Do Brand name games get inflated scores based on hype?

[binary solo]

Michael-5 said:

binary solo said:
I don't know how TLOU is a brand name game, it's a totally new IP so the only brand name is Naughty Dog. I don't think reviewers see the sun shining out of Naughty Dog's arse. Though I personally have loved every single game that has come out of this studio. Ergo in the case of TLOU my personal opinion is that it is a bad example to citein the OP for 2 reasons: it's a bloody fantastic game AND it isn't a brand name game unlike all of the other well worn franchises cited in the OP.

I think some brand name games get higher reviews than they should. But in other cases sub-par brand name games definitely take a hit from reviewers, God of War: Ascension being a good example. I think it got the reviews is deserved, which is considerably lower scores than the GoW trilogy.

Naughty Dog is often refered to as the crown dev in Sony's first party dev studios. Uncharted was a great franchise, and it gave this studio a big name, and I feel Last of Us only got the 10/10 on IGN and a 95 metascore because it's the Naughty Dog brand name. Yes I consider devs a brand, just like many might say Nintendo, Rockstar, or Bungie are brand name studios.

I agree with you about scores in general though, it varies, depends largely on hype. God of War Ascension didn't have much hype so bad reviews were plenty, but something like Halo, no matter how bad it is, will always get good scores.

I know you were trying to be balanced and name exclusive franchises across all platforms, but you can't really list TLOU among those other franchises in the OP and equate it to them as a brand name game when Mario has been around for 25 years and Forza and Halo span 2 console generations and several games including spin offs. I think you should have listed Uncharted at least that's a 3 (4 if you count Golden Abyss) game series. Though there's no way you can say UC2 got a free ride when UC:DF got very good but not stellar reviews and wasn't a GOTY darling. You're probably right that being a Naughty Dog game kind of gives a game an automatic 0.2-0.5 (out of ten) boost before many reviewers even take the disc out of the case.

Honestly though I think a lot of people would say that at least in the case of GTA IV, and also GTA V according to Yahtzee at least http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/8193-Grand-Theft-Auto-5 would be good examples of games that get reviewers drooling before they receive it in the mail.