I'm puzzled by the "This is the best game ever" and 10/10 flood of late.

[Kantor]

bugrimmar said:
I still say that there shouldn't be a 10/10. Games are given too high scores for having obvious technical flaws. See, the problem I'm addressing here is the use of number ratings to hype a game. Clearly, reviewers are very guilty of this, as they throw 10's left and right this generation seemingly. Like they're driven by emotion and not rationality.

There can be no 10/10 game. I stand by this decision. If we accept you guys' argument that "the 10 is just to serve as a benchmark", then what's the point of writing the number when you don't really mean it? It's like "oh we say 10, but really, it's not 10". I think that's really irrational. Instead of a number score that you don't really mean, I'm sure you can figure out a better way of expressing the quality of the game without saying the misleading 10/10. (kotaku found a way)

Once again, if you slap a 10 on a game and say "it can't get any better than this", as countless reviewers have placed on games (read the ign gta review), it eliminates the possibility of something coming better. "it can't get any better" means there's no more room for improvement. And again, for the last time:

THERE'S ALWAYS ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT.

Why do you refuse to understand what we are saying?

It is ten. Any game that earns a ten deserves a 10 in the reviewer's opinion. Maybe you agree, maybe you despise the game. Maybe everybody despises the game.

Imagine a seven year old writes an essay. This essay is to the standard of a twelve year old. Naturally, he gets an A+, because it is far beyond his level and, for his age, is very high quality.

Now, ten years later, he is 17. If he tries to turn in this same essay, he will get a bad grade. Why? Because it is outdated. With his knowledge and experience, he can write better.

If, however, he was showing his essay to somebody and saying he wrote it when he was seven, they would think it is very good. Excellent. Not as good as what a 17 year old could write, but for his age and experience, excellent.

Now imagine the child is time and the essay is a game. And there you have it. Maybe it wasn't a perfect essay. There were probably corrections. But there was nothing significant, and it was very high quality.

I have never said MGS4 is the best game this gen. But it is the best game this gen so far. That's what people mean when they say it. And believe me, Gears 2 has just as much love.

EDIT: If cutscenes were flaws, every movie would be horrible. You know what is equally annoying? People putting down aspects of a game they haven't even played. It's almost as bad as those people who say they 'can't use the sixaxis' when they've never tried.

EDIT 2: And yet you own MGS4... I'm confused.