Not Really Listening

Some of you might have stumbled across this little known British magazine called Edge Magazine¹ which game Resistance 2 a 6/10. According to Ben Dutka at PSXExtreme, that’s not good enough. In fact, he goes as far as to say that Edge should get over themselves in a shocking failure to see the irony of his own statement.

The crux of the issue seems to be that they don’t agree with him, and since they’re high profile, he’s going to accuse them of some sort of bias and bad journalism. Never mind that a numerical rating system is pretty much useless the moment it is subverted to metacritic comparisons, and that there can be no definitive way of scoring games consistently when attempting to place a statistical absolute on a highly subjective medium. You either accept it and move on, or you accept it and live with it because failing to accept it leaves you dying in the dust of the greater and better publications out there.

As for the accusations of dishonesty? It’s highly unprofessional behaviour from Dutka, not to mention a weak move on his part. Sure, it may garner some support today from the fan-boys, but those same fan-boys will turn on him the moment he says something positive about the XBox 360 in the same article as a points out a flaw in the Playstation 3 hardware, software, or business model.

The insinuation of bias is laughable coming from a website with a name proudly flying the fan-boy flag.

The facts remain that the reviewer for Edge didn’t think that much of Resistance 2, and that some other people really enjoyed it. Not many of the serious critics I listen to, whose opinions I can generally reliably use to gauge how well I will like a game thought much of the game either bar the multi-player campaign which bears little resemblance to the single player game. Most people will not be playing it fo the multi-player despite what the hard-core might think, and for them, a review of the single player which doesn’t take the multi-player into account is actually far more useful. There are many people who enjoyed it; good for them. There are many people who did not. Hopefully not too many of them bought it on account of reviewers scoring highly on Dutka’s say-so.

Remember folks; a critical review is not definitive; it is a tool in your arsenal. Dutka would do well to remember that, and perhaps bear in mind the fact that a wide range of opinions make for a better informed populace.

Dutka; Get over yourself.

Now to get the bad taste of the idiotic sector of the enthusiast press out of my mouth, here’s a fantastic glimpse at the upcoming Sim Animals from EA (those of you familiar with Jeff Green might notice him in the background)

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