GuitArchon said:
Also, bear in mind, Yahtzee's a video game CRITIC, not a REVIEWER. Some might say that's splitting hairs, but reviewers have more of an obligation to see everything the game has to offer because they're (Supposed to be) the professional teams of players that each give their own opinion. A critic is a single individual who recounts his personal experience with the game, kinda like how your friend tells you that he rented X game over the weekend and that it totally rocked or sucked.
This is true, and it often cuts a different way, in that on more than just an occasion, reviewers are often given "incentive" to give a certain game a good review. On the other hand, critics are often never asked to review a game, especially not by publishers.
With Yahtzee in particular, I think he actually does have some reason to split hairs and not have to play a game all the way through here. Unless I'm mistaken, his job at the escapist (reviewing/critiquing, split hairs now) video games, is kind of a part-time thing, where a big chunk of work goes to the writing end for both of the Punctuations. In addition to that, a social life, and conventions, he is also taking care of that bar of his. I'd say, especially having to do a review every week, he does have a little lee-way to stop playing some games after, say, 10 hours or so. Maybe 20 for the longer ones. I mean, do you really expect him to finish a game like Two Worlds in a weekend? It took me 3 days (with my full-time job, so maybe more like 10 hours total) to finish everything in the demo! Keep in mind the professional reviewers, its their full time job, and they work for monthly publications usually. Often with more than one person playing. I like to think that makes a difference.
Now as far as my own personal view of reviewers, let's see... if its in their contract that they have to finish a game, MMOs excluded, then I say yes, they have to finish the game. That being said, its merely a contractual obligation. Just like you can give a review of WoW based on 2-10 hours of gameplay, and maybe a little help from a higher level friend so you can see what there is there, a game that is sufficiently similar for the first few hours will probably be similar until the end. If its not interesting, if its boring, if its just sucking your soul out while you're playing, then yes, you can stop and just write the review after a certain time limit. If its in your contract that you still have to finish, I say consider a new contract, but in the meantime, find some alcohol and friends to poke fun at the game with, cause you're in for the long haul now.
This comes down to tolerances. I like to think I have a fairly high tolerance. I'll, hardware allowing (I've actually had to stop playing a game and not been able to get back to it because of hardware,) play a game for at least 40 hours if I bought it. If I genuinely enjoy playing it the way the developers intended, if I can enjoy it playing ways the developers didn't have in mind, usually involving mates and booze, yeah, I'll keep that game and keep playing it. Hell, I've got DOS games that I'll still pull out and play. But, if a game is not fun, if I can't make a game fun, then bye bye game. And I think a lot of gamers are the same way, a lot of them just won't give a game 40 hours to be good. So with that audience in mind, a game reviewer does not have to complete a crappy game to say it is a crappy game.
Now on the flip side, if a game is excellent for those first 10 hours, great, whoever buys the game will at least have 10 hours of fun from it. But, I think the reviewer should keep playing for longer to see if it stays fun. In fact, (though not as standard as "is this game fun") I think another standard for a rating for a game should be how long you can play the game with it still being interesting, and have that one baseline of say 12 hours or something similar be the 1 mark. If it can't make it that far, then go ahead and give it a zero. But, if you've played all weekend to the exclusion of food and lovers and the game is still interesting, you're either addicted to Warcraft, or the game is good. If you pick up the game again another night days or weeks later, can clearly remember where you are and what you were doing last, and still enjoy it, I think that game deserves a 10. Regardless of if you've finished or not.