Guest contributor Matthew Jordan author of the excellent blog “Of Interest to Me” had this to say on the controversial subject of review scores.
You might remember a few years back a game from Kaos Studios called Frontlines: Fuel of War. It had a weak under-developed single player but a really good multiplayer, a multiplayer I played the crap out of until glitchers and cheaters ruined it. Anyway, Kaos studios is back with the sorta-kinda-not-really-a-sequel Homefront, a game with a weak under-developed single-player but a really good multiplayer. I haven’t played it yet on account of me being poor, but I’ll probably pick it up at the end of the month when I get money.
Homefront released on Tuesday to less than stellar reviews, it currently has a 73/100 on Metacritic. This is apparently such a bad score that it caused THQ’s (Kaos Studios parent company) stock to drop by over 20%, because investors know that gamers will look at that score and think “OMG Homefront fucking sucks I’m not buying that shit, back to CoD:Blops”. And the investors are right. So Many of todays gamers are slaves to review scores it’s pathetic. thinking a 73/100 is bad is just plain stupid. Just have a look at this and you’ll see what I mean.
Here is Homefront on Metacritic as seen on March 17, a 73, a complete failure, nobody’s going to buy that Right? Sadly yes.
According to IMDB Inception is the the 25th most successful film of all time and considered by many to be one of the best films ever made. Let’s take a look at it’s Metacritic score, it must be damn near perfect.
What? 74? It must be shit, Metacritic says so. Well it isn’t, because review scores are bullshit.
If I based all of my gaming purchases on review scores I never would have played many of my favourite games. Singularity, Alpha Protocol, Blacklight: Tango Down and many others all have what would be considered a bad score on Metacritic, but I loved them. Just give the game a chance.
Also, while we’re on the subject of review scores, how about we check out Yahtzee Croshaw’s take on the matter, and why he doesn’t give games scores, (it’s around the halfway mark in the video) –
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3938014616644987404#