Famitsu sucks

[OB1]

First they give the incredible Metroid Prime less-than-deserving scores, and now they do the same with F-Zero GX (well, some of the guys did):

Well, friends. The time is upon us. The ever strict and stringent Famitsu has reviewed a few titles we're anxiously awaiting here, and one we've had for a while but the Japanese just got. Are you prepared for the scores?


F-Zero GX (GameCube; Nintendo): 9 / 7 / 8 / 8 - 32/40

A nice score from Famitsu for F-Zero GX. Although I think the person with the 7 might need to be taken for a little drive....


Shining Soul II (GameBoy Avance; Sega): 8 / 8 / 8 / 8 - 32/40

Four of a kind! All you importers waiting for this title look validated. Begin transmitting your money to your favorite importing company.


Onimusha Tactics (GameBoy Advance; Cacpcom): 7 / 8 / 7 / 7 - 29/40

A little disappointing here. But it may still be worth your while.


SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs (PlayStation 2; Sony Computer Entertainment): 8 / 8 / 7 / 7 - 30/40

Well, looks like Famitsu knows a good combat game when they see it. Of course, we've known that SOCOM is good, especially online, for a while.

Be sure to check back for our review of F-Zero GX and others soon!

Source: GameFront

Posted by unclethursday on 7.16.2003

I can't believe that Socom got scores close to F-Zero GX. Have you guys played that game? It's pretty mediocre.

[A Black Falcon]

Fools!

Seriously, Famitsu does keep pulling out these strangely very low scores for GREAT games... don't you get used to it after a while?

[OB1]

Nevah!

[Great Rumbler]

I say F-Zero GX deserves at least a 36, even though I have never once played it!!

[OB1]

Well from what I've heard from all of the major gaming sites, the game is absolutely incredible.

[A Black Falcon]

Nevah!

Thinking of moving to New England, huh? Sorry, but fewer and fewer people actually talk that way these days... :)

And yes, F-Zero GX does look like a phenominal game... Famitsu needs help. Soon.

[OB1]

People talk like that in New England?

[Great Rumbler]

Does hitting them over the head with a baseball and yelling "baka" until they give F-Zero a better score count as "helping them".

[A Black Falcon]

Well in Massachusetts for sure... you drop R's from the end of words and add them in the middle of others. Maine has its own accent, but in some ways its similar...

I don't speak that way, and only one person in my highschool class really had a thicker Maine accent, but some people do. And dropping R's and making them H'es is still common in Mass...

So we have baseball superstar Nomah... :)

Does hitting them over the head with a baseball and yelling "baka" until they give F-Zero a better score count as "helping them".

Hmm... only if you think it would help change their minds. :D

[OB1]

Well I wasn't trying to sound like I'm from stupid New England.

[A Black Falcon]

Well you did. :p

[Great Rumbler]

:topic:

[A Black Falcon]

Oh horror!

[OB1]

That's a regular British accent, ABF. Not your stupid New England. :shakeit:

[geoboy]

It could also be Australian.

"A cah? What's a cah?"

[Nintendarse]

Here are the engrish explanations from Gaming-Age Forums (neo2046):

F-ZEROGX Cross Review

Hamamura
The high-speed run at the time of Boost is the real thrill which cannot taste by any means in an ordinary race.
A pleasant sensation is doubled in evolution of graphics. Customize is also deep.
The back story by which a falcon and others is not known. It is too many.
KISSHI
An investigator is the bosom or the FZERO of ‚µ itself. The point which carries out full practical use of the solid structure is new.
The subject in story mode is severe. Usage ‚Ç‚±‚ë of attack action is also restricted.
KISUKO
Stoic. The time of having noticed that it is paralyzed from speed is unbearable.
The point that the playground is prepared abundantly is also evaluated. ICHIOSHI is the free run which can feel the charm of an amazing course.
Haneda
For a colorful course, it is beautiful and CG movie is also a high quality. The whole difficulty is highly.
Everyone should –ãâ to advance a story. " said by the horse race -- putting -- " -- individuality is strong in being required
It is why that the previous arcade version and a previous operation system differ from each other.

It seems like they docked it few points because it's too difficult. With all these easy-ass games out now, I'm glad F-Zero will be a challenge.

[OB1]

Same here. Famitsu seems to hate tough games, the babies. Remember how they complained about Metroid Prime?

[A Black Falcon]

Ack, you can understand that? Its pretty much unintelligible... :)

[OB1]

I'm fluent is Engrish.

[A Black Falcon]

Too much Babelfish translator?

[N-Man]

An investigator is the bosom or the FZERO of ‚µ itself.

I entirely agree.

[Dark Lord Neo]

I'm not going to complain about how Famitsu rated a game that I haven't even played. For all I know I may agree with them

[OB1]

Well so far it's only gotten extremely high praise by the American and European press, so I doubt it's going to be dissapointing.

[Dark Lord Neo]

We also have to consider taht their are some games that the Japanese like that would never sell here and some games we like that would do poorly in Japan

[A Black Falcon]

That is of course true... but RPGs are popular in both areas.

[OB1]

As are racing games. But some people are just stupid, like Gamespot for giving F-Zero X a less-than-deserving score.

[A Black Falcon]

You can't expect everyone to love the same games you do.

[OB1]

You trying to defend Gamespot's terrible reviews? Just a second ago you called Famitsu "Fools" for giving GX a bad score. How typically hypocritical of you.

[A Black Falcon]

Oh, I certainly disagree with both reviews. I often disagree with reviews... but I know that reviewers are just one person and everyone has different tastes.

As for Famitsu it is a bit low... not super low, but a bit low. The game definitely shouldn't have gotten that 7, but 8's are okay...

[OB1]

You just called Famitsu fools for disagreeing with you, and then you say that I'm wrong for calling Gamespot idiots for disagreeing with me. Like I said: How typically hypocritical of you.

[A Black Falcon]

That's not really true...

Note the use of the word 'seriously' to show that I was joking with the 'fools' comment, how about that?

[OB1]

Oh suuure. Then you followed that with "Famitsu does keep pulling out these strangely very low scores for GREAT games... don't you get used to it after a while?", which contradicts that whole "everyone's entitled to their own opinions" comment of yours. You're a hypocrite, ABF. A huge one.

[A Black Falcon]

Low, yeah. But they aren't fools. There is a difference there. Gamespot's score was also low... lower, of course, so it is stranger... Famitsu's really is a okay score that should be great. Gamespot's F-Zero X score was pretty odd... oh well. I definitely disagree.

Oh, and its absolutely true that Famitsu rates games low all the time...

[OB1]

At least they're consistant. Gamespot will give something like F-Zero X a low score but then give an average game a great score. But I suppose that is the fault with the single-person review system. You can't compare most sites' scores with each other because they have several different people writing one-person reviews. The Famitsu style of reviewing is the best because you have three or four people reviewing one game so you get a variety of different opinions.

[A Black Falcon]

I prefer single-writer reviews. Sure you get fewer viewpoints but you actually get decent length reviews, often a page or two long... I prefer that greatly to EGM-style 3 or 4 reviews per page, that's for sure.

[Great Rumbler]

I like EGM's style better, you get a better view of how high or low quality the game is.

[OB1]

It's nice to have long reviews, but I' much rather have three or four different opinions on the same game than just one.

[A Black Falcon]

I've always preferred longer reviews to two-sentence ones. Even if you get 4 two-sentence ones. The greater length more than makes up for the fact that its just one person...

Oh, and none of the PC gaming magazines do the multiple-reviewer style, so that's one thing they get right.

[OB1]

Perhaps if they had only one reviewer doing all of the reviews it would be alright, but since you get different people doing single-person reviews, you can't compare the scores to each other because each person has different tastes. So if Reviewer A gives Half-Life 2 a score of 95% and Reviewer B gives DX2 a score of 90%, it would be impossible to tell which game is better because for all you know Reviewer A might be more forgiving in his reviews, and Reviewer B might actually like DX2 more than HL2, but since he's much tougher with his reviews he didn't give the game he considers superior to HL2 a higher score than the other guy did. It's a huge mess!

[A Black Falcon]

You just have to trust them to do the best they can... which they usually do. You drag out a few not as good ones but the vast, vast majority are good. Including when I disagree.

You see, a 2-sentence review just leaves room for 'this game is good' or 'this game isn't'. So you have no depth. But longer reviews allow for more detail... so you can usually get a good idea if you'd like a game or not no matter the score they gave it. That isn't really possible with two sentence reviews...

[OB1]

EGM puts at least as many pages into reviews as PC Gamer does, it's just that they have to review many, many more games than PC Gamer has to. Big games always get two-to-four page reviews, but most games get half a page. Very small text, and about three paragraphs each. Your "two sentences" comment shows just how much you know about this.

[A Black Falcon]

Sorry, I haven't read EGM in years. I only own three issues of EGM, actually, and they are from 1996... and all the games reviewed each get a third of a page (vertical column), with 4 very brief reviews. I have read some issues since then, and noticed they went to 3 reviewers and one review was lengthened so that it could have more detail (maybe even half a page, not sure about that), but I don't think I remember EGM reviews that gave a full page to a game... and with three reviews splitting that space it makes each even shorter.

But it is true they do have more games to review. They only review what, 15 or 20 games an issue?

But of course in PC magazines the reviews are the centerpoint of the magazine... they take up by far the largest percentage of pages and are the middle section of the magazine. Unlike some console mags...

[Great Rumbler]

EGM now gives most games a half a page for a review and some have a whole page and each of the three reviews writes about 2-3 paragraphs.

[OB1]

Yeah ABF is just spouting off on things he knows little to nothing about, as always.

And certain big titles get huge 2-3 page reviews, like Wind Waker did.

[A Black Falcon]

In PC Gamer standard bigger games get 2 pages (usually some every month), and huge games get 3 or maybe even 4...

[OB1]

And they only have one person reviewing each game, which is a poor method of reviewing.

[A Black Falcon]

We have polar opposite viewpoints on this issue so how about we just drop it... we'll never agree. :)

One reviewer reviews are a great point of all three PC gaming magazines! Its a much better style, as I said... sure other views is nice but I just like how it gives the reviewer the space to adaquately explain the game well enough to show anyone (who agrees with that score or not) whether they would like the game as well as is possible...

[Great Rumbler]

I like having three reviews for a game, because it shows why three people like the game a lot, liked the game a little, didn't like the game, or didn't like it a lot. Also, I notice some games that get something like 3.5, 6.0, and 8.0. If you just looked at the 3.5 would you buy the game? I bet you would be very hesistant to do so. But when you put all three together and look at each person's reasons for their score it give you a better understanding of wether or not you will want to buy the game.

[A Black Falcon]

Well you see you don't "just look at the 3.5". You read the full review, and if its a decent review you can look past the score and see if its a game you'd like.

[Great Rumbler]

Why would the game have a decent review if the score was 3.5?

Choices:

A. I guess you're right, I concede.
B. We both have different views and we aren't going to change them, so let's just drop it.
C. [Persuade] I'm sure a few credits could get you to see my way.
D. [Force Persuade] My opinion is correct, you don't really like reviews that are done that way.
E. Concede to me or I will see you dead!

Hmm...I wonder if using Force Persuade in this case would give me Dark Force points...