Destructoid article on DirectX and Steam.

[ezekiel2517]

http://www.destructoid.com/valve-exp...x-207732.phtml

[Nalano]

When it is not Microsoft's fault?

[R-F]

Why is Jim Sterling still allowed to call himself a reviewer?

[Irishjohn]

I know, right? I'm so tired of that guy. Perfect example of a pretty limited amount of celebrity going completely to someone's head.

[Kadayi]

Why is Jim Sterling still allowed to call himself a reviewer?

Articles not by Jim, but yeah he's the armond White of Games Journalism.

[R-F]

Articles not by Jim, but yeah he's the armond White of Games Journalism.

That's pretty unfair on Armond White. Armond White is contrary to make a point. Jim Sterling just trolls.

"5/10 on this AAA game for nonsensical reasons."
"What is this shit, Jim? I'd understand 6 or 7 out of 10, but 5, really?"
"DON'T QUESTION ME I INVENTED OUR RATING SYSTEM!!!!!"

Despite the fact he's the only one on the site who uses it like that, whereas most are happy to go with the usual 6/7 to mediocre games and 5 for pretty bad ones.

[Smashbox]

Douchey devil's advocate: shouldn't a game halfway between awful & classic get a 5? Not to open a can on worms.

Fun fact: iPhone autocorrect doesn't like "douchey"

[Nalano]

Despite the fact he's the only one on the site who uses it like that, whereas most are happy to go with the usual 6/7 to mediocre games and 5 for pretty bad ones.

Honest question: Why are you defending the four point scale?

Seriously. If it's mediocre (and a lot of AAA titles are mediocre), it gets a 5. Hell, don't make the games industry have worse grade inflation than public schools.

[QuantaCat]

That's pretty unfair on Armond White. Armond White is contrary to make a point. Jim Sterling just trolls.

"5/10 on this AAA game for nonsensical reasons."
"What is this shit, Jim? I'd understand 6 or 7 out of 10, but 5, really?"
"DON'T QUESTION ME I INVENTED OUR RATING SYSTEM!!!!!"

Despite the fact he's the only one on the site who uses it like that, whereas most are happy to go with the usual 6/7 to mediocre games and 5 for pretty bad ones.

Though you have to admit that those rating systems dont make sense.

[R-F]

Honest question: Why are you defending the four point scale?

Seriously. If it's mediocre (and a lot of AAA titles are mediocre), it gets a 5. Hell, don't make the games industry have worse grade inflation than public schools.

I'm not. It just irritates me that he's not doing it to make a point, but instead doing it for siteclicks and the enjoyment of trolling.

[Kadayi]

Yeah I thought his Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days was the best. I mean sure it's no Mona Lisa but it was a perfectly serviceable game 5-6/10 with an effective gritty aesthetic to it (I'm hoping Hitman Absolution takes some cues from it), yet Jim awards it 1/10 for no good reason beyond wanting to impress his fans ('tell it like it is Jim!!!') and ride on the coat tails of Gerstmanngate, way after Jeff Gerstmann had long put that behind him. Pathetic really. As regards later answers a 1/10 is a score a truly broken game deserves and K&L2 wasn't broken. Still given his ever expanding BMI I doubt Jim will be around to trouble us for long, the rate he's going.

[Nalano]

I'm not. It just irritates me that he's not doing it to make a point, but instead doing it for siteclicks and the enjoyment of trolling.

What, and Yatzhee doesn't?

Hell, I'll take a troll over a shill.

Yeah I thought his Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days was the best. I mean sure it's no Mona Lisa but it was a perfectly serviceable game 5-6/10 with an effective gritty aesthetic to it (I'm hoping Hitman Absolution takes some cues from it), yet Jim awards it 1/10 for no good reason beyond wanting to impress his fans ('tell it like it is Jim!!!') and ride on the coat tails of Gerstmanngate, way after Jeff Gerstmann had long put that behind him. Pathetic really.

I, too, enjoyed K&L2 for its aesthetic and its gritty tone, despite its lackluster gameplay. But then, I tend not to take stock in most reviews.

[R-F]

What, and Yatzhee doesn't?

Hell, I'll take a troll over a shill.

Did I say that? I LIKE Yahtzee, but I think it's retarded to call him a reviewer when his style is blatantly ranting.

[Kadayi]

I, too, enjoyed K&L2 for its aesthetic and its gritty tone, despite its lackluster gameplay. But then, I tend not to take stock in most reviews.

Even so, 1/10 is a troll score.

Did I say that? I LIKE Yahtzee, but I think it's retarded to call him a reviewer when his style is blatantly ranting.

Yahtzee was amusing (it's gotten a little 'tired' now), but yeah he's not to be taken seriously, and certainly not when it comes to the worth of a game.

[deano2099]

I'm not. It just irritates me that he's not doing it to make a point, but instead doing it for siteclicks and the enjoyment of trolling.

Unless you're a developer, people who get offended by games getting low scores deserve to be trolled.

[deano2099]

Even so, 1/10 is a troll score.

Depends how the rating system works. And how he interprets it. The sad thing is we're criticising a games writer based on the score he gave a game, rather than the quality of the review itself, which hasn't even been mentioned.

But god knows I want to live in a world where a game can upset me enough that I want to give it 1/10, while getting a different reaction from other people.

[Smashbox]

The sad thing is we're criticising a games writer based on the score he gave a game, rather than the quality of the review itself, which hasn't even been mentioned.

BOOM. Getting salient up in this bitch.

[Nalano]

But god knows I want to live in a world where a game can upset me enough that I want to give it 1/10, while getting a different reaction from other people.

Like I said, I prefer trolls over shills.

[deano2099]

Does Ebert get accused of trolling when he gives a film one star?

It is interesting actually, in that it is possible for a game to be 'broken' in the way a film really can't be. I mean technically it can, all the shots could be out of focus or all the scenes too dark to see what's going on, but it's basically accepted that this just doesn't happen. And if it does nowhere will screen it and nowhere will review it. It's an irrelevancy.

I think that is part of the cause of the upswing in games scores over the past 20 years or so. Really low scores (less than 40%) were reserved for games that were objectively broken. The scale of subjectivity only really started around 5/10. Even if I really hated a game, if it functioned, it was worth a 5 at least.

What was the last commercial, broken game you heard about? (and let's leave off the WoW /DNF/UbiDRM jokes for now). It just doesn't happen anymore. On console it'd never pass the QA process the platform owners run. It maybe happens in PC indie stuff but I can't think of any examples.

The medium is growing up and we need to get past the point where 1/10 is reserved for games that crash after the intro movie.

[ezekiel2517]

I disliked his 6/10 review of The Witcher 2 as much as the next PC gamer, but his recent videos on the escapist have made me like him.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vide...w/jimquisition

I recommend "Linearity vs Replayability" or "Metacritic Isn't the Problem". Funnily enough, in the last one he makes the point some of you are discussing of in the thread. If you watch "Fight in the Name of Childishness", you can sort of understand why he is so loud and even annoying, too... And there goes another thread thrown off topic to argue about Jim Sterling.