Topic: Review scores - how much do they matter to you?

Scores to me are important, but so is the text. If reviewers are going to ditch them then I would be happy as long as the review is detailed and conclusive enough. I see 5 as an average, 7+ as a good game. I think that people just get upset when a big title gets a low score, although anyone who thinks a 7 is a bad score is a bit silly.

I do get a bit confused sometimes when the text & score don't seem to correlate though

Its a system thats been in place for years and I think its a valuable part of game reviews. It helps deliver the overall point of the review for me. If someone gives a game a 3 and other sites or magazines are giving a game roughly a 3 or 4 I know the game is garbage. If I see reviews on sites getting between 5's and 7's I know the game is worth checking out and looking past flaws. If a review is past a 7 and all the way up to 10 I feel like hey its a good to great game that is well worth owning and checking out. Thats my personal opinion though.

Wow the OP started this topic back on June 22nd but so long as Devil_Hunter_Dante resurrected it back I will contribute.

Review scores do matter so long as they are consistent by the reviewer and understood by the reader.

So long as the reviewers baseline idea of what this type of a game should play like does not change and the reviewer is open to why a developer did what they did.

Read the Planet Pachinko (WiiWare) review to know what I mean. There was a big debate about the 5/10 score Corbie gave.

In that review I liked how Corbie used the words "The gameplay is about what you'd expect from a game like this." meaning that he has played similar games like this so knows what to expect.

He also said "The flat 2D look of the game might turn some gamers off who are expecting a little more visual flash like that found in other WiiWare titles like World or Goo or LostWinds, but given the overall theme of the game, it's hard to fault its visual design." This was meaning that he is not reviewing the graphics of the game but the gameplay. I get sick of people who rate games based on their graphics.

Speaking of graphics affecting a score, I can forsee some reviewers maybe commenting on the graphics of the unreleased Max and the Magic Marker.
Yes they are not as nice as Nyx, Lostwinds, etc., however the reviewer would need to realize the game is set up as coming from Max's imagination so it is not expected to be on the same level.

Also a review should be read look at NEVES Plus - Corbie gave it a 7/10.
I think his only complaint was the default music was starting to get on his nerves a bit after a few hours.
People were also suggesting that it deserved an 8/10 and Corbie said more like a 7.356

My only complaints were also perhaps the music as this game can take forever to play as there are 500+ puzzles.
I like Corbie also loved the verses mode and was disappointed there was no online play option here.
Personally, I would have also given it a 7/10 or 8/10 and this is for one of my favorite WiiWare Games.

I jump straight to the score. If its high enough and I have some interest in the game, I read the summary. If the summary makes me more interested in the game, I read the full review.

I don't and will not be reading every single review. I don't want to read ten paragraphs each time to find out what a score will tell me in a single number. The review is there to detail the finer points of the game.

I preferred the five star review method because its semi accurate and allowed for some personal opinion leeway.

Ah yes, the good old 5 star system! The problem we found with that was we ended up with loads and loads of 5 star reviews once the VC library got quite big. There just wasn't enough room to differentiate. Now that we have carefully rerated the games you can see which games just fell slightly short of the immortal "perfect" status.

It shouldn't matter if too many games got a 5/5 just as long as they were worth it. The review will go into detail about the game so we can determine for ourselves just where abouts on the spectrum a game would fall without being told a more specific number. Some games would obviously get a high 5/5 and others would just barely make it at a 5/5 but would still have been wrong to have been given a 4/5.

5/5 doesn't mean a perfect game. Games which recieve 5/5 are not considered perfect. It just means "between 81% and 100% - make up your own mind about anything more specific"

Man even I don't read all the reviews and I live here!

That's about where I fall in. I skimread down to the score, and then, depending on the game and the score, I may or may not read the full summary. If I give a review a thumbs up (of some sort) though, it means I read it.

I ignore the score completely. What does it tell me about a game? Nothing, it's a completely arbitrary value that is entirely, 100% the subjective opinion of the reviewer, with no reasoned backing.

The review tells me much more. For instance, a Thorium wars on the DSi - Here it gets 8/10, IGN gives it 5/10 or whatever. By themselves those scores mean nothing, however, when I read through both reviews I realise that the IGN review sounds to be more where I'll sit with the game.

It really frustrates me that so many people don't comment on a game review, other than the score. That said, I understand why it's important that Nintendolife does it, and I'm honestly glad that the site's reviewers seem to see it as a necessary evil themselves.

Well, it's not completely arbitrary, it's on some kind of scale. The score is meant to reflect general feelings about the game (the waters do get muddy in separating 1 from a 2 or a 3, I agree) and at NL reviewers are required to ensure their score is justified in the review. If editorial feels the score isn't adequately defended then it gets revised or the reviewer is asked to alter the review to justify it, so there is certainly "reasoned backing" though clearly the review is someone's opinion.

To me, review scores are opinions. so, in my opinion (epic LOL moment approaching), opinions are OPINIONS. some people will like it while other people won't. That's how it is for everything. And also the people who are reviewing the game are the people who try to nitpick the game for one unwanted but enjoyable moment just so that they don't have to give the game a 10 (no NL hate involved). You'll better get my point if you watch the IGN review of Guitar Hero On Tour and then the Gamespot review of the same game.

Me I don't really read the score itself I just pay attion to the review itself to see wether it's good for me or not.

Agreed, I find that in Gametrailers reviews as well and it's really annoying. High School Ben did that in The Scoop regarding Dead Space Extraction, exaggerating the motion required for the glow-worm, which I found to be minor and worse the "random camera movement" which causes you to not know what's going on (showing a scene from the end of a chapter where your character is falling -- hello, it's first person, you're obviously falling and your cursor isn't active!). Lame.

Space requires some restraint. I really wanted to slag Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 for not having any information in the manual or the game about achivements, and how they're meaningless anyway because the game doesn't allow you to review them, but there's just so much else wrong with it. If a game is so good you have to hunt for issues, then maybe it's just good and you can be happy!

I put as much store in them as I do the Gospels: i.e., none at all.

I don't care for scores, i am more interested in the conclusion statement or final paragraph.

I don't care about scores. I get either a good or bad impression on the game from reading it in the review. The majority have given me a good one.

http://vc.nintendolife.com/systems/nes

so scroll down this list and pick out the good games of those you know little about already. would you rather read the reviews to every single one or just read the ratings column?

When I'm wondering about a game, I look at the Metacritic score. If the score is 75 or higher, I scroll through the summeries to see what the most common complaints and praise were. I read a couple full reviews to get the utmost understanding of the game. If I like what I see, I'll buy it.

This is a big problem for Wiiware/dsiware though as most critics don't bother to review them leaving a bunch of potentially great games unbought (I'm still waiting for a metacritc rating on magnetis for example.

you can allways use the filter to look got the games you want to look at.