OpenCritic reviews have been added to the Epic Games Store

[modoversus]

Gamasutra reports that the Epic Games Store has integrated OpenCritic reviews so that shoppers can see which titles come recommended by the review aggregator.

Galyonkin noted that the storefront will favor reviews from "high-notoriety publications" when possible in a bid to "maximize consumer confidence." For example, the store page for Control (shown below) places reviews from large publications like PC Gamer, GamesRadar, and Eurogamer front and centre.

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No word when or how user reviews would be added.

Add me to your shopping cart in the year 2020 if already posted.

 

[DocH1X1]

Good addition! Absolutely needed something more to its review section.

 

[LewieP]

Note that these are opt in, the developer/publisher can chose not to have these on their game pages.

Which seems a little dumb to me. No reviews is as much of a red flag as bad reviews.

There are no reviews for RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures...

 

[Firefly]

I'm not in favor of putting popular website reviews front and centre on the store page but Epic lacks a community so its the next best thing.

 

[Bradford]

An actually good change!

 

[Reckheim]

I like that. too bad its not mandatory.

 

[Karak]

I admit I should have checked. But was really sad to find out its going to be just the major bigs on there and no accounting for anyone else.
I think one youtube channel got grandfathered in due to prior journalistic work but when I kept getting pinged on it I assumed it would be reflective of Open Critics main page where you can see the rest of us.

 

[Andres]

Note that these are opt in, the developer/publisher can chose not to have these on their game pages.

Which seems a little dumb to me. No reviews is as much of a red flag as bad reviews.

There are no reviews for RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures...

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Yeah I can't imagine people with a good game would wanna opt out.

 

[deadman322]

thanks gabe.

 

[dex3108]

Again it is useless thing just like Metacritic ones on Steam. This day and age games change in span o f a weeks and those reviews are not representing state of the product at the time of the purchase.

 

[eonden]

Again it is useless thing just like Metacritic ones on Steam. This day and age games change in span o f a weeks and those reviews are not representing state of the product at the time of the purchase.

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Or the many new games that have no reviews or EA games.

 

[ShadowAUS]

Again it is useless thing just like Metacritic ones on Steam. This day and age games change in span o f a weeks and those reviews are not representing state of the product at the time of the purchase.

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This. It's better than nothing but still a kneecapped implementation when compared to its competition. Say what you will about Steam user reviews but it's a way more useful system, warts and all - not even comparing it to the gold standard of GoG's excellent user reviews but that's more the community than the implementation that makes it so good.

 

[Deleted member 10737]

nice
open>meta

 

[Evolution of Metal]

I will echo the sentiment that user reviews are more valuable for service/expanding games, but...

People still hate EGS and there is no telling what is going to happen when Epic implement those. Will it be a metacritic bomb paradise, will it be Microsoft scrubbing some super unpleasant reviews, or will it be a complex and clever solution like Steam has: both automated and highly detailed.

I think user reviews have to be only for owners + Steam's Total and Recent ratings. That should be a good way to "combat" both individual game review bombings and EGS trolling.

 

[eonden]

I think user reviews have to be only for owners + Steam's Total and Recent ratings. That should be a good way to "combat" both individual game review bombings and EGS trolling.

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So like Steam?

 

[Vyrance]

Good first step but dont like it being opt-in, and much prefer user reviews

 

[Dreams-Visions]

baby steps

ok

 

[Evolution of Metal]

So like Steam?

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Yeah, but more Steam-lite, don't see Epic making graphs and keyword filters.

 

[Software Update]

Opt-in and no user reviews? It's something, I guess.

Still no shopping cart?

 

[Falchion]

Very nice addition to the store!

 

[dex3108]

Again it is useless thing just like Metacritic ones on Steam. This day and age games change in span o f a weeks and those reviews are not representing state of the product at the time of the purchase.

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Just to show you another thing in favor of user reviews









So yeah just let Tim and rest of the Epic Store team convince you how user reviews are useless and review bombing happens all the time.

 

[Evolution of Metal]

So yeah just let Tim and rest of the Epic Store team convince you how user reviews are useless and review bombing happens all the time.

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You twisted the argument, user reviews are still on the roadmap. Prioritizing critic reviews is not the opposite of user reviews.

And the tweet about Atlas is a one giant pile of shit. The game is barely out for the one year, and it remained in the 3-8k range for most of its life. Plus, Atlas is the early-access game, who is reviewing early-access on metacritic/opencritic?

 

[mxbison]

Just to show you another thing in favor of user reviews









So yeah just let Tim and rest of the Epic Store team convince you how user reviews are useless and review bombing happens all the time.

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Agree. I prefer user reviews over critics, I usually just don't say it out loud here so I don't get flooded with bs.

 

[dex3108]

You twisted the argument, user reviews are still on the roadmap. Prioritizing critic reviews is not the opposite of user reviews.

And the tweet about Atlas is a one giant pile of shit. The game is barely out for the one year, and it remained in the 3-8k range for most of its life. Plus, Atlas is the early-access game, who is reviewing early-access on metacritic/opencritic?

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Tim and Sergey said multiple times that user reviews are not priority and that they cause more issues than help. And you pointed perfect example why they are more important than any outlet reviews in that Atlas case. If someone wants to buy Atlas without user reviews they wouldn't know in what state game is at all. And if someone would go and read R6 Siege MC/OC reviews it would skip it without thinking twice.

 

[texhnolyze]

People who don't want to see user reviews are the same people who don't want to see indie devs thrive.

There's little to no chance for the majority of indie games to receive reviews from big outlets that will end up on open/metacritic.

 

[Alexandros]

Just to show you another thing in favor of user reviews









So yeah just let Tim and rest of the Epic Store team convince you how user reviews are useless and review bombing happens all the time.

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Great post.

 

[Evolution of Metal]

Tim and Sergey said multiple times that user reviews are not priority and that they cause more issues than help. And you pointed perfect example why they are more important than any outlet reviews in that Atlas case. If someone wants to buy Atlas without user reviews they wouldn't know in what state game is at all. And if someone would go and read R6 Siege MC/OC reviews it would skip it without thinking twice.

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I don't know the exact situation of Tim vs User Reviews, so I am open to info. I agree that user reviews are important and I wish to see them on the store. Provided EGS still has the accurate roadmap and the will to implement user-reviews eventually, I don't think that releasing only critic reviews right now is in any way a negative thing.

However, I think your precise problem has more to do with the fairly outdated nature of game reviews than EGS mishandling it. They are both redundant as a media, and inaccurate not only for the online games, but for the patch/fixed titles as well.

 

[dex3108]

I don't know the exact situation of Tim vs User Reviews, so I am open to info. I agree that user reviews are important and I wish to see them on the store. Provided EGS still has the accurate roadmap and the will to implement user-reviews eventually, I don't think that releasing only critic reviews right now is in any way a negative thing.

However, I think your precise problem has more to do with the fairly outdated nature of game reviews than EGS mishandling it. They are both redundant as a media, and inaccurate not only for the online games, but for the patch/fixed titles as well.

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From what they said about user reviews on Epic Store two things are clear, they will be opt-in not mandatory and they will probably be more similar to Unreal Store star ratings than true user reviews. Non of those help if they implement them that way.

 

[Bufbaf]

...

People still hate EGS

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Era still hates EGS.

Not even that. But yeah, it was obvious how this thread will go, even if I think I'm remembering a ton of opencritic >> metacritic posts on the past lol
User reviews would be a nice addition ofc.

 

[ElephantShell]

At least they're using the right review aggregator website.

 

[Ionic]

Plus, Atlas is the early-access game, who is reviewing early-access on metacritic/opencritic?

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This is less an argument against the importance of user reviews and more an argument that conventional game reviews are an increasingly outdated relic.

 

[zoltek]

So yeah just let Tim and rest of the Epic Store team convince you how user reviews are useless and review bombing happens all the time.

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Come on man. You used to be the reasonable one about this stuff. I didn't necessarily agree with your take on the subject, but your points were well represented. Now you are venturing into the realm of the nitpick.

Are opt-in meta-reviews as the only option the best thing since sliced bread? Maybe not. Is it better than before (i.e. no reviews)? You can't honestly say "no", can you?

 

[dex3108]

Come on man. You used to be the reasonable one about this stuff. I didn't necessarily agree with your take on the subject, but your points were well represented. Now you are venturing into the realm of the nitpick.

Are opt-in meta-reviews as the only option the best thing since sliced bread? Maybe not. Is it better than before (i.e. no reviews)? You can't honestly say "no", can you?

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For majority of the current titles on Epic Store they are fine, but there are games like WWZ, Dauntless, The Cycle, Satisfactory, RDR2, Spellbreak, Hades, hell even Control where classic reviews are basically worthless. And star reviews (if they go with them) will be worthless too. Those games changed with every single patch but they are judged by score they got at launch.

 

[zoltek]

For majority of the current titles on Epic Store they are fine, but there are games like WWZ, Dauntless, The Cycle, Satisfactory, RDR2, Spellbreak, Hades, hell even Control where classic reviews are basically worthless. And star reviews (if they go with them) will be worthless too. Those games changed with every single patch but they are judged by score they got at launch.

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So perhaps the makers of those games, because the service is opt-in, can decide on their own if the review system accurately reflects their current product?

Maybe I'm being too simplistic, but it seems, at base value, that some reviews are better than no reviews. If the company disagrees and like you, think the service is useless, they opt out of the reviews.

 

[dex3108]

So perhaps the makers of those games, because the service is opt-in, can decide on their own if the review system accurately reflects their current product?

Maybe I'm being too simplistic, but it seems, at base value, that some reviews are better than no reviews. If the company disagrees and like you, think the service is useless, they opt out of the reviews.

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Issue is that many developers think that user reviews are bad for them. Especially indie ones. And if there is option to turn them them off, they will do it. And in cases like this if you leave option to turn off classic reviews you end up in situations where developers with low scores can turn them off and "hide" information from customers.

 

[Bufbaf]

Just to show you another thing in favor of user reviews









So yeah just let Tim and rest of the Epic Store team convince you how user reviews are useless and review bombing happens all the time.

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Aren't pretty much all of these Early Access? Do you prefer outlets review (and thus pretty much finish up) unfinished games now? Or would you rather have them wait until the game is done and final?

 

[eonden]

Aren't pretty much all of these Early Access? Do you prefer outlets review (and thus pretty much finish up) unfinished games now? Or would you rather have them wait until the game is done and final?

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Part of the problem of reviews is that games arent done and final even during release, with patchs and DLC adding new content and fixes (or adding bugs and damaging the game), and the amount of time reviewers have for following content is pretty sparse.

There is also the issue of outlet reviews not having enough time to review most of the midlde lvl indie releases due to their volume.Hell, even some games in EGS, which went for high profile games got 0 review impact.

 

[dex3108]

Aren't pretty much all of these Early Access? Do you prefer outlets review (and thus pretty much finish up) unfinished games now? Or would you rather have them wait until the game is done and final?

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I can give you tons of examples that are not Early Access. For example Supraland that sold over 100K copies last year and got maybe 2-3 mainstream reviews.

 

[Ionic]

So perhaps the makers of those games, because the service is opt-in, can decide on their own if the review system accurately reflects their current product?

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I don't think developer's and publisher's opinions on whether reviews accurately portray how good their game is should play a part on what kind of review system they use to advertise their product.

Aren't pretty much all of these Early Access? Do you prefer outlets review (and thus pretty much finish up) unfinished games now? Or would you rather have them wait until the game is done and final?

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The primary point is that user reviews are (increasingly) important because they are able to match the fluidity of modern games, not necessarily that conventional reviews need to all review early access games. These days I value user reviews far more than professional ones for the reasons the tweets point out. Conventional reviews leave niche games on the margins, they do not accurately reflect the way many games are released these days (this includes non-early access games that nonetheless receive significant post-launch changes), and there simply aren't enough of them to touch every game. These points are just realities built into how conventional reviews work.

 

[zoltek]

Issue is that many developers think that user reviews are bad for them. Especially indie ones. And if there is option to turn them them off, they will do it. And in cases like this if you leave option to turn off classic reviews you end up in situations where developers with low scores can turn them off and "hide" information from customers.

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As a customer, would you prefer that EGS offer no reviews or only OpenCritic opt-in reviews?

 

[Deleted member 15457]

I use a mixture of critic reviews and users that are verified to have actually played the game reviews, whatever helps me get a feel for the pros, cons, and overall feel of a game.

 

[cyba89]

Aren't pretty much all of these Early Access? Do you prefer outlets review (and thus pretty much finish up) unfinished games now? Or would you rather have them wait until the game is done and final?

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Early Access is just another arbitary milestone in the age of service games. Do Destiny 2 reviews from when the retail version launched in 2017 reflect the current state of the game?

I don't advocate for professionial outlets to review every patch of a game.That's where user reviews come into relevance and that's why a mix of both are useful.

 

[dex3108]

As a customer, would you prefer that EGS offer no reviews or only OpenCritic opt-in reviews?

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It is convenient to have them on the page but I would make them mandatory. But if I had to choose I honestly don't know what would I prefer. If we compare it to those Steam banner images with review scores and quotes I don't look at them at all so I would say I personally would be fine without them.

 

[zoltek]

It is convenient to have them on the page but I would make them mandatory. But if I had to choose I honestly don't know what would I prefer. If we compare it to those Steam banner images with review scores and quotes I don't look at them at all so I would say I personally would be fine without them.

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Fair enough. Thanks for responding.