When to Praise and When to Criticize

No Mutants Allowed has published an interesting article that points out the lack of criticism for Oblivion shortly after its release compared to what we’ve seen in recent Fallout 3 previews.

Nobody can look inside the heads of those reviewers, but why suddenly identify flaws in Oblivion now rather than a year ago, when it would still have mattered for opinion forming? Did they need a year to find these flaws? Do they not dare to criticize the game that early? Or can they only see flaws when they have something superior to compare it to?

And is this the future that awaits Fallout 3? When the TES V previews pop up, will they read “No more clunky character animations like in Fallout 3” or “No more childish aborted attempts at humor like in Fallout 3” or “This time, quest solutions really matter!” One thing is for sure, the gaming media is better at praising than they are at criticizing, since it takes them a one-hour demo to praise a game to high heavens, but a year to find flaws in a game once released.

Agreed. And that’s exactly why Fable waited a couple of months to give a true representation of what type of game Oblivion was.