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If these comments were part of a forum post it would be fine to wearily dismiss them as "opinion", but magazines like Edge employ a lot of different writers, supposedly so that genre games can be reviewed by people who have knowledge - and a liking for - games in a specific genre. This enables the review to be written from the perspective of someone who can give a balanced view of the kind of game they like playing and provide some kind of useful service to readers. In this case, it looks as though they gave the game to someone who not only has a deep dislike for story based RPGs but possibly doesn't like video games at all.
For those unfamiliar with the magazine, Edge is multi-format, has been around for a long time, and likes to promote itself as "Videogame Culture", featuring such items as (in the latest issue): a report from the GameCity festival, an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, various studio and developer profiles, industry employment ads as well as the standard game previews and reviews.
I'm not an Edge hater, by the way. I buy it fairly regularly and I had a retro review (of Lords of Midnight) printed in it a few years back. Just so you don't think I've got an agenda of my own as far as Edge is concerned!
The DA:O review is of the XBOX 360 version, although it makes references to the PC version. I may be using cynicism as a tool here but I wonder if reviewing the 360 version (they could easily have concentrated on the PC or PS3 version) was part of the ploy to skew the review towards the negative end of the scale. For each game reviewed, they only review it on one of the available platforms. It is commonly acknowledged that the 360 version is not the best of the bunch.
Ok, for skim readers, the following comments are not mine, they are from Edge magazine! They're presented here as they appear, not taken out of context to make them look worse, unlike the features of Dragon Age in the Edge review...
[Bioware's efforts] "have given us an RPG of great length, dubious execution and sparse charm that has familiar fantasy schlock as its major selling point."
"Fortunately, once you steel yourself to the banality of it, the land of Ferelden transpires to have been realised in some detail."
(Regarding the origin stories) "But the unfortunate fact remains that you could have a million possible stories, and none would matter if each was told this poorly."
"For the first ten hours it feels like every other step triggers an inept cutscene, and the crimes against writing here are many and severe."
"... in one of many scenes so clumsily scripted you almost wish you were reading a Dan Brown novel - which at least has the decency to be easy to set alight."
"With such absurdities to mouth it's no wonder the cast put in such staid and limp performances."
"Claudia Black ... is here stuck in a perpetual sneer as the inexplicably near-naked witch Morrigan."
"...some of the most awful performances we've ever witnessed in a videogame"
"The misery of Dragon Age's dramatic ambition is only compounded by the gruesome quality of its motion-capture and character modelling."
"Any one of these elements might be trivial in isolation, but the sum total of failures, in writing, acting and presentation, creates a cringe-inducing quality comparable to watching a school play performed through the medium of second-rate machinima."
This counts as one of the only positive comments in the review: "And even on the XBOX 360, not all of the environments are wretched."
"The dreadful dialogue, however, jettisons interest in the promising complexity of diplomacy and conversation trees, and the game struggles to make you care."
"Meanwhile, combat results in mostly linear dungeon crawls which often outstay their welcome."
"Yet it is so often calamitous that its few charms are either squandered or obscured."
On the naming of the game: "The subtitle suggests there will be more to come. On this evidence, that feels rather like a a threat."
Ok, so they didn't like it. The review isn't particularly long. I didn't have to cherry pick those comments, they litter almost every paragraph.
With hindsight, after reading the review a few times and writing it all down, I should probably just ignore it and carry on playing. However, I trust Edge magazine. Those guys know what they're talking about. Maybe I'll just quit DA because it's obviously nothing like the game I thought it was!
To get Edge's Dragon Age:Origins review score in perspective, here is the list of reviews (in the order they appear in this copy of Edge) and the scores awarded (out of 10):
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (360 version) - 9/10
Assassin's Creed 2 (PS3 version) - 8/10
Left 4 Dead 2 (version not specified) - 9/10
Bayonetta (360 version) - 10/10
Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS) - 8/10
Sin & Punishment (Wii) - 8/10
Dragon Age: Origins (360 version, with a few references to PC version) - 5/10
Saw (360 version) - 4/10
Lit (Wii) - 7/10
Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles (Wii) - 7/10
Football Manager 2010 (PC) - 8/10
Tropico 3 (PC) - 7/10
Spaceball Evolution (Wii) - 5/10
Overall, the DA review (and blurb under screen shots) concentrates on the writing and voice acting, as well as some details such as the blood splattering on the party in fights. There's no mention of rogues, mages, warriors, spells, weapons, anything particularly relevant to playing the game at all. They even complain about the female imagery, misleadingly criticising the physical appearance of a particular enemy type as if they appear a lot more frequently than they do - and presented out of context. That bit is deliberately vague (on my part) because of the 'no spoilers' clause on this forum.
I don't really know where Edge was going with this review. They are either trying to be different by blatantly hating the game for the sake of it, or they gave it to someone who genuinely doesn't like cut-scenes or RPGs. Either way, it's quite a baffling read.
Over to you...
Modifié par Planetshooter, 12 décembre 2009 - 10:56 .
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