In the latest edition of GI, the infamous "good bad and ugly" article said...

"GOOD

Technical officers at Sony have claimed that the Playstation 3's audio and visual quality could be improved by 30 to 40 percent by further firmware updates. Sony has already used these to add features to the system."

What does this mean? Is it goign to allow for more antialiasing and antisitrophic filtering in every game by using more of the processors poweror something? I don't see how it's possible to suddenly make games, movies and sound in those games and movies suddenly be 30-40% better. Any ideas?

Wow Gamespot...You took the one thing that made your reviews better than every one elses, how intricate and specific they were, and dumbed it down to a system I would only expect from some 16 year olds freewebs site. This is horrible. Now I won't know how much better a 9.5 game is from another 9.5 game. That extra .2, or even .1 made a HUGE difference. Now if i want to know how good a games graphics were compared to another game, I'll have to read 7 paragraphs of text instead of looking at a simple, easy to understand interface that creates a well weighted average gamescore. Until the game reviews are fixed, I'm getting all my reviews off of IGN because, next to your old system, they were the most intricate and detailed.

Well, they locked my thread. Go figure. I guess it's harder to see negative feedback when you only allow one thread at a time. I think they're TRYING to ignore us. I've been angry at some of the things Gamespot has done in the past, but this one takes the cake. Here's a direct paste from my (now locked) thread:

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I didn't find an official thread for this, so I'll make my own. First, I do actually have a few praises of the new system. I like the idea of eliminating the 5 categories and replacing them with (de)merits. However, that's about the only thing I like about it.

The 1/2 increments are, in my opinion, a half-baked idea and a vein attempt at being different, or "edgy", as you may want to call it. Before, we had 90 different numerical ratings that games could get. Now, we'll have 20. That means a game like Big Rigs will only be 19 ticks away from a game like Ocarina of Time. Uh-oh!

Nearly all other credible review sites are using scores in 1/10 increments. You claim the halves will "simply reviews", but I don't see dumbfounded people stumbling around numbers like "8.7" trying to figure out what that damn decimal is. I believe fractions are taught in grade 3 math - so this isn't going to simply anything.

In fact, it will literally destroy the credibility of Gamespot reviews, and therefore, the entire site.I can't help but think this site will become the laughing stock of the review industry with people using comments like "Oh those stupid Gamespotters.... can't even figure out a decimal point!"

And did anyone think of what will happen to the older games under the old review system? Will all the scores be rounded off, effectively changing the scores of thousands of games (something you promised never to do)? Or, will you leave two separate review systems on the site? You know, to simply things.

Don't take this as an insult, but I can't help but think this idea is the brainchild of a night of a tad too much drinking. Hell, I have a hard enough time dialing a phone when drunk. I've never even attempted to tackle a number with decimals in it.

In summary? Keep the emblems idea, lose the ".5's only" idea. It will simply confuse things - the exact opposite of what you're trying to achieve. I don't know if this post will change anything, but if it does - kudos to you, Gamespot. I think the community is unanimous in this thought.

Zeke129

Wow Gamespot...You took the one thing that made your reviews better than every one elses, how intricate and specific they were, and dumbed it down to a system I would only expect from some 16 year olds freewebs site. This is horrible. Now I won't know how much better a 9.5 game is from another 9.5 game. That extra .2, or even .1 made a HUGE difference. Now if i want to know how good a games graphics were compared to another game, I'll have to read 7 paragraphs of text instead of looking at a simple, easy to understand interface that creates a well weighted average gamescore. Until the game reviews are fixed, I'm getting all my reviews off of IGN because, next to your old system, they were the most intricate and detailed.