well darth i saw this last night as i normally bring the g4 info to vgc. i was going to post this but its good to see you.

i agree. i think thats one reason we'll never see a game get a 10/10 here on vgc. i didn't read Adams review but i did listen to it i think?

Adam always does his best when reviewing games, so i respect his opinion wether i agree or not but once again he's right. if metric can pick and choose which reviews they want to use then why should a review matter in the first place?

if they don't care then why should we?as i posted on g4 last night. the best review will be with no score but the pros and cons as the reviewer sees it. if i did a review here thats how i'd do it: no score just why the game is a must buy or not cause at the end of the day its just an opinion right?

but since gamers lack the will to understand that numbers are numbers and games should only be judged by how good they are without a score where stuck in this paradox, this void of isolation, the point of no return and thats the real crime here.

not the the 4/5 score adam gave UC3, but the reaction to a number thats just? well! a number?

unless the game gets a 2 or lower out of 5 or a 6 or lower out of 10; isn't the score just an arbitrary meaning of i'm number 1, but theres a game thats number 2 but its better then me?

is it crazy not to care or not to know? its like a double edged sword. either side you'll get cut no matter the outcome cause as you'll see in these post and your poll we can't all agree.

hey everyone! is death inevitable or are we ever going to be able to find away to prevent this curse set apone us?

have we forgotten what to take seriously in life, or do we take life to seriously? hell what ever the answer is i'm tiered of not having fun cause this boredom is killing me.

He's right, why summarize the pros and cons, when he took the time to write every detail?

Anybody keep reading this guys name as Adam Sandler?

I did back when Adam Sandler was still relevant in like....'05?

People are way too fixated on numbers. It can be curious to see a reviewer knock off points in one category while giving something else a free pass for the same thing, however it's also annoying to see people argue something like the Metacritic score when fighting about games.

dumb question we are competitive by our very nature

He's right that people are too interested in what a game's score is. Unfortunately, I don't know of a better way to explain how good a game is or isn't without writing a seven paragraph review that most people aren't going to read. They just skim down to the number.

I haven't played Uncharted 3, but the fight on the back of the plane is obviosly a ripoff of the Living Daylights and nowhere as good.

After giving the issue a couple of days to marinate in my brain, I've come to this conclusion:

There's absolutely nothing wrong with rating a video game. Nothing wrong with saying, "Oh, the graphics were good but they could have been better" or "The graphics were the best that I've ever seen! On a scale of one to ten, I give it a 10!!" Nothing wrong with saying "That battle was so intense near the end--I had so much fun!! I'd give it a 9.5" or "I was sorta bored through the whole game. I give it a 5."

I think the problem is when we compare the scores between other games. Somebody complained that Brink got an 8/10 on the same site that gave Uncharted 3 an 8/10. Maybe U3 is miles better than Brink (I haven't played either) but the score could easily be justified based on expectations, context, and familiarity. When it comes to whether or not I want to buy a game, the review is extremely helpful. The score is helpful too, when it comes tempering my expectations. It helps if the reviewer has the same tastes as I do.

The problem comes from when we use these scores to compare game A to game B to prove superiority. Forza scores higher than Gran Turismo but there's a pretty solid argument for why GT could be better. Uncharted is scoring higher that Gears but there are a ton of reasons why people could prefer Gears. Zelda SS could be the best Zelda ever but score a 8.5/10 because it's too familiar. That doesn't make Super Meat Boy a better game because it scores a 9/10. We just need to stop comparing and everything will be okay.

That's what I thought!