metacritic
Latest
Metacritic changes its user review policy to combat score bombing
To prevent score bombing, Metacritic makes users wait 36 hours before reviewing a brand new game.
Google puts movie info, reviews and showtimes all in one spot
Google announced a new feature today that will help you out when you're deciding what movie to go see. Now, when you look for movies or showtimes in Google Search on your phone, you'll be able to easily compare different films and see where and when they're playing. You can browse movies or look through offerings from particular theaters and when you tap a film title, Google will show you information about the movie, its IMDb, Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes scores as well as showtimes in nearby theaters. Then you can just swipe over to see all of that information for another movie option. Once you've made your decision, just tap on a showtime to buy the ticket.
Xbox One bundle offers 10 indie games for $20
Xbox One owners who don't have many indie games can now fill that hole on the cheap. For the next few weeks, video game developer Curve Digital has partnered with Microsoft to offer the Instant Indie Hits bundle for $20/£19.20.
Report picks apart relationship between Metacritic and Steam sales
Ars Technica has released a new installment of their Steam Gauge project, where the website analyzes Valve's digital distribution service and its impact on the games industry. This time, they've explored the connection (or possible lack thereof) between Metacritic scores and number of sales on Steam. Do higher Metacritic scores correspond to a higher number of Steam sales? Unfortunately, the answer isn't as simple as a "yes" or "no." Initially, things look disjointed. Ars notes that "a game with an 80 on Metacritic ... is just as likely to bring in about 56,000 estimated Steam sales (at the 25th percentile) as it is to earn 375,000 estimated Steam sales (at the 75th percentile)." However, looking at the median sales and aggregating Metacritic scores into 10-point ranges, a more identifiable trend emerges. According to Ars' estimates, a game with a median Metacritic score of 90 or higher will sell 50 times the amount of copies that a game with a Metacritic of 30 or lower sells. Some caveats: Ars Technica's data represents estimates based on publicly-available information, and Metacritic itself weighs reviews from different sites differently. One man's trash may be another man's treasure, but Metacritic may be inclined to agree with one side more than the other. Also, the data analyzed doesn't take into account discount events such as the Steam sales - which we all know are the bank account's natural enemy - so there are additional factors that could be at play here. Lastly, Ars notes that individual games may buck the trend: Orion: Dino Horde has a Metacritic rating of 36, yet an estimated 314,000 Steam sales, while NBA 2K13, despite its rating of 90 on Metacritic, has only sold an estimated 50,000 copies on Steam. Nonetheless, there appears to be some sort of correlation between higher Metacritic ratings and higher sales on Steam. Causation, though? Maybe not so much. And while this information might seem like common sense, now there are numbers to back up your intuitions. [Image: Metacritic]
Amazon quietly adds Metacritic review scores to video game listings
Amazon's own product rating system is fine and all, but subjective reviews aren't always as relevant as we might like, even when there's an overwhelming consensus. Whether browsing for games online, or scanning shelves in a second-hand store, this editor always has Metacritic handy on one device or another -- the well-regarded review aggregator basically has to score titles fairly by design. If you find yourself doing the same, then don't worry about tab-hopping while walking the virtual isles of Amazon anymore, as the retailer's quietly integrated Metacritic scores into its video game listings. It's great for those wanting more professional guidance, but we're only seeing on Amazon.com right now, so hopefully it'll roll out to other regions later. New rule of thumb: avoid anything with a red box. Update: As one eagle-eyed reader has spotted, Metacritic has hyperlinked "Buy from Amazon.com" buttons on its game review pages, suggesting a deeper partnership than perhaps first thought.
Trends of launch game review scores across generations
It can be really interesting to look through a bunch of well-organized data even (especially) if there are no easy conclusions to be drawn from it. Gamasutra's gathering of historical Metacritic/Gamerankings review data for home console launch games is just such a collection of interesting, difficult to interpret numbers.Aggregated looks at review scores for the launches of systems from the PlayStation to the Wii U show that the PS3, Wii, and Wii U's launch games had the widest spread of review scores – a phenomenon we might attribute to the larger number of reviewing press outlets that were present for those launches.The average review score was highest for GameCube, and lowest for PlayStation. And surprisingly, the Wii U has almost as many US launch games as the most populated platform, the PS2. That's at least one auspicious statistic for the Wii U's launch lineup, even if many of the games in it are ports.
Ask Massively: Reviewing and re-reviewing MMOs
Back in September, Star Trek Online Producer Daniel Stahl gave an interview that proposed to tell game journalists how to do their jobs. That's only fair; we're always telling developers how to do their jobs, right? Stahl told [a]listdaily, "The whole game rating business doesn't necessarily do a great justice to MMOs. MMOs are designed to grow over time and get better with every major release. It might be better if sites like Metacritic could find a way to rate MMOs by releases instead of just the initial day one . . . There are plenty of MMOs that have made huge strides since day one and some that have even gotten worse. Until then, we will continue to offer the game for free and ask for people to try it out and decide for themselves." Quipped Massively reader Matthew12, "If only there were MMO gaming blogs and websites that keep up to date with the MMOs and their updates... oh wait; there are."
MetaMetaCritic, the reviewer-review aggregator [April Fools]
Paradox Interactive's contribution to 2012's April Fools' Day festivities is MetaMetaCritic, a "new reviewer-review aggregator" that "aggregates reviews of reviewers." Its basically exactly what it sounds like, and while the site doesn't actually work, per se, it has been pre-loaded with several gaming journalists from around the internet, including our own Dave Hinkle."David remains difficult to control and displays terrible pathfinding," read's Dave's fictional review from faux-outlet EDIT Magazine. "Nevertheless he has an extraordinary ability to not only produce words, but frequently arrange them in the correct order, no mean feat in this day and age.""Select media groups have already cited MetaMetaCritic scores as providing a good guideline for journalists' bonus pay," reads the site's press release, available after the break.... Wait, we're supposed to be getting bonuses? I need to make some phone calls.
Obsidian missed Fallout: New Vegas Metacritic bonus by one point
Business sucks, alright? It's cold and rigid and occasionally unfair. Such is the case with Obsidian's Fallout: New Vegas contract with Bethesda, wherein the developer only received royalties if the game matched or exceeded an 85 rating on Metacritic. Leaving aside the fact that Metacritic is a woefully unbalanced aggregation of review scores from both vetted and unvetted publications, agreements like this can leave indie studios -- like Obsidian -- in the lurch should that Metacritic score just barely miss the mark.Unfortunately for Obsidian, Fallout: New Vegas currently has a Metacritic average of 84, a single point below the average that would've earned the company royalties on its product. "[Fallout: New Vegas] was a straight payment, no royalties, only a bonus if we got an 85+ on Metacritic, which we didn't," Obsidian creative director and co-owner Chris Avellone told one Twitter user.The Metacritic news comes just one day after we reported layoffs at the California-based developer -- layoffs that were said to be the result of a canceled next-gen project (codenamed "North Carolina") for an unnamed console. New Vegas lead producer Jason Fader's Facebook profile reflects the recent layoffs, also outing himself as former lead producer on the North Carolina project. His credentials also list an unnamed project known as "Vermont," but that could be Obsidian's upcoming South Park RPG (we've reached out for clarification).Additionally, Kotaku reports that the North Carolina project was to be published by Microsoft, and was intended for the still unannounced Xbox 360 successor console. Our tipster tells us that the North Carolina project was "desperately needed" for the studio's continued survival, which matches reports that Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart "choked up" while addressing his employees about the canned project.
Report: XBLA prices rising (slowly), Summer of Arcade review scores dropping
XBLA Fans has done an exhaustive analysis of Xbox Live Arcade sales, Metacritic scores, and trends over the past few years in a four-part writeup. The most interesting finding in the article, in our estimation, is how the perception of rising prices squares with reality. Yes, there are more 1200 point ($15) games being released on the service as compared to previous years, but there are more 800 point ($10) games coming out as well, and there are more of those than $15 games. The average is rising overall, but it hasn't yet reached the 1200 point mark, even if that price is being assigned to some of the more high profile (and high quality) games on the service.The quality of the Summer of Arcade, on the other hand, is dropping overall, according to the average price and Metacritic score. In 2008, the first year the promotion existed, the games had an average Metacritic score of 84.8, with an average price of 960 points. This past year, however, the Metacritic score dropped to 78.8 (which still isn't too bad), but the average price was at 1120. This is purely mathematical, remember: The games are probably more complex these days, which allows Microsoft to set a higher price, and reviews on any site are subjective.Finally, XBLA Fans found 73% of titles on XBLA have gone on sale within their first year, though many of the games on XBLA were only on sale for a day or so. That means that patient XBLA buyers can save a lot of money, if they pay attention and move quickly. There are a few other interesting conclusions in the analysis as a whole, and lots of insight on how Microsoft's Arcade has developed over the past few years.
James Ohlen hits back against critics, defends SWTOR's innovation
Star Wars: The Old Republic Game Director James Ohlen isn't surprised that the game's received the flak it has from a segment of reviews and fans. In a candid interview with Eurogamer, Ohlen addresses both the issues of being a "big target" for critics and the claims that SWTOR's lacking innovation. For the most part, players and critics have praised the game, Ohlen shares, and BioWare is seeing an "exceptionally high" desire among its playerbase for continued subscriptions. But was BioWare prepared for the backlash as well? Ohlen says it was: "We knew that there was going to be people who wanted us to fail. But that's just the nature of the game. If you're going to build a huge game and try to go out to a lot of people, you're going to have people who just react poorly." He does push back hard against claims that SWTOR failed on the innovation front, stating, "We wanted to take the lessons that have been developed in that genre over years and years and years and basically refine them, much like other companies do with other genres. So, I don't know, it's just the way it is, but I don't see us as not being innovative. We're actually a lot more innovative within the MMO space than comparable games in other spaces like the first-person genre, the action genre -- games like that."
Telltale devs caught juking Metacritic user reviews, studio stands behind them
When Telltale employees aren't busy getting into protracted online arguments over the handling of promotional Jeeps, they're apparently artificially boosting the user review score of the studio's latest release, Jurassic Park: The Game. GameSpot spotted as much this week after the game launched, pointing out that few reviewers (if any) received the game early for review, and that the only user reviews on Metacritic were notoriously high (10s), featuring "gushing" praise for the title. As it turns out, after some quick Googling, the user reviews belonged to Telltale Games employees -- a user interface artist and a cinematic artist, according to GameSpot. Telltale, however, stands behind the two offenders. "Telltale Games do not censor or muzzle its employees in what they post on the internet," studio reps said. "It is being communicated internally that anyone who posts in an industry forum will acknowledge that they are a Telltale employee. In this instance, two people who were proud of the game they worked on, posted positively on Metacritic under recognizable online forum and XBLA account names." In other words, if you had Googled the user names attached to the positive user reviews from Metacritic, you could discover their true identities, which, as we all know, most internet forum users are wont to do. No one on the internet ever bases their reactions off of what they see without looking deeper first. Nope. Never.
Metareview: L.A. Noire
L.A. Noire is the game we found "too interesting to ignore." As for other folks? Giant Bomb (5/5): "The world already has enough open-world action games, but a game which marries that open world to such a methodical style of gameplay, with a budget this big, is a rare thing indeed." 1UP (A): "Despite the shortcomings of the combat, it still doesn't detract from the overall experience of L.A. Noire. By the end of the game, I felt like a seasoned gumshoe with years of experience under my belt. The evidence-gathering gameplay, and conversation-based puzzles requiring actual logic took me completely by surprise -- not just because of how "real" it seemed, but by how entertained I was just doing it all." Gamespot (90/100): "L.A. Noire is a unique game with a terrific sense of period atmosphere, absorbing investigation mechanics, and a haunting tale with plenty of moments that would be right at home in a classic film noir. Those smoky nights spent listening to jazz at the Blue Room, and the price you paid for them, will stay with you long after you've retired your badge and gun. " Eurogamer (80/100): "But where Ace Attorney carries you through on winning characterization and a swift interface, L.A. Noire's realistic, low-key style gives this process a very different pace and flavor. To begin with, it's disconcertingly slow, but you soon relax into and start to enjoy its steady, methodical tempo."%Gallery-120245%
Silicon Knights' Dyack on Too Human: 'we do plan on finishing the trilogy'
During the Game Developers Conference nearly two months ago, Silicon Knights head Denis Dyack met with me in a hotel overlooking that week's event at the Moscone Center. He wasn't there to show off his studio's next game -- X-Men: Destiny -- to press, but for unspecified "meetings" with unnamed folks. Spooky. And while we touched on the subject of XM:D during the half hour, the first questions I had for Dyack were about his studio's last major release, Too Human. Primary among them: Is the Too Human trilogy dead? "No, not at all," Dyack told me. "It is still on the table and we do plan on finishing the trilogy." When it came to other questions about Too Human, however, Dyack was far more verbose. With the intention of setting the record straight, as it were, Dyack outright denies that Too Human was in development for 10 years. "It is true that an earlier version of the general 'Too Human' concept was first shown on the PlayStation in 1998, but that was a completely different game than what was released on the Xbox 360," he said. "Among other things, the original concept was a single-player, third-person action/adventure game based on a detective called John Franks trying to discover who had killed his partner." It's a far cry from the Norse mythology-based dungeon crawler we played in 2008.
The Road to Mordor: Four more years, four more years!
While four years is not a nice round number -- or even a halfway number like five -- it's a substantial milestone for any MMORPG. Debuting in early 2007, Lord of the Rings Online introduced something we'd never seen before: a fully realized 3-D virtual Middle-earth where we could not only enjoy a deep MMO but explore the lands and meet the people we'd only read about before. It might not be a universal truth that all LotRO players are big Tolkien fans, but I'm sure enough that it's a sizable chunk of the playerbase. There's something special about the IP that gives a weight and richness to the game, especially when a long-time reader of the books is given leave to actually go on adventures through Eriador, Moria and Mirkwood. It's a giant sight-seeing tour of lore, a thrill with every brush one has with the source material. It's heady to consider that four years ago we were but starting on this journey, feeling out the mechanics of combat, crafting and pie-running. Four years later, LotRO has emerged to be one of the most significant MMOs of the past decade, growing strong with no signs of slowing down. Hit the jump as we reminisce about the ups, the downs, and the off-the-beaten-path hikes of our beloved game as it celebrates its fourth anniversary.
Metacritic drops individual developer ratings for good
Though Metacritic's recent policy of not only applying scores to video games, but also the individual people who created those games, drew some ire from the site's users, we thought it was a masterstroke. Assigning people arbitrary scores based on their past achievements? Seriously, the person who came up with that had to be, like, at least a 93. Sadly, the ratings were short-lived, and in a recent GamesIndustry interview, Metacritic founder Marc Doyle (a known 77) said, "We have no plans to bring it back." Ultimately, Mr. 77 said the site isn't meant to "fuel some larger discussion over what person is more worthy than some other person." That's actually kind of a nice sentiment, but it's that lack of bloodthirstiness that's keeping Mr. Doyle from breaking into the low 80s.
Metacritic now charting iOS games
Gaming review aggregation site Metacritic has posted that it is now charting for iOS games through its service. The site has long charted movies, music and video games as an overall average of all the scores found online (out of 100), and now it's going to do the same thing for iOS games. Metacritic will do this by aggregating all of the scores found online with a weighted average and assigning a score out of 100 to each title in the system. You can see the main iPhone page right there -- Tiny Wings is highly rated as a new title, and on the overall list, World of Goo leads the way, with iBlast Moki right behind and a good mix of games on down the list. As you'd expect from a list of iOS games, the titles are all over the place, from bigger studio releases to tiny indie downloads. The game reviews are also coming from a number of sites of all sizes, from more traditional gaming sites to iOS-specific review sites. Metacritic has become something of a lightning rod in the industry. While it does provide an interesting list of quality titles for each game system, both developers and review publishers are often frustrated that it averages out scores -- and some great games have been brought down in the past by a relatively bad Metacritic score -- for a number of reasons. We'll have to see what effect Metacritic will have on iOS. I'd think that most iOS users take a lot of their feedback from the iTunes store itself, and when you combine that with the generally low prices of most iOS games, it seems to me that reviews aren't as big a deal as traditional gaming retail. But we'll see -- if nothing else, it'll provide a good list of iOS games for newcomers to the scene.
The Mog Log: Relaxing with community answers
Sometimes, all it takes to see an answer is a subtle change of attitude. For the past month or so, I have been trying to spend every ounce of spare time available on Final Fantasy XIV, but I'm starting to relax a little bit because I realized just how silly it is. I would rather enjoy the journey and get there when I get there; level 50 will come as it does, and hopefully by that point my fellow AETHER members will be able to craft spectacles. Until then, let's just relax a bit and indulge a few questions with answers, yes? Gente asks: Why is Final Fantasy XI the only game getting a holiday event? There's no Halloween event for Final Fantasy XIV this year, no. There will likely be one next year, however, as the development team has stated there are events in the works for as early as the end of the year. Considering past experience with Square-Enix and this most ghoulish of holidays, we can expect it will feature an inordinately useful item and a surfeit of ghosts within the city walls.
Sega 'looking to improve Sonic strategy,' reducing supply of older Sonic games
There are stories emanating from the mysterious coalition known simply as "Europe" that Sega -- responsible for some of your dearest childhood memories and, maybe, your first heartbreak -- is busy "delisting" less-than-stellar Sonic the Hedgehog titles from European retailers. Jurgen Post, Sega SVP of EMEA (that's Europe, the Middle East and Africa), told MCV, "Any Sonic game with an average Metacritic has been de-listed," continuing, "We have to do this and increase the value of the brand. This will be very important when more big Sonic releases arrive in the future." While that certainly sounds ominous, we asked Alan Pritchard – newly instated veep of sales and marketing for Sega US and the man who held Mr. Post's spot until just a couple month's ago – to clarify what it means for Europe, for Sonic and (jingoism be damned!) for North America. "I think perhaps Jurgen's comments have somewhat been taken out of context," Pritchard told Joystiq. "It's not quite as drastic as what Disney do for example. They bring out Lion King and all of a sudden there's a cut-off date, and you can't buy Lion King for another six months. It's not quite as drastic as turning the tap off completely. We want consumers and retailers to defocus from the back catalog, the older titles and focus more on the new-release titles."
Telltale releases Puzzle Agent on the iPhone, iPad
Just an FYI before you start your Labor Day weekend (and any associated trips): Telltale Games has released its latest title, Puzzle Agent, for the iPhone and the iPad. The game got middling reviews on Metacritic, but I think that's mostly because of the genre -- if you're a fan of sharp writing and interesting puzzles to play on the drive or flight out to the country for your vacation, it's a worthwhile title to fill the time with. Even if all of the puzzles aren't perfect, the game's atmosphere is excellent, and the art style is exactly the kind of thing we need more of on the iPhone. Nelson Tethers' adventures as a Puzzle Agent exploring the Scoggins Eraser Company are a worthy addition to the App Store. You can get the small-screen version for US$4.99. The game's also available on the iPad as Puzzle Agent HD, for a premium price of $6.99, though it doesn't offer up any extra features besides of course the larger graphics (and easier to read text in some cases). But whichever one you choose is mostly just a matter of practicality -- both are excellent to play through. And this is an extra bit of news unrelated except for the "Puzzle" connection, but it's always nice to go into a holiday weekend with something to look forward to: Namco has announced that it will be bringing the great Puzzle Quest 2 to the iPhone sometime this fall, complete with Game Center integrated for full multiplayer. We'll look forward to that one for sure.
