I wish game reviews didn't have ratings.

I just the review for the DS RPG Contact over at RPGFan, and I noticed their review rating doesn't average correctly. This is why I hate ratings in reviews, the reviewers just pull the overall grade out of their ass! Anyone know any sites that don't give scores when reviewing games?

It doesn't say average, it says "overall". The final verdict should be an overall opinion on the game. Using averages would be flawed, especially using a mean where higher values can skew the mean to one side. e.g. the old gameplay vs graphics debate:

Faggot Quest 3
* Gameplay 10%
* Graphics 90%

Mean of that is 45.5%. the reviewer may have hated the game but the mean forced him to give an "ok" (about 50%) score for it. Not good.

Joe said:

Faggot Quest 3
* Gameplay 10%
* Graphics 90%

Mean of that is 45.5%.

What mean?

err, i monged that one up. it started out as 1% to gameplay and i changed it and forgot to change the mean. The mean of 10% and 90% should be 50% :P

What do you mean, "what mean", i mean, what?

What he meant by "What mean" was what type of mean meant a mean that far from the actual mean, i.e. the mean you probably meant.

I see what you mean.

What i meant to say is that the mean, while being less mean, may mean less and not mean as much as the meanie man meant.

Oh shut up.

Anyway; I, for one, prefer the arithmetic-geometric mean.

I have the idea to make a game/movie review site that doesn't have numbered ratings (because those are always crap and create desparities), but instead just give my honest opinion of stuff then say who they'd appeal to.

Danarchy said:

I have the idea to make a game/movie review site that doesn't have numbered ratings (because those are always crap and create desparities), but instead just give my honest opinion of stuff then say who they'd appeal to.

That's what I thought of doing. I wish reviewers were actually like that. I was thinking of posting my own reviews on my Myspace page or something.

Joe said:

What i meant to say is that the mean, while being less mean, may mean less and not mean as much as the meanie man meant.

Heh, that's a real tongue twister.

I think numbers are fine, as long as it's clearly explained what goes into them.

But most reviewers don't explain that.

Otherwise, an extensive number listing is a good quick way to find out how closely your opinion matches with another reviewers', and a few of those can be a good guide in determining whether you're likely to enjoy something or not.

(For those of us who hate reading more than a paragraph at a time.)

I give this thread a 3/10.

I remember when CGW removed the ratings out of their reviews because tons of people complained about their 2/5 Tribes 2 biased-on-bugs review. Funny times.

Still pisses me off that the 1up reviewer about Gears of War just gives the game a full 10/10 anyway even if he mentions how bad the game was but the graphics saved his pre-pubescent mentality.

I prefer no ratings in my reviews. What I like to see is the reviewer explaining where they think the item being reviewed shines, and where it fails, but leaves it up to the reader to decide if it's for them or not.

There have been many times that I either enjoyed a game that magazines/websites almost universally bashed or hated a game that everyone else thought was the bee's knees.

When I make use of reviews with grades, what I do is try to find one where someone loved the game, one where they thought it was mediocre, and one where someone absolutely hated it--from those three viewpoints, I then find a more rounded overall view of the game in question.

caco_killer said:

That's what I thought of doing. I wish reviewers were actually like that. I was thinking of posting my own reviews on my Myspace page or something.

Myspace...interesting idea.