Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida Bares Fangs on 7.5 The Last of Us Review

Shuhei Yoshida is most definitely a nice fellow, but like every passionate gamer, he can readily bare his fangs when he sees something that really doesn’t sit right with him.

[ThatCanadianGuy514]

Yoshida laying a verbal smackdown.Love it.

[Abriael]

Got to say, it's entirely possible for it to be an inside joke. Such things do happen at E3.

Doesn't sound like one, though.

[Winter47th]

That review was a disgrace to gaming journalism. But it is the gamers who take part of the blame with the misconception that "reviews are opinions".

The 'reviewer' in question butchered the game because it was too violent for HIM, in that case, it is my opinion that Halo is boring and Zelda is overrated here's a 4.5/10 RESPECT MY OPINION.

The review was more like a personal blog of what the reviewer prefers than a critique.

[Abriael]

@Winter47th: IMHO reviews are just partly opinion.

The reviewer that tells you he's completely objective is bullshitting you. No buts and no ifs.

I've been reviewing games for 16 years now, and I can tell you, I never reviewed a game once without my opinion filtering through my words.

On the other hand, every opinion should be heavily grounded and based on fact. You can't have a valid opinion on the sky if that opinion is based on the notion that the sky is green with yellow polka dots.

More often than not I do notice that a writer's opinion heavily overtakes the facts. And that, IMHO, should not happen.

[Gazondaily]

My copy of the game has arrived!!! Wooooooooo!

And screw that desperate hit seeking reviewer. Even in his Twitter posts you can tell he was loving the attention. I'm sorry bit he is a moron.

[Gazondaily]

Oops double post sorry

[Gazondaily]

Sorry if I'm being off topic here but the visuals, the voice acting, the sounds.......this game is amazing!! You guys are in for a treat!

Even my dad who DESPISES games is hooked watching it!!!!

[BluEx610]

I actually don't mind reading negative reviews, as long as it thoroughly explains why it has some bad points. Reading his review he says it's too violent, sad story, and combat is bad. More like this reviewer is a little girl and sucks at this game. He even explains how intense things get and points to it as negative lol. It felt like he was trying to say more negative things but couldn't think of more reasons for his score. Never reading Polygon again, wasted my time.

[jeeves86]

@ Winter47th
...............sigh.

Reviews ARE opinions. It is the opinion of the reviewer who is reviewing the game whether the game is good or bad. There are no objective qualifiers that make a game good or bad, it's all about personal opinion.

There is a serious difference in a blatantly slanted review, bashed or praised heavily for minutiae reasons, as the Polygon review appears to be. However, you can't have a review without an opinion. Doesn't work that way.

[morganfell]

If you are going to post a review, supposedly for the public (yeah right) then you have to be prepared for the same degree of criticism of your motivations and skill (or lackthereof) which you leveled at the game in your article.

If you cannot tolerate that which you so liberally dish then you have no business gauging the talents of those better than yourself.

Writing a review isn't a carny shooting gallery where you can blast away and not be concerned over the ducks returning fire.

If you are going to stick it out there you can't be afraid of getting it whacked off.

[badz149]

damn man...

I still have to wait a couple more days! having to import SUCKS!

I have the option to pre-order it via PSN for cheaper and get the 2 FREE DLC packs but I just have to have the disc! if for any other games, I would go for digital, but not this one! I want to have the box with me all the time I'm playing the game! maybe I'm just old school!

[mantisimo]

Last of us now at 95 on metacritic because of a 60 from another no name website. have a look on metacritic but don't click the site, it's desperate.

site name "quarter to 3" what even is that?

http://www.metacritic.com/g...

[avengers1978]

I stopped listening to game reviews a long time ago, if something looks good to me I buy it

[BISHOP-BRASIL]

And most stuff either you can play the demo or can watch gameplay on the internet before it release, there's absolutely no need for reviews anymore.

[hollabox]

Getting it tomorrow, but this guy is Japanese, this is how they review American products. Hell most of Sony hard hitting first party games are American made. Most Sony published American or European made games sell less than 600K in the land of the rising sun. So I'm not surprised with this review at all.

[avengers1978]

Oh and the first ten minutes of Last of Us is amazing, and horrible all at once...
TLOU for GOTY

[showtimefolks]

All I know is I am getting the game soon

Also to be in contention for game of the decade and a game people will remember for a long long time more than makes up for any low scores review wise

I think we can all agree on this LOU is ND's finest game since UC2 and possibly better than UC2. D don't make bad games I wish every developer gets it right and I wish every publishers was like Sony and cut ally give developers enough time and resources to make a excellent game

[GamerzElite]

Nice game https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[Veneno]

If this reviewer found the violence to be too much for him, or he found that there wasn't a huge innovation in terms of gameplay, that's perfectly fine. But a reviewer , and also apparently a whole website in the case of Polygons editors getting involved with reviews, must be able to recognize brilliance and masterful games when they see them. Just like Uncharted 2, if it wasn't your bag of tea you must still be able to realize that it was a landmark achievement in video game history, otherwise you just don't belong reviewing games.

[kaozgamer]

ahahhahaa dayum!

[Godmars290]

Wouldn't give it the time of day myself.

In fact, because of what the industry itself has done to rating, maligned them by turning them into a profit point, I'd be more likely to bitch at my own publishers.

[Abriael]

I have to say, that kind of makes me feel bad when I score a game low.

Knowing that you're directly influencing (even if by a small amount if you write on a small site) the livelyhood or other people isn't easy.

That isn't the score's fault though, and in the end I have to carry on on the path I've chosen. Can't blame the gun for the hand that fires it (which is mine, so I'm fully to blame for the score I choose), and with great (or small) power comes great responsibility.

Unfortunately not many fully understand or feel that responsibility.

[Ipunchbabiesforfun]

it's just a game review, you're not Spider-man bro...

[Agent_hitman]

Polygon website should be closed ASAP..

[CrossingEden]

"after all a reviewer is absolutely free to score his review however he wants, even way out of the Metacritic average"
here that gamers, REVIEWERS ARE ALLOWED TO HAVE A DIFFERENT OPINION FROM THE MAJORITY

[Abriael]

Absolutely. Of course readers are just as free to judge if such opinion has been expressed free of all influence, or deliberate in order to achieve a certain effect.

In the end when one's work is displayed in public, he submits himself to criticism. That works for developers, but it should (and does) also work for the critics themselves.

[CrossingEden]

and if the majority has no proof but still spout their hate filled nonsense as truth then the majority of readers are biased

[Azfargh]

Reviewers are allowed to have opinions, so do we to them as well. Think a little more before writing stuff.

Self-opinion is a double-edge sword my friend.

[Hicken]

You try just way too hard to be contrary. Do you even know the problem people have with the review? I expect you'll chalk it up to "OMG, Sony exclusive didn't get a 10/10! Conspiracy!" rather than using comprehension skills.

[CrossingEden]

Half the people complaining didn't even read the review -_-

[Hicken]

"Half the people complaining didn't even read the review"

You got a source for that? Or is that what you choose to believe so it makes you feel better about being so wrong all the time?

[CrossingEden]

half the people on this site don't even bother to read the articles and post based on the title, this is a known fact

[YoungKingDoran]

Shuhei is one bad ass mother fucker.

[NarooN]

I loved his first reply. "Who are you?" Hahaha, Shuhei-san has no time for random commoners like him.

[Rusty515]

Damn. Sony firing shots at everyone up in this bitch

[DVAcme]

Yoshida has an amazing talent to smack down people with subtle jabs. I'm betting he's the one who came up with the idea for the Sharing video.

Edit: And I think people will now think twice before namedropping him on Twitter.

[Abriael]

Unless it was intentional. Some like the attention, even if negative.

[DVAcme]

Yeah, Polygon seems to thrive on that kind of attention. But the joke's on them, since giving a mediocre rating to what's quickly becoming the leading Game Of The Year candidate does wonders for the destruction of your journalistic credibility. Not to mention that blatantly telling us that people who haven't even touched the game are involved in the rating process is a hell of a stupid move.

Man, Sony's had a hell of an easy time with opposition lately, haven't they? It's like everyone involved in praising Microsoft or Microsoft themselves are suffering from an epidemic of Foot-In-Mouth Syndrome.

[sourav93]

Another example https://twitter.com/yosp/st...

[Malice-Flare]

this is their policy regarding scores:

"Games are not scored until a review is written and finalized. Once a review is complete, the reviewer meets with a group of senior editors to determine which score on our scale properly reflects the text as written. We do not write with scores in mind."

with that, it's possible people who haven't played the game judged it anyway...

[jeeves86]

That sounds like a ridiculous rating system. But it certainly reflects what the author writes in the review over just doling out a number.

[CLOUD1983]

What Polygon did is unforgiving, I might have not play this game yet but we r talking for a game that was voted best of E3 2012 & the trailers & demos left millions of gamers around the world speechless with it's quality, the insane AI, the unbelievably realistic survival elements, the amazing visuals & more or less everything else they saw.

Some times reviewers sugar-coat a game that don't deserve it I have see that happen a lot of times already best example http://www.metacritic.com/g... when a game doesn't deserve the scores it gets & a guy dares to deliver an unbiased to-the-point review where he gives a game a rating that truly deserves like this guy did here for example http://www.destructoid.com/... & his opinion have the support of thousands of ppl who agree with that opinion then I'm glad that there is at least one guy who don't give a fck about how big a company/publisher is & say his honest unbiased opinion w/o caring for anything else.

But with TLOU that was not the case, because the guy who decide to give that score don't have any supporters with him, no1 who share his opinion that this game deserve to get that low score hes all alone & he just trolling & target for hits & nothing more, they deserve to loose readers & fans for what they did I hope ppl r smart enough to see that & search for a better place to inform their selves than this sh1thole of a site.

[Kos-Mos]

Yeah, because the majority is always right, right?

[FlunkinMonkey]

This 'review' was a complete joke. so called 'gaming journalism' at it's worst. A review should be conducted from a much more objective standpoint, rather than subjective.

Now i understand that there may be influences within your review that you can't avoid, such as your own preferences which may funnel through to your text, but this guy just sounded like a wet nappy. "too violent" - this is no excessive gore porn 'Hostel' type game, get a grip man! If this really does may some tribute to the book 'The Road' by Cormack McCarthy, then the violence is fully justified as a tool of immersion.. .

Reviews, whose sites are funded by rival companies *cough* Microsoft *cough* lack credibility, and shouldn't even be included on metacritic, and vice versa. This will have done the site much more damage than good.

[HaVoK308]

It is impossible to review media objectively. Funny, gamers claim video games are Art, yet believe Art can be reviewed objectively. One cannot review a piece of entertainment without relying on their personal taste and bias. Surely you can't be this ignorant? If games could be reviewed objectively, we would only need One review!

This is the most moronic statement I have read in quite some time.

[FlunkinMonkey]

As i said, preferences will funnel through to text, subjectivity can't be avoided, but when a game is praised as the 'best graphics, animation and sound design' he's ever seen, but the final score produced is a 7.5 because he didn't like the violence, then something is wrong.

Get your G-string that's wedged in between your sandy vag unstuck.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Who are you?

Lmao..

[lucaskeller1]

The last of us' response to weak critiques:

COME AT ME BRO

http://24.media.tumblr.com/...

[rmedtx]

Well, every time there's a great game out regardless of the console; there's always a jerk website that gives them a ridiculous score just to get hits. If we want this to change we need to not indulge them by visiting their sites.

[sourav93]

Out of 67 reviews on Metacritic, 32 gave the game a perfect score. Suck on that Polygon and Philip Kollar!

[Kos-Mos]

Oh oh oh oh. So NOW metacritic is relevant?

[sourav93]

Huh? Erm...What? When did I say it wasn't? Since this is a article regarding a review, so metacritic IS relevant.

[Kos-Mos]

No no no no. You`re using metacritic as a argument that the game is good. That is a no go. No no.

[trouble_bubble]

Well, sometimes where there's smoke there's fire. Like if someone was on the ignore list of 20-30 people. Might be something to it. Or that 96% on meta.

[Kos-Mos]

Let me conclude my argument: Look at the metascore for A Clockwork Orange and 2001:A Space Odyssey and explain to me what is right by that average score. If you still can`t understand it, check out the score for Avatar and gtaiv. Understand?

[FunkMacNasty]

This is all a bit silly, I think. All this hemming and hawing over a 7.5 review score? I could understand if it got a 6, or anything below a 7, but I think we are forgetting that 7.5 is a good score. Definitley not a "troll" score.

Jeez.. gamers are so entitled these days. Everyone thinks that if a highly anticipated game doesn't get 9's and 10's that the reviewers are trolls or fanboys or something.

Just f*cking play the game and decide what the value of the score is on your own merits, don't worry about what some critic thinks.

[fsfsxii]

TLOU set the bar so high i didn't wanna play any game after i beat it 3 days ago.

[HonestDragon]

"Games are not scored until a review is written and finalized. Once a review is complete, the reviewer meets with a group of senior editors to determine which score on our scale properly reflects the text as written. We do not write with scores in mind."

Wow. That is how they go about scoring a game? That is just asinine. So, basically, we have one person in the room who reads their review to a bunch of senior editors (who have not played the game) and they all decide on a score together based on how the review sounds. That is not how you go about determining a score.

"After all a reviewer is absolutely free to score his review however he wants, even way out of the Metacritic average..."

Well, I would hope reviewers do that. I like to score my reviews the way I want and not on an average by a site that is questionable on its own merit. I don't take Metacritic seriously mainly because of the user base there (who just love to give terrible and illiterate reviews) and the overall standings of certain reviewers because they know they will generate hits if they have a review that stands out from the norm.

"Should people that haven’t played a game really contribute to scoring it?"

No. Having someone score a game when they themselves haven't played it makes absolutely no sense.

[GraveLord]

I wasn't aware of this Polygon reviewing policy. It's even worse than I initially thought. If you haven't played the fucking game, you have no business is determining its review score. Polygon should be banned from N4G and Metacritic.

[lucidity]

Polygon publish real dreck and is unquestionably one of the worst outlets we currently have, but I don't think it's reasonable to get angry about their review scores if they reflect the opinions of the writer(s).

[Riderz1337]

DON'T MESS WITH YOSP

[EffectO]

Yosp is a Sony fanboy?

:mindblown

[goldwyncq]

Played 3 hours of the game and in no way was it a 7.5. Polygon should be banned in this site.

[Godz Kastro]

Isnt a review an opinion and an opinion subjective? Does everyone have to think its a 9 or 10? Everyone?

Dont get me wrong. Im borrowing my Nephews PS3 to play it. The game looks awesome but come on, attacking an opinion. And 7.5 is a good score, wtheck!

[Kos-Mos]

This is n4g and games from the west.

[jimmywolf]

the main issue is not his opinion, if he had this score 2 months from now, doubt anyone would bat a eye. the issue is he did it for hits/attention, before majority even had a chance too try the game...

[jeeves86]

The issue here, judging by many, many comments is that the review was too opinionated. Which shows that they don't understand what exactly a review is.

Have any proof that he really just doesn't like violence or gore? Then maybe Polygon got the wrong person to review their game. Get this guy to keep on reviewing Fisher Price toys.

[devwan]

Amazing game, been playing it for 8 hours straight, stunning.

[WorldGamer]

At the end of the day TLOU is still a noteworthy addition to the PS3 and a fitting sendoff with the impending release of the PS4.

Gotta brush the haters off.

[stridershoge]

Personally I don't understand the uproar. I stopped listening to Polygons opinions since the Ni No Kuni ratings, Why? not because I think Polygon has an issue with Sony but because I do not seem to share the same feelings for games as their reviewers do (the same goes for sites like Eurogamer and Gamespot).

I have reviewers that I feel have the same preferences for games as I do such as Colin Moriarty and Adam Sessler so I tend to ignore those other sites even if they give a game I like 10/10.

[Relientk77]

Shuhei Yoshida is awesome confirmed, as if confirmation was needed.

[Godz Kastro]

I like Yoshida but to make a comment like that is really unprofessional.. Deducting points Yoshi!

[despair]

"who are you?"

nice, Yoshida is so awesome.

[whamlollypop7]

Damn those who don't give every hyped title a 10 this industry sucks reviews who needs them make your own decisions or don't who cares.

[SpinalRemains]

No

7.5 is an insult to this game though.
No other current gen title comes remotely close to what this title does.

Try to name one console game which can match TLoU in story, artistry, animation, characters and superb gameplay.

Name one that is on par with TLoU

[PurpHerbison]

Opinions everywhere!

[Hozi]

Here's what a review should come down too.

Story/Plot, Character's Development, Gameplay, Sound, Replay Value.....Not because of difficulty, or Violence. Say I'm a game designer and I want to make the goriest, most violent game....does that mean the game is shit because you can't stand those things?

[Hydralysk]

Did you READ the review? Where did these people start getting the idea that he was complaining about the violence BECAUSE VIOLENCE IS BAD? He's complaining about it because he found the gunplay shoddy and the fact that the game sends waves of enemies at you and has you mow them down, which is at odds with the tone of the game.

"At first, these limitations and frustration made me view gunplay as a last resort. It wasn't an exciting adrenaline rush. It wasn't something to seek out. It was an awful, uncomfortable act reserved for the worst situations, and that felt right in this world. At one point, Joel tells Ellie that they only do terrible things because "we have no other choice." For half of the game, at least, I bought it. But Joel's definition of "no other choice" broadens."

[trouble_bubble]

Father Tom Chick, the douchiest douche on metacritic, just stole Polygon's thunder with Quarter to Three's 3/5 score http://www.quartertothree.c... going on metacritic as 60/100. And yes it dropped the average.

Polygon's review incidentally, is rocket science in comparison. Chick finds the "popcorn zombies" as he calls em, too unrealistic. He fails to realise the Cordyceps on them are in fact based on real world, well, Cordyceps! I'm speechless. Docking points for a basis in real science. See you guys in that thread..

[PurpHerbison]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this game receiving a 7.5. Nothing at all. Now if the game received something really stupid like a 1.5? Okay, then yes.

[SageHonor]

People getting offended over a review score.. lol

[fatstarr]

they were trying to go for the ocarina of times number 1 spot. they cant no more.

[Hydralysk]

I love how people jump on top of anyone who DARES to say that The Last of Us isn't the second coming, it's like Bioshock Infinite being released all over again. Anytime someone will point out it flaws it'll be drowned out by people going "OMG You're just doing this for the hits because the game is absolutely PERFECT! GOTY!".

I don't know much or really care about how polygon comes up with the score, as scores are complete bullshit where 90% of all games fall into the 60-90% range, but after reading the review I thought it was solid (haven't played it so I can't say if I agree or not). He backed up his complaints with examples, and that's more than most game reviewers tend to do.

[Ipunchbabiesforfun]

I wish I still had my PS3 :( I have to wait for PS4 and Gaikai? for this game.

[Deep-throat]

someone show him Tom Chick's review

[cheameup]

If reviews werent opiion then every game would get the same score . why bother having them ?

how about teh 6 / 10 on metacritic now ?

[isyourhouseonfire]

The Last of Us was definitely an overhyped debacle. It rivals what happened to 'Dishonored' and the strange, unwarranted, hype that surrounded that game. I'm not saying the Last of Us isn't worth playing but it's definitely not a must-buy and does not at all beat out all other games released in June. If a gamer can't afford to buy all games I strongly suggest then pick another game when looking for entertainment. Sony really dropped the ball on this one.

[trouble_bubble]

Your PSN ID, thecraftiest1, doesn't exist. I don't take advice from people who don't exist.

[-Gespenst-]

Yeah I think review scores need to go. People have too many assumptions built around certain scores and often those colour how they understand a review, or worse, they don't even read the review because they see a big 7.5 emblazoned on the article.

In both cases, finer points and nuances about a review can go overlooked and gamers can continue to live in their own heads without considering the views and perspectives of others, from which we can often learn a lot. The practice of scoring a game contributes to mob rule and overhyping and community hostility, not reasoned debate and acceptance and understanding of people's views. No dialectical reconciliation can occur between opposing views either. We learn nothing. Our critical faculties get worse and worse.

You can't really hope to quantify something as unstable as an opinion, you have to go deeper than that, you have to open discussion and dialogue.

[mafiahajeri]

Just finished the game, 7.5? Ha! Yeah right!

[Xenomorph]

7.5? That's like the culmitive rating of the 2010 AVP game. Which was actually a 7.5/8 type of game.

[MikeyDucati1]

You know this is no different than that reviewer who gave his honest opinion and wound up getting fired for it. Also this shows you that so many people got used to folks praising this game that if a person stands up and have a difference of opinion, they automatically rule it out as a guy trolling or just to get review clicks on their website. Nothing was classy about what he said on Twitter. Nothing is perfect and not all things created will sit perfectly with every single person that inhabits the world. Very immature on Yoshida's part.

[P_Bomb]

Seems to me they called Yoshida out. His 'who are you' response was hilarious. Polygon was taking the piss.

[TheSaint]

For one thing 7.5 isn't a bad score, it's still better than 75% of the games out there. For another it's just opinions.

I don't like Dark Souls, loved Demons souls hated Dark, I do realise that it's a good game, though just not my cup of tea.