RPGWatch Feature - Prey Review

TomRon · November 3, 2017

Dilvish said:
Five star systems usually start at the equivalent of an F grade. E.g. 5 stars is an A+, 4 is a B+, 3 is a C, 2 is a D, 1 is an F, or something like that. My point is, you don't start out at 0%.

For instance, Joystiq was miffed at Metacritic for making this very same mistake, and stopped rating games completely as a result.

https://www.engadget.com/2015/01/13/joystiq-isnt-scoring-reviews-anymore-and-heres-why/

Exactly! When RPGFool wrote it the way he did it actually made me understand why he was so upset with the DOS2 review. But I never looked at it that way, if a game is below say 50 on the 100 scale, it most certainly isn't worth more than one star (perhaps it's actually none). I think the article from Joystiq sums it up nicely, having the same problems with giving scores.

Honestly, if a game has below say 70 you will guess the reviewer found it severly lacking or total crap, it doesn't matter if it got 67 or 38. Right?

On topic, thanks for the review Corwin. I hadn't planned on playing Prey at all but now I'm seriously considering it. Will wishlist for now, I still have to finish Dos2 and after that Elex seems like the way to go.

you · November 3, 2017

The open question - can a great game to play be a single '*' for rating criteria ? Is there an association with the quality of the game and the 'fun' factor ? I was reading the 'torment no sales' thread and I think the problem with reviews is they don't really describe what makes a game 'fun' or 'unfun'. They might talk about story or map layout or control but they never directly address why these are issues. Scores tend to focus on concrete things that might or might not impact enjoyability. Was FTL a great game ? Was it a fun game? Can a lousy game be fun (ok now i'm just repeating myself).

JDR13 · November 3, 2017

you said:
blue horizon ? It has a 41% approval rating on steam. I guess you are among the minority

joxer feels the need to troll with such nonsense every time certain games are praised. Thankfully, most members here know better than to take him seriously.

tomasp3n said:
On topic, thanks for the review Corwin. I hadn't planned on playing Prey at all but now I'm seriously considering it. Will wishlist for now, I still have to finish Dos2 and after that Elex seems like the way to go.

You're on the right path.

pibbur who · November 3, 2017

you said:
The open question - can a great game to play be a single '*' for rating criteria ? Is there an association with the quality of the game and the 'fun' factor ? I was reading the 'torment no sales' thread and I think the problem with reviews is they don't really describe what makes a game 'fun' or 'unfun'. They might talk about story or map layout or control but they never directly address why these are issues. Scores tend to focus on concrete things that might or might not impact enjoyability. Was FTL a great game ? Was it a fun game?
[//QUOTE]
Interesting question. There are games I consider to be good, but don't like. One example: Arcanum. It's a good game, but I didn't enjoy it when I played it.

Can a lousy game be fun (ok now i'm just repeating myself).

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I repeat myself when under stress.
I repeat myself when under stress.
I repeat myself when under stress.
I repeat myself when under stress.
I repeat myself when under stress.
(3:06)

pibbur who repeats ... himself ... when under ... ssssstressss.

joxer · November 3, 2017

JDR13 said:
joxer feels the need to troll with such nonsense every time certain games are praised. Thankfully, most members here know better than to take him seriously.

I was serious.
If you don't believe me now, RPGwatch GOTY vote will be soon, and I won't be the only one who'll put BH on the top vote.
If there will be the worst vote, well, sorry. The game this thread is about was the worst one I've played in this whole year. Not worst of all time I admit. But hell even ys7 grind was more fun.

RPGFool · November 3, 2017

@Dilvish; & @tomasp3n;,

I think you missed what I was trying to say. I'll try again.

The numbers ratings systems, particularly system scaled other than 100, can be numerically interpreted in different ways and are therefore potentially confusing. As to a letter grading system (A-F) back when I was in school and Uni, 'F' was averaged in as a 0 (not as a 1); an 'A' was a 4.0; but some schools used a different value system that was precisely defined. Again, all of this is potentially quite confusing without a precise definition. And even then ppl must take the time to actually read that precise definition.

As I understood the article about Joystiq, similar concerns concerning confusion were at least part of their basis for dropping their number rating system.

Thanks.

__

Thrasher · November 4, 2017

Thanks for the review Corwin!

Dilvish · November 4, 2017

RPGFool said:
@Dilvish; & @tomasp3n;,

I think you missed what I was trying to say. I'll try again.

The numbers ratings systems, particularly system scaled other than 100, can be numerically interpreted in different ways and are therefore potentially confusing. As to a letter grading system (A-F) back when I was in school and Uni, 'F' was averaged in as a 0 (not as a 1); an 'A' was a 4.0; but some schools used a different value system that was precisely defined. Again, all of this is potentially quite confusing without a precise definition. And even then ppl must take the time to actually read that precise definition.

As I understood the article about Joystiq, similar concerns concerning confusion were at least part of their basis for dropping their number rating system.

Thanks.

__

If you value sites like Metacritic or OpenCritic, you're going to need to convert whatever your score is to a percentile system. Universities may use a 4.0 scaling, but I think more Americans are familiar with A-F where F is 0-59%.

According to Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_grading_in_the_United_States

Code:

Letter	Percentage	GPA
A+	97%+		4.33/4.00
A	93%-96%		4.00/4.00
A-	90%-92%		3.67/4.00
B+	87%-89%		3.33/4.00
B	83%-86%		3.00/4.00
B-	80%-82%		2.67/4.00
C+	77%-79%		2.33/4.00
C	73%-76%		2.00/4.00
C-	70%-72%		1.67/4.00
D+	67%-69%		1.33/4.00
D	63%-66%		1.00/4.00
D-	60%-62%		0.67/4.00
F	0%-59%		0.00/4.00

The five star system does not appear in the chart. You're right in that an F should not equal 1 star. My mistake.

Myrthos · November 4, 2017

Comparing the star system we had to some numerical value is not what we had in mind and we never catered to that in our reviews. All it ever meant was that a 4 star game is not as good as a 5 star game, but is better than a 3 star game. It also never meant that one 4 star game is equally good as another 4 star game. Both are better than a 3 star game and both are not as good as a 5 star game, but one 4 star game could still be better than another 4 star game. They were just intended as categories.
Now we just use text that describe the category and not a series of stars anymore.

Metacritic ratings and a review of RPGWatch listed there or not was never part of the discussion in the team. I don’t think anybody cares about that.

TomRon · November 5, 2017

RPGFool said:
@Dilvish; & @tomasp3n;,

I think you missed what I was trying to say. I'll try again.

Thanks.

__

No worries, I understood you fine the first time, and I understand that a scoring system can be misunderstood or misinterpreted when trying to make it fit a certain norm.

I just never looked at the stars in the Watch reviews that way.

Dajjer · December 23, 2017

Thanks Corwin, Okay, I'm in. I was on the fence but I do love me some sci fi rpgs.

Joxer makes me laugh.
While Blue Horizon will never be in my top list of games, the developer might. They really do try to patch things up regularly and are quite communicative with their players.

As far as Prey, until Corwin's review I thought this was mostly a shooter with a couple RPG trappings. If it's anything like System Shock 2 or Bioshock, well those games had enough RPG stuff in it for me, so as I said before, I'm in.

RPGWatch Feature - Prey Review

TomRon

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you

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JDR13

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RPGFool

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Thrasher

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Dilvish

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Myrthos

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TomRon

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