The rest of the news:

Life is Strange: Before the Storm's second episode is out next week
http://www.pcgamer.com/life-is-strange-before-the-storms-second-episode-is-out-next-week/
The second and penultimate episode in Deck Nine’s Life is Strange prequel, Before the Storm, is due out next week, the new trailer has revealed. Titled A Brave New World, it will launch on October 19. So you’ve got less than a week to emotionally prepare yourself.

>>Yep, it launches this week.

South Park: The Fractured But Whole includes two expansions and the 'Danger Deck'
http://www.pcgamer.com/south-park-the-fractured-but-whole-includes-two-expansions-and-the-danger-deck/
With South Park: The Fractured But Whole a mere four days away, Ubisoft has finally dropped the details on the game's season pass—because of course, there's going to be one. The pass will include access to three DLC expansions, plus a couple of bits of "Day One content," all of which will be available for purchase separately for those who'd rather pick and choose.

Mutant Football League's 'More Gore' trailer reveals a Halloween kickoff
http://www.pcgamer.com/mutant-football-leagues-more-gore-trailer-reveals-a-halloween-kickoff/
Mutant Football League has been kicking around for a long time now, from a failed Kickstarter in 2013 to a successful one earlier this year (helped along, no doubt, by a demo) and an Early Access release in September. Later this month—Halloween, appropriately—it will finally go into full release.

Klei Entertainment's next game, Griftlands, is a 'pirate/mercenary sandbox'
http://www.pcgamer.com/klei-entertainments-next-game-griftlands-is-a-piratemercenary-sandbox/
The next project for Klei Entertainment, the developer behind Invisible, Inc. and Don’t Starve, has just become a little less mysterious. Sci-fi RPG Griftlands will be a “pirate/mercenary sandbox” with a small cast of characters and procedurally-generated NPCs, designer Kevin Forbes said this week.

Sociable Soccer Early Access delayed until next week
http://www.pcgamer.com/sociable-soccer-early-access-delayed-until-next-week/
Sociable Soccer, the spiritual successor to much-loved footy classic Sensible Soccer, was due to get its first run out in Early Access this week, but it’s picked up an ankle sprain in training and needs a week to recover. It will now strap on its shin pads on Thursday, October 19th.

>>Again, that means this week.

Get behind the wheel in Spintires: MudRunner's first gameplay trailer
http://www.pcgamer.com/get-behind-the-wheel-in-spintires-mudrunners-first-gameplay-trailer/
I'm not normally into driving sims, but off-roader Spintires: Mudrunner has really got its towing hooks into me with a new gameplay trailer. It shows off the game's giant trucks in action as they make their way through bogged-down routes to deliver their loads, stopping on the way to repair vehicles by the roadside or tow jeeps out of rivers.

H1Z1: King of the Kill is now called just H1Z1
http://www.pcgamer.com/h1z1-king-of-the-kill-is-now-called-just-h1z1/
Following H1Z1: Just Survive's recent renaming to Just Survive, I suppose it's not a huge surprise that Daybreak's battle royale shooter H1Z1: King of the Kill is now simply called H1Z1. In past interviews I've conducted with members of Daybreak and pro players, everyone pretty much just calls it H1Z1 anyway (and often just H1), so it makes sense.

PUBG's anti-cheat system is banning more than 6,000 players a day
http://www.pcgamer.com/pubg-banning-more-than-6000-players-a-day/
I haven't come across a single hacker in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Not an obvious one at least. Maybe that means I need to be more observant, or perhaps it's a testament to the game's anti-cheat system, which is banning more than 6,000 suspected cheaters every day.

>>The less cheaters the better, right? But damn, that's a lot!

Latest Star Citizen video shows off future cockpit improvements
http://www.pcgamer.com/latest-star-citizen-video-shows-off-future-cockpit-improvements/
Even if you don't intend on playing Star Citizen when it finally comes out, Cloud Imperium Games' video series Around the Verse provides—in my opinion —a fascinating insight into the development process. It also gives you a glimpse of future features that will land in the massively ambitious multiplayer space sim, and the latest one takes you inside planned changes to the cockpits of the game's many ships.

Dungeon Keeper-esque strategy game Dungeons 3 is out now
http://www.pcgamer.com/dungeon-keeper-esque-strategy-game-dungeons-3-is-out-now/
What if Dungeon Keeper had an above-ground RTS tacked on? That was (basically) the premise of Dungeons 2, where you spent half your time trapping heroes underground and the other half waging war in the overworld. Dungeons 3 came out this week and adopts the same formula but is—the developers hope—bigger and better.

Tame vicious wolves in latest update to Alaskan survival game The Wild Eight
http://www.pcgamer.com/tame-vicious-wolves-in-latest-update-to-alaskan-survival-game-the-wild-eight/
When Christopher tried out Early Access survival game The Wild Eight in February he was repeatedly mauled by wolves (and only managed to keep going by eating his own dead body). He might have more luck if he jumps in this coming week because players will be able to tame wolves and other wildlife thanks to an update due tomorrow.

Rocket League's Halloween event kicks off tomorrow, adding a new (free) way to open loot crates
http://www.pcgamer.com/rocket-leagues-halloween-event-kicks-off-tomorrow-adding-a-new-free-way-to-open-loot-crates/
Rocket League's position on loot boxes just got a whole lot more complex. Up until now, loot crates containing cosmetic items dropped occasionally after matches, and to open them you had to buy a key with real money (or trade for one). But now that's changing, at least during special events.

Dying Light launches free 'Content Drop #1' with new weapons and bounties
http://www.pcgamer.com/dying-light-launches-free-content-drop-1-with-new-weapons-and-bounties/
Back in July, Dying Light developer Techland promised its players ten free DLC helpings over the next 12 months. Content Drop #0 marked the first, while Content Drop #1—named "Lethal Inventions"—is the second.

Strategy veterans Petroglyph announce Forged Battalion, a customisable RTS
http://www.pcgamer.com/strategy-veterans-petroglyph-announce-forged-battalion-a-heavily-customisable-rts/
RTS specialist Petroglyph has announced Forged Battalion, a new strategy game with a strong focus on unit customisation and building your own faction. As you can see in the deeply '90s-feeling trailer above, which evokes C&C in the choice of music and even the introduction of the logo, you can alter every unit's chassis with different weapons, locomotor types and regenerative armour.

Forged Battalion's customisation reminds me of Earth 2150.

No, the point of a review is to reflect the opinion of the reviewer. There is no reason to adhere to standards of other reviewers. Nobody should be forced to give a low score to something he enjoyed or a high score to something that is awful.

Scores are not meant to be aggregated and compared to other reviewers. They're a measure to compare the reviews of a single reviewer with each other. That's why review aggregators are absolutely pointless. The scores of reviewers who do not have the same standards or priorities as me mean shit to me.

I mean look at all the 10/10 BOTW reviews that didn't take into account the many flaws. Absolutely useless to me.

Have to read the review first, but here's my take on any review - it's crucial to know what is most important thing in certain genre. Just like it's important that someone who actually knows the genre reviews the game. That way people who are interested in genre and specific game will know what to expect.

From what I understood from Vivster's post, this is, more or less, classic PB game with all the good and bad things. PB games are very specific, I really love them, but they are not mainstream (thankfully) and I can see how mainstream reviewers might be harsher on them.

We'll have to disagree there. What I expect from a review is an objective, accurate description of a game, with its pros and cons well explained and how they can affect gameplay.

After all, that's why they are called reviews, not editorials or opinions.

As for Metacritic and other similar things, I couldn't care less about them than I already do, and the only time I've used them was to find more reviews of a certain game, not to look at what score it has.

Lastly, I already said that I believe that there are no perfect or 10 games, like movies, books, etc. so we don't need to go there again.

I agree that picking the right reviewer for a game is important. I would never give an FPS game reviewer the task to review something like Cities: Skylines, for example, but even then, there needs to be some objectivity.

There's nothing wrong in giving a game a 7/10, which is still a very good score, because of its flaws and making it perfectly clear in the review that gamers that are into the principal aspect of the game, open world games in this case, will be able to forget the flaws and greatly enjoy the game, while the rest of gamers will "only" find a good game that does one thing very well, but that isn't that good with the rest.

Which is what the review does. The review perfectly explains all the flaws and all of the good things. That's why people should read the reviews and not just the score. It's not like the score is hiding the flaws. And as we have already established there is no objectivity in a gaming review because everyone has different priorities. I mean, are you trying to tell me that there is an objective distribution of priorities that counts for all games and people?

A PC gamer will review a game differently than a console player and that is how it's supposed to be. Because PC players want to read a review from someone who has similar standards and priorities for games. And people who hate micro transactions will want to read a review from someone who is sensitive to that as well. What good is an "objective" score of 90 when the game contains things that will categorily be rejected by some people?

Games need and should be reviewed by a lot of different kind of reviewers and the reviews should reflect that. You can easily list all the flaws and positives of a game and still not recommend it because you didn't have fun or because the game contains some objectionable content.

You just have an unhealthy obsession with scores.

If you read a review and then decide that the score does not reflect your formed opinion that's fine. That just means you have different standards than the reviewer. So you go look for reviewers who share your that's and then you can trust them. Demanding that all reviewers should adhere to your standards is a bit silly.

Reviews aren't entertainment, they're consumer advice. Would you take advice from someone who doesn't share your values? I know I wouldn't.

Yeah, well that's the thing with non quantifiable stuff and objectivity. Slapping number on review just makes it even harder.

Take Witcher 3 for example - for me, that game averages around 8 - some things are 9.5, but other, like RPG elements and world design are as low as 6 or 7. Or take combat in it - I think it's fairly good, while I find Souls combat to be average at best (and I'm ssaying this as someone who finished and liked all 4 Souls games), the very thing they have been lauded for.

My 2 cents - there are waaaay too many mainstream reviewers out there, who don't know shit about genres they're reviewing and/or are reviewing those games for mainstream audience.

I honestly don't care about scores, I lost faith in them a long time ago. When I want to know about a game I look for user's opinions and some gameplay videos to see if I'll like it or not.

What I'm just saying is that if there's a score, it should reflect what the review says. That's why I said that I didn't understand negative reviews that end with very good scores and viceversa.

Also, PC games reviews should be the same as console games reviews, just with the added tech info to know if it runs well or not and if there's much difference between the different settings. There are a lot of games where there's almost no difference between high and very high/ultra settings, albeit a huge drop in performance.

There has been a lot of discussions about why reviewers can't be fully trusted. From the fact that many of them aren't really journalists, only die-hard gamers that managed to get a job in the industry and that are incapable of hiding their fanboyism, to past revelations of publishers threatening to stop paying for advertising on review sites if they got bad scores, to clear cases of reviewers getting carried away by hype.

But that's something hard, if not impossible, to fix. Even movie reviews suffer the same problems, and they've been around for a lot longer than videogames.

Not liking that Humble Bundle is now owned by IGN.
Some conflict of interest there.

Well first of all that review wasn't negative, so why would there be a negative score? You just think it was negative because your own standards tell you that the negative points mentioned matter more. Also scores don't mean the same thing for the same reviewer. One reviewer might give a 5 to game that was ok while others call it trash. Some reviewers will give an 8 to an ok game while for others an 8 is a really really good game.

For some people performance makes or breaks a purchase so it should be an integral part of the review. A part that can also influence the score if the reviewer values it. See, you're now treating your own standards as if they're universal again. You just decided that 30fps isn't worth influencing a score while for a lot of people it completely devalues a game. That's why we need different reviewers with different standards. So not all reviews are generic bullshit that only helps one portion of consumers with one specific set of standards.

There is absolutely no point for every reviewer to adhere to the same standards because reviews from different reviewers have absolutely nothing to do with each other and are not meant to be compared. So why do you want a set standard for something that is not supposed to be compared?