The Escapist Is...Reviews

[Seventh Actuality]

I used to appreciate this site's reviews, but since you gave Dragon Age 2 five stars I can't trust them, period. All preferences and Baldur's Gate nostalgia bullshit aside, that game had glaring, inarguable flaws that any remotely objective review should have at least noted. I can't see any reason, even if you loved the game (and I thought it was pretty good, warts and all) to give it a perfect score.

Even if some of the site's other reviews (*cough*Witcher2*cough*) have been right on the money, I can't trust what I read here.

 

[Archemetis]

Due to a recent blood test (that did not go well for my, not wanting to black out senses) my typing is a bit off today so I'll leave it a bit shorter than normal this time.

I generally love the reviews on this site, John and Susan being my particular favourites.

However, I find it ridiculous that the Duke Nukem 'review' is up on that list.

Since it's by far and wide in my mind the clearest example of the most unprofessional review* I've ever had the displeasure to listen to.

(*talking about the video portion)

I'd say it's a momentary slip up on the reviewer's part, but it's not the first time Mr. Pitts, with no intention to offend, has blundered a review in my eyes.

I'll not even get started on the 'reviews' for the Dreamcast ports being unfairly judged by modern standards, as if anyone else in the world was doing that.

I'll leave it there, wooziness has left me with a headache after trying to type this.

No disrespect to the man, I'm sure he's genuinely talented in his field, whatever that usually is, but reviewing games in my opinion is not one of them.

 

[Steve Butts]

Susan addressed the most common point -- that these recent articles are just an introduction for new readers to the different types of content we have, and the tip of the spear for our new strategy to make all of our content a more visible part of our overall efforts. Obviously, the people who are invested in what we do already know this, but that's like complaining that the airline puts those safety cards at every seat on the plane even though, statistically speaking, it's something most people have already seen.

As far as the reviews go, The Escapist doesn't court controversy for its own sake and there's no way we'd exaggerate our praise or condemnation of a game merely for the sake of getting a few more page views or more advertising dollars. That's a short-term gain but a long-term loss.

 

[Pandabearparade]

Yeah, because we lavished such praise on Duke Nukem during that game's total site buyout.

That makes it worse. At least if Greg Tito had sold out he would know how bad his review was; this just means that he's -actually- that bad at reviewing games.

I know the Dragon Age 2/Witcher 2 topics have been beaten into the ground, and I'd usually be happy to let dead horses lie, but you're directing my attention intentionally to the site's most glaring failure on purpose. I just don't see why.

 

[Catchy Slogan]

I think I've missed most of this because I've been at work, but what's happening? Are you just putting out little samples of The Escapist to attract new blood?

And can people stop going on about the reviews. They are open to personal bias. Greg obviosly prefers Biowares style to CD Projekt REDs. Get over it. It's not the end of the world if he doesn't love it as much as you, and it's not like his review is changing your mind on it.

It's not like he said it was a terrible game, either.

 

[imnot]

In soviet russia review is escapist
No bad Paranoid no more crappy In soviet russia jokes!

I like your reviews, but there seem to be less of them latley, or is that just becauseshit all has come out latley?

 

[TimeLord]

I personally don't get around to reading many of the reviews on the Escapist (I believe the last one I read was Susan's LBP2 review). But my opinion is that reviews are a side objective, especially on the Escapist with it's enciteful articles and news segments, serious video series' like Extra Credits and fun stuff like LRR, Feed Dump and Miracle of Sound.

I'm getting increasingly confused about who these press release things are aimed at or what they mean. Is this all just a long winded way of saying The Escapist has abandoned the weekly "journal" as a theoretically separate (& increasingly marginalized) entity? Are these aimed at existing readers or new ones? What's it all about (Yes I've read last week's editors note)?

I'm equally puzzled. This seems to be about advertising the Escapist to the people reading the Escapist in case they weren't reading the Escapist.

I'd be happier if the Escapist took to focussing a little more, because it's becoming increasingly nebulous with what it is doing/what it stands for. Recent articles have moved well away from "Isn't this interesting?" to "Isn't this cool?/Isn't this gruesome?", and that's a direction already well covered by some of the less mature sites.

Basically, I agree with these two quotes, I have re-read the editors notes a couple of times and I am still a little in the dark about what the new format is or what really is going on.