I have been going back over the reviews for both New Vegas and Fallout 3 and I cannot figure out why most reviewers gave Fallout 3 such rave reviews for story and choice, while many of them said NV story was lacking in many ways. It seemed that most reviewers like what many consider to be the "step child" of fallout, while dissing the game that was closer to the originals. I also saw where Gamespot even gave Borderlands a better review rating than FNV and Borderlands was one of the blandest games I have ever played. It just seems that there is a disconnect between the "experts" and the true Fallout fans. Long - time Fallout fans had many criticisms of Fallout 3 while most reviewers seemed to search far and wide to criticize it at all, while reviewers dogged FNV, all bugs aside, while long - time fans loved it.

I don't know that this topic has a point, I was just bored and was interested in other opinions on this.

Only way to know a game is good is to play it yourself.

Game Reviewers aren't great and almighty players their just people too with their opinions. Only you know what you like.

Also most *official* game reviewers are full of crap.

In the days before New Vegas came out many Fallout fans including myself loved to laught at people doing interviews. Pretty much every single one of them new nothing of the originals fallouts and some did not even know much about Fallout 3. They kept thinking the Devs of Obsidian were Bethesda and all they asked about was "will we get to go into space and battle aliens?"

Review are mostly based on the graphics and since New Vegas used the same engine and graphics as Fallout 3 it lost marks. Then Bethesda did a bad job with QA so lost more marks. Anyways most Reviews for the big time game magazines and such were done by people that know little if anyhing about Fallout as a whole.

Then there is also the http://www.break.com/usercontent/2009/7/michael-bay-explosions-821047.

I hope not Uwe Boll effect

Yeah, reviews are just opinions. Nothing more. It's not science, after all.

It's not like there's some hard and fast metric you can apply to this stuff.

I'm gonna give those reviewers a piece of fallout

Reviews from computer game magazines are a reliable source of judgements I find ... they are done by actual players of the games who usually have some knowledge of previous in the series. Depending on the magazine to an extent as well. The magazine is going to lose sales if players find that they got duff reviews. Reviewers gives good balanced reviews in the better computer games magazines, giving both the good and the not so good points, comparisons, and sometimes give a second opinion. If it's a type of game that you like as well, then fine ... You just need to read the review properly and maybe ask yourself, is that minor not-so-good point going to bother you, such as maybe having a bit of a slow load time in an otherwise highly rated game. Duff reviews, I suggest you buy different magazines and remember that it is not necessary to have knowledge of the history of games from the year dot to gave a valid review, a good game also gives enough of it's essential history in-game if it's one of a series or sequel, and that will be reflected in the review, as indeed was all the necessary essence of the previous reflected in the sequel Fallout3, though some seem not quite understand that, asking for non essential references to be in the game for detail in year dot that is now dead and buried way back in the times of yore, things have evolved.

Yeah reviews are good in good magazines, the disconnect, jlw771, maybe along the lines of a time-warp freeze "somewhere", is all that I can suggest. Some old games that you enjoyed in the past are indeed worth playing again, but wanting the new game in a series or sequels to be that old game again, rather than accepting the new of the series or sequels that is "that old game with improvements", well...

Speaking as an "expert" a fan of the old and now of the new that encompasses the old with knobs on. Glory be! The other "experts seem to agree with me as well!

Way to go Bethesda!

I don't care for reviews really. Most of them thinks anything below an 8 is horrible. I lost fate in them once and for all when i saw one that made false and i mean false complaints about prototype. Never ever trust gamereactor... But I do like to read them anyways because they are in most cases honest about features.