Firstly - I don't want this thread to descend into a flame war about which game is better. Both are excellent, for different consoles, and different genres.

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I have been following the position of both titles on GameRankings quite closely. For those not familiar with gamerankings (.com), it shows a selective average of the reviews that a game gets. I believe it to be better than Metacritic, as it is more selective in terms of what reviews are allowed (so SDF here!).

http://gamerankings.com/ 

This is what I have seen:

Early scores:

- Bioshock: 96.5%-97.0% (ranked#2)
- Metroid: 90.0% 

(diff - 6.5%)

Recent scores:

 - Bioshock: 96.2% (ranked #4)
 - Metroid: 92.0%

(diff 4.2%)

Todays score:

 - Bioshock: 95.8% (ranked #6)
 - Metroid: 92.2%

(diff 3.6%)

You can see the total review list for each game here:

http://gamerankings.com/htmlpages4/928517.asp (Metroid)

http://gamerankings.com/htmlpages4/931329.asp (Bioshock)

A couple of random comments as well:

 - EDGE gave Bioshock an 8! I can barely believe it (very harsh), but then it IS EDGE.

 - Of the 4 '80s' scores received by Metroid, 3 of them were "early" scores (GameSpot, GamePro, Yahoo).  

 - the median score for Metroid is around the 9.5 mark (IGN score), the median score for Bioshock is around the 9.7 mark (also the IGN score). I think these scores are a good representative of each game.

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Anyway - I'm doing this primarily out of curiousity. Will probably update this every week or so, until the final scores settle. 

Hmmm curious what the end result will be.

I guess Bioshock will be the best but then with a slighty difference.

Both are great games no doubt, both should be on the list, or least be close

BUY THEM BOTH!

After initial reports having Bioshock so high and MP3 so relatively low, I figured that over time they would equalize themselves somewhat with Bioshock maintaining a slight lead in overall rankings.

Not that it really matters, they're both great games.

On a side note, Bioshock(PC) has entered the all-time charts at #8, pushing off Half-life 2 from the top 10.

Bioshock gets a better score strictly because it is a new game all together, take MP1 for example compared to Bioshock.

Very good point, and a good reason why Metroid#1 will be in the top 10 - but MP3 won't.

You sort of wonder how "fair" that is - a sequel could be a lot better (improvements), yet still be marked harsher.

Now if only MP1/MP2 got remade for the Wii...

Differences aside, I would place these two gems in the exactly same category. First person games with a heavy emphasis on shooting, but also adventuring and exploring. Less mindless action than in shooters generally, but many cool powerups that do more than just give you a bigger gun. That's First Person Adventure to me.

Correct me if I'm totally wrong here. I haven't played Bioshock yet, although I'm definitely getting it eventually, but that's how it seems to me.