Ok, there is several absurdities here:
* Score inflation has resulted in 8/10 seen as a hateful score.

* There are cases of game sequels that are arguably better, getting lower scores than a title prior in the series.  If this is done by the same reviewer, I would say it is suspect.

Conclusion?  Scores are only useful for sporting events.  A review should serve as a guide to making a right buying decision.  If it goes beyond that, then there is an issue.  

OhMahGawd!  He should know that review scores are relative with passing time.  The original Pitfall score a 4 out of 5 stars (8/10) in Joystick magazine back in the early 80's.  With today's standard, Pitfall cannot compare to today's action adventure such as Uncharted.  And maybe Gears 3 is better than Gears 2, but that doesn't mean it will receive a higher numerical score.  Does this really need to be explained?

Probably because he is.

Jim's review isn't even discussed in the comment. They talk about an Eurogamer review written by Johnny Minkley.

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=134263&page=1

Full interview thanks to Nsanity.

Lets be honest, in today's market an 8/10 is not considered glowing by most gamers today. You only have to read the forums to see how most gamers feel about 8/10. 8/10 games are considered renter games or buy used for highly discounted. They do not inspire the gamer of today to purchase the game day one at full retail price.

Anyway, I rather get the honest feeling of someone than the one everyone wants to hear. Yeah Cliffy did not like any score under 90 and thats to be expected of someone who spent years on a project, loved what they did and felt it was a great achievement even if it's not. I hate the fact that it's so easy to jump on such statements and attempt to make them bigger than they are. It's his feeling and he has a right to it. We may not agree with it but we do not have to because as human we all go their.

As far as I am concerned people like Jim Sterling is the problem more than Cliffy B believing his game should be a 10. To make such a big deal of such a statement is more childish than Cliffy believing his game should not score lower than a 9.

Cliff is a whiny immature attention whore...I can't stand him

if you guys think thats whining , you haven't followed his twitter account, he LOVES to whine about almost everything, he is like a little baby, but thats why i actually followed him, not because of gaming news but to have a laugh at all his whining.

he once whined about how life is so cruel to him because cab drivers don't use ATM instead of cash, i'm serious.

Another thing that's hard to get from a text interview is if someone is actually being sarcastic. Lets that the line in question from Cliffy "Doing great, apart from a couple of haters,"

If Cliffy was just being flippant, not serious but having fun with the interview, it doesn't come across in text that way. You could only get that sense if you could see how he responded to the question. This is probably one reason I never get in a huff when I read interviews because I never really can tell how something was said and in what context.

On another note, it always funny to see people call other people names online. It almost make you wonder how people see those people.

CliffyB: You know, I didn’t quite gather it. I don’t want to come across as defensive. How do I phrase this properly? When people rated Gear 2 higher than Gears 3, it kind of upset me because I know Gears 3 is a better game on every level.

So, CliffyB came off worse than defensive to you?  To you, that comes off as a "whiny immature attention whore"?  CliffyB gets attention now, because Microsoft set up Gears as one of their top salvos to win sales this holiday season.  So, end result is that, when Gears hits, the media rushes to get interviews with CliffyB (Microsoft also gave him a platform at E3 for Gears back in the day), and asks him questions.   What I see there is valid, but it is also valid to question why you pick an 8/10 review that was very positive, even if the score was lower than expected.  Worst I saw in the review was that the 360 is likely maxed out technically and the voice acting isn't as strong as in Uncharted.  Heck, not sure what game is going to go after Uncharted for a movie-like experience.  Not saying any game has to, because games are games.