It's with some irony that this is the third op-ed I've written that's involved Final Fantasy XIII in some way, and let me guarantee you it is purely a coincidence. I don't have strong feelings one way or another about the game, but it's served as a good platform for discussing popular music, JRPGs v. Western RPGs and now, review scores. Some of the op-ed ideas were forming independently of Final Fantasy XIII's existence, but the game has served as a point to coalesce those thoughts; what this says about Final Fantasy XIII, besides its general importance to the gaming industry, I don't know.
That out of the way, Edge gave Final Fantasy XIII a five; not out of five, but out of 10. A fifty percent is a failing grade on most any scale, but is particularly biting in the gaming industry. For a game that takes between 45 and 60 hours to complete, giving a game a five out of 10 says that you don't think it's worth the time of day. Other games receiving this score wouldn't cause gamers to bat an eye, but this is a highly anticipated entry in an acclaimed franchise, so many fans are angry even if they haven't played the game to completion themselves.
I'm using Final Fantasy XIII in this case as an example, but other games could substitute; X-Play took a lot of flack when it gave Jedi Knight II: Outcast two out of five stars years ago. There's a quid pro quo in the industry that, generally, seems to immunize most big releases from anything resembling real criticism. Sure, much of the time these titles are genuinely excellent and praise is deserved, but often if you've looked at one review score you've looked at them all. It's like there's a hive mind mentality pervading the industry's largest reviewers that keeps all of their scores within a hair of each other.
The possible reason for the relative closeness of review scores and expectations from fans comes from the way games are reviewed. Those who follow the industry are used to “objective” categories factoring into a score – graphics, sound, gameplay, etc. We've been led to believe that gaming review scores are like arithmetic – you add up all the factors and a game is unequivocally “X.” I'm not quite sure why it developed this way, but it did. While most review systems no longer rate via an aggregate score that total up different qualities, the number at the end of the review is the one concrete thing to latch onto and it's often the only thing that many pay attention to.
I bring this up because of how critics function in the movie industry; a good example would be with Avatar. The James Cameron flick cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make, features state-of-the-art motion capture for the most believable CG characters ever made and pushes the boundaries of what was thought possible with 3D. Despite widespread success, certain critics were turned off by the movie's broadly painted characters, hokey themes and occasional offbeat dialog and they gave the movie a thumbs-down... and they were in their right to do so.
Look, Sazh, can't we just agree to disagree?
Until recently, Rotten Tomatoes had a score aggregate that was set up identically for games and movies (they've since removed the games section). This aggregate was designed to see if reviewers gave the product a 'yay or nay' and I thought it was very telling: while movies would (and continue to) have a wide variety of score averages, games were disproportionately bunched up at or near 100 percent approval or zero percent approval – that's how close all of the game critics scores typically were (and are).
Movies and games are obviously not identical and should not be judged exactly the same way. However, fundamentally we are talking about opinions and if someone dislikes something, it should be reflected in both the full review and the final score, no matter how technically impressive the game may be. If we want to think of ourselves like a big-boy entertainment industry, where commercialized products can also be considered art, then push-back must occur when warranted no matter the amount of fan outrage it might invoke.
Call a spade a spade, no cow should be so sacred that we're reluctant to sacrifice it... insert your own aphorism here. The point is that reviewers shouldn't be muzzled and they shouldn't get their heads torn off when they go against the flow – they should be applauded for speaking their minds AND scoring accordingly.
27 Comments
6 months ago
As a Wii and a PC gamer I frequently notice how the mainstream games I don't play (especially on the HD consoles) get eerily consistent scores, whereas the more indie, alternative and retro titles I play get more movie like scores. Even games like L4D1/2 got some lower scores even though in my book Versus is the best online FPS experienced ever crafted despite some flaws. Wii games are notorious for mixed reviews, and even though I suspect some bias against motion controls (which work better for some than others), ED rather than HD visuals (although PS360 games seldom get marked down for not looking as good as a mid-range PC can manage) and general hard feelings towards the Wii (although no-one seems to start PS360 reviews by talking about how limited the systems are in certain areas compared to the PC or Wii), I suspect the real bias is found in the PS360 mainstream game reviews.
At the end of the day I want to know if a game is exceptional (and I feel a lot of the top rated mainstream games aren't), good, a mixed bag (you might love it you might hate it), or not worth the effort. I don't feel a lot of mainstream reviewers are providing this.
6 months ago
The problem I have with most "reviewers" is they don't even play the game at length(to the credits), before writing their "review" of the game.
Or they'll complain about something in game, that can be changed through the options menu.
Most reviewers these days are lazy because they're being flooded with games to review, and instead of delaying reviews, they release partially played game "previews" as I think they should be called.
It's different for movies, because most movies can be watched in a 2-3 hour time frame at most.
Games take longer to play, and we the "readers" for some stupid reason, have come to expect reviews the day of release, or even before a game releases.
"Reviewers" shouldn't "...be muzzled and they shouldn't get their heads torn off when they go against the flow – they should be applauded for speaking their minds AND scoring accordingly.", but if they're lazy and don't finish a game or play all modes of a game(single-player and multi-player), shouldn't there be a way to punish that reviewer, because the sites clearly don't do that, even when complaints are sent.
6 months ago
it's a problem inherent in the medium of games. one bad mechanic does not a bad movie make, i.e. movie X had puerile story and canned acting, but great special effects -rent it. now take a shooter that has amazing effects, great level design, but the cover system's broken. rent it? more like throw it away. it's a tough medium we work in.
6 months ago
Remember that EDGE gave Final Fantasy 10 a 6/10 back in the days, stating that it's basically the same game on PS2 than it is on PS1 - just better looking. They've had guts reviewing games for years and years now, and they are also not afraid to give a 10/10 every other year. :)
On a sidenote: please do something about those spam comments that seem smart but aren't. Someone is riding high on page ranking on your back.
6 months ago
I know this feeling after I reviewed Madden NFL 10 and gave it a 74. I knew that it would get attention, but I was shocked at the amount of attention it got. I stated that I felt that I shouldn't need to adjust the sliders because it's my job to review the product as is and most people aren't going to do any slider adjustments.
6 months ago
I think that game was unfairly skewered cuz expectations were so insanely high. The story's just as silly and convoluted as the last 5 FF games. The corny dialogue is in line with the franchise norm. The battle system's been modified a bit which will make people completely hate it or love it, and it really is too linear. And I don't mind games being a bit linear! In fact I usually like it. Linear games save time and don't give me that "what the heck do I do next" feeling all the time, but this game takes it too far. I've been playing for hours and not one single town to explore! How can I get my "wacky townspeople" dialogue fix? However, the game looks truly amazing and the experience is still a lot of fun, if you let it be. While it's not on the level of FF7 or 10, it's still an amazing game and definitely not a 5 out of 10. Save your 5 out of 10's for slipshod clunkers, like almost everything on the Wii shelf!
4 months ago
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I used to play a lot this game when I was a child. I even get addicted playing it.
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