2011 Perfect Scores Breakdown

I dont know how many of the N4G users have counted this year's perfect scores but let me tell you, Uncharted 3 has the highest number of perfect scores this year. Let me give you all this year's breakdown:-

Note:-All these reviews are N4G reviews, no extra review is considered.

1.Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Total Reviews: 360
Non score reviews(-):31
Net Reviews:329
Perfect Scores:144
P.S. Ratio:144/329=43.77%

2.The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Total Reviews: 121
Non score reviews(-):13
Net Reviews:108
Perfect Scores:47
P.S. Ratio:47/108=43.52%

3.The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Total Reviews: 300
Non score reviews(-):32
Net Reviews:268
Perfect Scores:116
P.S. Ratio:116/268=43.28%

4.Batman: Arkham City
Total Reviews: 312
Non score reviews(-):37
Net Reviews:275
Perfect Scores:108
P.S. Ratio:108/275=39.27%

5.Portal 2
Total Reviews: 333
Non score reviews(-):41
Net Reviews:292
Perfect Scores:104
P.S. Ratio:104/292=35.61%

As you all can see, Uncharted 3 leads as far as the review scores are concerned. Many people here are making a point that Uncharted 3 has a lot of reviews with random sites giving out perfect scores. So now as you all can see, even Skyrim and Arkham City have around 300 review scores, so all those random sites have reviewed these games too, but still they couldn't top Uncharted 3 in perfect scores.

[Emilio_Estevez]

Interesting, but the new zeldas score will prolly change.

[darthv72]

how much these score really reflect on the perceived value of the number. So many perfects handed out this entire console generation more than any other prior. Im betting that if we added all the perfects up from previous gens they would NEVER equate to the travesty that is happening now.

Yes I do mean travesty. Its like anyone and everyone can set up a blog and rate a game and score it up or down depending on their agenda as opposed to the real meat of the game. You cant deny there are those out there who would rather inflate a games score more than play it. Same with those who would trash a game because they have no desire to play it.

Bottom line, why in the hell did we even break away from what matters most? The game. We became so fixated on a number handed out by someone we dont even know and if it doesnt jive with our own personal opinion then the torches and pitchforks come out.

seriously, the only scores that should matter is what you get from beating enemies or shooting down spaceships within the game. Play the games not the numbers.

[Alos88]

Anyone else more interested by the fact that Skyward Sword has far, far less total reviews than any of the others?

[Pozzle]

It's probably because the game hasn't been released yet. A lot of sites don't get pre release copies, and have to wait until the release date to play the game.

[LightofDarkness]

Uncharted 3 may have more 10s per capita, but I definitely feel like Skyrim is the better game, despite its flaws. My pick for GOTY.

[Foxton01]

agree with you. Uncharted 3 might have the story of the century, but it is still a game i can only play through twice. Once on hard, Once on crushing. I am not interested in the multiplayer at all.
Skyrim i can pretty much play for 200 hours as a warrior and then 200 again as a rogue or mage, as i've done with morrowind, oblivion and both fallouts before it. So definate GOTY for me too. (50 hours into skyrim atm, not done with main story)

[PhantomTommy]

Uncharted 3, story of the century?.....really?

[Foxton01]

nah i didn't mean it literally. Just that no matter how good the story is, it is still a short game for me.

[kramun]

And after all that data and calculation I still prefer Skyrim.

[coolbeans]

This is kind of ironic considered what blog is right below this one on the main page-which happen to be mine.

[Ducky]

Yea, I lol'd when I saw that.

[SilentNegotiator]

Except that was about the highest rated games 'unfortunately' getting GOTY awards.

Where's the logic in that, after all? /s

[coolbeans]

If that's the sort of remark to be expected, I think you (and others) are missing the point. I was trying to produce examples [in that blog] about the shallow idea of GOTY's requiring to have the absolute highest score possible to win, when the superfluous amount of quality titles this year can really make it anyone's game; it's not just Skyrim's "award for the taking" because it averages a point or two higher on metacritic. That's not what metacritic is there for. Movie critics can recognize this (look at Social Network falling to King's Speech) to a degree, why can't gamers?

Instead, this blog shows we're heading in...the opposite direction. Let's say this perfect score average chart remains the same, some users will now demand UC3 hold the most GOTY's this year because they arbitrarely show charts like this, rather than looking at the context of the reviews themselves.

[SilentNegotiator]

"If that's the sort of remark to be expected, I think you (and others) are missing the point. I was trying to produce examples [in that blog] about the shallow idea of GOTY's requiring to have the absolute highest score possible to win"

The scores aren't random numbers out of a hat.
People REVIEWED a game that ended up with one of the highest metascores of the year. Statistically, they probably rated it one of the highest that year.

Heaven forbid I bring in logic here, but then why would it be surprising that a lot of sites end up giving that highly rated game their GOTY? Or that users would point out the fact that more people thought one game was better than the other? You're entitled to your opinion, but then so is the majority (of the people who actually played the two).

And yes, if you leave out context of this generation in which we have so many EAs and Cliffy Bs that get angry with publishers for anything less than a 9 (Not to mention publishers REQUIRING and DEMANDING a 7+ to not get blacklisted, like Topware.....oh, and don't forget Gamespot and Kane & Lynch), it seems 'petty' for the difference of 2-3 points of metascores to be seen as significant.

I know it would be convenient for Gears of War 3 to win over Uncharted 3 (for some) just because (as to your complaints of it being more likely for the better scoring game to win - ZOMG! The higher rated game being more likely to win?!?!?). But that darn logic gets in the way. Darn, it's so inconvenient!

"Let's say this perfect score average chart remains the same, some users will now demand UC3 hold the most GOTY's this year because they arbitrarely show charts like this, rather than looking at the context of the reviews themselves"
-
Like I said higher average scores, more GOTY awards. Shocker. Go ahead and bring a microscope to the context of the reviews, a 10 will still be higher praised than a 9, surprisingly.

[coolbeans]

I'm a bit confused as to where I'm disregarding logic. You state something multiple times that I never brought up...ever (I believe). I'm not here to combat against sites awarding their highest scoring game with the GOTY title, and I expect no less for a site to do so since it's their opinion. I seriously fail to see where that part of your arguement is/was going since it branches of into something I'm able to recognize already.

"I know it would be convenient for Gears of War 3 to win over Uncharted 3 (for some) just because (as to your complaints of it being more likely for the better scoring game to win - ZOMG! The higher rated game being more likely to win?!?!?). But that darn logic gets in the way. Darn, it's so inconvenient!"

I'm...sorry? Gears of War 3 was neither posted in this blog or in any of my posts, so I'm not sure what to make of this. I'm beginning to worry this arguement (which could've been good) has actually been wittled down into some petty "compare X and Y exclusive" for no reason whatsoever. If I'm wrong about that insinuation, let me know immediately so I can apologize for misinterpreting that quote.

"Go ahead and bring a microscope to the context of the reviews, a 10 will still be higher praised than a 9, surprisingly."

Are you actually persuading me and viewers that reading the context of a review requires a "microscope" now, metaphorically speaking? In reality, it's completely shallow to think 10's will instantly equal more abundant praise overall (short term and long term) just because of the number behind it (as if 10's mean much anymore). An example like GTA4 should be enough to show that idea is complete BS. You know hardly anything about the quality of the game until you understand the reviewer's perspective.

[SilentNegotiator]

"I'm...sorry? Gears of War 3 was neither posted in this blog or in any of my posts, so I'm not sure what to make of this"

The "three times as likely" comment in the blog you mentioned a comment ago. And how horrible it is that people use Metascores to rank games.

[coolbeans]

That "missing the point" part out in my other reply turned out to be true. You're taking that part out of context. The reason I introduced Gears 3 was not to combat review sites, but rather the average n4g users' flawed perception of the entire matter. I thought that was blatantly clear when I moved on from that game to a few others in my next part of the blog.

I'm sure you saw that Twitter post from SCEA about UC3's score at one point. Something along the lines of "UC3 has a 93 metacritic-which I find to be a much better game than Gears 3" (<paraphrasing). You see, whomever that was combined two detached statements and combine them into obvious "trollbait" you'd see here on n4g (or any other site).

"How horrible it is to use metacritic scores"?

Sigh...I figured the more I responded, the more of a waste of time it was to start arguing in the first place. I even recognize in the comment section of my blog that I'm not against having a popular grade pool where consumers can get the perspective of over 100 game critics (depending how long after release) in one area.

For the sake of letting me know if I'm still wasting my time: If any, tell me what ulterior motives I had/have for that blog in your eyes? Because the annoying, sarcastic sentences are getting really annoying, while falsely representing me.

[StraightPath]

where are you getting this this information from? the amount of reviews? from N4G?

[Ezio2048]

mate i apparently aggregate all the reviews from our beloved site, N4G.
if you think its fake, please confirm yourself!!!

i am just providing you the facts. Amen!

[C_Menz]

I find it sad that there are so many "Perfect" or 10/10 reviews this year. I have not played a game this year that is worth a perfect score.

Now does that mean that they are bad? No, but there is nothing wrong with 7/8/9 out of 10 in my mind. Personally I would give Uncharted 3-9, BF3-8, Skyrim-9, AC:R-7, Batman-8, Portal 2-7, Witcher 2-9.5

It's a shame that if a game gets under a 9 sometimes people bitch and complain. The closest game(as per my scores above) that I played this year that I think deserves a 10(and I gave it a 9.5) would be The Witcher 2. Flawless game outside of a few problems with attacking multiple enemies at some points in the game. Hopefully when it finally comes to consoles people will realize how good of a game it is.

[wingman32x]

I hold a similar opinion. I don't think a 10/10 means much anymore. Back in the 64/PS1 days, very few games recieved 10's. The only ones that come to mind are OoT and FFVII. There were a ton of good games during that era, too. Yet reviewers always found at least one reason to deny the game a perfect score. Back then, an 8/10 was an accomplishment. It signified that consumers were buying a great game.

With all that being said, it's sad to see people handing out 10's like candy. A 10 used to make an emphatic statement about a game. A 10/10 used to make a game a Game of the Decade contender. Now you need a bunch of them to even be looked at for GOTY.

In short, I think the 10/10 has lost a lot of its luster. Some of that has to do with the advent of the internet, and how many online only publications there are now, but it makes me sad when multiple games get the perfect score every year. It's sad that the 8/10 score that used to be a great thing, is now considered a veiled insult. Sorry for ranting, but I've been waiting for an opportunity to rant about this lol.

[bozebo]

:o

I said pretty much the same thing down below :P

I've yet to properly play through TW2 because I want a new graphics card to appreciate it in its fullest. My GTX280 is doing nicely but it does struggle at times and a game that focusses on graphics that much deserves to be played in it's full glory.

Though, there are a few quality problems with it; but for a small studio they have done extremely well, especially compared to the likes of Skyrim.

Here's a thought. If a reviewer gives one of these decent modern games a 10/10, then a genuine masterpeice comes out... And the reviewer is gobsmacked by how amazing said masterpiece is - how do they show that in the review score?... Exactly. lol

Some of the best games I have played this year are indie titles to be honest. Though they don't have as much lasting effect as big budget titles. Technically minecraft launched 11/11/11..... I have had more fun in MC than any other game since CoD4. There are MMO servers with big player made cities, and you can go and make your own mansion :O how awesome is that? lol

IMHO, Skyrim GOTY by a longshot. But it doesn't deserve 10/10, it has so many blatant flaws. Though in some senses, it did everything Bethesda set out to achieve; so it's perfect in that regard. A true 10/10 game is one that will change your outlook on life forever in my opinion...

[Tuxedo_Mask]

I'm curious, if all of these games had gotten scores in the average of 80, and a game like Carnival Games got an average of 95, would you still think they were better games compared to Carnival Games, or would you let scores tell you what to think?

I have Skyrim, and I think it's great, but I don't need a review score to tell me that. I plan on getting Arkham City too on Black Friday for $28(note:"plan on") but only because I'm interested in it based on what I've seen not because of the score it received. I'm also getting Skyward Sword, but I had already planned on that before review scores even popped up for it.

As for Portal 2 and Uncharted 3, I'm not interested. Portal was fun in the Orange Box, but I wouldn't buy a whole game version of it. As for Uncharted 3, I never played the first two, so I'm not interested.

Review scores have no effect on my choice of games or anything else. I don't need the opinions of people I don't even know to decide how I spend my money or tell me what games are good or not, I make those decisions for myself.

As for "Game of the Year", there are so many of them every year that it seems like a made up title to me. Check the stores to see how many "Game of the Year Edition" titles there are, because there are more than one every year. I know different publications have different winners, but do we have multiple "Champions of the Year" for sports or other competitions? For some games it just seems like an excuse to release the same game again with all the DLC included in order to garner more sales.

[bozebo]

Nice comment. Much sense was made here :P

"Portal was fun in the Orange Box, but I wouldn't buy a whole game version of it."
I did, and was massively dissapointed. It was clearly made just to grab a load of cash quickly and provide some light entertainment. Same goes for L4D2... Silly Valve jumping on the cash-cow bandwagon :(

I mean, they were in no way bad. But... they just didn't do it for me. The guns in L4D2 felt horrible compared to L4D, they probably assigned a different team to it and moved the awesome guys over to something they care about like HL3 or CS:GO. Valve are normally "aware" of the player's presence in the game, they are masters of transparent narrative - but L4D2 and Portal 2 didn't have that extra special something. Everyone I know thought Portal 2 was so good because it was funny... yet the puzzle gameplay itself was over simplified, people didn't seem to notice.

[bobrea]

Being up in the PS ratio by only a few percent points is hardly "dominating."

[Capt-FuzzyPants]

Actually I think after there are some more reviews Skward Sword could go up. It could go either way really.

[Ezio2048]

I know perfect scores do not determine the GOTY results, this is just for users to get a better view of the current review scenario..........i would say each of the top 5 games-UC3, Arkham City, Portal 2, Skyrim, and Skyward Sword, all are awesome games...........just waiting for GOTY awards to start....I will be updating this post regularly

[bozebo]

Like review scores mean anything at all anyway :/

The only "perfect" games I can think of are FF7 and OOT. But perhaps that is because they were the first (3D) games to do so many things, meaning everything was new to me when I played them. Though there are other games from that era that I have played for the first time recently and thought "wow, this is so much better than new games!". For example, Tekken 3 plays so much better and smoother than any more recent Tekken, it just "feels" right.

I mean, for a game to genuinely be perfect there must be no way for it to improve on an amazingly good formula. No gameplay flaws, no story holes, compelling characters etc. There are so many gameplay issues with the top 5 reviewed games this year :S Why does UC3 have the most reviews when 3 of those games are multiplat? Probably PS3 fans overrating because it is the central game on the platform. Not that the 360 has anything going for it atm lol.

What I do like to see though, is that Skyrim is the only one on that list that has any lackings in production quality. UC3 and Portal 2 in particular were flawlessly excecuted from a development standpoint, havn't got my hands on Batman yet - but it's in the Unreal engine so it will have flaws lol.

[rob6021]

I think the amount of perfect scores does make a statement. It means 130 different reviewers almost 44% of them truly believe: "This game is as good as it gets in the video game industry." That is very tough to do, to manage to have that % of critics absolutely love your game.

For those of who equate perfect score with perfect game and that's why perfect scores are so wrong, I think you're just trying to discredit a score and the facts it seems.

[Gam3rSinceBiRTH]

Talk about a giant waste of time. Let me guess, did you add all the random fanboy sites too? Everybody and their grandma reviewed Uncharted 3. I seen some reviews that were just a couple of paragraphs.

I gamed long enough to know which is the better game. I'll pick Skyrim, Batman 2, and Portal 2 over Uncharted 3 any day of the week.

[Pana]

You make it sound as though this guy handpicked Uncharted 3s reviews. He's using EVERY REVIEW for all of these titles, not just Uncharted 3. Obviously as more reviews come out it will change.

Not to mention Skyward Sword has the higher PS ratio.

[Shackdaddy836]

Considering you're saying there's 338 reviews for U3, I assume that you are counting every single website.

I would hardly call this a valid look for any game because a lot of those websites are pretty damned 1-sided. Great info though. I have no clue how you were able to count up/read that many reviews but good work if you're telling the truth.

[CoretteRushton]

I don't want to go to college just for the sake of it, I know I could do a less stressful course but I would feel like I'd be wasting my time.
http://free.yudu.com/item/d...