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Edge #194 Reviews

TheHeretic said:
Why does a derivative, playable game have to be a 5 or more? If a game isn't worth buying it should be a 1. Edge are still stuck in the "report card" system of reviewing that IGN fester in tirelessly.
Because its good enough and has no serious issues. Why punish a game for existing as part of a genre? Scores below 5 in Edge come from simply bad design choices that are detrimental to gameplay.
 
EmCeeGramr said:
Because its good enough and has no serious issues. Why punish a game for existing as part of a genre? Scores below 5 in Edge come from simply bad design choices that are detrimental to gameplay.

If anything below a 5 is broken then whats the difference between a 2 and a 4? The difference between a bad game and a horrible game is arbitrary: its not worth buying. It has nothing to do with "punishing" games, the claim was Edge use their entire scale, when they don't. They probably still average in the 7 range like most reviewers.
 

Taurus

Member
- Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse [8]
- De Blob [8]

[Darth Vader voice]Impressive.[/Darth Vader voice]

- House of the Dead:: Overkill

^What they say in preview?
 

Roxas

Member
Kafel said:
Roxas, can you please tell us what it is about :
?


Rock Band 2 ? (it would then hint at a near release in Europe)

Its more of a "history of" interview. They talk about Frequency, Amplitude, Karaoke Revolution, Guitar Hero 1 & 2 etc. Nothing about Rock Band 2 as far as i can see.
 
nelsonroyale said:
r2 impressions in general have been mixed...until this latest reveal when they have been pretty damn positive...

also, Edge are generally more critical, but they are certainly not the gold standard people make them out to be...they aim for high brow, but alot of the writing comes off as verbose and the reviews often seem fault-finding to me, based on their own subjective likes/dislikes...ie pretty similar to any other reviews

also, pretty sure that is for wipeout...if they havent reviewed it yet

Eh, I usually think they hit the mark. I usually have some idea what the game is trying to do and where it succeeds after reading their reviews. Occassionally theyll be overly fixated on how the game failed to live up to its promises (bioshock, gears) and then put an 8 by it. Theres still room for improvement, but as far as Im concerned its the only opinion in games journalism I take seriously.
 

herod

Member
TheHeretic said:
If anything below a 5 is broken then whats the difference between a 2 and a 4? The difference between a bad game and a horrible game is arbitrary: its not worth buying. It has nothing to do with "punishing" games, the claim was Edge use their entire scale, when they don't. They probably still average in the 7 range like most reviewers.

they average 7 because they don't review the obvious shit that places like IGN cover.

plenty of games have scored sub-5 scores, the point is, a 1-2 type game will just be totally broken (Facebreaker was an Edge 2/10). Something like 4/10 in an unpopular genre may be something that serious fans or collectors will want to pick up anyway.

the problem here is that you think Edge are providing a buyers guide, instead of just grading something that has some kind of significance in the 'core' end of the market.
 

slider

Member
No idea what next month's feature is but I can confirm, to the best of my knowledge) that "vessel" wasn't in the original Elite (well not the one I played on the C64!). I'm 98% sure.

VP, TiP: Woohoo!
Fatal Frame (ugh, I mean Project Zero): Woohoo!
 

Kafel

Banned
Roxas said:
Its more of a "history of" interview. They talk about Frequency, Amplitude, Karaoke Revolution, Guitar Hero 1 & 2 etc. Nothing about Rock Band 2 as far as i can see.

Thank you : (



edit : about the hints of the last pages -> Edge didn't have any exclusives since ages, they hinted at features lately (menus, books, creation in Banjo ...).
 
TheHeretic said:
If anything below a 5 is broken then whats the difference between a 2 and a 4? The difference between a bad game and a horrible game is arbitrary: its not worth buying. It has nothing to do with "punishing" games, the claim was Edge use their entire scale, when they don't. They probably still average in the 7 range like most reviewers.

Have you considered the fact that most games arent complete shit these days? Ive played things that dont gel with me, but I wouldnt say their failures and are worthless wastes of shelf space. You also have to realize that a multiplatform mag cant dedicate space to shovelware, so the other half of the scale is going to show up when mid tier efforts come along and fall on their face.
 
herod said:
they average 7 because they don't review the obvious shit that places like IGN cover.

plenty of games have scored sub-5 scores, the point is, a 1-2 type game will just be totally broken (Facebreaker was an Edge 2/10). Something like 4/10 in an unpopular genre may be something that serious fans or collectors will want to pick up anyway.

the problem here is that you think Edge are providing a buyers guide, instead of just grading something that has some kind of significance in the 'core' end of the market.

A review is an opinion on a piece of media, and the reason we have "reviews" is to inform consumers as to that medias quality. The fact that they don't review shit is completely irrelevant, if I was running a high performance car magazine I wouldn't alternate between scores of 8, 9 and 10 to reflect they are better than most cars, thats obvious.

A review scale should only exist as to make each number useful. Knowing if a game is a 1 or a 2 isn't useful. Knowing if a game is a 2 or a 4 isn't useful. Knowing if a game is a 9 or a 10 isn't useful. Look at the critics in any other field, like movies, do you see many 1-10 scales? No. Because its a ridiculous grading system to begin with.

EmCeeGramr said:
Have you considered the fact that most games arent complete shit these days? Ive played things that dont gel with me, but I wouldnt say their failures and are worthless wastes of shelf space. You also have to realize that a multiplatform mag cant dedicate space to shovelware, so the other half of the scale is going to show up when mid tier efforts come along and fall on their face.

Everything is relative. If all games are great then the scale moves to separate them even further. If we were at a time period where everything was amazing should we be using a 1-10 scale when everything is scoring 9+?

RandomVince said:
Edit: ffs. Why does every edge review thread turn into a discussion on scores and averages?

Why are you contributing to the discussion? You don't get to join in and then complain, hypocrite.
 

Yagharek

Member
TheHeretic said:
Then their scoring system should reflect that. They are still only using half a scale.

No it shouldnt. If they reviewed ALL games, ~ half of them would rate >5, half <6. (Assuming a scoring scale taking into account the spectrum of quality as being limited. This wouldnt happen in practice, necessarily. Review scores arent an objective quantity).

They review selected games based on whatever reason that their editors choose. The fact that ome months have scores all over 5 or most scores under depends entirely on that selection (and of course the review itself).

But it is not reasonable to expect a '5' average to exist in reality when they dont review all games.

Edit: ffs. Why does every edge review thread turn into a discussion on scores and averages?
 

Maximilian E.

AKA MS-Evangelist
Roxas said:
24-09-08_1035-1.jpg

I dont know why but I came to think about the C64 classic Mercenary:
mercenary_1.gif
 

reakt

Member
nelsonroyale said:
also, pretty sure that is for wipeout...if they havent reviewed it yet

I agree. I was expecting to see the review of Wipeout HD in this month's Edge (the game is out tomorrow afterall). I guess they didn't get hold of it on time to review it in this issue.

Scratch that. The pic doesn't look at all like any craft from wipeout! Oh well I'm still disappointed that Edge haven't reviewed wipeout in this issue.
 

spoon!

Member
Rez>You said:
Is it possible for an Aussie to get a subscription to Edge? I've been meaning to get one for a while but I'm not sure if it's possible. :(
Echo this, cept to new zealand pls :/
 

RJT

Member
RandomVince said:
No it shouldnt. If they reviewed ALL games, ~ half of them would rate >5, half <6. (Assuming a scoring scale taking into account the spectrum of quality as being limited. This wouldnt happen in practice, necessarily. Review scores arent an objective quantity).

They review selected games based on whatever reason that their editors choose. The fact that ome months have scores all over 5 or most scores under depends entirely on that selection (and of course the review itself).

But it is not reasonable to expect a '5' average to exist in reality when they dont review all games.

Edit: ffs. Why does every edge review thread turn into a discussion on scores and averages?
I was going to say this. WTF is wrong with people and review scores?
 
Rez>You said:
Is it possible for an Aussie to get a subscription to Edge? I've been meaning to get one for a while but I'm not sure if it's possible. :(

I'm an Aussie and get my local news-agent to order it for me ( I <3 Edge). I imagine you could get a subscription.


P.S.
Boosh avatar = win.
 
ymmv said:
It's a toss up between Elite, Starglider or Mercenary.... Or Carrier Command (which will be remade this console generation)

Knowing Edge, it's more likely the tease refers to something a little less obvious like an article on the evolution of 3D graphics in games...
 
JordoftheDead said:
I'm an Aussie and get my local news-agent to order it for me ( I <3 Edge). I imagine you could get a subscription.

Its 18 bucks an issue at my newsagency. They stock it by default by some miracle. I'm wondering if thats cheaper than going subscription.
 

herod

Member
TheHeretic said:
A review is an opinion on a piece of media, and the reason we have "reviews" is to inform consumers as to that medias quality. The fact that they don't review shit is completely irrelevant, if I was running a high performance car magazine I wouldn't alternate between scores of 8, 9 and 10 to reflect they are better than most cars, thats obvious.

A review scale should only exist as to make each number useful. Knowing if a game is a 1 or a 2 isn't useful. Knowing if a game is a 2 or a 4 isn't useful. Knowing if a game is a 9 or a 10 isn't useful. Look at the critics in any other field, like movies, do you see many 1-10 scales? No. Because its a ridiculous grading system to begin with.

although one could argue that technical limitations and issues are a far greater problem on videogames than music or cinema, and as such amplifying the metric can be useful in order to allow for differentiation between titles that are superficially of similar quality, but need to be separated because one provides a poorer experience than the other technically.
 
Roxas said:
Cover story is about GTA: Chinatown Wars for the DS. They have a few pages about it inside and pics and it looks pretty decent i suppose.

Reviews

- Spore [7]
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed [5]
- Mercenaries 2: World in Flames [6]

- Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway [6]
- Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse [8]
- Infinite Undiscovery [6]
- Crysis Warhead [8]
- De Blob [8]
- Yakuza 2 [8]

- Viva Pinata; Trouble in Paradise [8]
- Reset Generation [8]
- Pure [7]
- Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 [6]
- Galaga Legions [6]
- Castle Crashers [7]

For great justice!!!! :)
 

Yagharek

Member
RJT said:
I was going to say this. WTF is wrong with people and review scores?

It happens in damn near every single edge review thread. Im sorry for my part in discussing it in this one but, really, do we need the same debate every Edge thread? I wonder if in future edge review threads the op should just list which games are reviewed and keep to the text only (if they can be arsed). Do what edge themselves did and ignore the score at the end. :lol
 
TheHeretic said:
Its 18 bucks an issue at my newsagency. They stock it by default by some miracle. I'm wondering if thats cheaper than going subscription.

Yeah, it costs me around $16 I think. I should go check actually.
It's expensive, but I think it's the only game mag still worth reading now that you can get any information you want on-line.
 

Yagharek

Member
I thouht Elite IV was off the cards until after The Outsider was done with, according to Braben at least. Frontier seems to only be a smallish dev team.
 

haowan

Member
RandomVince said:
I thouht Elite IV was off the cards until after The Outsider was done with, according to Braben at least. Frontier seems to only be a smallish dev team.
Believe so yep, but he did say the tech was all in place.
 

Yagharek

Member
Yeah I would expect preliminary tech/research would be in the works for elite iv, but not full blown development. Given what he said before. Personally Im looking forward to the outsider quite a lot too.
 

slider

Member
travisbickle said:
Zarch was better... ZarchHD on PSN please!

No way. I played Elite on the C64 and that's going against Zarch on the Archimedes (fastest home computer on the market at the time of purchase!).
 
JordoftheDead said:
Yeah, it costs me around $16 I think. I should go check actually.
It's expensive, but I think it's the only game mag still worth reading now that you can get any information you want on-line.

GamesTM is just as good, but is also from the UK and is still fairly expensive. The American equivalents are simply dreadful.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
I just assumed that no newsagents around me would stock it, but who knows, maybe they do. I'll check tomorrow. Thanks guys.

And yes Boosh FTW! :D
 
Before people go getting carried away with the "Next Month" picture again, lets not forget that the "Shemue 3 notepad" turned out to be a report from the Brighton developer's conference.

Perhaps people should temper their expectation, incase it turns out to be little more than "A look at classic gaming machines".
 

The Hermit

Member
So we know what game the ship is from, but what does it represent?
I doubt its about a sequel of an ancient game...
 
EmCeeGramr said:
EDGE SCORES ARE GRADED ON THE WHOLE SCALE OF 1-10.
5 IS AN AVERAGE PLAYABLE GAME OR AN INTERESTING CONCEPT HAMPERED BY SOME FAULTS.
IF WHATEVER SOFTWARE YOUVE EMOTIONALLY INVESTED YOURSELF INTO DIDNT GET ABOVE AN 8, DONT START BAWLING


Pretty please.
Looks more like a scale of 5-8 to me.

I know it's only one month, but you're fooling yourself if you think they use a fuller scale than other review sites or publications.
EDIT: Probably should have read more of the thread before I responded but my point still stands.
 
nincompoop said:
Looks more like a scale of 5-8 to me.

I know it's only one month, but you're fooling yourself if you think they use a fuller scale than other review sites or publications.
EDIT: Probably should have read more of the thread before I responded but my point still stands.

:lol
 
What does it say about Fatal Frame, specifically about controls? I wonder if they changed them at all for the US release since I heard bad things about the Japanese version.
 

FirewalkR

Member
Regarding Resistance 2, obviously they hadn't looked at the latest builds when they wrote the article so at this point their not so positive impression is somewhat irrelevant. Let's see what they say next month.
 

Koren

Member
Taurus said:
- Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse [8]
- De Blob [8]

[Darth Vader voice]Impressive.[/Darth Vader voice]
My thought, exactly... Will probably buy both.

Which version of FF is it ? The US one ? They get rid of bugs of japanese version ?


nincompoop said:
Looks more like a scale of 5-8 to me.

I know it's only one month, but you're fooling yourself if you think they use a fuller scale than other review sites or publications.
They do... Plently of 2, 3, 4 usually, and 9 and 10 for stand-out games.
 

Yagharek

Member
nincompoop said:
Looks more like a scale of 5-8 to me.

I know it's only one month, but you're fooling yourself if you think they use a fuller scale than other review sites or publications.
EDIT: Probably should have read more of the thread before I responded but my point still stands.


Well your point doesn't still stand, it's been dealt with in any case. 1/10 and 2/10 in Edge is about as rare as a 10/10 or 9/10 (combined, probably somewhat more 9s than 1s and 2s).

You really should read an Edge review of a game that gets anything less than 4. The 50 Cent review (the kind of game you would make if you hd been stabbed 3 times and then shot!) for example was incredible (same goes for Driver 3's fitting 3/10, and Boiling Point's 2/10).
 

btkadams

Member
cjelly said:
Holy mother of God, that is the worst Pure review score yet.

I guess they got confused, what with it being a British developer and American publisher.
woah i couldve sworn edge was a UK mag...
 
TheHeretic said:
You say that, but every single score there is 5 or above. Edge use more of the scale than most, but they don't use it all.
Why would Edge waste good paper on knowingly bad games, why would they waste their small team of staff's time reviewing a knowingly bad game?

They've given out plenty of 3s and 4s in the past year for stuff that could have been good, but just sucked. Mostly stuff aimed at children that might have been a potential game for a reader's child.
 
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