Your faith in “reviewers” to provide an accurate depiction of a game is admirable, but I honestly believe the majority went into the game with their opinion set in stone. I doubt anyone who gave the game sub-7 were very interested in exploring what it has to offer.
They dont even played it, they just saw the trailer and read one clickbait video that have the word "disappointing?" in the title
With all due respect, I think your pessimism is a little unwarranted and the idea that ‘the majority’ of reviewers had made up their mind before playing the game sounds like a paranoid conspiracy theory to me which is not at all backed up by the reviews we’ve seen published.
Agree to disagree then. There are been a strange, pervasive idea that has been going around that Shenmue was never good, and I think a lot of reviewers get their kicks from promoting this viewpoint. Look at Polygon or Kotaku for this.
That is the absolute bare minimum we should be expecting from these people, it's absurdly easy criteria to meet, and Polygon couldn't even manage this with their claim that the combat hasn't changed from the first two games. I'm not one to waste time reading "professional" reviews to begin with (honestly I only keep popping in this and the sales threads because they're relatively active) and I understand that Polygon is worse than most, but honestly, even many of the other small snippets I've seen posted here have been mind-numbingly vague and general. Like yes, they can avoid being incorrect by doing so (which again, is the bare fucking minimum we should expect from them), but they also aren't bringing anything new or intelligent to the discussion either.
Going to go ahead and end this discussion here. My mother taught me better than to waste my time discussing things with people who label conjecture as fact.
You honestly don’t notice this? It’s not conjecture that mainstream gaming outlet routinely ignore and diminish Sega’s contributions to the industry. Just look at IGN’s recent “Top 100 Games of All Time” list. Not a single Sega game. No Daytona USA, no Sega Rally, no Sonic 3 & Knuckles, no Space Harrier, no Virtua Fighter, no Shining Force, no House of the Dead, no Phantasy Star, no Panzer Dragoon Saga, etc. https://www.ign.com/lists/top-100-games
The majority of people contributing to these lists probably grew up on Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox games. SEGA as a console manufacturer have been dead for almost 20 years now. They're bound to be under-represented in mainstream lists such as this. Thankfully, no one takes these lists seriously unless they're 15 or whatever.
Yeah. Hard to take a list of ‘the greatest games of all time’ seriously when it includes Fortnight and RE2 remake, let along so prominently.
Yes, but when these “mainstream lists” are from the same publishers who provide reviews that influence the sales and perceptions of certain software we have an interest in, I think it’s fair to point out the bias represented.
I'm not sure that people being too young to have grown up with SEGA is something to get annoyed about, though. I see where you're coming from, but it's just the (sad) reality of the modern games industry.
I’m not a big Nintendo fan. I haven’t owned one of their consoles since the N64. I did grow up on the NES and SNES, however, and loved both. I think it’s great there’s still a company that primarily makes video games in the console business. It’s hard to imagine the same enthusiasm for mega corporations like Sony and Microsoft. I totally get it. I wish Sega were in the same position.