Behind the Game Reviewing Curtain

Now that I've been reviewing games a lot lately, I've come to appreciate reviewers more. Its very tricky reviewing games. You want to be honest, but fair. You want to find good, even in the worst of games (sometimes you can't). And you don't want to just praise your favorite game and thats it. No game is perfect. I'm not sure how reviewers can give out 10s so often.

I haven't been able to give a game a 10 yet. I always find something wrong with a game, even if its a game I like a lot.

I'm sure if I reviewed Animal Crossing New Leaf, I'd probably end up going on and on about stuff I didn't like. Sometimes it feels like I'm being too critical.

So you may wonder (or maybe you don't) what my review scoring looks like. What does each score mean to me?

Here's a quick, dirty, and simple run down:

1 range-This game is awful

2 range-This game is not good.

3 range-Well, there are a couple things I liked but it could have been a ton better.

4 range-Interesting, but man, it needed more work.

5 range-Hmmm. Could be better, could be worse too.

6 range-Hey, this isn't bad.

7 range-Pretty good

8 range-Really good

9 range-This is such a great game!

10 range-There is no game better than this one

Thats what the scoring means to me basically. Well, in simplistic terms anyway. I didn't break it down to the point ranges (ex: 9.5) or anything. Boy that would be a task!

In any case, reviewing is hard! Scores are even harder. Sometimes, I want to leave the scores off (I did, in fact, leave the score off one game. thats another story).

I hope my reviews are interesting. I hope they help people make decisions on games. If they don't, thats ok too. If you disagree with my reviews, thats fine. Reviews, in the end, are just the reviewers opinion of a game. Different people like different things. If we all liked the same thing, man, that would be BORING.

I'll be back tomorrow with another Indie preview. I'll try to have some more reviews on this blog soon.