I use the scores a lot. Here is how:

I figure the best way to evaluate a game before I buy it is to play it. So my first stop would be the local video store to rent it. But they have hundreds of games there. So I need a good way to narrow it down to pick a few to try. Usually that is by the metacritic score. If a game gets at least a 75 metacritic score or better than I give it a chance by renting it even if I don't think it looks that great. I'm surprised often by how much I end up liking a game that got a good score that I didn't think I would like.

This wouldn't work with just reviews since I would need to read 100's of reviews and think it over, which would be a lot of work. And since I do this for enjoyment and not for a 2nd job, the score is a good approximation for me.

There are a few games like afro samurai that have non-white main characters.

But I think it has to do with white developers making games for white gamers. Everyone tends to prefer a main character the same race as themselves I suppose.

I don't think they need to make a balance of main characters to reflectthe diversityof the population accurately. It's make believe, and they can create any reality however they want, whether that means monsters, gods, orall caucasionmain characters.

I think it may be more fair to compare the NES and the Sega Master System. Or the Genesis and the super nintendo. Since they belong to the same generation of consoles.Or didI miss the point of this topic?

I do notice that the games rated the highest in metacritic - in the 95+ range, alsotend to have spent the largest amount of money on marketing.

I believe gaming magazines and websites get the lion share of their revenues from selling advertising. So in this business model the advertisers are their customers and people that read the magazine or website are the product that they sell to the advertisers (the customers).

In my experience bad games still get rated bad, and good games still get rated good no matter what. But I think that spending a lot of money on marketing may tend to bump their score 1 point on a 10 point scale.

If you wanted a more impartial gaming news/review source, than you would want one that gets all its revenue from subscription fees, and has zero advertising.

Agreed Merlin... I hated the game too. and I see what yo did there with Twilight... ;)

But I am still perplexed about this game for two reasons. 1) what makes this game so much better than DMC? I love DMC and then this comes out and DMC runs rings around it critics say... I think it just has a lot to do with the sex in the game and the story doesn't even make sense. 2) Why did they force a port around the same time if it wasn't ready? shouldn't they have just waited and released it later?

baller72

I was considering a delayed release a little bit. My assumption was that they had done a lot of marketing for Bayonetta. I went to a friends house to watch a UFC fight and bayonetta was a sponsor. When I opened up a gaming magazine at the library, first page there was a huge bayonetta ad. I guess in the video game business marketing is very important as far as sales go. It would seem to me to be a major reason that a developer needs a publisher in the first place. So if they release the ps3 game later they lose some of the momentum they gained from marketing. And if they market it again later, it costs twice as much, and marketing is very expensive. That's how my thought went, but I would revise it if I learned more. As far as gamers go however, they would have been better off if they had taken the time to do the port correctly. They could have waited and released both versions later. But time is money in business and the investors do not want to wait for the returns on their investment. Besides the problems with the port were well known after the Japanese launch, but they didn't do squat to improve the north american ps3 version (over the japanese ps3 version) when they had a few months to do so. i think it was suspected there were problems at E3 even, 6 months prior to the release. So I don't think they wanted to do anything with it.

I don't really know how the game industry works & I haven't played either the 360 version or ps3 version yet. I own a wii, and I am still deciding whether I should buy a ps3 or xbox 360. I really want to play Bayonetta, so that sways me a bit more to 360 side.

As far as I know: if the publisher stops sending checks to the developer than the developer pretty much has to pack up their bags and cancel the game. The developer doesn't have the money to make major independent decisions without the publisher's approval in the contract. The publisher ultimately calls the shots and the developer doesn't have tons of options (unless the developer is the also the publisher).Platinum games couldn't have made a ps3 version unless they were being funded to do so by Sega in the first place. It was probably contracted that they do the 360 version only. I don't think it was because platinum games was lazy or didn't want to do it. Sega knew what they were getting all along.Sega made a business decision to make a ps3 port 'on the cheap' or as an afterthought to maximize profit. Apparently they didn't care that it was inferior. I don't think Sony can take any of the blame. Of course this is all speculation, not fact. And it is my view of how it works.

Street Fighter IV comes to mind.

You might want to wait for the 3-d enabled televisions to come out. That way you future-proof against having to upgrade twice in case 3-d gaming takes off.

http://ps3.ign.com/dor/objects/886158/god-of-war-iii/images/god-of-war-iii-20100114113513333.html?page=mediaFull

IGN's posted some 60 new images of GOW3.

This really hurts the eyes in a good kind of way I must say.

I now can no longer wait for the great big March 2010!!! :)

Whatcha think?

1xcalibur1

I have only one thing to say: Ahhhh!!! my eyes, MY EYES!

Right now I own the wii, but I decided that I want to buy the playstation 3. After I watching video reviews for Bayonetta, I'm very interested in buying and playing it. But than I found out that the ps3 port isn't as good as the Xbox 360. I was also interested in checking out the god of war series on playstation. I would like to know if anyone had an opinion if the difference in quality between the xbox 360 and playstation 3 versions of Bayonetta is worth buying an Xbox 360 instead. I have an HD television and I don't have a blue ray player yet, but I don't watch many movies anyways. My cousin's xbox 360 recently failed, so I'm a bit concerned about the chance of failure. When I play a game I usually do everything there is to do in the game, including playing on the hardest difficulties and working on ranks etc. I spend a lot of time on 1 game, so a bit bigger upfront investment for one game isn't a big deal (kind of like people spending $15 a month on a mmo for many months). But I may or may not get both eventually - I'd rather not if I don't have to.