If Twilight Princess stumped you often, it sounds like A Link Between Worlds will probably be longer than twenty hours for you. I'm not insulting you; I get stymied in Zelda games a lot as well.
I don't understand how twenty hours is considered short, especially for a portable game. I mean, it's not exactly a RPG like Pokemon that requires hours of grinding. Twenty solid hours of a top-notch handheld game is excellent. Then again, I grew up in a time when the original Zelda and Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES were MASSIVE games.
Had to go there, eh? The Bible has always been criticized. Ever read any of the prophets? Many of them were martyred for their words, so the criticism for the Bible's contents have been severe since before it was in print. In many countries, people are slaughtered for believing its contents. So people still do live their lives by it, and much of the hate the book receives comes from utter ignorance and a disdain for even the most basic morality. Seriously, hearing atheists try to exegete a text from the scriptures is cringe-inducing. Biblical commands still echo throughout the laws of many countries, including the U.S. :D
Cage says that "no one should be allowed to define what a game is," yet he defines Beyond: Two Souls as an "experience" that one "plays." I think he is calling Beyond:Two Souls a game with those words, which I do not believe can be used without inserting this "experience" within a medium. Instead of telling people what they should or should not be able to "define", why not embrace debate and encourage people to provide strong arguments on the matter. Maybe it is the next step in helping games to evolve into a more serious medium. Maybe there can be schools of literary criticism for games. That'd be cool.
A no-score system is not necessarily a bad thing, but there are those of use who actually do read the reviews and acknowledge the score. Why should we be dictated by the "fanatical, raving, psychotics, and trolls?" I don't know that I agree or disagree with the idea that it is impossible to "objectively quantify the difference" between scores that are .5 points different. You might be right. But I would ask, what is the point in trying to explain the difference in scores between games?
Gamespot is being a bit hypocritical here. The editors and the community stress that one should and cannot compare games with the same or similar scores across genres and mediums, yet the justification for changing the score system is that people compare games across genres and mediums that have the same or similar scores. I may not be able to explain to you, aside from pointing out strengths and flaws, why I personally think Outland is an 8.5 and Rayman Origins a 9.0, but I know that there is a difference there for me--a big one.
Next they'll say that they believe the community is distraught over how close the numbers seven and eight are and how they have decided that larger increments between numbers will help the community discern the good games from the excellent ones, which will lead to the five star scoring system. Then they'll say that the community really just wants to know which games they should play or not play, which will lead to a thumbs up/thumbs down system. Then they'll say that the community really doesn't see what difference it makes that a thumb is pointing up or down because it is, after all, still a thumb either way, which will lead to no scores at all.
8.8 is different than 8.7 because 8.8 is a different number than 8.7. People used to think, "So this game is better than that game by 0.1 points?" Well, since the old system was eliminated, now people are saying things like, "Oh, so Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster equals The Last of Us (both scored eights here)?" And with the ten point scale, it's going to be even worse. An 8.9 used to be a game, for me, that almost was the coveted 9.0 but had maybe one or two minor flaws that held it back. The 9.0 was golden, and even a few issues could keep a game from quite reaching it. Now the numbers are going to feel cheapened for me. And I came to like the 20 point scoring system after a while and now it's gone.
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