Halo 4 is only just out and it’s already taking a Metacritic pounding
Joannes Truyens November 6, 2012 - 7:48 pmNews: Halo 4 has just been released to the masses, and some detractors have already taken to the game’s Metacritic page to lambaste it for being boring and derivative.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a game as anticipated as Halo 4 cannot escape the dreaded Metacritic curse, where disgruntled users drag down the user score over the most inane complaints. Halo 4 has only just been released, and it’s already dividing the fanbase right down the middle.
Halo 4′s critical metascore is currently sitting at a very admirable 8.7, but it’s user score is just topping a 4 (it was a low 2 earlier today). This comes from users giving it a solid zero with such well-voiced complaints as “Call of halo if i wanted call of duty that is what i would have bought” and “Halo 4 SUCKS”.
It seems there are more favourable reviews pouring in at the moment, but it doesn’t seem as representative with the scores being either a ten or a zero.
Let’s see whether it normalises in the coming days.
Comments (1)
Ah, review scores. I hate them. They don’t really tell you much and one person who feels the same way about a game may assign a different number or grade to a title. At least with “proper” reviews, you have some degree of control, while opening it up for user reviews can get you some wild results, especially on the higher profile releases.
This game sucks (but I never played it), so I’m gonna give it the lowest score I can. This game isn’t so great, but I’m going to give it a high grade to offset the idiots who scored it low.
When I reviewed albums, the thing I hated most was having to assign a score, which sometimes took as long as it took me to write the review. I think the review itself is what matters, not what kind of score gets attached to it. Metacritic’s aggregate scoring does work, but like with user reviews, a few higher or lower scores can really push the final result somewhere it doesn’t belong.