Review rating out of 10 not 5

[bas6344]

I read reviews in other publications a while back and they reviewed and scored games out of 100, this soon became clear that it would be impossible to achieve a score of 100 for any title and if 2 games were almost identicial then how would a game score for example 80 and another game score 81, so I believe this was changed to a scoring system out of 10 to reduce inacuracies and confusion.

This is a system we are all familair with schools,magazine reviews and some TV shows all use a 10 out of 10 system, I think a 10 out of 10 system would improve clarity for the readers and make it clearer for top end titles to be marked on their technical achivements and be juged in finer detail to achieve a higher score, that would help the reader to make a more informed choice when purchasing games or chosing between similiar titles.

[Dynamite Dan]

You make a decent enough point but I think you're forgetting something. You know the words that go along side the score? The actual review? Yeah, that can pretty much let you differentiate between games and find out what you want to know. Shocking, I know...

[bas6344]

Fair point!
But what about the "At a glance" section, all the "5 star" games are here 10+ per category most of the time with only 1 sentence as a review, Oblivion 5 stars + Dragon age origins 5 stars, I think Dragon age is total crap comapred to Oblivion the two are totally diffrent games except for the magic,swords and shields but yet have the same rating.

[ClownTrousers]

The mag said Dragon Age is better than Oblivion in their review, so you'd not agree with them anyway.

[bas6344]

I dont agree with the mags view now no, thats after I read that Dragon age had the same rating as Oblivion I thought "wow must be as good as they are both 5 stars",so I bought Dragon age as a drect result of the mags review, and felt annoyed and a little cheated, Dragon age is 1st CLASS UTTER A#SE BILGE when compared to Oblivion on even the smallest of details!!
Dragon age has a MAXIMUM level of 25 AND THATS ONLY IF YOU BUY ALL THE DLC!!

I and my friends Still play Oblivion after 5 years and have a level 125 Character WITH NO DLC!!

NO FKING CONTEST

[Bob]

I think they should review things out of 2.
Either Good or Bad.

[Johnny Shoulder]

I quite like arse bilge.

Especially on toast.

[j2000_nr]

I quite like arse bilge.

Especially on toast.

Well probably better than marmite

Bas, I cannot agree with you when you say that DA is crap compared to Oblivion. Both are good games in their own way. If you went in expecting an Oblivion - Clone then you would have hated it.

DA is an example of one of the finest crafted RPG's ever.
Oblivion is an example of one of the finest crafted RPG's ever.
Just don't expect them to be the same

[ClownTrousers]

I dont agree with the mags view now no, thats after I read that Dragon age had the same rating as Oblivion I thought "wow must be as good as they are both 5 stars",so I bought Dragon age as a drect result of the mags review, and felt annoyed and a little cheated, Dragon age is 1st CLASS UTTER A#SE BILGE when compared to Oblivion on even the smallest of details!!
Dragon age has a MAXIMUM level of 25 AND THATS ONLY IF YOU BUY ALL THE DLC!!

I and my friends Still play Oblivion after 5 years and have a level 125 Character WITH NO DLC!!

NO FKING CONTEST

My point was they would have given, say, Dragon Age 10 and Oblivion 9, so you'd still be no better off.

(by the way if I created a game where you levelled up every three second with no maximum (but no *game* behind it) would you buy it?)

[BuffAngel]

I have both games and put 100+ hours into oblivion and only about 10 into Dragon age so far - just recently bought the strategy guide to see if i can regain some joy from it - its not a bad game just very old fashioned and hard to be immediately gratified in my opinion.

Anyway on the whole out of 10 out of 5 thing, out of 10 sounds better because its not currently done i think - grass is greener and all that.

I read the reviews and have to say they are often very good - i am not so keen on the quite biased sounding reviews of some of the less cultivated games. My missus plays the harry potter games - my horse and me - stuff like that which often get bad reviews because they are not games that appeal to a 'gamer' and therefore get a 2 or 3 out of 5.

A bit of perspective on these other games and looking at who their target audience is would be appreciated.

[Venomous Albino]

Dragon age has a MAXIMUM level of 25 AND THATS ONLY IF YOU BUY ALL THE DLC!!

Um... I think you'll find the level cap in Dragon Age Origins is at least 30. Please get the facts straight.

[Havantgottaclue]

Actually, this is one of the reasons I like the five star rating - it means you have to probe a little deeper into the narrative to see whether it's really your type of game. Marks out of ten are okay, but I agree with ClownTrousers that really it would have little impact on your opinion. Crikey, I think Bioshock is boring, and as for Fallout 3? Well, I'm just not that addicted to grey. But how can other people, reviewers or otherwise, account for my highly erratic opinions?!

As for Dragon Age - there is no substitute for perseverance. It's not an open world game, you are going to come up against difficult and unavoidable battles from time to time. You can tot up the hours all you like, but that alone is no guarantee of quality, and in any case I've played DA:O nearly 4 times now, which adds up to more hours than I should feel comfortable about spending on one computer game (although my mate tells me he's spent 2000+ hrs on World of Warcraft). It's 3 times on 360, about 3/4 of the way through on PC on hard, which really adds another dimension to the game as the AI uses its skills and talents much more. Last time I played on PC I was getting my arse handed to me by Loghain and his War Cry. Thing is, I know if I beat him and let him off he'll join my party but become a bit of a pussy really, so why is he so hard to beat in the one-on-one?

Anyway, writing off a game like that after a mere 10 hours simply doesn't cut the mustard for me I'm afraid. Try harder or admit it's not your kind of game and move on! It's probably worth playing it once on casual just to learn how to play it, then again to build a decent character, find decent armour sets and so on, once you know how it all works and how to get the bonuses from your team.

[Dan Howdle]

I agree with everything Havant just said - I too have completed the game several times, plus the small fact that I wrote the DA review in 360 at the time.

Oblivion is great, but it's precisely the lack of focus which you seem to consider a plus point that edges DA slightly over its head for me. DA has a resoundingly superior narrative with far fewer places to go, admittedly, but as a result far less dead time, less identikit voices and less bloomin' cat-people.

I lost count of the hours I spent just wandering aimlessly in Oblivion, attempting to figure out how to get to some burrowed-away spot set into the side of a mountain, places where in an attempt to reach, my character was able to walk up slightly steep bits of hill, just not the slightly steeper bits with the invisible walls. Is this true freedom? Would a game featuring an infinite carpark to explore be any better for it? No, it's just a car park; it has a couple of Fiat Uno's, a Pay & Display machine and a shopping trolley.

On the subject of scores, I like the five star system. As has been pointed out earlier on in this thread, it causes people to read the words and to be honest, if I could truly have my way, I'd do away with scores altogether. If our text doesn't at least help our readers a little in deciding whether game X is for them then, let's be frank here, we're shite at our jobs.

I don't know if you noticed, but the 'Average' score no longer exists - check the opening reviews spread in any of the last two issues. This means there is absolutely no way to sit on the fence. Can't think of any other mag that does that, but it's been designed to save you any and all banal 'Mixed bag' type bollocks and to force our writers to have to go one way or the other.

We try to put enough personality into each article that you understand what kind of person each of the writers is and can either identify with them or not, but everything you need should be there.

[Havantgottaclue]

I'd forgotten you'd written the review for Dragon Age in 360 - I had it in the back of my mind that Sam wrote it. Did he do the review for Awakenings? (another excellent review).

Anyway, thanks mate. I had a hell of a lot of fun with that game and it has really taken my interest in RPGs to a much higher level. And it was almost entirely because of the praise in your review and in the preview that I bought the game in the first place.

[Dan Howdle]

Yay! Win!

That's awesome, I'm really glad so many other people love DA as much as me. Literally cannot wait for DA2.