The average video game console review is 99% “wow, this technology is really amazing, but the device has some small caveats we hope they’ll address” so why not go all-in on cementing the thing with contemporary issues and weblogger thoughts. https://twitter.com/kyoufu2011/status/1325577255930769411

Again, for whatever reason people want to pretend there’s Only One Review In The World when they read reviews. Go read any of the other sixteen dozen reviews of the thing if this sort of thing concerns you.

Sure, you’re going to encounter pretension and weird digressions and theater-kid-drama, but so what? There will always be a dozen other people that find different ways to write the same “wow, amazing leap forward but with some caveats.”

Part of writing reviews is that you write them in the environment is which the product has introduced itself. If a game comes out amid five other similar games, it gets compared to them. It’s fair to review a 2020 console launch in the scope of 2020.

I read a dozen Series X/PS5 reviews last week, and they were all pretty much the same. The overriding factor on “wait or buy” was how the author felt about the launch day game library. Could have been reading reviews of the GameCube launch.

If you’re reading console launch reviews thinking you’re going o encounter a Secret Truth about the device’s worthiness, you’re living in a world of make believe. They do shiny new things in shiny new ways. There’s very little negative to say.