@mrbojangles25 said:
@GreySeal9 said:
@mrbojangles25 said:
@mems_1224 said:
They picked the game they liked most this year. Don't see the problem. Just because they aren't regurgitating what every other site is saying doesn't make it bad.
That's not how reviews work. Despite popular belief, the majority of reviewing is objective. True, some subjectivity is allowed to enter into the mix, but for the most part a review factors in things such as stability, technical achievement (graphics, physics, etc), gameplay fundamentals, and so forth
If this list were labeled "Editor's picks" then I'd accept it, but not "Top 10 games of 2015"
This is not even remotely true.
Reviewers take into consideration some objective factors, but a review is ultimately a subjective judgment in which the reviewer's personal enjoyment plays a big part.
Simply reading any random review makes this clear.
Not saying there is no subjective aspect to a review, but I don't think they're as opinionated as you make them out to be. At least, not ideally and in theory; in practice, though, it might be another story.
If a game is visually impressive, that is objective.
If a game has good audio effects and a top-notch musical score, that is objective.
If it does not run well, stutters, has bugs and glitches, that is objective.
Reviews are much, much more than "I like this/I don't like that". At least, real reviews are, and it is difficult to call most video game websites with review systems "real". Maybe you are biased because you've read nothing but Gamespot and other reviews?
I mean, I don't like the Beatles; that is my opinion. But if I were reviewing their albums professionally, I'd remove myself from the equation and praise and critique based on modern standards, technical aptitude, and more. Obviously I might throw in a "...while this song didn't sound as good as the rest" or some comment that expresses an opinion, for the most part a review should be objective.
Honestly the only time I generally see a lot of opinion is when the game is terrible.
No, you're confusing your opinion with fact. "If a game is visually impressive" is not in any way "objective" because "impressive" is describing an emotional reaction. What looks good to one person might look like crap to another person. Sure, there are technical aspects that make up the graphics of any game such as frame rates, polygon counts, display resolution, etc but these numbers do not tell you how visually impressive a game is. By that logic a game that has a higher resolution and frame rate would be a better looking game than a game that doesn't, but we know that's not true. Artistic merit is a huge part of what makes a game look good or bad to someone. There are 2D games like Ori or Limbo that most people would agree look way better than even some 3D games.
"If a game has good audio effects and a top-notch musical score, that is objective." So if you like the music, then that's objective? Obviously not because there is literally no such thing as objectively good or bad, just the majority opinion. You can get the Boston Symphony Orchestra to perform the music for your game, but the music itself could still be crap if what they play is something that nobody wants to listen to. A 50 piece orchestra playing a piece of music doesn't automatically make that music "good" to anyone's ears.
"If it does not run well, stutters, has bugs and glitches, that is objective." Whether or not a game has bugs? Sure, that's quantifiable, but how it affects the overall experience is still mostly subjective. Big, open world games like Skyrim always ship with a ton of bugs, but they still tend to score high because to most people the good outweighs the bad.
"I mean, I don't like the Beatles; that is my opinion. But if I were reviewing their albums professionally, I'd remove myself from the equation and praise and critique based on modern standards"
See, again, that's basing it off of what you think most people would enjoy. An opinion shared by most people is still not fact, and this is demonstrated pretty clearly by the fact that public opinion tends to change over time or vary by culture. FPS games tend to sell very poorly in Japan because it's a far less popular genre over there, and if you lived in Japan you might think that means that FPS games are objectivelly not as good as the genres that are more popular there but clearly that doesn't make it "fact".
-Byshop
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