I agree with both of you, Edge seems harsh, but only because of the stupid way most of the rest of gaming reviewers score games.

Metacritic uses that scale because 90% of reviewers use that scale. It's just generally accepted. That scale was used before internet hype existed. For that matter, it was used before metacritic existed.

In the game reviewing system, which IS different from the movie reviewing system, because that's the way things are, a 5 is not considered 'average'. A 5 is considered bad. In fact, a 6 is considered bad. a 7 is considered average, an 8 is good, a 9 is very good and a 10 is excellent. At least when you are using this awful no decimals system. If IGN used that no decimals system, GRAW2 would have gotten the same score as Gears of War. One is an 8.7, one is a 9.4. Both would become 9/10. One is incredibly good. One sucks.

A 3, by any standard, is considered bad. VERY bad. Awful. How bad could Need for Speed possibly be? What bets that will be the LOWEST score for the game on metacritic? Need for speed hasn't been 'good' in years, but it's always been average. Which by the majority of reviewers mean 7/10, and by Edge's 'revolutionary' attention-grabbing system is a 5/10. But even then, they're saying it is awful. It's probably not.

Bad games don't come along very often. They are probably rarer than excellent games, actually. Most games are average-good.

But you know, it's not their strange numbering system that is at fault here. Well, it is partially. But not completely.

Here's what I mean.

So, on Edge's scale, Gears 2 is excellent, but Resistance 2 is above average, World at War is above average, and Shaun White Snowboarding is good. So, in order from best to worst:

1) Gears 2 and Left 4 Dead

2) Tomb Raider and EndWar

3) Valkyria Chronicles, Red Alert 3 and Shaun White Snowboarding. And Fallout 3. And Animal Crossing. All are equal. All are also equal to Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. And, from an earlier issue, are equal to BioShock.

4) Resistance 2 and World at War. And Silent Hill Homecoming. All of those games are equal.

5) Mirror's Edge and SOCOM Confrontation (bear in mind it has been patched)

6) NFS Undercover.

Okay. Raise your hand if you agree with that. Nobody?

Now, raise your hand if you see a pattern in that. Hint: Look at 1). Then look at 4). Then 5). And then 3)

EDIT: Most of you have gotten it by now, but in case you haven't, another hint:

Where is the highest 360 exclusive? Where is the highest multiplat? Where is the highest PS3 exclusive?

I think they gave World at War a good score, but VC is way low as is Resistance 2 and Mirror's Edge.

Wow, people get so mad at reviews for games they probably havent even played.
If the reviewers dont like the game, they will say they dont.
I am a gamer and i own all 3 systems, and i can see if i wrote reviews they be a lot more in this vein than anything else. Resistance 2 ?Puh-lease, i would give it a 5, the 1st one bored me to tears, as did the orginal Gears of war. I found the Halo 3 single player very well balanced and i think fable 2 and SMG are amazing.

not everyone is a 13 year old FPS super-fanboy

Yes! Thank you spelling this out, hopefully quoting it will get more people to read this.

This why i hate the idea of so-called "AAA" games. It is simply the most pretentious distinction ever known to video games. It has virtually no meaning, yet people constantly get worked up about a game being "AAA" or not. A reviewer is deemed a fanboy if they deviate from the meta average, with fans ready to discredit anyone who has a less than glowing take on the game. I doubt that anyone here trying to crucify edge actually has read the reviews. If that's the case, you are getting worked up over a number, and not the actual review.

Yep, just like I predicted. Edge and it's BS "scale" was averaged into metacritic.

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps3/resistance2?q=resistance%202

Resistance 2

5.5 based on 42 reviews Read critic reviews How did we calculate this? based on 1319 votes Read user comments Rate this game

Dropped it down a whole point.

60

Edge Magazine

Resistance 2 is every bit the product of Resistance: Fall Of Man’s mentality: it’s OK to do things by the numbers so long as those numbers are bigger than everyone else’s. [Christmas 2008, p.91]

One point lower than Call of Duty: World at War for the PC.

Call of Duty: World at War

7.1 based on 15 reviews Read critic reviews How did we calculate this? based on 49 votes Read user comments Rate this game

Somebody give me an "Eddddddddddddddddddggggggggge!!!!" Kirk picture.

If the review system for games are broken, then why are they given far more consideration than most film critic?

Measuring the result and you see that the currently 'broken' game review system are given much more credit and affect sale ALOT more than an 'authentic' film critic.

The review system is broken for the intellectual minority who understands the merit of utilising a full scale.

Games reviews caters for the young, the stupid and the uninformed who have in the past and will again in the future, judge a game purely on that 1-10 score the media gave.

If the average is five and most game that come out are suppose to be around 5 a lot of game will get castrated.

I for do not think the system is broken.

The result supports me.