Review scores are there to sum up what someone though of a game or movie, in a number. It's the way people react, saying a 7/10 is bad (lol wut?), that is retarded. I prefer if games are rated out of 100. But, what people forget is that a review is an opinion, nothing more. If you are interested in a game, look at many reviews (instead of just one), get the demo or rent it. If you personally like it, then just buy the game.

You mentioned Skyrim and for some people, that is an easy 10/10 as they love those games but to others, it's a 5/10, as they simply don't like it, that's ok.

But, I agree the way we gamers look at scores is definitely retarded, a 5/10 is an average score we should all treat it like one

Well with out playing the game I can't say if that 3/10 is a legit score for re6 but at the end of the day a review is someones opinion and I never take them to serious, Instead ill look at metacritic and see if all the reviews are negative then ill probably avoid the game.

I must say though 3/10 is really low for a game like Resident Evil, didnt they review like a dynasty warriors game a 8/10 once? cause most people would say dynasty warriors is like a 4-5/10 I on the other hand play every single one even though I know every game is basically the same as the last one lol

Well you also have to consider that a review is merely an opinion and no one has ever tried to ''hide'' that (i mean outside of the reviewer's ''space of opinion''), now the problem is not in the 6's and 7's, the problem are the games that get 9's and 10's for no reason games that just don't deserve such a high ''praise'', i think it goes a lot deeper than what we see, just this morning i read a Resident Evil 6 review from a spanish magazine, the guy was not plain saying DON'T BUY THIS!- but you could clearly feel disappointment in his words and by his description of the game (basically -well guys, it's not that bad but it's not good either-) you would have predicted another final score, he gave it a 9.2/10... His words, his opinion told a different story so this time (and many others) i asked myself -is this real?, i think there are too many things we don't know.

Personally i don't care about scores but many people do, so one just starts thinking...

You guys are right about them focusing too much on the higher numbers. I always liked the 1-5 scale more than the 1-10 considering they usually don't even go that far down on the 1-10 scale. A 1-10 scale would work fine if they actually used it like kowenicki suggested.

Review Scores are NOT retarded. But the people behind them are.

Most of you guys aren't American are you? Over here in grade school a C is average (but considered bad). Even a B for most people is a disappointment. The problem is an A=9-10, B=8-8.9, C=7-7.9 etc. To most American kids anything below 60% is failing and a disgrace. As a result it is programed into our brains to think of video game reviews the same way. I really don't see a problem with this as long as all reviewers go by the same scale.

A bigger flaw with reviews in my opinion is your point about skyrim. In that case reviewers obviously factored in the complexity and scale of the game to inflate unrelated categories. Heck even if a game is the size of Earth with advanced AI, destruction physics, and millions of onscreen enemies it can look horrible. I like how IGN doesn't just use the average of its categories scores to calculate the final score. This is the part in the review that the writer should decide "ya it doesn't look amazing but it doesn't need to" for example.

A fair review should just be a person talking about the game giving their impression.

Yes, review scores are dumb and senseless because the weight of factors is always different and never ever for any two games the same.
Categories like sound, gfx, gameplay, online, multiplayer or even genre comparisons are just to make it look like it's all thought-through.

I always wanted any site to simply write about what a game is about and what positive things it has to offer. Nothing more, nothing less. But it will never happen.

No there is nothing wrong with the reviews for the most part, the stupidity comes with the people who read them. If they cant comprehend what the score means or actually read the damn review then the fault is on them.

You're looking at it the wrong way.

It's not graded on a curve. A 5/10 isn't average, it's mediocre. Because of the high cost of developing games, the average game is much better than mediocre, and probably all the way up to decent around 7/10.

There are worse games out there, but nobody reviews them and nobody plays them.

The review score is not a replacement for reading a review, it's just an at-a-glance way of reconciling positive and negative statements to get a very quick first impression of whether or not you should buy the game, and it makes average calculation possible.

Ten means "best the industry has to offer", and "genre-defining" and "will still be remembered and played decades from now". It means "you will love every minute of playing this game if you can tolerate the genre".

It does not mean perfect, and never has, any more than an A on an essay means "perfect".