Assassin's Creed II: "News Worth Celebrating II"
Posted: Monday November 30th, 2009
by
Before you start reading this keep in mind that I have not played either of the Assassin's Creed games.
As I made my gaming news rounds last night, I bumped into a review of Assassin's Creed II at Destructoid that kind of shocked me. A 4.5 on a 10 point scale. [more info] Now I'm not one to buy into ratings. From my perspective they're nothing more than one person's opinion. The trick is finding a person whose opinion you tend to agree with.
Anyway, from everything I've seen the reviews of Assassin's Creed II are overwhelmingly positive. [more info] Most reviewers point out this issue or that issue but considered them minor enough to ignore them and still give the game a good score. At Dtoid though, they seem to have become the focus. What makes my eyes cross is that Destructoid is where I tend to go for blunt honesty. And this review certainly delivers that. I just wasn't expecting a 4.5. Then I checked who the reviewer was and the surprise slipped away.
I may have mentioned this before but Jim Sterling is so full of snark he seems to be somewhat incapable of enjoying games/gaming. The point is, I should have checked the byline first.
So, what the hell is up with the completely recycled comic and a write up that is essentially a review of a review?
Well, that's a valid point. I found myself questioning whether the other reviews bought into the hype surrounding the game. Were they so eager to get another taste of Assassin's Creed that they let the game slide by without penalizing it for its fault. Or was Sterling just being his typical snarky self, posting a lowballed score in order to generate attention for his article. As usual the answer probably falls somewhere in the middle. And we gamers are left scratching our heads trying to figure out what to do next.
These days games are an investment of both time and money. We want a reliable way to gauge a game before we spend ANYTHING on it. But what happens when the source we usually go to diverges significantly from prevailing opinion?
Manh, I don't freakin' know. I'm just an art dude making loosely veiled sexual references in his comic. (Which is why the comic is recycled to this degree, I wanted to point back at its previous version.) So the goal today, I guess, is to get you guys talking about how you look at games versus how game site reviewers look at them.
[ discuss ]
As I made my gaming news rounds last night, I bumped into a review of Assassin's Creed II at Destructoid that kind of shocked me. A 4.5 on a 10 point scale. [more info] Now I'm not one to buy into ratings. From my perspective they're nothing more than one person's opinion. The trick is finding a person whose opinion you tend to agree with.
Anyway, from everything I've seen the reviews of Assassin's Creed II are overwhelmingly positive. [more info] Most reviewers point out this issue or that issue but considered them minor enough to ignore them and still give the game a good score. At Dtoid though, they seem to have become the focus. What makes my eyes cross is that Destructoid is where I tend to go for blunt honesty. And this review certainly delivers that. I just wasn't expecting a 4.5. Then I checked who the reviewer was and the surprise slipped away.
I may have mentioned this before but Jim Sterling is so full of snark he seems to be somewhat incapable of enjoying games/gaming. The point is, I should have checked the byline first.
So, what the hell is up with the completely recycled comic and a write up that is essentially a review of a review?
Well, that's a valid point. I found myself questioning whether the other reviews bought into the hype surrounding the game. Were they so eager to get another taste of Assassin's Creed that they let the game slide by without penalizing it for its fault. Or was Sterling just being his typical snarky self, posting a lowballed score in order to generate attention for his article. As usual the answer probably falls somewhere in the middle. And we gamers are left scratching our heads trying to figure out what to do next.
These days games are an investment of both time and money. We want a reliable way to gauge a game before we spend ANYTHING on it. But what happens when the source we usually go to diverges significantly from prevailing opinion?
Manh, I don't freakin' know. I'm just an art dude making loosely veiled sexual references in his comic. (Which is why the comic is recycled to this degree, I wanted to point back at its previous version.) So the goal today, I guess, is to get you guys talking about how you look at games versus how game site reviewers look at them.
[ discuss ]
[ top ]
- advertise on gu -
