kakihara1

Yeah I read them, but do they hold much water for me? Not really, like people have already said; they are far too delayed to be seriously effective, I can't honestly say I've purchased a game based on the reviews here. But I've definitely bought games based on the other user reviews in the forums.

This is a big ass website/forum, I don't understand why it would be so hard to get game makers to send review copies of games to you guys. But to me the biggest thing is making sure the games that are online are reviewed as such. Much like the recent reviews by magazines and web gaming sites reviewed Full Auto as being utter shit for not having a storyline WTF!!? it's racing and shooting shit and the most fun online. IMO a VERY fun game. therefore what someone said earlier about a single score for games doesn't fit for me. I think there need to be breakout categories that are possibly even searchable. Say I want to see reviews of FPS only I click "FPS" and a top list of those games is displayed. If I want to play a game online 99% of the time I don't give a shit how it scored on the single player I want to know if it was fun online/splitscreen. I'm carrying on now.

aerobson

You have game reviews? Seriously, I guess I never really noticed. I would have to agree with Michael Corvin and kakihara1. I read a lot of reviews to help make a purchasing decision. I'd rather not rent because I see that as a waste of money if I do decide to buy later on down the road (yeah, I know, that's messed up). I usually already know at least a little about the game. I actually do prefer the longer reviews, as long as they are not formulaic. I'd rather get the reviewers honest opinion about the actual gameplay rather than a cookie cutter review with specific guidelines regarding stroyline, video, and sound.

Now that I know you have reviews, I'll definitely check them out.

Houstondon

One of the problems with "early reviews" is that the review websites and magazines that get advance versions of the games are not getting the same game you're able to buy. DVD Talk has a general policy of not reviewing incomplete titles because the reviews will be around long after the initial rush of release date. Would you prefer reviews based on the limited versions they handle (though often don't admit to) or the consumer release? I'm not a game reviewer but I thought I'd throw that out for consideration.

Otherwise, tell them what exactly you'd like to see; a recap of the listed features, comments on the highlights, ease of play, or whatever. Thanks!

PixyJunket

Reviews seem to focus on actual gameplay the least, therefore they serve little purpose to me. I don't care how good a game looks or what hot licensed hip hop tracks it has or what and how much of a bloated, convoluted story the game has.. how does it play? Most reviews seem to factor gameplay as about 20-30% of their scoring when it should be more like 80%.

jeffdsmith

If you are talking about packaging I agree, however while a review site may be able to get incomplete titles, they also recieve finalized titles up to 2 weeks before they hit stores. (Usually ~1 week though) I believe fully in reviewing complete material, it is possible to receive it before ship date.

Edit: When I say weeks I refer to business weeks.

Save Ferris

Sorry guys i have never read your reviews. I always go to www.gamerankings.com I prefer to skim a group of reviews. Probably why i like www.rottentomatoes.com too.

matome

I read 'em. I like to get input from lots of sources.

Draven

Honestly, I forget about videogametalk.com until I see it mentioned somewhere, then I promptly forget it again.

If a game looks interesting to me, I'll a) read about it in EGM b) check out the "buzz" on the DVDTalk forums and/or c) check out Gamespot or IGN. I don't ever think about VGTalk as a source for video game reviews. Nothing against you guys, as I know it can be a thankless job - it's just not on my radar, and I don't need to read a ton of reviews to decide if I'm going to like a game.

Kicker_of_Elves

I voted no. It's mainly because i don't have the time to read em and usually just go off the reviews from EGM & Game Informer. But like, thanks for the reviews anyways, i'm of the mind where having a lot of reviews by different magazines and online sites can't be considered a bad thing. If anything it should help the buyer even more.

The Bus

I read them but honestly this is not the first place I think of when I think of game rankings. It's... gamerankings.com. Or Gamespot.

Realistically, I don't think it's necessary to write a review of Madden 2007. Or Grandia III. Unless you're Tycho and Gabe and have eight hours a day at your disposal to play games, you're not going to get the finished retail opinion out quickly enough.

However, move past the flagship titles and you've got a desolate wasteland as far as review go. Example: Mutant Storm Reloaded. For about a month, the only review that was out was GameSpots. Near the end of that month, one or two other reviews came out for it. Even now there's only 13 reviews. Meanwhile, Fight Night Round 3 has 48 articles and it's been out for two days.

I'd love to hear more about games that are just a bit under the radar. That can mean PC games or demos too. Or even free games.

It would be nice to have a set of "Approved Games" - basically, a list of games that several reviewers can heartily recommend. Sort of a cheat sheet. This could be very useful for people getting into the next-gen a bit late as they now need to know what games of the past X months are good.

Also, I don't mind the story but it does get in the way of the review. No offense but it doesn't impress me that someone knows the backstory of a developer and I certainly don't need that clogging up the first couple of paragraphs. A few sentences is fine, but not an essay.

joeblow69

I voted no as well. I'd rather have many people's shorter opinions than 1 person's long winded opinion.

aerobson

Well, I finally found the page for the video game reviews. You guys should really think about making it easier to find. Maybe a link at the top this forum would help direct more people to your reviews. I never would have thought to click on the Reviews tab on the main page of DVDTALK for video game reviews if I weren't actively looking for the page. I suppose that is the main reason I never even knew you reviewed games.

Groucho

I have read some of the reviews, I don't read them any more for petty personal reasons I don't think are appropriate to discuss here in the public forum. If you're really curious you can email me.

gimmepilotwings

Bingo. The DS is just about all that I play now eventhough I own all of the other consoles.

It would help if there was anyway that you could score releases of the games to try out for review purchases before retail date. Other major sites have the ability to get the games before release date.

Although I also rarely buy games opening week, unless there is a sale involved.

slop101

Honestly, the VGTalk reviews are great - well written and in-depth. But they are posted FAR too late after a game's release to be of any value. By the time you guys get around to reviewing a game, it's been out for at least a month, and the verdict is already in - I will have either bought it, or have made up my mind not to.

Liver&Onions

Thanks for all the feedback, I'll try to speak to a couple points, but might forget things on the way.

timing of reviews - HoustonDon hit it on the head here. We don't get debug units from console makers, so we are left being able to only get final boxed code from PR firms. If we had a more in-depth site, we could be eligible for debug units allowing more previews, and earlier reviews. Sure titles are sent out as Gold a couple weeks before, but the PR firms don't get their shipments until the day of shipping, so we have that delay.

Incase you hadn't noticed, we are trying to cover the Live Arcade quite heavily. We had one of the first reviews posted for Crystal Quest on the net! As new Arcade titles come out, we get them ASAP and try to get those reviews up quick and early. But again we have to make sure we play them enough to get a fair review.

Nintendo - these guys are TOUGH to get access to unless you're IGN or Gamespot. And even getting non-Nintendo DS/GBA releases is very tricky. Hear me now, believe me late, we're trying on this.

Finding the reviews - there is a rotating review link posted on each page within this forum at the top of the page. But this is good feedback to make the fact we have VG reviews more prominent.

Our reviews are linked on Gamerankings...although not yet one of the Bold reviews due to their policies...soon though. Soon.

Reviews in general - who knows...maybe some of this feedback you guys are giving will help out in the site overall. We're trying to make the site more worthy of not only PR companies, but also your time by getting screenshots and news. Lately, newer reviews have been getting a better visual treatment thanks to us securing screen shots from companies. It's a slow moving ball, but it's gathering momentum.

PixyJunket

I think it would nice if there was more visibility while browsing the forum. Instead of Top Price Search Games why not list the 10 Newest Reviews? How about an alternate view of certain games? I think it would be cool to have a review aimed more at the average gamer, similar to the current reviews that cover all aspects, but how about an alternate view that focuses more in depth on the gameplay and the niche aspects of games? Just some suggestions.

kakihara1

Maybe you could incorporate the forum users opinions or approach them to add a bit to your review kinda like a Here's what I think compared to what the rest of the forum guys think type of thing.

There are almost always threads to reflect a game that's coming out such as the Guitar Hero thread, DOA4, Full Auto, Kingdom Hearts 2, that are all pretty popular threads and they stick around for a while, use those people to be sort of a point/counterpoint to your own review. maybe a stupid idea but whatever I'm trying to think of shit to help.

Liver&Onions

Integrating the forums and reviews is a good approach, and we have some ideas being tossed around right now on how to better do this. It will help bring the reviews into focus, and could make for some interesting conversation between the reviewer and the forums.

How a reviewer decides to do his/her review is up to them, so if they want to say things like "so and so said game XXXX was YYYY, but I think of it more OOOO." or something.

kakihara1

Yeah you could be like
Kakihara1 (MARTIN5) says: "This game sucks balls if you buy it you're a fucking loser" But I liked it!!

Liver&Onions

lol. Yeah...somehow I don't think that'll fly

PixyJunket

That's a good idea.. maybe we could recruit a Rouge's Gallery based on genre and have them add a small opinion to each review to better gauge another fan's opinion in that genre. You could get a quip from me on a JRPG or a blurb from kakihara1 on an FPS. That way forum readers familiar with frequent poster's opinions can say "Hey, Pixy liked this game.. maybe I should try it." or "Kaki was down on this game, maybe I'll stick to a rental."

kakihara1

See that's a really good point Pixy I know there are many gamers here that I align myself with pretty closely, I think if there were those small opinions of gamers with the same taste as myself I would be inclined to listen to them and I'm sure it would work the same the other way around.

Breakfast with Girls

I really, really like that idea.

Or maybe just grabbing random quotes from the forum threads. After all, this is DVD Talk and Video Game Talk.

Maybe this could be in a sidebar of some sort, next to the review?

Liver&Onions

Check out the more recent ones, pictures are being added now