The gaming review scene can go f--- itself

[Graal]

Seriously, the gaming review scene cannot be considered relevant any longer. Not for the past few years. Have a look at these ME3 scores:

IGN 9.5/10
Eurogamer 10/10
GamerZines 98/100

Are you fucking kidding me? 10/10? 98/100, meaning it's 2% away from being perfect? Fuck off. I have no doubt that the game will be excellent, but seriously?

And what's worse? I didn't even have to see the scores to know that that's what the game is going to be getting. It's a highly anticipated game to a critically acclaimed series. How can it not get a high-score based on that criteria alone? Go have a look, every single highly anticipated game that doesn't have glaring issues right off the bat will have similar scores. It might even turn out to be a step down from previous games and it will still get an amazing score.

It's like games are no longer rated according to how good the game is, but instead how much people like the franchise it is set in.

I remember a time when a game received a score based on the sum of its parts and a game had to be really amazing to receive a score above 80%. Nowadays people consider everything under 80% to be a waste of time.

[OmegaFenix]

I use reviews as a baseline and prefer friend or community recommendations or my own "spidey sense" for a game being worth it. If I am unsure I wait or try out a demo.

Also IGN is the Fox News of the Gaming world their review carry about as much weight as a piece of wood. I tend to trust Edge, Gametrailers a bit more but the final judgement is in playing it.

[James]

We're keeping it real here at MyGaming

[Isengard]

Same here, I don't let inflated scores influence my purchase decision. Anyway regardless of score I already have this game pre-ordered, so I will decide for myself how good or bad the game is once I play it.

Gametrailers review. I don't know the score...

Gamespot review. 9/10

[Murph]

/snip

Nowadays people consider everything under 80% to be a waste of time.

Funnily enough, the games I've enjoyed the most weigh in on the 7 - 8 scale.
It is without a doubt a popularity contest, especially with IGN.

[Coheed]

What would remedy the situation is doing away with the score system. The pure fact that ratings aren't standardised, and subjective, should be sending off alarm bells for any gamer looking for good critic.

I've been watching Zero Punctuation reviews for some time, and sure it's full of fun stuff and overly critical nonsense, but what he does well is discern 'the bad' very well, which is what a lot of reviewers forego these days.
Also, I just love it how there is no scores - just critical analysis, and at the end of it, you can tell if he liked it or not.

Maybe not exactly what everyone else should be doing, but at least he's doing some things right. Just my two cents.

[Necuno]

We're keeping it real here at MyGaming

True, but for a sec I thought this was a column by tyran

[Murph]

True, but for a sec I thought this was a column by tyran

Probably due to the rampant use of the word "Fuck"

[Graal]

What would remedy the situation is doing away with the score system.

That would actually be a really good start. It would force reviewers to actually focus on aspects of the game which are good and bad in their reviews, instead of just rambling a few lines so they can justify their over-inflated score.

[OmegaFenix]

The Perfect Score Myth