The NEW Game Journal

[Tomara]

Depends on the friend, I guess?

[Darilon]

I usually only watch LPs of games I have either finished or they have not reached the stage I am at. Sounds weird now that I say it.

I can't say I am a fan of people watching me play. I tend to feel like I am hogging the TV and try to save as soon as I can. I do like helping my roommate if he is playing though. Usually I am on my laptop and pass on the odd tip if I suddenly hear him swear.

[solidbatman]

I'm playing Atelier Totori Plus, Hatsune Miku Project Diva f, Metal Gear Rising, and Killer is Dead. Gonna start Bravely Default tomorrow. Also reading through the second to last arc in Little Busters.

[Holykael1]

I didnt watch anyone play on the handheld, we were playing on the PC emulator connected to the big ass TV and before any claims of piracy, I own a copy of the game aswell as a DS XL.

[Elegance]

Ah, I see.  I was under the impression everyone used flash carts for DS piracy.

[Holykael1]

Ah, I see.  I was under the impression everyone used flash carts for DS piracy.

I have a flashcart but I also have legit copies of the games, flashcarts can be used for convenience aswell not just piracy. It's the only way to play fan translations on the actual hardware too.

[Bytor]

As usual, late to the party (very late in this case) but I started Lost Odyssey earlier and played @2 hours, somehow it has a Nier "flavor" to it so far....got a tad bogged down in Soul Hackers and Little Lady still has the Vita under raps, lol

[Kevadu]

Reviews are worthless for the most part, unless you know what type of person the reviewer is and what kind of tastes they have so you can draw parallels with your own tastes. That kind of mindset will make you miss out on great experiences. If Nier is anything to go by(which I personally havent had the chance to play yet), mainstream reviews are worthless, for my tastes atleast.

OK, I'm very late to this discussion but I couldn't just overlook this.  Your example of why reviews are 'worthless' is a game that you haven't even played...yet somehow you're completely confident it was mistreated by 'mainstream' reviewers.

Let me tell you something: I've played Nier.  I loved Nier.  It was one of my favorite games whenit came out.  But I also recognize that it is an extremely flawed title and not everyone is going to like it.  For everything point it succeeds at I can list half a dozen points where it stumbles.  Honestly if I was going to review Nier I would probably give it about a 7/10, which coincidentally is pretty close to its Metacritic average.  This is despite the fact that I love the game, which I do.  I don't consider these statements to be contradictory.  Loving a game despite its flaws does not mean you have to ignore the flaws.

I think the real problem here isn't reviews as much as it's people acting like a 7/10 is a horrible score that means a game is unplayable or something.  There is an awful lot of whining out there whenever a game somebody like didn't get a 9+ or whatever.  At least from my perspective that seems to be the real origin of the whole "reviews are worthless" attitude.  How about you stop obsessing over scores and read the actual text of the reviews in question?  I generally find that to be far more enlightening (and in the few cases I've found when the criticisms had no weight it's generally self-evident).

[Dice]

Reviews are worthless for the most part, unless you know what type of person the reviewer is and what kind of tastes they have so you can draw parallels with your own tastes. That kind of mindset will make you miss out on great experiences. If Nier is anything to go by(which I personally havent had the chance to play yet), mainstream reviews are worthless, for my tastes atleast.

OK, I'm very late to this discussion but I couldn't just overlook this.  Your example of why reviews are 'worthless' is a game that you haven't even played...yet somehow you're completely confident it was mistreated by 'mainstream' reviewers.

Let me tell you something: I've played Nier.  I loved Nier.  It was one of my favorite games whenit came out.  But I also recognize that it is an extremely flawed title and not everyone is going to like it.  For everything point it succeeds at I can list half a dozen points where it stumbles.  Honestly if I was going to review Nier I would probably give it about a 7/10, which coincidentally is pretty close to its Metacritic average.  This is despite the fact that I love the game, which I do.  I don't consider these statements to be contradictory.  Loving a game despite its flaws does not mean you have to ignore the flaws.

I think the real problem here isn't reviews as much as it's people acting like a 7/10 is a horrible score that means a game is unplayable or something.  There is an awful lot of whining out there whenever a game somebody like didn't get a 9+ or whatever.  At least from my perspective that seems to be the real origin of the whole "reviews are worthless" attitude.  How about you stop obsessing over scores and read the actual text of the reviews in question?  I generally find that to be far more enlightening (and in the few cases I've found when the criticisms had no weight it's generally self-evident).

I think it's really smart too not only read a review (I def think you're right that often people are too fixated on the grade and number it scores than the content of the actual written review), but I also really like sites that avoid the grade and give you "the good, the bad, and the ugly" instead.

[Bytor]

Well said Kevadu, for me I rate a game based on whether or not I can overlook it flaws, I guess to a certain extent it's does the good outweigh the bad

[Elegance]

Reviews are worthless for the most part, unless you know what type of person the reviewer is and what kind of tastes they have so you can draw parallels with your own tastes. That kind of mindset will make you miss out on great experiences. If Nier is anything to go by(which I personally havent had the chance to play yet), mainstream reviews are worthless, for my tastes atleast.

OK, I'm very late to this discussion but I couldn't just overlook this.  Your example of why reviews are 'worthless' is a game that you haven't even played...yet somehow you're completely confident it was mistreated by 'mainstream' reviewers.

Let me tell you something: I've played Nier.  I loved Nier.  It was one of my favorite games whenit came out.  But I also recognize that it is an extremely flawed title and not everyone is going to like it.  For everything point it succeeds at I can list half a dozen points where it stumbles.  Honestly if I was going to review Nier I would probably give it about a 7/10, which coincidentally is pretty close to its Metacritic average.  This is despite the fact that I love the game, which I do.  I don't consider these statements to be contradictory.  Loving a game despite its flaws does not mean you have to ignore the flaws.

I think the real problem here isn't reviews as much as it's people acting like a 7/10 is a horrible score that means a game is unplayable or something.  There is an awful lot of whining out there whenever a game somebody like didn't get a 9+ or whatever.  At least from my perspective that seems to be the real origin of the whole "reviews are worthless" attitude.  How about you stop obsessing over scores and read the actual text of the reviews in question?  I generally find that to be far more enlightening (and in the few cases I've found when the criticisms had no weight it's generally self-evident).

Flaws are still opinions though.  The flaws for some are strengths for others.

[Dice]

Reviews are worthless for the most part, unless you know what type of person the reviewer is and what kind of tastes they have so you can draw parallels with your own tastes. That kind of mindset will make you miss out on great experiences. If Nier is anything to go by(which I personally havent had the chance to play yet), mainstream reviews are worthless, for my tastes atleast.

OK, I'm very late to this discussion but I couldn't just overlook this.  Your example of why reviews are 'worthless' is a game that you haven't even played...yet somehow you're completely confident it was mistreated by 'mainstream' reviewers.

Let me tell you something: I've played Nier.  I loved Nier.  It was one of my favorite games whenit came out.  But I also recognize that it is an extremely flawed title and not everyone is going to like it.  For everything point it succeeds at I can list half a dozen points where it stumbles.  Honestly if I was going to review Nier I would probably give it about a 7/10, which coincidentally is pretty close to its Metacritic average.  This is despite the fact that I love the game, which I do.  I don't consider these statements to be contradictory.  Loving a game despite its flaws does not mean you have to ignore the flaws.

I think the real problem here isn't reviews as much as it's people acting like a 7/10 is a horrible score that means a game is unplayable or something.  There is an awful lot of whining out there whenever a game somebody like didn't get a 9+ or whatever.  At least from my perspective that seems to be the real origin of the whole "reviews are worthless" attitude.  How about you stop obsessing over scores and read the actual text of the reviews in question?  I generally find that to be far more enlightening (and in the few cases I've found when the criticisms had no weight it's generally self-evident).

Flaws are still opinions though.  The flaws for some are strengths for others.

I'm not quite sure what you expect from a review then...

[Elegance]

I'm not quite sure what you expect from a review then...

What do you mean?  I expect the reviewer's opinion on the game.

[Dice]

I'm not quite sure what you expect from a review then...

What do you mean?  I expect the reviewer's opinion on the game.

Oh, um.  I guess I'm just kind of lost with the intent of your response to Kevadu.

[Seultoria]

Been playing some of my PS2 backlog on my fat PS3 before it kicks the bucket, because I'm sure I'll have to buy some of these through the PS store if I want to play them in the future. I'll have to do that with some PSP games eventually since my PSP died last year. The fans are getting real loud, so I've been trying to clean the PS3 as much as possible and putting it on it's side so that it gets better ventilation, but I know this is only extending its life, not fixing the actual problem. Thankfully PS3 slims are much more affordable now. I'm also waiting for a few PS3 games to become cheaper so that I can buy those too, such as the English versions of Tales of Graces F, Xillia and Xillia 2 when it comes out. My Japanese comprehension has deteriorated in the past couple of years, so it's really hard for me to make any progress in the Japanese games that I own.

The main game I have been playing is Digital Devil Saga. I'm at Coordinate 136 right now and I just got there, so I definitely plan to do a little grinding so as to master some mantras now. I also need to even Serph's stats out a little bit. Most FAQs are saying they should be even, but I've poured everything into Magic and a few points into vitality. I guess my playthrough of Devil Survivor/DS2 has influenced the extremely imbalanced stat distribution.

I'm also going through a bit of my GBA and DS backlog, trying to clear some games before I eventually get a 3DS and Vita (I doubt the 3DS will get any cheaper, and I'm not buying that ugly piece of shit called the 2DS), so it's just about saving up some money. Luckily I'll have plenty of games to choose from since I took about a 5 year break from heavy gaming (just did some here and there, like playing Persona 4 and a bit of Tales of Graces F back in 2010/2011.)