Deconstructing Game Review Structure

Recently there has been a lot of division on the topic of game review structure. Kotaku has an interesting summary of recent commentary, including a piece by GameSetWatch's Simon Parkin and the Taipei Gamer blog. "Except, of course, video games don't work in the same way as toasters or digital cameras. Sure, they have mathematical elements and measurable mechanics and it's possible to compare the number of polygons between this one and that and spin out ten thousand graphs detailing how two specimens compare. But, unlike with the Canon EOS400D, I would have no idea at the end of those 25 pages which game was better or where they would sit on the 'true' scale of quality."

Comments

Disparity between Reviewers and Users

[Anonymous Coward]

Just look at the difference between how users score games compared to how reviewers score games and you will see a problem. Grand Theft Auto 4 has a reviewer average of 97.4%/97.3% on the PS3/XBox 360 yet users give it an average score of 79%/83% ... In contrast a game like Mario Kart Wii has a reviewer average of 81.9% and users give it an average score of 96%

I'm not saying that GTA4 is a worse game than Mario Kart Wii, but it is clear that the reviewers are not giving scores which reflect the experience of gamers who own the game ...

(Note: all scores from Gamerankings.com)