The Outer Worlds getting a review score of 85 is where I officially moved on from game critics and review scores in general. That game was the definition of "mid". The gameplay is essentially lifted straight from Borderlands but with the fun weapons, originality, and over the top humor ripped out. The exploration made Ubisoft open world games feel exciting. The dialogue was bloated and badly needed a professional editor to show them that more is not always better. It wasn't a terrible game but in no world is it an 85. Also, I'm starting to think character creation is made ugly on purpose because modders mastered that aspect of gaming a decade ago.
That confirmed to me that associated factors like the name of the studio or publisher have a lot to do with that final score.
