Do you read VGTalk's reviews?
 

Just a quick informal poll to see if you guys are reading the reviews we've been working our asses off to write :)

If you don't, why not? can you let us know what you like/dislike/might like to see more of to have you read them?

I voted no, just to be a dick. ;)

Thanks. That's a great help.

Sometimes I skim them just to see what you guys think about a game, but to tell you the truth, I really don't read any gaming reviews from anybody. Buying games is generally more of a gut decision for me. If I'm on the fence about a game, I'll scan some gaming forums to see what the general buzz is and then look at the average score at GameRankings.

Fair enough reason.

I see a few "no" votes...yet no feedback. :(

I do what I can. I think more people might be inclined to spend more time on VideoGameTalk.com if there were actually a website there with news and such, to be honest.

No. I'm not big on review in general. Especially more lengthy ones. The only ones I've paid any attention to for years have been EGM. They tend to be super harsh on games (just like me) and the reviews are short and to the point, and they're consistent with their number scheme.

So I generally just go with EGM and user impressions posted in the forum here if I'm on the fence about a game.

Do you think that our reviews are too long? Do you find we are inconsitent with our rating scheme?

Without feedback, we cannot improve.

I voted no. Although I have read a couple of them.

My problem with them is that they come too far after the release of a game. By the time the VGtalk review is in, I've generally already decided to buy/rent/pass on game by other reviews or user opinions.

A review after a game has been out a month is pointless to me.

I know what you're saying. Beleive me when I say we're trying to get things out sooner. We've had some reviews take FAR too long to be posted, and yeah...those are useless months after the fact.

The trade off to an early review then becomes, do you want us to sacrifice game play time for an early review? Games come to us when they are shipped to retail (when we get them), and then it takes a while to play enough to get an honest review. Most of the time we at least try to complete the game before writing a review, and since reviewing is a after hours thing it's not always easy to whip through a 20 hour game in less than a week.

Personally I'd rather read a review that the guy playing it has actually played, rather than someone who played the first level of a game and decided that was enough to get an unbiased opinion.

I enjoy the reviews....it's always good to see what other people say. Now, do I listen, probably not....Full Auto got mixed reviews, and I love it.

For the record, I've agreed with the few reviews I've read, and I think they're well written.

Well, I'll try to offer some feedback and hope it helps and doesn't make me look like a dick.

I actually tend not to read reviews from most places, not because I don't like to, but because I am very critical of reviews and reviewing styles and think most suck. I have various reasons for different places, from too long (IGN usually) to a sense of superiority from the reviewer (Play).

As far as DVDTalk's, I'd say the reviews are average and hold little interest for me. Some tend to be too long, very long at times, but a little too long would be fine if it were an interesting write-up.

The reviews suffer first of all from some being untimely, which means I've likely made up my mind.

Next is the formulatic structure of the reviews, which I think is the biggest turnoff for me. For a reviewer, of any medium, to interest me, he or she needs to have their own style and let the review flow out naturally. The DVDTalk reviews I've read don't do that. It feels forced and the writing feels like it came from a cookie-cutter approach. I really do not like a breakdown of Gameplay/Graphics/etc., because I feel this limits the reviewer. The reviewer should be able to talk about what they want in the order they want, as it pertains to their like/dislike of the game.

The formulatic approach I am talking to also applies to the content of the review. There is too much time spent on making pointless comparisons, giving me details of the game I can read off the back of the box or the web site, and just generally trying to pack information in, without actually giving me a sense of what playing the game was like. That is what I want, not a checklist approach of pros and cons of five or whatever categories.

Finally, I think the writing overall is not very clear and concise. It can be wordy, or choppy or have bad flow. This is sadly a pet peeve of mine since I am a journalist. I like things tight.

Now, please take this for what it is: ONE man's opinion. I am very picky and therefore it is hard to please me and I probably sound like an uppity prick because of it. DVDTalk's reviews are certainly better than some I've read, but it takes more than average to get me to spend my time with it.

Great feedback! Thanks!

I actually tend to agree on the point about too much structure can limit a review, and a free flowing format can be quite good a lot of time (see the DVD reviews here for some good examples).

Keep it coming folks!

Too long for me, but probably fine for most. I like EGM's because it's just a couple of short paragraphs on what they liked or didn't like. Has the good and bad blurbs at the top etc..

I don't need all the detail on description of the game etc. I already know that from reading previews.

And a 10 point scale allows for more variation that the 4 or 5 options DVD talk uses.

I've not read enough to see if you guys are consistent, and didn't mean that as a criticism, but rather just a reason I like EGM.

just double our scores to match the EGM scale ;)

I know it wasn't criticism, but I was just trying to drum up some feedback :)

Hmmm, skip the foreplay about the story/background and the like and get right into the gameplay? Could be a good idea, it would tighten up the reviews a fair amount.

I agred about 10.0 scales, much better than 5s and 100s. The best doubling a five point scale can do is provide 1,2,3,4..., whereas a 10 scale can go 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5... It doesn't seem important, but some times that half point up or down feels necessary.

I also prefer one overall score and no breakdown, but that is something I know a lot of people differ on.

It depends what you mean by story/background. If you mean skip giving me a developer's resume or a game's delay history, unless absolutely pertinent to the review/enjoyment of the game, then yes, skip it. However, if you mean the game's story/series history, this can be necessary for some reviews, as I am sure you know.

I actually didn't know they existed.

Now you do :)

www.videogametalk.com

I don't, mainly for the above stated reasons, by the time they come out here I've already decided if I'm gonna play the game or not. And also its usually games I'm not interested in playing anyway that I see on the scroller thing above. There are a couple ways I go about deciding to get a game, its not magic though, if its a game I really want it I get it no matter what. If I'm unsure how it turned out, I check IGN and gamespot (the two sources that I like to compare with each other because I like how their reviews are structured), and go by word of mouth on various forums (I weigh this more heavily), I've read a few on here, they're not bad by any means, but I don't think there should be a separate rating category for plot, there are some games that are great like Bust a Move DS and there isn't really any point for the plot but to present the game to you (which is awesome). Anyway I know writing reviews is pretty hard, if I were to write game reviews I think I would end up not liking games, so keep up the hard work! :)

I rarely buy games at or near release, so I don't mind a slight delay. Obviously reviewing something like Final Fantasy X now would be a little ridiculous, but reviewing something like, say, Dragon Quest VIII wouldn't be too bad.
I read reviews, though I don't base my buying decision on any single review. What did a person like or dislike about it, sometimes the dislike can tell more about the game.

The DS reviews are seriously lacking. Right now that platform has captured the majority of my interest, so I pay little attention to other platforms with the exceptions of the major releases.

I've only read a couple, so I voted no. I never really think to actually look for them. The couple times I have read a review, it was because it was a game I was really interested about, and a shortcut link was on the front page of the Video Game Talk forum. Like tenaciousdave said, the reviews come out too long after the game has hit the streets. Unless I'm wrong, IGN gets review copies of games before they hit retail, so they get their reviews out a couple days before. I don't even throroughly read IGNs reviews, I just skim them to get an idea about the games features, framerate, etc., and read the closing comments. When I'm eyeing a game, I typically get it on release day, so if I read a review on it, the review has to be out on or before release day. Come to think of it, the main "reviews" I look for here are the impressions/thoughts that people post in the "1/Only [game title] Thread." I get to read multiple points of view, and they are usually short and to the point.

I read them on occasion, but not for information. I typically read them after I finish a game. Why? Just to see what someone else came away with from the game.

I like the score breakdown, although I think the sound option is worthless. Who buys a game based on sound? If a game makes great use of sound(Condemned, COD2) it can simply be noted in the review.

Shorter description of the plot would be good. If someone is reading a review, chances are they know a little about the game already.

Typically when I do read reviews it is just for more insight into the game and holds little to no swaying power in my purchasing decisions.

Sure. Why not? The more info for the informed game purchaser, the better.