Turbo Boss Battle! Daily Gaming. Daily Exploding Shotgun Shells.

A New Review System Approaches!

crafted by: Paul

If there is one area in the realm of writing about video games that is always under debate is the manner in which games are reviewed. It used to be that a magazine could just slap a score (or 3 or 4, thanks EGM) on a game and call it quits, but in the internet age the notion of a number-less review has gained much more credibility.

We've been doing reviews in the titular theme of our site, staging "boss battles" between games and writers. While that approach was fun, it was often hard to sum up a game's review in one fantastical sentence, so we've decided to shake it up a little.

In an age of GameStops and Amazons and Cheap Ass Gamers, a game's price is easily determined and highly fluctuating, meaning that a game's price (new or used!) is just as important to a purchase as a good review. Taking this idea, we will be rating new games on the scale of it's MSRP. For example, if Halo Reach is a great game, truly worthy of your spending $60 on, we'll give it a $60/$60. If it blows, on the other hand, we'll rate it appropriate to what price we'd pay to pick it up (so, say, $25/$60). If it's not worth buying or playing ever, it gets a Final Fantasy X/$60. Just kidding! A TURKEY/$60. Keep in mind that we are telling you what we think the game is worth, so this may mean in rare cases that we think a game is actually worth more than the MSRP. In situations like that, likely a downloadable or budget game, you may see a score of $15/$10. Don't forget, these are OUR opinions, but at the same time, we have YOUR money in mind.

We're using this scale to bring some quantitative measurement to our reviews, but also because we think it is a useful scale for real gamers, like us, who don't have a ton of money to spend on games. We're also brewing some more review tools for use down the line that take our system a few steps farther.

So look for our inaugural review using this system soon. It's Final Fantasy XIII!

Image: MaccaMacca91 - DeviantArt