Topic: Second Look Reviews

Ok since a growing trend this generation seems to be games getting released with major bugs (Assassin's Creed Unity) or incomplete (Driveclub) I see reviews of those games becoming obsolete especially if with patches nowadays a game can be quite different months after its release.

I was thinking that maybe after the games have been patched you can review again tell us how they have been fixed whether it's been good or bad and maybe a new score if need be.

I mean alot of places for example gave Driveclub a bad review when it came out but now I hear it's a really good game so how much better is it since they fixed it.

Have you guys every thought of doing something like that?

That does seem like a very good idea. I know they say first impressions count but very often those 'first' impressions are different from the actual release copy of a game. We have heard recently that the Witcher 3 pre-release version that reviewers have, does have a few minor issues with its frame-rate as well as a couple of bugs/glitches that CD Projekt has fixed with a Day 1 patch. Although it doesn't change the actual content itself, it does mean however that it could/should play more smoothly. Even minor performance issues can affect the way a reviewer scores a game - not saying it has in this case - and be different from the game that people buy.

I am sure that other games that may have scored well on release, haven't or don't live up to the score 6months + onwards too. Maybe what seemed refreshing, interesting at first, becomes tedious, annoying etc after a while. Although I expect most reviewers play the game to a good degree of completion.

Either way, opinions change as do the games through a number of patches etc. In some cases a game can be a very different thing from the day 1 release - and not just because of performance/bug fixes either. Titanfall immediately springs to mind which added a lot of customisation other game modes and even a co-op mode too after launch.

I do know that it is unlikely due to time constraints and having new games to review but do want to know how games stand up to scrutiny 6months/a year on. I often look at older games I missed out on and their reviews but those scores can be misleading.

Another way round this would be to have a 'Readers' score and/or mini review. tagged on to the end. Something similar to how publishers use multiple reviewers in their advertising - a single line taken from a review and their score. Both Metacritic and IGN have the option of allowing members to review and score a game and then give an 'average' of this. It would be great to see what the members of PushSquare think of and rate games. Maybe at the end of each year we could see how the top 10 games differ between reviewers and readers based on score too...

Whoops, looks like I missed this thread. The answer is, as usual, it's something I want to do... But, time. DriveClub is a good example because that is one we went back to: https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2015/01/opinion_why_you_should...

Ideally I'd like to do second opinions for every game. One day...

Good idea, though, and noted!

I think this is a good idea too. I also think having a second opinion in reviews wouldn't be a bad idea either if another team member played the game and wouldn't mind writing a small summary of the game along with a score.

This is an idea I like that you used to see quite often in physical gaming publications. Doesn't have to be a full review, but just a paragraph or two to give you that second opinion. Particularly helpful if you have a game that strongly appeals to fans of a certain genre, but may not sit so well with other people.

I know it's slightly off topic, but another thing I used to like was when one magazine (can't remember which) started to do a regular piece where they'd get one reviewer to play through a game that they really didn't want to - quite often something that was popular with other people but held no interest at all for them - and make them write about it. Sometimes they'd find it terrible, which in itself could be rather entertaining, but at other times they'd come out the other side converted!