Lack of Psn Reviews and Demos

Where are the reviews for all the PSN games or the trials for said games?

One thing I’ve noticed upon me getting a PS3 is that there seems to be a lack of trials/demos for PSN games. Now that is likely a fault of the developer but if Sony’s not pushing it then developers are not making them. All games on LIVE have trials except maybe the community games, and I guess they could be treated like LIVES community games as Sony has their own version of it but why not spit out a small demo to give us a chance to see what they are like and maybe get more sales (or less I guess). Now I realize that this could also increase development time/costs but it would be minimal as they have the code for the level already made and just need to make a new menu for the game. For the type and size of the games this should not be a hard feat to accomplish in my opinion.

This brings me to my second point, where are all the reviews for these games? If reviewers actually reviewed all the games maybe that could help sway ones decision on a game here and there. Now I am personally not one to purely base a decision to purchase on a review (that is what a good demo can help with) but I do like to read/watch reviews for games to give me a rough idea on what the game is like if no such demo is available. I know reviews are based on one person’s opinion but when you see most sites giving roughly the same score for a game it could be a sign. Everyone finds a favorite reviewer or team and generally have the same views as them, I had this with the IGN staff when they first came online, the reviews were great, they seemed to have similar tastes as me and if they didn’t like a game I usually didn’t either, there was a few that I didn’t agree with but then that was my opinion. I used to hate Gamespot reviews; I used to think they were terrible; they had nothing in common with me. Others will obviously disagree with me but that is their opinion and that is to be respected.

 Now, on the other hand, is another story though. I have not really found a site that I overly like for reviews one way or the other, I do frequent IGN and Gamespot regularly still and more recently Giantbomb, but now days the reviews are all over the place. One site will give a 9 and another will give a 7.5, they generally will say the same thing it is just one reviewer liked certain aspects of the game and the other did not like those same aspects and therefore gave more or less points for that. Looking back at Assassins Creed for example, the reviews were all of the board for it, either they loved it or hated it. I was so hyped for that game and no review was going to turn me away from buying it and I was glad I did as it was relatively enjoyable, I wouldn’t agree with a 9 or a 7.7 for that game but maybe in the 8’s. If it is a game I am totally hyped about no review will turn me off of the game on the other hand if it’s a game that I’m kind of on the line about getting, a review might help me decide one way or another. This would be where a demo would also come in handy as well; a good demo can definitely help in the decision making process of whether the game would be a ‘value bin buy’ (sale) or get right away. I have heard talk that Sony was putting a plan into motion for giving us the ability to rent PSP games, as most of you know the recently released PSP GO is an all digital format which completely eliminates the ability to rent a game before you decide to buy. Now this concept could be applied to the whole PSN Store quite frankly, which would allow users to rent just regular PSN games and not be limited to PSP ones.

A good example of a PSN game that has not been reviewed yet by a more reputable site is Battle Tanks which was released on September 3rd and it is now October 17th. They will post a review of Dora the Explorer: Dora Saves the Snow Princessjust in case my 4 year old wants to read it and see if she would like the game, but they cannot be bothered to post a review for Battle Tanks. This is but one example, now don’t get me wrong here there are LOTS of reviews of PSN games but it just seems that the focus is on “high profile” games, the recently release Critter Crunch or .detuned are a couple that both have reviews for them and they have not been out that long.