Hi this is my first blog and sign up to GI online. I have been using the GI magazine review for nearly 5 years to pick games that I would enjoy and for the most part I happy to say they are on the mark. But I lost touch with the magazine since I was on the move and a few things in real life I had to take care of. So recently I started getting back on track but much to my chagrin there was a massive change to my go to magazine. The new look is great but the content is lot less and packed in with random slogans to buy things that no would need or want ever (geek or not).
I am gong to receive hell for this but: I have to say there are few games that GI and I see differently and that's fine but it seems they have become a lot more lax at reviewing games as biases are seen throughout. First being the Ninja Gaiden 2 and Sigma 2 which I thought were a big rip off especially for the PS3 customers who were getting a game a year late but also the main game itself is nothing but a retread of the first. I am aware that Capcom games plot generally are nothing but background fodder for fun and explosive game-play but the high rating for a rehash of an older generation game was troubling. Now there are so many games out there that are a remake of an original or a long standing game franchise. It feels that most of the reviewers are paid off by the publishers to say something good about a virtual rehash. Dead Rising 2 and Crack Down 2 are a few that I had gripes with. I was actually excited to see DR2 get such a high score (since I enjoyed the first one) but when I slipped the game into the console I was introduced the glaring fact: the game looked exactly the same as the first one, some of the stores and interior spaces were clearly ripped out of the previous game. The situation is even exactly the same: wait 3 days till rescue arrives and save every survivor and clear your name in the process. You still have to keep doing the fetching quest, the improvements of mission timing is pretty much a lie, the moves and skills are now slower to get and instead of a camera you can make new improvised weapons. The saving feature is as is with more availability to save and whats worse now you have to pay extra to get some clothing items with special properties if you want to have hope of completing the game on the first round. Did I miss something here? Or somehow I got my hands on the wrong game? Crack Down 2 was the same, a shoddier iteration of the first with almost no progress.
Star Wars Unleashed 2 and Bio Shock 2 were other big offenders and I know you guys touched on the points too but seeing as how terrible a follow up it is to a potential blockbuster hit game I would have thought the score would be lower. I am not totally against rehashing a game but it has to deliver something fresh like Uncharted 2. Assasins Creed 2 and the like. It seems that each reviewer is picky about which game they would be strict with and which they would be overtly lenient with. So to summarize what happened to you guys?? All I can say is thank goodness for Game fly or I would be dead broke if I just went and put down 60 for a game that now I cannot be sure of even after reading the reviews.