Hello, Gamer,

Meck here. And we’re now in November. Time flies, huh? Soon we’ll be wrapping up the year, debating about what’s the game of the year and start a new calendar year. Fun!

Table of Contents

• …But FIRST

  • What’s The Point In Game Reviews?

• The NEWS From Last Week

• Game Reviews

…But FIRST

What’s The Point In Game Reviews?

I’ve been playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard for a review, it’s nice sometimes to play a game on release like everyone else. Imagine being able to play a brand new game earlier than everyone else but the monkey paw curls that if you say anything about it before a certain date, you’ll face the wrath of lawyers.

And between that game and the recently released Mario & Luigi Brothership, another discourse has appeared as these games are have a few low review scores from reputable media sites and creators. And unfortunately like most gaming discourse, it feels like it’s directed in an unhealthy direction.

Of course, I’m biased because I speak from a standpoint of the media. It seems any game can’t have an outlier low score or it will be branded as a “bad review”. The 7.8/10 Too Much Water meme was born from a review of Pokemon Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby.

I personally think that review itself is well written, with the reviewer properly articulating their issues with the game, which is having to navigate through the waters so much and interacting with the Hidden Moves system, which they didn’t like. It’s a positive review! It’s a good review!

So why the hate?

Personally speaking, the way we treat game reviews are weird. We want it to be objective, but games aren’t kitchen appliances where they can be judged objectively. There’s no way to judge a game mechanic objectively. Some people like when cars behave realistically, like a simulator, where you actually have to use the brakes. Others want to go sideways immediately when they hit the brake button. Is one objectively better than the other? Is one better suited for a specific game than the other?

That’s why at Gamer Matters, we declared that all our reviews are subjective. We let the reviewer explain their biases and preferences, and allow them to add points based on this to tilt the score. In older game sites, this was called “reviewer’s tilt”. For us, it’s “Personal Enjoyment”.

There is some merit to having some objectivity. There’s nothing subjective when a game suffers bugs, performance issues, or servers being down. We’re paying upwards of RM300 for a brand new game these days, a lot of money. So it’s fair to see reviews where you know if your money is worth spending here or not.

But having reviews for games being treated as a purely objective assessment is boring. Lifeless. Games are an artform that can be interpreted in many ways and be the subject of literary discourse. It would be a shame that it can’t be lively as a car review.

A bit off-topic, but are you a gearhead? I watch content from my other interests and hobbies to unwind and find inspiration. And it’s interesting to watch car reviews. Car reviewers and car enthusiasts don’t care about scores, they like quirks and features. A car review can tell the history of how a car came to be. They like to look at cars go vroom and wax poetry how it feels to feel it vrooming. Only a handful of car reviewers I know do review scores, because at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. Not everyone is buying a supercar.

Interesting world, isn’t it?

Here in the games industry, we sure put review scores at a high pedestal. Metacritic scores are so important. Should it be important, though? Do we care as highly a 10/10 game today as we will in the next decade? Does a 7/10 game remain eternally mediocre when games can be updated and improved on over time like how No Man’s Sky turned things around?

What’s the point of game reviews then?

For Gamer Matters, reviews are a way for us to share our experience and whether we recommend the game for you to check out or not. As a small team, we only review the game we want to play, so most of them time reviews all come off positive, with the cost of not being able to cover all the game releases. But it’s always possible for game to get a negative review, as in it scored badly, because we don’t recommend it.

But hey, any review, with positive or negative scores, can be beneficial. If someone who can’t tolerate spice hates a food dish because it’s spicy, is that a bad review? No, it tells you that the dish is spicy. So those who consume sambal like it’s a beverage should dig in.

A bad review is when you can’t get anything beneficial out of it. Or if it’s plagiarised.

The NEWS From Last Week

Here’s some of the big news from last week:

• Sony shuts down Firewalk Studios and Neon Koi. Firewalk made Concord, the hero-shooter that only was around for two weeks. Mobile game devs Neon Koi never got to release anything.

• Have you heard of Showa American Story? It’s a game depicting the USA being culturally influenced by Japan, from a Chinese developer. It’s wild, and releasing next year.

• Our friends at The Magic Rain is hosting Indie Jam 2024. Want to check out indie games from Southeast Asian developers? Check the event out on November 16-17 at XSolla Curine Academy, KL Eco City, KL. Free entry!

Game Reviews

I’m still going through Dragon Age: The Veilguard, so stay tuned for what I think of that (short answer: thank the Maker it’s decent). In the meantime, check out Danial’s regular foray into Sword Art Online games with Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream.

And you’re all caught up! For more news, you can always check the Gamer Matters website for everything you need to know about games.

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Play games and have fun,

—Meck and the Gamer Matters Team