Sheikah

lol, a huge smile just formed on my lips. That guy also looks eerily like John Locke.

Oh yeah, for sure I understood all of that. But it's the fact that I know a lot of people (including Tales, who to be fair doesn't have English as a first language) wouldn't understand every word. It was more a comment about him unrealistcally producing a summary that wouldn't appear in a magazine/site for the general population. And no, the general population really aren't that bright. Why do you think News of the World and the Sun still sell? :p People are confusing average and mean. Stating an average should be 5/10 because it is the 'middle' number is incorrect. The average should be the average score of X number of games, used as a benchmark. Let's face it, most games don't score below 5, While many games do in fact score 9 and sometimes 10. Therefore it's completely logical to understand that 7 could be returned as an average figure.

Yeah but you're like him, and not Mr Joe public. It'd be no good in a review if half the audience don't understand it, hence to them it would seem pretentious. :p

lol, genius. I agree; with (a little pretentious) conclusions like those the reviewer probably wouldn't be in business long. Review scores are fine, they're tried and tested and clearly going nowhere. Why do people have a problem with 60-70% being average? When you think about it another way, 70% could be considered as "30% being utter shite". Not that I agree with that, since 100% (10/10) doesn't necessarily mean nothing is wrong with it. I just think that people have got "average" confused with "median", as in thinking the median rank (5/10) is the average. Sorry, but if I got 50% back on an exam I'd consider that semi-failure, not really average. Many games these days are at least playable so I could see many scoring over 5/10, bringing up the average. Even higher if reviewers only use the scores of more worthwhile games (ie non shovelware/movie tie ins) in their average.

lol? New 'Tales of' game arrived in the post? That's it, crawl back to your fanboy cave, son, we're not buying it.

As clearly do you. I've yet to see a review that doesn't also use a sentence to summarise as well as scores. So if you have such a problem with scores you can choose to read the sentence instead.

The alternative conclusion is that they convey a sense of "shit, avoid", "meh", or "hot stuff" instantly with simple digits as opposed to wall of text. There's no point to using scores to judge content so precisely in the manner you suggested (e.g. between 7/10 and 8/10). They're not meant to be the be all and end all, just a guide.

Metascore isn't all that bad. The reason is that most reviewers use a similar scoring system, ie. 9-10 is reserved for the highest quality games, while anything 6/10 or below is usually considered poor. The reason why many stick to a similar scale (with few deviating) is if anything due to the innate consumer perception of /10 scores dictated by film reviewers and advertisements. Score perception is a reason why trying to change ratings will fail, as the public now often derive their own opinions from scores, not what you tell them. As for Metacritic scoring, a game commonly rated 100% across many reviews, yet given a low 50% by one or two disgruntled reviewers, yields a metascore much closer to 100% than 50%. It's a fair attempt to save people the time of getting the opinion of multiple people, to reduce the chance that they found a 'freak' reviewer who has dissimilar interests. It really would be better to stick to a reviewer / site who shares your genre interests, but for the lazier there's Metacritic.

Oh god yes. But this should definitely be on consoles; PSO was first and foremost the original online console game for many and was loved for being that. And for being awesome.

Gamecube overall due to best comfort, really follow the shape of the hand well. PS3 controller next, not bulky and has changed little in terms of design so it's great for games with rapid button entry (at least, I don't know the 360 pad well enough). The D-pad is also good, unlike the 360's.

Yeah, I don't see what Serebii was getting at by saying it was flawed as a single image. In each of the 60 individual frames, the 24 fps 'section' simply needn't contain the ball at every 1/60th position of the way across. It is an accurate representation.

I just scrolled to the bottom of this page without seeing the first image and it looked like someone had spunked into a portal.

Fantastic. The longer the wait for a new console, the more money's worth from the current one. And by releasing it in 2014 the tech should be better than were it to be released next year.

Oh dear, Link isn't quite placed left enough on the box! This is so ridiculous, it doesn't warrant seriousness. The game will kick ass, box art will always be subjective so there's no way they could please everyone.

Being a PS1 era Final Fantasy fan I'm predisposed to favouring pre-rendered backgrounds. There was just something incredibly nice about them, they were pretty much like paintings that your character tracked over. I do think that it's a nice 3D attempt at reconstructing the area though, apart from that peculiar green water.

To be fair though, that would mean (I assume) 2 people would get to play the game on different systems for the price of one copy. They'd be losing out. I'll be getting this, for sure.

You'll be fine - if I can get a distinction, you sure as hell can. :p What's your masters subject? Also come do your PhD at UCL in London.

Good stuff. Great stuff. But don't use it as an embalming fluid.

Wow thanks for that, didn't know there was a cheap train option to get around.

I thought the online was staying vastly the same. Another thing they could change is to make the starting classes actually matter, rather than just minor differences in stat points and starter equipment.

I was never a fan of Mass Effect on 360, but due to hype I ended up buying ME2 on PS3. Loved it, whatever reservations I had over the first were completely overcome. Looking forward to ME3. I got Resistance on the day of launch, loved the game and particularly liked the UK based locations. Was pretty good online back in the day. When I got Resistance 2 though I have to say I felt like it had been turned into a CoD clone of some sort (what with the loadout and perks), didn't really like it at all. Although I'm sure I'm in the minority there. Oh and I will say, whoever hasn't played Shadow of the Colossus do get it when it comes out. It is simply a beautiful, wonderful game.

So, it looks like the rest of this year will be incredible for the PS3. Elder Scrolls V, Dark Souls, Uncharted 3, the Shadow of the Colossus pack, Mass Effect 3 and Disgaea 4. Versus XIII may be good, we'll just have to wait and see. Anyone else particularly excited about this year's line up?

I love how this thread is still going, mostly due to people recently finding this gem. I was always disappointed that DQIX was on a handheld; they missed a real chance to make something as beautiful, immersive and polished as they had done when working with a more powerful console. VIII seems to be the lucky number for RPGs.

They really need to make another game using this graphical style, don't they? Get rid of the sailing for endless amounts of time and the triforce quest, make larger village islands (and more of them) and bring in some epicness (a la becoming 7 years older) and they'd be onto a winner.