The Sheep Speaks!

Apparently I am a sheep. Yes that's right - a sheep. According to a so-called gentleman of my acquaintance- I, readers, am a woolly, usually horned, ruminant mammal related to the goat.
And what prompted this attack? This slight on my character? Well, I mentioned that I read game reviews before buying them. Apparently the gentlemen in question regards this as sheep-like behaviour, that to read a review is to unavoidably be influenced by it.

Well it goes without saying I reject that accusation completely- so after thinking about it for a week, procrastinating for a week and dithering for a week - I got straight on the internet to correct his mistake. Here are some reasons why game reviews are great:

Game reviews are important. More important than other reviews - a film takes £5 quid and two hours of your time, a game costs ten times more in time and money. You can't just go wandering into HMV and get games based on the box art. Not if you value time and money.

Game reviews are great to read - a good review tells you what you need to know - i.e. how it feels to play the game - in an entertaining way. Check out Ste Curran's classic Monkeyball review [which he has irritatingly taken offline...grr], or Kieron Gillen's great EDF review. Avoid Playr style reviews that just list the controls. They're worse than useless.

Game reviews can cut through hype. One problem with deciding which games to buy is that games are seriously hyped to death - years of careful marketing - teasers, previews, fake websites, screenshots, viral marketing - all designed to get you wetting your pants with excitement, but it's all lies. None of it really matters until the reviews come out - which makes good unbiased reviews so vital. If a hyped to death game comes out with 4s and 5s then you know to steer clear no matter how amusing the trailer is.

It works the other way as well - game reviews can highlight great games that didn't have a multimillion pound advertising budget. I wouldn't own Katamari Damacy if it wasn't for the reviews, or Portal, or Okami or Phoenix Wright or Amplitude or well lots.

So we've all learned that game reviews are great. Without them we'd be lost in a sea of hype, all sitting and waiting for our friend to buy something so we can go round their house and try it out. And so no one would buy anything and the games industry would collapse and we'd all have to go out and find useful things to do with our time.

And no one wants that. Not even sheep.