I just read "must-buy" as "must-buy if you like this sort of game". Stop relying so much on written reviews alone. And learn to take some personal responsibility when choosing what games to buy.
What's interesting is it's all a work in progress. I've actually made some conscious efforts to be more definitive in my recommendations when appropriate. We've actually received criticism for hedging too much in the past, and not giving clear enough recommendations. We'll keep tweaking our reviews and voice, but understand that there are criticisms no matter what we do. In fact, we also get plenty criticized when we do give a negative or not entirely favorable review. In the end, we just have to figure out what we are happy with and let people decide themselves. arn
9/10 eli's reviews: follow whatever arbitrary direction a game's hype machine is headed. 1/10 eli's reviews: are trolls. 10/10 blake's reviews: obligatory name drops of whatever retro-remake throwbacks he warezed off an amiexpress board, circa 1994. 100/100 fat albie reviews: are vapid and mostly read, "please IGN, notice me type about games! check out mai wits! plz job me thx. i've got an AA in english!! look at me go!"
Whoa are you blasted or something? What's with the uncalled for attacks? Edit: Nevermind, read through 20-30 of your last posts. It's just your nature to be an asshole I suppose.
Bat....you're not acquainted with s0mah?? Well, I guess he has been quiet for a little while...looks like the beast has awakened again though!
Original Poster GOT IT ALL WRONG!!!! I disagree with the OP. Like Arn had mentioned many times, USUALLY ONLY games (with a very few rare exceptions) that the TA guys LIKE are featured. It means they think it is good enough for them to recommend to TA visitors and hence they featured it. That obviously meant that the bulk of the featured games are positively reviewed, which is fine by me. I don't want to go to a site and read reviews after reviews of lousy, bad, crappy games on TA. 99.9999999% of the games on the appstore are crap and not worth TA's time at all. In fact, those games are not worth ANYONE's time at all. The fact that TA is distilling the cream and recommending it to visitors is neither subjective or promotional, it is just common sense since the appstore is crowded with so much crap. People visit TA to find out what is good, not to read through 99 reviews of lousy crappy games before finally being let in on a good one. Think about it.
Well, I will say that I sort of agree with you on Blake. He rarely posts, and when he does, it's usually about some obscure retro game that to me, should stay retro, because those games are usually quite boring and good only because of nostalgia. I suppose there are those who like these games, but it just isn't my cup of tea. I guess what I wish for TA would be more in-depth reviews. TA usually hones in on a narrow aspect of the game and then says it's a must-buy. I want in-depth explanations on all parts of the game so I know what I'm getting into when I buy the game. Liking the game or calling it a "must-buy" is always going to be subjective, so I would just like mostly overviews of the game with a few opinions as to what works and what doesn't here and there. I often don't agree with Big Albie's reviews, but he does explain the game in a very detailed fashion.
I disagree. I love the fact that TA only really talks about really good games and really popular games. That is really the only thing that I want to hear about. When I visit the main page of the site, I'm usually looking for a new game to play, and want to see everything that it highly recommended. I don't want to sift through the ****. I could do that on the app store. I've got to disagree with you 100% here. Anyway, judging from your past posts, you are a complete *** to everyone.
Thank you. This is true. I think some people just have this insatiable need to see their own opinions mirrored in some official medium.
Can you guys conceive of a world where TA still reviews all the same games it does now, but the reviews have more facts and information in them, and less cheer leading? That seems to be what the original poster was asking for.
If I had known that TA's goal was to only cover games that they endorse/recommend, I would have phrased my initial comments somewhat differently (whether that is something I like or not would be a different discussion). Perhaps this would be more easily understandable up-front if they used the phrase 'best in iPhone gaming' instead of 'latest' in their tagline.
Best is subjective.. latest is what this site does.. because of the forums and it also previews upcoming games.
Well if people are interested in (literally) the latest in iPhone gaming, AppShopper is good for that. I used to subscribe to their RSS for new games. But since most of the new games are not so good, it just gets tiring after awhile.
First up, i had been reading this thread and found it pretty amusing. Just to state my point, like many others who know what TA is about, i completely disagree with the title of this thread and what the original poster is implying. I'll have to disagree here too about having more facts & information on the TA frontpage game articles. If every TA review on the frontpage is as long as Big Albie's reviews, TA's frontpage will simple blow. Look at the TA logo at the top, the punchline is "...Keeping you in touch with..." and not "...Give you every single detail about every game...". The TA frontpage articles are short, simple and straight to the point. If you don't agree with them, it is not much to ignore them too. At least you didn't spend 30 mins reading it before deciding you'd wasted your time. TA is saving everyone time, that's why everyone comes here. To the TA guys, don't be swayed by these off-the-rail suggestions and comments. You guys are doing a good job that's why people come here. If you start doing half the things there were suggested here, TA will just explode into another time-wasting POS iDevice site. Cheers!
agreed 100%. The only thing I would change about TA would be a mobile version of the site or a TA app.
TA and noone, can't put all in agreement, but if they act like they do and have so hughe audience then they aren't doing badly. They don't do that. We, developers would like that TA makes more reviews )or at least reviews from our games ), but there are many games out there and probably they can't handle all. So TA choosed to feature the games they like and I prefer this that making reviews for every game under the sky. My game has not been featured by TA. I didn't ranted for this. I blamed myself and contacted to some guys here that make reviews and asked where did I failed, what I need to improve. Actually I'm working in enhancing my game and I hope sales will go better and being featured anytime here or in the other major review websites. As for having reviews here for bad games, I completely disagree. Making a game it's not an easy (but fun) task and takes months & months for us. Is better a non review than a negative review. This will let room for us that another major review site likes the game and have some success. Also think that reviewers are humans and they could like some things and don't like anothers, no one has they absolute grial of what is cool or not. I also completely disagree that 99% of games are crap. Perhaps my rant with TA are is the review style, I rather prefer reviews with cons and pros for the games. I really like reviews done by Big Albie although I'm not always agree with him TA is a bit biassed. But this is absolutely NORMAL. I don't imagine TA guys doing a bad review from Rolando or any game from Freeverse or Chillingo. They are his sponsors. So the reader must know who are the sponsors and read between the lines.
I think that last comment is misleading and you shouldn't make accusations like that. Otherwise all the conspiracy theorists will jump in. I've noticed that a lot of the threads that complain about how TA is run is posted by either 1) jaded devs who are too stubborn to see the faults in their game and think that front page coverage will save their failing app....or 2) oversensitive people with extremely frail egos
It's not an accusation, is just a fact. Or do you really think that MacWorld, PCWorld, Computerworld, CNET, IGN and many other technical media are not a bit biassed with his sponsors? It's innocent to think they aren't. For sure they are, and I'm talking from experience. I worked for one of them, and there were indications for not rating bad some products (sponsors). It's just life (and marketing). As for the conspiracy theorists they rather should go to another web site for ranting. And as for me .. I never complained here. If just one guy didn't liked my game them this could be for his point of view, but if there are more .. them it's totally my fault and I did badly somewhere.
