crispy4000

OpenCritic only factors in to their critic recommendation % when one of the following happens: It's imperfect, as I've said. But I don't think there's a significant concern here about the numbers being skewed dramatically either way. I've never said that you need an aggregate to determine what an individual reviewer actually means. Or even a score. We're in agreement there. The ironic thing is that you're heaping your own subjective reading onto several of those reviews. A game that gets some things right and other things wrong could be teetering on the edge of failure for some of them. It all depends on how they value the positives and negatives. You're kind of hand waving that away here. And even a paragraph might not be enough context, really.

Not technically console raytracing, but this still looks kinda neat. Like some of the promo material for the game almost.

"Look at all the free games we give you every week." And to be totally honest... I'm kind of okay with that. They got cloud saves in there. I don't really care about much more other than the launcher not shuttering for good.

Actually, 6.5 or below is "Weak" as they categorize it. As in, worse than "Fair." I'd say that's pretty accurate by how reviews go today. "Weak" is also their lowest category. Recommended tells you the % of critics recommending it. That's not nothing. It's the closest thing to Rotten Tomatoes' scoring model for movies and TV. A review is the most direct opinion of one reviewer. But a singular quote hardly speaks to the criticism of the game across outlets. Hence, cherry picking. I provided 3 links. Can you specify?

OpenCritic's Critic Recommend averages. It's imperfect, but the best we have. The vast majority of games averaging below 7's are not recommended by a majority of critics. Twin Mirror, Destruction Allstars, Avengers, etc. Games averaging under 6 tend to do even worse. There can be some softening up in some reviews under 6's. (ie: 'so bad it's good,' 'maybe a sequel gets it right') And of course, those rare exceptions that treat a 5 as average. But by and large, the implication is that it was a botched attempt.

Your demonstration was cherry picked.

That doesn't actually negate what you quoted. Most reviewers don't see 5's as mediocre these days anyways. It's below a failing grade by the way the scores are weighted today. The closest equivalent to that in the gaming space is the Critics Recommend meter at OpenCritic.

The average would be 5 if most reviewers considered 5 average. Generally speaking, they don't. Most review outlets stopped trying to save face on that years ago. Individual reviews don't reflect the aggregate, which is what I've talked about here. A reviewer who treats 5 as average is well outside of the norm. They're counterbalanced by the reviewers who are scoring average games high 7's and 8's. Because like you, they (subconsciously) believe the quality of games has improved and that numbers should be higher to reflect that. I personally don't think the weighted grading scale has changed much over the past 20 years or so. In terms of aggregates, a 7 is still very much still a C- judged by the standards of the time. Critics still generally don't recommend games they score low 7's.

If they used the entire scale in earnest, 5 would be average for games released in any given year. I've got no problem with how it works now, mind you. I just think of 70 as a C- in terms of aggregate critical opinion. Games that score that low typically have some fairly significant flaw that you have to routinely look past to actually enjoy it. Or at the least, most the critics think so. I'm not speaking about individual reviews here, like you've posted. But OpenCritic averages. That there's significantly less licensed games these days on consoles. Yes, they're generally better. But that's because publishers now view them as a riskier endeavor, and spend 3+ years making them.

There are more Epic Store exclusives coming over the next 2 years than have released so far | PC Gamer WWW.PCGAMER.COM We only know about a handful of upcoming exclusives right now, which suggests there are a lot of unannounced games.

I used to buy a lot more Nintendo games than I do now. It's a combination of paltry 1st party price drops, a Switch tax on most indies, and less exciting 3rd party exclusives (to me) than in the past. The Switch kind of stopped being interesting to me after finishing Xenoblade 2. Though I do want to get Luigi's Mansion 3 eventually.

You can think the average game is good, sure. I probably wouldn't disagree with that. But making 7 an average isn't using the whole scale, really. Game reviews nowadays skew similar to school grades in their weighting, IMO. Anything below a 70 doesn't pass the class. Below 60 means an utter failure. And I don't think the licensed game comparison holds water at all. Licensed games occupy a completely different space today than in the past. We almost never see overt movie tie ins, kart racers, rushed releases capitalizing on a trending IP, etc. Both Arkham and mobile gaming changed the business model. On consoles today, it's a drip feed.

OpenCritic gives you a better idea of the true spread. 5 is by no means average if you aggregate. The highest number of games are rated in the 70-72 rage, but the full story is that chart.

What GPU?

I miss the 1up Show. People talking casually and honestly about games they previewed, in a well edited wrap up of why you should and shouldn't be excited. I feel like there's a huge opportunity lost in the indie games scene for this. So much of the content is catch-all. Almost nothing is carefully curated. Just look at last year's 'E3'.

Picked it up in Humble Choice this month, was pleasantly surprised. It's a perfect couch casual party game. You have a slash, toss and dash, and power-ups that stack on one another and stay across rounds. You can do team matches and turn on bots too. Slicing up fruit with boomerang cutters is truly perfect as casual 'gore.' Moving Out is the more popular co-op game in Choice this month, but don't sleep on this. I can't wait to play it with more people once COVID is over.

Not with trading cards from games sold outside of Valve’s storefront.

I'm still surprised Valve makes any real money on this at all. I've earned almost as much from the marketplace as I've spent on games on their storefront. It's been 8 years, with a 1000+ Steam library, and Valve is only $120 up on me. That dollar amount has actually shrunk since Epic started their giveaways, since I almost always second guess purchases on Steam now. (even with fake bucks) Other legit storefronts selling cheaper Steam keys also factor into it. It's my #frugalgoal to one day put them in the negative with my account. Then I'll be the anti-whale.

A bit less than that. It's a pretty easy game to fly through, even the first time. Warrior Within in the only one that feels long, but that's because it's a semi-Metroidvania.

SoT is so short they should probably just remaster the entire trilogy instead, like Crash or Spyro. Ubi’s got the money.

DF prediction for the future:

- In the framerate unlocked photo mode, Xbox Series X performs about 16% better on average with RT than PS5 in most scenarios. But in the heaviest RT places (ie: 'corridor of doom') the gain is only 3%. Both consoles barely clear 30fps there. - That corridor on consoles (at 1220p) runs roughly where a 2070S does at 1440p native. That's at equivalent settings, with the notable exception of RT resolution being halved on consoles. With DLSS though, a vanilla 2060 could still beat the consoles at a reconstructed 1440p, with everything on Ultra and RT effects absent on consoles enabled. - DF theorizes that 1080p60 might be possible on Series X in most scenarios. Good enough for variable refresh rate at least. But the CPU could be a limiting factor. - RX 6800XT is performing short of expectations compared to consoles, at least in this game.

Moguri mod is absurd. It's more like how a modern P&C adventure game would look. Not all the environments hold up as well as that, but many do.

More FFIX today. Some of the art feels surprisingly intricate and dark for the game its in. It's what I'm appreciating most about it. It would have been easy to just make it look simpler and cheerier as a throwback to earlier FF's. But they lean in on making the world feel imposing. Even in a game with talking rats, dogs and fish people.

That's stunning. I know Japan's portable oriented, but it's never been to this degree. It might also explain why Japanese console publishers have warmed up to PC so much. Diversification across the pond is a must if that's the landscape over there.