User Reviews | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Wed, 27 Jul 2022 11:10:06 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png User Reviews | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Xenoblade Chronicles 3 hits 90 overall on Metacritic https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/xenoblade-chronicles-3-hits-90-overall-on-metacritic/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/xenoblade-chronicles-3-hits-90-overall-on-metacritic/#respond Tue, 26 Jul 2022 13:08:55 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=569196 After being officially announced earlier this year, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is now just days away from release. Game critics have had their hands on the game since early July, leading to a flurry of highly positive reviews going live today.  The review embargo for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has now lifted. At the time of writing, …

The post Xenoblade Chronicles 3 hits 90 overall on Metacritic first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
After being officially announced earlier this year, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is now just days away from release. Game critics have had their hands on the game since early July, leading to a flurry of highly positive reviews going live today. 

The review embargo for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has now lifted. At the time of writing, the game has a 90 overall on Metacritic, with high scores from the likes of VGC, Destructoid, GameSpot, IGN, Siliconera and Eurogamer. Over on Open Critic, the game has been recommended by 91 percent of critics and has an average rating of 86. Due to the disparity between the two, we would expect to see Xenoblade Chronicles 3 dip down to 89 or possibly 88 overall.

Compared to Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the sequel does have higher overall average ratings. If new reviews don't cause the Metacritic overall score to dip too much, then Xenoblade Chronicles 3 could end up settling at 89, the same score as Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition.

The campaign itself is incredibly long, particularly if you explore everything the world has to offer and do a lot of side content and optional boss fights. Compared to previous games in the series, critics say that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has better quality of life improvements, like streamlined menus, in-game GPS, customisable abilities hotbar, as well as an improved combat system.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 will release on Nintendo Switch on the 29th of July. Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: While Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was initially planned for September, the launch was brought forward by several months. Judging by early reviews, this has not impacted the quality of the game, with Monolith delivering another must have JRPG for Switch owners. 

The post Xenoblade Chronicles 3 hits 90 overall on Metacritic first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/xenoblade-chronicles-3-hits-90-overall-on-metacritic/feed/ 0
Metacritic implements a 36 hour waiting period for user reviews https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/metacritic-implements-a-36-hour-waiting-period-for-user-reviews/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/metacritic-implements-a-36-hour-waiting-period-for-user-reviews/#respond Tue, 21 Jul 2020 08:11:07 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=477937 Review bombing has been an issue for developers for some time now and while there have been efforts to tackle it on platforms like Steam, Metacritic's user reviews have continued to be an issue. That could start to change soon, as a waiting period is now being put in place for reviewing new releases. There …

The post Metacritic implements a 36 hour waiting period for user reviews first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Review bombing has been an issue for developers for some time now and while there have been efforts to tackle it on platforms like Steam, Metacritic's user reviews have continued to be an issue. That could start to change soon, as a waiting period is now being put in place for reviewing new releases.

There is no getting around the fact that these measures are coming into place after the controversy surrounding The Last of Us Part II. The game scored highly with critics but some fans were upset with specific story choices, leading to a wave of very low user review scores. Now, Metacritic is implementing a 36-hour time limit before user reviews can be posted after the release of a new game.

Speaking with Gamespot, a Metacritic spokesperson explained the move: “We recently implemented the 36 hour waiting period for all user reviews in our games section to ensure our gamers have time to play these games before writing their reviews. This new waiting period for user reviews has been rolled out across Metacritic's Games section and was based on data-driven research and with the input of critics and industry experts.”

Of course, there is still no verification to check that users have actually purchased games before writing a user review. With that in mind, the Metacritic user review system still has some flaws.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: I tend to go to Steam for my user reviews but of course, that doesn't really give us a feel for how players are finding console exclusives. Do many of you use Metacritic to post or read user reviews? What do you think of the new waiting period?

The post Metacritic implements a 36 hour waiting period for user reviews first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/metacritic-implements-a-36-hour-waiting-period-for-user-reviews/feed/ 0
Valve is making changes to make Steam User Reviews more helpful https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/valve-is-making-changes-to-make-steam-user-reviews-more-helpful/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/valve-is-making-changes-to-make-steam-user-reviews-more-helpful/#comments Tue, 21 Nov 2017 12:15:22 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=354979 Valve has been tinkering with the Steam Store page regularly throughout the course of 2017. Previously, Valve has made changes to how Steam Reviews work but after some reflecting, the team has decided to make some additional improvements to make user reviews more helpful. Up until now, Steam's most helpful user reviews were decided by …

The post Valve is making changes to make Steam User Reviews more helpful first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Valve has been tinkering with the Steam Store page regularly throughout the course of 2017. Previously, Valve has made changes to how Steam Reviews work but after some reflecting, the team has decided to make some additional improvements to make user reviews more helpful.

Up until now, Steam's most helpful user reviews were decided by user ratings. Valve would look at the number of ‘helpful' and ‘unhelpful' votes each review had, and would then highlight the top ten. As the Steam Team explains in a blog post, there are many cases where users aren't necessarily truthful in their voting of what constitutes a helpful review.

To combat this, the new User Review system will use a new method for calculating the helpfulness of each review:

“Ratings from users that follow normal patterns of rating will continue to be counted the same way that they have, whereas accounts that rate an excessive number of reviews on an individual game will see the weight of each individual rating count for less and less.”

The second major change is that store pages will now show the default helpful positive and negative reviews to a similar proportion of the game's overall score:

“For example, if the game is reviewed positively by 80% of reviewers, then the ten reviews shown by default on the store page will be 80% positive, showing eight positive and two negative. This should keep the reviews shown on a game's page from being so easily manipulated by a few determined players and should more accurately represent the overall sentiment of the people playing the game.”

Both of these changes are rolling out on Steam in beta form today. For the most part, it seems to be a way to combat ‘review bombing' while also making user reviews more representative of the player base. Steam User Reviews often have a lot of joke reviews rated highly in the helpful list, with these changes, we should see that less.

KitGuru Says: I usually always check the User Reviews section before deciding to buy a new game on Steam. It can be useful, though there can be highly rated, not so helpful reviews highlighted from time to time. What do you guys think of these new changes? Do you often check the Steam User Reviews section?

The post Valve is making changes to make Steam User Reviews more helpful first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/valve-is-making-changes-to-make-steam-user-reviews-more-helpful/feed/ 1
Valve is making more changes to Steam User Reviews https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/valve-is-making-more-changes-to-steam-user-reviews/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/valve-is-making-more-changes-to-steam-user-reviews/#comments Fri, 10 Mar 2017 17:05:47 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=324836 Steam User Reviews are often a useful tool for many looking to pick up a new game on Steam but there are ways to exploit the system. For example, there are some developers out there that will gift copies of their games in exchange for positive reviews. As a result, sometimes the overall rating on …

The post Valve is making more changes to Steam User Reviews first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Steam User Reviews are often a useful tool for many looking to pick up a new game on Steam but there are ways to exploit the system. For example, there are some developers out there that will gift copies of their games in exchange for positive reviews. As a result, sometimes the overall rating on a game isn't a true representation of how paying customers felt about it- which is something Valve is planning to address.

In a Steam Community post today, Valve announced that it would be making a new batch of Steam User Review changes. The main change here is that the overall review score for a game will no longer include any reviews from users receiving the game for free via a gift or free weekend. Those users can still write reviews, it just won't affect the overall score.

This change began rolling out a few days ago but may take a few days to appear across the board. So over the next few days, we may see some Steam User Review scores suddenly change.

KitGuru Says: The idea behind these changes is to better represent how actual buyers of any specific title feel about their purchase, which makes sense in this case. Though I do wonder how this impacts keys redeemed on Steam either after receiving a game as part of a promotion or keys bought from third-party sellers. 

The post Valve is making more changes to Steam User Reviews first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/valve-is-making-more-changes-to-steam-user-reviews/feed/ 3
Steam updated to prioritise more recent user reviews https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/steam-updated-to-prioritise-more-recent-user-reviews/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/steam-updated-to-prioritise-more-recent-user-reviews/#comments Wed, 04 May 2016 13:39:26 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=291680 These days, games often change quite a bit over time, somebody's experience with a title at launch may not accurately reflect the state of things a few months down the line. In keeping with that logic, Valve updated Steam this week, so that user reviews now prioritise more recent opinions over older ones. Steam's new …

The post Steam updated to prioritise more recent user reviews first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
These days, games often change quite a bit over time, somebody's experience with a title at launch may not accurately reflect the state of things a few months down the line. In keeping with that logic, Valve updated Steam this week, so that user reviews now prioritise more recent opinions over older ones.

Steam's new user review system will give better exposure to reviews written within the last 30 days. This also generates a second review score for games, so while an overall score might be ‘mostly positive' reviews from the last 30 days may class it as ‘overwhelmingly positive'.

Arkham Knight

In the recent review section, those classed as helpful will appear first, as Valve's blog post explains: “While there are plenty of new reviews posted every day, we saw that it was often difficult for newer reviews to be seen and voted on enough to become listed as most helpful. As a result, the most helpful reviews presented on a store page would often describe an outdated view of a game that might have changed dramatically over the course of Early Access or post-release development. By listing recently posted reviews more prominently and by defaulting to recent helpful reviews, Steam can now show a more current idea of what it's like to play the game now.”

Aside from that, other changes Valve has made include a new ‘Summary' tab in the review section, a new check box when writing a review that allows you to disclose if you received the game for free or not and there is an option to see reviews of all languages.

KitGuru Says: This seems like a good change to make, particularly for early access games as those can change quite drastically over time. 

The post Steam updated to prioritise more recent user reviews first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/steam-updated-to-prioritise-more-recent-user-reviews/feed/ 3