I tried buying a game for my cousin this year. He and his roomate like to play co-op shooters. Easy enough to find, right? Unfortunately, they play on PS3 exclusively. I went to Co-Optimus for help, but there are a painfully small amount of games that fit that category.
I ended up getting him Army of Two: the 40th Day. I know he's played the first one, so hoping all goes well.
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Really cool idea Juan. I've always meant to read the Art of War. This article might just be the push I needed to do it.
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Congrats on getting a front page bump Alex! Too bad they changed the awesome title....
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Totally well deserved. Congrats to Evan.
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Now having read the article, I totally agree about "greatest of all time" lists. There are games out there that seem odd in our personal lists, but when we explain why, it makes things so much clearer.
If I play The Darkness now (which, if I find it for cheap, I totally will,) I'm going to be playing it through your perspective and I'm sure I'll find it to be very interesting because of that.
This makes me want to re-examine my list and maybe write something about a strange game I love.
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You're right, Dyansty Warriors 4 was better than 3. Also, this review is spot-on.
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For what it's worth, I totally get the reference in the title and I think it's brilliant. Now to read the article.
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This IS a lot like what I wrote! I really like your exploration though, I'd really like to see reviews consider people who might be picking up the series for the first time.
Also, though I've never played City Folk, I've played the other two. Though Wild World is superior in terms of mechanics, gotta go with the original due to two key factors: the crazy BS extra stuff they incorporated into that game (E-Reader cards, GBA connectivity,) and the NES games you can get for your house and play in their entirety (Animal Crossing: the original Virtual Console.)
I'd also like to qualify that this is not meant to be an analysis of the "perfect score." I believe games that received nines, fives, and even twos are subjectable to the same degradation.
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@Bryan the degradation isn't meant to be a slight to the game, but rather to better showcase those titles that come after it. Review scores distort the gaming landscape. Twilight Princess, from a technical aspect, is in every way, better than Ocarina of Time, yet Ocarina has a better review score.
But instead of taking into account what that score means in today's gaming landscape (as you said, it wouldn't receive the 10s it got back in the day,) there are those (such as yourself,) who rightfully state the game was good for its time to perserve its place in gaming history.
There's nothing wrong with this. I personally think Babe Ruth is still the best baseball player to have ever played the game, despite most of his records being shattered. It's a sacred cow situation where tradition and protocol dictate our thoughts rather than logic.
Sorry, this sounds uppity and condescending and that's really not my intention.
Bottom line: assigning a number to a game becomes problematic as time goes on. If it weren't so damn convenient, it would have been done away with long ago. What really matters is what I'd paraphrase from Mr. Alex Martin: a review should reflect the enjoyment the reviewer had of a game at the time they were reviewing it. And that doesn't require a score to muddle things up.
I totally agree with everyone's comments. Suriel's right: updating scores is a terrible idea for many reasons including time, money, as well as mindset issues.
But some form of degradation is needed. As both you and Bryan pointed out, reviews are a moment in time. But saying that a game is "good for its time" is basically a form of degradation in and of itself. It's just not changing the number.
And Suriel, I totally agree on reviews as buyer's guides. That's what I try to do in my reviews as well. What I hinted at, but never said explicitly in my article is that the idea of review scores is a fundamentally flawed system. I'd prefer the world be rid of them, but with the infrastructure already in place, there's no way they're going away anytime soon.
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That's cool that you have them separated by month. I've kept a list of all the games I beat this year (44, which I think is the best I've ever done,) but they're just thrown together with no order. I'll try separating them next year.
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