A lesson to be learned from reviews

[Xipooo]

My absolute most favorite game EVER to play has been a game called M.A.G. on the PS3. It was an exclusive title for the PS3 and released with very very panned reviews. There were a few bugs in the game and some balance issues, but everyone who stuck with the game for more than a week found themselves more engrossed with a different play style than the usual COD games. HUGE open maps with lots of places for cover, but not stuck with tiny avenues of advancement. 256 players able to play on one map at one time was incredible. But overall it was the fact that strategy had to be employed over just sheer run and gun play style. To this day M.A.G. has a fantastic fan base despite the developer going out of business, and the game being 3+ years old.

It was the early panning by the reviewers that really did the game in however. On a game that relies heavily on numbers because it is multiplayer only, any negativity in the gaming community would slowly drop the numbers down to where the biggest game modes cannot be played anymore. Eventually support for the developers dried up (also because of their poor showing with SOCOM 4) that Sony dissolved them.

Folks, M.A.G. was THE BEST FPS on the PS3 console. But because of bad reviews it didn't get the attention from Sony it needed to continue being a success. I fear the same fate with Ouya. The media is manipulating the populous into thinking the Ouya is a failure before it has even been around for a full month. It was being panned during Beta for chrissake.

Ouya needs to do something big in order to turn this around, otherwise we could easily all be trying to explain what that silver paperweight is sitting next to our TV's.

[pinchez]

I totally agree with you about M.A.G. I love this game and it's one I keep going back to on PS3. I also see where your coming from with regards to the Ouya being panned by reviewers but what can they do it's their job. The problem is and will always be lack of killer App or AAA game if you like. The Ouya team created a nice little console, made a mess of releasing it then to all intense and purpose vanished off the face of the earth!

Throughout console history it's games that have sold consoles and solely putting all your eggs in the indie games basket which to most of the gaming public i.e. COD and Fifa players look garbage was never going to shift the Ouya in meaningful numbers.

What team Ouya need to do is start talking to Gameloft, Vector Unit and Mad Finger etc. and drop the emphasis on Indi games. They also need to start talking to us and and hyping the console more, create some excitement.

[madmax2069]

I take reviews as just their opinion, opinions are like buttholes, everyone has them, and those opinions sure ain't mine.

[Moonlight]

I agree in part. I don't think it's up to the opinions of reviewers to determine if you like a game or not, for example, I loved Aliens: Colonial Marines, but that game was trashed by just about everyone. Although I disagree about MAG, that game was OK, not the best on PS3 though

[Cave Four]

The same kind of thing happened with Shadowrun for the xbox360, it was an akward online only FPS that mixed melee, magic, and guns. It got bad reviews, mostly because it didn't follow the same run and gun formula as COD, yet developed a cult following over the years.

The thing about OUYA is a lot of the reviews are actually kind of true even if they do overlook the positives, most of those positives only benefit tech savvy consumers, and even most of them can find better alternatives.

I do think OUYA has a long term goal to reach the potential it has, it just not there yet and the early reviews reflect that.

But this console was brought to life by consumers and developers, a lot of people put in a lot of money to make it happen, and with all the hopes invested in the system, I just think no one wants to feel like or admit they were sold an 8 million dollar turd.

[cannonshane]

Ah man if you liked mag you would have loved socom and socom 2 back in the day. Imagine mag but with a bit smaller community so most people knew each other and played almost every day. It was like having a big online family.

[MX Woods3]

I take reviews as just their opinion, opinions are like buttholes, everyone has them, and those opinions sure ain't mine.

umm.... yea what he said..

[mwayne]

But because of bad reviews it didn't get the attention from Sony it needed to continue being a success. I fear the same fate with Ouya. The media is manipulating the populous into thinking the Ouya is a failure before it has even been around for a full month. It was being panned during Beta for chrissake.

To be honest, MAG didn't get that many bad reviews. Most of the time its around 7/10 in score. 7/10 is good but many games will be and have been passed by because they aren't a perfect 10/10 or a 9/10.

If anything MAG failed like many other Sony exclusives; bad marketing. Its a great game. I love it and Starhawk but I don't think I ever saw a MAG commercial when it came out. On the flip side I know I've seen a boat load of all of Duty commercials.

[Reaperman]

I really liked MAG, though I'm not often 'into' fps games. The huge environments were great, and there were so many players on each team, there were always more than enough people around who were worse than me. I haven't played it in so long, because I assumed everybody had moved on to 'the next game' by now.

256-player mayhem is quite the gimmick--the whole game was built around that number, but it seemingly came at the cost of a whole lot of polish. Looking at that game, I'd probably give it a solid 8/10, but at least 6 of those points come from "holy cow 256 people." The scale was really all that game had going for it, but to MAGs credit, I think it largely pulled it off.