120°

Opinion: Can reviewers ever be truly neutral?

STN:

Can reviewers truly be neutral when appraising a game? Now that is a question. Of course the answer should be "yes of course, they are professional and therefore can take a step back and allow nothing to cloud their judgement," but is this really the case?

GalacticEmpire4095d ago (Edited 4095d ago )

If you were 100% neutral you'd likely be some kind of emotionless robot. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, has an opinion and, whether they choose to aknowledge that fact or not, it will always effect their judgements.

Murad4095d ago

Not necessarily true. I believe a neutral reviewer is someone who just states facts, and nothing more. Like, COD has a multiplayer portion that is similar to the last few, excepts with a few added features, and a biased reviewer would be like, "O Call of Duty 49 is just like the last 48 in the series, however, now you get a chance to get a pre-order exclusive, which will become purchasable in the years to come; 'Hooray'".

GalacticEmpire4095d ago

How can you score a game without having an opinion? A review that doesn't tell you whether a game is good or bad, in the writers opinion, is not much of a review at all.

Murad4095d ago

YOu can give a review based on the features only, and nothing more.

darthv724095d ago

of game reviews were centered on the scope of the title as the meat of the review. The last part was generally left open as the personal view of the review.

So you can effectively give a neutral review of a game when it relates to the nature of the game and how it plays but then all personal opinion about its graphics and sound can be at the end.

It was also that comparatives were made on the same game for a different platform. When comparatives started with x game vs y game is when things really went south. I mean does it make sense to compare street fighter 2 to mortal kombat or is it more ideal to compare street fighter 2 to street fighter 2 on two different platforms?

Oh and Galactic...technically written reviews can be read with varying levels of emotion by the person who is reading it. Which can vary from the emotion level of the person who wrote it. We all perceive things in our own way when we do not actually hear the tone of the words as spoken by the individual who is responsible for the review in the first place. thus we can read it with virtual excitement tone or pure negativity tone and the review changes perceived emotion even though it is written one way.

jordypordy4095d ago

Some very interesting points to be fair. Good Article.

Godmars2904095d ago

Most certainly haven't been neutral in regards to DMC. They've either taken up the side of NT and Capcom, criticizing fans complaining about "white hair" or, nothing. Very few reviewers have said that it isn't up to par with the original series or at least shouldn't be given a chance.

Dno4095d ago (Edited 4095d ago )

No, but i dont want them to be. eeveryone has ifferent views on different things and our job as readers is to find a review we agree with. reviews should not be the end all be all but for some people it is.

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220°

Microsoft’s Surface and Xbox hardware revenues take a big hit in Q3

Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.

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theverge.com
darthv7218h ago

Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.

solideagle5h ago

you should apply in MS PR team buddy, I think you will do a great job in my humble opinion :)

Sonic18812h ago

I thought darthv72 and Obscure_Observer already work for Microsoft 🤔

dveio2h ago

MS: "Xbox services and content without AB up 1%, with AB up 62%. Hardware down 31%. In total a loss of 350 mill."

darthv72: "Seems about right."

MS: "Excuse m ..."

darthv72: "I don't hardly play on my consoles directly."

MS:

Cacabunga5h ago

I can tell people like you are an absolute minority..

If service is up means their fans and fanboys accepted this model and subscribed to it. The near future you will see a big decline because the service is saturated.

shinoff21834h ago

But that's been ms for years. When things aren't going their way they try to change the way things are said. For instance console sales are down, they stop telling how many sold instead telling us how many hours spent in halo or headshots. So it makes sense console sales down just say people are playing on more devices then previous. What they won't say is how many xbox players jumped ship to ps5.

Cacabunga3h ago

Hardware sales are so bad that Sony and Nintendo are blowing the sales off the water with their hardware.

If Xbox are losers, others aren’t..
Xbox already tried everything with Xbox live then subscriptions went down so much that they had to find something else. Their fans subscribed then reached saturation rather quickly.

Hardware and exclusive games is where it’s at! Keep gamers excited, announce decent software and people will support you

purple1017h ago

Xbox hardware revenue tanks to lowest point of Xbox Series generation

Profchaos7h ago

I'm not surprised surface is struggling they aren't relevant anymore

XBManiac6h ago

Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.

SimpleDad6h ago(Edited 6h ago)

"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."

That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.

purple1016h ago

Activision: "we gonna need a bigger rucksack/backpack please"

Microsoft: "why's that"

Activision: "to carry yo' weak ass'

Profchaos5h ago(Edited 5h ago)

Top brass have also wanted to start seeing returns on the 100 billion they have put into various Xbox related moves so seeing more multiplatform games is highly likely especially from abk

It's basically saying that PlayStation is the reason Xbox is afloat right now thinks to Ps5 versions of COD

Kornholic4h ago

So basically PS and PC gamers' money is keeping Xbox on life support.

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140°

Why Monopolies In Gaming Must Not Be Allowed

As of right now, there are no monopolies in the games industry, and for the sake of the medium as a whole, they never should either.

thorstein17h ago

Shouldn't be allowed in any field.

Inverno13h ago

And yet the biggest tech companies in America are essentially that. They buy up all the small comps only to kill them off and steal what they have, and if they can't buy em they bleed them to death.

jwillj2k412h ago

Eventually they’ll realize the value is with the employee not the company. Buying an IP means nothing if the people who contributed are let go. They’ll get it one day.

MrCrimson11h ago

tech is different because they buy threats and then kill them. Twitter bought Vine and did nothing with it. Despite people seemingly liking it. Could've had tiktok a decade before bytedance. go figure.

Zenzuu12h ago

Monopolies shouldn't be allowed regardless. Not just for gaming.

MrCrimson11h ago

They buy IPs not talent. That's why these buyouts never work and the IPs die. Right now it's too expensive to develop games - but I expect that to shift maybe as AI tools can make it easier. The best games have been indie games for awhile as big developers fuck their ips to death with "games as a service" -

70°

5 Of The Best Narrative Twists In Video Games

GL compiles a list of some of the most mind-blowing video game narrative twists in recent memory, from The Last of Us to Outer Wilds

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gameluster.com
Rebel_Scum16h ago

With articles like these cant you tag the games mentioned so that we can know ahead of time if there’s a spoiler to avoid?

Not clicking on your article otherwise.