I would like to see a system that has set categories (like gameplay, graphics quality/style) and then adds up the total of all of them and then that is the review. It prevents the reviewer from over-obsessing over one detail of the game but still leaves room for that one aspect to bring the whole score down. Also I think a total of other game sites reviews would be good as well. Just so we can see what other sites thing of it. Not every game is on metacritic. That's just what I would like to see though.
This was a very good decision, and it is a pleasure to see a lot of reasonable posts in all three relevant threads, including those from Jon.
One thing that I wonder about though is the history of the reviewer, because it appears the reviewer has been using a computer inadequate for a fair review for quite some time. Someone posted the list of games and quotes where the reviewer repeatedly and consistently encounters severe lag issues with every (?) game he reviewed. My jaw kind of dropped when I saw the strength of the pattern there. It may be worthwhile going back to those other reviews and simply noting somewhere that the lag issues the reviewer drew attention to are likely to be the fault of the reviewer's hardware and not the game.
In a way, it is a testament to Fallen Earth that it was the review of this game that uncovered the mistake. And really, well done to those in the community that realised something was quite wrong and got to the bottom of it.
Those that disagree with the retraction are simply not being reasonable or do not know the facts... you cannot justify a review of any computer game where minimum system requirements are not met by the reviewer. Almost surely the game will run badly to the point of being frustrating to play. I do not understand why other people do not understand this.
A quite separate issue is the gap between the positive tone of the text and the final score. This is a grey area. How one person perceives 6.9 out of 10 is not the same as another. What one *can* do is evaluate the score in the context of review scores found on mmorpg and this is in fact where the gap becomes more clearly a problem and contributed to the retraction.
So, on both counts, I think the retraction and the rethink of the review process are very sensible moves indeed.
I can only pray all of this complaining has not lost a man his job. If he felt it was a 6.9 his opinion should not cost his lively hood.
Also guys, a drop in frame rate -is- lag. There are multiple forms of lag and that happens to be one of them. Network lag is another.
It's not the score that would cost him his job, but his incompetence in performing his job. It's like a nuclear engineer claiming he has a doctorate when it turns out he really only has an associates in applied science. He played the game with a system that was below specs then complained about lag issues that were, more than likely, caused by his sub-par system. Then, he went on to correct himself that the 2 gigs he was referring to were his video card RAM, rather than his system RAM, notwithstanding that Corsair doesn't even make video RAM or that he had claimed the same system specs for all of his reviews that he had done. So to compound his incompetence, he lied about it. If he still had a job, he would be quite lucky, as I don't know of very many companies that would support such behavior.
Obviously the review was made in error. Those that disagree are just not that smart.
So if 0 is off the charts bad, and 10 is off the charts good, I think 6.whatever is accurate, as in above average, but just barely. That is about the same sentiment I have as well.
The game is just slightly above average. There are no participation trophies here.
Obviously the review was made in error. Those that disagree are just not that smart.
So if 0 is off the charts bad, and 10 is off the charts good, I think 6.whatever is accurate, as in above average, but just barely. That is about the same sentiment I have as well.
The game is just slightly above average. There are no participation trophies here.
Or are there?
I rest my case.
You can't handle the case!
OmaliMMO Business CorrespondentMemberUncommonPosts: 1,177
Originally posted by Salvatoris
Why is 6 of ten seen as a terrible review? What are 1-5 for?? It seems like most of the people here want the review scale to be 8-10, and that is just absurd to me. 10 is a perfect score, so 8 and 9 are damn near perfect. Very few people think Fallen Earth is anywhere near a perfect, so why should it get anything higher than 6 or 7?
Most people associate a 6/10 as a bad score because if you get a 6 out of 10 on a test, you failed it. People turn it into a percentage rate, and then use that based on what they would expect from, say, a school test.
This is what you get with a fairly shoddy system of what are basically fan reviews. If this guy getting caught out lying about his system specs is what it takes to reform the system, then good. Clearly, at a minimum, reviewers should be heavily vetted for gaming experience, professionalism, objectivity and some degree of technical knowledge as well as the ability to write. I somehow doubt that will shrink the pool of potential free reviewers to nothing.
The specific review in question being right or not doesn't matter; in fact it was fairly close, but anyone could synthesize that from forum threads. The point of a review is to trust that the person actually played and tried the game on a reasonable machine and this guy has blown that trust.
Why is 6 of ten seen as a terrible review? What are 1-5 for?? It seems like most of the people here want the review scale to be 8-10, and that is just absurd to me. 10 is a perfect score, so 8 and 9 are damn near perfect. Very few people think Fallen Earth is anywhere near a perfect, so why should it get anything higher than 6 or 7?
Most people associate a 6/10 as a bad score because if you get a 6 out of 10 on a test, you failed it. People turn it into a percentage rate, and then use that based on what they would expect from, say, a school test.
You should also note that it is a comparative score. If bad games were truly rated 1-5, then a 6 may not be so bad. However, a 6 is in the bottom rung of MMOs.
Besides, it wasn't the score that mattered at all. It was reviewing the game with an underspecced machine and then dropping the score because it didn't perform well.
Even from someone who isn't spending time in this game anymore, I thought the review was one of the worse ones ever. The man did not meet the system requirements. That alone makes your website reviews look really really bad.
I don't care if its FE, Aion, Champions, SWKOR, or a re-review. If your not meeting the minimum requirements you:
A: should not be able to review the game
B: not allowed to review anything else
C: as a company that prides itself, should honestly have review machines(I am assuming that is not possible, and if not, then take two reviews to judge performance, one on a high end and one on a minimum requirement.
I think many who are saying they shouldn't do this should look at the picture: You failed to meet the requirements of the game so Framerate of course will be an issue, but that could also be a lag. (I know for a fact up to a week ago(My last login) I had 20-30seconds of lag before I could effectively play) And thus your whole performance article and only complaint on the game as being LAG was invalid.
bad move mmorpg.com seams tears change stuff but in darkfall that dint happen (many ppl whine on darkfall review and said the given score is to big exactly the opposite that happen on FE and mmorpg.com dint retracted) maybe because darkfall dint have any promotion on this site ?
Well i personally thought the review score was ok and could have been lower if it was me i would have gave it a 5/10.
I cant beleave it was retracted seriously what is the point of this website anymore.
If a review isnt liked it get's retracted ?
I didnt like the fact you gave aion a big score can we have that retracted ? no.
Fallen Earth at the end of the day is a sub par game sub par graphics sub par code sub par everything its a complete amature event of a game and isnt even worth the box price and it is fooking laggy and a pile of garbage.
THE REVIEW SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN RETRACTED WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS WEBSITE ANYMORE.
yes because leaving that mistake of a review well alone would have been the right move /sarcasm off
Well, yeah. It would have. Now those of us who haven't read it, never can. Post a disclaimer if you wish, but leave it up. If it is flawed, then other posters can point that out quite ably.
Stifling speech is very rarely a good thing. This is a bad precedent.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Well i personally thought the review score was ok and could have been lower if it was me i would have gave it a 5/10. I cant beleave it was retracted seriously what is the point of this website anymore.
If a review isnt liked it get's retracted ? I didnt like the fact you gave aion a big score can we have that retracted ? no. Fallen Earth at the end of the day is a sub par game sub par graphics sub par code sub par everything its a complete amature event of a game and isnt even worth the box price and it is fooking laggy and a pile of garbage.
THE REVIEW SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN RETRACTED WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS WEBSITE ANYMORE. GROW SOME FUCKING BALLS.
Admitting that you made a mistake actually requires balls.
If you had read the review then you would have known that is was not about the score but about the argumentation used in the review.
BTW, your failcom avatar is getting REALLY old, it does fit the rest of your post though
yes because leaving that mistake of a review well alone would have been the right move /sarcasm off
Well, yeah. It would have. Now those of us who haven't read it, never can. Post a disclaimer if you wish, but leave it up. If it is flawed, then other posters can point that out quite ably.
Stifling speech is very rarely a good thing. This is a bad precedent.
"Death is just a set back."
This is a fitting quote from the "opening" of the game. I'm glad it was just a set back. If it were any more than that, I'm afraid I wouldn't have proceeded too far into the game. Well nobody said surviving in a post-apocalyptic world would be easy. In fact it can be down right complicated. Fallen Earth is the latest in what seems to be a myriad of both computer and console post-apocalyptic themed games hitting the market these days. Let's face it, folks love the apocalypse, from movies, to comics to games. This game encompasses all the classic elements of this genre: the struggle to survive, the triumph of the human spirit to over come all odds, and the chance to smash some mutants in the head with a giant metal pipe. This time the apocalypse is heralded upon the world courtesy of the Shiva virus. Nobody knows for sure where it came from, OK, well they know where it started. The details of the virus is just one of the mysteries involved in the game. Nevertheless it leaves the world decimated. That's where the player comes in, a ravaged and mutated planet.
Gameplay
The opening of the game begins with your character creation. The developers have done a great job in the amount of detail you can select while creating your character. Give the random selection a shot, you may find some combinations you never thought of trying. Players will be able to create up to four characters. The game starts with a reasonably solid tutorial. It allows those of us who ignore any gaming instruction manuals to jump right into playing the game. The majority of game play basics are covered in this tutorial; movement, advancement points and combat are walked through. Mercifully the tutorial can be skipped when creating multiple characters. I was originally worried about being subjected to the exact same scenario with each new character I created. Once in the game itself, players will have the option of choosing what direction they would like to customize their build. Will you be more combat oriented or more of technical based player? I would suggest that you start off your first character with the combat oriented starting zones, specifically the pistol starting area. Keep those combat skills sharp and keep yourself alive. As you become more adept with the game, you can chose to level up additional characters in a less combat intense method.
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Advancement Points
These are the points players earn through leveling and questing. This is the major point that makes Fallen Earth stand apart from their counterparts. With no classes and no predetermined talent trees, players are free to create whatever type of character they decide.
Players can decide to focus on their physical prowess or to increase their talents. These are not easy decisions. Will you try and be a well rounded character and level all your skills together? Another option is to commit a large of skill points into a single skill. Be careful with this method, you don't want to master any one skill at the complete exclusion of other skills. This is truly an example of where the statement "jack of all trades, master of none" applies. By now I'm sure there exists a number of suggested builds lurking on the web. Have any readers out there found one that works better for them, please share it with us in the comments section.
Crafting
Fallen Earth treats a player right with beginning crafting. A player is supplied with every beginning crafting set needed in the game. What you decide to focus on is up to you. Everybody will have their own opinion on what is the best method of advancement. Do you build weapons first? Or would you focus on medical to keep yourself healed? How about cooking? You can't fight on an empty stomach. Crafting in the game is extremely extensive and worthy of its own article. As boasted on the website and mentioned a numerous times, the best items in game are crafted. Only time will tell exactly what those best items are. Crafting in Fallen Earth works like most crafting systems. Find a recipe, learn the recipe, gather your materials and craft away.
Factions
Fallen Earth has decided to up the ante by boasting six factions rather than the measly two factions found in other games. As if there weren't enough decisions for players to contemplate between advancement points and crafting, now folks need to concentrate on their factions as well. Players will have the option of remaining neutral amongst these six factions. There is no real benefit to following this course of action. Choosing a faction will open a significant amount of the story line. Story not your thing? Well how about that each faction will open new gear and abilities to the players? Players will have a primary faction, two allied factions, one nemesis and two enemy factions (your nemesis's allies). This may seem all very confusing, fortunately there is a built in meter in the game to keep track of where you stand with all the factions. Each of these factions has their own distinct look and feel, which are all clearly outlined in the game and the Fallen Earth website.
Combat
The combat system in Fallen Earth stands apart from the majority of current MMOs on the market. There is no tabbed targeting, and no sticky targeting. Combat is a form of third person shooter. These may take folks some time to become more adept. Many players familiar with first person console shooters won't find the learning curve to be that great. I found it a little unwieldy with a keyboard and mouse rather than console controller. Players enter combat by hitting the tab key. This will bring up the "reticule". This is the targeting mechanism that will decide whether you live or die. Sure, in my case it was mostly die, but I digress. The reticule will allow you target both your melee and ranged weapons. Melee combat is what one would expect from that type of combat. Keep your reticule on your target, and keep on swinging, stabbing, or hacking away. The goal here is try and keep mobile. This is a great assistance in the early levels of the game. More often then not you won't have the luxury of playing "who has more health". Don't trade blows with your opponent. Hit and move. The reticule becomes even more important in ranged combat. Take your time targeting your opponent. Where you hit your opponent will decide on the amount of damage they receive. For example a head shot will cause more damage than a shot to the leg. I'm sure that throughout the game where you shoot for maximum damage will change. So be aware of your opponent's strength and weaknesses. As your ranged weapon skills improve the targeting reticule will improve. The smaller and tighter the reticule, the more damage you will cause. Get those shots in from a safe distance, with luck you'll have killed your target prior to them closing into melee combat.
User Interface
Fallen Earth's interface is fairly standard. You have your generic hotbar, mini map and text box. Nothing really stands out here, nor is it lacking in function. Although there is a nice help bar to the side of your screen which stays hidden. You can opt to turn it off, but it does offer quite a bit of information for the beginning player. A nice function of the interface allows players to have the ability to quickly scroll through their weapons. Either using the CTRL key and corresponding weapon number or through use of the mouse wheel (assuming you have one). Players can control their movement through the used of WASD, arrows keys or the mouse. Since your mouse plays the most significant role in targeting, I found the WASD movement to the most effective method of game play.
Visual/Audio
The player looks great when they have all six weapon slots filled. It adds to the unique character look.
The environmental graphics are clean and crisp, although not particularly earth shattering. It seems to be a draw back that faces most of the more "realistic" games. Players have certain expectation of how the world would look. We know what a building on Earth would look like, so there isn't much room for embellishment. The graphics are very appropriate for the feel of the game. It's a ruined world, and the images and design reflect that. The colors are very dreary. It can get a little depressing. I suppose that's why the game isn't named Happy Fun Time Adventure.
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As with the graphics the score and sound effects match the feel of the game. The score was subtle enough not to overpower the game play. Overall the audio is about the standard of what players have come to expect.
Community
The players of Fallen Earth are certainly passionate about the game. This is evident at first in the amount of scrolling text in the default help chat box. Players seemed more than happy to provide answers to questions posted. Keep an eye out for your answer, this text box moves quickly. Another positive aspect of the community for Fallen Earth was constantly seeing an active GM in chat. For some it may seem a little too Big Brother, but I found it refreshing. They were actually proactive in chat. Whether it was just keeping the peace or redirecting players to a more useful channel. In other games it seems that a GM is a myth or on a perpetual break. It's far from the case here. The game's website has all the information that a player could hope to find. It's a solid source of information for both the novice and veteran alike. Give it a read, I'm more than certain they can fill out many of the gaps that I miss. The folks at Fallen Earth are also hopping on the seasonal event band wagon. Just because it's near the end of civilization as we know it, there's no excuse not to have a little seasonal joy. There have been many contents and promotions over the development of the game and I would assume these types of events will continue through the life of the game. As with most game there is a solid and active forum community. Which quite frankly acts like most forums, there is enough useful information as well as your typical forum gripes.
Performance/Lag
I am running Fallen Earth with Windows Vista Ultimate on a Dual Core E6750 @2.66, Dual ATI Radeon HD 3850, 4 Gigs of RAM and cable modem. The game installed without an issue and looked great. Unfortunately during game play is where I ran into considerable lag. By considerable I mean mind numbing, relentless lag. There were moments I would rather slam a part of me in a car door than try and move in the game. In the spirit of fairness, I tried a variety of Internet speed tests to check my connection, no problem there. From there I tried a couple of the more popular games out there, and they all worked just fine. Maybe it was just a glitch, but after multiple days of play, the lag just wouldn't quit. I pray I am in the minority and with luck perhaps I am the only one afflicted with this issue. Playing the game just became painful after awhile. It may be from the fact that there is only one server for the game. I expect a form of lag in the more populated areas, but not when I am running across a secluded wasteland with nothing more than a mutant chicken for company. I don't mind dying from a superior enemy, or even my inability to play a game. But death from lag is just plain unacceptable. I have to say that the folks at Fallen Earth have been making constant improvements from the game launch. Hopefully this issue will be addressed, or perhaps when the game settles into niche, the game may stabilize.
Closing Opinion
Fallen Earth will certainly find its niche with a particular type of player. The open advancement system certainly holds a great appeal for players tired of being pigeon holed by traditional class systems. The fast paced nature of the combat system is certainly not for everybody. I personally found the game a little difficult to play, perhaps it was the lag. For those looking for a solid challenge, Fallen Earth is for you. There is no cookie cutter format with this type of game play. You are what you make yourself in this game. Do you challenge yourself to be the ultimate warrior or the ultimate crafter? The greater the challenge the greater the reward for players. According to the folks at Fallen Earth, the best items in the game are player created. There is nothing standing between a player and their in game greatness other than the time and effort the player is willing to invest. There is less of a random element involved, but it will be up to the players to figure out what path they should follow.
Looks perfectly reasonable to me, mmorpg.com have really damaged their credibility by retracting this review just because the publishers of Fallen Earth cried about it. Pretty hard to have any faith in the accuracy of anything they publish here in the future.
Looks perfectly reasonable to me, mmorpg.com have really damaged their credibility by retracting this review just because the publishers of Fallen Earth cried about it. Pretty hard to have any faith in the accuracy of anything they publish here in the future.
Ok one more time and im out. The reviewer didn't meet req specs for the game so his review is flawed.
who cares what the review or score was it was flawed from the first word he wrote.
if it gets reviewed again by someone with a high end computer and gives it a 5.2 good its legit and that will be that.
The following statement is false The previous statement is true
Ok one more time and im out. The reviewer didn't meet req specs for the game so his review is flawed. who cares what the review or score was it was flawed from the first word he wrote. So his comments about APs, factions, and combat are worthless - even though they are not related to perfomance? BS. if it gets reviewed again by someone with a high end computer and gives it a 5.2 good its legit and that will be that.
I bet it won't be.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Looks perfectly reasonable to me, mmorpg.com have really damaged their credibility by retracting this review just because the publishers of Fallen Earth cried about it. Pretty hard to have any faith in the accuracy of anything they publish here in the future.
Gaming sites are basically a venue for cheap advertising.
I don't expect any journalistic integrity.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
I think the problem with past reviews is that it has been left up to the reviewer as to how to grant the final score. This also creates a problem because even though scores here are on a scale of 1 - 10, most scores end up between 6 - 10. Anything lower is usually reserved for anything so bad that a low score is given for the sake of giving a low score. In fact, I would suggest MMORPG.com move to a 4 or 5 star rating system (being that 5-6 on a 10 pt scale is considered low even though it really is average). 1 star - horrible don't even bother, can't recommend 2 star - heavily flawed and few redeeming qualities, would not recommend 3 star - rough around the edges and may be worth a look for a few redeeming qualities, may or may not recommend depending on the player 4 star - a must try despite a few flaws, would recommend 5 star - a must try, definitely recommend Don't bother with half stars or decimals. Its either a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. If its not a 5 and not a 3 then its a 4, not a 3.5 or a 4.5, just a 4. Partial scores/points/stars tend to encourage inflation of scores. The final score should reflect the overall experience. I've played many games where an average may put the game at a 3. However, maybe the story was so good and intriguing that it made the overall game experience a 4. Examples: For example, I'd give Aion a 4. Its polished, looks great, plays great, but content is bare at higher levels and level design can be bland. It provides an overall positive, yet very standard MMO experience but may grow tiresome as players reach higher levels due to drop off in content and poorly designed/poorly rewarding objectives. It is a game I would recommend to other players to at least try as the pvp, setting, and overall presentation may appeal to many gamers.
Fallen Earth would be given a 3. Overall, the game is rough around the edges. The art is, while pleasing to the eye, is inconsistent with the occasional rough animation, texture or poorly modeled figure. The gameplay isn't as smooth or refined and has a fairly clunky feel to it. Players will either learn to enjoy/accept combat or they will never grasp the controls and fight against the mechanics of it. Crafting is meaningful but because the design encourages players to provide for themselves, the economy is lacking and will continue to do so until players are encouraged to rely on others. The game is more akin to a post-apocolyptic AC in that players will level up but are free to invest in skills that they chose. For that reason, the game will have the open ended/sandbox feeling of UO and SWG but still feel linear as players most level up and advance to level appropriate areas. Because of the inconsistent presentation, awkward combat, and niche appeal, it would be hard to recommend to the mainstream gamer. However, despite it's misgivings players looking for something a little different may find the game both enjoyable and challenging - and would be a "must try" in that case.
At the risk of giving a hint... You're operating very close to my brainwave with this post. Please, adjust your dial
I fully agree with rwyan.
Although as being done by others web sites you should have a general score form 1-5, and sub scores from 1 to 20 or even 1 to 100 for
Graphics
Animations
Sound
UI, mods and so
PVE content & questing
PvP content
General polishing / bugs
Customer's support
Solo playability
Crafting
Time sinks & grinding
Backgroud / storyline
etc...
Along with each entry you would point at each game that has the best score.
For example let's say you score Fallen earth crafting to 60%, your notation would be viewed very differently by players depending you set WoW or SWG at 100%.
The interest to have sub score is not all players are interested in crafting or PvP or maybe for some, bad characters animations are killing the fun.
I don't agree with that point specifically. I'm not trying to pick a fight with you. A lot of people have made the same point here, and I just think it's silly. Why is 6 of ten seen as a terrible review? What are 1-5 for?? It seems like most of the people here want the review scale to be 8-10, and that is just absurd to me. 10 is a perfect score, so 8 and 9 are damn near perfect. Very few people think Fallen Earth is anywhere near a perfect, so why should it get anything higher than 6 or 7? IMO, no number of innovative features can make up for the combination of poor performance and lackluster graphics. If I had 20 positive things to say about this game, and my one negative was that performance was terrible, I would rate the game pretty low.
Even if you were running the game on a CompuAdd 386? "performance is terrible" isn't an objective thing. You can'r run a game on a shit computer, and dock the review for the performance. That makes zero sense. And "I heard a bunch of other people are having performance issues too" doesn't matter at all. If you were going to consider that, then why even play the game yourself before writing the review? Just compile a list of stuff you heard, and give it a rating based on that; and lose your job, because nobody wants your anecdotal review.
To your first point, WHY 6 out of 10 is taken as bad doesn't matter at all. What matters is that it IS, and that the reviewer (if he deserves his job) knew that when he gave the score. It has nothing to do with the 'people on this forum', or MMORPG, or anything else. It's much bigger than that. Scores under 7.0 are largely negative. If a single reviewer decides in his head that anything over 5 should be positive, and gives rating 6 reviews to good games, then that reviewer is a jackass.
Now I'm starting to wonder if read any reviews at all.
I think the biggest point of contention is the write-up vs the score. It was really cried foul when the two did not meet up.
It would have been the same level of outrage if the writer had said:
Graphics - Not great
Sound - Mediocre
Combat - Vanilla
Community - Mean
Performance - Runs Smooth
Score 8/10
Reviews are subjective. But when the write up does not match the score, then there is something wrong. If he would have trashed the game, then gave it a poor score, there would have been outrage at his opinion, but not the review. In this case, the two things were so far from eachother that they just didn't match.
When you look farther, he gave poor scores based off lag, which is due to his own underperforming system. This added fuel to the fire, but the main point was the write-up/score mismatch.
Ok one more time and im out. The reviewer didn't meet req specs for the game so his review is flawed.
i dont remember very well but x1300 (min required) have 256 mb like hd 3850(used on the reivew)
It was his RAM,you posted many replies yet you never even read the review or this thread it would seem.
The reviewer only had 2gb RAM and was using Vista,which do not meet the requirements for the game,also he had reviewed 3 or 4 other game's in the past and always said lag was a problem,which was hardly surprising since he was indeed only using 2gb RAM with Vista.
Now hopefully I mentioned RAM and Vista enough for your eye to catch at least 1 of them as you glance through the thread.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
Comments
I would like to see a system that has set categories (like gameplay, graphics quality/style) and then adds up the total of all of them and then that is the review. It prevents the reviewer from over-obsessing over one detail of the game but still leaves room for that one aspect to bring the whole score down. Also I think a total of other game sites reviews would be good as well. Just so we can see what other sites thing of it. Not every game is on metacritic. That's just what I would like to see though.
This was a very good decision, and it is a pleasure to see a lot of reasonable posts in all three relevant threads, including those from Jon.
One thing that I wonder about though is the history of the reviewer, because it appears the reviewer has been using a computer inadequate for a fair review for quite some time. Someone posted the list of games and quotes where the reviewer repeatedly and consistently encounters severe lag issues with every (?) game he reviewed. My jaw kind of dropped when I saw the strength of the pattern there. It may be worthwhile going back to those other reviews and simply noting somewhere that the lag issues the reviewer drew attention to are likely to be the fault of the reviewer's hardware and not the game.
In a way, it is a testament to Fallen Earth that it was the review of this game that uncovered the mistake. And really, well done to those in the community that realised something was quite wrong and got to the bottom of it.
Those that disagree with the retraction are simply not being reasonable or do not know the facts... you cannot justify a review of any computer game where minimum system requirements are not met by the reviewer. Almost surely the game will run badly to the point of being frustrating to play. I do not understand why other people do not understand this.
A quite separate issue is the gap between the positive tone of the text and the final score. This is a grey area. How one person perceives 6.9 out of 10 is not the same as another. What one *can* do is evaluate the score in the context of review scores found on mmorpg and this is in fact where the gap becomes more clearly a problem and contributed to the retraction.
So, on both counts, I think the retraction and the rethink of the review process are very sensible moves indeed.
It's not the score that would cost him his job, but his incompetence in performing his job. It's like a nuclear engineer claiming he has a doctorate when it turns out he really only has an associates in applied science. He played the game with a system that was below specs then complained about lag issues that were, more than likely, caused by his sub-par system. Then, he went on to correct himself that the 2 gigs he was referring to were his video card RAM, rather than his system RAM, notwithstanding that Corsair doesn't even make video RAM or that he had claimed the same system specs for all of his reviews that he had done. So to compound his incompetence, he lied about it. If he still had a job, he would be quite lucky, as I don't know of very many companies that would support such behavior.
So if 0 is off the charts bad, and 10 is off the charts good, I think 6.whatever is accurate, as in above average, but just barely. That is about the same sentiment I have as well.
The game is just slightly above average. There are no participation trophies here.
Or are there?
I rest my case.
So if 0 is off the charts bad, and 10 is off the charts good, I think 6.whatever is accurate, as in above average, but just barely. That is about the same sentiment I have as well.
The game is just slightly above average. There are no participation trophies here.
Or are there?
I rest my case.
You can't handle the case!
Most people associate a 6/10 as a bad score because if you get a 6 out of 10 on a test, you failed it. People turn it into a percentage rate, and then use that based on what they would expect from, say, a school test.
This is what you get with a fairly shoddy system of what are basically fan reviews. If this guy getting caught out lying about his system specs is what it takes to reform the system, then good. Clearly, at a minimum, reviewers should be heavily vetted for gaming experience, professionalism, objectivity and some degree of technical knowledge as well as the ability to write. I somehow doubt that will shrink the pool of potential free reviewers to nothing.
The specific review in question being right or not doesn't matter; in fact it was fairly close, but anyone could synthesize that from forum threads. The point of a review is to trust that the person actually played and tried the game on a reasonable machine and this guy has blown that trust.
Most people associate a 6/10 as a bad score because if you get a 6 out of 10 on a test, you failed it. People turn it into a percentage rate, and then use that based on what they would expect from, say, a school test.
You should also note that it is a comparative score. If bad games were truly rated 1-5, then a 6 may not be so bad. However, a 6 is in the bottom rung of MMOs.
Besides, it wasn't the score that mattered at all. It was reviewing the game with an underspecced machine and then dropping the score because it didn't perform well.
Even from someone who isn't spending time in this game anymore, I thought the review was one of the worse ones ever. The man did not meet the system requirements. That alone makes your website reviews look really really bad.
I don't care if its FE, Aion, Champions, SWKOR, or a re-review. If your not meeting the minimum requirements you:
A: should not be able to review the game
B: not allowed to review anything else
C: as a company that prides itself, should honestly have review machines(I am assuming that is not possible, and if not, then take two reviews to judge performance, one on a high end and one on a minimum requirement.
I think many who are saying they shouldn't do this should look at the picture: You failed to meet the requirements of the game so Framerate of course will be an issue, but that could also be a lag. (I know for a fact up to a week ago(My last login) I had 20-30seconds of lag before I could effectively play) And thus your whole performance article and only complaint on the game as being LAG was invalid.
bad move mmorpg.com seams tears change stuff but in darkfall that dint happen (many ppl whine on darkfall review and said the given score is to big exactly the opposite that happen on FE and mmorpg.com dint retracted) maybe because darkfall dint have any promotion on this site ?
BestSigEver :P
Well i personally thought the review score was ok and could have been lower if it was me i would have gave it a 5/10.
I cant beleave it was retracted seriously what is the point of this website anymore.
If a review isnt liked it get's retracted ?
I didnt like the fact you gave aion a big score can we have that retracted ? no.
Fallen Earth at the end of the day is a sub par game sub par graphics sub par code sub par everything its a complete amature event of a game and isnt even worth the box price and it is fooking laggy and a pile of garbage.
THE REVIEW SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN RETRACTED WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS WEBSITE ANYMORE.
GROW SOME FUCKING BALLS.
Well, yeah. It would have. Now those of us who haven't read it, never can. Post a disclaimer if you wish, but leave it up. If it is flawed, then other posters can point that out quite ably.
Stifling speech is very rarely a good thing. This is a bad precedent.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Admitting that you made a mistake actually requires balls.
If you had read the review then you would have known that is was not about the score but about the argumentation used in the review.
BTW, your failcom avatar is getting REALLY old, it does fit the rest of your post though
Well, yeah. It would have. Now those of us who haven't read it, never can. Post a disclaimer if you wish, but leave it up. If it is flawed, then other posters can point that out quite ably.
Stifling speech is very rarely a good thing. This is a bad precedent.
"Death is just a set back."
This is a fitting quote from the "opening" of the game. I'm glad it was just a set back. If it were any more than that, I'm afraid I wouldn't have proceeded too far into the game. Well nobody said surviving in a post-apocalyptic world would be easy. In fact it can be down right complicated. Fallen Earth is the latest in what seems to be a myriad of both computer and console post-apocalyptic themed games hitting the market these days. Let's face it, folks love the apocalypse, from movies, to comics to games. This game encompasses all the classic elements of this genre: the struggle to survive, the triumph of the human spirit to over come all odds, and the chance to smash some mutants in the head with a giant metal pipe. This time the apocalypse is heralded upon the world courtesy of the Shiva virus. Nobody knows for sure where it came from, OK, well they know where it started. The details of the virus is just one of the mysteries involved in the game. Nevertheless it leaves the world decimated. That's where the player comes in, a ravaged and mutated planet.
Gameplay
The opening of the game begins with your character creation. The developers have done a great job in the amount of detail you can select while creating your character. Give the random selection a shot, you may find some combinations you never thought of trying. Players will be able to create up to four characters. The game starts with a reasonably solid tutorial. It allows those of us who ignore any gaming instruction manuals to jump right into playing the game. The majority of game play basics are covered in this tutorial; movement, advancement points and combat are walked through. Mercifully the tutorial can be skipped when creating multiple characters. I was originally worried about being subjected to the exact same scenario with each new character I created. Once in the game itself, players will have the option of choosing what direction they would like to customize their build. Will you be more combat oriented or more of technical based player? I would suggest that you start off your first character with the combat oriented starting zones, specifically the pistol starting area. Keep those combat skills sharp and keep yourself alive. As you become more adept with the game, you can chose to level up additional characters in a less combat intense method.
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Advancement Points
These are the points players earn through leveling and questing. This is the major point that makes Fallen Earth stand apart from their counterparts. With no classes and no predetermined talent trees, players are free to create whatever type of character they decide.
Players can decide to focus on their physical prowess or to increase their talents. These are not easy decisions. Will you try and be a well rounded character and level all your skills together? Another option is to commit a large of skill points into a single skill. Be careful with this method, you don't want to master any one skill at the complete exclusion of other skills. This is truly an example of where the statement "jack of all trades, master of none" applies. By now I'm sure there exists a number of suggested builds lurking on the web. Have any readers out there found one that works better for them, please share it with us in the comments section.
Crafting
Fallen Earth treats a player right with beginning crafting. A player is supplied with every beginning crafting set needed in the game. What you decide to focus on is up to you. Everybody will have their own opinion on what is the best method of advancement. Do you build weapons first? Or would you focus on medical to keep yourself healed? How about cooking? You can't fight on an empty stomach. Crafting in the game is extremely extensive and worthy of its own article. As boasted on the website and mentioned a numerous times, the best items in game are crafted. Only time will tell exactly what those best items are. Crafting in Fallen Earth works like most crafting systems. Find a recipe, learn the recipe, gather your materials and craft away.
Factions
Fallen Earth has decided to up the ante by boasting six factions rather than the measly two factions found in other games. As if there weren't enough decisions for players to contemplate between advancement points and crafting, now folks need to concentrate on their factions as well. Players will have the option of remaining neutral amongst these six factions. There is no real benefit to following this course of action. Choosing a faction will open a significant amount of the story line. Story not your thing? Well how about that each faction will open new gear and abilities to the players? Players will have a primary faction, two allied factions, one nemesis and two enemy factions (your nemesis's allies). This may seem all very confusing, fortunately there is a built in meter in the game to keep track of where you stand with all the factions. Each of these factions has their own distinct look and feel, which are all clearly outlined in the game and the Fallen Earth website.
Combat
The combat system in Fallen Earth stands apart from the majority of current MMOs on the market. There is no tabbed targeting, and no sticky targeting. Combat is a form of third person shooter. These may take folks some time to become more adept. Many players familiar with first person console shooters won't find the learning curve to be that great. I found it a little unwieldy with a keyboard and mouse rather than console controller. Players enter combat by hitting the tab key. This will bring up the "reticule". This is the targeting mechanism that will decide whether you live or die. Sure, in my case it was mostly die, but I digress. The reticule will allow you target both your melee and ranged weapons. Melee combat is what one would expect from that type of combat. Keep your reticule on your target, and keep on swinging, stabbing, or hacking away. The goal here is try and keep mobile. This is a great assistance in the early levels of the game. More often then not you won't have the luxury of playing "who has more health". Don't trade blows with your opponent. Hit and move. The reticule becomes even more important in ranged combat. Take your time targeting your opponent. Where you hit your opponent will decide on the amount of damage they receive. For example a head shot will cause more damage than a shot to the leg. I'm sure that throughout the game where you shoot for maximum damage will change. So be aware of your opponent's strength and weaknesses. As your ranged weapon skills improve the targeting reticule will improve. The smaller and tighter the reticule, the more damage you will cause. Get those shots in from a safe distance, with luck you'll have killed your target prior to them closing into melee combat.
User Interface
Fallen Earth's interface is fairly standard. You have your generic hotbar, mini map and text box. Nothing really stands out here, nor is it lacking in function. Although there is a nice help bar to the side of your screen which stays hidden. You can opt to turn it off, but it does offer quite a bit of information for the beginning player. A nice function of the interface allows players to have the ability to quickly scroll through their weapons. Either using the CTRL key and corresponding weapon number or through use of the mouse wheel (assuming you have one). Players can control their movement through the used of WASD, arrows keys or the mouse. Since your mouse plays the most significant role in targeting, I found the WASD movement to the most effective method of game play.
Visual/Audio
The player looks great when they have all six weapon slots filled. It adds to the unique character look.
The environmental graphics are clean and crisp, although not particularly earth shattering. It seems to be a draw back that faces most of the more "realistic" games. Players have certain expectation of how the world would look. We know what a building on Earth would look like, so there isn't much room for embellishment. The graphics are very appropriate for the feel of the game. It's a ruined world, and the images and design reflect that. The colors are very dreary. It can get a little depressing. I suppose that's why the game isn't named Happy Fun Time Adventure.
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As with the graphics the score and sound effects match the feel of the game. The score was subtle enough not to overpower the game play. Overall the audio is about the standard of what players have come to expect.
Community
The players of Fallen Earth are certainly passionate about the game. This is evident at first in the amount of scrolling text in the default help chat box. Players seemed more than happy to provide answers to questions posted. Keep an eye out for your answer, this text box moves quickly. Another positive aspect of the community for Fallen Earth was constantly seeing an active GM in chat. For some it may seem a little too Big Brother, but I found it refreshing. They were actually proactive in chat. Whether it was just keeping the peace or redirecting players to a more useful channel. In other games it seems that a GM is a myth or on a perpetual break. It's far from the case here. The game's website has all the information that a player could hope to find. It's a solid source of information for both the novice and veteran alike. Give it a read, I'm more than certain they can fill out many of the gaps that I miss. The folks at Fallen Earth are also hopping on the seasonal event band wagon. Just because it's near the end of civilization as we know it, there's no excuse not to have a little seasonal joy. There have been many contents and promotions over the development of the game and I would assume these types of events will continue through the life of the game. As with most game there is a solid and active forum community. Which quite frankly acts like most forums, there is enough useful information as well as your typical forum gripes.
Performance/Lag
I am running Fallen Earth with Windows Vista Ultimate on a Dual Core E6750 @2.66, Dual ATI Radeon HD 3850, 4 Gigs of RAM and cable modem. The game installed without an issue and looked great. Unfortunately during game play is where I ran into considerable lag. By considerable I mean mind numbing, relentless lag. There were moments I would rather slam a part of me in a car door than try and move in the game. In the spirit of fairness, I tried a variety of Internet speed tests to check my connection, no problem there. From there I tried a couple of the more popular games out there, and they all worked just fine. Maybe it was just a glitch, but after multiple days of play, the lag just wouldn't quit. I pray I am in the minority and with luck perhaps I am the only one afflicted with this issue. Playing the game just became painful after awhile. It may be from the fact that there is only one server for the game. I expect a form of lag in the more populated areas, but not when I am running across a secluded wasteland with nothing more than a mutant chicken for company. I don't mind dying from a superior enemy, or even my inability to play a game. But death from lag is just plain unacceptable. I have to say that the folks at Fallen Earth have been making constant improvements from the game launch. Hopefully this issue will be addressed, or perhaps when the game settles into niche, the game may stabilize.
Closing Opinion
Fallen Earth will certainly find its niche with a particular type of player. The open advancement system certainly holds a great appeal for players tired of being pigeon holed by traditional class systems. The fast paced nature of the combat system is certainly not for everybody. I personally found the game a little difficult to play, perhaps it was the lag. For those looking for a solid challenge, Fallen Earth is for you. There is no cookie cutter format with this type of game play. You are what you make yourself in this game. Do you challenge yourself to be the ultimate warrior or the ultimate crafter? The greater the challenge the greater the reward for players. According to the folks at Fallen Earth, the best items in the game are player created. There is nothing standing between a player and their in game greatness other than the time and effort the player is willing to invest. There is less of a random element involved, but it will be up to the players to figure out what path they should follow.
google cache do the work
BestSigEver :P
Looks perfectly reasonable to me, mmorpg.com have really damaged their credibility by retracting this review just because the publishers of Fallen Earth cried about it. Pretty hard to have any faith in the accuracy of anything they publish here in the future.
Ok one more time and im out. The reviewer didn't meet req specs for the game so his review is flawed.
who cares what the review or score was it was flawed from the first word he wrote.
if it gets reviewed again by someone with a high end computer and gives it a 5.2 good its legit and that will be that.
The following statement is false
The previous statement is true
I bet it won't be.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Gaming sites are basically a venue for cheap advertising.
I don't expect any journalistic integrity.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
At the risk of giving a hint... You're operating very close to my brainwave with this post. Please, adjust your dial
I fully agree with rwyan.
Although as being done by others web sites you should have a general score form 1-5, and sub scores from 1 to 20 or even 1 to 100 for
Along with each entry you would point at each game that has the best score.
For example let's say you score Fallen earth crafting to 60%, your notation would be viewed very differently by players depending you set WoW or SWG at 100%.
The interest to have sub score is not all players are interested in crafting or PvP or maybe for some, bad characters animations are killing the fun.
I generally like what you all do here at MMORPG.com but I'm going to have to agree with Zzulu, you guys lost some points.
Even if you were running the game on a CompuAdd 386? "performance is terrible" isn't an objective thing. You can'r run a game on a shit computer, and dock the review for the performance. That makes zero sense. And "I heard a bunch of other people are having performance issues too" doesn't matter at all. If you were going to consider that, then why even play the game yourself before writing the review? Just compile a list of stuff you heard, and give it a rating based on that; and lose your job, because nobody wants your anecdotal review.
To your first point, WHY 6 out of 10 is taken as bad doesn't matter at all. What matters is that it IS, and that the reviewer (if he deserves his job) knew that when he gave the score. It has nothing to do with the 'people on this forum', or MMORPG, or anything else. It's much bigger than that. Scores under 7.0 are largely negative. If a single reviewer decides in his head that anything over 5 should be positive, and gives rating 6 reviews to good games, then that reviewer is a jackass.
Now I'm starting to wonder if read any reviews at all.
I think the biggest point of contention is the write-up vs the score. It was really cried foul when the two did not meet up.
It would have been the same level of outrage if the writer had said:
Graphics - Not great
Sound - Mediocre
Combat - Vanilla
Community - Mean
Performance - Runs Smooth
Score 8/10
Reviews are subjective. But when the write up does not match the score, then there is something wrong. If he would have trashed the game, then gave it a poor score, there would have been outrage at his opinion, but not the review. In this case, the two things were so far from eachother that they just didn't match.
When you look farther, he gave poor scores based off lag, which is due to his own underperforming system. This added fuel to the fire, but the main point was the write-up/score mismatch.
So long, and thanks for all the fish!
Ok one more time and im out. The reviewer didn't meet req specs for the game so his review is flawed.
i dont remember very well but x1300 (min required) have 256 mb like hd 3850(used on the reivew)
BestSigEver :P
Ok one more time and im out. The reviewer didn't meet req specs for the game so his review is flawed.
i dont remember very well but x1300 (min required) have 256 mb like hd 3850(used on the reivew)
It was his RAM,you posted many replies yet you never even read the review or this thread it would seem.
The reviewer only had 2gb RAM and was using Vista,which do not meet the requirements for the game,also he had reviewed 3 or 4 other game's in the past and always said lag was a problem,which was hardly surprising since he was indeed only using 2gb RAM with Vista.
Now hopefully I mentioned RAM and Vista enough for your eye to catch at least 1 of them as you glance through the thread.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8