escapist23: In about 18 years of occasionally playing videogames, but trying a LOT of them, I realized that most games are just rubbish and nonsense. I have always kept looking for the 'next' incredible game, and never found it. The only ones that stood the test of time, to me, are very few and far between, and this is probably true of your cases as well. Probably a couple of games out of accurately selected dozens based on apparently great reviews. Interestingly, I always read first the NEGATIVE reviews, and I am always surprised how insightful they are: they quickly tell me of all the things I don't want in a game, either, and all the glaring defects. Most of these reviews are written by choosy and difficult 'gamers' like me, which are to me the most useful reviews, as they imply a certain amount of experience.
There's just so many games, but almost none that are truly worth spending dozens of hours on. Tons of quantity, but very little quality. Most of them have nonsense stories, no humour, no sense of tragedy, dumb characters, NPCs without personality, chaotic and messy battles, a zillion worthless items, etc. The only mostly high quality constant in them, are the soundtracks. I must say, especially PC games, have the most amazing soundtracks I have heard. And the graphics in most of the 'best' modern games are very pretty. But that's where it all ends, for me.
End of the rant :)
Hi escapist23.
Excuse me for not commenting on your proposed topic straight-away, but I wanted to tell you that you probably painted a huge bright red target on your back, by just posting your opinion, for really no outstanding reason.
But I agree with you on the matter of negative reviews. A uniquely well written, detailed and convincing negative review can be worth infinitely more, compared to a majority of casual positive reviews. Lengthy informative and grounded positive reviews are somewhat rare, but the same could be argued about negative ones. On the other hand, sometimes people are just neutral on their position, and even though they post their review as positive or negative, you can read that they are not in particular favor of neither extreme.
Considering we are taking into account appropriately fleshed-out reviews (not crappy one-liners, single paragraphs and other relevant garbage), the best reviews in my opinion are those balanced between the positives and negatives, unless, realistically judging, the product does not offer grounds for a balance between them. In which case the majority of the noteworthy reviews will lean towards an extreme, involuntary and either positive or negative, their consistency would be naive to overlook.
Bottom line, I believe both positive and negative reviews help you make up your mind and in order to have a clear idea of the consensus of the reviewers, it is necessary to take a look at both sides, weed out those of inadequate quality and pick up on which side is more convincing on the conflicting points.
Well, after buying and playing, ideally you would get a first-hand feeling, of what is working, what is breaking, and how much your preferences where satisfied. I am sure you understand the importance of keeping those things separate from each other, as your understanding of the entertaining or not, experience, grows the more time you are engaged in playing. Might as well be that which makes a valuable review, regardless of it being labeled as negative or not.
Cheers.
