Two Worlds II - Review Roundup

Here's a quick Two Worlds II review trio, courtesy of Two Worlds Vault. All three are console articles.

• GameCritics - 80%
• Dedicated to Gamers - 70%
• Terminal Gamers - 8/10

More information.

Just thought I add something to this.

Topware stands accused by various anonymous sources of blacklisting UK outlets for giving Two Worlds II middling or low review scores. According to one source, Topware demanded that a review score be bumped up to 7/10, or the publisher would cease to deal with them.

Here is a post by a topware employee.

Their is no excuse for our guy to go off on a site, but this has everything to do with MetaCritic and their standards and other sites and their standards.

They can be completely different and our PR person was not trying to change a score but trying to convey this very point. The words blacklisted, if they were said, at all, would not happen in any way shape or form.

We gave the game out to everyone and it was well receieved - well except for the UK were we average around 60 when everywhere else we average around 78, but such is life.

I have made games for a long time and our new team is really working hard to make the Two Worlds franchise something special. We do not have the budgets some studios have but we are and will continue to make great games from here on out.

By the way here is the URL with the story rebuttal but it is a mute point as this is all a caught up in the moment situation between two people and not a Topware conspiracy!

http://beefjack.com/news/topware-den…info-leaks-in/

The link on the bottom will go to the webpage where the pr nightmare started.
Seems the game is cursed with all the delays/cancellations/PR stunts.

Also one final news info the NA boxed copy is still going to be released. I got a reply as follows-

the PC edition was not canceled. There have been issues with our publisher and the launch of the PC product into retail, but they will have a special edition out in a month at retail and the game is available via Amazon from them or us right now or on Steam or Direct2Drive

We also have the collectors edition on PC on Amazon

I appreciate the feedback, but there will be a special PC edition for the United States soon at retail

Topware is right that most of the video game world consider a 7 to be average. Then you have these sites that pride themselves on using the "real system" and that give average games 5s. It can be pretty frustrating, I don't blame Topware for saying so.

At the end of the day I personally consider number scores for games in general to be pretty stupid. Madden might be a 10 out of 10 for a football fan but for me it's a 0 because I don't care about playing a football game. The words are what matters, take those and apply them to your interests and priorities and move on. Numbers at the end of a review are for people who either don't want to read the text or who lack the ability to understand it.

I think Topware is kind of notorious regarding these "PR stunts". I well remember a small scandal with a PC Games review of their game … uh, what was its name … Yes, "Knighthift", or "Once upon Knight" … They held the opinion that this review was bad, because he reviewer stated that he didn't like RPGs and rather favoured Simulation games … The outcry was not small, and the overall standpoint was that an RPG should be given to an RPG player to review it *properly* …

I played this game myself much later, and I'm sad to say that I found it only mediocre … Its ideas were quite good, but the execution of them was rather poor … I think this was also the VERY first RPG of Reality Pump after their "Earth [insert number]" line of strategy games … So, this might have been kind of an "beginner's mistake" for them …

Originally Posted by DoctorNarrative
At the end of the day I personally consider number scores for games in general to be pretty stupid. Madden might be a 10 out of 10 for a football fan but for me it's a 0 because I don't care about playing a football game.

Yeah, when I was younger, I used to be obsessed with scores. Back when I was a kid I used to trust big websites and magazines without hesitation, so a 9/10 was something holy to me. If a I game I was looking forward to received a 7/10 I would stand in a corner and silently weep.

But now that I've learned to think for myself, I think it's best to remove those silly scoring systems. There used to be games I avoided because of low scores that I've bought because I took the time to thoroughly read some reviews (Arcanum for example). I don't mind a short summary of how well the game does in a few categories, but handing out numbers just isn't a good idea.

Originally Posted by TheGameSquid
But now that I've learned to think for myself, I think it's best to remove those silly scoring systems. There used to be games I avoided because of low scores that I've bought because I took the time to thoroughly read some reviews (Arcanum for example). I don't mind a short summary of how well the game does in a few categories, but handing out numbers just isn't a good idea.

Short summaries are good as long as proper context is given… I like bullet-point lists at the end, like a + and - thing. As long as they write more than "poor plot" anyway.

Originally Posted by TheGameSquid
I don't mind a short summary of how well the game does in a few categories, but handing out numbers just isn't a good idea.

Words and numbers don`t have to be exclusive. Sometimes scoreless reviews are just too wishy-washy, poorly written or reviewer seems to be`afraid`of taking a stance. A number complements the review nicely for me.

I see the whole thing with 7=average more as a work of Dark Wizards of PR (anythin less than 9 and you`re fired) and readers themselves. Most places that use 1-10 scale states that 7 is sort of `good`or`fair`.