The Chinese Room Explains How A Simple UI Change Can Mess Up Reviews

GI:

"In our review of Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, we cite the game’s plodding walk speed as a significant detractor. It turns out that the game does have a way to increase movement pace, but a last-minute change kept it hidden from players."

[IGiveHugs2NakedWomen]

The game actually does have a way to increase the pace, but none of these so called "critics" even attempted to play with the controls to see if it had that function. This generation of gamers are so used to having their hands held while playing that they don't even know how to complete a game without hints...

Welcome to the 8th generation of gamers where reviews aren't written by gamers, but they are written by whiners and people looking for clicks...

[timmyp53]

It really was The Chinese rooms fault though. They made a mistake and failed to place r2 in the controller layout or tutorial. Small mistake but it's a big one really considering the type of game.

[SquidBuck]

Well I tend to test every button in a game, as should most gamers.

[phoenixwake]

I agree, it should have been listed in the very simple control layout, and it should be more responsive than it is. I tried every button on the controller to no avail, never crossed my mind that I'd have to hold the button down for several seconds to get any response.

[joab777]

Very true. How much did they play of no one tried to hold R2 down. Seriously, if I took a poll, how many gamers would accept the fact that you can only walk w/out even trying to find a sprint button. I have literally spent hrs finding controls I believed belonged in a game.

So, this brings us to another matter altogether. We're journalists just outed? How many "journalists" actually played this game, or played it enough to give a good review? How many simply read another review and took off running with it. Did they play 30 minutes, 15, 5...or not at all?

After this, if I worked at IGN or another big company, I may just run an experiment on the next somewhat under the radar game. I would write a review with about 10 falsehoods in it. Then I would publish early and sit back and see how many other articles ended up writing about these inaccuracies.

It would be epic!!!

Maybe I'm going overboard a little bit, but c'mon. My first thought after reading about the walking, was this, "Ate you sure you tried everything? I doubt any dev would do that...ever!!!"

Probably just me...

[Aggesan]

Have you tried the game? You don't start sprinting the moment you press R2. You have to hold it down for a good 5-6 seconds before you start speeding up. If nobody would've told me about this I probably wouldn't have found it on my own.

[timmyp53]

I played the entire game without knowing... I tried every button. The problem was it's not immediate it takes about 5-7 seconds for a buildup so itz actually very hard to figure it out. Reviewers are not wrong. I also think they shouldnt change their reviews. It hampers the experience alot.

[Lamboomington]

" reviews aren't written by gamers, but they are written by whiners and people looking for clicks.."

Or, maybe a few unfortunately missed the sprint option. No, that can't be right. Reviewers are all clickbaiting, whining, evil sadists.

Besides, it's always nice to have that, because when a game you like comes out and reviewers give it less than 8/10, hey, it just means they are 'whining', 'clickbaiting', 'bashing'. You know, reviewers in general are really bad.

I mean,it's not like I've seen people doing that on n4g or anything. /S

[deadfrag]

6 seconds to start running...do we play has a drunking person or handicap.Lol.

[Spotie]

We play has a drunking person, eh?