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I know we have had topic's about Edge before but find it amazing that almost evey other magazine gives Stuntman 8 out of 10 yet Edge has to be different.
They gave Mario Sunshine 9 out of 10 by the way.
www.ps2racing.tk
My feeling on the Stuntman review score of 5/10 is that the reviewer was having so much trouble completing it he knocked off 3 points for the game's 'annoyance factor'. To be fair, the game CAN involve having to do the same tricky tasks repeatedly to progress, but knocking 3 points off for just that wouldn't be fair.
They also seem to knock off 1 point for the word Sony appearing on the box of any game, and add 1 point for the word Nintendo appearing on the box of others. So many people have pointed this out to them via the Edge forums and via snail mail, but they always deny it. The fact that so many people have noticed this trend reminds me of the phrase "There's no smoke without fire".
The overall impression I get is that the guys doing the reviews aren't gamers anymore, they're overworked hacks trying to convince themselves that the next big thing is just around the corner, and so they tend to mark everything down that they review until the next big thing gets released. And when the next big thing DOES get released, they don't recognise it as such, because they've forgotten what good games are all about.
And if you look at Stuntman objectively, I suppose it is.
It's an extremely limited driving game. There's little or no margin for error, and you have to do everything almost perfectly to proceed. The game is 100% linear, meaning that everything MUST be done in exactly the same order EVERY SINGLE TIME.
If you look at it that way, I suppose it is very average - and for some, very disappointing.
But this is where I believe Edge's 'strict' review policy falls down.
Stuntman is unlike any other driving game, and can't really be compared to anything else. The very subject of the game forces it to be linear, and anyine with any interest in the game knows that to be the case.
Having played the demo, I think the game does what it needs to do, and performs very well in doing it. It gets frustrating, but practice makes perfect. I think that basically, because of the style of the game, you'll either love or hate it - there is no 'middle ground', and Edge's scoring system is not flexible enough to cater for such titles.
So for all their holier-than-thou attitude and pompous arrogance, they are just as flawed as any other mag.
I know we have had topic's about Edge before but find it amazing that almost evey other magazine gives Stuntman 8 out of 10 yet Edge has to be different.
They gave Mario Sunshine 9 out of 10 by the way.
www.ps2racing.tk