I think some of the free hosted sites have alright content. While alot give a quick two paragraph overview and are a waste of time, some put in an effort I found these sites are the basis for good reviewing skills. My blogspot site ifone reviews(dot)blogspot (without the space.) started with some dodgy reviews and once I got more practice I think they improved immensely. Now the site has gotten me reviewing jobs on three sites and had other offers. Not saying I'm the best, I believe I am far from it Best site: STP or 148apps Worst site: IGN
I'm not quite sure I understand what's wrong with someone interjecting their personal opinions into a review. If they didn't, wouldn't everyone's review of a particular game be basically the same?
I like TheAppera, but the site is soooo slow to load. Seriously, I would read TheAppera so much more often if it were a little quicker. I personally find TouchArcade to be the best forum and news site, the best for keeping up with new apps and reading user reviews, however they don't really review the games, just announce them and say if there is something particularly good or bad about them. They are pretty objective though.
I usually stay out of this threads for obvious reasons but I wanted to respond to Dashzed: Thanks for the kind words. I am currently doing a port of the site to a different and faster host at the moment. The soonest launch we see is this Thursday. We were going to do it this weekend but with the Easter Egg Hunt, we didn't have the chance to do it. PS. Arn I hope I don't get a warning for this. I just wanted to raise a point out in the open just in case people have the same problems. ---- On TA's defense. I think that's what they hired Hodapp for. And it's a really great move. He offers in depth reviews while Arn tends to some other duties. Blake however has been writing reviews mostly for retro games.
For me, best is PocketGamer, worst is IGN (But i like their PSP reviews, their iPhone reviews just stinks). There's nothing wrong with it but its a slippery slope. Most people cannot remain objective about the subject in review while still hold some ground with their personal preference (a.k.a personal opinions). Poor reviewers usually go with things like (I'm exaggerating a bit, but trust me i didn't pull this out of thin air, it happens in reviews): "I'm not really a huge fan of FPS with such themes and i find the controls awkward but players of FPS may dig the controls.... Because of the controls, i couldn't even get pass level 1 but some other more FPS inclined colleagues had completed the game without much issues. In summary, this game had great graphics, good audio and reeks of high production quality. However, i can only give this game a 2.0 out of 10.0 because the poor controls totally destroys it for me." When i see things like this, i'm like WTF? Why are these mofos even writing about things they obviously don't play and don't know much about?
I haven't seen any Frapster love yet. Personally, that's my favorite, just because they go so much more in depth than other sites do. I don't generally read reviews unless I really want to know about an app, and that's one of the only sites where I can read a review and really feel like I know what I'm going to get when I'm done. Also helps that they do about a dozen screenshots for each app they review. Also, I'm putting together a comprehensive list of review sites. Please PM me if you know of any that haven't already been mentioned here.
I don't think you want a reviewer to remain completely objective. That's for the guy who writes the manual. Now I'll be the first to admit that if I read a review like what you posted above I'd question why the person was even writing reviews in the first place. However, to me a good review is one where the person says "here's the game, now here's what I liked and didn't like". Unfortunately, things like genre biases will creep into that type of review. That's just human nature. I'd much rather read that than something that comes across as a Wikipedia entry, though. I'd also much rather read that than something that reeks of "didn't like it, but everyone else gave it a 10 so I did too". I think too many games achieve the game and status that they do simply because people in the right places are afraid to admit that they didn't like it. But, that's just me...
