PS4: Reviews!

I guess I didn't expect Killzone to be incredible considering the previous games, but I am a bit surprised that Knack reviewed as poorly as it did. It didn't look great, but reviews are making it to be a bad game.

For the record, whoever was posting above about retail disc based exclusives. PS4 has 2, Xbox one has 6. That's not one or two more. Even if drive club hadn't been delayed, the xbox one would still have twice as many retail exclusives.

@darji:

I understand what you are saying, but if I take just one of your points, concerning the PS4 version of ghosts, reports are surfacing that the xbox one version isn't experiencing the frame rate drops the ps4 version is. None of that matters really, we know patches are forthcoming, but if the games are being reviewed in their current state I wouldn't see it too unusual for there to be small discrepancies between the ps4 and xbox one review scores. I am not trying to defend polygon, I never go to their site. I just think context is important.

I think everything I said the first time was confirmed.

You should call out Gies cause he's a dummy, not because he is a fanboy, because he isn't. You arguing for Killzone's score when you haven't even played it only confirms my first comment.

And fine, be a fanboy but then calling out someone else as a M$ Fanboy gives you zero credibility. Sorry he doesn't like Sony as much as you do.

There is also a lot of indy stuff on PS4. Flower, Issac. Resogun , don't starve, Contrast, and so on. The place the Ps4 lacks a bit are retail exclusives right now with Drive club being delayed.

Ah I missed some. Crimson Dragon is at launch? That's cool. And KI apparently is legit.

Xbox Fitness looks great it is a very smart idea.

I played Flower on PS3, Isaac and Don't Starve on PC. Resogun looks legit, and I want to play Contrast as well. As I stated, there are more *new* exclusives for the PS4. I can't possibly include games I have already played on that list, regardless of quality.

@artisanbreads: He is a journalist not some random youtube blogger. And that is the big difference. He should review games and even the console in a fair objective way. And Yes I can accuse Polygon which was also founded with 750K $ from Microsoft of being biased. For example giving The Last of US a 7.5 has nothing even to do with having own taste. It is straight up being biased against something.

As for The Killzone score: Yes I totally can if I take a look at the other reviews for example. Again I never expected 9 or 10 that was out of the question from the begin on. But you just need to take a look what games in this generation got a 5.

totally agree this design is terrible. At first I just clicked on the gamepads buttons to see if I can get to the review without noticing that you just need to scroll down^^

I hope, deep down, you realize how funny this was when you typed it out.

the problem with this is that outside of those six, Xbox got about 30 more games coming in the first year (about 11 being retail) while ps4 have about 80 in the first year (about 14 retail), and while I am not picking up neither for a year, unless Microsoft bring more indie to their line up. In a year time, the game line up will be real sad to look at and I think they realize this/is doing something about it with free unity thing. Microsoft is smart leading with the strong stuff but whenever I look at this list I just feel like they need to step up more. Don't get me wrong tho, credit where credit is due. Microsoft is killing with with the launch line up and I suspect a lot of those games will also review pretty well.

Is this gonna start to be the normal response around here? a review score posts we disagree with and then we accuse entire publications of being paid off?

Any time something Sony comes up Gies is hard on them and anything Microsoft he's super positive. He's regularly contrarian to the popular opinion of anything Sony. And has a weird fixation on slamming Sony every chance he can over the Dualshock. And the website he is EIC of is almost always the outlier of every PS exclusive review. He's also been vaguely taunting his opinion of Killzone for weeks now. Even in the most recent Rebel FM. And along with Adam Sessler was part of the doomsaying over Twitter that turned out to be over the review event in New York and certain press outlets not getting debug units.

And good lord the CoD Ghosts review situation is absurd. A game that is overall determined to be "ok" is somehow this magnifying glass of double standard the site employs.

I actually think this is one of the better things their graphic design guys have done. Far more readable than most of their massively overdesigned review pages.

@artisanbreads: Why would I? I do not like Halo for example but I would never give it a low score just because it is not my type of game. And I am again not even a journalist which is getting paid for. Normally I just look at a lot of reviews and scores to build my own opinion about a game But when one review is far from other ones I ask myself these questions. With Polygon I do not even have to ask if its from Sony it will get a medicore score no matter what.

Also I am not overlooking the other reviews. For example if you say it is too soon for a PS4 I would agree. But there are thing I can not take for full and Polygon is such a thing. I would not even argure about the 1/5 for Knack. But polygon reviews about anything Sony related? No thank you.

@darji: "For example giving The Last of US a 7.5 has nothing even to do with having own taste. It is straight up being biased against something."

Come on, are you gonna talk that shit now? For the 100th time, reviews are subjective, a 7.5 isn't "wrong" even though the majority seem to love that game. The reviewer's main problem with the game was the gameplay, the combat. Both Vinny and Drew seemed to agree with that, at least to a lesser degree. And I agree with that. I absolutely loved the story, the cutscenes. Amazingly well done. BUT I wasn't a big fan of the combat, or really the gameplay in general. And the "run to cutscene" structure of the game stood out more than it normally do in games for me, the gameplay began to feel like a chore to get to the cutscenes.

Does those complaints make me biased against Sony? Am I wrong? Of course not. It's my personal, subjective experience of the game. It still has one of the best stories of the generation, but I didn't really like to PLAY the game.

You need to point to something concrete if you're gonna claim "bias" with a review. Just saying that the site got money from MS to make a dumb documentary isn't nearly enough. I hoped we were past people mentioning older reviews in order to dismiss a whole site, especially when they can only hang their hat on a score they disagree with.

PS: I fucking hate Polygon as a site, but that's more for the clickbait nature than anything else. They do some good features though.

Last of Us is right in my wheelhouse and I'd give it about the same exact score (definitely no higher than 8). As someone who thinks Uncharted 2 is one of the very best games of this gen. The gameplay was very stagnant after a point in the early going and I thought the plot meandered and was quite predictable.

Opinions!

Sorry they don't match up with yours dude. Still waiting for my M$ check to come in should be in the mail.

Check out this lowly scored PS4 exclusive, 8.5 wow so low: http://www.polygon.com/2013/11/13/5099026/resogun-review-PS4

Or this Sony exclusive, 8.5 too. Huh. http://www.polygon.com/game/ratchet-and-clank-into-the-nexus/13987

Oh wait, a 8 http://www.polygon.com/game/beyond-two-souls/8183

an 8.5??? http://www.polygon.com/game/rain/11169

a 9!?!?! http://www.polygon.com/game/final-fantasy-14-a-realm-reborn/3702

Another 9 http://www.polygon.com/2013/4/9/4202580/guacamelee-review

Wait it's almost like I'm finding flaws in your argument. Where did these reviews come from did M$ pay for them? Huh. Mysteries.

I think the only logical conclusion is M$ paid for these scores to be high so they could throw everyone off their tracks and really hit Sony where it hurt with the Killzone and Last of Us scores. M$ sure is tricky.

@wolfgame: To be fair, that has been the case for as long as I can remember.

The only PS4 hardware review you need.

@amyggen: Polygon is almost always far left of center when it comes to Sony reviews. Its not a "subjective" opinion that is a fact they are always more negative than most. The Last of Us is the perfect example. Out of 98 reviews for the game Polygon has the second lowest score given to the game only beaten out of the lowest spot by Tom Chick.

I just want to see, one time, a reviewer with balls incorporate the same kind of negative shit to a Nintendo franchise, but that will never happen. I really think a lot of reviewers/sites are now basically writing reviews(who knows if they even played the game) soley to grab attention. I got rid of cable last year because i got tired of the constant negativity and now i am thinking of disconnecting my internet for the same purpose. Its too bad the actual creativity that goes into a game is being critiqued by the worst of the worst, game reviewers unless you are paid by Nintendo to make sure everything is new and fresh, which it isnt.

@hollitz: well said about Arthur

I honestly don't know what to say to people who had any sort of hopes for Knack after seeing the E3 previews. It looks like a throwback to PS2 era platformers but not in a good way. Cerny might be a cool guy and all but when everyone is anxiously looking forward you can't release a game that takes it about 10 steps back.

It seems like PlayStation hedged their bets with games and lost big on this one. I think Xbox One will fair better because of it's robust UI and multimedia functions even if it can't deliver on games.

I like the idea that people suggest that MS is paying sites to write bad reviews on PS games. What exactly is that transaction supposed to look like? I mean, literally, someone walk me through it because I'm really curious.

@thrice_604: Have anyone compiled statistics to back up that claim? And compared it with their scores for MS games and multiplatform games?

@shinjin977: I absolutely agree with you. I've been saying all along that xbox one seems to be the better choice at launch. I have no doubt that the ps4 will have great games and lots of them, but this is launch and it's not going to be much different for 6 months at least.

That list is fine, but it also doesn't tell the whole story because a lot of those indie developers have said that they will be timed exclusives.

I think Sony built all the hype in the world and in reality their launch is much weaker than the xbox one just based on the number of exclusives. If those exclusives happen to review better than what we are seeing for PS4 games, it's not going to be pretty.

The real Internet explosion will occur is somehow ryse manages to review better than knack.

@jazgalaxy: Oh, Polygon got $700k from MS to do a stupid documentary, so now they're paying MS back or something? As for every other outlet that gave mediocre reviews to a Sony game? Maybe because of America? Fuck if I know.

@me3639: Are you gonna go live in a cave?

Wow. A thread talking about PS4 reviews has already devolved into a System's war. Sad

@darji: Opinions are opinions. If you find that you don't tend to agree with the opinions of a particular person, look elsewhere. Just because an outlet happened to give a game that you liked a more critical review doesn't mean that they've been paid off. That's a serious allegation, and a few reviews you don't like isn't sufficient evidence to support it.

Also, Polygon has given high marks to plenty of Playstation exclusive titles, so even the thin premise for your accusation doesn't really hold up.

@amyggen: Video games these days are more than just game play. Also stuff like presentation, storytelling, characters, atmosphere, music etc are all a matter of execution and not only subjective in my Opinion. For example I hated the gameplay in Heavy Rain but that what made the game great was the overall rest.

As for the biased thing. You just need to look at his twitter, Everything Sony related he tries to play down and everything MS related he defends till the death. So basically the whole site and also his twitter are my evidence for that. And I am not the only one who thinks like that at all. Gies reputation in this gamer community is exactly that.

But enough with Gies and Polygon let s just focus on the other reviews^^

GS is running their livestream of it right now (run by one Danny O'Dwyer and Chris) if ppl are interested. It's pretty informative, moreso than any review I've read so far.

http://www.twitch.tv/gamespot

Chiming in to say what everyone else has been saying: console reviews are silly. BUT that Polygon page is impressive in terms of HTML wizardry.

i stopped reading polygon's review and taking them seriously.

knack is getting slaughtered, well, glad i jumped on the buy 2 get 1 free deal, knack is my free game.

although reading some of the reviews, it really seems like it all depends on if your into playing a old school game.

It's not just ridiculous to give a console a review score on a ten-point decimal scale (fuck you, Polygon), but also kind of ridiculous for reviews of games to start coming out already. I mean, most members of the press got their PS4s what, yesterday at that Sony event?

@roarimadinosaur: Are you joking?! You do realize there is gaming outside the initial launch titles? You statement makes absolutely NO sense.

@darji: Oh, I know that especially GAF haaaaaaaaates Polygon and Gies in particular. I'm well aware of that stuff.

And we'll just have to agree to disagree on subjective vs. objective. My take on this is: If stuff like storytelling, characters, atmosphere, music isn't subjective, but just a matter of execution, then every movie review should be totally objective. But of course they're not, reviews of art are inherently subjective. The closest we come to objective reviews are reviews of hardware etc., and even in those reviews personal taste matter pretty greatly. And I thought Heavy Rain's story suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked :)

But yeah, agree, enough about this shit.

I don't know how it all worked, but some of the press have had theirs for a while. Some also have Xbox One's too that I've seen.

I think Giantbomb was low on the list. I think big sites like IGN, Polygon, and Gametrailers have had them for a while. But I don't know the exact breakdown.

Keep in mind there were CoD PS4 reviews back when that came out and BF4 PS4 reviews too. So certain outlets have had PS4 for a while.

I thought that the CoD PS4 reviews were because they played the game at one of those review events and not on their own in-office hardware.

@amyggen: It would be an interesting list but I've never seen an apples to apples comparison with them and Sony/MS exclusives.

hmmm.... maybe? I don't know. It seems like the big sites got access but they aren't exactly transparent about their process.

I can't say either way but I think they've had them for a bit but maybe I'm wrong.

Either way they have at least got to mess around with PS4 hardware for a while it seems in some sort of setting. Obviously like everyone is saying, a review score is dumb so who cares really. Everything seems to work pretty well out of the gate and there are some cool features.

Why would there even be any point to doing this? There is no such thing as apples to apples with totally different games. As I posted above, plenty of high review scores for Sony exclusives.

I'm sorry if I offend anyone but the way these discussions are had over the internet seriously makes the gaming industry worse with every year that passes by. Jump back about six-seven years ago and people picked up games because of their personal interest, not the opinions of reviewers or some people who find the ridiculous need to bash the competition.

Sure, reviews are a nice way of detailing the general aspects of a game but I cannot tell you the amount of times I've enjoyed a title that was ripped apart by critics. It is all personal preference and the these "wars" on the internet between fans of one (or both) sides is hilariously reflective of some unwarranted desperation.

@hailinel: IGN posted an NBA 2K14 review yesterday, and threw a photo of an in-office Xbox One onto Twitter to prove they had one. I imagine they aren't the only outlet that had PS4 units ahead of that review event or already have Xbox Ones, but it probably is a very select group.

How can anyone review a console? Let alone at launch! If the PS4 is a 7.5 what is the PS3 then? Or the Xbox 360? Or the PC?

Yeah, go on Polygon, give me a rating out of 10 for the PC...

On a more happy note Jeff is right now streaming on Twitch Resogun with the PS4 Twitch app brushing his teeth XD

http://www.twitch.tv/jeffgerstmann

Holy shit, did Polygon really give a console a review score on launch?

What is wrong with those people?

@thrice_604: It's just that I see the claim about Polygon lowballing Sony games in reviews all the times on the internet, but it seems like everyone is just attaching themselves to some reviews and screaming bloody murder because of that. I'd like those people to actually compile a list of every review they've done of PS3 exclusives, multiplatform and Xbox exclusive, and compare them to the average. Does Polygon give Sony games lower scores than the average, and if so, is that also true for the two other categories?

I'm not saying I'd agree that even something like that would prove "bias", but at least then those people would have some ammunition. Now, all I see is fanboys being angry at a site with no data to back up that anger.

And yes, I do agree that Polygon getting money from MS to make that documentary was a super dumb move, and shouldn't happen. But it's not enough to prove an editorial line where Polygon gives unfavourable coverage of Sony in favour of MS. It all just screams fanboyism for me.

@bigdaddy81: You can rely on VideoGamer to take the piss.

I can't understand how you can give a rating to a console. Not even in a 'gadget review' sort of way, as these machines are so reliant on software, you simply cannot judge them without a decent library. And even then, to attribute a point score would be stupid.