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Videogame Reviews - Playing With Numbers?
Thanks to NTSC-uk for its editorial discussing the possible confusion in using numbered rating schemes for videogame reviews. The author rhapsodizes: "No number can possibly capture the striking vision of the sun setting over Hyrule Field or the ingenious brilliance of Metal Gear Solid's interactive references to reality", before going on to conclude: "Treated as numbers with a defined value, they will always be looked down upon as having deficiencies. Yet when you read them as you would a word and open it up to your own interpretation, they begin to fully deliver the explanatory potential that is locked within." Do you think numbered ratings have an important place at the end of game reviews?
We should do away with the star system for hotels (how can one number possibly describe a whole hotel?). We should do away with film genres (how can one word describe a whole film?). We should do away with races (how can one word describe a whole person?). We should do away with ages (how can one number describe the experiences of a whole lifetime?).
What a stupid article. It's not like the whole review is being replaced with a number. It's something to quickly glance at to see if it's a load of shit or a really good game. If there's a review of a game I've never heard of before, and it's got 2/10, then I'm not going to waste my time reading it.
I think that the review method in Zzap was the best I have ever seen. They would give it a % rating for several categories and an overall rating, then if they thought it was worth buying by most people, it got a Silver medal. If you didn't like that type of game then maybe you still wouldn't like it, but the very best games got a Gold medal. These ones should be at least looked at by everyone. The best bit though, was the boxes that had the other members of staff commenting on the game. This meant that you got three or four different opinions on each game. That made their review method the best in my opinion.