Game Criticism

I found the article "Game Criticism, Why We Need It, and Why Reviews Aren't It" extremely interesting, and feel like it hits the nail on the head in terms of the near-nonexistence of solid game criticism. While purchase-oriented reviews are abundant, honest and in-depth game critiques seem to be few and far between. The way that Greg addressed the issue of true art criticism was fantastic. It's extremely easy to say whether or not one should buy the game, but diving into artistic and creative matters reaches the true essence of criticism. I was able to relate to his message via my own interest in music criticism; unless one considers all of the elements involved in a particular piece and its creation, a critique will miss the point by miles. His idea of the irrelevance of a numeric grade system is also great; having such a system brings down the ability to truly critique a piece of art.

"If critics did more championing..." was also a great article, as it described the problem of critics focusing too much on minor details as opposed to all of the aspects of a game. Every game will have its minor mechanical flaws and inconsistencies, so it is therefore much more important to dive into the major aspects of the game such as storyline and character development. Although a game's flaws should certainly be noted in a good critique, they shouldn't become the focal point. His take on The Simpons Game was great; it showed that although the entire point of the game was to be a satire of other games and get a laugh from players, critics still managed to tear it apart citing minor mechanical issues.

The review of Fallout 3 seemed somewhat strange. Having spent numerous hours with the game, I can easily relate with the topics he mentioned. However, the review seemed unbalanced in that it championed the game whilst breaking it down in areas very critical to an RPG, including character interaction, the combat system, and overal realism. To me, failures in these areas would quickly shoot down a good RPG. Although I'll admit the game is far from flawlessly lifelike, it is still a massive leap in that direction in terms of adjacent RPGs and deserves more credit than what was given. Unfortunately, his review seemed to give the perspective that the game had insufferable flaws, but had an overly redeeming storyline and emotional effect.