Where EDGE got it wrong:

eyerer

i've lost track of the times people have argued about their scores....i was gonna suggest they are controversial just to get attention/sales, but i dont read the thing

i like online reviews, they provide a quick opinion and also the feedback from other readers, which gives a broader picture

Burning Eclipse

Where EDGE got it right:

This would be a lot tougher, you see as ambro 25 just said EDGE has been going for 12 years and for better or worse provides their honest opinion on a huge variety of games. IMHO EDGE has provided me with more insightful information not just on games but also on the industry as a whole than any other mag I’ve picked up.

There have been times when I couldn't agree more with review scores; I read the review of FFX and was pretty disappointed to be honest. I played and loved all of them since 1 and after investing many hours in X, to give it a fair shot and all, it is definitely one of the weaker(est) final fantasies... Sin is a tremendously weak nemesis, he is completely intangible (the jecht thing was just weak) and pales in comparison to Kuja, Sephiroth and most of all Kefka. The "hero" tidus was actually a joke, and overall character design didn't bring much to the table, although Auron is one of my favourite FF characters so it's not completely without merit.

I also completely disagree with some of their scores… My favourite game and it’s tough to pin it down is probably TES3: Morrowind… 6 out of ten, WTF… My point is sure they get it wrong from time to time but here’s a news-flash: The reviewers are human, what a shock, so keeping that in mind I think they do a fine job. And as projectmayhem said they treat me like an adult… which I can safely say OXM360 for example and many others don’t.

Zombrex

eyerer wrote:

i've lost track of the times people have argued about their scores....i was gonna suggest they are controversial just to get attention/sales, but i dont read the thing

TBH I think it is more that they cut through the bullsh*t (most of the time *Halo* *cough*) around hyped games and tell you what it is actually like to play.

So something like Max Payne which everyone was giving it 95% saying it is the best action game ever. Edge gave it 6 and pointed out that it was fun but it was just the same thing over and over again. I know a few fan boys who were very pissed by that particular review, but when the dust settled Edge was right.

Same with the Final Fantasy series. Yeah they are great games and give the player a great experience, but there are some very annoying parts of the games, from some of the ridiculous characters and dialog to the random battles and combat system.

Same with the GTA series. Yes its great fun, but it is also totally linear story system and the combat is nearly unplayable. To focus on the "revolutionary" aspect of the games and simply ignore the bad bits would be bad reviewing, but a lot of reviewers got sweeped up in the hype around the series and sweeped up in the experience that allowed them to ignore the bad elements.

Most people (ie the fan boys) will ignore the bad elements of their fav game because they love the good stuff, in the same way someone will vote Star Wars or Shawshank Redemption as the best film ever made, rather than their fav films (there is a difference)

Edge reviews (certainly in the past) will give you the whole story, the good as well as the bad without the hype. This can mean their reviews can be quite different from others. But there have been very few times they have built up a game higher than it was actually worth (*Halo**cough*)

shuushh

Final Fantasy getting only a 9 was rather miserable too, the game was ground breaking, original and absolutely gorgeous for it's time.

surely the score of 9/10 would indicate all these things considering the average score in Edge is 6.6