Week 4 Make Up Blog Entry 2
Seeing that one of my favorite games is Command&Conquer Generals: Zero Hour, had a lot of reviews, I decided to take one of the better known videogame reviewers, IGN.com. The prime fallacy that seemed to occur in the review was the lack of a main point. For example, the reviewer said in his opening comments that he didn’t think that Zero Hour was a very good game. What confuses me about this was that he went on to praise the game continually, making out that it was a great game, and then pointing out a few flaws at the end. However, that didn’t detract heavily from the review because he seemed more focused on what the review was about more than anything else. I do play the game a lot, like I said, so I felt that honesty was important here, and the reviewer lived up to that expectation of honesty. The review, for the most part, was very fair. However, the biggest failing point, like stated before, was the lack of an attempt at persuasion. The reviewer wanted to tell us what the game was about, rather than convincing us to get the game. It could be argued that he was trying to sell us on all the features the game had, which were pretty good, but unless it’s something new, people are not often convinced by a review. If it had not been for the fact that there had been new features to the game, I do not think that this game review would have convinced the reader to buy Zero hour.
I think the game is a really fun game to play. However, there are some major flaws, such as the Multiplayer system. The net code is really bad. Whenever my older brother and I try to play CNC together, it takes us at least 20 minutes to set the game up. It kind of makes us not want to play that game, but once the game is engaged, the fun begins. EA Games has continued to use the same net code for other games such as The Lord of the Rings : The Battle for Middle Earth, regardless of issues that surely were pointed out to them. I think it has become a habit to criticize the games for their content rather than trying to get the consumer to buy (or not buy) the game. Rarely do you ever see a good game get well rated in Magazine or website reviews.