Free and Worth Every Penny

In a relatively recent interview, acclaimed movie director Francis Ford Coppola mentioned that two of his most highly regarded films, "The Godfather" and "Apocalypses Now", were largely panned by critics in pre-release screenings.  In hindsight this all seems rather absurd.  Both motion pictures are currently considered some of the very best in 1970s cinema.  Conversely, look at what has won an Oscar for best film over the years.  Does anyone really hold "Driving Miss Daisy" or "Crash" in high regards these days?  The video game industry is no exception to this phenomenon either.  Giant Bomb's 2017 game of the year was PUBG, a FPS that was even then in the process of being overshadowed by other battle royale games.  Meanwhile, GameSpot is the only major outlet that has ever given a game-of-the-year award to a Souls-series game, despite the immense influence they've had on game design.  So, what I'm I getting at here?  Well...early criticism (particularly in the form of video game reviews) doesn't have much value even if it's coming from a profession source.

This is especially true when one considers early access titles or games that receive considerable post-launch support.  Pretty much any review (written or recorded) will inevitably end up out-of-date at some point in the future.  Generally speaking, patches and content updates improve the quality of a game, but not always.   Trackmania is somewhat famous for being noticeable worse in it's final form than it was earlier on.  Whether it be pre-release hype or restrictive NDA's, attendees of sneak-peeks or preview events have a troubling tendency to be of the enthusiast press variety.  In other words, it's glowing praise or nothing at all.  Of course, once the game is out in the wild, so to speak, the truth becomes known.  Sometimes it more or less affirms early impressions, but oftentimes that's not the case.  Regardless, down-the-road reviews tend to be deeper and more thoughtful in their analysis by virtue of taking the necessary time to digest what was consumed.  That's not to say that later, slower, and longer always equate to better criticism though.

It only takes a few minutes of browsing through an aggregated review website to find a recent review of an older game that is a bunch of poorly thought out garbage.  So, how can we seek out good criticism?  The unfortunately reality is forming a consensus takes time in much the same way one must wait for the cream to rise to the top of a glass of fresh milk.  That said, the thing that I think benefits critical discussions of video games the most is a wide variety of differing perspectives.  Obviously, the pitfall here is critics who are blind to their own biases or lack the empathy to relate to someone coming from a different view point.  This sort of thing is what leads to petty arguments rather than genuine debates. 

So, am I saying that reviews are trash?...kind of...yeah.  If you can find someone who has similar tastes to your own then that might be valuable, but could potentially lead to merely seeking validation over actual merit.  I strongly believe that only through hearing out differing opinions can one truly experience a piece of media to the fullest.  Alternatively, there are a number of streaming and video-on-demand services out there that let us see and to some degree judge a game for ourselves without actually playing or paying for it.  This isn't a perfect solution though, in that it's time consuming and (for better or worse) any particular part of a game may not be indicative of the overall experience.  Simply put, there are games that peter out after the first act, and there are games that take ten or more hours to really get going.

I guess in the end there aren't any perfect solutions to the problems associated with video game criticism.  Ultimately the best thing any of us can do is to stay one step behind the curve.  Given how FOMO driven gaming is these days though I feel like that strategy is only viable for someone who carefully avoids spoilers, has iron willpower, and doesn't mind only participating in LttP style discussions.  No matter what kind of person you are though, I have one piece of advice I hope you'll take to heart: 

Never trust a day one review of anything.

At best it will be ill-informed, and at worst a blatant attempt to cash-in on whatever the current zeitgeist is.