I was thinking about some of the bigger releases of the last couple of years and wondering if some of those games would have gotten as high of a score if they weren't part of a big name series.  I'll give a few examples.  Were Resident Evil 5's "tank" controls forgiven just because it's RE?  Would the ungodly long cutscenes and complex controls of Metal Gear Solid 4 have been tolerated if it wasn't a MGS game?  Would Grand Theft Auto 4's clunky controls and jittery framerate have been tolerated if it wasn't GTA?  I have no doubt that all of these games would have still scored well if they were new IP's, but how much does a name really help their scores?

alot apparently. There are lots of those so called high scoring games that i didnt like. And its not just the name, most of those games are made by huge companies who pay the reviewers to give them those high scores

I enjoyed all 3 of the games I mentioned as examples, but I personally would have never scored them as high as most sites did. I especially disagree with all of the 10's received by GTA 4. That game is far too flawed to be scored as perfect.

Yes. See: Final Fantasy X-2.

All of Nintendo's first party games to be honest(only the good ones). Not by a lot of points, but a little... Just look at all those 100% scores SMG got... No matter how great a game is, it will never be perfect as it has its flaws. The average score on metacritic is about right for the game though.

Oh, and Halo 3 and GTA4 are the most overrated games this gen imo. I also think Mario kart wii is under rated. It deserves more then 82% on metacritic. The only big flaw that game has is only team battles. I like how the AI is so unfair in the game, sometimes I get 6 blue shells in one race lol. But that's just because I'm 30 seconds ahead of the second(50cc and 100cc)

I also find it hilarious how they get so close behind you in the final race in 150cc. That's when the blue shells start coming in usually in 150cc. Atleast it makes the 3 stars thing very hard. I almost have 3 stars behind my name now :)

QFT

i did like GTA4 but its no where as good as its predessors(VC and SA). I mean cmon u have the power of the PS3 at ur hands and u cant give us planes to fly and you cut the overall map size?? im srry but it seems to me all it did was touch it up with pretty graphics and nothing more. Ya its overrated lol

quite possibly.

Yes,so does Brand Name that also sells console,would any of these people buy a Qxbox130? or a Enjoystation3 or even the casuals with USSSSS

FFX-2 and FFXII must've got their good scores because of the name. I don't see any other reason.