mass effect

[scotchnrocks]

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Anyone else think that game rankings are becoming more and more a marketing tool? Almost like the video games' version of movie review quotes like "Wildly Entertaining", "This summer's blockbuster movie!" "If you only see one movie this year, make it this one!"...

I've been reading some of the reviews online for this game, from what I used to consider very reputable websites - and while I have yet to play the game - I'm amazed that a reviewer can pan the AI of both enemies and allies during combat, detail some major draw-in issues and still give the game a 9.7/10...

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I don't think it is that as much as many of the review sites just flat out suck.

By the time the review is out, most of the marketing is done anyway. And there would have to be a huge conspiracy for game developers to avoid marketing on the major review sites who have negatively reviewed games in the past. The most popular sites have so many revenue streams that it would hardly matter if a developer or three decided to black ball them.

I think it would be more accurate to say there is a standard deviation because reviews are subjective to some degree based on the reviewers preference to certain types of games.

FWIW, the only game I have played recently for the 360 that I thought was misleading based on reviews is Halo 3.

Forza 2 was spot on, Bioshock spot on, COD4 spot.

[ThaSaltCracka]

what was misleading about Halo 3?

[scotchnrocks]

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what was misleading about Halo 3?

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Standard run of the mill single player campaign, crappy non-intuitive vehicle controls. The only real innovations are the level editor which I never even used, and the replay system which is also meh cause I can give two [censored] about watching replays of a video game battle save for the occasional youtube of some outrageous kill.

If it didn't have the Halo name, it would have been a 8.6-8.8ish game.

[kabouter]

It's a good game, but on normal difficulty I have no idea how to beat the Gaz guy in the stripbar.

[goofyballer]

Halo's multiplayer is a 9.8. Its single-player has always sucked.

[Dire]

I think the single player of Halo is just overwhelmed by the multiplayer. Halo single player has one of the best cooperative campaigns of any game I've played. It's just so much fun cruising around in a warthog together, flanking the enemies, etc.. I'm not sure how much it is playing alone, but that's not really an issue now that you can even do coop online.

Definitely not a huge fan of them enabling 'god' mode (if one player dies, the other player can just walk a ways from the enemies and the other player will be 'revived') on Halo 3 legendary coop though. It was very fun and challenging playing through legendary in Halo 2 when neither player could die. Actually, that also might be an issue. The campaign is pretty terrible on normal. On heroic it's mediocre. It really shines on legendary though.

[goofyballer]

Meh, I played through a decent amount of Halo 2's campaign on co-op and it wasn't much more fun than single player. Gears of War, on the other hand, was ridic fun to play co-op. I think the Zero Punctuation review nailed it about Halo when he said "it seems like the [censored] if you aren't used to better games that have been around for awhile on PC." (paraphrasing)

[scotchnrocks]

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I think the single player of Halo is just overwhelmed by the multiplayer. Halo single player has one of the best cooperative campaigns of any game I've played. It's just so much fun cruising around in a warthog together, flanking the enemies, etc.. I'm not sure how much it is playing alone, but that's not really an issue now that you can even do coop online.

Definitely not a huge fan of them enabling 'god' mode (if one player dies, the other player can just walk a ways from the enemies and the other player will be 'revived') on Halo 3 legendary coop though. It was very fun and challenging playing through legendary in Halo 2 when neither player could die. Actually, that also might be an issue. The campaign is pretty terrible on normal. On heroic it's mediocre. It really shines on legendary though.

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That is a good summary. The game is a big turd if you're not playing it online in some way. And that is fine, but it is also why the game is undeserving of anything over an 8.9/10

[jalexand42]

Why don't you guys create a halo thread - this is for nerds that want to discuss mass effect. :P

Edit: Picking up game tonight, but probably not playing it before christmas just to not derail life/poker.

[ThaSaltCracka]

Seriously, give me some first impressions people!