Giving the Prefix "Meta" A Whole New Meaning

Welcome to all the new visitors joining us from the pleasant shores of Slashdot Games, Joystiq, Kotaku, Waxy and the rest of the blogosphere. If the visitor numbers are any indication (more visits today than in the past two-and-a-half months) then people get a bit interested when you put "negative" and "Halo 2" in the same headline.



Anyway, while yesterday was all about using the words of others to nitpick a game, today is all about nitpicking the words others used to praise a game. What follows is my short opinions of a few Halo 2 reviews from some of the biggest video game sites on the Internet, based on totally subjective criteria described below. These meta-reviews come from the perspective of someone with some experience reviewing games but no experience playing the game in question.



To potential detractors who say reviewing reviews is a waste of time, I will take your review of my review-reviews under due consideration.



A brief description of my rating categories (a work in progress):

Leading off: A good review grips you from the beginning with an interesting angle or an exquisitely written lead. It makes the reader want to keep reading.

Flow: A good review reads easily from beginning to end, and covers all the bases along the way. Jarring or non-existent segues, too much detail and lazy section headers can hurt you here.

Balance: A good review manages to point out the bad parts of the best game and the best parts of an awful game, and pulls both equally from an average game. Balance also means discussing the game in its entirety, not getting hung up on one point (this is also part of flow).

Context: A good review compares a game somehow to its predecessors and contemporaries, although this comparison need not be overt. Working in the context of society at large is an added bonus.

Hype: Is the review a series of carefully considered opinions or marketing catch phrases. Bad reviews can be just as guilty of sounding like hackneyed anti-hype as gushers. Original phrases help here. Use of cliches hurts.

Score matches the text: A pet peeve of mine -- when the score seems artificially high or low compared to the description.



GameSpot

Review by Greg Kasavin



Leading off: The review takes a pretty detailed look at the original Halo and what made it "one of the definitive games in the genre." To someone who never played the first game (we do exist) it's very handy, but to the larger audience of Halo fans there might be a little of a "Well, duh!" factor.

Flow: The four-page review suffers a bit from laundry-list syndrome, where everything about the game is thrown out there in a semi-ordered fashion. Everything is discussed in detail, which is to say nothing stands out against the dull buzz of detail.

Balance: Tough-but-fair criticism of the ending and the length manage to stand out and make an impact even in a sea of praise. Readers of this review will come out with some bad impressions among many good ones.

Context: Based on this review, you might think the Halo series exists in a vacuum. References to the first game abound, but the merest allusion to the outside world is largely absent.

Hype: A matter-of-fact tone supports a review that backs up its praise with plenty of rational reasoning and little exaggeration.

Score matches the text: A 9.4 from Gamespot is almost as good as a 100 percent elsewhere, but the sub-perfect score notes the flaws without diminishing the good parts.



IGN

Review by Douglass C. Perry



Leading off: "There is a new kid in town, and strangely, you've known its name for years." Huh? The comparison to system-sellers past comes off hollow, and the overly-effusive praise comes on a bit thick right from the start.

Flow: Deft readers have to navigate through bulky screenshots and feature links and eight page divisions to get through this massive review. The actual text relies on large headers to divide the sections, but the internal flow of each is passable, if overly long.

Balance: The bad points in this review are so completely covered with "this is just minor nitpicking" style apologies you'd think they're almost sorry to utter anything negative. Let the reader determine what's a nitpick and what's a serious issue.

Context Comparisons to the Alien movies and to games in other genres fit naturally, as do endless comparisons to the first Halo. Readers get a clear sense of where Halo 2 fits in gaming hierarchy -- at the top.

Hype: Any review that manages to use the term "comes up aces" twice in its first three paragraphs fails the hype test. The praise becomes a little more thoughtful towards the middle, but phrases like "Halo 2 plays like a dream," and "It's freakin' awesome," are painful to read.

Score matches the text: It's hard to see this game not getting a perfect score after reading so many superlatives, but a 9.8 leaves some wiggle room for future games to sneak in, I suppose.



1up

Review by Matt Leone



Leading off: A simple list of all the new features grabs the readers attention and almost serves as a decent review in itself.

Flow: The review jumps from point to point in a somewhat rambley fashion, but never seems to lose a general stream-of-consciousness coherence. The length is perfect, giving a strong impression of the game without drowning the reader in details.

Balance: Bad points are mentioned subtly and a little apologetically, but some strong placement in the conclusion make them hard to miss.

Context: Constant references to specific elements from other popular FPS titles give the reader good reference points. Direct comparisons to the games of today and the near future put it at the top of the heap.

Hype: A strong showing for Halo 2 seems almost preordained given the demonstrated love for the original Halo. Still, enough support is given to back up the lofty praise.

Score matches the text: Given the lack of serious criticisms, a one-point drop on a ten-point scale would seem unthinkable. Without any finer demarcations, a 10/10 is really the only option.



Unfortunately that's all I have time for now. Later on I hope to look at some reviews from smaller sources as well. Please leave your own impressions of these or any other reviews using the comments link below.