy gaming. And then they block or shadowban any and all criticism they face.
Its funny how much nostalgia I get from reading my old magazines, I get the same or even more nostalgia from them than the actual games unless its a game I replayed a lot (like majoras mask). I even went back to get the editions I couldnt get previously and read about games I could get easily today but at the time were too expensive or I didnt had money for the console. The design of the magazines were all so good, I especially loved them because some featured art from the game and I loved using them as reference to draw, the reviewers managed to even be ACTUALLY be funny sometimes, something that basically never happens today because the person writing either lack any amount of skill there or just treats it too seriously (POLITICALLY serious usually). If I was a child these days I would probably turn into brainrotted politics zombie or just have never got that much into games, which if I be a conspiracy theorist might actually be their goal. Or maybe I would just love japanese games like I always have done and think all western gaming companies have always been terrible which was far from the truth in the 90s.
The Crazy thing is, when i was young i always dreamed of being a "professional" gaming reviwer. Now seeing as this is a dying thing. I cant imagine the people who thought the same, and actually went and became a journalist. Those poor people might engaged with this Job out of passion and now are laughed off. Or worse getting bribed and maybe pushed in putting aside their passion just to make more reviews, faster reviews. What a shame..
About "Value", I think independent game reviewers like most youtubers should take the concept in reverse, and rank games higher the more condensed the experience is. A game that respect your time instead of utterly wasting it on bs, should be getting a better score, not less.
Ironically, if modern "professional games journalists" like a game it is usually sh!te, and if they hate a game it's usually great. Same with movies. The whole industry is upsidedown.
Just realized this video only has 3k views. I genuinely assumed I was watching a bigger channel until I looked at your views/subs. Very surprised (in a good way). VERY GOOD VIDEO!! ❤ Keep up the great work.
I think the rush to get the review out closest to the release date has really taken its' toll in the quality of the writing in games reviews. I pretty much never buy a game during release anyway, especially if it's a big expensive game, I delay and contemplate the purchase even more. I heard "mixed reviews" about Death Stranding. It was a friend that helped convince me to finally get it. CP2077 on the other hand. . .I bought it because of friends, but never actually played it lol money wasted. Yeah, I pretty much never read online reviews, especially for recent games. I used to read retro reviews for fun, especially screenshots of magazines. Every once in a while, I'll write a review about a game, but this is to voice a concern or opinion, or issues I might have with the game. I want to try my hand at "video games journalism", but I don't know where to start. Which is why I watched this video lol I wanna show people what a decent review online can look like.
There were huge quality differences between the different video game magazines in the 1990's. I live in Finland and I really loved Super Power. It was a Swedish video gaming magazine and the Finnish translation of that magazine with some added content was published one month later than the Swedish one. I still think that the journalism in that magazine was very good. I read also some video game magazines imported from UK even though they were really expensive to buy here in Finland. The Official Nintendo Magazine was very good. But I remember also reading some British magazine that mosty had just sexist jokes about various female characters in video games. Like jokes how Candy Kong from Donkey Kong 64 makes the video game reviewers puke because she has hairy legs...
Modern game reviewing is worthless. Back in the day games used to be reviewed by gameplay, concept, graphics, sound. Nowadays video game reviews just run on ad revenue and socio political rage bait. They can hardly come to a conclusion! How could game journalists screw up something a 20 year old dude living in his mom's basement do for free?!
Nah you know what killed game "journalism"? I bought a magazine because I saw there was a review for police simulator 2 and instead of you know TALKING ABOUT THE GAME they were talking about sexism in the actual police and old white men I shit you not. Unfortunately most "journalists" not just in video games only have the degree part not the other 3.
You can relate it to any other media review such as movies or music. The people reviewing it at total bozos and you'd have to be regarded to listen to what they have to say.
It's hard to find reasonable reviews of video games, especially larger releases. Big review vendors and biggest influencers are often bribed to give out a favorable review, so you have so many terrible (but corporate) games that land 6-7 out of 10 scores, which technically are reasonably high notes but should be interpreted as barely fucking playable (especially high budget titles getting these marks). Users on the other hand are eager to march with torches and pitchforks over the smallest controversy imaginable and basically swarm metacritic with 0/10 user ratings. Therefore user score tanks to below 1/10 where the game is objectively 3-4 ish out of 10. Maybe 5-6 even. 6-9 out of 10 is so overused on the numeric scale. You hardly ever see games rated below 6 and over 9. This is just a third of the avaialble scale yet it encompasses about 90% of all video game releases.
Oh please, game reviews ever always bullshit. Especially from "Official" magazines like Nintendo Power, Sonic the Comic or Playstaion Official Magazine. On the bright side they came with Comics, Guides with maps and demo discs.
I love this video and the concept, but im very confused about the theme of the channel. Im subbing anway, its got a lot of potential, hope it doesn't confuse my feed >_> I bet in five years ill be able to make cringey comments on your videos about how im sub 200 sub crew or something. #139
If someone talks too much about why you should trust them - don't trust them.
all the colour and screenshots in the magazine make me a lot more excited to play a game than the dull plain text on both the modern and old web versions
it's not like this is a technical limitation! You can format a web page just like those old magazines where
Every modern game review:
It's a Souls like Metroidvania with some janky controls.
If theres photos of gameplay i'll trust that review
combination of no regulatory body and a low barrier of entry (due to the internet) means joe shmucks opinion is just as valid as a "Journalist", the difference being joe doesnt go on a tangent about politics, and he probably wasnt bribed either
"Are Professional Video Game Reviews That Bad?"
Yes.
Video over.
Thank you. I clicked off the video after I read your comment.
Thank you for saving me 18 minutes
I feel another thing about gaming reviews is how homogeneous the reviewers are. You can look at all of these game review websites, and the vast majority of their contributors are basically interchangeable: Upper middle class, West Coast, "journalism" majors. It gets to be a real problem when you see some niche game that doesn't get a fair shake because nobody who works there would actually be part of the target audience.
The biggest problem I find is that Journalists are not passionate gamers. So how do I even trust them to recommend something fun.
This is honestly my biggest redflag. Even if a journalist openly stated that they are more of a FPS gamer or RTS gamer while they are trying to review a JRPG game for example at least gives me more trust in their opinion than someone who is just a writer doing whatever is plopped in front of them.
You also don't know who's paying that journalist. Advertisers have strong influence and sometimes they're reviewing the advertisers product. Luckily we have vast social Outlets to discuss games now
If it doesn't focus on gameplay, technical aspects, and if it's a genuinely good game, worth your time and money, it's simply not a good review.
I think numbers are a bad system for game reviews. It always results in a situation where people give a worse or cheaper game a higher score than a bigger budget overall better value game. It ends with most of the numbers not used and being a 7, 8, 9.
They should just say Recommended/Play, and Bad/Don’t Play because that’s really what you want to know right?
I remember there was a review I don't remember the game but it was one paragraph about the game then two pages about how the writer felt when Donald trump won the elections and I felt like the entire industry could go fuck itself at that point
Coming from a non-English speaking European country that has a long history of printed gaming journalism, which for the most part is still free of the problems infecting the modern-day online journos, I can honestly say that just like gaming and culture in general, the oldschool reviews were way better as a whole. Reading some up to six-page-long, colorful epoch of a review for some guaranteed GOTYAY masterpiece was a sight to behold, and the writers REALLY went into great detail explaining their take and experiences, plus even recommending more games like it. These days, especially the Anglo-Sax journos online are too keen on virtue signaling and outright demonizing their target audiences, often outright admitting out loud (accidentally or not) that they do not play nor enjoy gaming. And then they block or shadowban any and all criticism they face.
Its funny how much nostalgia I get from reading my old magazines, I get the same or even more nostalgia from them than the actual games unless its a game I replayed a lot (like majoras mask). I even went back to get the editions I couldnt get previously and read about games I could get easily today but at the time were too expensive or I didnt had money for the console.
The design of the magazines were all so good, I especially loved them because some featured art from the game and I loved using them as reference to draw, the reviewers managed to even be ACTUALLY be funny sometimes, something that basically never happens today because the person writing either lack any amount of skill there or just treats it too seriously (POLITICALLY serious usually).
If I was a child these days I would probably turn into brainrotted politics zombie or just have never got that much into games, which if I be a conspiracy theorist might actually be their goal. Or maybe I would just love japanese games like I always have done and think all western gaming companies have always been terrible which was far from the truth in the 90s.
The Crazy thing is, when i was young i always dreamed of being a "professional" gaming reviwer. Now seeing as this is a dying thing. I cant imagine the people who thought the same, and actually went and became a journalist. Those poor people might engaged with this Job out of passion and now are laughed off. Or worse getting bribed and maybe pushed in putting aside their passion just to make more reviews, faster reviews. What a shame..
About "Value", I think independent game reviewers like most youtubers should take the concept in reverse, and rank games higher the more condensed the experience is. A game that respect your time instead of utterly wasting it on bs, should be getting a better score, not less.
Ironically, if modern "professional games journalists" like a game it is usually sh!te, and if they hate a game it's usually great. Same with movies. The whole industry is upsidedown.
Just realized this video only has 3k views. I genuinely assumed I was watching a bigger channel until I looked at your views/subs. Very surprised (in a good way). VERY GOOD VIDEO!! ❤ Keep up the great work.
I think the rush to get the review out closest to the release date has really taken its' toll in the quality of the writing in games reviews.
I pretty much never buy a game during release anyway, especially if it's a big expensive game, I delay and contemplate the purchase even more.
I heard "mixed reviews" about Death Stranding. It was a friend that helped convince me to finally get it. CP2077 on the other hand. . .I bought it because of friends, but never actually played it lol money wasted.
Yeah, I pretty much never read online reviews, especially for recent games. I used to read retro reviews for fun, especially screenshots of magazines.
Every once in a while, I'll write a review about a game, but this is to voice a concern or opinion, or issues I might have with the game.
I want to try my hand at "video games journalism", but I don't know where to start. Which is why I watched this video lol
I wanna show people what a decent review online can look like.
I don't trust outlets anymore unless they've proven to put honest reviews over money, but most of them choose money.
There were huge quality differences between the different video game magazines in the 1990's. I live in Finland and I really loved Super Power. It was a Swedish video gaming magazine and the Finnish translation of that magazine with some added content was published one month later than the Swedish one. I still think that the journalism in that magazine was very good. I read also some video game magazines imported from UK even though they were really expensive to buy here in Finland. The Official Nintendo Magazine was very good. But I remember also reading some British magazine that mosty had just sexist jokes about various female characters in video games. Like jokes how Candy Kong from Donkey Kong 64 makes the video game reviewers puke because she has hairy legs...
steam reviews and if most people only played it less than 4 hours it mustn't be that good
worthabuy is a great professional game reviewer, I always trust his judgement on a game
Modern game reviewing is worthless. Back in the day games used to be reviewed by gameplay, concept, graphics, sound. Nowadays video game reviews just run on ad revenue and socio political rage bait. They can hardly come to a conclusion!
How could game journalists screw up something a 20 year old dude living in his mom's basement do for free?!
Nah you know what killed game "journalism"? I bought a magazine because I saw there was a review for police simulator 2 and instead of you know TALKING ABOUT THE GAME they were talking about sexism in the actual police and old white men I shit you not.
Unfortunately most "journalists" not just in video games only have the degree part not the other 3.
You can relate it to any other media review such as movies or music. The people reviewing it at total bozos and you'd have to be regarded to listen to what they have to say.
It's hard to find reasonable reviews of video games, especially larger releases. Big review vendors and biggest influencers are often bribed to give out a favorable review, so you have so many terrible (but corporate) games that land 6-7 out of 10 scores, which technically are reasonably high notes but should be interpreted as barely fucking playable (especially high budget titles getting these marks). Users on the other hand are eager to march with torches and pitchforks over the smallest controversy imaginable and basically swarm metacritic with 0/10 user ratings. Therefore user score tanks to below 1/10 where the game is objectively 3-4 ish out of 10. Maybe 5-6 even.
6-9 out of 10 is so overused on the numeric scale. You hardly ever see games rated below 6 and over 9. This is just a third of the avaialble scale yet it encompasses about 90% of all video game releases.
Nintendo Force: Am I a joke to you?
your channel has a bright future ahead. keep it up!
i really liked suicide squad
Oh please, game reviews ever always bullshit.
Especially from "Official" magazines like Nintendo Power, Sonic the Comic or Playstaion Official Magazine.
On the bright side they came with Comics, Guides with maps and demo discs.
Were, not ever.
It's too early for this
I love this video and the concept, but im very confused about the theme of the channel. Im subbing anway, its got a lot of potential, hope it doesn't confuse my feed >_>
I bet in five years ill be able to make cringey comments on your videos about how im sub 200 sub crew or something.
#139