Adventure Gamers - Forums

Some comments/observations:

1. I think zobraks is 100% right, review scores/points/stars are mostly unnecessary. The text should reveal everything that the game is all about, from the subjective viewpoint of the reviewer. Adding a number doesn’t really add anything to that.

2. The rating system, even if accept that such a thing is necessary (which it really isn’t), is flawed. You have a good number of half stars given. If you can’t force the rating into a five star system and must use half stars, then adjust the system and use ten stars instead. Or tell reviewers that if they are on the fence between two different ratings, choose one or the other, don’t try to have both.

3. Would the ratings be more acceptable using 0-100 points system? Assuming that games get 1-5 stars evenly (more about that later), then mathematically 5 star games would cover the range 81-100 points on a different rating system. And if we entertain the idea that ratings are necessary and meaningful, there really is a big difference between 81 and 100 points. In the five star system games from both ends and from between get the same five stars. That’s OK, but if the problem is too many games having the maximum rating, then having a more thorough and detailed rating system would automatically fix it. Possibly even to the point that no game would ever get 100 points, which is a new problem with that rating system.

4. Are games rated using the full scale or not? If we have too many five star reviews, then either we have a selection of really good games, or reviewers are shy to use the lower end of the scale. I tried to find a game that was give only one star, but really couldn’t find them fast. I had to go all the way back to April 2022 to find a game that was given only half a star. Which brings back the earlier problem of half stars. Is 0.5 stars an acceptable rating on any scale?

5. But let’s assume that reviewers are rating the games honestly, fairly, and using the full scale. What does the apparent lack of one star games tell us? It tells us one of the following things, not sure which one:
A. We are living in a wonderful time when we are not getting any garbage and disasters for a game, even the most basic games have some quality (and there’s some truth that, most likely).
B. The criteria for using one star rating is flawed. If it’s so easy to get at least two stars, then the rating system should be more “demanding”.
C. The site or reviewers pre-select games so that they write only about games that can get good ratings. This isn’t an imaginary situation. A long time ago I was talking to an unnamed media about reviewing some games for them. They told me something like: “choose whatever games you want, but choose games that get good scores.” I didn’t bother to reply them after that. They weren’t interest in actually doing good reviews, they were interested in creating some fake positivity or whatever.

So a lot of things there.
And we didn’t even touch the age old problem of comparing two games and their ratings against each other, which has always been a difficult thing among gamers.

The one thing that bothers me is the consistent overrating of anything that smells of “art”. You can make a relatively complex 15 hour adventure game and it’s “good game, great fun, 4/5” or you can make a 30 minute little artsy something and it’ll be “5/5, so deep” (except everyone will have forgotten this supposedly perfect game in two months when the next art-bait-game comes out).

But maybe that’s just me and secretly everyone loves this sorta stuff ^^

I haven’t been to the website in awhile, but I came back to check in on GOTY discussions and saw this topic. I want to chime in that the reason I stopped coming here (besides the site redesign, which is a separate issue) and stopped supporting the Patreon is partly because of the generous review scores. I no longer have faith that a 4.5 or 5 out of 5 score from here is a must-play game and a lot of games that receive these scores aren’t even in the conversation for GOTY.

It’s a shame, because this used to be a site I really loved and trusted. I’m glad it still exists, and the old reviews are still available, but I’m not confident that the site will return to its past glory.

I agree with Diego and it’s one of the reasons I don’t really trust review sites at all anymore. Every piece of media is either a 5/5 or 1/5 and most things are purely in the middle. I think advertising dollars has some play into it. I trust one or two reviewers that I like and my taste generally align with. That’s not just in video games but all media and entertainment.

I hated what another site did to the baron and his review of syberia 4 even though he gave them a pass. Not publishing a review bc it didnt vibe with their point of view of a game is just wrong to me. I really liked the game that was in discussion but it doesn’t mean somebody else has to love it too.

it’s like one time when I had an argument with a dev bc I had a whole bunch of bugs in his game and he tried to wave his hand and said well nobody else reported the bugs. I was like well I have them, and left a poor review, why would I make that up… some Behavior online is just bizarre

Underground Blossom is my p&c adventure of 2023.

zobraks - 28 December 2023 07:58 AM

They used to have that very system at PC Gamer twenty years ago (when I was buying it), but guess what - most adventure games had got the score between 3 and 18 (out of 100, of course).

I had to verify that claim, and apparently you weren’t kidding or even exaggerating.

Assuming MetaCritic has the correct information, here are some things “professional” critics said about The Moment of Silence:

100
Four Fat Chicks
One of the best adventure games of 2004 and likely the best ever to deal with a futuristic, Orwellian theme of corruption and conspiracy. Story, dialogue, character development, settings, artwork, acting, and music are all superb.

91
Just Adventure
With the exception of my two gripes; this offering is, in this reviewer’s humble opinion, on a par with the big games produced by Lucas Arts, Access, the “old” Sierra, and more recently, Microids.

80
Adventure Gamers
A futuristic digital age has fully bloomed in The Moment of Silence with a relatable lead character, more comfortable dialogue, clear and original puzzles, striking graphical presentation and a full-package sci-fi adventure. One of the most entertaining adventures in years.

(They obviously converted four star rating to 80 points.)

14
PC Gamer
An awful and punishing experience… It’s not as if adventure games needed another punch to the crotch. [June 2005, p.74]

Not from MetaCritic, but I even managed to find Svet Kompjutera review about it, they gave it 85.

As the biggest and most complex adventure since The Longest Journey , The Moment of Silence deserves nothing but words of praise. Although there are some standard adventure games, the game’s overall quality stands out from everything we’ve played in the last two or three years, including Syberia 2. If it continues like this, House of Tales has no reason to worry about its survival in the market, and neither we adventurers for the future of the genre.

(Translation by Google, I have no idea if that’s even remotely correct…)

Opinions are one thing, even a good biased bashing of some game is fine for a good (or at least understandable) reason, but that PC Gamer rating is just… unprofessional.

I mean, The Moment of Silence is far from perfect, especially the final puzzles are among the worst ever, but the game has its moments and if I were to simply divide all adventure games into two categories, good and bad, I would rather have the game in the good selection than the bad ones.