Xboxist

Game Reviews - Your Number's Up

Deep in the on-line ether, up-coming action thriller, Alan Wake has video game lovers reacting in horror, but not a result of watching the creepy live-action prequel, or any of the trailers doing the rounds. No, it's the game reviews, and one particular review out of the UK that has gamers swinging baseball bats; their eyes popping from their sockets, and foaming at the mouth. Ok, so not foaming at the mouth. That was just one chap back from three hours at the dentist who couldn't for the life of him stop dribbling.

So here's what's gone down. English lass, Elli Gibson, writing for the British-based gaming site Eurogamer wasn't quite as 'taken' by the folks in Bright Falls as many other game reviewers and game sites. That's not to say she hated the game or could find nothing pleasant to say about her time in Remedy's latest creation. She did however give the game a.....seven. I couldn't quite bring myself to say the dirty shameful word. Yes, your eyes don't deceive you - a seven!

Now I don't wish to get an entire continent off-side, especially not with my very first post for GameFlavor. And to be fair, the folks in Europe have plenty to be unhappy about. The only thing dropping faster than the Euro at the moment are the planes trying to avoid the troublesome volcanic ash cloud that has choked the skies for the last two weeks. Bottom line, the Europeans have every reason to be cranky. But seriously. They are this upset over a score of 7 out of 10. 7 out of 20...you might have cause to complain, but last time I checked 7 out of 10 was good. In fact Eurogamer defines it as precisely that.

More after the break...

It's not the first time we've seen fanboys disappointed by a review score. Alan Wake; years in development and an Xbox360 exclusive, promised a level of narrative and emotional engagement rarely seen in videogames. This was to be Microsoft's answer to Sony's story-driven Heavy Rain. Remedy vs. Quantic Dreams. Narrative substance is the new 'graphical fidelity'; a race where victory provides not only bragging rights but artistic pretension. That background might go some way to explaining the vested interests and passions involved in this particular case, but it doesn't begin to explain how we ever reached a point where it was simply unacceptable that a reviewer, reviewing a work of entertainment - itself a highly subjective endeavour - couldn't give a game a score that was out of step with her industry peers.

What ever happened to the value of diversity of opinion? Now in the interests of full disclosure, I need to say that I'm yet to play the game. Like you, I'm waiting for my retail copy to arrive. I'm not a fan of thrillers or horror. Forget 'alone in the dark', I'm not even keen on alone in the daylight. Nor do I really wish to venture deep into the fog-shrouded woods in Washington State again (thank you JJ Abrahams, but as much of a fan as I am I really didn't enjoy last week's episode of Fringe). All that said, there is something in the trailers and live action prequel that has piqued my interest. Remedy has created a world and a reality that I want to venture into. How I'll respond to a game that wouldn't normally interest me remains to be seen, but I do know that my judgement, whether negative or positive is not fact, but rather the subjective opinion of just one man.

Some of those readers critical of Elli Gibson's review pointed out that her score was so out of step with the other review scores being posted at Metacritic, and therefore simply must be wrong . Isn't the sole purpose of a site such as Metacritic to aggregate a range of scores and therefore give a truer more balanced indication of how the game is perceived by the Video Games media? Wouldn't Metacritic be out of business if we all dished out the same scores?

Now the folks at Remedy are by all accounts very happy with the high scores that Alan Wake is attracting, and they have every reason to be. Truth is the studio has received enough glowing praise from major gaming networks to completely plaster the walls of a small apartment with testimonials written in twelve point font. Responding on their own forums to discussions regarding some review scores that were out of step with the bulk of the critical response to date, the studio said, "Yeah, we don't really look at the Metascore all that much. It'd be nice if it was really high, of course, but considering how much praise we've gotten this far, we feel pretty good about the whole thing."

Here's what I think. Throw out the rating system. Junk it, burn it, dismantle it. Whether you are ranking games out of ten or a hundred or even grading them like a term paper - B-, 7/10, 83/100 - It is all misleading. There's a suggestion that a score is an objective critical summation of a game's worth and it simply isn't.

I believe there's a sound reason why movie reviewers commonly use a 5 stars rating system. Rather than get fixated on stars, we read the review, we pay attention to the words, and the opinion of the reviewers. With a narrower range most films fall into the 3 ½ star mark anyway - incidentally, the 7/10 that Eurogamer awarded Alan Wake. If, as consumers, we never went to see movies that rated 3 ½ stars or less, the multiplexes around the country would be completely empty. On that note I'm off to the mall to see Hot Tub Time Machine.

Looking forward to Alan Wake? Think I'm on to something? You only like prime numbers or you hate all John Cusack films? Let me hear your thoughts.