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walas74

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hasn’t the site been too generous lately?

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I remember i used to cry over games taking/having bad reviews like Dreamfall: Chapters or Memoranda and now most of the recent games get reviews with 4-5 stars ratings.

Putting Toonstruck at DotT or GF league is not quite right, esp when you see Full Throttle or MI2 having less rate.

The last reviews i.e; Lupus in Fabula. or Beyond the Sky with 4+ stars for games i would not even play, is quite strange. I believe there must be a theory behind this generosity, but i cant stand with.

     
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Advie - 07 January 2019 07:01 PM

Putting Toonstruck at DotT or GF league is not quite right

Take that back Mr. Amgad, or I’ll come down to Egypt not to solve any hard “Myst”-type puzzles but to strangle you by the neck with a guitar string.  Kiss

     

Recently finished: Four Last Things 4/5, Edna & Harvey: The Breakout 5/5, Chains of Satinav 3,95/5, A Vampyre Story 88, Sam Peters 3/5, Broken Sword 1 4,5/5, Broken Sword 2 4,3/5, Broken Sword 3 85, Broken Sword 5 81, Gray Matter 4/5\nCurrently playing: Broken Sword 4, Keepsake (Let\‘s Play), Callahan\‘s Crosstime Saloon (post-Community Playthrough)\nLooking forward to: A Playwright’s Tale

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diego - 07 January 2019 07:49 PM

strangle you by the neck with a guitar string.  Kiss

wow, but make sure it is low E string so you wouldn’t cut your self, man?  Tongue

but isn’t it great to have you back! missed you Nikola

     
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Advie - 07 January 2019 07:01 PM

Putting Toonstruck at DotT or GF league is not quite right, esp when you see Full Throttle or MI2 having less rate.

Toonstruck is better game than GF, FT, or MI2, so that sounds right to me.

Having said that, reviews are always personal opinions, unless they make some statements about technical quality that can be measured.

I think there shouldn’t be any star ratings or score at all, as people always get so stuck on those. If the text in the review can’t describe what’s good and what’s bad in the game, then some overall score sure can’t do that either.

I rarely read game reviews anywhere these days, as I think the whole review culture is so distorted. Reviewers tinker with scoring problems, and then readers debate whether the audio should have gotten 87 points instead of 85 points and so on. A good review should tell about the background and history of the game, how the reviewer experiences the game as a player, and give feedback about positive and negative things about the game. Especially the last part is tricky, as I would like to have that with no score at all, and with no references to other games. “Grim Fandango did this better” is a useless statement, if the reader hasn’t played that game, or if that game didn’t particularly impress the reader.

     
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GateKeeper - 08 January 2019 04:04 AM

I think there shouldn’t be any star ratings or score at all, as people always get so stuck on those. If the text in the review can’t describe what’s good and what’s bad in the game, then some overall score sure can’t do that either.

Maybe it’s not meant to?

I like that there are 3 levels in the reviews here. There is the star rating for those who are browsing through the database or just want a quick glimpse of what someone thought of it. Then there’s the dot point positives and negatives for those who want slightly more detail on what’s good and bad about the game. Then there’s the full review for those who have time to read and want to read all the details.

     
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I think a five star rating system is inevitably going to appear inaccurate over time beyond the mere fact of it’s application differing from reviewer to reviewer.  I’d personally see it as a general ad hoc summing up of how enthusiastic the reviewer felt when writing the more detailed review which should be looked to for clarification.

Even if you went back to “classic” titles you’d never get an agreement on if something was worthy 4 or 5 stars or something else.  How would one even begin to suggest the importance of games like King’s Quest or Secret of Monkey Island in these terms? Changing times, technological advancements, superior sequels et al would erode what initially seem like a 5* rating and then endless arguments about how good a game actual is and what criteria one needs to determine its worth.  If something gets 4-5 stars now that doesn’t automatically entitle it a place in the great canon of wonderful games next to The Longest Journey, it just means that it’s, y’know, a good game.

     

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I think that the main point of this topic is that level of star rating in those days is in average higher than it was in the past. Game, which has 4,5 stars now should have (with same quality) at least one star lower in the past. I think that 5 stars should be only for awesome games, which will be remembered in the future. Not to give it to half of the games which was published that year…

     
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Broken Sword II got 2/5 stars. I can`t get over it Grin

     

Playing: 1) Broken Sword 5 2) Road 96

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Ahenobarbus - 08 January 2019 12:50 PM

Broken Sword II got 2/5 stars. I can`t get over it Grin

I never understood the negativity towards BS2 - to me, yes, it’s more of the same, but just as good as the first - I don’t see the problem & I’ve played the first 2 games several times & still don’t get why the 2nd one seems to be so unloved!?????? Cry

     
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Our policy is now, and has always been, to call games like we see them. Did that really need to be spelled out?

And as has been stated already, any review is just one opinion, so the fact that entirely different people enjoy (or don’t enjoy) entirely different games has absolutely nothing to do with one another.

I find it disheartening every time a reaction to new games getting good scores is such a cynical one. People piss and moan here all the time about how there aren’t enough good games anymore, and yet when we report on the best of them, they’re still met with snobbery and indifference. If we can’t be glad when new games turn out well, even when some don’t interest us personally, what are we even doing here?

     
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you don’t get it Jackal, bc oneday you could look back, and make flashback reviews to games with unappealing animation, artwork, and no voice-acting with 4.5 stars, and give ‘em the right score.

     
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Advie - 07 January 2019 07:01 PM

The last reviews i.e; Lupus in Fabula. or Beyond the Sky with 4+ stars for games i would not even play, is quite strange. I believe there must be a theory behind this generosity, but i cant stand with.

Advie, unless you play the games how can you object? Yes, there’s a lot of games lately that are scoring highly review wise but the reviews are pretty good in that they give you enough info to decide. There’s so many games being put out there now so I’m very grateful to anyone who can pick out any of interest to us & give us the info - it’s a little clichéd but just don’t shoot the messengers!  Laughing

     
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Jackal - 08 January 2019 01:23 PM

Our policy is now, and has always been, to call games like we see them. Did that really need to be spelled out?

Broken Sword 2 stars
Starship Titanic 2 stars
Dreamweb 1.5 stars
Space Quest 6 2 stars
Torin’s Passage 2.5 stars
3 Skulls of Toltecs 2.5 stars
Black Dahlia 2.5 stars\
Dagger of Amon Ra 2.5 stars

Policy must have changed because if any of these were released today, they would get 4+ star reviews with claims “they don’t make ‘em like this anymore”

     
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Luhr28 - 08 January 2019 02:46 PM

Broken Sword 2 stars
Starship Titanic 2 stars
Dreamweb 1.5 stars
Space Quest 6 2 stars
Torin’s Passage 2.5 stars
3 Skulls of Toltecs 2.5 stars
Black Dahlia 2.5 stars\
Dagger of Amon Ra 2.5 stars

Policy must have changed because if any of these were released today, they would get 4+ star reviews with claims “they don’t make ‘em like this anymore”

How do you know? Depends entirely on who reviews them. Even the most beloved games have serious detractors, and the most despised games their advocates. Reviews are not a consensus. That’s why it’s always good to read more than one (and the reason we have user reviews). 

Now, what is true is that we’d rarely bother doing a flashback review of any game a reviewer considers crap, so the ones we do write tend to be better rated. The same is even true of the newer games to an extent. There’s a massive list of unreviewed modern games, and the ones that get volunteers tend to be the ones that most appeal to our writers. That doesn’t mean that the chosen ones are all good, or the neglected ones are all poor. But it does mean that there’s a kind of pre-selection process happening before pen is ever set to paper (so to speak).

 

     
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Jackal - 08 January 2019 03:35 PM

so the ones we do write tend to be better rated. The same is even true of the newer games to an extent.

that is all i wanted to know! and btw i like it, nothing to be ashamed of here.

but one needs to be careful with generosity, it is 99% good, but still generosity could equal different subjects and therefore would take off some of the glory and credibility of the glories titles, generosity needs to be taken seriously or handled carefully i mean..

and i am not moaning now Jack, or trying to take credits out of those who voluntarily made the job of reviewing games (while i am not) it just as i said, i noticed the site being a bit too generous lately with rating new reviews.

     
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You seem to be hearing only what you want to hear if you believe I’m agreeing with you at all.

There is no change in policy, no “generosity” of any kind being shown, and nothing I said suggested differently.

Just reviewers who actually, you know, PLAY the games to decide how good they are.

     

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