I am going to jump in here and say my method is kind of a scale of how much I enjoy a game. It isnt so much about negative points or positive points its just how much did I enjoy it, how much will I remember this game for years to come. Its just a feeling for me, the feeling of being totally satisfied with the game experience.
Yoda, the video review was perfect for Starcraft. I mean -- where do you start, as a writing exercise, with a game with that much depth?
I give tens to a game when I cannot come up with any faults in a game.
Like you, I start at ten and then take and add points as I go through the experience. So I may take off a point for a technical glitch, but then in reflection add points for originality, creative themes, technical mastery. It's not a formal process, but something I think about after I have beaten a game.
So LA Noire had a single gameplay issue that was kind of annoying, but in terms of it's ambition, theme, technical mastery, dialog and character development it gets a lot of bonus points.
A game like Paper Mario or Red Dead Redemption started out perfect and never did anything along the way to lose points. Do I have ideas as to how they could have made changes that I consider better - yes, but that is neither here nor there because I am not a game director and I did not make the game (I don;t have enough available information to judge their creative or technical choices).
It is almost impossible for a sequel to get a ten out of me, unless they have done something dramatically different in terms of technical skill.
I give tens to a game when I cannot come up with any faults in a game.
Like you, I start at ten and then take and add points as I go through the experience. So I may take off a point for a technical glitch, but then in reflection add points for originality, creative themes, technical mastery. It's not a formal process, but something I think about after I have beaten a game.
So LA Noire had a single gameplay issue that was kind of annoying, but in terms of it's ambition, theme, technical mastery, dialog and character development it gets a lot of bonus points.
A game like Paper Mario or Red Dead Redemption started out perfect and never did anything along the way to lose points. Do I have ideas as to how they could have made changes that I consider better - yes, but that is neither here nor there because I am not a game director and I did not make the game (I don;t have enough available information to judge their creative or technical choices).
It is almost impossible for a sequel to get a ten out of me, unless they have done something dramatically different in terms of technical skill.