Gaming journalism or Steam's customers, what is true and real?

[Maya]

When I first saw the Starfield trailer I felt like I had found the best game in the entire universe.

Starfield was released in September and my first impulse was to buy the game, as gaming journalists such as Metacritic had a positive Metascore review of 83.

I saw something like a game pass opportunity. But on reflection I realized that I am not a casual player. And I'd rather pay more for a good game than a little, for many worse ones or the games I don't like.

Then I saw many negative opinions on the forum backed by negative reviews from angry customers, which had also put me off the purchase.

I've always trusted Steam's reviews, after a few bad purchases with mixed or negative reviews.
I also wonder why there is such a big difference between gaming journalism reviewed and steam's customers? And what is true and real?

[Gravity 🌌]

bait. ignored. blocked

[PeaceMaker]

Never follow what gaming journalist's say. Follow independent customer reviews. Always.

[Lemiarty]

Many of the negative reviews that I've read on steam are copy and post of something posted by someone elsewhere. One of them I even countered each of the negative ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ with the facts from in game, but of course, nobody cares about the facts, they're upset because they had a vision for the game that differs from what was built it only their feeling matter. For example "there are only 20 unique pois" made up nonsense, there are hundreds. A few minutes with google and you can find places where people are tracking them (for whatever reasons). I don't care if people like or don't like the game, but making up easily refuted lies to support negative reviews is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[Videogame Jukebox]

They're both not worth listening to.

[Maya]

Originally posted by Gravity:

bait. ignored. blocked

Ok, it's your choice. It was not meant to offend anyone.
As a buyer, I want to be sure of all the sources that are available for a purchase.

[cdplayer906]

it's amazing in the era of streaming and countless videos/lets plays that people need to be told whether they'll like a game or not

[Xhaiden]

The 50-70 game journalism reviews are much more honest than the 90-100s. Many of which read like Bethesda press releases or include one line that immediately tips they didn't play much of the game.

I read one on Metacritic that said Starfield's main story is better than the Mass Effect trilogy. That person is clearly huffing paint.

[Maya]

Originally posted by cdplayer906:

it's amazing in the era of streaming and countless videos/lets plays that people need to be told whether they'll like a game or not

Well, both.I don't always get the same feeling when I play the game myself.
For example I had watched videos of NMS and SE, Ark and when I bought these games I really don't like them, although there is nothing wrong with them.

[Silverlight]

The truth, like always, is somewhere in the middle.

[Donaldo Trumpado]

Neither. Steam users are activist weirdos who review-bomb games for changing pixels. Game journalists are hacks who couldn't do real journalism so they tried to write puff pieces about toxic masculinity. Trust no one, do your own research. Make Steam great again

[Seoul]

u have two problems:
media: mostly paid by the companies
users: can be trolls or have a potato pc

[ƎϽ∀ƎԀ]

As I previously posted.

10 Dec @ 1:13pm - In Starfield General Discussions
Steam review stats are as fake as it comes. Why don't Steam reviews match world wide reviews? Because you can make 10 different accounts and vote negative on all of them. There are certain groups of Steam reviews making a concerted effort to downgrade the game and the stats show it most obviously. That and the many that bought the game just long enough to post a negative review and refund.

Personally I have 2 accounts and was able to make a review on both of them with only one game purchase.

[Maya]

Originally posted by Silverlight:

The truth, like always, is somewhere in the middle.

The truth is out there .

https://youtu.be/__jTJLEIRnQ?si=-oNHWojHJQqigID5

[tkwoods]

Originally posted by Maya:

Originally posted by Gravity:

bait. ignored. blocked

Ok, it's your choice. It was not meant to offend anyone.
As a buyer, I want to be sure of all the sources that are available for a purchase.

If you pay attention to the positive reviews you will see reasons for the opinions. You will see lists of things they liked and disliked. The negative reviews are mostly short "this game sucks" type opinions without any reasons why. Some that do list reasons as stated before are usually wrong or false claims. Like not being able to skip ship landing animations. I read a review that this was the main reason, but it's false. The game has fast travel that skips it all if you choose to fast travel.

It's the same for the repeat POI's, yes there are repeat POI's but not in the main stories. All the main cities and POI's for the stories are unique as well as some other places. I have 400 hours in game, on my 4th start and still am finding some places I never saw the first 3 starts.

Many reviews claim that your choices in dialog in the stories does not change the outcome, this a patently false. You can choose the winners and losers in some fairly detailed quests. You would have to play more than once though and make other choices before you know this. Many didn't play long enough but still claim it even though it's false.

And finally the loading screens.... This is the funniest one of them all. The game has no more loading screens than the older BGS titles. But it does have better fast travel option and it seems that most can't discern between the two.

At any rate go find some YouTube videos of just plain game play and walk-through that don't have the wacko commentary.

[Maya]

Originally posted by tkwoods:

Originally posted by Maya:

Ok, it's your choice. It was not meant to offend anyone.
As a buyer, I want to be sure of all the sources that are available for a purchase.

If you pay attention to the positive reviews you will see reasons for the opinions. You will see lists of things they liked and disliked. The negative reviews are mostly short "this game sucks" type opinions without any reasons why. Some that do list reasons as stated before are usually wrong or false claims. Like not being able to skip ship landing animations. I read a review that this was the main reason, but it's false. The game has fast travel that skips it all if you choose to fast travel.

It's the same for the repeat POI's, yes there are repeat POI's but not in the main stories. All the main cities and POI's for the stories are unique as well as some other places. I have 400 hours in game, on my 4th start and still am finding some places I never saw the first 3 starts.

Many reviews claim that your choices in dialog in the stories does not change the outcome, this a patently false. You can choose the winners and losers in some fairly detailed quests. You would have to play more than once though and make other choices before you know this. Many didn't play long enough but still claim it even though it's false.

And finally the loading screens.... This is the funniest one of them all. The game has no more loading screens than the older BGS titles. But it does have better fast travel option and it seems that most can't discern between the two.

At any rate go find some YouTube videos of just plain game play and walk-through that don't have the wacko commentary.

Thank you for your explanation and the positive insights about the game. Which seem to be true and real. As you say I need to spend more time on video to figure out if I want to test the game.
As for such "negative reviews are mostly short "this game sucks" type opinions without any reasons why."
Can be found in all games reviewed on Steam. The difference is the amount of negative reviews. To me also those who had played several hundred hours and in other games several thousand hours with negative reviews do not seem to be serious, because why bother for so long with a game you don't like.