Over the past few days, gamers around the world are filled with glee now that the PS4 is available on store shelves. And many more gamers will be filled with glee once the Xbox One launches in about a week. Over the past year, the game industry has harped about how PS4 has superior hardware, how the Xbox One has superior online, how the PS4 has superior first-parties, how the Xbox One has a superior controller, how [fill in the blank, we've heard it all]. The differences between the two consoles seem numerous, but there's one thing they seem to have in common.
Average launch games.
"Average launch games?!?" you say? Well, if Metacritic is to believed, the headline titles for PS4 and Xbox One are just...average.
Two of PS4's biggest exclusives, Knack and Killzone Shadow Fall, have a 56 and 73 Metascore, respectively. Terrible? Well, maybe not. These are, after all, launch titles. Killer Instinct and Dead Rising 3 also sit in the mid-70s Meta range. Average games? Maybe not. These are, after all, launch titles.
Not like Metascore matters, though, right? It was about the time that Uncharted 2's number of Perfect 10s skyrocketed that the gaming media and certain sects of forum warriors decided unilaterally "Metacritic doesn't matter anymore". Then again, if you have a game like Knack averaging less than 60/100 on Metacritic, there must be something wrong with the game, right?
Perhaps neither Sony nor Microsoft were ready for next gen. Maybe they rushed these games. Maybe it's a bit too early to 'jump in'. Instead of 'Greatness Awaits', we should've waited for greatness. That is, if Metacritic and the reviewed posted on Metacritic are worth any serious consideration.
Honestly, I don't think the games they've shown are as bad as the scores let on. Rather, I think there are a few other factors at work here.
First, let's just tackle the elephant in the room: gaming journalism is corrupt as can be. Am I blaming the low scores on bribes or lack of professionalism? Partly. Every new generation is a fresh start, a new beginning, a chance for game companies to prove themselves. The last year has shown that a beloved game company can quickly fall from grace if they go against their fans' desires. And to be perfectly fair, all three "flubs" (Xbox One, Wii-U, Vita) have been quick to change their tune and try to appease their fans. All three "flubs" have recovered remarkably from their low point earlier in the year.
On the other hand, journalists have been slower to catch up. A lot of journalists were blindsided by Microsoft's announcement of the Xbox One and its draconian policies. Trying to be good fans, they spun each piece of negative news but eventually it got to be too much. Certain journalists *cough*Sessler*cough* have continued to show their bias, but for the most part gaming journalism has re-aligned itself and they're ready to do their job and report gaming news fairly. And with that in the cards, journalists don't want to look too soft. They don't want to be seen as 'biased' to either the PS4 nor the Xbox One. Result? Lower review scores.
There's another factor at work. For all of last gen, we dealt with "review score bloat". An 8/10 for a AAA title was an outrage. A 7/10 for a AAA title was a death sentence. Every game that was - supposedly - worth playing averaged in the very high 80s but typically a 90 or above was a requisite for being considered a top-tier title. Year after year, more and more 9/10 games came out. Year after year, the 9/10s were rolled out for pretty much any and every big-name franchise.
And that was idiotic.
What we might be seeing is reviewers hitting the Reset button on review scores. Instead of front-loading the generation with 9/10s and 10/10s, reviewers are being a bit stingier with their praise, which is perfectly fine. C'mon, we ALL konw that these launch titles will be *okay*, but they'll be surpassed in a few years when bigger and better games come along. Does anyone disagree? As such, there's no value in bloating their scores. It'll only continue the toxic trend of review bloat.
Is review bloat the only reason why these next-gen titles are getting such average scores? Nah, I think in some cases it really is just good ol' bias and lack of integrity. That's never going to go away. What is important - as a gamer - is to read the reviews and try to discern whether YOU will or won't like the game in question. Sadly, most reviews lack any critical thought. The reviewer explains the mechanics, talks about some cool mechanics, talks about some flaws, and then hands down an arbitrary score (which often doesn't even seem to match the tone of the review itself). Most reviews are terrible at actually giving you enough good information to draw your own conclusion.
I do hope, however, that journalists ARE hitting the Reset on review bloat. What we as gamers must do is hit the Reset on Metacritic (so to speak). We need to stop being so obsessed with differences in score (and differences in sales numbers...OH GOODNESS PLEASE) and instead focus on the content and value of the game. When review scores lose their power over us as a gaming community, reviewers won't abuse them. Better yet, videogame publishers won't manipulate news outlets in order to acquire better review scores, which is what led to the widespread corruption in the game journalist industry in the first place.
Are the PS4's (and Xbox One's) launch games really that bad? Hmmm, kinda. These are launch games. I hope that no one is so caught up in the marketing hype that they REALLY believe these games are going to be landmark titles. They're launch titles. They'll be fun. They'll be okay. But these games probably aren't all that mind-blowing. And guess what? That's perfectly okay. I don't need a game to have a 90+ Metascore or high praise from a so-called "professional" reviewer for me to enjoy a game, and neither should you.
If you were excited about the Fallout 4 London mod, we have some bad news for you. The mod has been delayed indefinitely thanks to Fallout 4 next-gen update.
Not a bad thing. They've even shown excitement at what the update could bring to making things better for them. More work? Yeah. But, still a good thing overall.
If you're in the market for an RTX 4090 graphics card, this one is currently the cheapest one you'll find on Amazon after a hefty discount.
Nexus 5X is focused on taking all of the deep strategy that typifies the 4X genre and concentrates it into acompetitive short-run format that is perfect for a game-night.
Hell no they aren't. I just got my PS4 today and already downloaded Warframe (SPACE NINJAS!!!) and Resogun (OMG, that game is beautiful!) from the PSN store. I'm just waiting for AC4 to come in so I can sink some real time into that and I'm not really a shooter fan (even though I DL'ed Warframe) so Killzone, BF4, and CoD aren't even on my radar.
I have had a lot of fun with Resogun even though I suck at shmups.
Also, I've had absolute NONE of the "issues" that allegedly plague the PS4. No "wobbling" (seriously?), no "loud fan" (yeah right), no any coloured "Light of Death" (lmao), and no HDMI problem either (but I know how to insert an HDMI cord properly), and I got my console from Amazon (amazon.ca mind you). So not only are the games great, but the console itself is great as well and I can't wait until the real games start coming out.
March is going to kick my wallet's a$$ with all the games for PS4 and PS3 coming. Infamous, Dark Souls 2, FFX/X-2 HD collection, possibly Watch Dogs, I know I'm missing something. I've never had so many games to choose from.
Also, if you haven't seen it, check out what 7thLevel and 8th think of Knack.
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
Everything is so skewed right now, it's ridiculous. Let's take Knack for instance, the fan-base really enjoys it. If it's a game that you think you might like then give it a shot. People seem to really want this game to fail. I'm not saying it's the best thing since sliced bread, but in my mind it is a breath of fresh air.
Metacritic:
http://www.metacritic.com/g...
Metascore 56; 25 professional reviews, 3 positive, 14 mixed, and 8 negative.
User Score 7,2; 55 user reviews, 47 positive, 0 mixed, 8 negative.
For some reason I could only find 3 of the 8 negative user reviews and this was the FIRST AND ONLY game any of them have reviewed, here are their profiles:
http://www.metacritic.com/u...
http://www.metacritic.com/u...
http://www.metacritic.com/u...
The point is, trolls are EVERYWHERE, you gotta use your gut. If the game has something about it you think you might enjoy then don't let the mindless bashing of this game sway you. I think this game is going to grow on people more and more as time progresses.
Review Scores aren't based on a fun scale of 0-10, they're based on story, controls, creativity, and then fun. A lot of people are saying "Knack got 6/10 but I found it fun, how dare they". It's alright you think the game is fun and worth $60 for you, but the review isn't based on your scale of fun.
I think it's funny when people say review scores don't matter only to get offended when a game they like recieves a lesser score. It's one thing to say "this reviewer gave the game 4/10 when everyone else gave it 8" but it's another to say "another 6? What do they have against it". A 6/10 for Knack or a 7.5 for Killzone is the trend, not an outlier. Just like how the worth of a game varies from player to player, the review and analysis of a game veries from reviewer to reviewer. In this day and age you can't put out a conventional game and expect it to naturally rise above the rest, it has to be better in terms of story and gameplay to stand out
The reviewers for PS4 games are the same reviewers for PS3 and 360, they aren't some cult with the single purpose to shut down the PS4. People buy certain games because they want memorable experiences, a reviewer imo should take that into account when reviewing a game. They should ask "does this game stand out from all the other games in the genre" If it does then naturally it should get above decent scores. If it's nothing remarkable then it ideally shouldn't.
Like many of us I want to see the PS4 succeed, to get as many creative, awesome, and special games as we can get. The wrong thing to do would be to put our own idea of fun over the critical aspects of a game. Ask yourself "could this game have been better" and go from there. This is the perfect opportunity for the developers of games like Knack or Killzone. If people find them fun despite getting "only" 6's and 7's, imagine if they got 8's, 9's or 10's. Don't sell yourself short
The three main games that everyone seems to talk about are Killzone, knack, and resogun.
I'm a huge Killzone fan but the game sounds rushed. Everyone seems to agree that it looks superb but has a mediocre campaign and is missing some pretty important multiplayer features such as squads, clan support, and in game voice chat. That's pretty atrocious for such a flagship multiplayer title.
Knack looks ok. Not brilliant, not crap, just ok. If it was £20 I would buy it but there is no way I would pay £50 for a game which looks like Lego God Of War. I can see this being one of the free ps+ games in the very near future?
Resogun looks superb but I can't help feeling that a big part of why people are loving it so much is the price tag which means that people are even more blown away by the quality they are getting at such a low price.
That's my take so far. I don't have a ps4 yet but I will be picking one up at midnight on the 28th.
Personally I think the launch titles are indeed average, except for resogun that is, that thing is fun. :)