Comment by jeffamiller79 on October 5, 2012 at 8:36am

Sweet!

Comment by Johnny Blaze on October 5, 2012 at 8:37am

Epic timing

Comment by Abel2Disable on October 5, 2012 at 9:55am

RE6 has a 66 on Metacritic. 666 :0 ...Resident Evil is truly evil!

Comment by Sergio Alvarez Pinto on October 5, 2012 at 10:17am

so buy o rent for resident evil 6???

Comment by Beema on October 5, 2012 at 10:37am

If you actually read Jim Sterling's 3/10 review of RE6, he backs up that score with everything he says in the review. He paints a picture of a dull, lifeless game. I actually don't mind Destructoid's use of a number score because they are one of the few sites that actually uses the full scale, and has an explanation of what those numbers mean.

Yes, there is a problem with scores in general, though. Much of our culture has a very ADHD need a number rating attitude, so unfortunately there are people who just skip past reading the actual review and only look at the score. I think Tony is right -- the "quick fix" people are going to make snap judgments on games with or without the scores. 

But here's the thing: all game reviews, or critiques, are subjective. Anyone clamoring for an objective review of a game is an idiot that does not understand what criticism is about. Maybe that's the problem: people don't understand the difference between a product review and a critique of a piece of media/art. Games occupy a unique space here: they are both products and art. If you want a completely objective review of something, that something has to be a utilitarian product, like a toaster. Then you can objectively compare it to other toasters, because it has one function: toasting, and you can compare the job it does of that directly with competing products. Games don't operate in this way. They affect different people differently.

I think the best advice I've heard with reviews came from Movie Bob, and that was: try to find a critic whose general values line up with your values. Most consumers don't have the option to buy every single game that comes out and form their own opinion of it, because of time and money. So that's why we have critics. So if you find yourself a critic that you know you can trust, and whose opinions and values you generally share, than that person's reviews will be an excellent barometer for you.

As for myself, I pretty much made up my mind on RE6 before any reviews even came out. Having played RE5, and being disappointed with where I saw the series going, then having seen all the RE6 pre-release PR about how action-oriented it is, and the changes they made, and the ridiculous story, I decided that I was not going to buy it, at least not outright. I think with all the media saturation we receive on a game pre-release, it's actually pretty easy to determine whether you might like something or not, before ever reading a review. This is especially true for games that are sequels or part of a series. You can get a good idea with how it compares or differs from the previous iteration. So with RE6, I figured I probably wouldn't enjoy it much, and at most, that I might buy it next year when the price drops significantly. Then the reviews came out, and they reinforced what I already believed. Now maybe that's just confirmation bias, but with youtube, we have another resource in Let's Plays. I'm currently watching an RE6 let's play and it is just confirming everything I suspect and everything I read in reviews. So that lets me feel pretty confident that I'm not just in an ignorant self-affirming bubble. 

For the record, I did go with Jim Sterling's Destructoid review. Why? Because I have read many of his reviews, and of the games I have played, I generally agree with what he says. He shares many of the same likes/dislikes as I do, and therefore I think I can trust his review. If there was a reviewer that was always drastically different than what I thought, then I probably would not use their review as a game barometer. Simple as that. 

PS: Any way we can get an audio player with a volume slider?

Comment by Raminder Singh on October 5, 2012 at 10:56am

I just want to comment on the what tony was talking about on who looks at game scores. I personally do look at review numbers and reasoning basically is games are expensive and if I'm throwing down 60 dollars i want to get my moneys worth. So if there is a game that I am interested in but I am not sure I will wait for the score and depending on what it get, i can make me decide weather to buy day one or wait till the steam sale or ignore all together. there is one more point i want to make that reviews score can work good for a game as well, for example mass effect 2 I didn't play the first one so when they were showing off the second one I did not care for it, but then it gets so many perfect scores and and a 96metacritic I am like hmm maybe i should check this out and it turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life. That has happened so many times to me with me so I do Like to check out review scores. One last thing is i also like to at the users score as well because even though they tend to be more on the extreme ends of reviews they do tend to be one the money a lot of the times.

Comment by Graham Gadzia on October 5, 2012 at 11:22am

I do not typically have a problem with spending my money on multiple DLC.  Although I only buy about 5 (or less) games a year I still consider myself a hard core gamer.  I usually buy such a small amount of games a year because I feel that very few games are original and only the best developers are putting out quality products (in terms of fun gameplay, immersive story, creative design, and impressive presentation).  That being said, I feel that spend my money on multiple DLC is my way of supporting the industry and my favorite developers. In the end, the more money developers have the greater probably there is of a quality product. Unfortunately, if feels like that money goes to publishers instead the developers. Regardless, money spent on the industry is support of the industry. 

Comment by Viking Brent on October 5, 2012 at 12:15pm

@Raminder Singh: Has it ever gone the other way for you? Where you looked at the scores, bought the game, and ended up not liking it at all? I think Beema makes some good points on the subjectivity of reviews. I ask because I could easily imagine a situation where a person sees a very positive review score on a game only to buy it and discover that it wasn't at all to their taste. 

The reviewer may have had very sound reasons for their score, but if they're approaching the game from a wholly different perspective than our hypothetical player, then the score is pretty worthless; for that individual player at least.

On second thought, since the whole point of attaching a number to anything is to measure it, if the measurement is different for any given person then isn't it the score worthless...period? If 2+5 equals 7 for everyone in demographic A but equals 15 for everyone in demographic B, then those numbers, and the arithmetic applied to them, are worthless. I keep trying to see how review scores make sense, but I always come back to some similar logic trap.

Comment by Raminder Singh on October 5, 2012 at 12:32pm

@viking Brent yes that has happened as well. Grand theft auto and uncharted 2 where the both games got really great scores. But after playing them I just walked away saying they were good but to me not great. I could Appreciate what they did to push the gaming medium forward but to to me they lacked something. Uncharted felt way too like movie and gta 4 never clicked for me which is weird since I loved red dead. One thing I love doing is listening to to Invisible wall on gt cause then I get a group discussion on the quality of a game, which I do find helpful to go along with the game review

Comment by Graham Gadzia on October 5, 2012 at 12:36pm

@Raminder Singh dude, I couldn't agree more with you on every point you just hit. 

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