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AvP 65%? sounds about right :) but why couldn't they fit this in last months magazine, 'Zone' came out way before it and they managed it. Then again, they obviously held back because of the low score hurting sales. Sad mag.
 
rancid-a said:
AvP 65%? sounds about right :) but why couldn't they fit this in last months magazine, 'Zone' came out way before it and they managed it. Then again, they obviously held back because of the low score hurting sales. Sad mag.
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pc zone always have early reviews - suggesting that they sell out to the publishers for early reviews by giving good results

pc gamer always have late reviews - usually because they are not given the chance to review games early because the publishers know that they will be more honest about crap games

this seems to be the case when comparing reviews between the two
 
Thegoon84 said:
I am sorry but that score is shocking! once again i dont trust what they print .. Crysis was a landmark SINGLE PLAYER game. Sinlge player was 98% easily... the rest well..... MP was terrible! i'dhave said 80% tops
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Agree. It's like giving Avatar 98% purely based on it's 3D... :)
 
gettothechopper said:
pc zone always have early reviews - suggesting that they sell out to the publishers for early reviews by giving good results

pc gamer always have late reviews - usually because they are not given the chance to review games early because the publishers know that they will be more honest about crap games

this seems to be the case when comparing reviews between the two
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Agreed. Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising being a case in point. Detestable game and Zone put it in the high 80's.

Shocking.
 
I dont think PC Gamer base there scores on MP side of games, they certainly didnt with MW2 (giving it a high score), they only seem to review the SP aspect, which is a bit pointless on games such as BC2 and MW2. Although I will agree with the other scores from this issue, even if SC2 is a little high.
 
Shamikebab said:
What. Since when did 81% become poor?!?
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Since reviewers started giving 90% scores to anything which completes the install process, maybe? :D

I agree tho. 80% is a good score. Lots of brilliant niche games can expect 80% scores, not because they're bad, but because they don't appeal to everyone.
 
Loowi_ashley said:
I dont think PC Gamer base there scores on MP side of games, they certainly didnt with MW2 (giving it a high score), they only seem to review the SP aspect, which is a bit pointless on games such as BC2 and MW2. Although I will agree with the other scores from this issue, even if SC2 is a little high.
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they gave fc2 and spore 90 + they just give any major game a massive score otherwise they wont be given any previews from that publisher and lose a huge section of their market.
 
PC Gamer UK gave Crysis 92% not 98%. That was the US version, and they gave Hellgate: London 89%, so I wouldn't believe a word they said.

I prefer Total PC Gaming anyway. Even when they have exclusives (like the Batman: AA demo) it still didn't push their score for the game above 8/10, when they could have easily pushed the score higher without anyone noticing. They also gave Far Cry 2 7/10, when everyone else seemed to be rubbing their nipples against the game box. (PC Gamer's 90+ score for that was shocking, and was when I made the change to another mag).

For what it's worth, I think all mags occasionally get it wrong, and you just have to find one that does it least. PC Gamer UK isn't the worst offender.
 
Its been a long time since i bought a magazine for games reviews. The main reason is that i can't rely on 1 review to form my own decision into how much I would enjoy the game.

Everyone is different and has different tastes. At the extremes a Flight Simulator might score 100% but i would not touch it with a barge poll. A Fork lift truck simulator might score 10% but their might just be someone out there who cream over this! Personally i absolutely love mw2 for example, some people hate it, each to their own.

Once you have been playing games for a while you learn what type of games you like and what matters for you in certain sub sectors. While i enjoyed MW2 single player I would never have bought it as a single player game (thats why i bought dragon age origins) I bought it for multiplayer and it suits me fine. I don't play it for team work, (I am working through ICC 25man heroic mode in wow that is more than enough team work commitment from me!). From what i hear of BC2 it too is mainly focused on multiplayer, however it is much more about vehicles and teamwork. Some will absolutely love this but it does not float my boat.

In short single reviews are pointless, find out as much as you can from different sources about a game, try a demo and you are much more likely to find a game that YOU love.
 
sr4470 said:
The question you need to be asking is: how much did Sega and Activision pay for those reviews? ;)
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This is why I stopped buying those magazines, not that I was a regular purchaser in recent years. I just became too cynical. :D

The whole "Empire" business really made me scornful of review mags/sites in general.

In the end you pays your money, and takes your chance. A lot of the games I really enjoy, don't rate highly in reviews at all.
 
RaMDOM said:
Agreed. Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising being a case in point. Detestable game and Zone put it in the high 80's.

Shocking.
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Actually they gave it 90! I nearly bought it but was saved by the thread on this very website.

I am always very dubious of reviews when they give rubbish like that 90% and gave Half-Life 2 Episode 2 only 82% (I thought it was brilliant, certainly better than 90%+ of the games I've played since then). A review like that appears to be written by one individual - who admitted in a later magazine that he was totally biased against the whole half-life series. How can you take their scores seriously after stiuff like that?

I do take the scores into consideration though. 86% for AC2 is not enough to put up with their diabolical DRM, there are enough other good games around to give it a miss. First game I will not buy because of its DRM, hope this is not a trend for the future.
 
Though i do subscribe to an alternative PC gaming mag and Games TM , I have long since stopped reading PC Zone and PC Gamer as I have found in recent years the standard of journalism and knowledge in either magazine to be extremely lacking (I used to freelance myself for one of those publications in the past so have a pretty good idea of what their agenda is).
 
gettothechopper said:
pc zone always have early reviews - suggesting that they sell out to the publishers for early reviews by giving good results

pc gamer always have late reviews - usually because they are not given the chance to review games early because the publishers know that they will be more honest about crap games

this seems to be the case when comparing reviews between the two
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Well, sometimes it's the other way around, I guess because they're owned by the same publisher, they both get an 'exclusive' for the month and make the other mag wait it out a bit. Gamer got GTA IV 2 months before Zone (Nov/Jan)
 
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