In defense of using game reviews as purchasing aids

[aozgolo]

Or take it a step further and say that all you're doing there is watching someone else play the game. You may generally know what it looks and sounds like, but still have no personal idea with how it plays. Sure, you could take their word for it, but at that point it's not much better than a concise opinion from a normal review.

What? You have every idea how the game plays by watching a Lets Play.

Literally the only thing you're in the dark about is control scheme. But unless it's a a niche title, the chance is high that it uses the same controls as every other game in its genre.

There is no way you can accurately gauge the responsiveness and feedback of a game by merely watching someone else play it. It's like watching someone else test drive a car and telling the salesman "Yeah I'm really sold on how that one feels. Let's start the paperwork!"

 

[Xprimentyl]

I'd bet any amount of money on the assumption that you've never watched an LP before buying a game, and found the game to be completely different when playing.

I'd take that bet. Two words: Dark Souls. I watched dozens of LPs before I tried it and found the controls to be completely unintuitive. What on it's face appears to be a standard-if-brutally-difficult Hack-n-Slash RPG turns out to be an exercise in relearning a console controller.

 

[aozgolo]

There is no way you can accurately gauge the responsiveness and feedback of a game by merely watching someone else play it. It's like watching someone else test drive a car and telling the salesman "Yeah I'm really sold on how that one feels. Let's start the paperwork!"

Terrible analogy. Playing a game has nearly no similarities to driving a car.

excluding motion control games out of the equation. I'd bet any amount of money on the assumption that you've never watched an LP before buying a game, and found the game to be completely different when playing.

Of course, you'll most likely it.

You can get an extremely good judgement, and make an extremely safe purchase by watching an LP.

We'll have to agree to disagree here, because unless there's commentation explaining how something controls and relating it to being "like game x" in one way or another, I'm not going to rely on merely watching someone else play it. I could watch a Let's Play for God of War and Dantes Inferno or Lords of Shadow thinking they're the same, but I'd be disappointed if I relied on that alone.