The Witcher - Review @ Shacknews

Shacknews' review of The Witcher is glowing in its praise, despite noting some minor problems. There's no score but here's a snip:

As you may have gathered from my recent preview--which I recommend to those looking for a general overview of the game--I was quite surprised by The Witcher, due to both its shock value and its polish. This is a European RPG that actually lives up to its own hype, delivering on its promises of mature content, massive amounts of dialogue, and impressive presentation. No one element of the game stands out more than the other, which is a testament to how well-rounded an experience it is. As you trod through the Gothic, rain-soaked landscapes, you don't find graphical eyesores that pull you out of the scenery, but instead a coherent, logical portrait. There is no overblown musical score that draws your attention, but rather an atmospheric soundtrack which slowly lulls you into the world. The dialogue may be hammy at times, but it almost adds to the charm in a quirky sort of way. Everything just fits, allowing your mind to concentrate on the quests at hand and become embroiled in the day-to-day concerns of the witching.

Thanks, MikeZZ.
More information.

I wish the remainder of online reviews would follow suit and exclude numerical scores. The whole 1-10 scale just leads to apples-to-oranges comparisons between drastically different games, and the inevitable arguments about how one game is obviously "better" than another due to a higher number.

I do hope The Witcher turns out to be a 10 though.

I prefer seeing a numerical score for games. I don't have an interest in playing every rpg (or even close) and I want to weed through the poor games to get to the good stuff. That's in the eye of the beholder, of course, but if a game gets generally poor scores from many sites then it's very likely I won't enjoy it so I don't bother with it.

If a review doesn't have a score then that means I have to take time to sift through it to see if it's a game I may care about. That's not terrible but it is often a waste of time and sometimes what I do is just skip it altogether unless it's a game I've been looking at closely such as The Witcher.

never trust a reviewer.

Originally Posted by DogInARocket
I wish the remainder of online reviews would follow suit and exclude numerical scores. The whole 1-10 scale just leads to apples-to-oranges comparisons between drastically different games, and the inevitable arguments about how one game is obviously "better" than another due to a higher number.

I do hope The Witcher turns out to be a 10 though.

The biggest problem with the scoring systems used on game review sites is that almost no sites use a linear scale - if the average score is 75% then the available numbers to describe an above average game have been halved compared to an average of 50%, whereas the available "precision" for poor games (that few are going to be interested in) has increased. Such a waste.

Originally Posted by KazikluBey
The biggest problem with the scoring systems used on game review sites is that almost no sites use a linear scale - if the average score is 75% then the available numbers to describe an above average game have been halved compared to an average of 50%, whereas the available "precision" for poor games (that few are going to be interested in) has increased. Such a waste.

Exactly, not to mention that one person's 7 for a game is another person's 2, or 5, or 10, or a gold star, or hot dog. It all comes down to opinion and the only one that matters is your own. It's very possible I might have a significantly different opinion than the majority of reviews. It's definitely happened before, and recently; Bioshock was a major disappointment when I was led to expect the second coming of Christ. Scores are so inflated nowadays.

As far as the preference for numerical scores helping to weed out the obviously crap games, let's face it: MOST games are crap, and MOST games aren't the genre I like anyway, so it's pretty easy, for me anyway, to cull out the garbage and determine for myself which games are ones to follow.

This is an interesting read on the subject: http://kotaku.com/gaming/reviews/vid…fix-315469.php