[plattyaj]

This month's PC Gamer has reviewed "The Moment of Silence" who gave it a really terrible score of 14%. "It's too bad that Moment of Silence is such an awful and punishing experience, because ... And it's not as if adventure games needed another punch in the crotch."

Ouch!

They also reviewed Psychonauts which won an Editor's Choice award and a score of 90%.

Andy.

[artwking4]

Oh no! And I just got The Moment of Silence in the mail yesterday! I'm so worried it will suck!


haha... nah, just kidding. I think I'll enjoy it just fine. But, wow... 14%.

[Watcher of the skies]

Gee, can anyone figure out why I don't read these fecal magazines? Why do they persist?

Mike

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Ouch! That is insanely low! Who the hell reviewed it?


PC Lamer

[Maquisard]

Someone who doesn't at all understand the dynamics of adventure gameplay, and/or has no patience for them? I.E., one of these guys

sassen frassen pc gamer

[SoccerDude28]

PC Gamer = Adventure Hater

[BenjaminBunny]

ja, they gave GK3 like a 70%. Their not a reliable source for reviewing adventure games anyway...but I am particularly appalled and disilusioned with the maturity of their writers by their review of MOS. Just goes to show.

I think that the magazine has changed over time. Back in the day, they gave editors choice awards to both The Longest Journey and Grim Fandango. I think their staff has changed around, or the guy who reviewed MOS for them needs to be sacked or put on serious editorial probation. Maybe somebody should write a letter to the editor or something.

[Terabin]

Actually, I'm pretty sure they gave GK3 a number in the low 80s. I think it might've been 80%. And yeah, they've been a lot higher on adventures in the past. I think I remember at one point them having Grim Fandango as their best game of all-time in one of their editions of the top 50 games of all-time. The first PC Gamer I ever got (I keep every magazine I've ever gotten, yes it's insane) gave a 95% to Curse of Monkey Island.

14% does seem like a biased review. You can't give a game with a decent story 14%.

[Simo Sakari Aaltonen]

Little wonder that certain types of British game journalists have such a bad reputation even abroad. Most of them are embittered young men who could not make it as authors, game designers or whatever they dreamed of when they were kids.

So they drift into a career they never really wanted and spend the rest of their despairing days throwing muck of their own making from the stalls forever marked for rabble, in the end to fall to an early grave with hearts cold and empty, making but a dull thud and leaving behind no one to mourn their grey passing.

Other than that, shiny happy people to be sure.

[Jake]

Simo this is almost definitely a discussion of PCG's US version (er well I think it is, since plattyaj is from Arlington, Virginia)... is the author who reviewed MoS British? I think I missed something, or you're confused, or both.

[Simo Sakari Aaltonen]

No, I'll bet you're right about the review being in the American edition. I assumed otherwise because my impression of the US edition has, apparently mistakenly, been more positive than this. Still, I stand by what I said, which is true of many of those working for (for instance) the British version of the magazine. None of which means I'm not confused, of course, or that I should be taken completely seriously.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

All I know is that the U.S. PC Gamer is chronically nasty towards adventure games. That is, I feel they're a little too harsh than they need to be.

But interestingly enough, they usually give the very highest profile adventure games a lot of coverage and rather better scores (like Syberia and Dreamfall).

[Simo Sakari Aaltonen]

That wouldn't have anything to do with expected ad sales, I expect.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

AFAIK, most of the people who read PC Gamer aren't much into adventure games. They're usually hardcore into FPS, strategies, and RPGs.

[Martin Gantefoehr]

who gave it a really terrible score of 14%

I've been trying hard to think up a clever ironic comment to pretend that I take this in good humor, but I can't. I really can't.

Can anyone send me a scan of that article? I gotta see this for myself.

[Fop]

Wow... That's completely ridiculous. I don't think the magazine I read has *ever* gave a score that low to any game.

[squarejawhero]

Yeah, the quote doesn't work for me and it isn't fair on Martin not to know the exact articles.

And it's not as if adventure games needed another punch in the crotch

... would say to me that the journalist doesn't want to use "ag's are dead" and actually has some knowledge of the genre. Which makes the score a little bizarre.

[ADVENTURE-RAIDER]

PC-GAMER is not a magazine for adventure gamers. C'mon now!

[Aj_]

I've seen reviewers give low scores because of bugs they experienced but the majority didn't. This score makes gamespot's reviews look good. PC Gamer UK didn't go OTT, but they didn't think the game was amazing either.

[squarejawhero]

Hell, I read Gamer UK and PC Zone on occasion, I play other games apart from adventures. Zone seems to be more "in tune" to getting the right balance, although it used to be the other way around. It varies from editor to editor - and to be honest, many of the staffers are quite young, so it's up to the editor to keep them in check.

It definitely seems that both Zone and Gamer UK don't have a huge amount in common with their US counterparts though. Steve "Nice" Ince appeared in Zone recently, and Gamer often has adventures cropping up in recommendations and "best ofs". The issue-to-issue opinion on the genre varies wildly though.