If you read Tracy's reviews, he's big on attention to detail. As great of a game that Aralon is, it's rough around the edges because the developers obviously were rushing to get the game out by Christmas. I agree with his criticisms, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the game. Just because the rough edges eventually lead to Tracy not liking it as much as everyone else doesn't mean he can't stand RPG's, the review isn't honest, or he's a "poor reviewer who shouldn't write reviews in the first place."
Ironically this is the worst review that I've ever read. Sarcastic, and self important. You think Aralon is God's gift. We. Get. It. At least Pocketgamer made some constructive points, not every review is about some thing being better or worse than something else. Forgoing all the hype surrounding Aralon, you must also expect it to stand on it's own merit. Your review also had spelling mistakes.
All reviewers should smoke a pipe in Aralon before reviewing. Maybe it will refill their mana. Pocket Gamer does make some good points though, the game does need improving. I just wish they added that its also a fun game to mess around in.
how actively are these points that pocket gamer makes being considered for improvement? they mention a lot of faults...and you're right, it would have been nice for them to mention all the wonderful things about the game as well. that being said, i usually skip the 'good stuff' when skimming a review and look to see what the problems are. i picked the game up last night after reading the glowing TA review and while it was downloading, i read the PG review...i began to consider regeretting my purchase. shortly after beginning to consider regretting it, i stopped considering it. i don't regret it at all. but i wold love for these things to be fixed. it seems like an overwhelming task, though.
PocketGamer focused on the negatives, even though I find them outnumbered by all the positives they failed to mention them. Don't flame PG for stating their opinion of the game though. While I have a different opinion of Aralon, I still like to see these types of reviews because it shows that they aren't just giving games a good review because they have been hyped up.. something many sites do. The one thing they did miss was both sides of the story to let the reader make up their own mind about the game.
What is however nice about the review is that he mentions its a ambitious effort. We put as much effort into this game as we possibly could have, at the risk of divorces from our wives. The question that comes up is - should such a small team try to make such a big game? Yes and no. Yes, because its awesome to dream big. No because you can't possibly do everything that needs to be done for a full console quality title with such a small team. Yes because many times smaller games don't get noticed. To be honest, I had no idea how big Aralon was when I jumped into it. I'm still glad that I did though - despite all of the issues, happy people, mad people, sad people, etc
This isn't a review, I mean come on! As for spelling mistakes, I happen to speak more than one language, how about you?
No need to be bitter. You need to learn to divorce your personal feelings and opinions from something that is clearly an unbiased review. That lesson's universal
CM has already submitted an update, or will today. A bit of a hot-fix update, if you will. Although I believe it adds some additional content as well. I'm reluctant to play a game that I figure wasn't 100% completed upon release and now must be fixed with subsequent updates. I have no doubt that the updates are going to happen. But now I know that if I play this game now I will be getting less of an experience then if I wait for the update, which might not be out for what? 10 days? By then, there might be a second update in the hopper and I'll feel the same way. Maybe I should wait for the second update before I play it for the first time. That way, I'll be able to maximize my experience.
And therefore, it is successful. I know for a fact now that I will go to pocketgamer after the next big release, if only to get a laugh. I do appreciate their review though. Though I love TA for its forums, the reviews are all a bit generic. I'm not saying I could do better, and I'm sure it's a tough job, but it's also refreshing to see pocketgamer buck the trend and throw out a controversial review like this. Misleading as it may be, it's courageous.
There's a difference between "comparison of opinion" and "total ignorance". Pocket Gamer, Gamespot, IGN, and several other review sites show ignorance in droves. It's not a matter of "Oh damn.. they gave that game I love a bad rating". It's a matter of how they came to the conclusion that they disliked the game. As a few have said already, Pocket Gamer acts as if they shouldn't even be gaming on the iPhone/iPod Touch because in numerous reviews they pick out the controls as being unnatural and unintuitive. From the reviews I've read, that's their main complaint for everything. This makes me wonder where their integrity lies on the iDevice playing field. IGN has a bad case of the "If it's on the PS3, be extra harsh on it" flu, and it seems they're not getting much better over the years. Originally the Nintendo side of things used to be very fair, but after Matt left his position, things started turning ugly. Then Craig Harris left just recently (sad day ), and Daemon Hatfield has long since turned into a total douche with his reviews. IGN is falling apart at the seams... I don't know what happened, but again... IGN Nintendo used to be the last prideful and good division of the site, but even that is breaking down considerably. Gamespot complains about the silliest things, and generally their reviews have this "I just read IGN's review... let me paraphrase it and put it in my own, since I didn't put enough time into the game myself" air to them. Not so much recently, but I've gotten that feeling a lot. So again: I have no problem with an opinion varying from my own. I have a problem with total ignorance, however. There is a rather blurry line between appropriate criticism and unnecessary nitpicking/total ignorance. Pocket Gamer is one of many gaming/review sites that treads way too close to the latter side of that equation. There's one thing in this world I can't stand, and that's ignorance.`That's where my qualms with these websites lie.
I do see your point, but the biggest issue is that people don't realize not all reviews are written by the same person which makes comparing scores irrelevant. Actually the biggest issue is scores. I stopped giving a damn about scores years ago. They're just meaningless numbers created just for metacritic and flame wars. I still find it odd why people even read reviews for games they already purchased. Is it to justify their purchase? Probably. In all and all. Scores are dumb.
IGN gave Dead Rising Mobile 2.5. Admittedly, Dead Rising Mobile is not a masterpiece, but that's just ridiculous. Even with its shortcomings (clearly, it is a quick and dirty port made on the relative cheap), that game has to rate at least a 5.0. Maybe a 5.5 or a 6.0. I'm saying this as someone who isn't even a fan of Dead Rising games in general. I've played the console games and don't see them as anything special, so I'm not a Dead Rising fanboy by any stretch. 2.5 out of 10 for Dead Rising by IGN easily rivals the 6.0 out of 10 for Aralon by Pocket Gamer as the worst. review. ever.
People that care about scores are the dumbest. people. ever. and ign and pocket gamer have different score criteria so don't even bother comparing them. Dead Rising was also garbage so a score from 0-5/10 is reasonable o0"
