12-06-2015, 04:12 PM
There are no perfect games since there are a bunch of factors involved (plus nothing really is perfect since anything have variations preventing as such). Each person likes different things so it isn't a case of universally liked games. Even highly popular games like Candy Crush, Tetris, Super Mario Bros, GTA series, FIFA have people who dislike them whether it is not to their tastes or find problems with them. Technically due to the complexity of some games, it might even be considered really imperfect due to bugs or really bad performance with slowdown/tearing/graphically glitches/physic/collision issues. Like Bethesda's games, they get high scores and people really like the games even though due to the engine there are a metric ton of bugs, some that really do annoy a person playing to the point of game breaking/inability to complete the game (why I only have one Bethesda game and the port was done by someone else, non-game of the year too since that version had some game breaking bugs). Doesn't help that many of these bugs are never fixed and some versions are still too risky to try still (e.g. Skyrim on the PS3, some consider it broken). Whether it is due to the gaming environment, publisher pressure, time limits or just don't care.
Regarding reviewers, it is to do with context of the review. A fair amount of reviews are indeed biased, both positive or negative. So someone like Jim Sterling loves Dynasty Warriors, so he will give the games a high score since he likes the game series however someone who is big on say the Last of Us and plays games for the story rather that the gameplay might give Dynasty Warriors a low score due to the repetitive gameplay controls (even if it is more than just pressing Square and Triangle) and lack of an emotional story to their interest. Many of these reviews were actually "paid off by the publisher" whether it is ad space on a website, an exclusive preview beforehand, advertising or in the case of a few games sadly had to play them with the publisher looking at them (e.g. GTA IV, Metal Gear Solid V for a few people for the latter). If they get a bad review or bad press as in that the publisher doesn't like it, they get blacklisted by a publisher for anything and has actually happened a bit recently (Kotaku is banned by Bethesda and Ubisoft, Jim Sterling is banned by Konami). It even dates back to the Spectrum days so it isn't anything new. Someone actually tried to do a subjective/balanced review of Final Fantasy XIII however the reason why more subjective reviews weren't made were because for a lot of people it is "too dry" and want to see either some praise or bash it like anything. Either that or the review was a joke.
Many 10/10 rating games are hard to call it that score whether it to reflect the score at the time or to this day. A few while I don't think are 10/10 at all (e.g. GTA IV) due to the problems of the game and possible bribery, even the games that I enjoyed that got the score (or 5/5, 100%, whatever) find it hard to make a personal judgement generally. It is really that good? Even some 6/10 games are more closer to my favourites rather than the 10s. For the past year, I have been trying all sorts of games. It is down to really like it, like it, like it but does have problems from liking it further, it's okay or just don't like it. Personal opinion and try to go for stuff with my tastes but also trying something new to see (Plus personally the quality of games on consoles has been higher compared to 10 years ago where you have some strong highs but also some very lows, it is more consistant even if the game is just okay). Actually I stopped following reviews but still aware of the bad eggs (the original one was 6/10 or higher to consider a game).
Similar things to movies, books and music. All of these get a score but they seem to have more of a free pass publically compared to games, even though personally if games shouldn't have scores neither do the other mediums. Even Rotten Tomatoes is still using a scoring system. Books don't even have a rating system for content and they get away with content that are banned/restricted in other mediums... Only a very few publishers actually tell people whether it has violence or bad language in a book. In the case of movies, I just try to watch something that fits to my tastes, I don't want to know that Magazine X or Newspaper Y gave it 4 stars (Shaun the Sheep got a high score but I found the movie sooooooo boring).
As for a game that I personally consider perfect, sadly there isn't one. OutRun 2006 was very very very very close though. Well for me it is due to the graphics/music/gameplay hitting all of the spots for me but there are a few things preventing me from calling it perfect though. If there was a category for arcade perfection that would be the closest thing to me. I do have my favourites though but none are perfect, some even have performance issues or quirks.
Regarding reviewers, it is to do with context of the review. A fair amount of reviews are indeed biased, both positive or negative. So someone like Jim Sterling loves Dynasty Warriors, so he will give the games a high score since he likes the game series however someone who is big on say the Last of Us and plays games for the story rather that the gameplay might give Dynasty Warriors a low score due to the repetitive gameplay controls (even if it is more than just pressing Square and Triangle) and lack of an emotional story to their interest. Many of these reviews were actually "paid off by the publisher" whether it is ad space on a website, an exclusive preview beforehand, advertising or in the case of a few games sadly had to play them with the publisher looking at them (e.g. GTA IV, Metal Gear Solid V for a few people for the latter). If they get a bad review or bad press as in that the publisher doesn't like it, they get blacklisted by a publisher for anything and has actually happened a bit recently (Kotaku is banned by Bethesda and Ubisoft, Jim Sterling is banned by Konami). It even dates back to the Spectrum days so it isn't anything new. Someone actually tried to do a subjective/balanced review of Final Fantasy XIII however the reason why more subjective reviews weren't made were because for a lot of people it is "too dry" and want to see either some praise or bash it like anything. Either that or the review was a joke.
Many 10/10 rating games are hard to call it that score whether it to reflect the score at the time or to this day. A few while I don't think are 10/10 at all (e.g. GTA IV) due to the problems of the game and possible bribery, even the games that I enjoyed that got the score (or 5/5, 100%, whatever) find it hard to make a personal judgement generally. It is really that good? Even some 6/10 games are more closer to my favourites rather than the 10s. For the past year, I have been trying all sorts of games. It is down to really like it, like it, like it but does have problems from liking it further, it's okay or just don't like it. Personal opinion and try to go for stuff with my tastes but also trying something new to see (Plus personally the quality of games on consoles has been higher compared to 10 years ago where you have some strong highs but also some very lows, it is more consistant even if the game is just okay). Actually I stopped following reviews but still aware of the bad eggs (the original one was 6/10 or higher to consider a game).
Similar things to movies, books and music. All of these get a score but they seem to have more of a free pass publically compared to games, even though personally if games shouldn't have scores neither do the other mediums. Even Rotten Tomatoes is still using a scoring system. Books don't even have a rating system for content and they get away with content that are banned/restricted in other mediums... Only a very few publishers actually tell people whether it has violence or bad language in a book. In the case of movies, I just try to watch something that fits to my tastes, I don't want to know that Magazine X or Newspaper Y gave it 4 stars (Shaun the Sheep got a high score but I found the movie sooooooo boring).
As for a game that I personally consider perfect, sadly there isn't one. OutRun 2006 was very very very very close though. Well for me it is due to the graphics/music/gameplay hitting all of the spots for me but there are a few things preventing me from calling it perfect though. If there was a category for arcade perfection that would be the closest thing to me. I do have my favourites though but none are perfect, some even have performance issues or quirks.