By the way, if anyone from GP is reading this, I really do love some of you like family.
You've just pissed me off, is all.
Ugh... that's so sad.
I think the review shows more about the constraints of print rather than the quality of the writing. A reviewer can't talk about everything he wants to say, and hence chooses the points of emphasis. The mag went on-sale before the game was out, and one of the big concerns was how the Spartan played (they had an exclusive hands-on). And being one of the first next-gen titles, it focused more on the graphics.
Hence it skipped out on the intricacies of fighting and costumes--two things DOA fans are rabid over =) JohnnyK knows a lot about DOA... a little too much. I'd imagine that he'd be able to have deep discussions with Wat about the franchise... that is, if it's even possible to talk deep about a titular game like DOA =)
Heh. You said "titular."
I can see where you're going with that, but honestly, the Spartan is a very small part of the game, and reviews aren't made to communicate the same thing an exclusive hands-on is meant to communicate. I'm supposed to know whether I want to buy the game or not from the review, and that review left me uninformed. I went to GameSpot.com for a much more detailed review and made my decision there.
I've personally written more informative half-page reviews than this. There was a DOA timeline that could have been cut if the reviewer was concerned about being able to cover everything. I imagine that it pained JohnnyK, if he's such a DOA fan, to write such a review, but I still consider it irresponsible to take what is really a preview, stick a 5.0/5 and a "do yourself a favor" conclusion on it, and call it a review.
The review taught me that DOA4 is pretty (on the 360? Whodathunk?), has a Spartan (who cares?), and has cute online lobby avatars. I didn't learn that the system favors striking over reversals, which was a trend that I hated in the last DOA. I didn't learn if Story Mode or whatever is worth playing to unlock content or learn about the characters. I didn't learn the names of new characters or how they played.
If it's a hands-on preview, then it should be marked as such. This article was a hands-on preview. I learned some things about the game, but not about whether it should be on my shelf.
Well, I used to love gamepro, but nowdays I just go there for the blogs and the occasional preview or news story. Most game critics nowadays just sing praises for the game and then mumble about its "one or two" problems at the end. In small type. At the bottom of the page. you know what I mean.
702d54 00d882d39e
Commenting by HaloScan
