People are often surprised when I tell them about review guides. The very concept of such a thing existing is silly to many gamers. I usually throw review guides away, but I kept the ones for Disney Epic Mickey and Splatterhouse because, well ... look at them.
Many of them are just black-and-white printouts stapled together, but these two recently released games went a step beyond for something that is, to be honest, a disposable PR tool that videogame reviewers really ought not to be using.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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If they want people to play their games properly, you think they would have review guides with every copy of the game. However I can't remember the last instruction manual I got that wasn't black and white and 8 pages long (including the useless notes section.)
Wow, I didn't know that was a thing. It makes sense but wow, that seems fucked up on some level. Have you ever read any that seemed insulting to you as a reviewer or have they all pretty much been glorified FAQ's/walkthroughs? Your ebay comment at the end cracked me up as I was going to say those would make great prizes for a contest.
I had no idea those things even existed. How can they say you play the game wrong when they give you a damn guide? What they really need are Review Guide Guides, letting you know how to best disseminate the oodles of important information contained within the actual Review Guide.
Those are cool in a gratuitous way, but what I find even more intriguing is the possibility that a reviewer could paraphrase the guide itself, give a very glancing look at the game, put a score of 8/10 on the end of their review, and basically forgo any amount of critique.
As it has been said numerous times before, Destructoid reviewers play games to completion, which I assume means finishing the campaign portions of their review games and exploring all of the other play modes and content. That I think is more of a service than any guide could possibly be to either you as a reviewer, or the average gamer that relies solely on in-game tutorials, because more people will read game reviews than experience a thoughtful game demo or anything similar to a game guide before it is released.
There are also many primers and teaser pieces that come along before a game is released, but ultimately I don't think the reviewer's job is to familiarize the a gamer with what they are going to see in the game. They must be capable of deconstruction and analysis that isn't necessarily going to sell that review product although it may help the audience for that game come to an informed decision. Being able to do that without collusion upon the developer and reviewer's part is one of my biggest complaints about games journalism.
When you wander over to Metacritic, on average video games will receive high marking than all of the other forms of media, and why is that? Is the product uniformly better? I don't think so personally, but that is based on the median range for games being not so far in variance to that of the high and low scores. Does that say more about quality or a lack of spine in reviewers?
It's for that reason that I like what you do, Jim. You might be a troll, but I a dead certain that you actually care more about your time and my own than the average reviewer. If only we could agree about everything.
Wow. The Epic Mickey one looked and sounded more like Prima's Official Guide or something. That certainly was interesting and informative. Good job, Jim.
@jim
Could you possibly paste us some quotes. I'm interested to read some of this suggestive writing. The kind of stuff that hints to you as a reviewer what you 'should' write about their game. Or, perhaps how you 'should' be playing the game. I'm not great at expressing myself via text, but you get what i'm trying to ask.
Also, would have been nice to see some contrasting material. Some of the shitty photocopied stuff.
I detect a pattern. You got review guides for Splatterhouse and Epic Mickey. You gave them 7.5 and 7 respectively. Not so great scores. Coincidence? MWhaha.
@rockstarnati
I hope that was a joke. "7.5" is literally 0.5 from a "great" score. Six being above average, 7 being good.
Also as Jim said in the video already, they usually get lots of these review guides, he's only showing these ones because they're more "extravagant", rather than the shit they normally give them, so if anything he would bump UP the scores. herp.
Jim ur a great dude but please please for the love of God, get some different sunglasses. on 2nd thought, just lose the sunglasses. otherwise, keep on rocking
Actually the most helpful review guide would simply state that Nolan North is in the game, and which character he voices. This is an open letter to publishers whose games star Nolan North: do this.
I mean, these things make cool swag, but what's the point? If a reviewer needs help or advice on the game, then what chance to average players have. A review that says, "I got stuck on a level for 15 minutes before fluking the answer", then it's likely to happen to the player. A reviewer can't very well say, " I was in a tight jam, but thanks to my reviewers guide I got through it". Your average player doesn't have that, or at least will have to look at a walkthrough and in the end, how does that help?
Wow didn't know they actually did that. I just assumed they got the game with a simple paper that said. Give me a good review !!! Still that's cool to have something like that I would like to have it . Will there be a contest for it?
Doesn't the guide just emulate gamefaqs? And isn't that actually legitimate in some way? I suppose I don't get frustrated by mechanics in games that aren't obvious because I just gamefaqs away a lot of the problems I have as I think most people do.
I think the best review guide I ever received was for Level 5's Rogue Galaxy on PS2. It was exactly like what you just showed. I was surprised at how extravagant it was compared to other PR pieces I'd received in the past.
to say this is something the developers are pushing on reviewers is disingenuous. I would say this is something publishers and PR are completely in control of in hopes that you play the game "properly." While this could be called semantics to some, it is a rather important difference to state.
Remember when these things used to be included with the games, sometimes alongside a back story, or perhaps some artwork, or easter eggs. I believe they used to be called manuals. Oh wait... those still exist, they've just decided that media outlets are the only ones who desire the full version, and everyone who actually pays $60 for the game is left with a 4 page 'manual' which consists of 1 page of disclaimers, 1 page of warnings, 1 page of button mapping, and 1 blank page, because everyone has always used the 'notes' sections of manuals.
tl;dr - these used to be a good thing, before they were called 'review guides'
Actually my hair is like that specifically because I have not gotten a haircut. It's become far too long for me to leave alone so I figured I better do *something* with it.
"That was the chair, not my arse." Hilarious. Should have just let people speculate, really. The reviewer's guide sounds more like a set of materials for asshats trying to steal some of the game journalism sparkle, and not us troglodytes.
Although when you said “review guides” I assumed it was something that pointed out certain things about the game that they want to show off or that you could miss, you know like “Hey, we’ve got this great physics system that you should mess around with” or “if you go to this place on the map you’ll see something really cool”. Which actually sounds a bit better than a fancy manual to me.
"That was earth shattering information. I had no concept before today that a company would attempt to make their product look good with something like that. Amazing."
Do you enjoy missing the point of things or is it just an innate character trait?
As someone who is hoping to break into the industry as a designer, I have mixed feelings about "review guides". Part of me believes that if I do a shite job of explaining the game within the confines in the game, I've failed as a designer, yet the other part of me likes to point at the important stuff I've put in, like an ape who just discovered how to use a stick to catch ants. I understand how it can be insulting or disrespectful to say to a reviewer that they "played the game wrong", and personally find that logic to be flawed, but I will say there is something for thinking a reviewer might have played the game in a way that is unintended. For example, I don't think Jim would have a very high opinion of an stealth game like Metal Gear Solid or Splinter Cell if he tried to level grind like in Final Fantasy, or gun down everyone in a room like you can in Halo or Call of Duty. I recognize that reviewers have to play the game the way they want, but there is a way to get the wrong experience when playing a game.
The 'special walkthrough' part actually makes sense. I sometimes like games to be hard enough that they're only finishable for someone who really likes the game, or is willing to devote a lot of time to figuring it out.
Reviewers don't always cover games they love. They also have deadlines. So a walkthrough is actually a positive feature to making sure that reviewers do get through a reasonable, respectable amount of what the game has to offer - even if they are frustrated or just think the game sucks.
That said, I think that they should be a last resort when the game's already failed to keep you on the rails - just like gamefaqs is.
I may not agree with everything you have to say, Sterling. I may not agree with your review style. I may also think that alot of games get bad scores from you because of a lack of skill. But i'll be damned if I don't admit that this is one of the best pieces of JOURNALISM! i've seen here. I've never heard about these things before, no other website i've visited has EVER mentioned review guides. So, thank you for bringing that to my attention to this. I hope you show more of these review guides, I dunno if you aren't allowed to scan them for public view, but I would really like to read these things.
This is why I come to destructoid. Sometimes you guys talk about shit nobody else has the balls to bring up.
Interesting video. I like this behind the scenes-ey kind of stuff. Maybe consider doing a video where you show us your own review process. I just think it'd be cool to see you reacting to things in "the game" for the first time and talking about how that impacts your overall impressions, etc.
They should send consumers manuals explaining how to buy the game. Every time I go to Wal-Mart, all the games are behind some sort of protective glass. How do I get them out of there?
Of course they'll go this far! Think about it - they might spend about a few thousand dollars designing the review guide and a couple of hundred bucks printing them.
But the amount of sales they'll get in return if the game rates an 8 instead of a 7 is worth it.
Still, its a shameless thing to do. If a developer thinks he/she needs to include a book on how the game is supposed to be reviewed, then they designed the game WRONG, son.
On the upside,those Review Guides are better than receiving a note that says "8.0+ or Die" accompanied by photos of you sleeping and/or fragments of one of your game consoles nicked in the dead of night( or broad daylight,to spook you even more) or good old fashioned (albeit photoshopped) pictures of you on the take that the game company threatens to blackmail you with.
I guess that the game industry really is more mature than the film industry at the moment.
Shit, those have some pretty nifty art pieces. Still, I can't understand why they'd go through all the effort of making their "guide" pretty when it shouldn't even be a part of the review process.
I'm with Richard Blaine. I'd love to see a recorded review by Jim. Everyone will always have their own opinions, but I think if you did some video reviews, Jim, that'd be pretty badass.
To the topic: Review guides are funny. Wasn't there one for Lair a few years ago that was that extravagant?
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Contest:
4:00 PM on 11.29.2010 | 
But seriously. Awesome design is always awesome.
As it has been said numerous times before, Destructoid reviewers play games to completion, which I assume means finishing the campaign portions of their review games and exploring all of the other play modes and content. That I think is more of a service than any guide could possibly be to either you as a reviewer, or the average gamer that relies solely on in-game tutorials, because more people will read game reviews than experience a thoughtful game demo or anything similar to a game guide before it is released.
There are also many primers and teaser pieces that come along before a game is released, but ultimately I don't think the reviewer's job is to familiarize the a gamer with what they are going to see in the game. They must be capable of deconstruction and analysis that isn't necessarily going to sell that review product although it may help the audience for that game come to an informed decision. Being able to do that without collusion upon the developer and reviewer's part is one of my biggest complaints about games journalism.
When you wander over to Metacritic, on average video games will receive high marking than all of the other forms of media, and why is that? Is the product uniformly better? I don't think so personally, but that is based on the median range for games being not so far in variance to that of the high and low scores. Does that say more about quality or a lack of spine in reviewers?
It's for that reason that I like what you do, Jim. You might be a troll, but I a dead certain that you actually care more about your time and my own than the average reviewer. If only we could agree about everything.
It's the closest thing you can get to insuring that the game gets finished right?
Also unintentional puns.
Unintentional puns are everywhere!
@jim
Could you possibly paste us some quotes. I'm interested to read some of this suggestive writing. The kind of stuff that hints to you as a reviewer what you 'should' write about their game. Or, perhaps how you 'should' be playing the game. I'm not great at expressing myself via text, but you get what i'm trying to ask.
Also, would have been nice to see some contrasting material. Some of the shitty photocopied stuff.
(NO sarcasm!)
I hope that was a joke. "7.5" is literally 0.5 from a "great" score. Six being above average, 7 being good.
Also as Jim said in the video already, they usually get lots of these review guides, he's only showing these ones because they're more "extravagant", rather than the shit they normally give them, so if anything he would bump UP the scores. herp.
tl;dr - these used to be a good thing, before they were called 'review guides'
Although when you said “review guides” I assumed it was something that pointed out certain things about the game that they want to show off or that you could miss, you know like “Hey, we’ve got this great physics system that you should mess around with” or “if you go to this place on the map you’ll see something really cool”. Which actually sounds a bit better than a fancy manual to me.
Do you enjoy missing the point of things or is it just an innate character trait?
Reviewers don't always cover games they love. They also have deadlines. So a walkthrough is actually a positive feature to making sure that reviewers do get through a reasonable, respectable amount of what the game has to offer - even if they are frustrated or just think the game sucks.
That said, I think that they should be a last resort when the game's already failed to keep you on the rails - just like gamefaqs is.
This is why I come to destructoid. Sometimes you guys talk about shit nobody else has the balls to bring up.
Interesting video. I like this behind the scenes-ey kind of stuff. Maybe consider doing a video where you show us your own review process. I just think it'd be cool to see you reacting to things in "the game" for the first time and talking about how that impacts your overall impressions, etc.
But the amount of sales they'll get in return if the game rates an 8 instead of a 7 is worth it.
Still, its a shameless thing to do. If a developer thinks he/she needs to include a book on how the game is supposed to be reviewed, then they designed the game WRONG, son.
I guess that the game industry really is more mature than the film industry at the moment.
To the topic: Review guides are funny. Wasn't there one for Lair a few years ago that was that extravagant?