Halo 3 over-hyped
December 19th, 2007 by 
admin 
I just finished beating Halo 3 in legendary mode, and yes, I know, I am probably the last person on Earth to write about it! I found Halo 3 to be an enjoyable experience, but one suffering from simple and overly repetitive gameplay. The sequel just seemed a tad stale. As the game progressed, the lack of innovation put into the title became obvious. In the end, I couldn’t help but feel a little let down by all the stellar Halo 3 reviews I had read prior to playing it.
This got me a curious as to what professional game reviewers saw in Halo 3 that deserved it such a high rating. I began revisiting many of these reviews to investigate further. According to Metacritic, no less than 18 review sites gave the title a perfect 100% score, followed by 23 sites that gave it 95% or more. I cannot help but recall Dean Takahashi’’s now famous outing of the $800 Halo swag pack Microsoft had sent him. Even Dean called it a bride. Do game publishers have much influence over how the review scene rate their products?
We already know from Jeff Gertsmann’s firing that publisher influence is real and significant. Fallout out from the Gamespot scandal only served to reinforce the already widespread suspicion of brides, outside pressure, and plain old hype tainting brand name review sites. Putting aside suspicion and rumors however, there’s been little hard evidence to backup any claims.
Fortunately, the stats at Metacritic can give us an indirect look at the symptoms of this problem. Professional game reviews gave Halo 3, on average, an almost 20% higher score than the gaming public (94% vs 75%). Such a large discrepancy should raise eyebrows, as the sample size, or the amount of ratings submitted for Halo 3, is very large. The data reveals a statistically significant bias by these so-called ‘professional’ reviewers. Browsing a little more, I noticed some interesting quotes pulled from a couple reviews:
“Halo 3 isn’t perfect, but it’s so close it’s unnerving.” - Gamestyle: 100%
“Halo 3 still can’t quite escape the category of flawed masterpiece…” - EuroGamer: 100%
“Halo 3 may not be as innovative as its predecessors or have the best graphics on the Xbox 360, but it’s an outstanding game and a fitting end to what’s been a fantastic trilogy.” - Thunderbolt: 100%
The contradiction of awarding Halo 3 a perfect score and simultaneously stating that it is in someway less-than-pefect is obviously lost on these editors. Perhaps these inflated scores result from competition with other review sites, as perfect scores tend to generate more reader interest, and thus, higher visitor traffic. Or, perhaps such scores were a show of thanks for the $800 in swag and/or advertising deals that they might of received from the publisher. There’s just no way to know. The only thing that we’re sure of is that, on average, the professional review scene was 20% off from public opinion. Umm, so, who are they writing these reviews for again?
I’d like to add, I am aware of Halo’s excellent multiplayer experience, and there are other aspects that I like about Halo like the weapons and special ability gadgets, but I don’t think that one part of a game should somehow make up for another part that isn’t as good. Perhaps that would work in an absolute scoring system (thumbs up or thumbs down), but the disturbing trend to slap an ever-increasing list of titles with faultless 10/10 scores is nothing short of scandalous.
As long as review sites are supported financially by game-related advertisements, and functionally through maintaining close ties with developers and publishers to get exclusive, newsworthy access to unreleased products, I doubt we’ll see the end of this problem anytime soon. Gaming is a commercial industry. Developers, publishers and reviewers are all supported by the sale of games. The fact that many review sites have turned into mere marketing tools is disappointing, but should not come as a great surprise.
December 19th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Though there is much truth to this, you also have to consider the influence of fanbois on user reviews. I’ve been on forums where Sony and Nintendo fans bash Halo 3 without ever having played it, or even knowing much about it. I wouldn’t put it past some diehard fans to rate Halo 3 as a 0 with no reason other than they dislike Microsoft and Halo 3 is the 360’s big title. The opposite is also true, of course: fans of the series may give it a 100 right off the bat. But assuming equal numbers on both side and an average of 80%, the anti-Halos would have a bigger influence and drag down the score.
There mostly likely is some bribery, but I don’t think it has compromised the industry just yet. If an obviously terrible game gets a high score, then I think we can have grounds to cry “foul play!”
For the record, I give Halo 3 a 90%.
December 19th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
The main reason user reviews are not looked upon for accurate scores as to whether a game is good or not is because anyone with half a brain knows that there are many angry fanboys who would give a game, like Halo for instance, a 1/5 or 1/10 on the basis of nothing more then that it is Halo.
Is Halo 3 a perfect game? Absolutely not. Is it an enjoyable ending to one of the best FPS series of all time? I sure as hell think so, and so do most of the people who played it.
“I do not think that one part of a game should somehow make up for another part that isn?t as good.”
Meaning the campaign? What do you want, Halo 3s single player is probably better the Combat Evolves. The level The Covenant, masterpiece. The size of the level, the double Scarab battle, the bridge ending with hundreds of characters fighting at once.
December 19th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Phae got it right on. There are those who will go through the time and effort to rate it lower then what it should be rated.
Personally, I’m not a huge fan of the series, but have played all 3 games. I think they did the story the only way possible. I mean, 9 levels on earth would have been boring, even with the amazing art displayed in levels such as 117 and Floodgate.
And Cortana needed to be saved. How would she escape from a intelligence like Gravemind? Hell, Gravemind took control of that forerunner AI, bias or something.
And to those who say that the game dosent really catch players up, should play the 2nd level and watch the beginning cinematic again. I was certainly caught up, but i do keep in mind it’s in the 2nd level, not the 1st, like where it would make most sense. but this was also the 1st time the Chief would have to catch up.
Long post, but I think i got my point across.
And by the way, what would you have given Halo 3? My score would be 9.25-9.75 range.
December 19th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
don’t forget, alot of the “100%” reviews weren’t scored like that; they gave the game 5/5 stars. 5 stars doesn’t mean 100/100, but it means that the game deserves a whole lot more than 4/5 stars (80/100). Would you give a game that “so close [to perfect] it’s unnerving” an 80/100 score? I don’t think so.
I personally would give Halo 3 a 95/100 at least
December 19th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
I agree with the comments that have already been made.
In addition I would like to add that pretty much every professional entity that reviews games admits that no game will ever truly be perfect. Such is the flawed nature of man and their artistic creations.
With that in mind, a “perfect” score doesn’t mean a “perfect” game, just that it is the highest recommendation that they can provide.
Are parts of Halo flawed and less than perfect? Absolutely. But when you consider the ton of gampelay and options the game provides is it utterly fantastic? I sure think so.
And that brings me to another point: You (the author) find the game to be less than perfect so somehow the fact that a reviewer gave the game a perfect score means that they may have been bribed? That logic is simply ludicrous. I finished the game and I indeed personally believe that a perfect score is justified, so does that mean the reviewers who gave the game a less than perfect score were influenced by Sony or Nintendo to give the game low score?
Of course not. Each reviewer is a person with particular likes and dislikes and the fact that someone gave the game a perfect score in no way indicates they have been bribed. Any such speculation is completely unfounded.
As for the discrepancies between the user review scores and the professional review scores, the above comments explain why that is a flawed comparison.
December 20th, 2007 at 2:17 am
Everyone else pretty much already said what I was going to, so… yeah.
December 20th, 2007 at 10:28 am
Listen, everyone is writing articles about Halo 3, I would like to write one about why it isn’t perfect, but WHO CARES. Seriously, get it through your head, Halo 3 is already more popular than God. Leave it at that, there is NOTHING we can do to make all of the people who play Halo read your article. So just stop writing this type of stuff, it’s getting annoying. Halo 3 pisses me off a lot, but I still play it because I know theres nothing I can do unless I can get my name out so Bungie will read what I say. Right now I am a normal person, what if I made, let’s say Valhalla out of Clay? Bungie will probably post it on their site. Then if I write an article, they’ll read it.
But yeah, just stop, no one gives a crap, Halo 3 is popular and nothing can stop it, just stop saying it is over-hyped, NO ONE FUCKING CARES.
Have a great new year,
Hikaru