criticism
Culture
Alignment Error: Even Good Games Can Offer Bad Choices
4:00AM Owen Good | Few things mar a game, especially a role-playing game, like being sold on creating a complex, even unique character and then being presented with tendentiously noble or evil choices to build out that role. More »
News
Company Says It Can Predict Review Scores A Year In Advance
10:30AM Owen Good | A UK company named Vertical Slice claims it’s able to predict video game review scores a year in advance of release, by reverse engineering magazine reviews, combined with an analysis method used by marriage counsellors. More »
Culture
What Would You Show to Someone Who’s Never Seen a Game?
2:00AM Owen Good | As some of you know, I’m living with my grandfather for the near term, because he’s 86 and needs some assistance, and the companionship’s good for him. But he keeps asking me about video games. More »
News
Sega Europe Chief Says Metacritic Most Useful to Expensive Games
3:30AM Owen Good | Sega Europe boss Mike Hayes says Metacritic scores are indicative of certain games’ success, and while score targets aren’t written into every developer contract, Metacritic does have value — especially in judging expensive projects. More »
Culture
Movie Critics Second Guessing Star Ratings Too
5:00AM Brian Crecente | More than 80 years ago the movie rating star system was born in the New York Daily News. More »
Culture
Chicago Trib Asks ‘Is GTA This Century’s Best Writing?’
5:00AM Owen Good | The profile of Rockstar and the Housers doesn’t really answer that (beyond mentioning the Goatie we gave it for writing). But the writer talks to critics and eggheads who say it’s a legitimate question. More »
Final Fantasy: The Battleship Yamato of Gaming?
7:30AM Maggie Greene | When I saw this comparison between the Final Fantasy and the battleship Yamato (the largest battleship ever made), I was wondering how the comparison would be drawn: the spectacular demise, perhaps? Not quite. More »
Culture
Journalism Versus Criticism
6:30AM Maggie Greene | L.B. Jeffries over at Banana Pepper Martinis has apparently had it up to here with the ‘how to write reviews’ debate, and it sounds like the upcoming roundtable was maybe kinda the last straw. More »
‘CliffyB’ on How to Save Game Journalism
2:30AM Maggie Greene | The blog Hardcasual is back with a bang after a lengthy hiatus, channeling the voice of Cliff Bleszinski of Epic Games (which, if you can’t parse that statement, means Bleszinski didn’t actually write this) to discuss some of the current problem with game journalism and reviews. More »
