It's been over 3 months since the last video review which I think was LA Noire. Have the guys said anything about stopping video reviews? I suppose a Quick Look is a decent replacement since it will show the gameplay.
No more video reviews?
I find video reviews are a bit redundant... expressing an opinion about a game just doesn't show character as much as the Quick Look does. Words are fine.
But you're right, it's been awhile, and they haven't specifically addressed it either.
I don't think they really care to do them, since they basically just parrot what they say in the written review. Jeff has said several times that between the quicklooks and them talking about it in the Bombcast you can get a good enough idea if it's going to be good or not if you base your buying decisions on what they like.
I really like the video reviews, but I'd agree with the fact that the Quick Looks do a sufficient job of showing the game's overall quality. The Quick Looks are thorough and lengthy, so comparing that to a five minute video review feels a small bit regressive.
For the most part I do not think that we need video reviews, all you really need to form an opinion on a game is game trailers, written previews, written reviews and actually renting the game before you decide to purchase it.
I would prefer to see a round up video that is done every now and then when a bunch of new games come out and it just shows the guys talking about what games they have been playing along with some footage of the games.
But then again that would basically be making the "What've you been playing?" segment of the Bombcast into a video.
On several occasions they've said that it takes too many man hours to do it for just any game. It has to either be a game that a lot of people are looking for coverage on, or... 50 Cent Blood On The Sand.
I feel like this question gets asked every few months. They seem unnecessary. The written review, quicklook and what is said on the bombcast are better are telling you about a game better then a Video review would be.
I think they don't like doing video reviews because it's difficult to organize. The reviewer needs to write the review as they play the game! If they want to say something and show video of it, they need to save nearby it, and duplicate the event (especially annoying if attempting to show gamebreaking but inconsistent bugs). They haven't even formed a complete opinion, but need to save up spots for the video review. Then they need to get out the recording equipment, and play through each of those sequences again to match the completed review notes. Kind of a pain in the ass. Might not be as bad for a big site like Gametrailers where the reviewers must have their own individual sets of recording equipment and just editing down later. But it's a bit much for a small site like GB.
Video reviews only seem like they're done on the huge releases that they think would draw in an audience to the video. So I suspect they'll have one for MW3, BF3, perhaps Skyrim as well. ME3 for sure, early next year. Other than that, they never seem to do them anymore.
@ImmortalSaiyan said:I feel like this question gets asked every few months. They seem unnecessary. The written review, quicklook and what is said on the bombcast are better are telling you about a game better then a Video review would be.
This question again? Hmm.. lets see.. why, in the middle of summer, when jack shit came out, would they not have any video reviews.. Maybe they're just not doing them anymore, I dunno.
Video reviews are very time consuming. First they have to write the review. Then they have to comb threw potentially tens and potentially hundreds of save files for the footage they want. Then they have to rehearse the review and film the review. Then the review has to be edited so you get all that footage and all those fancy effects. All to convey the same information that is given in the written review.
That time is best spent elsewhere.
every other site does video reviews
I guess they'd do one if there's something that's easier to say in a video than it is in text
I just looked at this yesterday. There have been 4 video reviews this entire year. Pretty ridiculous.
I think video reviews are kinda outdated. They either don't show enough gameplay or they don't get enough information across in the review itself. Quick Looks paired with written reviews are the way to go. You can glance at the star rating to see if a game is even worth considering, check out a Quick Look to see what it's like, and if you're still on the fence read the full written review to learn about all its flaws/features.
Isn't it just for relatively large releases? Which there really hasn't been since LA Noire, unless you want to argue for Deus Ex.
I remember Vinny said in a video that video reviews are incredibly time consuming, and that they'd be cutting way back on them in favour of more quick looks.
which seems fair enough to me. video reviews in the giantbomb/gamespot format have always been basically shorter versions of the written reviews anyway, so we're not losing anything.
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