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Mega64 Reveals The True Drama Of Modern Game Journalism

Fun story: Last night I finished Uncharted 3. As anyone who reads my Twitter account may already know, I loved the game, but I found a lot of flaws in it as well. I couldn't help but wonder how people might have reacted if I had reviewed the game and brought those issues up. After all, our own Matt Helgeson got some rather angry e-mails for giving the game a 9.5, and I almost certainly would have scored it a bit lower than that.

As if responding directly to these thoughts, today I stumbled upon a great video from Internet jokesters Mega64 titled "Modern Game Journalism: The Movie: The Trailer." This video does a great job at poking fun at our industry's reliance on metascores, the enthusiasm of fans before they've even played the game, and yeah, maybe a little bit on us reviewers as well.

In the video, a popular game reviewer discovers just how upside down his world turns when he decides to give a major release an 8.5. Remember, on the Game Informer review scale, an 8.5 is halfway between "very good" and "superb." In other words, it's a strong score, but I bet some fans would have been very angry if Uncharted 3 had received a score in that range.

Check out the video below or watch it on GameTrailers. And try to have a laugh and have fun in the ensuing comments discussion! We can save the complaining about review scores for elsewhere.

Get More: GameTrailers.com, Mega64 - Modern Game Journalism: The Movie: The Trailer, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Comments
  • I see no flaws in Uncharted. One of my favorite games ever.
  • Confirmations bias of fans, exploitative marketing by publishers, the cancer that is the metascore. The sad part of the state of videogames.
  • WIN
  • NIce. I gotta agree with the movie Uncharted 3 is good, but not great. Also, does Elena look weird to anyone else?
  • I know Uncharted fanboys complained about Eurogamer and X-Play's 8/10 and 4/5 scores... but they actually raged over a 9.5? What the hell, gaming community?
  • So true, seems from comments people leave for reviews of games that get scores like that, there is nothing else then a perfect 10, or a 1.

    There's nothing in between for those people.
    Something is either awesome, or terrible.

    I personally think people should think for themselves. If a game you think looks interesting didn't get the best reviews, rent it to check it out, to see for yourself. Don't let someone else's opinion be your own.

    I'm seeing a ton of it on Zelda fansites. Keep in mind it's from people who haven't even played Skyward Sword yet, so they have no opinion on the game. If reviews didn't give the game a perfect 10, or point out things they think are flaws, the comments are filled with people who say the review sucks. Gametrailers gave Skyward Sword a 9.1, which is a great score. But it wasn't good enough for those people. So all the comments are filled with people who think GT sucks.

    Zelda is my favorite game series, but even I think those fanboys are making us look bad.

    These people aren't thinking for themselves.

    It's like when Phil was tweeting that someone kept raising a fuss that he gave Dark Souls a 8.5 another great score, because it wasn't high enough. All these people care about are pointless numbers. I doubt they even read the reviews.
  • Funny video, but also pretty true about how game reviews are judged.

  • There is Truth here, and nothing more.

  • It's all just hype isn't it..... O.o

  • lol that... Was amazing xD

  • Honest Gamers gave U3 a 4 out of 10. I'm serious.
  • Ha, I love the Godfather Part II reference thrown in there as well. XD

  • Just like how people got so butt-hurt when ign gave mw3 a 9. People who reply to me in an all caps rage saying it did deserve a lower score shall be good examples.
  • Haha excellent video. As someone who one day hopes to break into video game journalism, it's nice to see people in the business aren't afraid to poke fun at themselves or the fans who sometimes go overboard with their reactions to a reviewer's judgement.

  • I laughed HARD.

  • Oh Billy!

  • It is sad that an 8.5 is considered a bad score, I mean a good game is constricted to such a small score space (9-10). That is dumb, how often do you see games getting below a 5 or even below a 7? 5 should be average, 6 meh, 7 pretty good, 8 good but flawed, 9+ amazing. And things below 5 are just bad. Above all I really think 10s should not be awarded as much as they are because 10 implies near perfection, I agree with SC2's 10, I agree with Uncharted 2's 10 and a few more but things like GTA4, Arkham City and twilight princess were imo far from perfect and that is why I think the review scale should be changed so that those games could get a 9 and have there not be some sort of mad outrage.
  • "8.5 - Roger Ebert"

    That was the perfect way to end this video.

  • I personally make my decision if i'm buying a game way before the reviews hit. Much like movies, and music reviews really don't mean much to me, the way i see it its just someones opinion on the product and everyone is entitled to their opinion whether you agree with it or not.
  • FANTASTIC!

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