Yikes! Elemental gets 4/10 from Gamespot, and my thoughts about it.

from Elemental Forums

The link is here.

To be honest, I'm not suprised. Stardock put a lot of effort in this game, but things just didn't work out. Also: Stardock, I think you need to get better beta testers in the future. I think quite a few signed up just so they could play the game early, ignoring what a tester is supposed to do: check for bugs. My guess is that some of these people just ignored the bugs and kept playing. That's the disadvantage of open betas.

Still, a review like this is not unexpected from Gamespot, which is really a terrible site that: 1: Has most of its reviews are done by corrupt reviewers who are easily bought by big publishers, giving 9/10 and 10/10 to games like Call of Duty when they really deserve a 6 or 7. 2: They focus excessively on the negative. I know that every reviewer criticizes things, but it is usually contructive. The guy here basically says. "Elemental just plain sucks". 3: The reviewers don't think ahead. They don't consider that there are such things as patches, updates, and additional content you don't have to pay for. (Gamespot is a mainly console site, they don't know the dynamics of the PC). Some of the sites of that gave Elemental a 9/10 understand what the game is capable of.

Still Stardock, these bad reviews are serious. They are the deciding factor in sales these days. And unfortunatly, the naysayers have a louder voice than the ones who think positively about the game, and they are more than happy to give their opinion to the masses. (That's the internet). Other major sites that aren't completely bought out will still give bad reviews because their review guidelines. PC Gamer, for example (A company that put Elemental on its Top 10 to look forward to list), says that they will only review finished game code. That means before the Day 0 patch, which people say cleared up a lot of issues. Gamespot probably only played the retail build as well.

Still, you just can't release a game with that many issues. People say there is no multiplayer, a feature that was promised at launch. These reviews will devastate Elemental's sales. Others simply don't understand that they should patch their games ups. Still there will always be those who can see past Elemental's flaws into the great game at its heart.

 

elemental
4,390 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

It's all a conspiracy!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you remember, there was so much AvP advertising around on gamespot that even I would have bet that they would get payed off to review that game better, but it got reviewed worse on gamespot than a bucketload of other reviewers in spite of the fact that it was just plain broken. Whilst it does happen, the whole world of reviewing is not a conspiracy, and many games companies have both the money and the manpower to put out games that are definitely good, ass opposed to just bribing there way to the top. People have a tendency to catch onto which reviewers and reviewing sites are actually worthwhile. Whilst many game reviews are just flat out bad it really just draws on what the reader already believes or is specifically looking to know. 

The quantitative assessment of game critics is just an arbitrary number largely based on their capacity to enjoy a game, it's the qualitative value one draws from such an experience that is truly important. Whilst I agree that Elemental has a long way to go, it's high time people, including myself (very, very much so), get over the reviews and whatnot, stop just harping on (myself included) about everything gone wrong, and start doing what the community should do - support the devs and the people in a way we should have in the beta, when we contributed to what the release date game is. 

Cheers, 

Paradoxical

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

You have no idea what you are talking about. Elemental had one of the best betas, I was in. Everything went great, there was so many great disscusion, changed mechanics, ideas all arround the place. Problem happened, at the end, where the game was rushed out. They simply needed more time, and most of the beta testers wanted that time, but was assured, that game will be released in great shape. 

There was nothing wrong with beta, it was great, game was just released too early. That is all. 

 

Ohh god, forums are really getting tired some. I hope, that this will be over in a week or two.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Did you honestly believe that despite the fact that the review is DAYS old, you were the first person to post about it?  Try to respect the forum clutter a bit.

 

Also, you are VERY ignorant about the state of the beta, There were at least several beta testers who were very vocal about releasing this game in this state.  They also didn't have access to the full game... The CEO of stardock said the text of the gamespot review was SPOT ON.  It would really behoove you to do a bit more reading here before spouting off.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I like unicorns.