Reviews Page Now Available!

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We've put up a page that collects all of the reviews we've found for Champions Online. Head over to the Review page (http://www.champions-online.com/reviews) to see a list of reviews (sorted by score) with links to all of them. Have we missed one? Let us know on the forums!


Link to the news article. (http://www.champions-online.com/node/594300)

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It is refreshing to see you guys being honest, showing the bad reviews with the good ones. This reaffirms my faith in your company and this game that It will continue to Improve

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It is refreshing to see you guys being honest, showing the bad reviews with the good ones. This reaffirms my faith in your company and this game that It will continue to Improve

I agree 100%. It takes guts to post a link to all your reviews even if they yield an "average" score. I'm still very confident in you guys, just seriously, calm down a bit w/ the nerfs....or at least add some cool stuff in w/ them and include a ton of cool buffs for powers that need em.

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Yeah it's nice to see a company willing to show a cross section of reviews...makes a change from the only a 100% positive or you are dead to us! approach you get from others :)

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Yes, very refreshing to see a company brave enough to post all reviews both positive and negative. Personally the reviews dont bother me, i am loving the game and haven't had so much fun in an MMO for a while.

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I Am actually shocked to also see the less favorable reviews listed there. Honesty like this is rare.
Especially in this business. I may have misjudged you a little bit. I'll be honest with you, though. I still do not like the recent changes that you have done the game.

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Wow, when I saw the posting on the front page.. I was like oh sh... are they going to put up the bad ones? To my surprise you did! This means you guys take your work honestly and take all the reviews into consideration.

Nice job

Keep it up :)

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It is refreshing to see you guys being honest, showing the bad reviews with the good ones. This reaffirms my faith in your company and this game that It will continue to Improve

on the topic of honesty - how about honestly setting expectations for a team that is as experienced as the cryptic team has touted itself to be?

setting low expectations for such an experienced team, surely isn't honest. now is it?



posting good reviews with bad reviews is good and all... but everyone being 'honest' in one venue, but not areas that matter -- doesn't make a lot of sense.

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I was totally perplexed when I saw some of the not so good reviews (On their respective sites originally, not on the new CO review page). Most notably, the ones at IGN and Gamespot. I read those ones a lot.

I have played nearly every MMO created and this one is one my favorites so far (I have been playing since closed beta). When games like Warhammer and LotRO get 8-9 scores it totally confuses me when this one got a 7.5 or so. Personally, I thought LotRO was immensely boring and Warhammer had cool PVP but other than that it was boring too.

Maybe it is the creative aspect of this game that has me hooked, but I can honestly say I enjoy this game more than those two. Yeah the nerfs have been annoying but other than that I have no complaints.

It seriously makes me wonder if I can actually trust game reviews (especcially IGN and Gamespot) anymore and if these reviewers had some kind of ulterior motive. Any review under an 8.5/10 is way too far off from my assessment for me to even think that they review games based on the same criteria that is important to me. I would definitely give this game a 9.

My biggest concern is that these ridiculous reviews may have a serious impact on this games subscriber base and hobble the developer's ability to put out new content. It already seems like there are a lot less people playing than at launch. Seriously, WTF?

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It seriously makes me wonder if I can actually trust game reviews (especcially IGN and Gamespot) anymore and if these reviewers had some kind of ulterior motive. Any review under an 8.5/10 is way too far off from my assessment for me to even think that they review games based on the same criteria that is important to me. I would definitely give this game a 9.

I personally would give this game a 7/10 (admittedly I see it's future potential could make it a 9.5/10 game down the track, but I don't rate things on what's seen through a crystal ball). Some people just have different views. *shrug*

And IMO, never trust any single review... unless you wrote it yourself. As always it pays to research something properly and make your own informed decision, not treat some sole stranger's words as gospel. ;)

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That's some classy stuff right there. Cryptic is my kind of developer. :D

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I personally would give this game a 7/10 (admittedly I see it's future potential could make it a 9.5/10 game down the track, but I don't rate things on what's seen through a crystal ball). Some people just have different views. *shrug*

And IMO, never trust any single review... unless you wrote it yourself. As always it pays to research something properly and make your own informed decision, not treat some sole stranger's words as gospel. ;)

Honestly, I don't take anybodies word as gospel, not even Jesus. My point of contention is that for the most part I have agreed with reviews from these web sites in the past and the CO reviews are way too far off from my opinion for me to consider them fair.

And your score of a 7 and a possible 2.5 points more based on potential doesn't make sense to me either, it seems poorly thought out. In my mind, for a game that I feel deserves a 7 to go up to a 9.5, the game would have to have been practically rebuilt from the ground up. No amount of potential could cover that much ground in my eyes.

And when everything is said and done I think this is all indicative of a new generation and demographic of gamers coming into the market who really don't understand games in the big picture. I would bet most have less experience than 5 years with MMOs and they are basing most of their judgments on their experience with World of ********, which is unreasonable.

And most couldn't care less if a game flops and have a complete disregard for the amount of work, passion, and money that goes into the creation of these type of games (as demonstrated by your *shrug*). Ultimately, I think that attitude is killing way too many good games now-a-days and people take way too much for granted. :(

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Love Cryptics attitude here :) It's really cool that you don't shy away from the ones that scored you low

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I'm glad they post every review out there.
IMO some reviews out there are totally unprofessional, almost fanboyish. Specially the Gamespy one. I've read most of the reviews and I agree with some of what is said but in that one the reviewer just neglects to talk about a lot of the strong point of CO. It's objective seems to intentionally bring down the game. Most obvious example, not mentioning at all the Nemesis issue. For me that thing alone made me love CO.

Either way. Cheers Cryptic, I'm loving your game and in my books you have a 90.

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It is refreshing to see you guys being honest, showing the bad reviews with the good ones. This reaffirms my faith in your company and this game that It will continue to Improve


"Oi! Whats that brown, stinky fuzzy stuff on ur nose?"

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Yes, very refreshing to see a company brave enough to post all reviews both positive and negative. Personally the reviews dont bother me, i am loving the game and haven't had so much fun in an MMO for a while.I said the same thing just before coming to the forums, most companies will just post the top scoring ones without much thought of the negetives, it shows us that you do listen to both the good and the bad and perhaps willing to improve of it. Keep this level of honesty up and you'll keep your customers for a long time.

So long as you deliver on your promises and beyond. As you would guess I looked at the worst review first.

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I'm glad they post every review out there.
IMO some reviews out there are totally unprofessional, almost fanboyish. Specially the Gamespy one. I've read most of the reviews and I agree with some of what is said but in that one the reviewer just neglects to talk about a lot of the strong point of CO. It's objective seems to intentionally bring down the game. Most obvious example, not mentioning at all the Nemesis issue. For me that thing alone made me love CO.

Either way. Cheers Cryptic, I'm loving your game and in my books you have a 90.

I liked G4's review, it noted the bad stuff and not much of the good but at least they mentioned that "for now" the score is a 3/5 and they always return to re-review mmo's once it's been out for awhile as wella s expansions.

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Honestly, I don't take anybodies word as gospel, not even Jesus. My point of contention is that for the most part I have agreed with reviews from these web sites in the past and the CO reviews are way too far off from my opinion for me to consider them fair.

And your score of a 7 and a possible 2.5 points more based on potential doesn't make sense to me either, it seems poorly thought out. In my mind, for a game that I feel deserves a 7 to go up to a 9.5, the game would have to have been practically rebuilt from the ground up. No amount of potential could cover that much ground in my eyes.

And when everything is said and done I think this is all indicative of a new generation and demographic of gamers coming into the market who really don't understand games in the big picture. I would bet most have less experience than 5 years with MMOs and they are basing most of their judgments on their experience with World of ********, which is unreasonable.

And most couldn't care less if a game flops and have a complete disregard for the amount of work, passion, and money that goes into the creation of these type of games (as demonstrated by your *shrug*). Ultimately, I think that attitude is killing way too many good games now-a-days and people take way too much for granted. :(

I agreed with you except when you said "not even Jesus" since I am a beliver so you made me kinda sad. Don't you see the sad face here?:(

Honestly I see things where they kind of slept on things and there are things where they just freakin nailed it. A good example is the Boss Battles in the story archs.I thought it was nique and you actually had to think and work togeather to beat them. But the same formula don't apply to the thousands of mobs you run into everyday in the game.

The Nemesis was a great addition but even though it's my personal Nemesis and allows me to live my own adventure in the CO universe, however, I don't feel it's the nemesis I would have created, he looks badass but I don't like how cheesy he acts. I imagined my nemesis to be quiet and calculated, not loud and over dramatic. I am also disappointed in the fact that I can't custom design my Nemesis Minions individually, And worst their pre-made selections are horrible cut and paste from other mobs in the game.

And the UNITY misisons are..........would be cool end game content if THEY FIX THE DAMN MISSIONS!!!

My biggest problem of all in this game primarily comes from how much the Developers are catering to the peoples complaints about powrs, while balancing powers is a must, I really care about the overall game and I feel small things are getting ignored and these small things like better UI, Controllers, Banks, Auction House, mission bugs, even costumes. If they focus on these things I think raising the score to 9.5 is possible abilities in games is a constant changing thing always and it should not be the overall focus. They need to stop lollygaging. Hopfully these reviews (Average Reviews) will say it better than I.

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Nice decision to show the lesser scored reviews, people will always hold their own opinions, and it doesn't always reflect the game in question, I've loved games dogged by the media, and I've disliked games loved by the media.

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I agreed with you except when you said "not even Jesus" since I am a beliver so you made me kinda sad. Don't you see the sad face here?:(

Honestly I see things where they kind of slept on things and there are things where they just freakin nailed it. A good example is the Boss Battles in the story archs.I thought it was nique and you actually had to think and work togeather to beat them. But the same formula don't apply to the thousands of mobs you run into everyday in the game.

The Nemesis was a great addition but even though it's my personal Nemesis and allows me to live my own adventure in the CO universe, however, I don't feel it's the nemesis I would have created, he looks badass but I don't like how cheesy he acts. I imagined my nemesis to be quiet and calculated, not loud and over dramatic. I am also disappointed in the fact that I can't custom design my Nemesis Minions individually, And worst their pre-made selections are horrible cut and paste from other mobs in the game.

And the UNITY misisons are..........would be cool end game content if THEY FIX THE DAMN MISSIONS!!!

My biggest problem of all in this game primarily comes from how much the Developers are catering to the peoples complaints about powrs, while balancing powers is a must, I really care about the overall game and I feel small things are getting ignored and these small things like better UI, Controllers, Banks, Auction House, mission bugs, even costumes. If they focus on these things I think raising the score to 9.5 is possible abilities in games is a constant changing thing always and it should not be the overall focus. They need to stop lollygaging. Hopfully these reviews (Average Reviews) will say it better than I.

Sorry if I offended you or made you sad, I'm just not the religious type. But in all fairness, I think Jesus was a pretty awesome dude. Again, I'm not trying to be offensive. :)

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The problems I have with the game so far are......

I don't really like going back to Canada &/or the Dessert after going to MC...MC just seems perfect for super heroes. Monster island is kinda nice....I just hate Lemuria.

Lack of endgame content....

Coming from WoW where there are a huge amount of quests & several different places to level (most of the time) to CO with probably just enough quess to get you to 40 if you do absolutely everyone & there being not a lot of choice about where you go is a little bit of a let down.

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"Oi! Whats that brown, stinky fuzzy stuff on ur nose?"

You don't need to do that now, lets keep this thread civil

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Sorry if I offended you or made you sad, I'm just not the religious type. But in all fairness, I think Jesus was a pretty awesome dude. Again, I'm not trying to be offensive. :)

I know I was just kidding too, but yeah Cryptic has time to make this work but they got to do it fast, there are a lot of good MMO's coming out and a lot out now and they can't depend on STO to be their saving grace either. CO could be a MMO top contender but they gotta step it up.

Im sure time was not on their side and Atari getting the publishing rights was probably a big reason. They also might be short staffed too. There was a post regarding some of the PvP arena querks and they said it's a known issue but it may take some time because they don't have a permenant team dedicated to PvP stuff.

This could explain why the power balancing is an issue in PvP.

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Gamespy seemed a bit cranky. I assume their takedown was more of a business decision than anything else, since Gamespy is involved with some of CO's competitors.

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Here's a review that hasn't been listed yet: http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/2009/09/15/review-champions-online-pc

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And your score of a 7 and a possible 2.5 points more based on potential doesn't make sense to me either, it seems poorly thought out. In my mind, for a game that I feel deserves a 7 to go up to a 9.5, the game would have to have been practically rebuilt from the ground up. No amount of potential could cover that much ground in my eyes.

And when everything is said and done I think this is all indicative of a new generation and demographic of gamers coming into the market who really don't understand games in the big picture. I would bet most have less experience than 5 years with MMOs and they are basing most of their judgments on their experience with World of ********, which is unreasonable.

And most couldn't care less if a game flops and have a complete disregard for the amount of work, passion, and money that goes into the creation of these type of games (as demonstrated by your *shrug*). Ultimately, I think that attitude is killing way too many good games now-a-days and people take way too much for granted. :(

It seems poorly thought out because it doesn't make sense to you? This alone tells me to cease discussing with you how we each rate games.

Without knowing the reviewers, their ages, their history with games, what's influencing them, I can't really agree or disagree.

My "shrug" was directly after stating people have different views, and was merely indifference at said statement. It was in no way a demonstration of not giving a damn about games and the work that is put into them, and I find it quite rude that you tried to attribute it as such, so kindly take that last paragraph and choke on it. :p

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It seems poorly thought out because it doesn't make sense to you? This alone tells me to cease discussing with you how we each rate games.

Without knowing the reviewers, their ages, their history with games, what's influencing them, I can't really agree or disagree.

My "shrug" was directly after stating people have different views, and was merely indifference at said statement. It was in no way a demonstration of not giving a damn about games and the work that is put into them, and I find it quite rude that you tried to attribute it as such, so kindly take that last paragraph and choke on it. :p

It seems poorly thought out because, let me repeat myself:

In my mind, for a game that I feel deserves a 7 to go up to a 9.5, the game would have to have been practically rebuilt from the ground up. No amount of potential could cover that much ground in my eyes.

And indifference is indifference any way you want to paint it. You say it was indifference at people having different views. Well, my issue here was concerning that some of these different views seemed biased and unfair. And that these reviews could have a very negative impact on the game.

But perhaps I'm being too much of a fanboy myself, and I'm biased as well. But that is only because I enjoy this game and want to see it succeed.

Anyways, I'm sick of discussing this and I'm sorry if I offended you. That was not my intention. But I stand by what I said, even if it does not directly apply to you. And I think I will pass on the whole choking on paragraphs thing... :p

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Haha, am I allowed to call it Gayspy on these forums? Since it gave you guys a 2/5 arbitrarily? I think that should be a new rule/exception...

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Certainly puts that Game Spy review into perspective.

76% is not a bad mean score in this day and age. 4 more % and we're at 80%. It's tough to get a release-state MMORPG there. At the rate of improvement Cryptic is putting into the game, re-reviews will probably be favorable.

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Scores-schmores. Feh. :cool:

The most useful thing I find in reviews is in the text: what stood out that the reivewer liked/disliked, what games is it similar to, which bits were fun, where is the game lacking. This can help me decide if I want to try a game, if I own it a review might give me ideas on how to enjoy it more, and in the worst case if lack of fun is due to my overlooking something, or if the game is simply a dud.

Of course a large part of reviewing is personal taste (if a reviewer doesn't like superheros or MMOs it's hard to imagine them giving Champions Online a positive review), and as an additional complication the constant changes and minimal documentation to MMOs, Champions being a prime offender, mean that it's easy to miss key aspects of the game. So I expect early reviews to vary widely.

All that said having read a number of these reviews I think they present a reasonable picture of what the game is like. Eliminate the outliers and I find them a fair description of CO.

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I agree its nice to see a number of reviews with many different opinions but I'm guessing some of these were posted without anyone reading them. Bite My Review is a good example of this where well it was basically not a review but an attack on another guys review.

Still thumbs up for the honesty :)

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I gave Gamespy hell on their forums for the terrible review of the game. That reviewer should be charged with theft if he was paid for that review, it was wretched.

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i just bought the game and when i load it it up it goes to patch-within a few seconds it says error14 whats the deal i would like to play but it seems it wont patch--i even went out and bought a pc that blows the recommended stats out of the water-what gives? can anyone help?

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I found this one via Blue's News (http://bluesnews.com).

http://www.games32.com/Champions-Online-(PC)-Reviews/p2000_articleid/1177

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...but I'm guessing some of these were posted without anyone reading them. Bite My Review is a good example of this where well it was basically not a review but an attack on another guys review.
I read them all. That one was odd, though (not many people review reviews). But, I figured the author was just using the original review as a template to express his or her own opinion of the game and how it differed. Figured posting it was fair. It'd be nice to see a more in-depth, game-centric Bite My Review article, however.

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i just bought the game and when i load it it up it goes to patch-within a few seconds it says error14 whats the deal i would like to play but it seems it wont patch--i even went out and bought a pc that blows the recommended stats out of the water-what gives? can anyone help?
Please post in our technical support forum on these boards, or see our general support page...

http://www.champions-online.com/support

We have a great ticketing system and people available if you need more than automation can provide.

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http://www.jeuxonline.info/jeu/Champions_Online
France
Rating 6,98 / 10

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Honesty really does go along way! Kudos for posting the less favourable reviews.

I haven't read any though, I'm just playing the game and loving it.

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"It seriously makes me wonder if I can actually trust game reviews (especcially IGN and Gamespot) anymore and if these reviewers had some kind of ulterior motive."

I find it hard to put my trust in a review on a site that also displays ads for said game/publisher.
Gamespy is the worst offender of all. They actually developed the incredibly crappy server browser for Battlefield 2, and then gave the game a ******ned perfect score on the review (that's a serious conflict of interest and very unethical in the journalism business). Anyone who played that buggy game knows that it deserved an 8.5 at best. Remember the patch that literally fixed 105 bugs?
They also bumped up the reviewers score of one of the many lame Mario Party games after Nintendo threatened to remove their ads.
Reviews from smaller websites that aren't plastered with ads are your best bet.

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There's a new review of a belgian/dutch PC magazine called PC Gameplay, it rated 72% positive things where: Unique, and Nice style, Good fast-paced combat and incredible character creation tool, the negatives were, not enough content and to much grinding, the reviewer also added that this game has the potential to become to best super-hero game available

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Hello! We have posted part 1 of my Champions Online review at Game & Player (http://www.gameandplayer.net/articles/2009/10/champions_online.html). Enjoy!

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You missed John Funk's review (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/6512-Review-Champions-Online) for Escapist Magazine in your list.

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I found this one via Blue's News (http://bluesnews.com).

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/10/05/champions-online-review/