• Eurogamer – 8
• Polygon – 6.5
• CVG – 8
• OXM – 8
• Edge – 8
• GamesBeat – 90/100
• EGM -8
• gamesTM -8
• Xbox360Achievements – 80/100
• Gamespot – 8
• Videogamer – 9
• Joystiq – 4/5
• God is a Geek – 8
• Spong 3.5/5
• Gamesradar – 4/5
• NowGamer – 7.5
• TheSixthAxis - 9

Looks like Trials alright. I have already bought it on PS4 so i will be diving in to it later. PC has been delayed by a week.

So it's more Trials. I'm ready for a game like that now, so I'm happy!

Welp, I know what I'll be doing for the foreseeable future.

I've never played Trials but I'm familiar with it, didn't think those games get reviewed to begin with. What's there to review about more Trials?

If you liked the others, you'll like this one.

Haha oh Polygon..

Polygon reviewers kind of remind me of that person who can't like something unless it's extraordinary. You guys should look up the psychology term 'splitting'. Polygon reviews are the personification of splitting.

The blind disdain towards Polygon is so tired and so uninformed. The review by Russ is totally fair and well articulated, even if you do end up disagreeing with his opinion of the game. And if you actually bothered to read their reviews, you`d see that many of their recent reviews scores have been 8`s and 9`s.

As an aside, can we get over this "ugh Polygon" bullshit as if they were an entity unto themselves and not made up of individuals with individual opinions and approaches to criticism?

That describes Russ Frushtick to a tee. Whenever anyone (usually Justin or Griffin McElroy) would talk about liking a game, he'd jump in to talk about all the stuff he hated about it. I had to stop listening because he was so negative on everything.

@rockyraccoon37: Ugh Polygon

So what will Polygon's score be next week?

@jasonr86: I'm more horrified that he found a way to use the word "problematic" even in a review of a Trials game.

8.8

@rockyraccoon37: I've read enough Polygon reviews to realize that whatever it is that they are going for, it is not something for me, and frankly I don't think it's something that is necessarily positive for the game industry as a whole. That said, personal opinion and all that, I suppose I will quietly scoff and murmur "ugh Polygon" to myself from this point - as the saying goes 'if you don't have anything positive to say, then don't say anything at all."

@humanity: On the contrary, even if you have nothing nice to say about Polygon, you should still say it. If no one speaks up, it's unlikely anything will change.

Is a 6.5 an indication that a reviewer dislikes a game? Seems to me that scores of 5 and under would be the point where you could argue that a reviewer doesn't like something.

@russman588:

I guess my brain equates a 10-point review scale to grades in the US. So a 7 is a C and passing. A 6.5 would be a D+ then. But I suppose I'm assuming something so I appologize. But I said what I said because coming into this thread I knew they would be the low score and lo and behold I was right. I don't think it's a good thing I can make that prediction.

People need to get over this "you must use every number when reviewing a game" feeling that they have about review scores. If you got a 65% on a paper in school, did that generally mean that your teacher liked what you wrote?

But yes, this was an extremely negative review. I don't think he talked about a single positive aspect of the game.

If only Polygon had listened to that advice.

If I got a 65%, it meant that I did things correctly in a general sense, but I made some mistakes and my paper could significantly improve (at least that's how it works in Canada).

If we want to get into the detail of the review, it seems as if the reviewer likes the core Trials gameplay but feels that the changes they made to the rest of the surrounding game were lackluster at best, and annoying at worst. Do you really want to read about why the core gameplay of Trials is fun all over again? I don't think many people do, writing a review of the new game means writing about the changes they made. If the reviewer dislikes those changes, they'll dock points and explain why for most of the review.

so it's more trials, cool. I'll buy it when it hits 10 bucks.

Trials Evo was probably enough for my trials fill, damn that game is fantastic.

Never played a Trials game and had a gift card on the PS4 so I bought it, haven't been able to play it yet and I'm glad to see it is at least competent.

To be fair, the early episodes of the Besties were all about competition and trying to tear down each other's game-- so everyone kind of did that. If you knew what you were getting into, those early episodes were a ton of fun.

They've since revamped the show (many times actually) and now it's released once a month, much longer and they dropped the competition aspect. It's actually quite good, but not as entertaining for me as the early episodes.

In this case I think the review indicates disappointment at the fact the this game is more iterative than innovative, that many of the new features fail to deliver and that certain features from previous games have been removed, all coupled with some minor technical issues. But at it's core, the Trials gameplay itself still remains solid. Hence, a 6.5.

I think it's completely reasonable that someone who played the previous games, would look at this and hope for something that feels significantly different than the previous entries.

Without getting too deep into it, I don't think the editorial team at Polygon is much concerned with anyone elses opinion.

@humanity: I'd agree with that. Still, it's better to be vocal about their numerous shortcomings. It's better to speak up, I think.

Can this be a 'bash polygon' thread please?

@hailinel: Eh, they're just another website that covers games, nothing more and nothing less. I don't think it's worth getting distraught over or making a stand. They're not going to change the world with their critical reviews, and ultimately.. who cares. Better spend that energy on things you enjoy rather than wasting it on being angry.

I remember reading this one Arthur Gies review, the first of his I've ever read, and literally getting physically upset that someone who's supposed to be a professional would write something like that. But man, am I gonna expand all this time and energy on reading Gies reviews and then complaining about them on the internet? I just decided to avoid that site wholesale as I don't agree with how they handle their content on some sort of fundamental level that overwhelms all sense of reason.

Funny how Russ completely overlooks the challenges added to each course, giving you some replay value of each track besides going for platinum on all of them. Some of them can be a bitch to complete. Also, he seems to forget that the Trials games were always never meant to be taken seriously with the story or setting, so the fact that he goes off on it is a bit contradictory to what the game is trying to do, or not do in this case.

Russ from Polygon doesn't get the game, what it's trying to do, or how a number scale is supposed to work. If he doesn't like anything about a game, he should give it a low score like a 3 or a 4.

On a side note, can a laptop handle this game?