Syracuse022
Member
False. Campaign co-op is still very much available. For a review that took so long to come out, that GameTrailers offering managed to remain impressively misinformed.
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Halo 4: Review Thread
- Thread starter Vire
- Start date
thanks for clearing that up, I was going to be very disappointed :-/
yes
Uno Venova
Banned
It was the same old at first, but the thread did get funny as hell in the last quarter.
shinobi602
Member
R-riiiiiiight....
I thought they meant they hadn't had a chance to play the Spartan Ops cooperatively, but you can.
I don't know what to say. It's not the Halo I loved. B to crouch, (I'm partial to Reach's control scheme), Grenade mechanics are shot, warthog is ridiculously slow, perks like seeing through walls (which renders crouching useless) takes all skill away from the game. It a GORGEOUS game but it is clearly catering to the COD crowd, and still pulled the cash from the Halo fans, very sad to me. Hope it will grow on me.
Change the control scheme?
recon
Fried Food
Banned
I like Tom's review and his overall review philosophy. I wish more people took his approach to reviews. I want to hear/read about a persons time with something. I don't care what they perceive the thing to be worth. I care about what they're experience was 'worth' to them. A score is completely unnecessary with these types of reviews.
I don't know why Tom hasn't removed scores completely. It's not like his is a big player in the games press market. He could get away with taking them off.
I don't know why Tom hasn't removed scores completely. It's not like his is a big player in the games press market. He could get away with taking them off.
I agree. I actually thought what he wrote in his review was entirely fair, and it lined up pretty well with my own experience with the SP portion of the game. Slapping a 1 on the end of the review gets attention, but also makes his criticisms easily dismissed by many people.
In the latest QT3 podcast Tom talks about his reviews policy and discussions with Metacritic over the past week. Apparently they called him and asked if he was okay with the direct mathematical translation and he said he absolutely was.
As others pointed out, an ad he explains, he approaches reviews like movie critics. Transformers doesn't automatically get 3.5 stars because of its budget and neither should Halo.
As others pointed out, an ad he explains, he approaches reviews like movie critics. Transformers doesn't automatically get 3.5 stars because of its budget and neither should Halo.
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
Nobody would visit his site if he removed the scores.
ii Stryker
Banned
I can agree with the overall metacritic ranking (I feel the game is an 8 or slightly above). Halo 4 while visually striking, the story wasn't as strong as most outlets are giving it credit for and the gameplay does have some bugs(enemy pathfinding has had some errors and the pelican sequence did not load on my first playthrough and I had to reload from the last save).
I do find it difficult to award numbered sequels with exceptionally higher marks than their predecessors. By their very nature sequels are further iterations of something already in existence and therefore should be improvements over their predecessors.
I do find it difficult to award numbered sequels with exceptionally higher marks than their predecessors. By their very nature sequels are further iterations of something already in existence and therefore should be improvements over their predecessors.
Giving a score must be very difficult. Your grading system either allows for too much gradation, or too little I think. How would I effectively communicate that Halo 4 is much better than something like Uncharted 2, while also saying it's not close to as good as Halo Reach? All three of those games to me couldn't realistically be less than a nine given their competition on a whole, but the quality even within the very top tier of these big production games is still very substantial. But if you do try to actually do that, and use a hundred point scale, then you need to be able to justify why a game should be a ninety four over a ninety three or five. Seems like there's no way to win.
Alcoholikaust
Member
Lol @ EGM review
The current state of FPS SP campaigns is abysmal. Far cry 3 looks promising (maybe).
ii Stryker
Banned
5 point reviewing systems with half points are the best IMO. 4 and a half stars is the equivalent to 85-95. Reviewing videogames isn't rocket science or internal medicine.
You would also review the game based on its own merits and avoid making generalized comparisons to other games aside from its direct predecessors. Comparing Uncharted 2 or COD to halo is just dumb.
After playing Ubisofts last two turds(GR:FS & AC3) I'm a bit nervous About FC3. 0.o
Comparing them in terms of game design might be, but as products of varying quality, I don't think so at all. Games are by their nature iterative, they relate to major releases before, they're influenced and influence based on comparative qualities.
It's also essentially how all product analysis is done. We know most TV firmwares are exceptionally poor, because we have experience with them in other systems such as game consoles. If you didn't know better, you'd be ill placed to review them.
HocusPocus
Member
Beyond the attention whore reviews, seems like it's doing quite well. To me it is visually the best looking game I've played all generation on consoles. Really happy for 343i and for Halo fans. This is exactly what they wanted, and 343 just simply delivered. Kudos.
ii Stryker
Banned
This is why I said to only compare halo games against other Halo games before it.
the specific qualities of COD , Uncharted and Halo are unique unto themselves and comparing the three against one another bears no relevance.
the only comparable thing these game have in common is you shoot stuff everything else is subjective.
Baconsammy
Banned
This makes sense because you play movies.
AdventureRacing
Member
Then how do you score an original franchise? What do you score the original halo against?
I think the problem with what you're suggesting is that people reading the reviews won't view them that way. If you score U2, KZ2, Halo 4 and NSMB all with a 4/5 people will assume they are of the same quality and that's where the problem stuburns was talking about comes into play imo.
True. Considering the brain dead AI the game actually probably deserves .5. Guess it a a good thing he doesn't review techinical aspects!
Baconsammy
Banned
What I hate most about the NFL is that there's not enough hockey being played. I don't understand why they don't play more hockey in NFL games. It makes no sense.
I disagree. I think they share a lot.
Don Cherry giving the NFL a 1 star would seem about right. It's not his bag.
Baconsammy
Banned
NFL needs more sucker punching.
ii Stryker
Banned
You should really only review any game based on its own merits.
most mainstream people reading reviews are idiots and if they want a game like U2 KZ2 or NSMB they're just going to wait for the next numbered sequel from that IP and they'll find any reason to hate on whatever they don't like in any IP. COD ppl hate on halo hate on KZ etc. etc.
good reviews don't accomodate the lowest common denominator because those people are simple minded fanboys whom are going to stick with what they already know.
you're generalizing
AdventureRacing
Member
If you give the games a score when you review them then the people reading your review will compare it to other games with similar scores. This doesn't just apply to the mainstream or idiots. If you don't want to accommodate the lowest common denominator you probably shouldn't even bother with a score. If you do give out scores this is something that you're going to have to deal with whether you like it or not.
I agree that you should only review games based on their own merits but you have to look at how the people reading your review and the score will view things.
What is the alternative? Are you suggesting the only thing Halo 4 can effectively be compared to is other Halo games? Because that in of itself must mean the best Halo game is a ten, and the worst is a zero.
AdventureRacing
Member
You don't have to compare a game to anything to be able to review it, as he said you can just judge it on its own merits.
ii Stryker
Banned
"scoring" a game in general is specifically catering to the lowest common denominator because the people these scores are for in all likelihood lack the ability to read and comprehend.
Associating a number with a game and then making the blanket assumption that all games with the same number are therefore the same, is just dumb.
Reviewers that make comparisons to other games outside of previous iterations of that specific IP are poor reviewers.
aside from explaining the genre the reviewed game belongs to, ideally a game review should never be comparative to any another game.
Then how are you meant to determine quality? If Superman 64 was the only game you'd ever experienced, how would you score it? The point of scoring anything is to determine it's relative quality. It can't be done in a vacuum.
A poo, even if it's the best poo around, is never going to be a diamond.
Without knowledge of a diamond you'd have no idea that shit was shit.
ii Stryker
Banned
scores are just for lazy people who are too bothered to read and are content with generalizing
I prefer to read multiple reviews to get a general consensus of the overall quality.
the things I look for in a review(and I'll read several)
pros/cons
graphics quality/game stability
concept
playability/replay ability
sound
level design/art direction
scores, for me anyway, are largely irrelevant because I can read and form my own opinion base off of consensus.
I remember the days before games journalism existed. You'd read the back of the box and see if it was something you might like. I found the first resident evil this way and final fantasy (over 40 hrs of gameplay and I was sold). game quality for me back then was mostly developer/publisher related. I'd liked the megaman games so I gave RE a shot because it was made by Capcom.
Fried Food
Banned
I disagree. I think that crowd is slightly more mature than the typical game website crowd.
Plus I think a high percentage of people just go for the podcasts. I do, anyway.
The point is, if the best video games were of Superman 64 quality, people just wouldn't bother playing them as there are more interesting activities around.
Snowden's Secret
Banned
So I haven't played 4 since election night, and our entire group didn't like the new flavor, but my brother has been playing some Big Team Battle and said that feels a lot more like Halo. On my way over to try it out, hopefully this redeems it. BTB was always my jam anyway.
Is Invasion still in Halo 4?
Also, am I the only one who feels the color pallet is a huge regression from previous games? WHERE IS THE PURPLE
Is Invasion still in Halo 4?
Also, am I the only one who feels the color pallet is a huge regression from previous games? WHERE IS THE PURPLE
ii Stryker
Banned
Yeah thats pretty much a load of bullshit.
Yeah, Transformers deserves its 3.5. Screw you, Tom!
Mos Def, Star Wars EP3 was a 8.5/10, fuck the haterz.