Some people put a lot of stock in metacritic - I don't put any in. 'Averaging' opinions does not make a lick of sense. My game buying choices are based on preferences, interest in a game or genre, and track record (if any) of the game maker. I bet you are the same.

Here are some examples of the follys of metacritic, and the folly of those who put too much weight in it :

Wii Sports - the most popular and influential game of this gen, the most important Wii game, garners a score of 76. Of course that score came before any reviewer knew the true influence Wii Sports would have on the industry. I remember Nintendo Power in their review wondered if Banana Blitz was not a better game, as it had 'more minigames' Lol - where is BB now? A random list of meta games also getting a 76, lol :

Ghostbusters: The Video Game
Scooby-Doo! and the Spooky Swamp
Order Up!

What can we garner from this list of games - nothing!

Lets have another example Heavy Rain for PS3 - a score of 87 - impressive, and no less than 8 flawless reviews! But the lowest review is an abysmal 40, it has a couple of them as well. How can we go from 'perfect' to horribly flawed, and 'average' those opinions? That's ridiculous. Numbers don''t tell us anything about this game, some reviewers glossed over glaring flaws in the game, some were really bothered by them. Also big budget games like this, time and again, are given the benefit of the doubt by major sites that DEPEND on advertising from big budget games! Fact!

Another example, of 1000 - this is too easy, I know :

Wii has a whooping 11 games rated over 90....ios has 39.

Clearly we are not rating all systems the same are we - but I see no disclaimers. Price obviously has a great deal to do with a score perhaps? And the fact that most iphone reviews only have a handful of reviews? But a METAscroe is a META score, and in the world of METAcritic - these things are all equal.

Don't be a chump - metascores are worthless, flawed, and review scores in general are corrupted by advertising dollars and bias...

I look forward to the discussion!

any score is worthless, the only reviews worth reading are the ones that provide a constructive criticism of the game's shortcomings.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 50 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

I don't know enough about metacritic, but in my experience aggregator review sites are the most accurate, but still I don't pay attention to reviews, in most cases anyway.

It's not worthless, but you're not being smart by putting stock into someone elses review.

That said, Metacritic is 60-80 critic review scores all bunched together for any given game. Using that, you can get a pretty decent idea of the games overall quality. Again, that doesn't mean anything to you personally. I dislike games that have gotten a 90 metascore and love some games that got a 60. But if you just want to see a general, base line stance on a games overall quality, Metacritic is a site worth having around, especially since it also has user reviews, which are usually more generous.

I stopped trusting review scores after playing Excite Truck.

Best arcade-style racing game of this generation, if not ever, IMO, and everyone who has played it seems to agree. Metascore is 72 when I just checked, but I'm pretty sure it was below 70 for a while. It's mind-boggling that a best in genre game could score so low, but there you have it.

[edit] Not to mention how many mediocre games get great review scores (want to see something funny? Go look at the top ranking games on metacritic and compare the user scores to the metacritic scores. Notable examples include Call of Duty Black Ops and Dragon Age 2).

Black Ops isn't mediocre, it's easily a solid 8. Dragon Age 2, on the other hand...worst $60 I ever spent. It deserves a 7-8, but I'd give it a 5 for failing so hard.

Also, I enjoyed Excite Truck, but the reviews weren't bad. A 7-8 is a solid score for it. It's not huge on content and, as with all motion games, the controls could freak out. Remember, when 80 critic reviews all compile into *name your score here*, it's more then likely a good indicator of quality. Not always, of course, but usually. Look at Dragon Age 2. It has a 79. That's a fairly accurate score.

I do not agree rascal - there is no common ground, no common principals of equality, and no consistency to what rates a good game across several systems.

iphone does not even have buttons - where is the consistency?

how do you translate letter grades into number and stay true to the site they came form - you cant

how can you average out the wildly different ratings and standards of 'quality' across dozens of sites and sources? - you cant

how can you compare a 99 cent game with a $60 one that requires additional fees to fully experience - you cannot....

its a mess, a total mess.

games are for fun - fun cannot be transcribed into numbers....text and rational for grade cannot be translated into a number - metacritic is worthless....

I certainly agree with your points, letter grades are absolutely worthless to any one individual. But you also need to look at it from a bigger picture. 70-80 reviews...that's a lot of scores. Saying that the average the scores produce doesn't mean anything is a little silly. Despite some extremely biased reviews that may give the game way lower or way higher, generally the average score is a good indicator. Nobody should ever put personal stock into metacritic, but if you wanted to show the overall quality and views people have on a game, Metacritic is not at all worthless.

As for comparing 99 cent games to $60...that has nothing to do with anything in the context of this topic. I could give Angry Birds a 9 and Dragon Age a 7. Or I could give Angry Birds a 7 and Super Mario Galaxy a 9. Prices of games certainly matter, but not comparing them like you stated. No one in their right mind compares Angry Birds to Call of Duty from a gameplay perspective. But perhaps they get the same score. People will freak out that some dinky little mobile game got as good as a full fledged shooter. But those people aren't very intelligent.

You need to take things into consideration. I'd be fine with Angry Birds getting a 9 and Ocarina of Time getting an 8...because, for what they are, the scores could be deserving. Nobody is saying Angry Birds is better, and the people that do go off on it are very foolish indeed. Angry Birds is a quality mobile game that's a lot fun, maybe OoT is a great adventure game with a few technical issues. I say again, anyone who does not have the ability to see beyond the black and white of any given situation has no credibility in their opinion. In this case, being able to see past the score and realize that the games are getting what they deserve based on their own merrits, and not seeing it as "ZOMG ANGRY BIRDS IS BETTER THEN OOT RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE". People simply need to think.

I wouldn't say it's worthless. Many of my all time favorite games- Super Mario Galaxy 2, Metroid Prime, Half-Life 2, Civilization IV, Super Meat Boy, and UFO: Enemy Unknown- all score in the mid-nineties. A high meta-score, while not a yardstick for measuring the quality of a game, can still tell you if a game is good, or really good.

Still, it has it's limits. There are many factors that go into a score for a game. Reviewers try to attract a wide audience, all of whom value specific factors in a game differently. Take Steel Diver, which has a metascore of around 60- not good at all. Reviewers generally praised its gameplay, but panned it for its short length, leading to its low score. But that score only applies to how much satisfaction reviewers think, on average, every player will get out of it. Different players may- will- have different opinions. If someone doesn't mind replaying missions over and over and enjoys the basic gameplay, they would rank it much higher than a 60.

These scores can provide a good general idea of the quality of a game, but they are definitely not set in stone. They aren't useless, but aren't infallible either.

Metacritic is useful when you're just browsing and looking for a good game to play.

Other than that I read the reviews on Gamespot and IGN.