Times where critics REALLY missed the mark… A Thread

[Vinther1991]

GTA 4 gets knocked a lot, but I actually think it is the peak of the franchise, and maybe the best game Rockstar has made. 98 on metacritic is a bit much, I think it is extreme that any game can get that high.
GTA V on the other hand, that is a complete joke that it has a score of 97! I would give it 5/10 probably, it's easily the most generic of the 3D titles, the story is bad, the characters are boring, the World is empty and the missions are the most scripted in the series.
RDR2 at 97 too is also crazy to me, now it does do some incredible things (unlike GTA V), but it still has some very repetitive scripted mission, the pacing is weak and it doesn't control very well either. At least RDR 1 is fun to play, though it does have too little side content for an open World game, 95 is a bit high for that one too.
It's interesting, I would consider some of Rockstars more divisive titles like L.A. Noire and Max Payne 3 to be much more interesting and fun to play than their biggest critical successes post GTA IV.

Mario Kart Wii at 82 is quite generous if anything, I always thought that game was a massive disappointment. It controls worse than most of the other games (yes even without motion control), the balancing is completely off and it is probably the most luck-based game in the series.

As with GTA and RDR, Zelda is another of these series that just get top-scores by default whenever a new game comes out.
Wind Waker at 96 is surely inflated, that game is style over substance in my opinion, the pacing and gameplay leave a lot to be desired and the dungeon design is particularly weak, but it looks and sounds good, that is for sure.

Bioshock Infinite at 94, I will also never understand, that is maybe the biggest offender actually, to me it felt like drained all the suffistication out of the original and instead made this dumb arena-style shooter, but with mediocre gunplay. Out of all the 90+ scoring games on metacritic I have tried, this is probably the one that feels the most painful to actually play.

Doom Eternal is another game, where I don't get the fanfare, despite being a huge fan of the franchise. I just couldn't get into the gameplay loop of that game, too much micro management, too many weaknesses to think about, too hyper-active. Not my thing. But 88 on metacritic.

Finally, Burnout Paradise does not deserve the high scores it got, it is decent at best, but the open world-tidis completely ruined that franchise.

Okay, enough of the negativety. Let's look at the other extremes.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines "only" got 80. That is legitimately one of the greatest games I ever played. To be fair it was released in a pretty poor state, but still deserves much better.

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team got 81, which was significantly lower than the predecessors, but it is actually a really great game and can easily hold it's own against other Mario RPGs.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze only got 83 when it came out! That is crazy, probably one of the finest 2D platformers of all time.

Mirror's Edge only got 79! That game is perfection.

Sonic X Shadow Generations deserves a lot more than 80 imo.