gaming Written Reviews versus Video Reviews for Video Games

[Revy ~ Two Hands 862]

Hey MLP Forums I wanted to get your take on what you prefer and why; written reviews or video reviews for video games? For this topic I'll provide an example,below is a video review I made last year for an RPG game called 'Cladun X2'

 

Here is a written review by 'Kwing' of the same game

http://www.gamefaqs.com/psp/617226-cladun-x2/reviews/review-154093

 

You can ignore the above example if you want it's just there to provide a case study if anyone wanted one before giving an answer.

 

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts MLP Forums ^^

[Discordian 6,015]

To me a review is little more than a way to judge a game before I buy it. Not in the sense that I let a review tell me whether to buy a game or not but because if you find the right reviews you can learn all you need to know about a game. A good review can tell you about the gameplay, the music and maybe something about the story and this works for both written and video.

 

The only real difference between the two are joke reviews like the No Punctuation guy who do video reviews specifically to be funny whether their opinion of the game is accurate or just to support the jokes.

 

I myself write reviews on occasion and couldn't do a video review. It takes a lot practice and concentration to be able to fill a video without pausing or stuttering (though there's some who are likely naturally good at that.) and that's not something I can do.

 

I write them mostly for fun though and expressing my opinion. I'm sure many non-professional reviewers do it for similar reasons.

 

So, long-winded post aside my answer is: neither and both. I don't watch or read reviews very often but when I do I have no real preferences to the medium.

[Krys9 456]

For me I always prefer to watch video reviews than to read a written review. Video reviews offer the audience to sit down a watch sections of the game and listen to the voice of the reviewer and try to observe how he/she acts and how they are judging the game. From time to time I read written reviews but not all that often. I tend to watch alot of video reviews though.

[Mutemutt 773]

Hmmm, I usually go with written reviews, but I'm not quite sure why...

 

I think, on one hand, written reviews seem a little more detailed. It may just be the fact that I'm reading text instead of listening to someone who often sounds a bit rushed or too rehearsed. I guess everyone sounds better in my mind.

 

A bigger reason that I prefer written reviews is that you can easily skim through the material for the parts that you are really interested in hearing about. The topic sentence is always quick to pick out, allowing you to quickly read up on the important bits unlike video reviews where you will have to sit through the entire video. You can skip around the video, but it won't be nearly as easy to find the particular part you are interested in. 

[WafflePony 20]

I prefer video reviews. I dunno why, but I just naturally lean towards them over written reviews. Probably because they usually have gameplay of the game in question to watch.

[Zoop 8,384]

Written reviews with gameplay clips embedded. I like being able to quickly read through the review at my own pace (quickly as hell), with my own music playing, without having to listen to what is often poorly executed and delivered verbal vomit.

 

All I need is a bit of text talking about some high points and low points, and some gameplay video that does not feature anyone blabbering. @_@

 

That said, I do somewhat enjoy things like Yahtzee's 'reviews', but I don't really look at them or treat them as being reviews.

 

I might be slightly opinionated.