I think, no matter how you feel about scores, a 10/10 probably shouldn't be given to a game where you have to extend huge amounts of faith in a day 1 patch and whose embargo requires reviews only use corporate provided B roll.
I am always wary of AAA open world games being given perfect scores because it usually requires going "well, yes, a ton of it is annoying busy work, but you can ignore most of it and decide not to engage with the vast majority of the game's content."
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Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
Eh, it depends on how the publication stipulates the scores, and how rigidly the editors keep the writers to those requirements.
Back in the day I used to like reading the Official Australian PlayStation Magazine because their 1-10 scale was specific and they would actually rigorously follow their own guidelines for scoring.
I don't remember off the top of my head, but I think a score of 1 meant "we wouldn't even use the game disc as a coaster" and 10 was something like "not only is this game not just an outstanding example of its genre but a resounding achievement overall, but it likely to be an all-time classic".
Like, they gave out very few 10s, I think Metal Gear Solid got a 10 iirc?
But yeah they'd actually hand out 5s to games that were just average, instead of 7s or 8s.
Some portions of the dish were not fully cooked, but the mousse was to die for. Also, I heard that the kitchen staff are incredibly overworked, but that is endemic to the restaurant industry so what are you going to do and also I didn't have to see them. 3 Michelin Stars.
I am always wary of AAA open world games being given perfect scores because it usually requires going "well, yes, a ton of it is annoying busy work, but you can ignore most of it and decide not to engage with the vast majority of the game's content."
For all the potential faults of CyberPunk 2077, even the critical reviews don't seem to be bringing this up. It still appears to have that Witcher edge of most sidequests being interesting self-contained plots rather than just "go here kill the guy loot the cave bring it back choose one of two rewards choose whether to bang the quest giver's wife or not"
I should play Paradise Killer. I didn't manage to play a whole lot this year. Mood put me off games for a lot of the year other than a weird marathon of Trails games, and then in October got going with a flurry of stuff.
I think this is all the new stuff I played this year, may as well rank order them.
1.Hades
2 13 Sentinels
3. Yakuza Like a Dragon
4. Crusader Kings 3
5. Dark Pictures Little Hope
6. Amnesia Rebirth
7. Lucifer Within Us
8. Call of Cthulu (slightly older)
Oh and the both chunks of DLC for Control which was good too. And a decent amount of Animal Crossing I guess.
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
GOTY for me probably defaults to Hades because everything else I played a lot of came out last year.
Yeah, I think this year I mostly just played Warframe, Starbound, No Man's Sky, and Path of Exile. All of those are years old, and while I did play some other games, the only one I can think of that was new (and the only one I played from start to finish) was DOOM Eternal. So I guess that's my GotY by default? It was pretty fucking amazing though so I don't mind
thinking back to the small group of people die-hard convinced that the reason WotC revoked the Netrunner license from FFG was because Cyberpunk 2077 was going to have a full Netrunner CCG in it
people come up with weird shit about the stuff they love
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
I like a four or five star scale personally because the further you get away from a 100 point scale the better
The 100 point scale is eternally tethered to letter grades for most people, which means that it's functionally just a 40 point scale (which I guess is fine if you like that but I'm not a fan of the way that makes averages work out)
And the ten point scale is then deeply confusing because sometimes it's attempting to map to a 100 point scale and sometimes it's not and that can result in some pretty big differences for like, mid-quality stuff
So Last of Us II was winning the VGA fan vote, beating Ghosts of Tsushima (the #2) like 41% to 33%. Someone apparently hacked the website so that GoT was getting 100% of the vote, and everyone else 0%. It appears to be fixed now though, but man, somebody really didn't want TLOU2 to win.
GOTY for me probably defaults to Hades because everything else I played a lot of came out last year.
Hades fits in with the Leigh Alexander tweet, because that's a game where narrative is embedded in pretty much every aspect of the game allowing for continuous surprises and revelations in an otherwise repetitive loop. It's not just the dialogue that's unique for much of the game, but the way the systems themselves reward you with more story for experimenting with them.
When I learn that, for example, you get unique dialogue when you use a god's call during a room where you are fighting the god (via the forced choices or a boss using the same god's power) it makes me want to go back and create those situations to see what will happen. Even the more obscure unlockable mechanics aren't as frustrating, because they are wrapped in and unfold as narrative.
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Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
Hacking a popularity vote for fuckin Geoff Keighley's The Game Awards™ (presented by Geoff Keightley) is peak... I'm not exactly sure. But it's peak something.
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Also Paradise Killer is my GOTY easily.
Back in the day I used to like reading the Official Australian PlayStation Magazine because their 1-10 scale was specific and they would actually rigorously follow their own guidelines for scoring.
I don't remember off the top of my head, but I think a score of 1 meant "we wouldn't even use the game disc as a coaster" and 10 was something like "not only is this game not just an outstanding example of its genre but a resounding achievement overall, but it likely to be an all-time classic".
Like, they gave out very few 10s, I think Metal Gear Solid got a 10 iirc?
But yeah they'd actually hand out 5s to games that were just average, instead of 7s or 8s.
The ending really pops.
My rubric would be built for a 9/10 to be a "perfectly cromulent" game by all standards/rubrics.
I'd so this so that I could reserve 10/10 for games that revolutionize the genre or medium.
put some titties in there
maybe a talking dog
Awful, bad, fine, good, great.
For all the potential faults of CyberPunk 2077, even the critical reviews don't seem to be bringing this up. It still appears to have that Witcher edge of most sidequests being interesting self-contained plots rather than just "go here kill the guy loot the cave bring it back choose one of two rewards choose whether to bang the quest giver's wife or not"
I think this is all the new stuff I played this year, may as well rank order them.
1.Hades
2 13 Sentinels
3. Yakuza Like a Dragon
4. Crusader Kings 3
5. Dark Pictures Little Hope
6. Amnesia Rebirth
7. Lucifer Within Us
8. Call of Cthulu (slightly older)
Oh and the both chunks of DLC for Control which was good too. And a decent amount of Animal Crossing I guess.
So is Conan
Game of the Year, every year
I think I might say Signs of the Sojourner is my favorite of the lot, but Hades and CK3 both come pretty close
(the remaining three are XCOM: Chimera Squad, Spiritfarer, and Pendragon)
...I need to go lie down
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
Like for that guy who got killed by Avatar it was a 10/10 movie
Harsh but fair
Yeah, I think this year I mostly just played Warframe, Starbound, No Man's Sky, and Path of Exile. All of those are years old, and while I did play some other games, the only one I can think of that was new (and the only one I played from start to finish) was DOOM Eternal. So I guess that's my GotY by default? It was pretty fucking amazing though so I don't mind
people come up with weird shit about the stuff they love
The 100 point scale is eternally tethered to letter grades for most people, which means that it's functionally just a 40 point scale (which I guess is fine if you like that but I'm not a fan of the way that makes averages work out)
And the ten point scale is then deeply confusing because sometimes it's attempting to map to a 100 point scale and sometimes it's not and that can result in some pretty big differences for like, mid-quality stuff
I posted a ways back. It is of my Toreador, Desoleil. The author of Night Road liked it on Twitter and that means she is canon.
Hades fits in with the Leigh Alexander tweet, because that's a game where narrative is embedded in pretty much every aspect of the game allowing for continuous surprises and revelations in an otherwise repetitive loop. It's not just the dialogue that's unique for much of the game, but the way the systems themselves reward you with more story for experimenting with them.
When I learn that, for example, you get unique dialogue when you use a god's call during a room where you are fighting the god (via the forced choices or a boss using the same god's power) it makes me want to go back and create those situations to see what will happen. Even the more obscure unlockable mechanics aren't as frustrating, because they are wrapped in and unfold as narrative.
Then Hades.