Why were a lot of UK game reviews totally wrong?

[Retro-Nerd]

I play computer/videogames since the early 80s, so i know what i'm talking about. Really liked the german mags Amiga Joker, ASM, Powerplay etc. Sure, they've done some mistakes too, but mostly they wrote competent/in-depth reviews.

I never read the english mags back in time, saw only the insanely high ratings in the german mag ads. But after reading some of them i'm completely shocked. A lot of games received 5-10 % more in average, compared to the german reviews, which were more critical. I'm not talking about AP, this mag was not really serious.

Turrican 1 (really like it, even today) got 91% in the CU, this is 10% more than the AJ & PP ratings. The C+VG rated it even with 94%. This is only one example, i could easily find tons of other.

I always wondered why the UK magazine ratings differed so extremely in comparison to other european reviews. What do you think?

[Ultron]

Here's Stuart Campbell's ritual before writing his reviews...

[Graham Humphrey]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

I'm not talking about AP, this mag was not really serious.

What does that mean, exactly?

But anyway - lots of UK mags seem to be influenced by the ad department or put under pressure by the software companies or whatever (witness Amiga Action's review of Rise of the Robots, they were the worst offenders for this sort of thing, The One and CU weren't far behind), actually that's even worse now as almost every games mag seems to be influenced by software companies in some way (the Official magazines are no more than mouthpieces for Sony, Nintendo or whoever for example), and most people who work for them are pretty clueless as writers as well. Therefore they tend to be totally dire (especially Future Publishing's mags, though NGamer's not bad - at least it is well-written and entertaining, although some of the reviews are rather generous).

The only half-decent one these days (other than Retro Gamer which doesn't count) is GamesTM and even that's incredibly boring to read most of the time. Bit depressing really, no wonder most games mag's circulations are plummeting.

[Zetr0]

@Graham Humphrey,

Gonna have to agree with you on the fact that most of todays computer magazine reviews are written just like triallers for the game... (wich you can donwload) another thing is the fact they want atleast £5.99 per mag... wich just to tout the sony, microsoft, nintendo bravado they can forget.... hard to believe that a computer mag these days costs over $10....

anyways i believe that a lot of reviewers get a lot of perks because there is no way any sane human would put GODS at anything above -99% (such-a-crap-game!)

I find that most reviewers haven't a clue and this extends to movies too.... the number of time i have heard it being claimed as amazing... only for me to leave the theater and claim my money back, and on the flip side.... absolutly dreading a movie only to be completely delighted by it...

reviewers and critics should be shot.... on site.... .... twice come to think it...

[Retro-Nerd]

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

What does that mean, exactly?

They over-/underrated a lot of games in a 40-50% region. Rich Pelly rated Ambermoon with 30%, this is more than ridiculous.

Other UK mags done it probably too, i have to read a bit more. But i was not talking about the official Sony, Sega, Nintendo imags, of course they only advertised their own games. I meant the independent Amiga & Multi mags, like Zzap, CU etc.

Sure they were influenced by the software publisher & ad department, but this was the case for the german mags too. This can't be the only reason for writing such incompetent reviews. A lot of crappy arcade conversions got 85-90 ratings while good Strategy & RPG games were highly underrated.

[Dizzy]

Sorry RN but that is a crap conclusion....

I always hated scores in review, because is a game a 85% or a 95% doesn't matter. You have to read the whole review, and look who wrote it. You quickly find some gametesters who got the same taste as yourself, and by reading their reviews, you get the idea if the game is something for you.

I also read german mag (amiga joker and asm) back then, but didn't get the same "I wanna get this game" feeling as when reading AP or The One and those games I got that feeling toward was always worth the money....
My personal favourite at AP was Jonathan Davies (and Karl Foster)

[DDNI]

Like it mattered if a review was good or bad anyway. Its not like many of us lost any money acquiring the games.

[dlfrsilver]

well, in france the magazine joystick, tilt and GEN 4 had quite the same problem.
hence the post i wrote about Dynasty wars. some reviewers said that some
games were more than overrated. Joystick magazine have themselves made some renewal in their game testers in order to stop those ranking the games too high and stay objective. for example Turrican 1 Got 98% in joystick magazine on amiga. The game is great, but does not deserve 98%.

[Graham Humphrey]

Well the whole advertising thing does apply for most Amiga mags, that's why most of the reviews are rather unconvincing. Also around 95-96 time a lot of mags were giving games artificially high marks to convince people the Amiga was still alive and had loads of great games being released for it (I mean come on, most mags scored a game like Breathless 90-95%, what a shambles).

Amiga Power's one of the greatest games mags ever produced though. It was funny, very well-written and they never, ever shied away from saying exactly what they thought of a game, regardless of the hype it was getting or the pressure they were put under by games companies. Even if it resulted in lost advertising revenue, lawsuits and the like. Not a type of mag we will ever see again, sadly.

[Retro-Nerd]

Originally Posted by Dizzy

Sorry RN but that is a crap conclusion....

I always hated scores in review, because is a game a 85% or a 95% doesn't matter. You have to read the whole review, and look who wrote it. You quickly find some gametesters who got the same taste as yourself, and by reading their reviews, you get the idea if the game is something for you.

I also read german mag (amiga joker and asm) back then, but didn't get the same "I wanna get this game" feeling as when reading AP or The One and those games I got that feeling toward was always worth the money....
My personal favourite at AP was Jonathan Davies (and Karl Foster)

Sure you didn't get the same "I wanna get this game", because they didn't overhyped all releases. They done it sometimes, but not very often. I saved a lot of money back in time.

The authors were sectionaled in their favorite genres, to ensure objective reviews. And mostly it worked fine.

It is well known that the Powerplay didn't liked the amiga, with some exceptions. The mag starts without ratings (as Happy Computer), but this didn't work well enough and they switched to "out of 100 %". It makes a huge difference, imho, if you rate a game with 85% or 95%, Dizzy. But i don't care about if a game receives 80% or 81%.

For some time they used the "out of 10" scale (with 0.5 steps), which is probably the best to rate any game.

[Graham Humphrey]

The point about reading the whole review is, of course, entirely true. And ratings only mean anything if you utilise the whole scale anyway - too many mags gave out absurdly high scores like 95% too easily. I think Amiga Action gave Jaguar XJ220 (or whatever the heck it's called) 98% which is ludicrous. If you give out too many high scores like that it devalues the whole thing and you may as well get rid of ratings altogether.

[Retro-Nerd]

I bought 3 different mags, back in time. When they all said a game is really shit, then it was shit. But it was mostly true when they all said that a game is really good. I followed my most trusted mag, when they were discordant.

Their ratings differed mostly in a range of 1-5 %. I had a lot of crappy arcade games in my collection, if i'd followed the ratings of AP or other lousy UK mags. And i'd missed a lot of good games, like Ambermoon, too.

[CodyJarrett]

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

Amiga Power's one of the greatest games mags ever produced though.

I'll agree with Graham here. AP is the only set of mags that I still have and I found that I usually agreed with their reviews.

Dismissing it as "not really serious" is quite wrong.

[Retro-Nerd]

So AP was really the UK reference in gaming, Cody? Then there is probably no need to read the other ones carefully. This Jonathan Davis guy seems to be more serious, but a magazine needs more than one competent guy to do objective reviews. But i meant all UK magazines from the mid 80s to the mid 90s, not only AP.

[CodyJarrett]

For me, yes. Amiga Power can be deceptive as it appears have an irreverent attitude. However, the reviews are usually sincere about informing the readers about Amiga gaming.

[S. Campbell]

Yes indeed. They didn't call us "The magazine that appears to have an irreverent attitude" for nothing.

[Galaxy]

I liked Amiga Power a lot, but frankly found the mag to be highly arrogant, and when there were some games that were really overrated.

[Calgor]

I read the Amiga Format reviews of Rainbow Islands and Dragons Breath. Both received 90% plus. Boy am I glad I got Dragons Breath. Couldn't see what was so special about Rainbow Islands, it was just like any other game once I played it years later.

Put it down to matter of taste of reviewers. Was too young at the time to think of possibility of advertising bias etc.

Although I though generally AF wasn't too bad at the time.

[Dizzy]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

Sure you didn't get the same "I wanna get this game", because they didn't overhyped all releases. They done it sometimes, but not very often. I saved a lot of money back in time.

Well what is the point in reading review if it's not for finding the games you wanna buy and play... ????


I remeber one of the german mag (could be a pcmag) who rated the game with Gut, Sehr Gut, ok, Nah (or something like that) or maybe 2 more words.
That is a good way of giving games rating, because, if something is gut or sehr gut is worth buying
Then they made funny faces

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

if i'd followed the ratings of AP or other lousy UK mags. And i'd missed a lot of good games, like Ambermoon, too.

By the time I talked the Thalion Authors into sending me the unreleased English version of Ambermoon I think that all magazines (bar Amiga format) had been dead for several years.

If you dont have a hard drive or are not a keen RPG fan then I can see how you can get to a score of 30% for Ambermoon.