What Our Review Scores Mean

[Jimothy Sterling]

What Our Review Scores Mean

A brief explanation of The Escapist's five-star review scale.

Read Full Article

 

[Pink Gregory]

So you're the new reviews editor, Jim?

Will you be writing any?

 

[Amaror]

Sounds reasonable. If you could now get your reviewers to use it (I am looking at you, Greg) that would be pretty great.

Edit: Ok, NOW i get it. Well i wish you good luck, jim. This site is most certainly not known for it's great reviews. I wish you well on your quest to change that.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

The Escapist just got a hell of a lot more sexy.


Thank god for you Jim, may your glorious reign of sexy terror never end.

 

[Weresquirrel]

Welcome aboard, Jim. I look forward to crying incessantly about poor reviews for games I like, and good reviews for games I have an inexplicable grudge against. I will also relish the opportunity to cast accusations of bribery/corruption your way.

 

[Drummodino]

I called it the minute you left Destructoid Jim! This makes me very happy, your reviews are one of the few I actually pay attention to.

Thank God for Jim.

 

[Weaver]

I shall work tirelessly to have The Escapist counted among the most harsh -- but the most fair -- review outlets in the industry.

Oh God yes! I'd love for this site to gain that reputation. I've seen people dismiss this sites reviews in the past, but no more!

Welcome to the helm, Jim. May you guide us well.

 

[Flatfrog]

That's very exciting - Jim is in many respects Da Man. Although given his willingness to criticise games on the basis of their content as well as their technical achievement, I foresee great wailings and gnashings of teeth in the future.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Hmm when I heard Jim was becoming the reviews editor I assumed the review scoring system would change to some kind of mentally scarring dildo themed scale... but you know I guess these stars are good too. Welcome aboard Jim.

 

[Able Seacat]

I hate you for the things you do. I want your head on a spike. You should be fired, you hypocrite. You are full of unfair bias and I can't even imagine how much publishers pay you off.

Congrats Mr. Sterling! I look forward to reading your reviews here

 

[medv4380]

The dreaded half start isn't the bottom.
The half start is 1 out of 10.
Zero stars is the bottom.
I'd define it as.
Unplayable. Game fails to install, or has game breaking bugs. The game might be perfectly fine, but the bugs prevent the critic, or player from ever finding out.

 

[hpriamson]

I wish every rating had a Decepticon example.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Looks like a damn good scale at first glance. The "Games as Decepticon", particularly so.

And obviously, thank God for you, Jim.

 

[Calibanbutcher]

The dreaded half start isn't the bottom.
The half start is 1 out of 10.
Zero stars is the bottom.
I'd define it as.
Unplayable. Game fails to install, or has game breaking bugs. The game might be perfectly fine, but the bugs prevent the critic, or player from ever finding out.

"The game made my PC come to live, eat my puppy, drink my beer and puke in my fridge before attempting to mate with the printer and enslave humanity. 0 stars.

I shall raise my champagne filled high-heel vodka-filled skull to your sexy reign of terror Jim. May the gross-sex-stuff be with you.

 

[Teoes]

Hopefully this'll start to get it through certain skulls that 3.5 stars =/= 70%. This is not a linear scale in that sense. That they should read the text of the review rather than focusing solely on the number at the bottom.


..who am I kidding?

 

[cynicalsaint1]

Hopefully this'll start to get it through certain skulls that 3.5 stars =/= 70%. This is not a linear scale in that sense. That they should read the text of the review rather than focusing solely on the number at the bottom.


..who am I kidding?

Yeah ... try telling that to Metacritic ...

 

[Phrozenflame500]

Hopefully this'll start to get it through certain skulls that 3.5 stars =/= 70%. This is not a linear scale in that sense. That they should read the text of the review rather than focusing solely on the number at the bottom.

Well 70% isn't bad, it's pretty far above average.

It's just that people still use the grade-school system in critiques and consider anything <80 as bad, which is really dumb.

 

[Namechangeday]

I was wondering when I should congratulate you, so I will congratulate you now.
Congrats on your somewhat new job!

 

[Goliath100]

I'm disappointed in you Jimmy (ok, you did probably not have much to do with this rating or that much power. The "average" should be the equivalent to "technical perfect".