The Review Scoring System

There are lots of game review sites out there. Most of them all follow one basic scoring formula; they score different game elements on a scale of one to ten, and then give the game a final score on a scale of one to ten. That's basic enough, and it makes enough sense, but I've found that often the final score reflects the reviewer's personal opinion rather than how good the game actually is. Well, I’ve come up with a review system that I think will be more accurate than any other and it will filter out opinionism (don’t tell me that’s not a real word, I already know) as much as possible. Here's how it works.
Before I review a game, I will select all the gaming elements that I think apply to that particular game. For example, the main game elements of an adventure game probably would be sound, graphics, presentation, story and gameplay. In racing games, there usually isn't much of a story, so that element would be removed. In a very simple game like Brain Age, the graphics element may be removed as well.
When I have determined what all of the elements in the game I'm reviewing are, I will divide 100 by the number of elements. So if there are five different game elements, I will divide 100 by five, which gives me twenty. That is the max number of marks that can be given to each element. I will try to accurately score each element on a scale of one to twenty. I will then add up all the scores, and the sum will be the game's final score.
So let’s say I'm reviewing a game, and I give the sound 7/20, graphics 14/20, presentation 17/20, story 19/20 and gameplay 17/20. To determine the final score, I will add 7 (sound), 14 (graphics), 17 (presentation), 19 (story), and 17 (gameplay). The sum of this is 74, therefore the game's final score is 74/100, or 7.4/10. Without bragging, I think this is probably the most accurate rating system out there.

There is another element I will include in my reviews, and that is casual/hardcore appeal. This does not affect the game’s final score. This just simply shows how attractive a game might be to casual or hardcore gamers. When I determine a game I rate to have a 7/3 casual/hardcore appeal, this means the game is more suited to casual gamers. When I determine a game I rate to have a 2/8 casual/hardcore appeal, this means the game is much more suited to hardcore gamers. When I determine a game I rate to have a 5/5 casual/hardcore appeal, this means the game will be equally appealing to both types of gamers.

There are two special rankings that can be awarded to certain games. One is the Instant Classic ranking. This can be awarded to DS and Wii games. These are brilliant games that people will be talking about for many years to come and will never leave the players' memory. The other special ranking is the True Classic. This can only be awarded to Virtual Console games. True Classic games are games that completely new gamers can pick up for the first time and have just as much fun with them as gamers had with them back when they were new.

Now you may be wondering about the game comparison system. (Or maybe you’re not, but that’s just too bad, because I’m going to tell you about it anyway.) It's pretty simple. Instead of trying to make a long explanation before I show the example, I'm going to make an example first this time.

(One game title here) vs. (Other game title here)
W -------------- Graphics ---------------- L
L -------------- Gameplay --------------- W
T ----------------- Story ------------------ T

As you probably guessed, W stands for win, L stands for loss and T stands for tie. After I've gone through all the categories, the game that won the most categories wins the comparison.

So, those are my rating methods. As I said before, I am not trying to carbon copy any other game site; I'm trying to make something new and unique that actually might make some people come here. I think the game scoring system I made is more accurate than most other systems, and the comparison system will work well. I look forward to actually adding some real content in the coming days. I would like to hear some people's opinions about my system, so please leave a comment.