"Cause and (Mass) Effect" (3): What happened to the reviewers?

The last ten minutes heard round the world…

While we’re all recovering from the hoop la circulating the Mass Effect 3 debacle, something hit me.

[Hellsvacancy]

So, are we gonna get a flood of reviews again, from sites who hav already reviewed it?

[Scholla]

hmmm interesting...a lot of backtracking huh?

[googergieger]

You mean reviews that try to save face and protect themselves from being called biased/payed off by giving the same exact review with the small change of, "I understand why people hated the ending, I liked it myself. That still doesn't change a near perfect game up until the last ten minutes. Of that, everyone can agree on".

Then when someone comes along and points out all the flaws it had before the ending and the quite average story leading up to it, they are ignored.

Critics do need to replay the game from an objective point of view though and then fix their scores accordingly. Because if any new game came along and offered the type of game Mass Effect 3 did, it would have received an average score at best.

[adamant715]

Youre an idiot. Apart from the ending (which i found fine), Mass Effect 3 was the best damn game in the series.

[googergieger]

From a game play standpoint maybe. However from a story it was incredibly weak. Down to the cliched dialogue and story elements pulled out of nowhere to force the story along. Much more, regardless of what was done in the previous games, if you play Mass Effect 3 the game is ninety percent the same. With nothing but superficial differences to appease the most easily pleased of us. But please tell me why the game was the best in the series for you. The "idiot" would like to know.

[Godmars290]

As being part of the industry, I'm finding that many reviewers aren't even comprehending what the exact problem is with the ending. The Prothean DLC for that matter.

This also isn't the only instance where a game's had a major flaw and its not been reported or even mentioned in most reviews. COD. Skyrim. Fallout. They've all gotten 10+ scores and yet have required major patching after those recommendations sold millions of copies. With complaints flooding in soon after.

[Philoctetes]

One thing I've learned this gen is that reviewers just can't be trusted when it comes to major releases. GTA4, Fallout: New Vegas, Skyrim (PS3), and ME3 all got over-rated for one reason or another, but what they have in common is that the problem with these games should have been obvious to reviewers.

[TheBlackSmoke]

I dont think you can put ME3 in the same bracket as GTA4 with its monotonous singular mission type and lack of any fun and bethesdas criminally buggy and broken games.

When it comes down to it ME3 is a premium quality 25-40 hour experience with an ending that you either love or hate and the only reason why there's hate for the ending is because people are invested in the characters and universe so much, so how on earth(no pun intented) can people say ME3 is "overrated" when its able to provoke such emotions out of people? there's not many games that can claim to do that.

[baldulf]

EA's money, that's what happened.

[AtomicGerbil]

I find it difficult to trust any review whether good, bad or indifferent due to the complete lack of accuracy with reviews recently.

It's clear that a number of reviewers aren't playing these games long enough just so they can be amongst the first to release a review. This is a massive disservice to the gaming public just for the pursuit of extra cash. Personally I think it's a disgusting practice and one of the major issues that's bringing down the gaming industry.

I may be wrong and I hope I am, but when I see a title receiving praise and high scores that they clearly don't deserve I can't help thinking that there are underhand antics going on between publishers and review sites.

With the recent fan activity of late we could well be seeing a turning point, we can only hope anyway.

[Redempteur]

The article is right...they either didnt finish it...and if they did they didnt realise that the endingthey got was the only outcome.

Me2 had a good ending that required some work to be great and probably figured it was the same thing here.

Addad to the deadlines this was the result we got