Week 5! Everyone's a critic!

Games reviewers, like any reviewers can only offer so much, their opinion. Though this is not a bad thing it is of course not a valid reason to part with forty of your hard earned queen heads on a game they have warranted worthy of the much, ahem! coveted five stars!

Opinions will always vary and everybody has their own. for this reason alone I think a ranking system is redundant and only really offers an at a glance guide to the reviewers feelings towards the game in question, for example I Know that regardless of how many stars a final fantasy style RPG is given, whether it be 5 out of 5 or 100 out of 10, I know the chanses of me rushing out to by it based on these star ratings are slim to none.

from what I have read it also seems that the writers are working to tight deadlines and so it seems some a lot of, if not all reviews are written in a hurry. With this in mind is the fun taken out of playing? Does the reveiwer really have time to enjoy the experience of playing the game? are they rushing through in order to get onto the next review and make that deadline?

The other factor is that depending in the employer of the reveiwer certain pressures are unavoidable. Reveiwers will undoubtedly offer a more favorable review for a game their employer is responsable which really does not offer a true reflection.

After reading some new games journalism i think it is a much more engaging read than many of the formulaic "standard" reviews out there. It is a much more personal approach and I think it offers more than a just a review and is more often an enjoyable read although like all forms of writing there are good examples and bad examples.