http://www.alexevansgames.blogspot.com

Reviewing games is a broken system, a vicious cycle in which the top games have to get  95/100s or 10/10s in order to be a sucess, and anything less isn't 'AAA'. I think that in order to be a respected medium, games reviewers have to be critical, like in films, and use the whole of the scale, like EDGE and other 'harsh' reviewers. I discuss it in my latest blog post:

http://www.alexevansgames.blogspot.com

Thoughts?

hmm reviewers may need to go with a universal way of reviewing but they shouldn't change their score scales.

Since the scores are so inflated, we may as well add an 11.

Exactly, Akvod. Don't you think it's time we did something about it, now that gaming, more so than ever, is pushing to be a respected and culturally-important form of entertainment?

1 - Garbage
2 - Very Bad
3 - Pretty Bad
4 - Below Average
5 - Average
6 - Above Average
7 - Pretty Good
8 - Very Good
9 - Excellent
10 - Perfect

I wish the world worked like this

Reviews have been broken ever since the middle of last gen. But I think its not so much the 'review system' as much as the 'reviewers'. Its the fact that we're expecting a group of 4-6 people to rate all types of games of every genre equally based on their own bias and opinions. They already have their own favorite series and genres, yet they're expected to hand-pick the best games and the worst games. Of course certain games are going to get a lower score than they should or other games are going to get an inflated score.

An even bigger problem most people don't point out, because most people don't pay attention to reviews outside of the self named 'AAA' titles, is that games OUTSIDE of the major titles get ignored or downscored. Why should a game like Fire Emblem or Dragon Quest get less Attention than Fable or Final Fantasy? Just because they're less 'popular'? Because they have less marketing? That's pretty much basis for me to say the basis for reviewing games is not only broken, it should be killed outright.

Ridiculous.

This is not a movie industry, game critics don't have to use meaningless words to get their points across.

People who are extremely harsh are usually people with serious problems, they show themselves as being tough and above others mainly because they are insecure...

There's nothing wrong with the rating system we have for gaming today. The reason sites like IGN uses every point in their reviews is because sometimes it's not easy to differentiate two incredible games with the full scale point system like you could with the raiting system sites like IGN uses.

11 for games that have that "extra push over the cliff"?

Reviews for games should only come 6 months after release. People would buy it by recomendatio and self experience and not reviews to not to leatd to disapointment, as the case of the GTA IV "perfect" score and "game of the generation" dumb awards.

Review should not exist and demos should be more widely available.