Metacritic Takes Action Against Disgruntled Gamers Who Review-Bombed Astral Chain

from what ive read its people who are salty its not on PlayStation Xbox and PC yet they knew Astral Chain was going to be a Switch exclusive

You can't trust people to behave normally on the internet. We've gone way beyond that point.

Just scrap user reviews tbh, this is happening way too often.

so basically someone who doesn't own the game taking a dump on it?

I’m currently on holiday in Scotland but the game is bought and waiting for me back in the states. I absolutely cannot wait to play it and everything I’ve been reading and watching seems like it hits all the right spots and checks all the right boxes. It’s a shame that people can and are able to dope a product in such a way.

So It's just more of what we have been getting since Bayonetta 2.

It’s viral marketers and possibly not hired by which companies would be obvious...

Figures. They hate console exclusivity, yet they laugh at Switch owners for wanting Persona 5.

Bunch of basement dwelling babies...

"You'd certainly have a hard time arguing that Astral Chain is a '0/10' game, irrespective of your complaints against it."
Especially when a 0/10 "review" is posted with a flavour text claiming that the game "deserves a 10/10". Platform exclusivity isn't even addressed.

Logic and common sense have never been traits to associate with fans, so you can't expect all this "vox populi" to realize that such stunts don't discredit Astral Chain - they just discredit Metacritic. Or maybe that's the point in some cases? Yet even I would never stoop so low despite deeming user ratings and aggregator sites largely useless.

Review bombing is lame and immature. But the game is getting more coverage, so in the end it might sell even more.

Only Sony fanboys are review bombing on consoles.
They are also downvoting Switch exclusives on YouTube.

I buy all consoles every gen, so it doesen't matter where a game is released.

It's just sad that people feel the need to do this.
But as they say "Any publicity is good publicity"

Scores should be dumped altogether. Review only makes sense if you read the detail to check if reviewers' impressions match what you know you personally like. Fans of a genre, or even a specific publisher, will review a game differently compared to those who are not. Platinum games are fairly consistent and carry their DNA. This is how I knew I would love this game but can see how someone who never enjoyed their games could not get into this one. It still manages to be very different with its focus on a myrriad of individual mechanics as opposed to combos like in previous titles such as Bayonetta.

These kinds of descriptions + some gameplay videos are the only way for me to get a good idea if I will like a game. So far, I've been spot on. Scores don't matter.

The article title should be changed to:
"Pathetic, Small-Minded Sorry Excuses for Human Beings Are Review-Bombing Astral Chain On Metacritic"

Between this and the Sony fanboys begging for Bayonetta 2, I kinda wanna see Nintendo just flat-out purchase Platinum Games at this point. XD

The Game is Amazing! Review Bombers are totally NOT amazing...

@Dellybelly 10s and 0s don't cancel each other out, they average out at 5, which is a pretty low score if you consider most people won't spend money on anything less than 7.

@ChromaticDracula You’re on holiday in Scotland and you didn’t take your Switch with you?!

Let the Metacritic haters do their thing. I'll just bask in their salty tears and enjoy my game. Everyone KNOWS what it's worth anyway, thanks to actual site reviews.

The internet has brought out the worst in society in many ways. I feel bad for the game's designers, creators, and producers. That's unfortunate to see their hard work overshadowed by petulant "fans".

It must be hard having nothing better to do than to downvote a game because it is an exclusive. I would hate to be that pathetic.

User reviews are pointless. End

Scores are entirely pointless. I've found the only thing that really helps me decide if I want a game is negative reviews, because they tend to be the only ones that go into detail about potential dealbreakers. That's all I need when I already know the good things that made me interested in the game in the first place.

@ChromaticDracula People come here on holiday? Man, I dream of going somewhere far away but maybe I should pay a bit more attention to what’s closer to home.

Whiny little brats. Nothing more.

The world would be a better place if we could learn to not focus on what we don't have and instead focus on what we have been blessed with.

classical reviews are not working anymore. the best thing is to get hands on an then judge. i would really like to see a demo in the eshop to get a glimpse of the game. astral chain is looking pretty "japanese" an i dont know if it is the right thing for me. without a demo or a chance of getting my hands on the title, i won't buy it

@Scorchio

Scrapping user reviews would be a terrible idea. It would give far too much power to "professional" reviewers, who also behave ridiculously on occasion, and often don't represent the opinions of the audience.
Having both scores is the best way of doing things.

I wished I'd have the time these people have. Of course I wouldn't be wasting it downvoting or reviewbombing stuff.

@Dellybelly bro (or sis, i dunno) zelda botw is a TEN. Users (we) are the general populace, and the general populace is dumb af.

And that is why user reviews are pointless.

Too many people get on like arseholes.

Even the reviewer at The Independent has got in on the review bombing, labelling Astral Chain THE worst action game on Switch, 1/5. He's been caught out for lying about what difficulty he played the game on and it's dubious if he even played past the opening couple of files. It's bad enough that there are sad indivufdals out there who feel the need to lie about a game they've never played but it's even worse when it's by someone who's actually being paid for their opinions.

People need to grow up.

How miserable does a person need to be to review bomb a game that they clearly never played?

Ah, the internet. A land of so much potential for good yet ruined by a human race not yet ready for such power.

Doesn't really make any difference, people with an interest in the game will buy it irrespective of random internet opinions.

I’m tired of the internet.

Unfortunately the mask of anonymity seems to empower some to be less than human in their approach to things peer pressure would keep in check. Since there is no in person rebuke people feel free to be almost savage. It has become a sad reality.

The upside for me is I feel like purchasing the game now instead of after Dragons Quest. Reading the reviews and talking to some others has convinced me this could be another solid franchise for Nintendo

Game of the year 2019 is other astral chain or Sekiro for me ! Both are 10/10

That's it. Come on Nintendo fans, lets go and review bomb every non Nintendo Switch game!!!!

Or we could just enjoy playing the games we have

@Dezzy I'd argue that to leave a review of a game you'd have to have some sort of proof you own or least have actually played it!

@BarefootBowser its not that i dont play games where i haven't got my hands on! there are a lot of games where you see gameplay and instantly know if this is something that is suitable or not. astral chain however is very "japanese" and for me its quite hard to judge if it is something i like to play or not. a short demo, just to see how fights are going, how the whole game plays would help me make a decision. i am not willing to buy it and then see that it is not my type of game. that would be a waste of money. but i guess by just not beeing sure, it shows that its probably not "my game". a demo would help me to really get a clear picture.

@Aaron101

Yep, that's the ideal. Although people on Steam still review bomb games.
I think that's the most useful review in general though. There is no perfect solution.

Why people gotta hate on a game like that? It ain’t that serious.

I feel like meta critic ought to be doing something to police these sorts of reviews.

How sad.
I’ve been buying games for over 30 years now just fine without metactitic, or random user reviews off the internet. I’d like to think most gamers have their preferred critics or friends whose reviews they trust and can sniff out BS reviews. So bitter, spiteful fanboys hopefully have little to no actual effect on a game’s sales.
But either way, grow up people! You’re better than this!

lol at the people who are saying, “I would never stoop so low,” like this is some kind of tragic event. The reviews aren’t affecting the sales or people’s enjoyment of the game. This kind of information shouldn’t elicit more than a faint chuckle at the people who are bombing, cause they are wasting their time. This stuff is funny, people!

Basically what happened here is simple.

Nintendo paid Platinum, to do to Sony what Capcom did to Nintendo with Monster Hunter World and Sony fan tards are salty about it.

it everywhere the same with user review.
i don't take a 1/5 rating serious.

"This isn't the first time that gamers have used this approach; Fire Emblem: Three Houses has also been review-bombed recently"

I just had a look and unless the reviews have been cleared up, whilst the 0/10's aren't necessary, can you really call it review bombing? From what I read they all seemed like legitimate complaints: the monastery being boring and pointless, too much focus on relationships, needless trashy mini games, being a bit creepy at parts, too many irritating fetch quests, regular frame rate drops, things like doors taking ages to load/open, too much rubbish 'fluff' content preventing from playing the actual game.

I agree with most of what was being said. Not at all 0/10, more like a 7/10, but it's not like it got review bombed the same way as Astral Chain...Or Horizon Zero Dawn when all the angry Nintendo fans bashed it for daring to be an open world game released close to Zelda.

I've always enjoyed playing a game to the end, forming my opinion in it and then reading some user reviews. Usually the low ones are good for a laugh because they sound so petty and whiney but some of the high ones can feel just as delusional.

Persona 5 hasn't been review bombed. We all know who do this. Sony have always been a destructive force in the industry. They destroyed Sega and now they realize they can't kill Nintendo so they do everything they can to destroy the japanese industry and crush it with their western blockbusters. I'm warning people since years. Sony is a gigantic megacorp who just want to make billions and turn the videogames industry into their slaves and they don't care about game design. They don't have any game designer in administrative position, only business suits. Everytime you give money to Sony you're finding the death of the japanese industry and videogames diversity.

I don’t understand how some people literally have nothing to do with their time and do things like review bomb. Grow up already.

@Razer Are you serious? Calm down, your brainless fanboy is showing.

For one, Monster Hunter World was on Xbox One as well, so that exclusivity argument is a bit redundant.

Secondly: have you played it? The base PS4 runs like a friggin' jet engine with that game. For what the game is, the PC specs are also fairly demanding from what I remember. The reason it's not on Switch will be the same as most other games: Capcom are either unwilling to nerf the game to run the Switch or unwilling to pay out for somebody to do it.

I could make the same argument: "How dare Nintendo keep Monster Hunter 3-Generations hostage!!!!"
I won't though, because I'm not an idiot and am well aware Capcom just released it on the more popular handheld at the time.

@glaemay "Persona 5 hasn't been review bombed. We all know who do this. Sony have always been a destructive force in the industry."

Remember when Nintendo fans review bombed Horizon Zero Dawn because Breath of the Wild exists?

@Razer
You’re misunderstanding of the history of this industry is stunning. P5R might get review bombed either by an angry mob or the decision to hire viral marketers to create a narrative either way people and sites like this give too much attention to an easily exploitable thing.

@Tao No because it didn't happen? https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/horizon-zero-dawn/user-reviews
Horizon was just the usual western blockbuster. Considered good because it has a big budget. But has zero work in the game design department, and was partially developped by an army of underpaid chinese slaves.
No tell us why you are defending the biggest megacorp on the market who use all its power to kill the smaller competitors instead of making good games? Why do you want the death of the japanese industry and videogames diversity? Personalities like Jason Rubin or Shinji Mikami warned us about the destructive behemoth Sony was becoming but you didn't listen.

This is why i dont base what game i buy or play by someone else's opinion. I base what i play on what i want to play

This game is very good. Great time to have a Switch!

Fanboys are a cancer.

Also, this game is DAMN awesome.

Gamers: don’t trust the press!
Gamers: destroys the reputation of the alternative

gg, guys.

@glaemay woah bro, go easy on the edibles...

I am trying to imagine the same with PS4s exclusives...

Wait, people still take user reviews on metacritic seriously in 2019?

They've been doing this for years. It's the people who think their opinions are facts. It's really sad and honestly frightening how many people out there don't understand the difference between fact and opinion. You personally not liking something doesn't make it bad any more than you personally enjoying something makes it good.

But these people are delusional, they think their own opinions are reality no matter what you say. They are irrational and you can't defeat an irrational person with a rational argument.

@Si-Po haha! I do have it with me but the physical game card has been shipped and has arrived back at my house. (That and Terraria )

@Dezzy I am trying to get the average from user reviews - read few from the good, few from average and few from bad rating.. It's not sure but gives the chance to filter both ways - too much praise for nothing, too much hate for anything.

@Dellybelly It’s not ‘well known’ that Nintendo games get ‘plus 1’... it’s definitely ‘said by a lot of people’ (incorrectly)... which is a completely different thing.

@Si-Po

Scotland’s a pretty action packed place to visit. I doubt he’d be bored.

@glaemay
1) Strangely the unspoken has been done and evidence seems hard to come by on the internet, BUT, with the power of about 2 minutes looking and the way back machine, I grant upon thee, my dear child..Proof!

https://web.archive.org/web/20170316173244/http://www.thejimquisition.com/the-sad-ghost-war-between-breath-of-the-wild-and-horizon-zero-dawn/

2) I'm not particularly fond of Horizon Zero Dawn. I played 5 hours and thought "I've got the gist of this" before moving on to something interesting. Not a fan of Breath of the Wild either. Neither tickle my pickle, so I don't know why you're describing your thoughts on either since I don't care.

3) "No tell us why you are defending the biggest megacorp on the market who use all its power to kill the smaller competitors instead of making good games?"

I'm not defending Sony, I'm pointing out to all the people screaming "OF COURSE SONY WOULD DO THIS TO OUR POOR INNOCENT NINTENDO! ONLY SONY! EVIL!" that Nintendo fans are just as bad. Neither Sony nor Nintendo are at fault in either situation, only their idiot fanboys.

4) "Why do you want the death of the japanese industry and videogames diversity?"

Nice strawman. Bravo. To answer your question: I don't. Stop being a moron.

5) "Personalities like Jason Rubin or Shinji Mikami warned us about the destructive behemoth Sony was becoming but you didn't listen."

Okay. I don't know what that really has to do with anything...I think the last Sony game I bought was funnily enough Horizon Zero Dawn preowned last year...In fact, I think all my Sony games were preowned...And so was the PS4 itself actually. I'm not exactly showering them in cash.

Metacritic user reviews have been a garbage dump.

I would love to say that I don't get why people would bother to do something so silly, but embarrasingly enough I'm guilty of the same thing back when I was 13-15 years old, a massive Nintendo fanboy. In my idiot mindset I figured that review bombing games on "opposing" systems would accomplish something, make the other systems look bad, but at some point in said boards I saw someone calling me out as a troll, it was at that point that I realized that I had been a complete moron and went and deleted all of the "reviews" I had posted.

@finalstan Not true. I bought a game that scored a 5/10 one time and I was only mostly disappointed with my purchase.

@Balta666 On most sites definitely, but on steam you can see hours played. Jo Blow with 20 minutes playtime should be ignored. Jack Prat, with 122hrs played, might be worth listening to.

Same with Monster Hunter World by tons in the Nintendo community... And Metro Exodus By all the Steam Sheep on PC.

Always get people who piss on games because of some garbage aliegiance.

Sales always show that most can care less about their whining. Astral Chains will be no different.

@MagnaRoader :

Trust me... Their not. Fanboys are nothing more than a joke. Cancer is not.

So people are leaving bad reviews because they really want to play the game. The emergent mind of the internet is so f#@king stupid.

@Cyrax77 ok...

I can't vouch for the quality of Astral Chain myself, but I can tell it's a high-quality game. The fact that people have brought it down to a 6.1 user score on Metacritic is pretty laughable, and they really should take steps to prevent situations like this. Maybe Metacritic should prevent user reviews until a week after launch, or require a word count they'll struggle to meet, or implement some kind of system that verifies a review's legitimacy. A review with valid criticism isn't a bad thing, but when it's paired with a 0, what message do you think that sends?

Calling these people 'fans' is doing the word a disservice. They're nothing but petty wastes of air.

I really just don't care about user reviews. There are so many idiots in the world. I love internet, I really do. But let's be honest.. It also gives all those idiots a voice. They want to be heard, and it sure works.

Luckily user scores don't mean much to me. Something nicely written up with logic and objectivity with pros and cons mean more to me than a user score.

People acting like console exclusivity is some kind of great injustice that they're taking an honorable stand against...

@Tao uhh you do know its exclusive in Japan for the PS4 only right? I wonder why that could be?

Dont be delusional. Your fanboy side is showing and its very ugly.

i can see why the combat isnt very good it trys to do to much
the music for the most part isnt that great
the detective parts bring the action to a halt
the meh story does not help either

so far every switch exclusive has not been anything i would continue to play

i hope SMT:V is good

Metacritics and YouTube are a site for whiners and cry babies of all kind who didn't get what they want and just doing this to slam bomb the game. Who cares if this is Switch exclusive, just buy a Switch if you want to play it.

"angry gamers". I don't know of another kind.

@Mr_Muscle

There was a movie released in 2015, John Carter, based on stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It starred Taylor Kitsch. They planned on doing a trilogy, I think.

For some reason the interwebz got their knickers in a twist (a good many seemed to be pissed that Kitsch had been cast as Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and down voted it before it was even released. Bomb reviews, really bad. Again, this Was before release.

Was it a great movie? No. Was it a good, decent telling of the story? Yes. Many of the original reviewers now say it's a must see if one likes the genre.

The sequels were cancelled. The movie did very poorly at the box office. A great many people lost their jobs. Kitsch 's career suffered a major set back. The studio would be reluctant to produce this type of story in future.

It happens quite a bit. People don't seem to get that the net can be a powerful tool/weapon. They like the power they feel it gives them but want nothing to do with the burden of responsibility that accompanies it.

Nonsense like fake reviews aren't a laughing matter, imho. There can be negative consequences with a chain reaction.

Sorry, I'm in a very serious mood today.

@k8sMum John Carter wasn't downvoted out of spite. It was downvoted because people expected it to be bad, then it came out and got poor reviews because it was bad, and nobody saw it because they weren't interested in it. It wasn't some whiny spite campaign like this is.

People are so childish...

This never makes sense to me. Platform exclusives are meant to entice someone to buy your hardware. If you want to play the game buy the hardware to play the game. And before people say not everyone can afford every system that is true, but no one ever said gaming was an inexpensive hobby. If you're disappointed because a game is not on your console of choice don't review bomb the game because of it that is just simply childish. Be happy for those who get to play this great game and enjoy the dozens of fantastic titles on yours.

I've yet to play Astral Chains because I can't afford to play it yet so I do understand what it's like not being able to afford said awesome game.

@Expa0 I give you credit for owning up to that here. We all do dumb and insensitive things as kids. Listening to others and learning from our mistakes are what counts.

@Roto13

There was blowback due to casting. I am not a huge fan of the movie, but it was dumped on. The old IMDB had pages of disgruntled people who hadn't seen it.

You see nothing wrong with giving a bad review because you expect something will be bad? I find it disingenuous.

I don't really have a dog in this fight as I said I'm not a huge fan of the movie and this game doesn't interest me. I just really hate the mob mentality that takes hold when people decide to trash things they haven't experienced yet.

@k8sMum As a big John Carter book fan, I can tell you that the movie utterly bombed because Disney had no idea how to market it and made every mistake in the book about how to sell the movie. Right down to the asinine move of removing references to Mars in the title and the taglines. A lot of fans were a bit disgruntled about that, but actual fans of the books WANTED the movie to succeed. Every forum I went to had JC fans trying to promote the movie, not tear it down.

(Honestly, a great movie and a valiant attempt to update the books. I appreciate it, saw it on release day with my kid and have the Blu-Ray.)

Just like rotten tomatoes. I rarely rely on film reviews after I watched Interstellar years back, and then Batman vs Superman. For games, I use a few trusted sites and magazines like NL, and Game Informer. My only question for the people review bombing anything is why are you so angry? The internet has magnified these folks and given them a voice and that's only going to get worse.

The review bombers are probably angry PlayStation 4 fans that are mad that there favourite plastic box aint cool anymore. As someone who owns all 3 consoles i cant remember the last time i turned on the Ps4. Its been mostly switch/xbox 1 for me.

@matdub IMO not really because on the internet you never know if someone's is telling the truth or just trolling. Hence why I read/watch reviews from people I trust. I could do the same thing on steam or others but it is just a hassle not worth my time.

@k8sMum Allowing reviews at all before a thing comes out is extremely stupid to begin with, but that's as close to a proper way to use pre-release user reviews as there can be.

Went and read two pages of Astral Chain user reviews and checked profiles.

85% were people with single review and it was 0-2 for Astral Chain. Created within last week.

10% people with all 10's for PS4 games and 0 for anything else.

5% of people with mixed reviews both positive and negative for all sorts of games.

Yeah it's definitely review bombing sh*t.

I don't know what's more pointless: review bombing 0s (or 10s for that matter), or caring about metacritic scores.

It's a pile of non viable data, seemingly only used to validate one's opinion. I've never known anyone to have their purchase influenced by a metacritic score.

These people who posted all this negative reactions are just SALTY because they' can't play it on PS4 and Xbox One or maybe because they are still virgins and their mothers hate them its really really annoying that we are all gamers and that this still exists all system has their own exclusive games and content PlayStation does it all the time-God of War just saying.

Fanboys at their best, only caring about what the competition does or doesn't do. Just buy a Switch, you salt bro's.

Most of them are PS4 fanboys, that are hurt because it's a switch exclusive. Some profiles I checked where giving 10 to every PS4 game and 0 to Xbox and Switch exclusives by no reason. Most of them are PS4 fans. I find some Xbox users, but they were minority on the review bomb.

PS community is the worst in my opinion, one of the reasons I sold my PS4 and keep my Xbox alongside my switch.

I don't want to generalize but on Metacritic they are the worst.

@Razer A good reason for that would be this: Xbox is massively unpopular in Japan to the point it's not even regarded as a 'main console' alongside the PS4 and Switch, Xbox has never been competitive in Japan, thus they probably didn't even bother releasing it on Xbox there leading to exclusivity only due to a lack of players on the Xbox there.

If it was truly exclusive in Japan, to the point where Sony spent money to make it so, then it would be in the rest of the world too, not just Japan....Besides the point, given the Switch is region free, as is the Xbox One, what would be the point in paying for a game console exclusive in just one country for some sort of competitive edge? You could just import it, totally negating this bats*** crazy scheme you seem to think exists.

If anything, from all the """logic""" you seem to be using, Nintendo and Sony must obviously be teaming up to keep Xbox sales lower in Japan...But nowhere else in the world. Makes sense? Right? No.

I'm still struggling to see your thought process here. Why do you think there isn't a Switch version? Because it's exclusive to PS4 in Japan? Then why does the West have an Xbox version? Why doesn't the West in that case have a Switch version? None of your drivel makes a lick of sense.

Please, do some basic research and engage your brain before blindly bashing every company other than Nintendo for the sake of praising Nintendo for something that hasn't happened. I too would like MH:W for Switch, but I'm not under any delusion that Sony specifically paid money for it to not be on other platforms only in one country...Please, where is the logic there?

I remember when Smash 4 came out, people on a PlayStation fan site complaining it should be multi-format. The Internet's nothing without the clowns that populate it (yes, takes one to know one, I know!)

@BarefootBowser Big Rigs Over the Road Racing. A racing game where the opponent doesn't even move. Even after they updated it, the opponent still cannot win.
The only game I can think of that became popular BECAUSE of how broken it was.

@Haywired This is a brilliant idea. I'd love to see this implemented, then maybe I could take user scores a bit more seriously.

Are some peoples' lives this sad that they have to review-bomb a game simply because it's a console exclusive? I get truly not liking a game if you've played it, but I highly doubt that's usually the case here. Even if I don't like a game that I've played, I'll very rarely if ever give anything a zero unless the game is a broken, unplayable mess.

Simple solution: buy or borrow the console that it can be played on.

Edit: I do disagree with banning user ratings. Legitimate feedback should still be allowed from non-professionals who truly wish to inform others about what they liked/disliked about a game while remaining objectionably fair.

@Scorchio I don't see a different between good "user" reviews and professional reviews.
Aren't review-bomber 0 scores usually people who can't think up more than a few words anyways so you know that opinion isn't worth reading.
As to FE and PLG, I'm not going to trust the FE fanbase after the toxicity of it on the previous game (that got that person fired after they got butt-hurt about the translation and decided to go looking into NoA employees' personal lives, that part was more bothering to me than her thoughts), and Pokemon definitely has the "I don't like change and I'm not even going to give the new game a chance before berating it" fans.

@Scorchio I understand your viewpoint on this, but I still disagree. Any time I see a game or movie that has ratings split between high and low, with no middle, I'm immediately suspicious. Anyone with a basic understanding of these review sites can quickly figure out what's going on. In these cases, it is usually on of three things: rabbit fanboys attacking a rival console, people upset with the publisher's business practices (loot boxes, locking half the game behind a paywall, etc), or that the game is a total departure from what you'd expect from the franchise. The rabid fanboys are easy enough to identify and ignore. The other two are valid, even if the reviews resemble a tantrum. Professional reviews almost NEVER call out games for shady monetization, and while it may not be fair to trash a game because it tried something new, its a fair warning to tell people Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival isn't what you expect from a real AC game.

So, I wish people would be a little more mature with their reviews, but even "review bombs" can be helpful if you know how to interpret them. One last note, yeah, the Sony fanboys dragging down the score is lame, but how many 10/10's did the game get simply by being Platinum/Nintendo? It works both ways.

I don't think anyone takes user scores seriously on metacritic, specifically because of instances like this, you can't trust the general population to be fair and unbiased people.

I never pay attention to user scores on Metacritic, you shouldn't even be allowed to give a game a 0/10.

@finalstan Remove review scores but have them hidden within the text. Force people to read .

@glaemay you do realise Sony are a Japanese company? How was it sonys fault what happened to Sega? Because Sony created a better product so people didn't spend money on Sega? Thst to me is more of a Sega problem then a Sony one!

Looks like you can dip a factory full of buiscuits into those salty tears. That's how bad it's getting. Lol

Sadly you got people who just give bad reviews like this for no reason.

@Ventilator

All fanbases got these kind of people. If it not on their console of choice then they lash out by review bombing the game in question

All this did is remind me I need to get Astral Chain!

And...the comment section has been run by morons from both sides now. All right, so the reviews make no sense honestly since we knew the day it was revealed that the game would be exclusive to begin with. Also, guys, I'm sure both Horizon and Three Houses are good games overall, and anything you say is either nitpicking or you just don't feel they are your type of games.

@Razer That's not what happened...Also, the game is on Xbox One.

@KingMike Wasn't that employee fired for doing escort services while still being associated with Nintendo? I recall seeing that she was advertising them on the same Twitter that she had verified as working at NoA. I'm surprised Nich Maragos never had any run ins with them considering he had a ton of things pointing to him like his support for Andrea Ritsu, who is rumored to be the one that made the complaint that got Soleil's supports censored or that he was working on both Fates and TMS #FE and both of them had similarly awful localization works.

Ugh, I hate impulsive review scores like this. I didn't review bomb Let's Go, but if I did, I would have gave it a 0/10 too, but after playing it... I realized that it was fun in its own way...but still a 6/10, and easily the worst Pokémon game... until Sword and Shield was announced to be released, in a permanently unfinished state. Review bombers for that one will get all my support.

@nessisonett you take that back! I’ve lived in a desolate hellscape with no pies, square sausage or tattie scones since I moved to Sussex and try and get back as much as possible to experience the wonders of Irn Bru in McDonalds and Black Pudding suppers.

Stuff like this makes me think gamers don't deserve games.

User reviews are a mistake.

People should have to verify purchase or something like that to be able to leave a review.

@ChromaticDracula LOL I too am on holiday in Scotland and have the game waiting for me when I get back to the states!

Many of these same people lost their minds like this when it was revealed that Bayonetta would be a Nintendo exclusive. It didn’t matter to these people that without Nintendo’s help Bayonetta 2 wouldn’t exist and no one could play it. This is an example of just how toxic gamers have allowed the gaming community to become. We really need to get our house in order and properly deal with toxic and destructive elements like this.

Absolute Idiots shouldnt be allowed near these sites

I never cared about reviews or scores, i make my own judgment of weather i like the game or not after i experienced it myself, best way to know if you will like it or not is to just play it for a few days, put in a couple of hours of gameplay and then consider if is your cup of tea or not, unfortunately a lot of people are to quick to pull the trigger and will always just follow the crowd instead of actually trying it out for themselves... that is why so many great gems end up getting very underrated, while some reviews may be a bit useful in informing you what might be in the game nost reviews are made out of mainly one individual's personal opinion, that is why most reviews are pointless and userscores are most of the time inaccurate or probably also pointless.

This review bombing BS is way too common these days and it has made me very distrusting of user reviews to the point to where I don't even bother checking them anymore. Now a days I just watch someone play it on youtube.

@Scorchio I can't say I agree with you. Both the official reviews and user reviews have been a little bonkers. In weird sort of way they both raise the appropriate question "why". I won't take the review at face value if the user reviews are bad and vice versa. So I dig in and see if its just an angry mob of user babies or an angry mob of reviewer babies. When it came to movies the users were on point with alita and cpt marvel. There was weird bias. There was weird bias in reviews towards open world titles and it hurt more than a few titles in the 2000s for games that actually were pretty good.

I don't know the reason for the review bomb, but upon close inspection of both camps. The reviewers win this round. Its a good way to keep both sides honestly.

Not enough reason to call for a shut down of either.

@Darkyoshi98 Yeah exactly, you just need to avoid taking scores too seriously these days. Critics all seem to have their biases but at least they generally try to stick to honest scoring based upon how they feel about it, the user scores are just a joke with all the fans review spamming 10's to inflate a game's score or haters review bombing it with 1's and 0's to drop it's score. At the end of the day it just isn't helpful to see a bunch of stupid shallow "OMG I am such a big fan 10/10" and "OMG I am so mad 0/10" reviews.

This is why I have taken to youtube. I know some content creators who I can relate to and I generally seek out gameplay and walkthrough videos. It seems to work for me.

@sweetiepiejonus That is what Amazon has done with their video game reviews. They used to let anyone review a game and it would show up and effect the score, now they hide all the reviews that are made by people who don't purchase it, if you want your review to show up you need to have a "verified purchase" review.

That said I would still consider the Amazon user reviews to be quite worthless.

This is Bayonetta 2 all over again! You can ask for Babylon's Fall on Switch as well, or else it will remain a mysterious PS4 console exclusive.

This game is a lot of fun, so their anger over it being an exclusive is understandable.

@Tyranexx If you think this is sad, wait until you hear about the Ion Fury review bombing controversy that just recently happened. Ion Fury is this new retro style FPS for the PC, and a lot of people liked it but it got review bombed because of, get this, homophobic shampoo. I am sure you are like "so they were angry about the homophobia" but you would be wrong, what pissed off the review bombers was how the developer apparently wanted to remove a stupid homophobic joke that was discovered in early access, that being a shampoo bottle with a lame gay joke as it's brand name.

So there you have it, these review bombers are the type of people who get angry because they want to have a lame homophobic joke in a video game. The developer actually said they were going to leave it in the game because of how pissed off these review bombers got over that. I think that does a great job of showing off their maturity.

@k8sMum You’re good! And you’re right, that’s a valid point I had forgotten to consider. We do have to deal with the so-called “cancel culture” that is so prevalent from all the crybabies on the net. Still, I figured this game would sell really well so it’s just funny that so many people are digging their heels in about it. I don’t like what I see about the game so I just skipped it and moved on. Weird to me that people misuse their voice!

God, these comments are awful. I really have no opinion on this situation; I'm not interested in the game. But, you all realize console exclusivity is still bad for the consumer... Right?

@KingMike The difference between a professional review and an amateur one is that the pro is trying to help curate the chaotic deluge of games that are out. They write about games the way a professional wine taster would describe an aged wine; talking about points that the general user may not even consider, such as level design, tone, graphical assets and performance benchmarks, music, how the story may play into current pop culture, etc. They also have much more practice than the general public, who sometimes write reviews because they are gushing about the new game they like, or bashing it because it wasn’t their jam. Pretty big world of difference, but I can see why it’s not immediately obvious. Have a great day!

They should have some kind of punishment for giving a review that is based off of nothing.

Exclusivity is complicated, but from a consumer point of view, there are few obvious, tangible, rational reasons to want it. I do understand why some want to protest it. You can argue this is the wrong way to do it, but it does get noticed.

Nintendo is a big argument for why exclusivity is valuable. Sony and Microsoft remain quite pigeonholed into a model that is successful for them that caters to a particular category of gamer and they are punished (by sales) anytime they drift away from the whims of that crowd. Nintendo exclusive games have kept it profitable and allowed Nintendo to cater to a different set of gamers and compete with distinctly different hardware. Many consumers benefit from the success that Nintendo enjoys partly because of its tight reign on its own exclusive games.

I'd argue that Sony/Microsoft exclusive games are much, much less consumer friendly. The two platforms are arguably catering to largely the same customers, competing mostly with marketing and exclusives. Right now it feels like this will be even more extreme this next generation as Microsoft has "bought up" a bunch of devs for exclusivity purposes. Their goal is to basically split up the same group of gamers to the point that they have to give in and buy both expensive consoles. Nintendo's customers don't always overlap as much, though, and where they do overlap, the hardware offering gives a real tangible advantage (flexible portability), where PS XB hardware is nearly indistinguishable.

This is not meant to be "this company is better than that one" at all, btw, just an observation of where things seem to be. Gamers are demanding and helping to force these companies do what they do, and all the companies are for profit. Nintendo does seem to care a bit more for the health of the game industry, even if that is a self-preservation attitude because they are the only one with nothing else to fall back on.

Short version: Exclusivity helps Nintendo-friendly consumers more than it helps Sony/Microsoft-friendly consumers. None of this helps the poor dev with an excellent game, but a trashy Metacritic score (hopefully dev bonuses from the publisher weren't contingent on the score as is the case sometimes)

@gumble Console exclusivity COULD be bad for the consumer. It’s also great for competition, which can also be good for the consumer. Maybe the next PS4 exclusive will be a similar game to Astral Chain, and just as good if not better? Plus, sometimes these turn out to be “time exclusives,” so maybe in a few months PC or other consoles will get Astral Chain.

@Mr_Muscle I don’t know if that’ll happen. It sounds like a Bayo 2 situation with Astral Chain.

@JayJ I highly doubt the developers at Ion Fury went out of their way to be homophobic. There are people that laugh at jokes of that nature, which is why stand up comedians to this day still use that subject matter. Sure, it’s a cheap laugh, but I’m still happy that game developers have enough of a mild sense of humor to include Easter eggs like that. It’s good for the spirit to laugh at dumb things, is my point. If I hear jokes about white guys, I don’t immediately say that the comedian is cis-phobic or whatever it would be. I just laugh it off if it’s funny, shrug it off if it’s not.

Proof reviews are useless.

Mad stuff, who could be assed?! Combined with the seriously weird advertisement user reviews (I bought dragon age inquisition recently and checked out the ps4 user reviews, there was a straight up copy paste of the ign review synopsis as one of the most recent reviews) and you really cant trust them! That's why I use NL and PS along with community comments to sense check games. I cant wait to play this at some stage but I'm trying really hard not to buy anymore games till I finish the ones I have!

@Mr_Muscle Yeah the whole thing was blown way out of proportion. The people who initially freaked out over it to have it removed might have been getting carried away, but the people who review bombed it because they wanted to keep it there went WAY beyond that and made themselves look many times worse.

Wow... miserable assholes = review bombers🤦🏾‍♂️ If me saying that pisses off the sensitives, I'm sorry. But... these jabronues are ridiculous. I'll definitely be getting this game on pay day. I never fall for review bombs. Hopefully most other people don't either.

The salt is real. I just wonder how these same people would like it if people review bombed an exclusive on their platform of choice. How about putting the shoe on the other foot, review bombers?

@MasterGraveheart I was actually thinking about this oter day. Most of their games lately have been Nintendo exclusive, so I'm surprised they haven't just bought them out already

I don't get it. I own all platforms Ps4, Switch, PC, even an Xbox One. All for this reason. If they really want this exclusive so bad just buy a damn Switch... Problem solved.

Yeah people want what they can't have especially if it's from Platinum. With that being said my only criticism if the game is the main character. Kinda of a pet peeve of mine. Nameless, voiceless characters are kinda boring to me. Only Nintendo gets a pass for that type of character. Other than that it's a good game.

@Haywired

That's a good idea, but I think users would quickly catch on. IMBD doesn't count 0/5 user scores...so review bombers started giving 1/5 scores instead.

Astral Chain is great, and as long as they stay brainlessly loyal to MS or Sony, they won't have it. This whole "I don't want to buy a system for one game!!!!!1" BS is old. Every system has at least a handful of exclusives most people will enjoy. Buy the system, or shut up and live without them. It's that easy.

Not really unexpected. Have you never been to the gamefaqs forums before?

@Glassneedles That’s a good point. There must be so many things missing down there such as Munchy Boxes, Caramel Wafers and the like.

I have never and would never buy a game or not through Metacritics scores for this very reason. It’s always getting spammed and it’s pointless judging anything by that site.

And that is why I don't trust sites like metacritc or also make my purchase based on a single review. Usually I have two to three sites and take the median from there

@JayJ Yep, that one crawled across my feed as well, though I didn't look into it much. Another case of the internet mob being stupid at its finest. I suppose the issue was over censorship or something to that effect. I have no problem with changes or removals like that as long as the story, gameplay mechanics, etc. aren't affected. It's of so little consequence that I'm surprised that anyone even bothered getting bent out of shape about it in one way or another.

I really pity the people who have the time and feelings to actually do this.
I just don't get the mentality of being so fiercely loyal to one corporate brand and hating on a another one enough to do this to a game released exclusively for the one you're not loyal to. And I don't want to get it, because it's stupid.

They're just sad individuals. Sometimes the worst part of gaming is the gamers.

Those people have way too much free time. They should get a life.

At the same time, on the opposite end of the spectrum is the question worth asking in this day and age, “Do any games deserve a 0 out of 10?” I’d wager no game released over the past decade score should be less than a 4 excluding indies and games with micro transactions which should score lower in my opinion. All triple a games are beautiful with the same controls, rarely any triple a game does anything different, so we are essentially playing the same game repeatedly with a different story, genre, or coat of paint. Micro transactions break games and should be docked in points simply because they are becoming necessary in otherwise great games.

@Tyranexx Yeah I think it just shows off how fickle gamers can be these days, they will be all for something then you will get this angry mob hive-mind reaction over something incredibly stupid. To me it is stuff like that as well as all the fanboys trying to drive up the scores of their favorite franchises that makes me consider user reviews largely irrelevant in this day and age, at least when it comes to review sites.

There has always been this persistent attitude among non-Nintendo gamers that Nintendo shouldn't be allowed to have any exclusives that aren't Nintendo franchises.

I hope Nintendo buys Platinum Games, just to see the salt flow. Plus, it's a good idea anyway given the quality of their output.

@nessisonett my parents were up a few weeks ago and brought back a bunch of stuff which has now run out. I’m now missing tattie scones so much I’m going to try and make my own this weekend.

The worst bit is I can’t even point to any stuff we get down here exclusively either as a counterpoint!

The bit that drives my point home the most I think is I know most of the cafes in Brighton that have black pudding in their breakfasts. A lot don’t have it and most of the time it’s an optional extra.

The only complaints I have with the game (minor ones really) are the mouths not lining up sometimes with what the characters are saying, the fact you have the option to change outfit colors but actually can't at least 5 cases in, and the lack of a jump button without the legion.

The last bit is particularly hard for me to get used to because it's the only platinum game I've ever played so far without one so it just feels weird, the game is great though, so these reviews shouldn't even be taken with a grain of salt

Just another example to show there are a lot of idiots out there. Typically self righteous, talentless, self congratulating, self-entitled, YouTube warriors that are often the alter ego of a sad lonely little loser festering in their mummy’s basement/loft.

@Dellybelly 0s cancel out 10s??

Those are some strong mathematics skills.

Wow, pathetic. Anyone who gives Astral Chain a 0/10 needs to get a life, or a Switch if that's what (the fact that's it's a Switch exclusive game) is causing them to bomb it.

Not surprised from gamers now a days. Gamers act like babies when they don’t get something. That’s like me going to God of War and putting a negative review just because it’s a PlayStation exclusive. Pathetic

Well, like they say, not everyone is good at Math. They meant 10/10 and accidently left out the first 1.

@JayJ I agree when it comes to those who are clearly review-bombing and fanboying respectively. I still think there should be a way - though possibly without a ranking system (still mixed on them as I can see how they're both beneficial and harmful) - for the average Joe or Jane to give fair praise/criticism about a game that they've honestly played.

For example, I'm one of the few who isn't a fan of Pikmin 3. However, I wouldn't give it a zero just because I disliked aspects of it. It's a decent game at its core with some truly enjoyable moments, but clearly some of its pitfalls affected me more than others. Ranked, I'd probably give it a mid-7 to a low 8.

@Tyranexx Yeah I am there with you and I think a lot of us are, there is clearly a demand out there for a place for people to honestly share their opinions but sadly that always seems to get abused by the angry mobs and fanboy cliques. It is why it is so hard to take reviews on the internet seriously.

Cry me a freaking river! They Want to whine about exclusives, try growing up in my era. The 16bit console wars.

@Linked2thaPast Superman on N64. If there was ever a game that deserved 0's that game is it.

@nofriendo haha happens to the best of us, I guess!
The rainy weather has been making me wish I had it, staying indoors to play it. However, the Airbnb we’re at has an amazing record collection so I’m getting by for now. Cannot wait to finally try the game though — my best friend said it’s a hit and we have exact tastes.

@Ventilator care to show your proof that it's only sony fans?

@aznable there is no way it is a 10. The game is far from perfect.

@Scorchio entrust human beings to act normal?

Humans are evil beasts and you expect them to act civilised? That's like leaving meat out and expecting the hungry puppy not to eat it.

@westman98 so was humanity.

@nessisonett I get that. But that hike in Portree, the vibrant life in Glasgow, and the food in Edinburgh has been STELLAR. I give Scotland 2 thumbs up!

@Hemibear "They are a virgins...their mother hates them...."

So the value of a person is if they had sex with someone and if their mother loved them?

You must be stupid or projecting.

@glaemay no what happened to sega is that sony released a superior product. Sega didn't didn't adapt so it failed. Zero work in game design huh? Same could be said of BoTW in a lot of aspects too. Your fanboy is showing

@jbreez00 for me add in a mostly silent protag when they have a va(as a complaint) for them but nothing really huge. I love the game so far

Sorry I must have struck a nerve as they say in Splatoon 2 "Love You"

@BarefootBowser that one batman game in the gamecube generation. Cant remember the name, also superman 64. Poor DC heroes cant catch a break

@Kdman you either got it or you didnt,lol. Good times.

@Kdman You beat me to it. But I mentioned another one before supes

@ChromaticDracula Best record in the airbnb?

@Wickedspades I really dont give two craps about your Sony defending ways but really? Zero work in game design on BOTW? You claim that guys fanboy is showing but i think it's more like yours is. I really couldn't care less about why you think this but it's depressing. A crap load of people worked hard on that game and millions upon millions enjoyed the crap out of it. In the end your opinion is worth dog poop when compared to the obvious love that exist out there for this game.

My issue is people crapping on others work just because of their love of someone elses work.

@glaemay No, the ones ruining this hobby are MS. Go back to 2002 and you can see everything bad today started with Xbox then. Has Sony been ignorant in the past? Of course, they all have, but only one has been consistently terrible every generation since its inception, and that's Xbox.

As for the review bombing, if it's really because of exclusivity, then we know it's definitely not from the Sony camp as they know just how important exclusives are. It's from the MS camp who have been brainwashed and exclusive-less since 2015, who believe everyone deserves all games on every platform because they don't have as many as the competition. If any of you support MS, let this year be the last. Let Scarlett fail miserably, let Gamepass go by the wayside, and let Google take MS' place. Sony and Nintendo fans go hand in hand together, if you think about it for 30 seconds you'll understand, so quit throwing sh*t at the other and band together.

@whanvee I said in aspects. Learn to read. The forced stealth place for example was crap with next to no stealth mechanics. Combat more or less came down to countering. Plus continuity. Beat ganon? He is still flying around the castle and enemies falling out of the sky. It wasn't my kinda game but I still played it. I'd still give it a solid 8.5 out of 10. Please instead of kneejerk reactions actually read the entire passage and comprehend it. I am defending Horizon NOT sony. So instead of white knighting for someone who legitimately is a nintendo fanboy against someone who isn't actually fanboying for either.
Compare to what he said about Horizon and you will see I am much more reasonable.

@JayJ Agreed. Thankfully it's normally fairly easy for me (though often tedious and time-consuming all the same) to weed through the facts when I'm trying to decide whether I pick up a game. There aren't really any easy solutions I can come up with otherwise that wouldn't affect freedom of speech or legit scores in some way.

@Wickedspades Nothing is perfect, but it's still a ten.. Another fine example is Shadow of the Colossus. Perfect? No. A 10? You better believe it. Sometimes a game is more than the sum of its code.

@Wickedspades I can read that's how I can tell you are a Sony adoring douche. In an article which doesn't mention Sony whatsoever you have mentioned them more than once. Defending them like if they need you to. Like I said I couldn't care less about your reasoning for your Zelda comment. By the way I'm blocking you right after this so if you reply do note that I will never read it. Have fun defending Sony from all the injustice hurled their way.

@aznable only a perfect game can be a 10. BoTW has issues that cannot be ignored. But I won't argue you because it will be a moot point on either of our sides so I'll agree to disagree

@whanvee if you could read you would see that I am responding to OTHERS bringing it up. I mean you can block me but that doesn't mean I'm wrong. You just want a safe space is all.

@Quarth I disagree. Review bombing is important because it gives people the opportunity to interject in the media and PR narrative. Too often a game's technical issues or developer's politics or policies don't get addressed (intentionally or otherwise) in coverage, and review bombs can bring this to light.

The problem here is, with Astral Chain we still don't know why. Exclusivity doesn't sound like a likely reason.

@Tyranexx Yeah the system is a real double edged sword. You can't have too much control over published content without that getting abused and letting anyone just spam whatever they want creates an unhelpful and fan/hater driven environment.

It would be nice if we could come up with a means for people to become critics in a sense where other critics could weigh in on their content but you have somewhat of an honor system where people will get called out for being too toxic or too fanboyish. Basically make it so people can actually develop a profile as a video game critic on their own.

@Wickedspades Dude, I literally wrote "nothing is perfect," so you know how I see it. Agree to disagree. Feel free to point out a perfect game though.

@aznable yeah I edited agree to disagree in my last one as well. And I won't because there is no such thing. I'm the type that won't give a 10 to any game even the ones I love with a passion unless it is flawless

I really seems to be impossible for people to grasp when Nintendo is financing exclusive games for their platform, yet no one bets an eye when Sony does it...
Funny how that works...

@Einherjar or when MS throws their weight around and buys studios out. More of an add-on to your true thought.

@ChromaticDracula I think I probably take Glasgow's city centre for granted since I'm in every day for Uni so it's probably more better for tourists than I realised!

@Glassneedles I'm sure they'll turn out better than my several attempts to make tablet lol.

@Wickedspades Well, i left out MS since...well...you can count their current exclusive IP's on one hand really :/
Sony is much more active in that regard, but yeah definitely true!

@Einherjar aaaah ok makes sense! Regardless I agree with you 100%

@JayJ I'd definitely be up for an honor system like that!

@MasterGraveheart its been years since ive seen ur avatar...it sticks in my mind for some reason...and yea..this is all BS but inbabgood way..it means that platinum games its getting the recognition it deserves by the large deman of fans....so in the future we will be seeing more from them on all platforms without the need for exclusives to be paid for. Bayo 2 was the start....all this press means that Bayo 3 will truly B epic.

Switch has many game that arebwell worth owing the damn thing...get ur money together and buy one on deal or used and get N or get Out!

@BlackStar9000 hopefully bayonetta 3 will be. We need the character style hack n slash genre to get more recognition

These people are such weirdos and very immature. Play whatever you want to play. If you want a Switch, buy one. If not, don't.

@Spiders I get what you're saying, but I don't agree with you. There are more serious ways to criticize a game than dropping a zero on Metacritic. Review bombing comes of as entitled and childish, even though there might be legitimate criticism to be directed at the handling of the game's production or whatever. Sure, I get it's an easy way to show your opinion, but I don't think it leads to anything in the long run.

Fake news. You dont have any proof why there are at least 800 fake positive, and 1000 fake negative. There is only 20 actual reviews, and only ones talking fake negative are all the fake 10s saying its greatest game ever. If you did any reporting or got head out your ass, people probably doing it cause so many pretending like it's best game ever.

Interesting. Well I'm just really getting a chance to see this here, but I sure do hope that the people that are quick to jump on Nintendo fans and berate them of they darw sat anything negative about games that aren't on the system are as quick to come in here to berate and admonish these clowns for this immature and childish behavior. God forbid we see that same quickness and ferocity in this situation from them eh?

I could care less what those haters say, I'm going to buy the game regardless. It's just people who go out of their way to hate on Nintendo and the developers who create games to be exclusive to Nintendo. Spoiled brats who probably don't know gaming history and how important Nintendo is to gaming as a whole. I want to own all consoles but I don't have a family trust fund to tap into and I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I might be late in the end but I will enjoy them all someday.

@KBuckley27

From most of the other sites I've been to, it seems to mostly be salty sony fanboys. I went to a couple of big sites and most of the vitriol and hate seemed to com from those hella loyal to sony

@Dellybelly

Lmao It's so funny that you say that as I feel that way pretty much about most of sony"s games I have played. As I felt like they were just getting higher scores because of who they came from. The last gow & spiderman instanty comes to mind.

Actually reading reviews, regardless of the number or grade assigned, is best. I've seen quite a few games get a 5 or 6 but I found them quite enjoyable, just not Best Game Ever. Many 0 reviews outright state they're not legit and should be ignored.

@Tao

Let's not rewrite history here, because I certainly remember when hzd ame out. And while some may have criticized or even hated on it, it wasn't getting that beleaguered. And then all I heard from sony Fanboys (especially on some of the bigger sites like ign or that s#!thole n4g) was "Zelda who?" and everything else when it was reviewing fairly well. Then Zelda came out and pretty much erased it from memory and then the fanboy frothing & vitriol was full-on. You can STILL go to some of those sites & see them hating on zelda & going on about how horizon zero dawn deserved that game of the year and all that.

@duhsoares21

Agree with you so much. Part of the reason why my ps4 is pretty much just a babysitter or paperweight to this day. Extreme fanboys of any flavor are bad, but sony Fanboys are particularly overbearing & disgusting.

@JayJ I think the funniest part of this whole situation is there were two instances of "homophobia", and the more controversial one wasn't actually placed in the game by the core dev team. A third party dev who'd been working on the game who also happened to not be a native English speaker had placed the text in the game as a placeholder, not realising the brevity of the joke within the wider English-speaking political sphere, and the company removed it. The fact it was in a no-clip area should have been hint enough, though you can't hold the players responsible for the company's slip-up. They apologised for this, but held their ground on the more minor of the two, and within the context of the game and given just how timid the joke actually is both on the surface and as a reference, it's kinda crazy how much heat they copped.

@Wickedspades Sony fanboys were always Platinum fanatics, and Xbox fanboys never were.
Sony fanboys also sended death threats to Platinum when Bayonetta 2 were funded by Nintendo.

@Arnold-Kage It's always been known that Sony ones is most childish and the worst kind. The most rotten scum of a barrel which were mentioned in articles on other sites earlier years.

I hate fanboy'ism and is why i buy all consoles on every gen, and i even bought the failed VITA.

What a sad little life some people lead.

It's happening across the board for Switch games it seems. Fire Emblem, Dream Daddy, Edith Finch...

@Scorchio just dont read them and instead read a book or learn a moneymaking skill. To suggest scrapping user reviews is like taking away free speech on the internet (which is already happening). my 2c

And with regards to allegations of people being motivated to do this, please provide ample constructive proof before well..making allegations. It used to be innocent until proven guilty, nowadays it seems the other way around.

I only own a switch by the way, but im just getting a bit fedup with people saying things without scientific or any other form of objective data to backup their point.

Its been happening with films (Marvel and DC films in particular) for a long time, get used to it, people don't like it when they don't get their own way.

Personally, I watch gameplay videos, read a few different reviews, and judge for myself

It's funny. Most here are accusing Sony fanboys for the review bombs. Purely by logic, however, I think that Xbox fans are the most guilty. While there is a decent range of exclusive titles on PS4, Microsoft has recently even lost Ori to Nintendo! I clearly see Xbox fans disappointed and effed up. At the end, I do not really care though, because I'm a very fortunate person to own all three competing consoles.

@Dellybelly You'd be a fool to think that. If you bothered checking the reviews, you'd see it is indeed review bombing. I went through 350+ (was bored, yay) and they're ALL random flavor text, copy pastas and "muh sony is best".

Considering I've checked around a third if not more of the 0 score reviews, it is safe to say it's just a review bombing event staged by low IQ people whose simple tastes don't register how pathetic it is to reviewbomb anything.

Also, NL: Let's not call it "disgruntled gamers"... The article would ring a lot more true if you instead wrote "Immature children are review-bombing Astral Chain on Metacritic".

The game is no masterpiece, but any review below an 8 is simply subject to a spontaneous combustion.

Unfortunately nothing new. Xbox gamers have been downvoting PS4 exclusives all gen...

@gameboy1975 your rewriting history not @Tao, Zelda fans very much hated on Horizon Zero Dawn around that time and review bombed it on metacritic. It definitely went both ways but you can't brush under the carpet the fact that Jim Sterling no longer does game reviews because Zelda fans attacked his website and took it down, threatening his livelihood just because he gave BOTW a 7 and scored Horizon Zero Dawn a 9. As others have, there is no point in looking at metacritic today as 2 years of subsequent reviews have diluted them somewhat and no doubt will with Astral Chain. It's just pathetic whoever's doing it and there is absolutely no excuse for ever giving any game a 0 or indeed below a 5 unless its fundamentally broken

Back to the topic, flicking through some of these "reviews" of Astral Chain clearly shows that they haven't even played the game in the first place, with bland nonsense such as it's just a button masher or the graphics are terrible. It would be very easy for metacritic to simply require you to link your gaming accounts so that you have to have played a game before reviewing it, I think many would be less likely to review bomb a game if they had to pay £50 for the privilege.

Some of the comments here are sadder then the review bombing...

I went to take a look, and now I don't understand why people even use metacritic....
The reviews are all either 10/10 or 0/10
It's like everyone forgot the existence of any other number. It's not just fanboys or trolls either. There are people that leave actually reasonable reviews, stating what they liked and what they didn't like, but then the score is 10 if their opinion is generally positive or 0 if it's generally negative.... What's the point of even waisting time writing anything at all if your score can only be either of those two?

It's all abit sad really.... Metacritic dictates on official review's it's an 87, so a very good game. No amount of 0 scores from pathetic cry-baby's can change that.

@Nintyfan Why let game pass fall? Game pass is pretty damn good value and doesnt just consist of trash, especially so if they do as they keep talking about and get it on more platforms.

Instead of Microsoft going away, I think it would be better for them to go third party via game pass, especially given theyve already put games in Switch.

Letting Google take over seems like a terrible idea, if not because their anti consumer practices blow anything Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo have done wrong in the past few years totally out of the water then because they're pushing streaming, something the world isn't ready for with places like the US (a huge market) having terrible internet thanks to companies basically having monopolies...Which google fully supports.

@gameboy1975 Please refer to the link provided. K,thanks

Played this game with a fresh look, and seriously this game is next to zelda on of the best games.

Most people who are complaining and crying, saying the same stuff like "why only on switch"
I asked a guy showing a picture playing this game 😂 he totally ignored me.

Sad very sad.
Toxic even.

Haha, online user reviews of media.
When were those ever not a completely useless institution?

It's so bad they're copy pasting from Astral Chain to Fire Emblem without even changing what was written

review for Fire Emblem Three Houses

Was Nier subjected to this by Nintendo fanboys? [Checks user score] Nope. I mean, there's always 10 or 20, but nothing significant to actually lower score. Astral Chain has NEARLY 1,000 FROM SALTY SONY FANBOYS. And it's important we call a spade a spade here. Same thing happened to Fire Emblem by the same salty Sony fanboys, talking about "I'm gonna go play a real game like Persona or Trails- 0/10"

I checked some of the "reviews" out. Most of the accounts have only one review and it's 0 points to Astral Chain. I believe its some Playstation kid with no life who made 500 different accounts to give all zeros. Some reviews even say the game will physically break your switch lol. How pathetic is that?

The only worse gauge to a games quality than its journalistic scores are it’s user scores. Have literally never checked out a user review or score on any game I’ve ever bought

@whanvee usually I’d have a hard time with this question as they have basically the entire Dylan catalogue (awesome!) up to the album Knocked Out Loaded, almost all the Beatles, and a bit of the stones and velvet underground and a crap ton of jazz and classical. But I discovered an amazing record amongst it all:
“Jeno’s Pizza Presents: Music to Eat Pizza By, featuring The Duluth Accordionaires ”

It’s truly an amazing and rare record that I am now in love with. If this is any indication, from the liner notes:
“...but if you are drawn to the accordion then you'll be air-keyboarding across the parquet in your underwear for a good 45 minutes.” I was able to find a google link where you can sample it on YouTube. Hope you find and enjoy it!

@Ventilator

If you say so. Seen plenty of Nintendo fans acting like babies when the roles are reversed.

Then again only got enough money to support one system. So only read the reviews of games on other systems in magazines.

Bunch of entitled trash that weren't taught you're not given anything you want even if you throw a fat baby fit.

This kind of behavior is childish. It does nothing for the industry in any way shape or form, in fact when a game gets review bombed it puts a halt on possible ports and sequels. A publisher / developer is not going to invest into a poorly reviewed game. they are gonna move on and try another avenue. so these whiny PS4 players that are review bombing this game are really killing off their chances of getting a port or sequel.

@Quarth Astral Chain is probaly a bad example here, I'm thinking Skyrim on PS3 and the like - the game released in a broken, unplayable state (after x amount of hours played and always getting worse). Not one outlet reported this before how many millions of people bought it.

I see your point too, but "entitled and childish" is also the view of this by the media who wants complete dominion over sensemaking and tastemaking. Review bombing is about as childish as rating a game with a number from 1 to 10. I agree there's better ways to be critical, or that are worth taking more seriously, but bombing is, as far as I can tell, the only way to get a groundswell complaint to bubble to the shallow, superficial surface. I mean hey, we're talking about it.

@ChromaticDracula My favorite band is the beatles, so I'm a little jealous. That being said a soundtrack to eat pizza to sounds pretty phenomenal. I'm also a weird al fan so I can dig the accordion. Being Mexican you'd think I dig the ass accordion because of the music of my culture but I really dont like that music,lol, with a few exceptions. I'll check out that YouTube clip, so that I too can air keyboard in the parque. Which I'm guessing is park in Italian.

I'm not sure reporting on inane practices that occurly on a daily basis and that exist for the sole purpose of drawing attention is really necessary, smart or even reasonable at this point.

Anyone engaged in such nonsense will not be shamed by any kind of reporting nor will they be swayed by any kind of argument that might come out of such reporting.

In other words ... not much good is going to come out of this, I dare say precisely nothing good at all. I say: Just don't feed the trolls any attention. They might not go away, but at least they become less visible thus giving them less power and sway.

It's important to keep in mind that civil discourse is always preferable, but at the same time, one has to recognize when one is engaged with a hostile counterpart, that has no desire or willingness to be part of any kind of discourse whatsoever.

Just my 2 cents ...

@Spiders I think you have some good points, but it feels like the discussion that appears after a game is being review bombed often is more about the review bombing itself and not the presumably legitimate criticism. Also the reviews are often written (if anything is written at all) in a way that makes it hard to take them seroiusly. I mean, 0/10 on the day of release (the same goes for the 10/10s)?

But yeah, I agree that it is hard to get ones opinion out there if one doesn't have a huge platform and that's why it is important that those who are professional reviewers do their job and point at the flaws the game have.

Then there are different types of criticism directed at a game. I can understand people being frustrated about microtransactions and bugs, but I think it's extremely childish to review bomb just out of different political views or as in the case of Astral Chain, console exclusivity (not talking about the Epic controversy here, that's another story where I understand the frustration).

But I understand your opinion. At least we can agree that the review bombing of Astral Chain is ridiculous.

If like 40% of the reviews are bad at that point I don't think you can just write it off as "trolls". The game clearly has quite a few issues that a lot of people aren't happy about.

I don't own the game cause I'm not a big fan of 3rd person action combo games like DMC and Bayonetta, but I can still acknowledge that 30fps on games that fast paced will end up feeling very jittery, and even if I bought the game and liked the combat, that alone would subtract 3-4 points off a 10 for me. 30fps works fine for slower paced games on the switch, but games like Mario Kart are 60fps for a reason.

@Dellybelly most of the user ratings are by people who didn't type a review and give 10s to every Sony exclusive though. I've seen them.

@xmrmeow The problem is that you don't have to type a review and you can see where many reviewers just left 0s.

@xmrmeow I have played the game and I can say that it plays perfectly fine at 30fps. I'd rather have it be a steady 30fps than 60fps with huge dips in performance.

I ignore all user reviews. Even when they are not "bombing" games they tend to be to polar. Either the greatest game of all time or the the game and company that made it are the purest of evil.

I have found reviewers that generally enjoy the games I like and follow them.

@carlos82

While some idiots allegedly attacked his site, it had nothing to do with hzd. Not one place I read about that even remotely could or tried to make that connection. It more so seemed that some zealots were pissed because he was pretty much the outlier looking for attention when it came to reviewers & they got in their feelings. Not to mention that he was making straight up false claims such as not being able to skip certain cutscenes (for the shrines I believe) like he didn't even play the game much or something. Meh, whatever though...

@Tao

Nah, we good.

Bunch of cry baby losers! They love their exclusives that don't arrive on Switch but then cry like little b***hes when Switch gets an exclusive? It doesn't work like that door knobs! Every console has its exclusives. Want them all then get all consoles otherwise stop being cry babies and review bombing a game because it's not on your chosen console. GET A LIFE LOSERS!

This is why steam reviews are nice. You can see how long someone played the game. It would be great to have a verified purchased section for reviews somehow.

@JaxonH

I'm still just looking for some of these jokers that I've seen around here who are consistently quick to chide & police the Nintendo fans (on a Nintendo board) the second they dare say something unflattering about sony or aren't t praising & paying them homage to get in here just as quickly to condemn these (mostly) salty sony famboys doing this $#!t with Astral Chain.

@xmrmeow Astral Chain is nothing like Bayo or DMC. It's honestly more often a mystery solving or puzzle platformer game than an action combo oriented game.
The gameplay is way more about placement than combos since you rely pretty heavily on your legion, which is an AI.
I can say it is locked at 30fps, and inputs are super precise. Input lag is far more important for action games than frames. By comparison, games like KH3 tried being 60 fps, and would drop frequently enough that it was infuriating.

In response to Sony fans dissing this game because it's exclusive to Nintendo: blame your holy lord and savior Sony. Platnium had asked they support Bayo 2 and Sony told them to screw off. Nintendo basically saved Platnium. It's not surprising to see them do more exclusives for Nintendo now.

@Quarth

The funny thing about it is most of the games that those salty fanboy are quick to fellate & praise are 30fps. Hell, most gamers would have very little to play if we kept it at a 60fps or bust threshold lol.

Ugh, humans are the absolute worst. Can't wait for the asteroid to hit.

This is so incredibly irritating. The internet is totally responsible for humanity's ongoing downfall.

@Bearzilla823 From what you're saying I don't think there's one instance of a game not getting not a sequel due to poor reviews - it's sales that determine sequels.

The messed up part would be those companies that determine bonuses on reviews rather than not sales, but on the whole I don't think we can point to any game or franchise that was hurt by review bombing unfairly. Be it censorship, politics, greedy MTX, technical issues - the main issue is (generally) the media/PR mis-representing a title and actual consumers/gamers using the only available channel - user reviews - to bubble up their greivances.

How pathetic smh. Why bother giving gamers a voice if they're gonna sh*t on a product just cuz it's not how they wanted it?

@finalstan As a former critic, I think you for thinking that way! Unfortunately you represent the 10% that actually read the review rather than just clicking through it to get the numeric score and synopsis....

@gameboy1975 Yeah, as I understand, many of the big AAA games on other consoles are 30fps. Astral Chain plays really well.

@Wickedspades perfect doesn't exist, 10/10 is not meant for perfection, but "masterpiece". I'm not saying AC deserves a 10 cause I haven't played it, but for example, the limitations of the hardware wouldn't justify lowering the score.

@Pigeon that happens with every game, so it's just a part of the scenario. The mass review bombing done to Astral Chain and Fire Emblem Thee Houses can NOT be justified, and if it was Death Stranding or whatever, I would feel the same. Bad reviews are for ONLY bad games, and reviews are ONLY for games that you have played. I refuse to go review games I didn't play, just because "someone else reviewed it and I don't like it".

The user score is back to 9. I guess Metacritic removed the unnecessary spam from the reviews. I almost feel bad for the Playstation kid who made 1000 accounts and review just to be removed and blocked from the site lol.

Sheesh, just buy a switch. It's a switch exclusive, the only console I don't have is an Xbox but you don't see me review bombing sunset overdrive.

@zaemon I am not lowering a score cause of a limitation of hardware. I have played BOTW for over 160ish hours and there are legit gripes I have with it in which I have already listed. Which is why I give it about an 8.5. Like I gave HZD an 8.5 too. To each their own.

Bad reviews cause bad publicity which leads to bad sales. And even if I am wrong. Review bombing a game has never lead to a game getting ported to another system, leave alone any follow ups

Thier tears are delicious.

@Ventilator Weird flex, but ok...

@Nintyfan Wow. Sony and Nintendo go hand in hand? Then explain why Nintendo and Microsoft have been rocking crossplay on tons of games while Sony has waffled on it and whined about it undermining their bottom line. Microsoft isn't responsible for the current state of affairs. And if you actually had a clue of what you were talking about, you'd know that well before the RROD, which Microsoft fixed by replacing faulty units, Sony screwed over customers by repeatedly failing to honor their own warranty over failed DVD drives in the PS2. When Microsoft was destroying Sony over exclusives with Halo and Gears, Sony was throwing up garbage like Haze and whining when their fanbois wouldn't lap it up.

See, anyone can be a rabid flameboi. Honestly, though, I don't actually care. Just know that how you feel about my comment is exactly what others see in yours, ridiculous, cherry picked one-sidedness and all.

@gameboy1975

Lmao It's so funny that you say that as I feel that way pretty much about a lot of Nintendo games I have played. As I felt like they were just getting higher scores because of who they came from. The last NSMB & Odyssey instanty comes to mind.

Extreme fanboys of any flavor are bad, but Nintendo fanboys are particularly overbearing & disgusting.

@Ventilator It's always been known that Ninty ones are most childish and the worst kind. The most rotten scum of a barrel which were mentioned in articles on other sites earlier years.

I hate fanboy'ism and is why i buy all consoles on every gen, and i even bought the failed WII U.

@DreamerAbe86

Nah, it's sony Fanboys by 40 country miles. I mean look at the examples right here? Even at a Nintendo Centric site they can't keep their @$$es off the board because they feel the need to shill and fellate sony everywhere and every chance they get. You go to a sony centric board & just find a game just okay, you get jumped on & might even get your @$$ banned. Just ask some from that $#!thole n4"g".

It is baby--ish behavior. Their unfair whining (via rating a game they've never played, just cause of console exclusivity/ unwilling to pay money) could affect the possibility of sales and hence sequels and the livelihood of the devs, spitting on their efforts and all the hard work they put into the game. If you don't like console exclusivity, just don't buy it, and sure you can complain elsewhere on forums, but don't unfairly hinder sales via review bombing. If you hadn't noticed, Nintendo doesn't get a lot of games from PS either. That's how the world works currently. I think critically the game with official reviewers did well, so I'm guessing it will still sell well enough regardless. People can be pretty petty though.

"Review bombing"....

And with each passing month, I become more and more ashamed to call myself a gamer.

@gameboy1975 "nah, we good, I dont like evidence against my claims"

@DeltaPeng I get what you mean. Or people who say they're just going to emulate the game because "I don't want to play the game on inferior hardware" snark. They do realize that some of the greatest games of all time are designed the way they are because of limitations in the hardware? The PSOne Final Fantasy games still look great because of their pre-rendered backgrounds which they used because the PSOne could not render complex geometry. Just as an example.

I find review bombing to be one of the most childish factors of being a gamer (a term I don't even like anymore). Because it just shows you can no longer just be a fan of something you have to be devoted to a piece of plastic that sits in your living room. You can't just be a fan of Sony you have to live and breath Sony a company that could care less about you. So why stick so close to your "loyalty to the cause" that you cannot even live with the fact that a game is on another system that someone else enjoys? It's just sad. Just be a fan of the developers and if their game is on a platform you don't own just be glad they got to make the game they wanted to make. Which is such a rarity in this industry now-a-days (poor Bioware).

@Nintyfan lol. Sony entered on the console market with the specific objective to destroy Nintendo since Nintendo refused to be third party for their Playstation. Sony is so bitter about the vita failure they decided to fully focus on their western blockbusters to destroy the japanese industry as a punishment. They only buy exclusivities for japanese games they didn't fund to keep them away from the Steam market so they can't be as popular as their western blockbusters.
Sony is by far the most destructive megacorp in the videogame industry. Every time Sony dominate the industry videogames studios close and people loose their jobs. It didn't happen when the Wii and the DS dominated the videogame industry was very varied and flourishing.

@Wickedspades lol, zero game design work in BOTW? Please name another open world game where you can do as much different actions? BOTW has been directed by a game designer. Horizon or God of War have been direced by story writters because Sony want to kill the japanese method to make videogames.

@glaemay Sony entered the video game market because Nintendo pulled out from their deal to instead work with Phillips with the CD-I, prompting Sony to be a bit 'cheesed off' and continue with the concept out of spite.

I also don't really see how they're buying exclusivity for Japanese games to keep them off of Steam. Nier Automata, Yakuza, Neptunia, these have all been exclusive to Sony (Yakuza being massive in Japan) and they're all available on Steam.

Really not sure as to why a Japanese company would try to destroy the Japanese industry...Especially since its a platform with some very popular Japanese made franchises (Persona, Death Stranding, Yakuza, Fist of the North Star)...But okay.

I wouldn't use the Wii as an example either really. Whilst it dominated in hardware sales, it wasn't exactly pushing the argument of quality gaming experiences with all that shovelware. The Wii was when Nintendo stopped competing and started just doing its own thing thanks to the commercial failure of the Gamecube, "they're competing" and "they're not trying to compete" being the two stances Nintendo fans flop between depending on Nintendo's success at the time.

There's so many things you could call Sony out on, why do you continue to instead create non existent reasons?

Sites that allow anyone to review without confirmation of purchase are a blight upon media. I'm tired of people trying to destroy things they haven't even seen/played/etc just because they're butthurt about something.

@Tao

Nah we good because your clown @$$ is talking out of yours. Nothing that you did has anything to do with the article or the lowlife scumbag fanboys (who seem to be mostly sony's) review bombing a game because they're salty AF. I mean there's no proof of me ever going to a site & review bombing a game that's not on my console. Nor do I go to Pc/sony/MS centric sites to belittle their fans or talk ish about them or the system 24/7 like some losers. And in all honesty, even as useless as my ps4 has become, I don't go around crapping on it. In fact, I rarely talk about it all because...well why bother?

Who knows though, you might be one of them? Which is why your hemorrhoids seem to be acting up & your in a tizzy & your feels posting nonsense. Good thing that they have an ignore list here so I don't have to hear your garbage anymore though. As I know your lips will still be moving, but sony's @$$ is that way homie! ---> So adios, stay mad & go sit your @$$ ALL the way down somewhere sweetie. By the way you can take your lips o😆

@gameboy1975 Kthanxbai

@Tao You repeat the Sony version like the little fanboy you are. Nintendo left the deal of the Playstation because they are evil. There is no other reason. You never though it was because Sony was a huge control freak megacorp who wanted to eat Nintendo?
Alos japanese games are not popular on PS4. Compared to western games the sales are ridiculous. Because Sony only promote western game and created an audience that only care about big budget games instead of focusing on the creativity of game design. That's why you call "shovelwares" games with low budget when the Wii was introducing indie gaming to a massive console audience. People like you are part of a cancerous audience and you're the reason the japanese videogames industry is collapsing.

@glaemay I repeat the events as they are because I'm a fanboy for nobody, I just play games. Try it, you might have fun. Nintendo pulled out and went with Philip's at the last minute and it massively backfired. It's well documented, deal with it.

And Japanese games aren't that popular on the PS4 because, shockingly enough, the West isn't that big on anime styles games and/or JRPGs outside of a very small exception, and that's largely what Japanese games outside of the AAA releases are. That's not a Sony issue, that's a regional issue...Same reason this shit doesn't do very well in other mediums in the West...Not to mention, as a fan of many smaller Japanese games on the PS4 (but bought on Steam), they're just not very good a majority of the time, something for niche audiences. Even Yakuza being as popular as it is is mechanically and conceptually repetitive and dull, I wouldnt recommend it to many people and I'm a fan of it.

This isn't forgetting that things like Monster Hunter World, Devil May Cry, Kingdom Hearts or Nier Automata sold best on Sony consoles in the west (and Japan I guess) and received massive marketing by them despite being multiplatform, thus giving them less incentive to do so...But whatever.

And 'Shovelware' refers to the sheer metric ton of rubbish like Ninjabread Man, My Sim, Survivor and Keith Cheguins friggin trashy game. This trash was the vast majority of the Wii's library, dont try to straw man me pretending I just dont like 'creative' games when over 50% of the Wii's library was creatively bankrupt.

People like you are the reason for the things you're accusing me of. Not buying games because of the platform they are or aren't on, using misinformation to prove none existent points, flat out creating your own facts and parading them as pure truth. News flash, smaller Japanese games dont do well because people dont buy them, try opening your wallet if you care that much. Even the AAA Japanese games appeal to a more niche audience, such as Devil May Cry or Kingdom Hearts which have barely evolved I the 20 years theyve been around.

I dont deny Sony aren't liked by all, but none of what you've said is actually factual. Why not their refusal to promote crossplay? Their lack of quality control on their digital storefront (though Nintendo is just as bad there...), data leaks, etc etc etc. No, you're just too fixated on "I dont like their games" and forging made up truths to make Nintendo sound better, insisting anybody who dares disagree with you is a fanboy of Sony (note: I own every platform, so, I dunno, take your pick for who I'm fanboying with...I've been pretty lenient on Microsoft here if you wanna go that route)

Grow up.

@Tao But why Nintendo pulled out of the deal with Sony? Because they are evil? This is the narrative you're eating? You must be so smart.
The west love japanese videogames. Look at Pokemon, Mario , Smash, Zelda sales. Despite all the smear campaigns coming from Sony and their bitter fanboys. Where was the smear campaign that targeted the Yakuza, Persona, Bloodborne, Nier Automata, Monster Hunter World? Nowhere. And these games sold terribly on the PS4 despite being a market of 100 million units sold. Why? Because Sony favor western games and the smear campaign they do to Nintendo games backfire to japanese games on PS4. Why Sony want to destroy the japanese industry? Because western games make more profits. Why? Because they are directed by story guys. You play them for the story then you stop playing them because the gameplay is uncreative and you're ready to buy the next one. Japanese videogames are directed by game designer and the gameplay offer more depth and complexity so you play these games longer and they're better for superplay and speedrun. Sony hate this philosophy of gaming and they want to destroy it by favoring their western blocbusters that are only considered good because they have a big budget. Sony fanboys refuse to open their eyes but it's their fault if the japanese videogames market is shrinking. And history will judge them.

@glaemay I never said Nintendo are evil. There we go again, putting words in people's mouths to further your narrative.

I also notice all your positive examples of Japanese games come from the same publisher: Nintendo. Remember those exceptions I mentioned? You probably do, but will deny it as it goes against your argument.

I dont recall those games selling terribly on PS4 either. Compared to units of PS4 sold? Absolutely, but if we're going by that metric then looking at Nintendo's history wont be much better. Xenoblade Chronicles, Skyward Sword, F-Zero? Especially from a fanbase that will buy any game despite whether or not they even like the genre, theme or series, these games historically haven't sold well. How many units has the Switch sold and last time I checked Xenoblade Chronicles 2 sold between 1-2 million, a failure in comparison to people who own a Switch, enough of a success to warrant another rerelease of the original.

And Japanese games are gameplay first? Please explain to me the mass amounts of story in any JRPG, Metal Gear, the ever increasing prominence of story in Pokemon, again Neir Automata. Only two of those I would say have impressive gameplay (though Neir is just another Platinum action game really), the others are in a stalemate of trying to reinvent the wheel.
That's forgetting the plethora of Western released games with a focus on gameplay, which you'll deny seeming that you're anti West.

Again, because I apparently can't say this enough for those two brain cells in that otherwise empty skull of yours to comprehend: I dont particularly care all that much for Sony or the PS4 outside of a bunch of games they dont even make anymore, its fanboys such as yourselves on both sides of the "my box of circuits is better" bandwagon that make the games industry worse for everybody. Again, do everybody a favour and grow up, neither Sony nor Nintendo care about you.

i wonder how bad this will be when ⚔️🛡️come out.

@Tao Nintendo is a small company with a limited power over the industry. Sony is a huge megacorp who will use their infinite wallet to manipulate the industry and destroy what they don't like. Comparing both is ridiculous. Yes Xenoblade 2 sold very well compared to the switch market and despite the smear campaign against it as usual with any switch exclusive. Persona 5 sold barely better despite having fantastic word of mouth. Sony created a terrible audience that is hurting the industry.
Yes Metal Gear games focus on gameplay first. Hideo Kojima is a game designer. All the Metal Gear games offer new gameplay possibilities. Western AAA these days have bland gameplay and all play the same because the game designers of these games don't have any responsibility and have to obey to the story writter. this is a terrible way to make a game. Western AAA developers hate their job.

@Damo Seems that Metacritic have removed the negative troll "reviews", so the game sits at a 9.0 user score at the moment. Time for a follow up article?

Online death to the trolls!

So did they only nuke the 0 reviews, or did they also nuke the spate of 10 reviews that were submitted as a response to the negative review bombing?

Just wait. Bayonetta 3 will be review bombed too.

@finalstan I was going to point out the flaw in that person's math. But it's not like he's gonna go run out and grab a math textbook to prevent future stupid comments. But good on you, for fighting the good fight.

I wonder how they decide whether a review should be considered legitimate or not?

@Anri02 They should just not allow unaccredited sources to effect he final numbers, if you have never made a review before that has been peer reviewed then you should not effect the score imo.

@Anri02 They may have deleted multiple reviews from the same IP address for one. There are still some zero scores.

Last thing I want to see is a game by these people that has substance getting review-bombed (if indeed it does have substance - meaningful gameplay alongside intuitive and polished controls, for this dev team).

I find metacritic very useful. However, you have to use your brain. Sometimes the professional reviews are crap, sometimes the user review. But reading some positive and some negative reviews usually give you a good understanding of the strong and the weaker aspects of the game. The score alone is worthless.

I noticed this yesterday after telling my nephew about it. I wanted to show him some of the bad reviews but couldn't find any examples.

I wish someone would zap that ridiculous review from The Independent. For a few days there it was the top result when searching for the game. The guy was blatantly lieing about the game, saying on Twitter that he beat the game on PT Standard purely by button mashing, which is literally impossible to do. In his review he complained that there is no grading system when there clearly is and when called out about it, he said that it doesn't appear until the end of the stage which is another lie. This is a guy who boasts on Twitter about how much he loves his job, being invited to expos and shows off the promotional goodies he receives. Perhaps he wasn't sent any promotional goodies by Nintendo and that's why he wrote such a scathing review, who knows but there's something up with that review for sure. Hopefully those gifts and invites he does receive will soon dry up after all the negative attention he's received on Twitter.

@BarefootBowser If you want recent games, I'd say "Vroom in the Night Sky". That was a genuinely awful game.

This is why i dont bother with user reviews too many fanboys or toxic fanboys from other systems. I get my reviews from a few "trusted sources" then get the game.

This is apparently a game so good, I can't find a physical copy anywhere near me (Southeastern Massachusetts, USA). I'd have to go all the way to Cape Cod to get one at a GameStop.

So I had to order online. And it's getting delivered today! Now I can get my cat-finding on!

@Damo Great! Thanks for updating it. Have a nice weekend!

What a bunch of butt hurt fanboys. Oh no, that game's getting better score than the new game on my system....boo fricken hoo.

Good job Metacritic. These childish fans think they can review bomb any game, just so they can stroke their ego. Grow up people.

Great job Metacritic.

@Damo FYI, it looks like they’ve done it for Fire Emblem as well, that’s up to a user review score of 8.7 now.

If everybody knew not to care about the average user score, then this wouldn't be a problem. You pay attention to individual user reviews that sound reasonable and ignore the others giving 0/10 scores for the heck of it. Average user scores include all the people who aren't reasonable.

Another nail in the coffin of freedom of speech. While review bombing is indeed lame, this just goes to show that user input is not worth a damn on the internet.

There are instances where low scores are justified, but if enough people express an opinion that differs from the majority, or more to the point, the interests of the media outlet, then those users opinions will be purged.

It starts with video games, movies and music but at what point do you draw the line.

The internet is supposed to be a free and open platform for everyone to express themselves, but when internet censorship becomes the norm and acceptable practice, it's time to step back and really think about how it benefits anyone in the long run.

@mist "Another nail in the coffin of freedom of speech."

Give me a break. Freedom of speech does not guarantee you a platform, and Metacritic is under no moral or ethical obligation to tolerate attempts to sabotage their rating system.

I hope they IP banned the people who were posting multiple zero scores from the same IP.

My god, it's @Quarth! My favorite game for the Game Boy! Can I get your autograph?

@Mountain_Man

Yeah. 'Freedom of Speech' means the .gov can't censor you (except in certain situations).

I hate when people don't understand that. It's not a hard concept.

@mist
To start, "freedom" or "debauchery"?

Let it be known that Nintendo fanboys got so butthurt over a number they managed to get metacritic off their lazy asses and only remove 0s, meanwhile almost all SMT games are still review bombed and probably won't change lol.

@mist
Dude, just no. So many things wrong with what you're saying. You have the right to review bomb and spread misinformation, but this is all taking place in the private sector where the various companies hold sway over their domains.
The government didn't step in and purge these fake reviews. Metacritic, a PRIVATE company did. When you use sites or services in the private sector, you are subject to their rules and whims. And I'm pretty certain Metacritic has rules against review bombing. Do they always enforce? Of course not. But in this case it was egregious enough that they did.

If Nintendolife decided to take this post down, I wouldn't whine about freedom of speech. It's THEIR website and they can do with it what they want.

Good. I'm glad to know that all the effort put forth by those people who clearly need to get a life is for nothing.

@DFaceG_Rebooted Sure thang!

It's a great game, very underrated.

@Judal27
Pfttt ha!

Astral Chain got 1000 0/10s from Salty Sony fanboys and you're talking about "Nintendo fanboys"? Nice one.

There's only one group of fanboys involved here and it ain't Nintendo.

Bravo to Metacritic for doing some moderating and keeping their site's scores valid. I'm all for honest, thought-out reviews, whether critical or full of praise. But finding those legit reviews can be a chore when you have to weed out a bunch of smear campaign fake reviews.
Metacritic recognized that and did their readership a favor here.

@mist I think that the biggest issue with free speech on the internet is anonymity, where you can say whatever you want and never have to be accountable for it. The whole “internet tough guy” thing where you talk big but would dare trash someone to their face in real life. If there was some way for people to be responsible for being scumbags, then I think we’d see a lot less of it.

What a great game. I'm really loving it.

Ha ha, serves them right!

@Balta666 I don't trust corporate reviews either. People should be well-informed and mature enough to make their own decision based on information provided. Most devs are pretty good at giving people an idea of what a game is about and those that aren't already have a bad reputation so people will distrust them automatically.

some sony and xbox gamers are completely salty over this they should be banned from the internet if all their doing is bombing games being exclusive to the switch.

@Judal27 you re an idiot.

The game is no doubt dope as hell. Review bomb or not. 10/10 in my books

@NintendoByNature i agree.

Review scores are useless if it's professional or amateur, especially if they are not broken down.

If it's some tool that sucks at gaming I can tell I will enjoy playing what they hate by their words not a number.

I have been fooled by numbers in the past. So many reviewers loved absolute trash like journey that got perfect scores almost across the board, thankfully I got that free with plus. Also once splatterhouse on ps3 was patched it was one of the most fun games I have played but it had a professional average review of 3 or something like that.

Read reviews and watch gameplay videos, scores are meaningless.

While I love astral chain, it might be my game of the year they should really take down the 3 sentence 10 out of 10 reviews as well.

@SetupDisk

Yeah, I bet there were a decent amount of counter-reviewers that are now bloating the score a bit. Should even itself out given a little time though.

@JaxonH right cause these 10/10 reviews claiming they're only there to counter the 0s or talking about the butthurt sony fanboys, totally aren't salty enough to actually post fake 10s as well. Clearly their reviews were on topic about the game at hand and totally deserve to stay posted.

If only metacritic could removed those votes for Trump.

I would argue that 0/10 is a valid score for a game that is completely unplayable on your console.

@Scorchio You said it brother/sister In my experience, people are rude on the net largely due to the lack of personal responsibility resulting from anon. nature of the net.

Seriously Nintendo, Astral Chain for Smash

Didn't even realise Metacritic existed.

I don't know why people care about consoles, sales, average review scores or even exclusives. None of it matters.

@KiryuJ I agree with you. That is why most of the reviews I see are on YouTube from people I know their tastes and that from my experience I can trust them to be true to their word

Just a bunch of entitled babies. Instead of festering and fuming about a couple of games not being on your system get off the couch, earn some dollars and buy you a switch if you want it that bad. There’s plenty to like on this thing I’ll tell you. I’m loving astral chain so far and glad I got it. They definitely could do a character in smash and I’ll bet it will happen. I just don’t know what they’d do for a name. “Astral chain” doesn’t seem correct for the players name but whatever make it happen. It’s a fresh new ip that deserves to be noticed.

@Judal27
Even the official review aggregate is 9/10. A 10/10 is well within normal variation, and only 1 point away from the aggregate. A 0/10 is 9 points away from the aggregate and not only outside the bounds of normal variation, is never justified for a working game.

So no, your statement has no merit. Sounds like you're one of the disgruntled fanboys and are now upset to see your scheme get busted into pieces by MC.

Don't be surprised to see DQ11 get review bombed. Lots of Sony/PC fans are upset that the added content in the Switch version does not appear to be making its way to other systems.

@JaxonH that last statement from your 1st paragraph is such a double standard way of thinking though. Apparently 10/10s can exist because it's not judgment from a technical level and it doesn't mean its a perfect game, yet 0/10s aren't allowed because suddenly it is a score based on the technicality of the game and it means the game is unplayable. If someone can rate a flawed game a 10/10 because it was based on their enjoyment with the game, then someone else should be able to rate a working game a 0/10 because they may have found literally 0 enjoyment out of said game.

But that's besides the point, if someone is blatantly admitting they're only posting 10s because of the 0s or just talking about the review bombing instead of talking about the game they scored, then they were literally bothered by the fact that it was getting 0s. And there literally are 10s on there saying these things instead of actually reviewing the game. Also no, the last time I used metacritic was when I made one to rate nioh a 10/10 lol. I'm just more surprised that metacritic would actually do something for once but instead of trying to make a fair score, they decided to just delete the 0s. And again, meanwhile other games like the SMT series are still bombed. But no one's throwing fits for that cause at this point metacritic is a joke of a system.

@Judal27
Its not a double standard.

You see games get 10/10s all the time. You NEVER, EVER see games get 0/10 no matter how broken they are.

I'm not saying a game deserves all 10/10, but a game getting rated 10/10 that averaged 9/10 is dang close, and well within normal variation. 0/10 is not. And that could be proven statistically.

Furthermore, the user score is just 2 points away from the official aggregate, meaning there is no statistically significant difference. So we never had a 10/10 problem, we had a 0/10 problem. Simple as that.

The fanboys broke down and couldn't handle it.

@Quarth Shame, because at first, review bombing started as a legit way to complain about legit problems and do something about companies screwing costumers.

But of course, it derailed into being used to complain against anything and stuff unrelated to the actual game.

@Bunkerneath Nope, there is such thing as bad publicity.

If a car company makes a car with a huge flaw that causes accidents, of course the whole company will suffer thanks to the coverage.

@JaxonH that's exactly why it's a double standard. When games get a 10, they're questioned on how possible that is if it has flaws. The questions then immediately get shut down saying that a 10 doesn't mean its a perfect flawless game. But if a game gets say, 2 and under, they'll immediately be reminded that as long as the game is not unplayable it shouldn't be scored that low. Of course, it doesn't always happen, but it does enough to be able to point it out.

This has been really more of a non issue is what I've been trying to get at. Fake 0s showed up and as a result, fake 10s showed up. Metacritic decided to delete the fake 0s without even taking into account that there are fake 10s as well. But I mean if they're going to do something about this now then might as well regulate all reviews on metacritic and make it fair by not only taking off fake 0s but fake 10s as well.

@Judal27
You’re not getting it man.

A 10 is 1 point away from the aggregate and the same as some official reviews. A 0 is 9 points away from the aggregate and even the lowest official review was still 5 points higher.

If the game had an aggregate of 1 and people were putting 10, then you’d have an argument. But it doesn’t, and you don’t.

Come talk to me when you see a game with an aggregate 1 get ranked with 1,000 10/10s. Until then... I have better things to do

But what does that have to do with anything? It literally doesn't change the fact that fanboys went on to post 10s because other fanboys went on to give 0s and metacritic let those reviews who specifically say they're there to counter 0s stay on while the 0s get deleted. Just cause their scores are closer to the general score of official reviews doesn't change the fact that they're fake and only meant to boost the number up rather than give an appropriate review.

And if you were talking about the general user score of course it's be high when they just deleted the fake 0s while keeping the fake 10s.

@DarkLloyd yeah, Let's go eevee/pikachu got bad reviews even before it was released. I saw one that was 0/10 because "it looks sh*t I'm not buying it" ... people are W-E-I-R-D! I'm glad they're getting some sort of action taken against it

It's not on the Game Boy? 0/10

The solution is very simple. Team up with “big three” on linking MC accounts with platform accounts and show playtime next to review. Zero playtime, means you’re not allowed to give a score. This would not only eliminate trolls, but also fanboys.

@Dellybelly There are much more people bothering to give out 0s than 10s, just ask yourself how much you're willing to give 0s to some games, and the same for 10s, I did not review-bomb anything in my life (nor did I review anything for that matter lol), but it's way easier for a human to be negative than positive, it's just our nature. ¯(ツ)/¯

@JaxonH Dude now that's an argument.

@Razer But MHW is on every platform apart from Switch, and that's because it has no chance in hell of running on it. It runs badly enough on a non-Pro PS4. Not sure if you could've come up with a worse example.

@JaxonH Its still a double standard though. If a 10/10 review is blank or goes on about review bombing, cant say anything actually worthwhile to why it's a 10, I dont see how that's better than somebody giving a 0 because X, Y and Z giving actual reasons to their admittedly unfair score.

It's this sort of attitude that has gotten us to the state where any game rated below 8 is terrible. It's supposed to be a scale of 1-10, not 7-10, and you claiming anything that is too different from the average should be gotten rid of is just playing into that ridiculous notion that's only appeared in the past 5 or so years.

Any user review from 0 to 10 should be ignored if the user cant supply reasoning to that review or if that reasoning has little to do with the game regardless of whether it "falls in line". If a 0 review gives a list of genuine reasons, whether we like it or not, they think it's a 0/10.

@Tao
Correction
Any review outside of normal statistical variation should be ignored without justification.

Study statistics and 3 sigma limits, and you'll find that any 10's for a game that has an aggregate of a 9/10 is WELL within normal expected variation. Whereas 0/10 is not

So again, find a review with an aggregate of 1/10 and 1,000 10/10s and come see me. Because then it would be outside normal expected variation. Right now, with Astral Chain, not.

Review-bombing, its so sad. Luckily it has been solved.

I thought it was mediocre at best. 3/10 is a charitable score. I couldn't get into it. The story was lame and the levels were too linear... but why can't some people accept that others didn't like it?

@Ventilator oh, so can we get God of War, Spiderman on Nintendo switch then