EDGE Christmas 2008

[Team Andromeda]

Why do you think that?

The Review was full of praise, they constantly used to refer to it in subsequent issues and it was in their Top 100 issue last year.

The review read like a 10 out of 10 game , and it really was a 10 out of 10 game .

[Wools]

The review read like a 10 out of 10 game , and it really was a 10 out of 10 game .

I never felt that.

I loved the game but even at the time of playing, its drawbacks were noticable. Limited areas, limited attack options and not much freedom.

However it was the first console online RPG and was brilliant to play at the time. It's not aged to well but the memories are as strong for me as they'll ever be.

[Team Andromeda]

However it was the first console online RPG and was brilliant to play at the time. It's not aged to well but the memories are as strong for me as they'll ever be.

You could say that about a lot of 10 out 10 games . I also felt that F1GP 2 was a 10 out of 10 game

[Eight Rooks]

Personally I can't stand the laddish, matey, having-a-laugh tone Eurogamer, C&VG and the rest of them take all too often these days. I'm passionate about videogames, no more or less than I am about books, films, music, the rest of it and I expect to see all these things discussed in exactly the same way. You're happy with "**** me, 's mint, innit?" or the meandering self-indulgent student ahahaha crap Eurogamer resorts to sometimes - Ellie Gibson walks a very fine line with this - good for you. I'm not. I hate the internet assumption everyone's right, no-one's wrong, that your random forum mate is just as deserving of a journalist's salary, that Metacritic is anything other than an abortion of an idea when it comes to passing judgement on any videogame's critical merits, that everyone who's paid for a review is automatically taking backhanders/drumming up controversy when they don't agree with you... ignorant, self-serving bull****, all of it. But hey! That's just my opinion, right?

You're happy with shrugging your shoulders over every fault a game can throw at you and handing out 8s, 9s and 10s in your head like there's no tomorrow, again, great. Good for you. I'm not. I could no more stop criticising games for what they do wrong than I could take a running leap in front of the next car past my house. There's no excuse, there's always reason to bring these things up and Jesus, sometimes I get so tired of the way most of the internet seems to feel thinking this way makes me a bitter old man. I like to think it gives me a sliding scale that, you know, actually has more than three bars on it (GREAT/BRILLIANT/OMG WTF!!!11!!1!, maybe), and that I don't automatically go nuts over everything just because I've been working myself into a frenzy over it on GameTrailers or whatever for the past two years.

Think back to the last game you'd class as some kind of world-beating achievement, one you'd take to a desert island, save from a burning apartment, so on - would what you've said to your friends, your online buddies, to total strangers about it really be any different from what you've said about whatever you've been playing for the last few weeks? I like to think I could say yes. I think anyone who has any kind of opinion worth listening to should be able to. The vast majority of writing on games I read, amateur or professional, doesn't make me think whoever wrote it could. Edge does.

Okay, I'm tired, I have work tomorrow and most of the people who've read this are probably rolling their eyes at me by now, so I'm done. Sorry if I put a crimp in anyone's evening but hey, I'm sure in half an hour you'll have forgotten aaaall about it.

[B1gBeard]

I have decided (again) to make this my last Edge. The soul was sucked out of it a long time ago now and its only compulsive collecting that keeps me going.

I think you can write intelligently about games and try to appeal to a more adult audience but there is a fine line between this and pomposity which they went over ages ago.

Its also just completely lacking in fun and passion. Its not fun to read. Its like reading a work by stuffy intellectuals rather than people who love games and more importantly love writing about them. Gaming magazines desperately needs another OSSM to champion the cause (actually thats Retro Gamer imo).

And that 7 for Fallout 3? Pfft.

[ezee ryder]

Sorry if I put a crimp in anyone's evening but hey, I'm sure in half an hour you'll have forgotten aaaall about it.

I forgot about it already

Anyway back to my ignorant, self-serving ways

I have decided (again) to make this my last Edge. The soul was sucked out of it a long time ago now and its only compulsive collecting that keeps me going.

I think you can write intelligently about games and try to appeal to a more adult audience but there is a fine line between this and pomposity which they went over ages ago.

Its also just completely lacking in fun and passion. Its not fun to read. Its like reading a work by stuffy intellectuals rather than people who love games and more importantly love writing about them. Gaming magazines desperately needs another OSSM to champion the cause (actually thats Retro Gamer imo).

And that 7 for Fallout 3? Pfft.

This is spot on, exactly the way I feel about the way EDGE has become. They think of themselves as the highest class of gaming magazines, sort of like one of those snobby "we look down upon everyone else" rich social clubs you get.....you could also say the same about most of the people that enjoy reading their reviews.

[Skull Commander]

I think the last two posters sum it up nicely. Edge CAN be a good read, but it's snobby pompous tone really gets up my nose. I remember when mags got excited about games like super play and mean machines.

Edge makes even the most exciting game sound dull with their sub standard grade english exam essay style rambles and clinical view on games. i play games for fun.

[Beelzebot]

I stopped buying Edge years ago, but I have to agree with their Valkyria Chronicles and Mirror's Edge scores. The first felt completely charmless and the latter is a frustrating mess.

[vanpeebles]

When Skies of Arcadia was reviewed it got a 9, the then editor made it an 8 as it would detract from the main feature review which got a 9. Edge has its own agenda and is not the bastion of gaming it thinks it is.

[endo]

Big post...

Top post- I totally agree.

It still puzzles me that people get worked up over Edge. If you don't like it, don't buy it. Don't look at it. Ignore it and read something else. If they don't give your favourite game the score you would have given it yourself, so what? Don't let it affect your enjoyment of the game.

Also, I doubt Edge deliberately try and stir up controversy by "mis-scoring" games. I mean, some internet nerds getting a bit agitated because their favourite game didn't get the glowing write-up it so obviously deserved isn't exactly earth-shattering controversy is it?

While review scores dont effect anyones enjoyment of a game, they do effect some peoples descion to buy a game, so surley giving a game a ridiculous score just to look cool or whatever is some type of crime?

Remember, this is videogaming. There is nothing cool about it. The people who try and affect some sort of cool attitude in gaming are generally the harshest nerds of all.

[egparadigm]

When Skies of Arcadia was reviewed it got a 9, the then editor made it an 8 as it would detract from the main feature review which got a 9. Edge has its own agenda and is not the bastion of gaming it thinks it is.

Is this true, or just a rumour? What's the full story?

[sj33]

I have decided (again) to make this my last Edge. The soul was sucked out of it a long time ago now and its only compulsive collecting that keeps me going.

I think you can write intelligently about games and try to appeal to a more adult audience but there is a fine line between this and pomposity which they went over ages ago.

Its also just completely lacking in fun and passion. Its not fun to read. Its like reading a work by stuffy intellectuals rather than people who love games and more importantly love writing about them. Gaming magazines desperately needs another OSSM to champion the cause (actually thats Retro Gamer imo).

And that 7 for Fallout 3? Pfft.

I'm not going to get into the Edge debate, mainly because I don't buy it, but I certainly agree with this. Intellegent, informed discussion can be balanced with a passion for the subject, and a recognition of the reader's own passion/knowledge. Sega Saturn Magazine (I'm assuming this is what you meant by OSSM) worked so well because they got the balance right - it was full of intellgent, informed discussion... but still had an evident passion for gaming and upcoming games, and everything was presented in a manner that gave the reader credit - they didn't try to explain what Sol Divide or Metal Slug was - they knew damn well that by 1998, their readership was one that knew their import gaming. In other words, they knew their audience.

To be fair, I'm not sure this is possible now. Retro Gamer does attempt that approach with a degree of success (hence the little drawings of the writers, and referencing other writers in articles - a throwback from the Mean Machines days), but the relationship between printed magazines and the gamer has changed. They were the only source of information in those days, so the reader grew 'close' to the writers and the styles of the individual magazines. This is no longer the case, and with the internet we have access to millions of opinions on a game. Even the opinions of websites like Eurogamer just become one voice in the whole internet.

I'm rambling.

[abigsmurf]

A lot of gaming publications for me, lost a lot of respect with their universally glowing reviews of Spore. The creature creator was nice and all but it can't cover up the fact that the game doesn't flow well and feels like a collection of limited mini-games. I believe Edge was one of the many publications to give it a 9-10.

However being a reviewer myself I know your never going to match popular opinion all the time.

However Edge does seem incredibly stuffy sometimes. It's often far too critical on inoffensive niche titles whilst at the same time it seems to play favourites with some devs. There's little sense of love and excitement for the genre. It's all to easy to picture the mag as the food critic from Ratatouille.

Generally now I read reviews, not for the opinion but for a description of the game and then use internet opinion to see how likely I am to like a game. That said, there's a certain amount of interest in seeing how other people's thoughts on a game compare to your own

[egparadigm]

You'll be glad to know EDGE gave Spore a 7.

[abigsmurf]

still way too much in my book