- Joined
- Dec 15, 2019
- Location
- Geneva, Switzerland
- Favourite title
- Shenmue II
- Currently playing
- Shenmue 2 (HD), Baldur's Gate 3, Starfield, TOTK
I think that it's more like because truly garbage games, or shovelware, are out of the equation. If you count them in, then it'd mean anything not broken would be an automatic 5/10. Just because it's running and not broken. But I also feel like because parts of the gaming industry review games on a different scale. For some, a 5/10 is a shitty, nearly broken game. For others... it just means an average game. Because part of the industry has broken the review scale, by handing 10s to any new and shiny title, where the average is a 7.
I personnally gave Shenmue 3 a 5/10. It doesn't make it a shitty game, just an average one in my standard. Neither good, neither bad. I gave worse scores to games more polished than Shenmue 3, with better visuals and gameplay but that failed elsewhere and I gave far better scores to games far less polished than Shenmue 3, with worse visuals but just better elsewhere. All of that is about a personnal feel about a product. But because part of the industry decided to review titles as if they were generic, impersonal titles, that you can switch off like you'd do with candies or canned food, we end up in that situation.
Yep, that's why on this thread or another (don't remember which one) I said that grades weren't absolute. For example I know that in the US it is much more common to grade a game the highest grade (10/10) while here in France (I live in Switzerland, but I mostly go over French websites) it's much more uncommon. Jeuxvideo.com (the biggest European videogame website which is french) gave the maximum score (20/20) only three times : Zelda Wind Waker, Zelda Breath of the Wild and God of War 2018, and yet they are known here to be very easy to please and often score games higher than the general trend. Gamekult never gave a 10/10, and Canard PC gave it a few times as well, but it is rather uncommon.
Now, for the truly garbage game, I'm just saying that you cannot put Shenmue 3 in the same basket as those games. Not only is this not objective, but it is quite disrespectful. And those truly garbage games aren't even necessarly broken. For this, I invite you to watch this video At least the first part of it, I know that it is 1h30 long, but it is really interesting to see games that are objectively very bad, not because they were broken, but just because it's terribly made. Shenmue 3 ain't even close to being this bad, sincerly.
There's also the fact that, today, we're indeed in a golden age of video games. Not only because great games releases everyday, but because accessing older titles is even easier than before. I don't even think anymore of "how much does this games cost" but "how much time do I have to sink in that game". My reasoning nowadays is about the time I invest compared to the payoff I'll get from it.
Yeah, same. There are so so so many games I want to play and I don't have time to play to them all (which makes me sad) that I too chose how much time one game will take me and if I can afford this time or willing to. And there are so many good games (past and present) that it's been years since I played a truly bad game. Something that is withouth a doubt, bad.