Why do some games get free passes?

[d21lewis]

twesterm said:

d21lewis said:
I could fault Zelda for its lack of voice acting or Mario Wii for its lack of innovation but really, I'd be missing the point. If a game sets out to fulfill a specific purpose (be it story, puzzles, platforming, or what have you) then its a good game. If a FPS has a great storyline but sucks as an FPS, the score will show it. If a party game has amazing graphics and voice acting but it sucks as a party game, the score should reflect that. It's not a matter of "getting a free pass". It's a matter of delivering on expectations.

The thing about that though is lack voice acting is a design decision, I doubt Bioware set out to make a game that has ass frame rate and bad vehicle parts.

That's true.  But at the time, it seemed like Bioware was pushing the 360 to its limits (of course, it wasn't but it seemed like it did).  It's like Perfect Dark on the N64.  The game had technical issues but it seemed so far ahead of its time that a lot of things (once again, frame-rate and such) were mentioned but didn't effect the final review score.