Best Game since Ocarina of Time?

April 26th, 2008

That’s what IGN says about GTA4.  Alright Rockstar, you’ve gotten my attention.  Will it live up to the hype?  I guess the rest of the world will find out next Tuesday.

Posted in Jeff, PS3, Xbox 360 |



      

11 Responses to “Best Game since Ocarina of Time?”

  1. laesperanzapaz Says:
    April 26th, 2008 at 6:15 pm

    I question why you put so much stock into a number rating of a super-high-profile, high-hype game….from IGN, not to mention.

  2. Jeff Says:
    April 26th, 2008 at 6:50 pm

    IGN has rated 3 games ever as 10s… This isn’t exactly a common occurrence. There have been many “super-high-profile, high-hype” games that IGN hasn’t rated as perfect 10s.

    And I’m not sure why everyone is so down on IGN. They have a right to their opinion like anyone else… I like their reviews, even if I disagree with them sometimes.

    And as you can hopefully tell from my tone, the review has “gotten my attention” and I specifically wonder whether it will live up to the hype. I’m not putting all my “stock” into it, but the fact that IGN gave it a perfect 10 and specifically said that it’s the best game since OOT, yeah… that caught my attention.

  3. Geoff Says:
    April 26th, 2008 at 8:29 pm

    For all their flaws, IGN’s reviews are definitely among the best written out there. I’m with Jeff on not understanding why people hate them so much - the site’s not perfect, but you can say that about any site.

  4. laesperanzapaz Says:
    April 26th, 2008 at 10:28 pm

    Here is why IGN deserves the bad rep [not to say they're necessarily worse than others...gamesradar prolly provides strong competition in that regard]:

    - IGN writers require 5 pages to accomplish that which takes [the formerly reputable] Gamespot or Ars TEchnica a page or two at most.

    - they’re known for embarrassing spelling and grammar errors

    - they’ve also been guilty of “speed reporting” where quality journalism or strong source-backing was sacrificed for puttting out their article the fastest. [are you familiar with the "MGS Triology" debacle of last year?]

    - they are embarrassing fanboys who wouldn’t suprirse anyone if they were moneyhatted. Have you seen the Halo 3 video review? How about Matt C.’s palm-face inducing defense of Zelda TP during 2006’s GOTY awards? Have you forgotten their previews for MGS4 or Manhunt 2 ?

    Really, i said this before and I’ll say it again: the only reason you should care for big-name reviews is to check out the “pros’ and ‘cons’ aspects of a game. Keep thy hyperboles to thyself or sumthn.

  5. Nathan Searcy Says:
    April 27th, 2008 at 1:29 am

    I’ve found single reviews to be problematic. This is what I do: For high-profile games Joystiq collects the scores from a bunch of different sites and sticks them in the same article. Therefore, if all of the scores they collect are in the 80’s/90’s, you can assume you’re pretty safe.

    As for IGN, well, they’re #2 in my book (right after Joysitq).

  6. Dave Says:
    April 27th, 2008 at 9:36 am

    I check the metascores for games mostly. Gives me a sense of where everyone is at. For reviews, I only really pay attention to gametrailers. They always explain what they are talking about and give reasons with video evidence for every point they make. Most other video reviews just show loopingfootage.

  7. Jeff Says:
    April 27th, 2008 at 5:27 pm

    From Gamerankings:

    Site Profile TeamXbox

    4/27/2008

    10 out of 10

    100.0%
    Site Profile IGN

    4/25/2008

    10 out of 10

    100.0%
    Site Profile 1UP

    4/27/2008

    A+

    100.0%
    Site Profile GameSpy

    4/27/2008

    5 out of 5

    100.0%
    Site Profile Eurogamer

    4/27/2008

    10 out of 10

    100.0%
    Site Profile Computer & Video Games UK

    4/27/2008

    9.5 out of 10

    95.0%
    Site Profile Xbox World Mag UK

    6/1/2008

    98 out of 100

    98.0%
    Site Profile Official Xbox Magazine UK

    5/1/2008

    10 out of 10

    100.0%

    Seems to be a consensus building that, wow, the game is actually pretty damn good. Does that mean EVERYONE will love it? No, of course not… In fact, as I’ve mentioned several times in the past, GTA isn’t my favorite franchise ever, but the reviews coming in definitely have piqued my interest in the title. Considering that my household will be getting it anyway (Megan’s a HUGE fan of the series), I’ll definitely be giving it a shot.

    But yeah, it doesn’t look like IGN went way out on a limb here on this one. A bit of hyperbole maybe? Sure, but what extremely positive game reviews aren’t prone to it?

  8. used cisco Says:
    April 27th, 2008 at 11:14 pm

    I think this game is no different than something like Halo, Zelda or Mario. It’s huge and sites are both pressured by the industry and fanbase at large and unintentionally nostalgic such that they overrate it a bit. Not to say that recent Halo, Mario and Zelda games aren’t great, they are, but I think most reviewers are more likely to give these games a 10 for being great, with some flaws, then they would be another less “important” release.

  9. Geoff Says:
    April 28th, 2008 at 12:12 am

    Frankly, I’m not sure I care if it’s a 90% game that people rated 100% or not. There’s a silly tendency for people to create a backlash against these reviews just because they don’t like the idea of a “perfect” game… but the reviews are just there to tell you whether or not it’s good, and worth buying, not to measure them against some cosmic standard of perfection.

    I’m pretty sure that a game that gets these scores is worth buying, even if they’re inflated, so maybe we should stop focusing on nitpicking the details and concede that the thing has some promise. As happy as I am to sit around debating the merits of rating systems and reviews, I think the issue is pretty much exhausted for the time being.

  10. Rob Says:
    April 28th, 2008 at 6:47 am

    I don’t hate IGN — but I find that I disagree with them far more often than other review sites. As a result, I tend not to give their opinion as much weight as other sites.

  11. used cisco Says:
    April 28th, 2008 at 7:35 am

    @Geoff,

    For sure. I didn’t mean to nitpick and I’m not implying any type of backlash against IGN or the game. I’m sure the game is likely fantastic and probably worthy of gaming sites praises. I was just adding my thoughts to the thread. I don’t dislike IGN or any review site. But neither am I terribly impressed with all the internet posts along the lines of “OMG IGN HAS ONLY GIVEN THREE SCORES OF “10″ AND SAYS ITS THE BEST GAME SINCE OCARINA!!!!!”. Maybe if I enjoyed the GTA series, at all, this would be more meaningful for me.

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