Edge #209

[Sprite Machine]

No I'm not. I am incredibly intelligent. They should, in an ideal world, be the same thing. An Edge 5 is a poor score, it doesn't mean the game is so-so, it means the game is bad. A six is also bad, a seven? Then the game is so-so.

The fact that seven is the average tells you everything, especially as there are now tens every week. What's wrong with having 5 the average, it makes more sense, again, you can't compare the games they do review to the games they don't review as they don't review the games they don't review. You can't say, Ah, but they don't review the bad games! Well if they don't review them then they shouldn't affect the scale.

That's unworkable, without constantly changing every game's score. If you're always aiming to make the mean score a 5, you're lowering or raising the score of other games to make that happen. If you playtest four fantastic games one month and want to give them all 9s, you can't, because you don't have enough bad games to balance it out, so you have to give them 6s, which then make them inconsistent with the criteria used in previous issues, where there might have been an okay game given a higher mark to balance out three awful ones.

I do agree that 5 should not mean bad, though.

I haven't read the full review yet, but those quotes make it sound like getting me to review a racing game like Gran Turismo or something - "I don't like driving around in circles, and there's no room to explore or take out your opponents using stealth and cunning: 5/10"

Sounds fair to me. I agree with your review.

[Byronscrote]

I think the Edge review of Dragon Age is spot on. Score and text. Wish I'd taken more notice of it, but then if I did that with say, for eg Fallout 3, I'd be missing one of my favourite games ever. I would say Edge generally get the reviews about right though.

[ZOK]

I think that Edge are a bit stuck with things like Dragon Age, or Fallout 3. I've read the DA review but not played the game, and I can see how if they gave it a glowing review without mentioning points that will obviously jarr with some people then they're doing them a diservice.

It's like with Far Cry 2. As far as I'm concerned, it's the best FPS there has ever been, and deserves at least an Edge 10. In fact, they should award it the first Edge 20/10. But the fact remains that it's chock full of bugs, and there are plenty of things about it that people hate. I can overlook those things because I recognise its true worth, but if that game had got its well deserved 10 (or 20!) the internet would have exploded.

Also, people expecting Edge (or any mag) to play Fallout etc to completion before reviewing are nuts.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Not too much to expect them to play Dragon Age to completion, though. John Walker certainly did for the PC Gamer review.

(and maybe Edge did too, I haven't read it)

[Broker]

I haven't read the full review yet, but those quotes make it sound like getting me to review a racing game like Gran Turismo or something - "I don't like driving around in circles, and there's no room to explore or take out your opponents using stealth and cunning: 5/10"

Read it yesterday and this is spot on, I've written them a little PES10 review:

Football is pretty dull in general and this makes me feel like a twat because it's quite punishing. Also, the whole thing is full of ugly men, is depressingly repetitive and feels pointless in the extreme. 2/10

[Sprite Machine]

Read it yesterday and this is spot on, I've written them a little PES10 review:

Football is pretty dull in general and this makes me feel like a twat because it's quite punishing. Also, the whole thing is full of ugly men, is depressingly repetitive and feels pointless in the extreme. 2/10

I agree with this review, too.

You're both doing quite well.

[RubberJohnny]

I thought the cover was Mass Effect 2 and was overjoyed, only to find that it's Dust 514 and they chose a character that looks just like Shephard and some Armour that looks straight out of Mass Effect. Plus it has that ugly shiny holographic stuff for the sky.

It's a big thick Christmas issue with some great features, like the one on Crackdown 2 and a Shigeru Miyamoto interview. Bayonetta gets endless praise. The FFXII Time Extend is excellent, and really hard to disagree with. Although Steven Poole seems mighty depressed at the moment; everything he said was true, it's just...

But Christ, the Dragon Age review: the gameplay barely warrants a mention, they spend all the time bitching about fantasy tropes and not liking some of the characters, and several paragraphs expounding on how unsuitable some of the lines that the characters shout in battle are, something that would be a minor quibble in any other review. It'd be easy to put the faults down to reviewing a port, but the issues they outline are universal, and they've clearly played the PC version as well because they provide a comparison of things like UI. It's like someone watched all those terrible Marilyn Manson soundtracked trailers and went in with their view already decided.

[mushashi]

I can't believe that Dragon Age score. To me it's the best RPG of the current generation by far, and the first that actually manages come close to the best examples of the genre of previous generations. I'm not surprised that edge doesn't rate it as highly as I do, somehow my favourite games always get low scores (EDF - 6,

That's because Edge already gave the plaudits to the superior prequel

THE CHIKYUU BOUEIGUN 2 PS2 D2 Sandlot 8

[Sprite Machine]

That's because Edge already gave the plaudits to the superior prequel

THE CHIKYUU BOUEIGUN 2 PS2 D2 Sandlot 8

It's not a prequel if it comes out first.

[mushashi]

It's not a prequel if it comes out first.

In relation to EDF: X/3 it is, a game which had less content than the game before it, Pale Wing FTW, etc.

[Stanley]

I think the Edge review of Dragon Age is spot on. Score and text. Wish I'd taken more notice of it, but then if I did that with say, for eg Fallout 3, I'd be missing one of my favourite games ever. I would say Edge generally get the reviews about right though.

Well I don't know about you but I'm less likely to ignore a review scoring Seven than a review scoring Five. I mean Seven is still a good score right, particularly if you have an interest in the game anyway?

[BabelRich]

That's unworkable, without constantly changing every game's score. If you're always aiming to make the mean score a 5, you're lowering or raising the score of other games to make that happen. If you playtest four fantastic games one month and want to give them all 9s, you can't, because you don't have enough bad games to balance it out, so you have to give them 6s, which then make them inconsistent with the criteria used in previous issues, where there might have been an okay game given a higher mark to balance out three awful ones.

I do agree that 5 should not mean bad, though.

I'm not a massive talker round here but even I can see it's pretty obvious Ramone meant that a score 5 should means it is an average game, not that that all Edge scores should even out at a mean of 5.

Whether an Edge 5 does mean they thinks it's bad I don't know though cos I don't read it.

[Guest]

5/10 is not good. 5/10 on any scale we've been led to understand as humans it is not good.

If you get 50% in your exam have you done well? No. Because that's not a good result.

It's not a good game. You can talk about "average" all you want, yet what is an average game? There's no such thing. There are good games, and not good games. This is not good (according to Edge).

Good?

[dizogg]

5/10 is not good. 5/10 on any scale we've been led to understand as humans it is not good.

If you get 50% in your exam have you done well? No. Because that's not a good result.

At uni its usually like a 40% you need to pass an exam, so especially in the first year when your grade doesnt really matter, yes it is a good result!

[Guest]

At uni its usually like a 40% you need to pass an exam, so especially in the first year when your grade doesnt really matter, yes it is a good result!

So 40-50% gets you a what...a C?

[Wiper]

40%+ is a pass, 50+ a 2:2, 60+ a 2:1 and 70+ a first. (unless it's a masters, in which case 50+ a pass, 60+ merit, 70+ distinction).

So, by university standards, anything scoring 7/10 or above is fucking amazing.

[Guest]

Masters standards surely apply - considering the professionalism of the industry and that it's Edge.

So 50 is a pass meaning it's adequate. 60 is a merit = good. 70 = great. 80 = brilliant. 90 = r@r3. 100 = best ever ever ever, unlikely to be surpassed anytime soon. You can walk on the moon!

Easy! So the game is okay then, nothing more. Sorted.

[ianinthefuture]

Not too much to expect them to play Dragon Age to completion, though. John Walker certainly did for the PC Gamer review.

(and maybe Edge did too, I haven't read it)

That's likely because he had the game a month before he had to write anything about it, unlike some of us peasants who have to make do with getting it four days before deadline.

Not speaking from experience, just guesswork.

[Aardvark]

I think the Edge review of Dragon Age is spot on. Score and text. Wish I'd taken more notice of it, but then if I did that with say, for eg Fallout 3, I'd be missing one of my favourite games ever. I would say Edge generally get the reviews about right though.

I"m kind of with you on this. I want to like the game more than I do because it's clearly chock full of Bioware side quest goodness, but the main plot and lore feels like dark cod fantasy (so, err, sablefish fantasy I guess), I just don't see why people are praising the games writing so much. Yes the individual quests are fine but overall world building is a bit weak.

[womblingfree]

Greater dedication to learning other languages? I was a bit shocked as I was expecting the Menus and texts to be in Japanese (I knew the voices were all English already), but I figured that I could stumble through a 3rd person action game. But no. Full English.

I wonder if it defaults to English if the console's set to English? I just can't imagine releasing a game in a country, entirely in a foreign language. Madness. The majority of Japanese don't understand much English at all, if any, let alone having to read through menus and native dialogue in a videogame.

[Varnsen]

Masters standards surely apply - considering the professionalism of the industry and that it's Edge.

So 50 is a pass meaning it's adequate. 60 is a merit = good. 70 = great. 80 = brilliant. 90 = r@r3. 100 = best ever ever ever, unlikely to be surpassed anytime soon. You can walk on the moon!

Easy! So the game is okay then, nothing more. Sorted.

lolz

[BabelRich]

Masters standards surely apply - considering the professionalism of the industry and that it's Edge.

So 50 is a pass meaning it's adequate. 60 is a merit = good. 70 = great. 80 = brilliant. 90 = r@r3. 100 = best ever ever ever, unlikely to be surpassed anytime soon. You can walk on the moon!

Easy! So the game is okay then, nothing more. Sorted.

Or to put it another way...it's average.

[Guest]

I hope we've all learned the futility of such an argument.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

I'm sure we'll have the exact same thread next month.

[Broker]

I'm sure we'll have the exact same thread next month.

No we won't, it will be the month after that! etc

[Meers]

I seem to have missed it, but what did Edge score Forza 3?

[Uzi]

I seem to have missed it, but what did Edge score Forza 3?

9

[layten]

I seem to have missed it, but what did Edge score Forza 3?

5

[K]

What a way to make a living.

[Hello Goaty ♥]

Whats so good about Bayonetta guys?

it looks like every other Devil May Cry type game.