Comment of the Week: Question on reviews

1:30 PM on 07.18.2009   |   Destructoid Staff

50 comments

Last week we announced our new weekly "feature," something we're calling "Comment of the Week." The idea: encourage legitimate, entertaining discussion about videogaming news, reviews, previews, and more.

Not that you guys don't already do that, but we wanted to spotlight and reward it. Our commenter of the week -- chosen after a discussion between the Destructoid staff -- will win a mystery prize, to be determined weekly. 

To kick it off this week, we're giving the winner a handful of goodies: codes redeemable for Madballs: Babo Invasion and Worms 2: Armageddon for Xbox LIVE Arcade, as well as a physical copy of the recently released BioShock/Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion bundle for the Xbox 360. (We sure hope the winner has an Xbox 360!)

Hit the jump to find out who took it home this week, and why.

Winner:

Magnalon, from the comments of our Battlefield 1943 review

Why we chose it:

Sure, this is a comment that kind of calls us out on not one, but two of our reviews. But it's a legitimate and important question, one that sparked discussion in the comments, as well as with the staff. 

Truth is, Castle Crashers (like Battlefield 1943) did suffer from a number of networking issues. Unlike Battlefield, some of Castle Crashers' issues were far worse for many players, including corrupted saves that cause many to lose progress. However, while our reviewers seemed to dock points from the overall Battlefield 1943 experience, Castle Crashers was seemingly given a free pass. 

When reviewing titles, our reviewers explore each of the game's modes to the best of his or her ability, including online play where applicable. The reviewer can obviously only evaluate what was experienced. 

Many reviewers (with Destructoid or otherwise) sometimes play and evaluate a game online on a network that's not what consumers will be playing on when the game hits retail or online services. Think for a second about the difference between 400 people playing Battlefield 1943 online versus the 400,000 people who purchased the game on Xbox LIVE on day one.

Which brings up Magnalon's interesting question: Is it worth delaying a review to see how a game plays online? For us, it's something we take on a case-by-case basis. Many titles we review aren't played on retail consoles, and sometimes we're not given the opportunity to play an online game in a real-world setting. 

Would you like to have a review go up before or as a game hits shelves/online so that you can use that info to inform your day-and-date purchase decision? Or would you rather wait a few days (or maybe longer), as we hold off to test the game in a "real-world" setting? 

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"Comments of the Week" are chosen from comments made Friday through Thursday. They can "LOL" funny or thought-provoking. Whatever you do, try not to suck.