Haha, IGN... Sorry but they aren't even worth a thread to be honest. These 'big' review sites are just garbage from my experience, and many of them are corrupt anyway. Metacritic user reviews can be useful at times, but I'd take those with a grain of salt as well.
IGN? Oh, right. That company with the head reviewer who went way out of his way to insult ME3 fans in an incredibly childish way... Anyway, I haven't played the Ipad version yet, but since my wife was just gifted an android tablet I'll probably give it a whirl at that point.
I know some people have remarked about how companies need to make money, and that's certainly true and I hope this ends up selling decently on the Ipad. But AAA game companies don't just want to make a profit, they want, "all your monies are belong to us." And let's face it, RPG's of this ilk will almost always be a relatively niche product. They may get excellent reviews, both critics and laypeople, they may do extremely well in sales (comparatively), they may Stand the Test of Time as BG clearly has done. But compete with the latest COD, GOW or Madden XXXXX? Very unlikely.
This is why companies like EA have twisted RPG's like Mass Effect into games almost unrecognizable *as* RPG's, in the interest of increasing market share. Which incidentally also torpedoes the whole "Artistic Vision" defense. I liken it to adding cheerleader dating-sim elements to a football game to widen market share. Then maybe some GTA aspects as your star player runs around like a drunken hooligan. It would get to the point where you'd wonder if this was a football game at all...
There is clearly a demand for classics like BG, the surprising (to the AAA game industry anyway) support behind projects like Wasteland 2 & Project Infinity prove it. But most people just don't have the time or inclination to play RPG's. It's unlikely that will change. Torturing RPG's into action/adventure/FPS isn't the way to fix that.
I do agree that the "big" publishers EA, Activision, Capcom, and so on have lost sight of the whole point of being in the business. They aren't just after a profit (which is fine btw), they are as you said, after EVERYTHING. They want their games to be THE NEXT BIG THING which usually translates to the next CoD; which is why we now have a market oversaturated with crap CoD clones.
My nephew loves CoD (I thoroughly disapprove of him playing it cos hes only 15 but i'm not his parent) and I have watched him play it; and it literally gives me a headache just watching it. It is the single most repetitive, boring, mind numbing thing i've seen anyone play in my life. And that was CoD the supposed "best one" of that kind of game. Seriously, it was worse than most MMORPGs to me. And the fact that that is the best of the bunch boggles my mind - I mean why would anyone like that kind of mind numbing drivel? And also if CoD is the best one, how terrible must the others be?
But I digress. My point was, wether I like it or not, CoD is the "big thing" right now (still) making stupid amounts of money, and all the publishers want a slice o dat pie. It's why a franchise like dead space has been diluted into no longer being what it began as, and was intended to be. It was a Horror game. And now it is practically an FPS, that needs to make more money than it is possible for it to make for it to actually turn a profit (and so is likely to be the last Dead Space game) all because of the publisher chasing the next big thing to make as much money as possible.
And site's like IGN buy into that bull crap.
It pains me to say but 7.5 or 8 out of 10 is probably a more than fair score for BGEE simply because this game is no where near as improved as it ought to be. I mean honestly, there is STILL no way to properly organise save games by character so you don't accidentally save over another char when saving. The game still has stupid bugs that were present in BG1/BGtutu that Overhaul SWORE blind would be fixed in BGEE because they were incorporating the Fixpack into the game (that actually fixed those bgus). The game still has arbitrary limits to it, like the 9 kits limit, even though Overhaul said prior to release this would NOT be the case because they were incorporating ToBEx which fixed this arbitrary limit.
Take that with the apparent problems with the iPad release?
It probably deserved around a 7 out of 10. IMO. If only because the game is still FRICKING AWESOME in spite of its problems that Overhaul somehow haven't fixed.
The problem is however is because of the big publishers problem with "the next big thing" they aggressively pursue high review scores even for games that do not deserve it. And the "big" gaming magazines and news outlets go along with it because hey it makes them money. And also the threat of being blacklisted (and thus losing all that money) if they do not go along with it.
Let's take ME3. It nearly universally scored 9.5 and 10 out of 10. It absolutely did not deserve those scores. It is now winning (for some insane reason) GotY awards this year (seriously boggles the mind). It does not deserve those awards. Now I actually like the game and reckon it is worth a 7 or 7.5 out of 10. A good game. Because it is a good game, but it is far from perfect or amazing. Even the most ardent ME3 defender can not say that it deserved 10 out of 10. That it deserves to win GotY more than games like The Walking Dead, Dishonoured, Journey, Crusader Kings 2, Skyrim, FTL, and so on (fuck this year was a great year for Indie games lol). And the very fact that it did get these consistently high scores, and did win these GotY awards while completely flying in the face of "not deserving it" gives off the perception that there was some sort of "nudge nudge wink wink" dealing going on behind the scenes. And because of this sort of thing, it has almost completely destroyed IGNs reputation in the gaming community.
Now let's look at IGNs indie catalogue. Indie games usually score between 5 and 7 out of 10 from IGN, no matter how good they are they do not often garner a higher score because often these indie games aren't flashy, and don't have big budgets. And the devs often can't afford to send out review copies. Compare that to the big budget games from the big publishers which hardly ever get below a 9 out of 10 on IGN, and what do you get? The perception of complete and utter corruption, and the inability to objectively trust anything they say.
BGEE is a great example. 6 out of 10 from IGN. Most other places that reviewed it gave it an 8 (or upwards) out of 10.
And the really frustrating thing about it all is, sites like IGN have pretty much rendered the entire review scoring system irrelevant and pointless. Because their scores usually have nothing to do with the review itself, and often seem largely arbitrary. Sadly.
Don't see what the issue is. Most places are giving the game on PC a 7/8 and this reviewer highlights issues to do with the interface, controls and crashes which are more prevalent on the ipad and so gave the game a 6. Not a 2 or a 3, a 6. It's not the end of the world, get over it.
I don't know if this is possible, but I played the bards tale by plugging a USB OTG adapter into the nexus 7 and then plugging an xbox 360 controller into the adapater. Apparently some keyboard and mice work with tablets. The only games that seem to be good for touch screen are simple ones.
I haven't read the review, but the rating has nothing unusual about it. That's, in fact, quite an honest rating, given the current state of affairs. The iPad version is far from perfect at the moment, primarily because of the fps drops, crashes and gimmicky (and sometimes outmost rubbish) controls, though there are other, less frustrating, but still unpleasant issues. Just being an extraordinary game for an extraordinary device doesn't automatically make it a 10/10. It also has to be playable and enjoyable without any redundant effort from the user's side.
There is a bright side, however. Beamdog is aware of the issues and the lads are working as hard as they can to make the game as enjoyable and stable, as it is immersive, deep and genuinely exciting. It is in their best interest to succeed, and I sincerely hope they will.
I wouldn't argue with a 6/10 for the Ipad version, with everything I've read about it. Though that doesn't make IGN any more legitimate. (Even a broken clock is right twice a day...)
However, as an end user can't really do any serious troubleshooting or workarounds on a tablet, Overhaul shouldn't have released it on that format until it was practically bulletproof. Tablets are very much Black Boxes, nearly like consoles (one of the reasons I dislike them, but that's a side issue.) so it becomes essential for that reason. But as iKrivetko said, it does seem like Overhaul is picking up the dropped ball and running with it as best they can. As I've said elsewhere, I give them serious credit for even *admitting* any issues.
Comments
Yeah, I got what you meant about why the reviews were super important.
My main point is I'm sad that the world we live in needs those reviews so badly, and that most of the time they are so stupid.
I don't judge games very harshly when it comes to user interface / usability for at least the first 1-3 months.
Amateur hour.
These 'big' review sites are just garbage from my experience, and many of them are corrupt anyway.
Metacritic user reviews can be useful at times, but I'd take those with a grain of salt as well.
I know some people have remarked about how companies need to make money, and that's certainly true and I hope this ends up selling decently on the Ipad. But AAA game companies don't just want to make a profit, they want, "all your monies are belong to us." And let's face it, RPG's of this ilk will almost always be a relatively niche product. They may get excellent reviews, both critics and laypeople, they may do extremely well in sales (comparatively), they may Stand the Test of Time as BG clearly has done. But compete with the latest COD, GOW or Madden XXXXX? Very unlikely.
This is why companies like EA have twisted RPG's like Mass Effect into games almost unrecognizable *as* RPG's, in the interest of increasing market share. Which incidentally also torpedoes the whole "Artistic Vision" defense. I liken it to adding cheerleader dating-sim elements to a football game to widen market share. Then maybe some GTA aspects as your star player runs around like a drunken hooligan. It would get to the point where you'd wonder if this was a football game at all...
There is clearly a demand for classics like BG, the surprising (to the AAA game industry anyway) support behind projects like Wasteland 2 & Project Infinity prove it. But most people just don't have the time or inclination to play RPG's. It's unlikely that will change. Torturing RPG's into action/adventure/FPS isn't the way to fix that.
Yes that is sarcasm. Dripping with sarcasm.
You are absolutely right.
I do agree that the "big" publishers EA, Activision, Capcom, and so on have lost sight of the whole point of being in the business. They aren't just after a profit (which is fine btw), they are as you said, after EVERYTHING.
They want their games to be THE NEXT BIG THING which usually translates to the next CoD; which is why we now have a market oversaturated with crap CoD clones.
My nephew loves CoD (I thoroughly disapprove of him playing it cos hes only 15 but i'm not his parent) and I have watched him play it; and it literally gives me a headache just watching it.
It is the single most repetitive, boring, mind numbing thing i've seen anyone play in my life. And that was CoD the supposed "best one" of that kind of game. Seriously, it was worse than most MMORPGs to me. And the fact that that is the best of the bunch boggles my mind - I mean why would anyone like that kind of mind numbing drivel? And also if CoD is the best one, how terrible must the others be?
But I digress. My point was, wether I like it or not, CoD is the "big thing" right now (still) making stupid amounts of money, and all the publishers want a slice o dat pie.
It's why a franchise like dead space has been diluted into no longer being what it began as, and was intended to be. It was a Horror game. And now it is practically an FPS, that needs to make more money than it is possible for it to make for it to actually turn a profit (and so is likely to be the last Dead Space game) all because of the publisher chasing the next big thing to make as much money as possible.
And site's like IGN buy into that bull crap.
It pains me to say but 7.5 or 8 out of 10 is probably a more than fair score for BGEE simply because this game is no where near as improved as it ought to be. I mean honestly, there is STILL no way to properly organise save games by character so you don't accidentally save over another char when saving.
The game still has stupid bugs that were present in BG1/BGtutu that Overhaul SWORE blind would be fixed in BGEE because they were incorporating the Fixpack into the game (that actually fixed those bgus).
The game still has arbitrary limits to it, like the 9 kits limit, even though Overhaul said prior to release this would NOT be the case because they were incorporating ToBEx which fixed this arbitrary limit.
Take that with the apparent problems with the iPad release?
It probably deserved around a 7 out of 10. IMO. If only because the game is still FRICKING AWESOME in spite of its problems that Overhaul somehow haven't fixed.
The problem is however is because of the big publishers problem with "the next big thing" they aggressively pursue high review scores even for games that do not deserve it. And the "big" gaming magazines and news outlets go along with it because hey it makes them money. And also the threat of being blacklisted (and thus losing all that money) if they do not go along with it.
Let's take ME3. It nearly universally scored 9.5 and 10 out of 10. It absolutely did not deserve those scores. It is now winning (for some insane reason) GotY awards this year (seriously boggles the mind). It does not deserve those awards.
Now I actually like the game and reckon it is worth a 7 or 7.5 out of 10. A good game. Because it is a good game, but it is far from perfect or amazing.
Even the most ardent ME3 defender can not say that it deserved 10 out of 10. That it deserves to win GotY more than games like The Walking Dead, Dishonoured, Journey, Crusader Kings 2, Skyrim, FTL, and so on (fuck this year was a great year for Indie games lol).
And the very fact that it did get these consistently high scores, and did win these GotY awards while completely flying in the face of "not deserving it" gives off the perception that there was some sort of "nudge nudge wink wink" dealing going on behind the scenes. And because of this sort of thing, it has almost completely destroyed IGNs reputation in the gaming community.
Now let's look at IGNs indie catalogue. Indie games usually score between 5 and 7 out of 10 from IGN, no matter how good they are they do not often garner a higher score because often these indie games aren't flashy, and don't have big budgets. And the devs often can't afford to send out review copies.
Compare that to the big budget games from the big publishers which hardly ever get below a 9 out of 10 on IGN, and what do you get?
The perception of complete and utter corruption, and the inability to objectively trust anything they say.
BGEE is a great example. 6 out of 10 from IGN. Most other places that reviewed it gave it an 8 (or upwards) out of 10.
And the really frustrating thing about it all is, sites like IGN have pretty much rendered the entire review scoring system irrelevant and pointless. Because their scores usually have nothing to do with the review itself, and often seem largely arbitrary. Sadly.
PS. I haven't played BG on the ipad.
The iPad version is far from perfect at the moment, primarily because of the fps drops, crashes and gimmicky (and sometimes outmost rubbish) controls, though there are other, less frustrating, but still unpleasant issues.
Just being an extraordinary game for an extraordinary device doesn't automatically make it a 10/10. It also has to be playable and enjoyable without any redundant effort from the user's side.
There is a bright side, however. Beamdog is aware of the issues and the lads are working as hard as they can to make the game as enjoyable and stable, as it is immersive, deep and genuinely exciting. It is in their best interest to succeed, and I sincerely hope they will.
Hooray.
However, as an end user can't really do any serious troubleshooting or workarounds on a tablet, Overhaul shouldn't have released it on that format until it was practically bulletproof. Tablets are very much Black Boxes, nearly like consoles (one of the reasons I dislike them, but that's a side issue.) so it becomes essential for that reason. But as iKrivetko said, it does seem like Overhaul is picking up the dropped ball and running with it as best they can. As I've said elsewhere, I give them serious credit for even *admitting* any issues.