The Wiz Says…: Refuse It If You Want To; You Just Don’t Get It
On April 7th, EA’s The Godfather II was released on Xbox 360 and PS3. This is the sequel to, of course, The Godfather, which was released for nearly all systems about 2 - 3 years ago. In the good amount of time I spent playing the game, one thing became clear: This game is made for fans of the Francis Ford Coppola works.
And not just casual fans who say “Yeah, Godfather, I like it.” We’re talking the fans who LOVE these movies. You know the person: They know most of the key lines, they own the version that has the whole story in chronological order and they will probably kick you in the nuts if you say Part III was a piece of crap.
I feel like I have to mention this because the websites that have reviewed the game, such as 1up, Gamespot, IGN, etc., seem to neglect this key fact. Which, honestly, isn’t a new problem with video game reviewers. In fact, it’s quite plainly a problem that has always reared its ugly head, with the exception of a few key reviewers (most of which has left the business of reviewing games).
Most, if not all, of these reviewers never put into consideration the type of person or gamer the game is made for. Is the game made for the type that enjoyed GTA IV? Barely, because even though it is a sandbox game, it’s much more regimented. Should the game have more diversions, like Saint’s Row 2 or Crackdown? No, you just can’t break continuity of the game.
Yet, there are reviewers comparing to the game as such, making no mention that the game has to stay set into continuity. Hell, some reviewers don’t even mention the source material (or present it accurately, which is even more infuriating).
What worse is that this seems to be a growing problem. I’ve firmly believed that video games is a burgeoning medium that melds numerous types of entertainment into its gameplay. A lot of games make references to books, other movies and sometimes other games to get a point across effectively.
Why is it that most reviewers or people who cover games completely neglect pop culture or classic forms of entertainment when talking about games? Are they their own worst enemy, especially when they complain that the people they are covering the games for are essentially unadvised on such?
Otherwise, a decent game is shuffled into the crap pile because of uninformed and full-of-themselves reviewers (not all are full of themselves, most are just uninformed).
