Isn't that exactly what lead us to the "every AAA game is an 8/10" meta of current videogame reviewing? I think it's totally valid to make subjective game reviews. Big outlets trying to make their reviews objectives is IMHO the reason why they are totally worthless (for me).
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Pheonixdown@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Most of your write ups seem decently done if you clicked with the game at all, but if you’re going to continue to review things, you might want to do reign in your personal biases a bit.
Low scores for games you didn’t play or realize you don’t understand the appeal of are pretty bad takes.
Vampire Survivors was quite literally one of the hit games of the year when it came out, to call other games of the genre that are following on its coattails “not really a game” and saying people shouldn’t buy a literal genre is just ridiculous. Is FatalZone trying to be some huge blockbuster, no, it’s just iterating on the survivor concept (same as Deep Rock Galactic is doing, which has more polish but less features than most). The game is literally $5 to buy right now in early access and as one of the many who do enjoy the genre, it’s probably worth the price with the content it has now (unknown if it’ll be same insane value VS has been).
mcforest@kbin.social 8 months ago
Pheonixdown@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Everyone has a bias and that’s expected and the stating of opinions as opinions is good, the line is stating opinion as fact or review bombing.
I didn’t play it because I didn’t want to log in, isn’t a review of the actual game, it’s at best review bombing against secondary logins. It tells anyone interested in playing the game nothing other than that a secondary login is needed.
The definition of the minimum criteria for what makes a game is pretty nebulous, but survivor styles are well above all but the most disingenuous definitions of what makes a game. Saying it isn’t a game because you don’t enjoy it is not having a bias that causes you to like something less.
The trending of most games to be 7+/10 is largely driven by idiots who tied the success of a game to metacritic scores and publishers who retaliate against games journalists for “hurting” that success by not cooperating with them on future products by providing review codes.
mcforest@kbin.social 8 months ago
the line is stating opinion as fact
I totally understand what you mean and I usually don't like it either but I think this post is easily recognized as an highly subjective opinion. So I'm fine with the way it's written and wouldn't take it as a fact.
review bombing
This is definitely not what review bombing even means (yes, that's a fact).
DestinyGrey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
I don’t even know where to begin on the question of “reining in my personal bias”, other than to note all reviews are based on a person’s personal bias, and what they know about the gaming format and industry as a whole. I know it’s a tired trope, but everyone has personal bias, and game/game demo reviews should not try to be objective looks at games (it’s near useless). Reviewers should instead make their experience and opinions known from the start, or throughout the review. That way if their opinions are diametrically opposed, readers who don’t share the same opinions can readily discount it.
Also, while you can empathize with and realize that someone might like a game if they’re into that genre, you can only go so far. I have not played Vampire Survivors, but if it’s anything like FatalZone, I will gleefully state it’s not really a game. Or if I want to be less glib, not really a game I’d recommend for others. Again, for you this might be a good cue to discard my reviews as worthless for you. You should make your own reviews in this subreddit in that case, as it could certainly use more posts.
Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Hard disagree.
People should have spicy takes. I love when someone goes, “I don’t like Dark Souls because it’s too hard.” Or “Not a fan of gore so Doom isn’t for me”. It tells me more about the writer and seeing their perspective.
There’s enough annoying fanboys out there. If I wanted a tamed review, Ill go read some gaming blog thats too afraid to piss off their advertisers.
Pheonixdown@lemm.ee 8 months ago
“I don’t like X game/genre” is a fine take, calling something you don’t like “not really a game" is not, unless you can really justify it not meeting some minimum criteria to be called a game (doesn’t present a challenge or problem to overcome, doesn’t have a fail-state, has no player agency, etc)