Halo 4 gets a 2/10...

[Dead Seerius]

This 2-sided argument over whether the guy is wrong for rating a competent (or great, whatever you pick) game a score that denotes "close to shit", or that he's justified for having an opinion, doesn't really matter at all. Because for MASSIVE franchises like Halo, one bad review, even if it noticeably affects the metascore, means nothing.

Halo 4 will sell like magic hotcakes ('cause who buys normal hotcakes en masse these days) and Microsoft will be pissing itself with excitement at all the cash it'll rake in.

 

[Deathninja19]

no game deserves 2/10.. well im sure is a few but not this one.

Well what is the point of having a 10 out of 10 system then?

This is why people think 8/10 is a bad score, this is why people ignore 7/10 games. We need to be free of this narrow mindset of thinking that low scores only belong to broken games. Tom Chick critiques games on his basis and while I usually disagree with him I'm glad he does because he is the only person in gaming 'journalism' that has the balls to provide unique view on gaming. You have to understand this isn't IGN reviewing where they critique a product, Chick approaches gaming like a film critic approaches film. He focuses on his experiences with gameplay and story rather than dry technical aspects.

 

[triggrhappy94]

The only valid criticism I see is that there isn't a scoring system.
But what do I know, I had fun with the Kane and Lynch games.
Captcha: don't tase me

 

[TAdamson]

First of all it's He's given it 1 star out of 5 not 2/10.

Before you say this is a nonsense difference; star reviews generally rate how a person feels about a product. He's treating games more like films.

The 10 point 100 point systems for games usually account for things like playability. They take into account a consumer advice in their scoring system. This reviewer seems to be treating games as pieces of art specifically film.

And nobody cracks the shits when Roger Ebert gives a film 1 star because he doesn't like its theme or story-telling. He hates Kickass - I love Kickass.

So no, "1 star" do not mean that "pretty much the game has to be broken" any more than the a person giving "1 star" to the Avengers can only do so if the movie glitched an stopped working halfway through.

 

[StormShaun]

1 star...out of 5 (Or 2/10 if you rate it that way)...what?

I mean sure...it's his opinion but that just seems stupid...and that's my opinion. You know what, I'm going to play Halo 4 today after college and review it (Maybe) and post it on here...I would love to compare it to this guys review. D:

 

[ResonanceGames]

YES! Called that it was Tom Chick as soon as I saw the title!

This is the guy who infamously gave Deus Ex (the original) a bad review. And while I generally disagree with his opinions, I'm not immature enough to go on a name-calling spree or whatever. He's entitled to them, and he is not a troll.

Yeah, Deus Ex is my favorite game of all time. I've read his infamous review of it (3/10) and it never crossed my mind to go running to a message board to ***** about it. He played the game, formed and opinion, and explained said opinion.

That Tom Chick doesn't condescend to us and try to be "objective" about these things is to his credit.

 

[Nihlus2]

The smell of an anti-fanboy, or "edgy" reviewer.

In either case, as people have already pointed out, it is his opinion.

Score systems are pretty outdated anyway. How do you even decide what numbers equal what minimum? When the industry itself judges anything below 7.5 as being a "massive faliure" anyway, why is there anything below that?

So let him throw some mud - if you enjoy the game, play it.
If you're curious, have a look at a demo, youtube it (...oh wait, nevermind that one) or rent the game to have a look.
If not, try something else. Just move along and leave the man be to his mud throwing.

 

[bullet_sandw1ch]

While I'm no longer a fan of the Halo series, even a 2/10 seems harsh. A 5/10 would suffice for this series as it currently stands as from what I've heard from people......its not changed much. [Someone told me that it was practically Halo 3 with re-skinned enemies and a few extra colours.

(Note: This is just what I've heard from a few sources, I don't need people chasing me with torches, pitchforks and trays of cupcakes.)

There doesnt even seem to be much fanfare for this one too, I was barely aware it was even being released until I saw the review for it slide along the top of the homepage.

if you dont mind me asking, how did this person travel into the future and play the game before it was released? because to make that assumption, based on a full 7-10 hour game, they must have played it start to finish already.

OT: i actually tend to lean towards what my favourite websites say. they so far have yet to give below a 8.5 for halo 4, so i do not believe this persons claims that halo 4 is broken (as thats what a 2/10 represents), and that he is simply fishing for site traffic.

 

[Godhead]

I do like the discussion of whether the original Deus Ex was an under the radar game or not. Oh and the 2/10 is just to attract traffic.

 

[viranimus]

Somebody must of liked it..

Dear Jeep Devs... Put the controller down and step away from the Halo 4.

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

Hey, look, a review that validates all my preconceived notions! Hooray! Now I can continue to happily ignore and hate this game

 

[C F]

People are allowed to dislike things...

I probably would have been mad about this kind of thing when i was 12, only could afford to have one or two games outside of Christmas at best and only ever one console. At that age you have to be CERTAIN that EVERYONE likes the game you like otherwise you'll be the one with the 'dud' game and no-one will talk to you at school, laughing at you for liking the 'bad' game. When you grow up you learn to not give a damn (sometimes).

If you like halo 4 (pre-emptively i might add) then why does it matter to you that some guy with a keyboard didn't? I'm not a massive fan of playing FPS games on console whatsoever (but i will make an exception for the halo series, since i do like the universe, it's the only reason my 360 is still hanging on it there after i started playing on PC in 2008), and i think CoD is a steaming pile o' junk now. There are some of my opinions, if you don't agree with them, that's fine, you're allowed to think so. It's as easy as that.

That guy is also allowed to (potentially) disagree with halo 4 when i play it. I don't care if he personally didn't like it, the only thing i care about with my entertainment is if I like it!

'Sup dude! Nice username, welcome to the Escapist, and thanks for making your first post perhaps one of the more reasonable ones in the thread.

You've got some good points. Frankly, I'm not even sure why this thread exists. Yes, the review is bad. It isn't so bad it's noteworthy, it's just kind of bad in passing. It isn't well informed, and that seems to be the key thing people are honing in on (see: the "rampancy" issue, contradictory statements, and his handling of the reviewing process as a whole). The guy's evidently well known though, so everyone wants to point and laugh instead of dismissing him as "one guy with a keyboard." These kind of things happen.

After his alleged Deus Ex score (which seems to be a similarly infamous issue but I don't feel like verifying it at the moment), I'm not sure why this qualifies as news.

What's the point of saying "2/10" anyway? What's wrong with the "1 of 5 stars" listed in the actual review? If anyone says "1/5 is the same as 2/10", then I need to ask why we were so eager to present it in 2/10 format. (Hint: the answer is that a numerical scale of ten seems to carry more weight and requires more analysis to use than a five star scale, and logically attracts more attention than "1 of 5 stars, yo"). Therefore I put it to you the deliberate use of "2/10" means we're demonstrating a slight imperative of attracting attention to this particular issue.
And then we proceed to denounce this reviewer for doing the same.

Eh, but what do I know? His review is about as serious as a college frat guy's opinion, and any logical analysis of any and all issues are built around this review can carry no more weight. To anyone familiar with Homestuck, I've got to get this off my chest and say reading the review reminded of GameBro Magazine [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=001942], a joke of a magazine within narrative and a satire of biased and ignorant game reviews without.

Yeah, I just reviewed our review of a review. Check it.

 

[DustyDrB]

People...
If you want all the anger over the scoring system not being used to the fullest, then don't ***** when someone actually does use the full scale.

And stop caring about Metacritic while you're at it. Find a reviewer whose tastes tend to align with yours, or who you at least understand well enough that you have some sort of rapport. That's the best way to consume a review.

So really, your response to this should be: "Well, that's his opinion and it's ok if he thinks that". You can debate the finer points, sure. That's part of the fun. But calling him a troll? A contrarian for the sake of being contrary? Nah. You can get out of here with that noise. So yeah, it once again comes down to opinions. Tired of hearing? Tough. Stop forgetting it.

 

[Anti-Robot Man]

Generally, I thought 4 or below meant that the game was broken, like massive glitches and buggy controls, while 5 meant mediocrity, but the game works mechanically. I agree that people having massive fits over reviews and Metacritic scores is making a planetary obelisk of doom out of a molehill.

That is basically what IGN and other sites have done to the rating system, artificially inflated it to the point where anything below an 8 is likely garbage and even games in the 9 bracket can have huge flaws. A ten point scale should take 5 or 6 as perfectly average (within the context of the game's genre) - you don't need 4 levels of broken almost unplayable games, it defeats the purpose of having that range.

 

[Erttheking]

"reads thread"...you know the Escapist really can exhaust me sometimes. The sheer amount of untamed hatred on this thread that various posters are throwing at each other is...kinda saddening. Seriously people, can't we just go 24 hours without insulting each other? JUST ONCE!? I don't think it's asking much.

 

[The Lunatic]

People are allowed opinions.

His opinion isn't too poorly thought out, he makes his case better than a lot of people do.

Isn't this the purpose of reviews? A range of opinions, etc?

 

[BloatedGuppy]

A contrarian for the sake of being contrary?

Technically I'm the only one who used the word "contrarian" in reference to Tom Chick, and it's a label he's been dealing with for many years now. I didn't graft it to him. I'm just referencing his reputation.

I actually used to like the guy, back when he did Tom vs Bruce. Some of those were quite entertaining, especially when Erik Wolpaw would participate.

http://www.1up.com/features/tom-bruce-19

 

[sunsetspawn]

Well, this is a guy that hated the original Deus Ex, or so the comments and his other posts say.

And apparently New Vegas as well...

but he liked Fable 3, COD: Black Ops, and Mass Effect 3.

To put it plainly, the guy is a putz.

 

[Baron_Rouge]

It's just one man's opinion. Lots of people have liked games that I hated, and vice versa. Everyone's entitled to their opinion. Also, this is Halo. People who want it are gonna buy it anyway, and this review won't have a big impact on their sales. It doesn't really matter. A few bad reviews can kill a new IP from a fledgling studio, but this is Halo. It's not in any danger of not selling. Just let him have his opinion and make up your own mind on whether it's good or not. He may be just doing it to get hits, but he may not. In any case, his opinion is still valid.

 

[ex275w]

I haven't read the review since I really dislike them, because his writing style provokes the same reaction in me as Tim Rogers. I do think this guy is pretty contrarian and nitpicky and is wrong for criticizing games like movies, since they are immensely different mediums.

Still he shouldn't give pity points for the game being functional. It's like giving a movie praise for being watchable. Or a book having a readable font. All games should be functional.

I really dislike the people who want to remove scores, I only read the lowest score so I can see the most common problems a game has and buy it depending on what that means. Also scores are shorthands for certain qualities a game has, so reading the definition of a 6/10 on destructoid gives you a vague idea of the qualities of a game. The text backs up the score and details why the game fits that criteria

Also for the people wanting a Objective review, here's one! I don't think that a lot of persons know what the word means.
http://www.destructoid.com/100-objective-review-final-fantasy-xiii-179178.phtml