Wright on 22 November 2015
Actually, I don't really see that the standards are through the roof. You gotta be really amazing to score over 90 in meta, and while some of the games you've mention are terrific and enjoyable, they don't need (or rather, don't deserve) over a 9 in regards to some of their flaws or lack of ambition. However, 8 is an awesome score to obtain, and thus I don't understand why anything lower than 9 is having a "through the roof" standard. If anything, applying cynical criticism is great.
We live in a different era, where games are judged with different mentalities or expectations than before. Just look at Halo:CE. Its Anniversary counterpart received an 82, despite the original being a 97.
