Metacritic’s Best and Worst of 2008

January 5, 2009

Metacritic has always been there for us.  You know you can always turn to Metacritic to help you make that final purchasing decision on a game.  You can also use it to help justify being a fanboy for a specific game or console.  There has been a bit of controversy surrounding the site as of late with all of the negative user reviews but who really cares what some random users have to say anyway?

I will have to preface this list with a few notes.  This is a best and worst of list according to scores, well at least most of them.  For some odd reason the Wii and PSP best of lists don’t actually go in order of best scores.  Also, instead of having a list of worst games we only get a single “Dud of the Year”.  I know, it is kind of disappointing because sometimes the most entertaining part of these lists is seeing the crappiest games of the year.  Without further ado, here is the best and worst of 2008 according to Metacritic.

Hit the jump for more »

By Tyler Tschida | Tagged , | Comments (2)

Metacritic does not Determine Success

December 28, 2008

We all know there are games we enjoy that get poor reviews and there are games that are well reviewed but don’t sell big numbers and turn in big coin.  What of the games that get crap ratings but sell big?  This phenomenon has been on the rise recently with titles like Wii Play and Wii Music in the top 10 NPD sales data for November.

Brice Morrison, developer and blogger, has written a fairly interesting article bringing up the question of does a high Metacritic score equal higher sales.

But what happens when instead of being spot on, the gaming press appears to have a blind spot?  What happens with poorly or mediocre rated games go on to break multi-platinum sales records?  What happens when Metacritic is consistently wrong?

To sum it up if you ask the question does a Metacritic score directly correlate to sales the answer is yes, if you are Nintendo, and no if you are anyone else.  I strongly suggest giving the full article a read here.

By Keith Carter | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Metacritic a Fanboy Created Mess

October 25, 2008

Metacritic is a website that compiles reviews, both user and press for anything tech related. The gamut spans games, movies, and tv. To get press access, you must have a library of published reviews, which Loot Ninja is on the brink of obtaining access.  So where is the ruckus?

Little Big Planet, probably the most anticipated game on the PS3 ever, more so than MGS4, has not hit the streets yet due to the recall.  Xbox 360 fanboys managed to get the user review to below 6. Having no one played this game outside of press, this is obvious an attempt to skew the score lower. Editors at Metacritic are trying to block such occurrences from happening.  The PS3 fanboys struck back in full force giving Gears of War 2 a hefty 4.1.

This is funny and sad at the same time. The reviews mean nothing. Mostly because the game is not even out yet and pardon my ignorance, I don’t think a 13 year old kid has the wherewithal to review anything unless they are a very gifted individual. Anyone who has to resort to guerrilla “reviewing” is probably not that sort.  Metacritic claims they are doing everything to put an end to such bullshit and are exploring all options. Here is a crazy idea… block any user review before a game hits its release date and anyone who submits an obvious early review is banned.  Doesn’t seem like the problem is that hard to solve.

By Steve Kohlbecker | Tagged , | Comments (5)