Video Games

How games are rated

Games are rated by a set of 10 criteria:

• Gameplay - Does the game allow you to have fun or fight against you?
• Elements - Do the features, items, or aspects of the game add to its atmosphere?
• Graphics - How do the graphics (high or low-tech), add to the experience of the game?
• Design - How is the overall aesthetic in the game?
• Pacing - Does the game move at a good pace?
• Originality - Does the game introduce new conventions that aren’t being redone?
• Replay - How soon or often woud I replay this game?
• Enjoyment - Do I have fun playing this game, or is it more of a chore?
• Controls - How easy or fluid are the controls in achieving what needs to be done in the game?
• Immersion - While playing or over a period of time, how immersed am I in the game or storyline?

My rating is the average of the criteria above, scaled to 100. Averaging (rather than summing) keeps it on the same 0–100 scale even as criteria are added or refined over time.

How remakes and remasters are handled

In most cases, remakes and remasters will replace the original game. There may be exceptions to this (the upcoming Resident Evil 4 being a case for this, since the “remake” also introduces new elements). Anything that introduces new gameplay and new areas will be rated as a completely new game.

How the score is built

The percentage you see is my rating plus bonuses that can only ever add points, so nothing I love gets dragged down:

• An acclaim bonus for games with strong Metacritic reception. It rewards critically acclaimed games, but a game the critics were down on is never penalized for it
• An endurance bonus for older games that still hold up — age counts only in proportion to the game’s replay value, so a dated game I wouldn’t replay gains little

That sum is the score: it is the number on every badge, the number that orders this list, and the number on the game’s own page — one figure doing all three jobs. Every game page shows the arithmetic behind its score, so you can see exactly which bonuses it earned. The total is capped at 100, which only two games actually reach.