Blog My Guilty Secret: The Games I Haven't Played

[Tim S]

http://www.bit-tech.net/blog/2009/03...aven-t-played/

[HugoB]

You should really complete Ocarina of Time as it is much better than System Shock 2 (In jokes! yay!)

Joking aside, saying you're not qualified to review current games for having not played all games ever is like saying Tim can't review a Core i7 CPU because he hasn't also used Charles Babbage's Difference Engine - at least to my mind.

Edit: also, Metacritic's relevance and influence is ridiculously overstated in the games (journalism) industry. The vast majority of people buying games will never have heard of it and certainly wouldn't rely on its scoring as a basis to decide if they're going to buy a game.

[Bauul]

In all honesty I don't think you need to worry. I think if you turned around and said you had a level 70 WOW character, we'd all be pretty surprised. You don't have to be a total uber-l33t gamer to be able to write about them, or the most widely played person on the planet.

Compare Oz Clark and James May on the (actually quite amusing) Oz and James series about drink. Oz Clark is undoutedly a drink know-it-all, having sampled everything and has an informed opinion on anything. But we don't care what he thinks. We care what James May thinks, the average man on the street who only really cares about the flavour and getting pissed, and who's sense of relevance and style is locked firmly in the back end of the 70s.

We care what James has to say, and not Oz, because we can empathise with him. And likewise, we care what Joe Martin, pretty much your average informed gamer, says, far more than (for example) what Fatal1ty has to say. What matters is that you're a good journalist who can write in a highly amusing and accessible manner, not that you've played game X or not. We haven't played every game under the sun, and if you had, it'd be harder to relate to what you have to say. So in other words, just keep doing what you're doing.

[ChaosDefinesOrder]

I have a similar thing, in that I'm currently the president of the local Rocksoc, but I don't like Metallica - which surprisingly gets a lot of stick!

w.r.t games reviews, the only one that's really bugged me about Bit-Tech is the review for Devil May Cry 4, and in particular the complaint about the "hovering in the air when firing guns" gripe. I can see where you're coming from finding it a bit weird being new to the genre (appologies if it wasn't actually you reviewing it! Can't remember who it was!) but it is something that was an integral (and sometimes vital) part of the preceeding games.

[Jordan Wise]

What?! You've never played GoldenEye?! Eugh, can't believe I've been reading this site, you're all rank amateurs!

But in all seriousness, you can't argue that System Shock is better than Ocarina if you haven't completed both. And you can't argue that anyway because it just isn't true

[GFC]

I kind of have the same 'problem' (don't think it's a problem though), i haven't really played all of those games, but you know what? - i don't think you need to.
For example, i really like cod4 (mostly because it's the only decent game that runs on my pc xD), but i don't really give a dam* about other COD titles, why? - i hate world war games. Does that make me worse on COD4? - no, so why should i feel any less competent than those who played every single game released? and why should you?

[tripwired]

Originally Posted by Bauul

In all honesty I don't think you need to worry. I think if you turned around and said you had a level 70 WOW character, we'd all be pretty surprised. You don't have to be a total uber-l33t gamer to be able to write about them, or the most widely played person on the planet.

Compare Oz Clark and James May on the (actually quite amusing) Oz and James series about drink. Oz Clark is undoutedly a drink know-it-all, having sampled everything and has an informed opinion on anything. But we don't care what he thinks. We care what James May thinks, the average man on the street who only really cares about the flavour and getting pissed, and who's sense of relevance and style is locked firmly in the back end of the 70s.

We care what James has to say, and not Oz, because we can empathise with him. And likewise, we care what Joe Martin, pretty much your average informed gamer, says, far more than (for example) what Fatal1ty has to say. What matters is that you're a good journalist who can write in a highly amusing and accessible manner, not that you've played game X or not. We haven't played every game under the sun, and if you had, it'd be harder to relate to what you have to say. So in other words, just keep doing what you're doing.

+1

[Blademrk]

It's not necesary to have played (or even completed) most of the games released. I agree with Bauul, it's more the writing style - if the review/preview/whatever strikes a chord we're more likely to read more of your work.

Sometimes a background knowledge is useful, for example I played Darkstone a good few years back and it was almost identical to another popular game that was around at the time with only a few minor changes. So if I had read a review of it (which i hadn't as it was an impulse buy) I would have known that, but only if the reviewer had played that popular game doing the rounds.

[AltruiSisu]

Originally Posted by Bauul

In all honesty I don't think you need to worry. I think if you turned around and said you had a level 70 WOW character, we'd all be pretty surprised. You don't have to be a total uber-l33t gamer to be able to write about them, or the most widely played person on the planet.

Compare Oz Clark and James May on the (actually quite amusing) Oz and James series about drink. Oz Clark is undoutedly a drink know-it-all, having sampled everything and has an informed opinion on anything. But we don't care what he thinks. We care what James May thinks, the average man on the street who only really cares about the flavour and getting pissed, and who's sense of relevance and style is locked firmly in the back end of the 70s.

We care what James has to say, and not Oz, because we can empathise with him. And likewise, we care what Joe Martin, pretty much your average informed gamer, says, far more than (for example) what Fatal1ty has to say. What matters is that you're a good journalist who can write in a highly amusing and accessible manner, not that you've played game X or not. We haven't played every game under the sun, and if you had, it'd be harder to relate to what you have to say. So in other words, just keep doing what you're doing.

+2.5

[Xtrafresh]

Hi, my name is Joost and i never played Monkey Island....

[nicae]

lol@some of those not played!

Anyways, it's all about how you describe the products with text and images and how well you extract the critical aspects that people in general actually care about. Without forgetting the positives that the franchise's fanbois may want to know, or the so-and-sos that newcomers won't like to see.

You do a good job at it and have good writing skills (bad writing and typos are so distracting), so you're the man!
If I recommend you go through an old product, it's a suggestion from friend-to-friend, not from reader-to-journalist!

Cheers to the BT/CPC team for the good job and for being the best PC-driven site out there! (So many have fallen to the corrupt way of the consoles )

[fathazza]

Originally Posted by article

there are people here who are practically doctors

So its true that Hiren is a midwife?

screw not having played Diablo 2.... Have you played Diablo (1) ???

Tho to be honest its not what games reviewers have played that matters... Its whether you can trust their reviews enough to lumping out 20 to 30 quid on a game just when they say 8/10... and a lot of that is about handing the right game to the right reviewer.... Gotta love it when it all goes wrong like the football manager 2009 IGN 2/10 debacle

[tribalman]

It is totally understandable, Joe that you have not played all the games. There are many I haven't played also, either from lack of money so I can purchase the game or just disinterest in the game. I love bit-tech because as you stated "I’m judging the game on its own merits". I trust the reviews on this site more than others. Too many times a game has been given a high score, only to feel of less quality to me. Most of the time the reviewers do not backup why they give a game a lower or higher score.

[The_EXorcist]

Bit Tech and Yahtzee. The only reviewers i trust, and then i use the "try before you buy" method anyway

[Jordan Wise]

Originally Posted by The_EXorcist

Bit Tech and Yahtzee. The only reviewers i trust, and then i use the "try before you buy" method anyway

+ alec, keiron, jim and john at rock paper shotgun

[CardJoe]

Originally Posted by Jordan Wise

+ alec, keiron, jim and john at rock paper shotgun

Those guys are pretty awesome - pretty much the guys whose opinion I trust most.

[Yemerich]

Whaa?? Never played Diablo 2, Syndicate wars, stonekeep, ultima VI, Ultima VIIa, Ultima VIIb, ultima underworld 1 &2, monkey island, day of the tentacle, keystone keeper, pitfall, pac-man, the immortal, thunder force 3, ps: Torment, starcraft, dark reign, elvira, eye of the beholder, knight mare 1 & 2, shinning in darkness, king's valley 1 & 2, nemesis 1 to 5, salamander, penguin adventure, fallout 1 &2 (FO3 IS NOT FO!!!), thief, hitman... ?

If you haven't played any of those, you will die and go straight to hell without passing through the purgatory!

Well i have to admit i never had the patience to play "deus ex" more than 5 mins.... And the last console game i've played was mario 64.

If you are going to play the past 30 years of classic games (pac man will turn 30 in 2010) you are going to get mad!

PS: Yes, i've played all those i said, and TONS more

[CardJoe]

Originally Posted by Yemerich

ultima underworld 1 &2, monkey island, day of the tentacle, , pitfall, pac-man, the immortal,, ps: Torment, dark reign, elvira, eye of the beholder, fallout 1 &2 (FO3 IS NOT FO!!!), thief, hitman... ?

Played those ones

[Spaceraver]

D.O.T.T, Pac-man, Diablo I & II , Journeyman Project series, Syndicate wars and MYST. Those are the classics i can remember.

For all I care you could have stated that you never played games before you went and bought a PC for uni. You did, played some games and you love games.

That's all that matters Joe.

[Blademrk]

Blood & Magic, turn based dungeon crawler. I loved the demo I had of it but could never find the full game anywhere.