Community MetaSteam | August 2024 - What a peaceful moment in the countryside

[Lashley]

Glad outlaws is mid. I'll just wait for it to come to Steam and be on a discount.

I'm unironically expecting a marginal increase in performance compared with the 40 series, akin to what we got going from the 30xx to 40xx, with a significant increase in price and power consumption.
Wish AMD gpus weren't so awful so nvidia had some incentive to do better.

Same. Unless it's a massive improvement I'll keep my 4090 for the foreseeable.

text

I want to take a moment to mention that without @Steam and hard working people
like @AugustaButlin and @aldenkroll and @tomgvalve
(and many others), small but lucrative games like My Lovely Empress from
places like South East Asia would not exist.

We launched on multiple platforms but despite being hands off, Steam
absolutely dominates in sales. Why? Because Steam gives us the tools to
build and manage our own communities (let's pretend the recent rules on
linking didn't happen ) Developers and Publishers DO NOT NEED to be
babysat by platforms, we need to be given the tools to make our own success.
A platform is something we stand on and Steam is the absolute stellar example
of how even in a year of deep industry turmoil and difficult choices, success is possible.

uhm yeah. I see...yes....uhm

What do they do to earn that 30% though really?

 

[Ge0force]

It's hilarious to see people all over the internet shitting on Star Wars Outlaws reviews with lower scores, while these reviewers are the ones who actually played the game.

Every bit of gameplay I've seen looked incredibly dull and underwhelming. The combat even reminds me of the early Uncharted games which released two console generations ago. I can't imagine spending dozens of hours on this, even if it's Star Wars.

 

[kio]

Twitter embed not working, here's pic of the tweet

Shall I dust off the clown makeup?

Boggles my mind how can they have Fallout 1 above Fallout 2.

Besides this, I can't understand how Troika games have such a noticeable representation on that list considering how broken every single one of their games was and how they were only ever playable due to fan patches.
Other than that I'm very happy Spiderweb games got a few deserved shout outs.

 

[Lashley]

It's hilarious to see people all over the internet shitting on Star Wars Outlaws reviews with lower scores, while these reviewers are the ones who actually played the game.

Every bit of gameplay I've seen looked incredibly dull and underwhelming. The combat even reminds me of the early Uncharted games which released two console generations ago. I can't imagine spending dozens of hours on this, even if it's Star Wars.

TBF these losers do it with every review

 

[NarohDethan]

I will get Outlaws when it comes to Steam. I'd rather spend my money in Space Marine 2.

 

[Derrick01]

The thing that surprises me about outlaws is they focus so hard on stealth but have half baked (almost non existent really) stealth systems in the game. Like it has the typical crouch in bushes and press square to do a takedown and...that's it. That's all it has but they have numerous missions in the game where if you get spotted at all you insta fail and apparently the checkpointing can be rough too.

Contrast this with what they're doing in AC shadow. Light sources and extinguishing them, enemies hear sound, weather affects stealth (storms mask sound, footprints can appear in snow and the ice covers ponds which prevents you from swimming to ambush enemies), you can do a splinter cell-like split in certain alcoves to hide from guards, you can go prone and a lot of other stuff I can't remember at the moment. Now time will tell how all this plays out in action but at least the game has it, they're attempting to do something new with the series but also their open world formula too.

That being said I hope that doesn't also have insta fail missions...

 

[Mivey]

I will get Outlaws when it comes to Steam. I'd rather spend my money in Space Marine 2.

I hope the kobolds, goblins, or whatever that race is called, is still featured in the sequel. I loved those in the first game, in particular how dumb all their constructions looked, like strapping a big red rocket on their back to attack you from mid air.

 

[ZKenir]

I hope the kobolds, goblins, or whatever that race is called, is still featured in the sequel. I loved those in the first game, in particular how dumb all their constructions looked, like strapping a big red rocket on their back to attack you from mid air.

Orks and the small ones are Gretchins which are a small subspecies of Orks

 

[dex3108]

The thing that surprises me about outlaws is they focus so hard on stealth but have half baked (almost non existent really) stealth systems in the game. Like it has the typical crouch in bushes and press square to do a takedown and...that's it. That's all it has but they have numerous missions in the game where if you get spotted at all you insta fail and apparently the checkpointing can be rough too.

Contrast this with what they're doing in AC shadow. Light sources and extinguishing them, enemies hear sound, weather affects stealth (storms mask sound, footprints can appear in snow and the ice covers ponds which prevents you from swimming to ambush enemies), you can do a splinter cell-like split in certain alcoves to hide from guards, you can go prone and a lot of other stuff I can't remember at the moment. Now time will tell how all this plays out in action but at least the game has it, they're attempting to do something new with the series but also their open world formula too.

That being said I hope that doesn't also have insta fail missions...

Ubisoft is king of half-assed tings. As i said before if they can't pass 8/10 mark for past 10+ years there is no way that they are not aiming to achieve 8/10. They would make at least one game that is universally at least 9/10 if they were truly aiming to make 10/10game. But they are simply not capable to make GOTY material .

 

[Derrick01]

Ubisoft is king of half-assed tings. As i said before if they can't pass 8/10 mark for past 10+ years there is no way that they are not aiming to achieve 8/10. They would make at least one game that is universally at least 9/10 if they were truly aiming to make 10/10game. But they are simply not capable to make GOTY material .

Yeah I don't expect much from ubi. I just really like a lot of the details I've seen from Shadow but my gut tells me a lot of it will be not very important and if you do get caught you can probably just zerg rush enemies like in most games. I don't want insta fail but I'm hoping that if you get surrounded by people as the ninja character it's basically a death sentence and you have to flee.

 

[dex3108]

Yeah I don't expect much from ubi. I just really like a lot of the details I've seen from Shadow but my gut tells me a lot of it will be not very important and if you do get caught you can probably just zerg rush enemies like in most games. I don't want insta fail but I'm hoping that if you get surrounded by people as the ninja character it's basically a death sentence and you have to flee.

For Ubisoft there is one saying that applies "when you making game for everybody you are making game for nobody". They simply have no guts to swing one way because they want all the money from the mainstream market. Compare it to Rockstar and RDR2 for example, they wanted to make game that is methodical and slow and they did ti knowing that people will complain about Arthur animations during looting and similar things. But they had idea and they executed it. Ubisoft will have ideas but never go full in.

 

[spindoctor]

This game is getting 8s and 9s from critics. And then people say Steam reviews are useless...

 

[Derrick01]

This game is getting 8s and 9s from critics. And then people say Steam reviews are useless...

I cannot begin to count the amount of mediocre to atrocious games that have very positive (or higher) ratings on steam. Concord was like that the other day, not sure if it still is.

I'm not a huge fan of the press and their ability to critique games but they are still head and shoulders above random user reviews.

 

[spindoctor]

I cannot begin to count the amount of mediocre to atrocious games that have very positive (or higher) ratings on steam. Concord was like that the other day, not sure if it still is.

I'm not a huge fan of the press and their ability to critique games but they are still head and shoulders above random user reviews.

No, you're wrong. Critic reviews are undoubtedly worse.

For those who might have missed it,

 

[curi0usBystander]

Concord was like that the other day, not sure if it still is.

I mean, the people who are playing the game really wanted the game so it's gonna be positive (and even then it's just at 71%).

 

[Derrick01]

I mean, the people who are playing the game really wanted the game so it's gonna be positive (and even then it's just at 71%).

But that tends to be true regardless of the game. Most people don't take the time to leave bad reviews unless they ran into a lot of technical issues that impacted their play or they're just taking some agenda they had on twitter and bombing the score. Very few people take the time to really lay out a critical view of a game. Like hogwarts has a 90% on steam...90% for one of the most painfully mediocre ubisoft style games that isn't from ubi themselves. I've seen low effort porn games with overwhelmingly positive scores. At no point should steam reviews be taken seriously for anything other than technical issues.

 

[kio]

But that tends to be true regardless of the game. Most people don't take the time to leave bad reviews unless they ran into a lot of technical issues that impacted their play or they're just taking some agenda they had on twitter and bombing the score. Very few people take the time to really lay out a critical view of a game. Like hogwarts has a 90% on steam...90% for one of the most painfully mediocre ubisoft style games that isn't from ubi themselves. I've seen low effort porn games with overwhelmingly positive scores. At no point should steam reviews be taken seriously for anything other than technical issues.

Have you ever heard of what participation bias is?
Reviews are tools and should be used as such but you need to be informed of what surrounds the data you consume.

 

[lashman]

 

[Durante]

Steam reviews are a fantastic tool to understand whether you'll enjoy a game. The best there is, really.

You just need to quickly glance over a few of the highlighted useful positive ones and a few of the negative ones, and you get a great picture of pretty much any game. A far more complete one, and far more rapidly, than with media reviews (and of the larger group of games that media doesn't generally review too).

 

[curi0usBystander]

But that tends to be true regardless of the game. Most people don't take the time to leave bad reviews unless they ran into a lot of technical issues that impacted their play or they're just taking some agenda they had on twitter and bombing the score. Very few people take the time to really lay out a critical view of a game. Like hogwarts has a 90% on steam...90% for one of the most painfully mediocre ubisoft style games that isn't from ubi themselves. I've seen low effort porn games with overwhelmingly positive scores. At no point should steam reviews be taken seriously for anything other than technical issues.

Because it's mostly a recommendation system. The question is: do you recommend this game ? and your options are yes or no, so unless it's an unmitigated disaster (or as you say people have some ulterior motives) it's mostly gonna be on the positive side.

 

[Yoshi]

Tropico 4 is FREE @ GOG

Tropico 4

The world is changing and Tropico is moving with the times - geographical powers rise and

www.gog.com

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

I've been bitten by the extraction game bug for the last 2-3 months. It all started with Dark and Darker launching on Steam. Then I've played and bought Grey Zone Warfare on Steam, Dungeonborne on Steam, Escape from Tarkov (base, PVE mode, and Arena) on their own website, Delta Force on Steam, and Level Zero: Extraction on Steam. I tried Red River Incursion but it ran like shit and it hasn't been updated in like 3 months. And Arena Breakout Infinite isn't coming out on Steam till like December despite the open beta that is going on.

I just wish it was easy to team up with randoms from matchmaking in these games, but people tend to kill you when you try that.

I have so many games that I want to play from Deadlock to the extraction shooters and I need to learn so much since these games are tough as hell.

 

[lashman]

 

[rickyson33]

it'd be nice to get a release date on those Suikoden remasters out of that Direct tomorrow but at this point i'm kind of feeling skeptical that they even still exist

 

[QFNS]

it'd be nice to get a release date on those Suikoden remasters out of that Direct tomorrow but at this point i'm kind of feeling skeptical that they even still exist

I have given up hope. They have disappeared into the Konami pachinko machine.

 

[Arc]

Anime Game Festival for Steam Games

Anime Game Festival is an online event celebrating anime-themed games, from popular 3A hits to indie gems and what could be the next “ONE PIECE”.

store.steampowered.com

Lashman don't click this.

I have so many games that I want to play from Deadlock to the extraction shooters and I need to learn so much since these games are tough as hell.

Deadlock is really good when you're playing a closely matched game. It kinda sucks when you're getting stomped but that's just how MOBAs go.

 

[yuraya]

77 metacritic for Outlaws is kind of disappointing. You can probably deduct another 5-10pts since its Star Wars. So when you see mid review scores like that I can't help but think how this would be received without the Star Wars brand all over it. You see how people react to Concord calling it a GotG rip off and all that.

I haven't played Division 2 yet but D1 had repetitive gameplay and yea these type of games suffer from it. You play for 2 hours and you pretty much played the whole game. Seems like Massive settles on this pedestrian loop and never really does anything special with it. I don't know know if DLC can solve the issues people have since it is an open world and content doesn't seem to be the problem. But regardless yea this looks like a down the line pick up for under 20$. Seems like Ubisoft can't escape being middle of the road.

 

[Cacher]

Some possible announcements appearing in the upcoming direct from the top of my head:

• Tales of Xillia remasters
• Legacy of Kain remasters
• DQ3 Demo
• Metal Slug Tactics release date
• Metal Gear Collection Vol.2
• Marvel Vs. Capcom Fighting Collection release date
• Metroid Prime 2 + 3 HD
• Anything Fire Emblem
• Another Warrior collaboration?
• Something from Level5
• Something from Square Enix

 

[lashman]

Lashman don't click this.

 

[LEANIJA]

Tom Francis on the launch of Tactical Breach WIzards

 

[spindoctor]

Steam reviews are a fantastic tool to understand whether you'll enjoy a game. The best there is, really.

You just need to quickly glance over a few of the highlighted useful positive ones and a few of the negative ones, and you get a great picture of pretty much any game. A far more complete one, and far more rapidly, than with media reviews (and of the larger group of games that media doesn't generally review too).

Not to mention that Steam reviews provide an ongoing picture of the state of a game long after critics have shit out their review, gotten their page hits and deleted the game forever, possibly all before launch day. Steam reviews will inform you if developers have added or resolved performance issues or bugs with each patch. They will reflect community sentiment on design changes that might occur. They will tell you if or when DRM is removed or added. You will likely get an individual picture of every dlc a game releases, whether there are 3 of them or 15 or 54. Finally, and most importantly, you will get Steam reviews for every single game worth playing, most of which are ignored by critics because they are too incompetent at their jobs to actually discover and inform their audiences about them.

You have to be absolutely delusional to think that critic reviews are more useful than Steam reviews. Or simple minded enough to believe that critic reviews have some degree of authority just because the blogger got paid by IGN to write 1200 words. Or perhaps scrolling past a couple of ASCII and meme reviews on Steam to extract the relevant information was just too daunting to achieve.

On an unrelated note, it is my opinion that resetera generates approximately one worthwhile post per year and I have found that post for 2024 - Concord debuts on Steam with 600 player CCU

 

[Derrick01]

You have to be absolutely delusional to think that critic reviews are more useful than Steam reviews. Or simple minded enough to believe that critic reviews have some degree of authority just because the blogger got paid by IGN to write 1200 words. Or perhaps scrolling past a couple of ASCII and meme reviews on Steam to extract the relevant information was just too daunting to achieve.

It's delusional to think that user votes or anything user driven has ANY value outside of reporting technical issues. There is nothing on this earth that has less value to society. This doesn't just go with reviews either, the steam tag system is equally useless as is proven constantly. User voting on awards is also useless. I've watched fans vote in guys to the nba all star game who hadn't played most of the year due to injury but they got voted in because they're popular.

Or maybe I'm wrong and checks notes FreshWomen season 1 is one of the greatest games ever made with a 96% rating after 15k reviews.

edit: lol the most helpful review praises the models and the game uses the same stock models virtually every 3D porn game uses. How do you people take these reviews seriously.

 

[PC-tan]

(I'm sure what it is, but I keep getting free tickets to go watch Ghibli movies) each ticket is normally $15USD and for some reason I keep getting them for free. There is a promo to get free tickets but not at this quantity though. I'm about to use up my 5th one and that means that it normally would have been $75 (not including service fee) to go watch at least 5 of these movie but I have not been charged that. If anything I'm only been charged the service fee which is less than $2 per movie.

 

[spindoctor]

Or maybe I'm wrong and checks notes FreshWomen season 1 is one of the greatest games ever made with a 96% rating after 15k reviews.

So you're just openly admitting you don't understand how Steam reviews work?

That 96% is not a qualitative assessment. It is not a 96/100 test score. It means 96% of the people who played the game and chose to review it liked it enough to give it a thumbs up. So when you sarcastically, smugly and stupidly check your notes and then wonder if this is one of the greatest games ever made, you don't even know what the fuck you're talking about. You don't understand that you cannot compare the quality of two games based on their Steam ratings. A game that has a 90% rating on Steam is not necessarily better than a game that has a rating of 80%. It just means that percentage of people who played and reviewed those games liked those games.

That being said, FreshWomen has sold over a million copies on Steam. One of very few adult games to cross that milestone from what I'd imagine. It actually is considered one of the better porn games on Steam for those who like these kinds of porn visual novel. That 96% rating is not a mistake.

But hey, let's see what the revered critics have to say about the quality of the game. Oh, wait not a single review from them. They're currently too busy reviewing yet another game that Sony has defecated out into the world. So if tomorrow someone is interested in FreshWomen and wonders whether it is good or worth their time or money, they will go to Metacritic and find zero reviews. Then they will go to Steam and find fifteen thousand three hundred and thirty two reviews to gauge whether it's something they want or not. That alone makes Steam reviews better than your critic reviews.

Your problem is that you believe that your taste in and opinion of games is some objective truth. You think games like FreshWomen or Hogwarts or Assassin's are objectively bad. Then you go to the Steam page and see that 90% of the people actually really enjoyed playing those games and that short circuits your brain and messes with your perception of reality. You cannot believe that this is possible so instead you decide that actually it's the review system that is worthless.

 

[Arulan]

Boggles my mind how can they have Fallout 1 above Fallout 2.

That's because Fallout (1) is the better game

I actually just replayed Fallout 2 recently. For as much as I do enjoy it, the inconsistencies to the tone and writing set it back for me. The cultural references and wacky humor are one thing, which in moderation are great, but I find that Fallout 2 asks too much of your suspension of disbelief without earning it. Some major locations are quite disappointing too (San Francisco, Vault 13). Compared to the excellent organic pacing of the original game, it's much more of a sandbox and loose. It feels like the locations were written by different writers doing their own thing. What's up with the Brotherhood of Steel feeling like a late-minute afterthought? I will say that the strong relationships each location has with another (for goods, medicine, etc.) is a good world-building detail.

The writing of Fallout (1) that makes your first encounter with a Deathclaw so memorable. The writing that builds up The Glow as arguably the best dungeon in the entire series. The way the Super Mutants, FEV, Mariposa Military Base, The Master, the Brotherhood of Steel, Harold, the Children of the Cathedral, the disappearing caravans, etc. all came together was beautiful. Emphasis on the organic pacing I mentioned earlier. The way you learn about what's really going on feels so natural and flows together with almost every part of the setting (locations, factions, characters, quests, etc.). This to me is a big part of why I adore the original campaign so much.

I'm even a fan (perhaps in the minority) of the 'Tell me about' query feature. It allows you to intuit and discover some information in a way that feels more natural.

All said, I think Fallout 2 would've benefited significantly from a strong creative lead to set the tone and some quality control. A shame Tim Cain left during its development.

To each their own though. A Fallout: New Vegas replay will be coming up soon...

 

[Derrick01]

So you're just openly admitting you don't understand how Steam reviews work?

That 96% is not a qualitative assessment. It is not a 96/100 test score. It means 96% of the people who played the game and chose to review it liked it enough to give it a thumbs up. So when you sarcastically, smugly and stupidly check your notes and then wonder if this is one of the greatest games ever made, you don't even know what the fuck you're talking about. You don't understand that you cannot compare the quality of two games based on their Steam ratings. A game that has a 90% rating on Steam is not necessarily better than a game that has a rating of 80%. It just means that percentage of people who played and reviewed those games liked those games.

That being said, FreshWomen has sold over a million copies on Steam. One of very few adult games to cross that milestone from what I'd imagine. It actually is considered one of the better porn games on Steam for those who like these kinds of porn visual novel. That 96% rating is not a mistake.

But hey, let's see what the revered critics have to say about the quality of the game. Oh, wait not a single review from them. They're currently too busy reviewing yet another game that Sony has defecated out into the world. So if tomorrow someone is interested in FreshWomen and wonders whether it is good or worth their time or money, they will go to Metacritic and find zero reviews. Then they will go to Steam and find fifteen thousand three hundred and thirty two reviews to gauge whether it's something they want or not. That alone makes Steam reviews better than your critic reviews.

Your problem is that you believe that your taste in and opinion of games is some objective truth. You think games like FreshWomen or Hogwarts or Assassin's are objectively bad. Then you go to the Steam page and see that 90% of the people actually really enjoyed playing those games and that short circuits your brain and messes with your perception of reality. You cannot believe that this is possible so instead you decide that actually it's the review system that is worthless.

Oh I fully believe that the masses think hogwarts or that shitty porn game is that good, that's precisely why I don't take user reviews seriously. That's the point I'm trying to make. Why would you listen to the people who would think COD is the greatest game ever every single year?

And the press shouldn't be wasting their time reviewing low effort porn shovelware (if they're even allowed to which they probably aren't). They already have to review ubi games and concord, they suffer enough.

That 96% is not a qualitative assessment. It is not a 96/100 test score. It means 96% of the people who played the game and chose to review it liked it enough to give it a thumbs up

...that's not helping your argument lol. 96% thumbs upping trash IS the problem.

 

[ZKenir]

Yesterday I slept the whole day, sorry Roxas you’re still stuck at the tutorial stage

 

[Cacher]

Gez that's a huge price increase. This will encourage more Japanese to play on PC

 

[yuraya]

Gez that's a huge price increase. This will encourage more Japanese to play on PC

That is fucked up.

At this point if Sony does make a handheld I am expecting it to cost more than the Deck wtf.

Also PS5Pro almost certainly north of 600$ now because there is no way wtvr the new tech they use will be cost/power efficient compared to current prices.

 

[rickyson33]

Steam reviews are a fantastic tool to understand whether you'll enjoy a game. The best there is, really.

You just need to quickly glance over a few of the highlighted useful positive ones and a few of the negative ones, and you get a great picture of pretty much any game. A far more complete one, and far more rapidly, than with media reviews (and of the larger group of games that media doesn't generally review too).

that last bit is pretty huge too

there's so many games out there that when you dip into the more obscure end of things media reviews tend to disappear pretty fast(which isn't even me blaming them or anything those people only have so much time and it would be flat out impossible to cover everything) but even the most obscure stuff tends to have some steam reviews and if there's more than a few some of them will probably even be helpful

 

[dex3108]

Have I told you that I like PoP The Lost Crown a lot? Amazing game.and amazing Deck experience. I just wish that it felt like I was playing Prince of Perisa but unfortunately it doesn't.

 

[ezodagrom]

...that's not helping your argument lol. 96% thumbs upping trash IS the problem.

One person's trash is another person's treasure, everyone has different tastes and maybe you should be more accepting of those instead of saying that everything is trash (I guess except for ff7, it kinda feels like you dislike everything except that).

You dislike several genres of games, and that's fine, but that doesn't mean they're trash.

 

[Dragon1893]

So you're just openly admitting you don't understand how Steam reviews work?

That 96% is not a qualitative assessment. It is not a 96/100 test score. It means 96% of the people who played the game and chose to review it liked it enough to give it a thumbs up. So when you sarcastically, smugly and stupidly check your notes and then wonder if this is one of the greatest games ever made, you don't even know what the fuck you're talking about. You don't understand that you cannot compare the quality of two games based on their Steam ratings. A game that has a 90% rating on Steam is not necessarily better than a game that has a rating of 80%. It just means that percentage of people who played and reviewed those games liked those games.

That being said, FreshWomen has sold over a million copies on Steam. One of very few adult games to cross that milestone from what I'd imagine. It actually is considered one of the better porn games on Steam for those who like these kinds of porn visual novel. That 96% rating is not a mistake.

But hey, let's see what the revered critics have to say about the quality of the game. Oh, wait not a single review from them. They're currently too busy reviewing yet another game that Sony has defecated out into the world. So if tomorrow someone is interested in FreshWomen and wonders whether it is good or worth their time or money, they will go to Metacritic and find zero reviews. Then they will go to Steam and find fifteen thousand three hundred and thirty two reviews to gauge whether it's something they want or not. That alone makes Steam reviews better than your critic reviews.

Your problem is that you believe that your taste in and opinion of games is some objective truth. You think games like FreshWomen or Hogwarts or Assassin's are objectively bad. Then you go to the Steam page and see that 90% of the people actually really enjoyed playing those games and that short circuits your brain and messes with your perception of reality. You cannot believe that this is possible so instead you decide that actually it's the review system that is worthless.

Did someone at playstation kill your pet or something? Jesus Christ.

Gez that's a huge price increase. This will encourage more Japanese to play on PC

The fuck? Lol, what are they doing?

 

[Madventure]

This fills me with joy as a person who played MMOs for like 15 years back in the day
Indie developers are the best

That's amazing lmao

It's kind of like that kickstarter game that's basically an ultima game in everything but name World of Anterra

 

[Cacher]

That is fucked up.

At this point if Sony does make a handheld I am expecting it to cost more than the Deck wtf.

Also PS5Pro almost certainly north of 600$ now because there is no way wtvr the new tech they use will be cost/power efficient compared to current prices.

Yeah. This price hike means that the price of PS5 Pro will be around 100k yen in Japan. With that price they will hand the console market to Nintendo completely because I feel that the price ceiling of Switch 2 will be 55k yen (the original PS5 price).

 

[Durante]

So you're just openly admitting you don't understand how Steam reviews work?

That 96% is not a qualitative assessment. It is not a 96/100 test score. It means 96% of the people who played the game and chose to review it liked it enough to give it a thumbs up. So when you sarcastically, smugly and stupidly check your notes and then wonder if this is one of the greatest games ever made, you don't even know what the fuck you're talking about. You don't understand that you cannot compare the quality of two games based on their Steam ratings. A game that has a 90% rating on Steam is not necessarily better than a game that has a rating of 80%. It just means that percentage of people who played and reviewed those games liked those games.

That being said, FreshWomen has sold over a million copies on Steam. One of very few adult games to cross that milestone from what I'd imagine. It actually is considered one of the better porn games on Steam for those who like these kinds of porn visual novel. That 96% rating is not a mistake.

But hey, let's see what the revered critics have to say about the quality of the game. Oh, wait not a single review from them. They're currently too busy reviewing yet another game that Sony has defecated out into the world. So if tomorrow someone is interested in FreshWomen and wonders whether it is good or worth their time or money, they will go to Metacritic and find zero reviews. Then they will go to Steam and find fifteen thousand three hundred and thirty two reviews to gauge whether it's something they want or not. That alone makes Steam reviews better than your critic reviews.

Your problem is that you believe that your taste in and opinion of games is some objective truth. You think games like FreshWomen or Hogwarts or Assassin's are objectively bad. Then you go to the Steam page and see that 90% of the people actually really enjoyed playing those games and that short circuits your brain and messes with your perception of reality. You cannot believe that this is possible so instead you decide that actually it's the review system that is worthless.

Precisely.

I guess I have to amend my statement to say "Steam reviews are a fantastic tool to understand whether you'll enjoy a game. The best there is, really. If you are capable of understanding context and reading rather than looking at a number and raging".

 

[Mivey]

The fuck? Lol, what are they doing?

Given how weak the Yen is, they had to either make a choice to eat the cost, effectively selling the console at a loss, or increase the price to slim margin. Will be interesting to see for what price the Switch success will sell in Japan. Given the super weak Yen, I would not be surprised if it launches at higher launch price than the Switch originally did.

 

[Bhodi Li]

 

[Alexandros]

Oh I fully believe that the masses think hogwarts or that shitty porn game is that good, that's precisely why I don't take user reviews seriously. That's the point I'm trying to make. Why would you listen to the people who would think COD is the greatest game ever every single year?

And the press shouldn't be wasting their time reviewing low effort porn shovelware (if they're even allowed to which they probably aren't). They already have to review ubi games and concord, they suffer enough.

When trying to discuss something as relatively subjective as the quality of a videogame, I find it useful to ask myself one question: what if I am wrong and the other person is right? I have found that it helps in gaining a sense of perspective, essentially by forcing me to try and understand the other person's point of view. It is tempting and really quite easy to say "the things I like are good and the things they like are bad because I am smart and they are dumb" but that doesn't help me understand different perspectives and grow as a person.

So let's look at the examples you gave (Hogwarts and COD) and examine them starting from the position that the people who like them are right. What's to like about Hogwarts? Well, it looks nice, it has an open world, it is by most accounts a good adaptation of the source material, it has fun gameplay and a decent story. Is it the best game ever? Probably not. Is it good enough for most people that bought it to give it a thumbs up? Absolutely.

What about COD? Well, for one thing it offers great value. You get a singleplayer campaign, co-op, zombies mode, lots of multiplayer modes, stuff for Warzone. You could easily milk thousands of hours of fun out of a single purchase. It looks nice, it plays nice, you can have fun alone or with friends. Is it the best game ever? Probably not. Is it good enough for most people that bought it to give it a thumbs up? Absolutely.

So, let's ask the question again. What if you are wrong and other people are right?

 

[rickyson33]

When trying to discuss something as relatively subjective as the quality of a videogame, I find it useful to ask myself one question: what if I am wrong and the other person is right? I have found that it helps in gaining a sense of perspective, essentially by forcing me to try and understand the other person's point of view. It is tempting and really quite easy to say "the things I like are good and the things they like are bad because I am smart and they are dumb" but that doesn't help me understand different perspectives and grow as a person.

So let's look at the examples you gave (Hogwarts and COD) and examine them starting from the position that the people who like them are right. What's to like about Hogwarts? Well, it looks nice, it has an open world, it is by most accounts a good adaptation of the source material, it has fun gameplay and a decent story. Is it the best game ever? Probably not. Is it good enough for most people that bought it to give it a thumbs up? Absolutely.

What about COD? Well, for one thing it offers great value. You get a singleplayer campaign, co-op, zombies mode, lots of multiplayer modes, stuff for Warzone. You could easily milk thousands of hours of fun out of a single purchase. It looks nice, it plays nice, you can have fun alone or with friends. Is it the best game ever? Probably not. Is it good enough for most people that bought it to give it a thumbs up? Absolutely.

So, let's ask the question again. What if you are wrong and other people are right?

and more importantly for this topic, what's more useful to someone on the store page of a game considering buying it? the opinion of someone who doesn't even like the type of game it is, or the opinions of people that have actually already bought and played it?

there's entire popular genres of games that I have zero personal interest in, doesn't mean my opinion is very useful to someone that those games sound appealing to and are wondering if they should buy them