Here’s another hypothetical review:

Bill: I’ve really been looking forward to Mass Effect 2 for a long time, and now that it’s finally here I feel a little bit underwhelmed. The first game had its share of problems with the dialog options, despite trying something different from the typical branching conversations found in other RPGs. That said, there’s not much more they could do to improve on here and it shows. The combat was another big issue I had with the original, and here they’ve dumbed it down a tad to make it more KOTOR-like and manageable; that said, I was really looking forward to something along the lines of GRAW, but that just didn’t happen.

Jonas: I couldn’t agree more. Through my thirty hours of playtime my experience with the game was not substantially different than the first, and that is a letdown. Sure, the beautiful graphics have improved with better film filters, less texture pop-in and more realistic facial animations, and I loved the additional character customization options. But the real problem was the story, or lack thereof. The first game set up such a huge and wondrous universe full of potential, but here it feels like the developers cut costs by retreading familiar worlds and environments from the first game.

Ninja-Z: Guys, what game were you playing? I loved the addition of the fourth party member for combat, and the ability to play with the first game’s twitchy mechanic. The story is pretty grand, although we are only seeing a sliver of it here. The backstory can be filled in with codex entries (and I suggest reading the three novels to get the full experience) and there’s the prospect of a third game based on the game’s shocking ending (SPOILER!).  Sure, some of it might feel familiar, but here familiar is so good. There isn’t a better RPG available on any system this year.

Okay, how would a developer who spent tens of millions of dollars and years of work to craft such a product feel when their game is relegated to 500 words? The point I’m trying to make here is how can anyone find such a reflection on a playthrough that took thirty hours anything less than insulting?

Game reviews are frequently compared to film reviews. Although they are different media, they are both products in the same vein, offering both a sensory and emotional experience. So why then do game reviewers rarely relay that type of individual experience felt by critics in a typical film review?

A few good examples of game criticism do exist. Game discussion at length is a good exercise. 1UP FM’s recent backlog playthrough of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. provided some excellent group insight and personal experience that seldom makes it to the written word. The Giant Bomb guys, in talking about Street Fighter, showed that such intelligent conversation can occur about the technical aspects of a game as well. And of course, the GFW guys’ frequent tangents always proved more engaging than anything put to print (sans Greenspeak, of course).

Could it be the journalists who review games are well qualified to critique them, yet lack the requisite skill necessary to communicate their thoughts effectively through their writings? Shawn Elliott was accepted as the industry champion for better journalism, and his frequent rants on the subject indicated he was qualified as such. For some reason, however, that same passion never made it to print. Does that mean he was merely a better student, or were the confines of 1UP to blame for his aspirations never taking flight? And why is talking about good game journalism more celebrated than actually doing it? I guess we’ll never know – after moving on to 2K Boston, he has become to journalism as Bam Margera is to television, with his Internet Wall of Shame daily updates on Twitter.

On a recent Player One Podcast, former game journalist and current Sega producer Ethan Einhorn suggested writing is all about the personalities, and that someone like Elliott should have been “thrown a couple hundred thousand dollars” to keep him. Ah, $200k for what amounts to stories of juvenile disobedience and ongoing episodes of online griefing? No thanks, I’d rather spend that money for a real journalist.