rec.autos.simulators

GP4 gets >90% from UK PC Gamer

Robert Pollar

GP4 gets >90% from UK PC Gamer

by Robert Pollar » Tue, 25 Jun 2002 00:16:58

I also play a lot of flight sims as well and PC Gamer reviews are a
complete joke. Either they don't have any decent sim reviewers on their
team or they are just plain incompetent.

--
Robert Pollard

David Butter

GP4 gets >90% from UK PC Gamer

by David Butter » Tue, 25 Jun 2002 02:54:01


<snip>

I agree - it's the worst aspect of PC Gamer UK. For example, if you
read a review of a baseball game, it will spend half the time
complainign that it's not a proper sport anyway. Unfortunately other
UK magazines are just as bad. The only one that ever rose above this
was the old Computer *** World (later PC *** World), but sadly
it got swallowed up by PC Gameplay, which was just as bad :-(

To refer to an earlier point of yours, though: from what I've read of
the US PC Gamer, I don't think it's much better.

--
Hey, why be defeatist...? There are other sports :-)
England 2 Sri Lanka 0! Yyyyeeeessssss! :-D

The GPL Scrapyard: http://www.racesimcentral.net/~gplscrapyard

Frod

GP4 gets >90% from UK PC Gamer

by Frod » Tue, 25 Jun 2002 03:39:36


1. You write "you say" a whole lot. I was quoting others' words, they were
not mine (nor did I agree with them)

2. Join the club. GP4 is the first game in the GP series I do *not* intend
to buy. Maybe if it gets patched to fix the most glaring omissions (yeah,
like that'll happen).

--
Frode

Herbert Pohl

GP4 gets >90% from UK PC Gamer

by Herbert Pohl » Thu, 27 Jun 2002 21:15:31



>> I don't think the mags are as *** racing sims as we are here. I see
>some
>> shaky games get decent reviews.

>The PCG preview from february of so slated it as "Geoff's new masterpiece".
>Can you imagine what a sorry state that game must've been in back then? I
>think they automatically label everything with "Geoff" on it as a
>masterpiece. Actually one of the first things I thought after having played
>GP4 a bit was "god, and this game is gonna get 90%+".

Hmm.. Id say: deduct 5% for every full page ad from the same
company/distributor in these mags, then you get a better idea of the
quality of the games ..

   Calis

Nick

GP4 gets >90% from UK PC Gamer

by Nick » Tue, 25 Jun 2002 08:12:15


'The public' will never do anything. Even when +90% of the people are
against something, nobody will ever actually take any action, because they
can't be bothered. What would be a really good idea is to have a panel of
the best reviewers in the world, each a specialist in one particular area,
and when games are released the entire panel reviews them, so for something
like GP4 you get an arcade racer's view, a simmers' view, and viewpoints
from people who are not really interested in F1 or racing games to see if
they would actually play the game. Then they rate the game on performance,
functionality and code stability. Then their findings are put on the cover
of all the boxes in a little box, so for GP4 you would get something like:

'This game isn't a huge update from the previous version. There are a few
neat new effects, but they take quite a performance hit. The game has a few
problems which detract from the gameplay, and it is unlikely (due to the
developers' track record) that a patch will be released. Simulation accuracy
6/10.'

This could be incorporated into a little box like you find on videos (which
say stuff like: 'Bad Language: Twice, strong'). It is often said that there
simply isn't enough time to review each and every game release in this
manner, but if all the top reviewers from every PC games magazine were
brought together to achieve this, it is easily possible.

It would be like a kind of 'PC Game Seal of Quality', on a sliding scale. If
a game states on the box that it is a small update, and still has problems
which need fixing, then nobody will buy it, regardless of what PC Gamer UK
says. Then Geoff Crammond will be forced to make better games.

Card

GP4 gets >90% from UK PC Gamer

by Card » Fri, 28 Jun 2002 13:04:03

I hear ya Nick. There are many ways to address the problem as you have
mentioned but I really think it will come down to people just getting tired
of feeling short-changed when buying programs. I first started racing on the
computer back in 1995, and since then I have noticed many people have
learned to research games before they buy them. Now these people are
learning that when a game is released, it might just be a glorified much
hyped update. These same people are also becoming aware of what companies
producing programs usually do such things to their loyal buyers. I really
believe that as a few more years pass, some of the game developers will
either conform to what knowledgeable buyers demand or close their doors.

Take care




> > The key is for the public to send a loud message to developers
> > such as this by refusing to purchase these programs.

> 'The public' will never do anything. Even when +90% of the people are
> against something, nobody will ever actually take any action, because they
> can't be bothered. What would be a really good idea is to have a panel of
> the best reviewers in the world, each a specialist in one particular area,
> and when games are released the entire panel reviews them, so for
something
> like GP4 you get an arcade racer's view, a simmers' view, and viewpoints
> from people who are not really interested in F1 or racing games to see if
> they would actually play the game. Then they rate the game on performance,
> functionality and code stability. Then their findings are put on the cover
> of all the boxes in a little box, so for GP4 you would get something like:

> 'This game isn't a huge update from the previous version. There are a few
> neat new effects, but they take quite a performance hit. The game has a
few
> problems which detract from the gameplay, and it is unlikely (due to the
> developers' track record) that a patch will be released. Simulation
accuracy
> 6/10.'

> This could be incorporated into a little box like you find on videos
(which
> say stuff like: 'Bad Language: Twice, strong'). It is often said that
there
> simply isn't enough time to review each and every game release in this
> manner, but if all the top reviewers from every PC games magazine were
> brought together to achieve this, it is easily possible.

> It would be like a kind of 'PC Game Seal of Quality', on a sliding scale.
If
> a game states on the box that it is a small update, and still has problems
> which need fixing, then nobody will buy it, regardless of what PC Gamer UK
> says. Then Geoff Crammond will be forced to make better games.


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