The Video Game Critic

The Ziff Davis Games group (1UP.com, EGM magazine, CGW magazine) was literally blacklisted by Ubisoft for giving the original Assassin's Creed a 6.5.

Jeff Gerstmann was fired from GameSpot for giving Kane & Lynch 2 a low score... while the publisher had a marketing deal with the site that blanketed it with a K&L theme.

Also, smaller "indie" publishers/devs have attempted to make copyright strikes on reviewer Youtube channels that gave their games poor reviews.

100 point scales have one problem: they're already used by schools. I know when I see a 50% review score I don't think the game is average; I think the game is half-broken. The game needs 60, preferably 70 points before I begin to think it's average, since that's what schools use. Same problem with 10point scales, 1000 point scales, or any other scale which my mind can transform into a percent by shifting a decimal point. I do like the Critic's grading system. "A" for a great game; "C" for mediocre.

If anyone's wondering, when AtariAge copied the Critic's scores to their database, they converted the alphabetic scores to a 100 point scale. "F" games were given a 58% score. Examples:

Quadrun: http://atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=381

E.T. http://atariage.com/software_page.php?SoftwareLabelID=157

Note that AtariAge hasn't updated their scores in years; while Quadrun & E.T. have "D" ratings now, when AtariAge added the review Dave gave it an "F."

pacman000 wrote:100 point scales have one problem: they're already used by schools. I know when I see a 50% review score I don't think the game is average; I think the game is half-broken.

Think of it like rating a car. You get a bunch of points for being basically 'car-like' - body, wheels, steering and braking, etc. Yet there is a big difference between a Fred Flintstone car and a brand new 2017 Ford Explorer. Sure, Fred has brakes, but its his feet. He has an engine, but its his feet. I don't know even how he steers that thing. So, Fred's car is still a car, but it only gets about 50-60 points out of 100. That still makes the scale useful.

If you want honesty in modern games, there's no better place than Quarter to Three http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/. That site uses the entire spectrum of the review scale (1-5) and can basically ruin Metacritic averages because of it.

scotland wrote:

pacman000 wrote:100 point scales have one problem: they're already used by schools. I know when I see a 50% review score I don't think the game is average; I think the game is half-broken.

Think of it like rating a car. You get a bunch of points for being basically 'car-like' - body, wheels, steering and braking, etc. Yet there is a big difference between a Fred Flintstone car and a brand new 2017 Ford Explorer. Sure, Fred has brakes, but its his feet. He has an engine, but its his feet. I don't know even how he steers that thing. So, Fred's car is still a car, but it only gets about 50-60 points out of 100. That still makes the scale useful.

Indeed, the scale is useful; but it still creates a perception problem. Think of it as a rubric for an essay. Fred's car may be able to check off each category for car-like transportation vehicles, but it's awarded lowest possible point value for each category. It's still not an average, merchantable car, even if by checking off each category it's awarded 50-60 points out of a possible 100.

I would like to see game magazines/websites publish a rubric, and I'd like to see how it was applied to each game reviewed. Game reviewers used to break down their reviews into categories (Graphics, Sound, Gameplay, Story, etc.) For some reason that's fallen out of favor. :/