1) Bioware without the Doctors
So I don’t know much about this subject, but Marcus comes off as a bit more mean spirited than usual. I didn’t find the Old Republic all that great and quickly lost interest in it as other games came out.
As for multiplayer ruining single player games? I do admit that I’ve noticed this. I don’t care so much about logging into FaceBook for extra features (Uncharted 3 did that to share treasures, even though it never worked for me), but sometimes I think a game is just meant to be single player and all resources should be poured into that. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier for example, has a really short single player, despite co-op being a blast and the multiplayer is a totally different game. The thing is, video games are still games and games are social by nature. It is no wonder that people would rather play with friends than without and while some games do really well to keep that single player experience at top billing, it almost seems like it needs to be Skyrim size to maintain any interest while a much smaller multiplayer experience can have players put in the same amount of hours.
2) HD Remixes
My first response to this “I own a Nintendo console, I own a Nintendo console!” They are at least backwards compatible with their last gen consoles. So I can play my GCN games on my Wii and when it comes out, my Wii games on my Wii U. I can even play DS games on my 3DS and if you own a pre-DSi DS, you can play GBA games. It’s really nice and even when Nintendo resells their GCN games for the Wii, it comes with a different way to play them and at either a budget retail cost or with all the bells and whistles such as Metroid Prime Trilogy, which was three games for the price of 1, the previous 2 being updated with motion controls and achievements (it’s so awesome!).
But that’s the key difference though between the re-releases of Nintendo and Sony. Nintendo offers new ways to play a classic game while Sony throws on a dab of new paint. At least when Microsoft released the anniversary edition of Halo: Combat Evolved, new things were put in it and there was an expansion on the multiplayer.
Another element Marcus brings up is that some people are defending Sony for being altruistic by re-releasing these “classic games”. This is something I’ve noticed amongst the Sony ranks, one example being the PS3′s launch price. I’ve read “Sony took one for the team by releasing their console at a major loss and that at least deserves our respect” when in reality, as another comment pointed out “They did it for money because Sony would be insane to release a console at $700-$800″. My point being, Sony is a business and I think they’re in trouble. I think their fans know they are in trouble and need to find a way to justify their purchases and devotion. Not because their idiots or that their stuff is secretly bad, but because nobody likes being on the losing team.
3) Metacritic and Review Scores
Oh Marcus, I was in agreement with you until the end. Yes, I think reviews hurt the industry more than help it, I think that metacritic and developers signing contracts based on their metacritic scores is a travesty. I even agree that people who rate scores low to get controversy hits are scum…but then you said anyone who rates a game lower than the average a tit.
Marcus, you’re a tit.
This is the second time now that I’ve come across your opinion being “people aren’t allowed to have different opinions”. I hate Heavy Rain and I think Uncharted 3 was greatly overrated, and I’ve said that several times now on this site (I don’t get paid for it by the way) because its my opinions, not because I want hits for the site or anything like that. It’s because I have as much of a right to state my opinion as you do.
The real problem with reviewing is that anyone with an opinion can state it. There is no “expert opinion” because anyone who plays video games think they are an expert in all facets of them. This is like saying anyone who watches movies can make their own, which has been proven time and time again to not be the case. I’ve long stopped reading reviews because as someone who has studied the insides and outsides of game development and theory, these reviews aren’t substantial anymore. They’re often short, shallow, and so afraid of spoilers that they really expect me to take their word for it that something is good. The problem with reviews is that no one is willing to be an expert, especially for modern games. There are those like James Rolfe, The Angry Video Game Nerd, who really does show off how much he knows about video games in his videos, but I think more modern games are lot harder to explain and analyze. This is why I get mad when Egoraptor or other internet personalities try it, because their opinions often have nothing to back it up or are filled with a ton of flaws (mainly a lack of explaining).
