After I wrote my blog about Dragon Age - Origins, I wanted to search the web to see what other people had to say about the game; whether they confirmed my observations, or whether I was the only person in the world that didn't think this game was the best thing since sliced bread.
I found the greatest wealth of information on Metacritic, but much to my dismay, many of the "respectable" gaming sources gave it very positive review.
So much for the experts.
Then I decided to look through the user reviews so I could really build a meta-analysis of what real users had to say. But then I ran into a whole new problem, which I should have anticipated; people don't know dick about shit.
On a scale of 0-10, 0 is essentially... well 0, and 10 is essentially 100%. By that logic you would think a score of 10 means the user found absolutly nothing wrong with the game, and conversely, a score of 0 should imply no redeeming factors of the game. This is of course, not the case. I saw countless 10-score reviews with sentences like "sure the game has its faults, but overall I think its good". That sounds more like a rating of 7 or 8 to me. Similar stories take place on the other end of the scale too. So overall I basically throw out any review with a score of 10 or 0, because for most games (a few exceptions... Deus Ex was one of them), these scores are outliers of the data set, written by people who have a grudge against the game, or are so smitten by it they cant write an unbiased review.
I performed a super-scientific study where I looked through some other games I've played, and read the reviews there too, and it seemed to support my discovery. Maybe sites like Metascore should provide a breakdown of what percentage of people rated which games at which number, rather than just the weighted average they do at the moment, and then the user could sort based on the criteria they wish to base their evaluations on.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Review: Dragon Age - Origins
I've been looking for a good RPG to play now that I finally got the MMO monkey off my back, so I went to Gamespot to see what they would recommend. At the top of their "best RPG's" list, was Dragon Age - Origins, coming in at a staggering 9.5/10; the only one on the list with a score that high. So I downloaded off steam, booted it up and started playing.
When you start in, you can choose one of three races (Human, Elf, or Dwarf) and one of three classes (Warrior, Mage, or Rogue). Warriors can be tanks or dps, mage can be dps or heals, and rogues can be meele dps or ranged dps. I decided to roll up an elf mage first. It starts off with a pretty rich storyline where the mages have to go though a deadly trial by fire type event to prove that they wont get corrupt by the antagonists of the storyline, the blight. You run around a castle for a while, talk to NPCs, pick up dumb little items, and level up a few times. Pretty standard fare for most RPGs.
Finally you get out of your "start zone" and end up at a little camp, where one would hope the real meat and potatoes of the game would begin. Much to my dismay however, this never really happens. The game has a feel of how Stanly Kubrick would direct Lord of the Rings back in his 2001: A Space Odyssey days, with poorly written combat sequences. For the last 6 hours I've played this games, and here is the breakdown of what you spend your time doing in game.
70% Listening to (or skipping though) tedious interactive lore encounters with NPCs
10% Loading screens.
10% Running around zones trying to complete unclear quest instructions.
5% Combat.
5% Trying to get your party to do what you want, and using skill points upon level up.
It's all well and good to have a rich story line, but this game takes it to painful extremes. After about an hour of playing, I grew so frustrated standing around listening to another mysterious magus character talking about how strange the forest is, I began skipping through lore text just to get to some sort of a real gaming experience. But since the lore is so ubiquitous in the game, I got quickly confused as to what was going on. Choosing weather to be bored out of my mind and informed, or only slightly bored and very confused is not a decision you should have to make constantly while playing video games.
Bottom line, unless you are a fiend for lore, pass on this game. I'd give it maybe 2/10.
When you start in, you can choose one of three races (Human, Elf, or Dwarf) and one of three classes (Warrior, Mage, or Rogue). Warriors can be tanks or dps, mage can be dps or heals, and rogues can be meele dps or ranged dps. I decided to roll up an elf mage first. It starts off with a pretty rich storyline where the mages have to go though a deadly trial by fire type event to prove that they wont get corrupt by the antagonists of the storyline, the blight. You run around a castle for a while, talk to NPCs, pick up dumb little items, and level up a few times. Pretty standard fare for most RPGs.
Finally you get out of your "start zone" and end up at a little camp, where one would hope the real meat and potatoes of the game would begin. Much to my dismay however, this never really happens. The game has a feel of how Stanly Kubrick would direct Lord of the Rings back in his 2001: A Space Odyssey days, with poorly written combat sequences. For the last 6 hours I've played this games, and here is the breakdown of what you spend your time doing in game.
70% Listening to (or skipping though) tedious interactive lore encounters with NPCs
10% Loading screens.
10% Running around zones trying to complete unclear quest instructions.
5% Combat.
5% Trying to get your party to do what you want, and using skill points upon level up.
It's all well and good to have a rich story line, but this game takes it to painful extremes. After about an hour of playing, I grew so frustrated standing around listening to another mysterious magus character talking about how strange the forest is, I began skipping through lore text just to get to some sort of a real gaming experience. But since the lore is so ubiquitous in the game, I got quickly confused as to what was going on. Choosing weather to be bored out of my mind and informed, or only slightly bored and very confused is not a decision you should have to make constantly while playing video games.
Bottom line, unless you are a fiend for lore, pass on this game. I'd give it maybe 2/10.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Traffic Accidents Suck!
So on the way up to Breckenridge today, I was fortunate enough to smash the fuck out of the front of my car on I-70. Here's the short version of what happened.
Going about 20 MPH in the left lane, the car in front of me suddenly swerved to the right, revealing three stationary cars, one of which was facing backwards on the road. Of course, I instantly hit the brakes, and much to my dismay, I continued to travel forwards at roughly the exact same speed I was going before the brakes. Smashed into the guardrail and one of the cars. After making sure everyone was good, I started to get my bearings on what was going on, and get this; the bitch in the car at the very front who started the whole thing (the one who was facing the wrong way) turns around and ditches us.
Oh well. That's why it's good to have insurance I guess. Anyway, when we got down to Silverthorn, we decided we were still going to go riding, up at Keystone. So we went to target to get some stuff to McGuiver a replacement mirror for the one that got smashed. Using a cosmetics mirror, a roll of duct tape and some double sided wall mounting foam pads, we came up with a kick ass mirror.
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