Why Don’t You Just Play it Yourself…
There’s a terrible trend that has been taking form in the video industry over the past few years and it’s doing a lot of damage. I’m speaking of “band wagon jumping reviews”. This rant, believe it or not is not focused on “professional” game reviewers” it’s also about “user” reviewers. I put the word user in quotations because quite often these reviewers have not even touched the game they are ripping apart. This is definitely not a new practice. The music and especially the movie industry has been dealing with this for decades. It just seems that the video game consumer is much more vocal and is able to scream the loudest for attention.
The latest victim of this practice is Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City. I bought this game the day it was released and have enjoyed it despite the plethora of user Amazon.com user reviews that would suggest otherwise. I’m not saying it’s the greatest game ever made or it deserves a 9.5/10.What I am saying is that as a long time Resident fan I can appreciate a different approach to the game play and experiencing the other side’s perspective on the siege of Raccoon City. It’s squad based shooter not developed by Capcom’s in house team and I knew that going in. The main point though is that I have actually played the game and have dealt with it’s highs and lows and still came out smiling.
As far as I can tell IGN was the first the release a review and they gave it a 4/10. While I disagree with several of their points and in all honesty I did not experience many of the issues they claimed to have, it is their opinion. “Cut and Paste” user reviewers started to instantly pop up on amazon.com. If someone had actually played the game and didn’t like it, then no problem. That’s your right to voice your opinion. My beef is with those who just like to trash something because it’s the expectable thing to do so. “Well IGN and Gamespot hated it so it must suck right?” “I’m going to tell world now!” One of my favorite comments in the Amazon forum was a gamer claiming he had played it and didn’t want to get past the first level. He made these points “you run slower than you walk” Hmm I guess he didn’t click the left analog stick, you know the button that makes you run fast! “Enemy’s take hundreds of bullets to kill.” Well you are fighting heavily armed commandos in parts of the game, so perhaps shooting them in the chest that’s covered in body armor is not the best idea. Shooting them in head drops them! “I ran out of bullets all the time.” Well when I was running low on ammo I would just pick up another gun…seemed to solve that issue. Others just wanted to trash it because it was published by Capcom which because of their DLC policy makes them their target of the week.
With that said there will be many gamers who do actually play the game and will not like it. Keep in mind, I’m not telling you to run out and buy the game or any other game that gets trashed by the media (I wouldn’t tell anyone to do that for any game good or bad). What I am saying is “just play it for yourself!” Rent it, play it at a friends or a demo station and try it. If you hate it, then great…move on to another title.
As a gamer who has been playing games for over 30 years, the one thing I can tell you is experience pays. Play as many different titles as possible despite what reviewers or forums tell you. I guarantee you will find something you like that a lot of people claimed to hate. If I had solely listened to reviewers I would not have played many of my favorite titles.
…Big Mike
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