If the integrity of mainstream video game reviews was in a coffin and all but one nail had been driven home, the reviews for GTA IV was a big mash hammer that drove the last nail in, but bent it totally out of shape before smashing it home, making it all but impossible to pull it out.
Stick a fork in ’em.
What is this conspiracy theory that you guys have going on? It’s not like this is the first game to get multiple tens. If it got 9.8’s across the board, would you be calling foul too?
And thanks for that picture. Once seen, you can’t UNsee it.
*vomit*
@Brock – From my personal experience, this game is no where close to a 10. Not a 9.8, either. There are technical issues with the game that would knock “lesser” games’ scores down to the basement. I don’t know if there’s a conspiracy or not, but these reviewers seemed to turn a blind eye to some glaring issues.
Tony,
Same concern. The GTA series since III has had some glaring design flaws. I could realistically see something like Vice City getting near perfect scores because of what it accomplished, because of the improvements it made over III, and because it took the series in a more “Hollywood” direction.
After that it’s been more of the same and the design problems that were evident in III and Vice City have still not been addressed? At what point does additional window dressing not cut it? Maybe you could score the game on its own without considering past history, but then you would also have to ignore its competition.
You’re right, any other game would not be treated so well. Their credibility is sunk in my eyes.
Not only does it have technical issues, but it fails to take an adventurous step in any direction. Everything I’ve done in the game so far I’ve done in another game. It’s admirable how much content they stuffed in there and I AM enjoying it, but it isn’t groundbreaking from a design-sense. (Technical sense, yes there is some very impressive stuff on that end).
I don’t think the conspiracy is so much that GTAIV got a perfect score (for an obviously non-perfect game) but just what’s behind the review process.
The conspiracy is in how the game (or games) are reviewed. It’s almost like they popped the disk in played for an hour or two and called it genius.
Then there’s the ethics behind the whole “exclusive reviews” thing. It’s just too weird.
I’d also have to agree with Tony and Jason (and many others) that this is not a “perfect” game. I can think of a few other titles just on concept alone that should score higher and the major reviewers didn’t.
Of course, my opinion has to be taken with a grain of salt because I have not played the game.
Also, what constitutes the game as perfect? Who’s to say? In some ways review scores are ambiguous. I agree with something that Brock mentioned to me via chat. Percent scores make better sense because there is a frame of reference to a hundredth of a perfect score. I guess it explains why many big reviewers are being a little more ambiguous in their scoring.
A better thing would be to just write excellent, unique reviews and eliminate scores altogether. That takes guts and skill and we’ll probably never see that.