"Have you felt it?" might currently be doing the rounds as the harbinger of a certain force awakening, but the question also applies to just how increasingly vocal we're all getting about almost every new entertainment release. Perhaps it's because of social media's interconnected influence, allowing opinions to gather steam faster than ever, snowballing a few thousand viewpoints into one gigantic ball of anger, frustration - or far rarer, utter delight - that just begs to be noticed. Whether it's that or a number of other global factors, the fact remains that when you look towards the nerdier side of life and check out what gamers have to say about any highly-regarded title, there's always just as many people shouting negatives as their are championing what went well. GTA IV? The character animation and game engine was impeccable, but... the driving was awful. Bad reputation forever. All three Mass Effect games? 200+ hours of perfectly-written sci-fi euphoria, tainted by a naff final conversation and badly coloured endings. Bad reputation forever. Or are they? Are these games simply mistreated? Do the detractors and their insistence on typing away furiously to get negative opinions out there, really get to define a game in the long run? All you can do is fly your own flag, but you'll have to weigh up the pros and cons of each first...
