It isn’t the be all and end all to review something or see a review of something. It doesn’t impact your overall enjoyment of a game, movie, or TV show, to see one single review or all the reviews of a said specific piece of entertainment. Though it is being treated as such in some extreme cases, as it was with GameSpot’s (2013) Grand Theft Auto 5 review; when a petition was started to fire Carolyn Petit. This was as a result of a number not being what the readers had expected, instead, presuming the reviewer’s number was wrong, a day before the release and before they themselves had played it at all.

The ‘culture‘ to lambast a review score isn’t something new either, some citing other reviews by Ms. Petit as an example of prejudice towards specific types of games. Primarily things such as the review of Gone Home by Carolyn was the number one example given as this was graced with a 9.5 vs Grand Theft Auto 5‘s 9 out of 10. Ignoring the substance of the review to focus on the numbers thereof, it isn’t new and it will not die.

I could go into the hysteria surrounding the sale of Grand Theft Auto 5 and how in Australia it is legally classified next to shooting black tar heroin into a child’s eyeball. Though, I won’t because that’s not my point today. The reason I’m here is the growing trend I’m seeing of players ignoring reviewers, or at the very least ignoring the overall scores, and bucking the trends of following the perfect tens. At least it seems this way.

Over this last week, I have been periodically checking local stores for Bethesda’s Rage 2 since its release last week. While there are reports stating the sales are down from the original, the price also dropped (briefly), and shelves have been cleared. As I’ve said, I have checked several days over the last week and never once have I seen a physical copy on shelves. On day one, the UK’s Currys & PC World dropped ten pounds from the release price, while the PlayStation 4 exclusive Days Gone which released late April is fully stocked.

It is important to mention that Rage 2 isn’t stocked in a local Walmart under the Xbox One banner; exclusively for the PS4. Another retailer doesn’t stock either copy of the game, at all. The former of the two stores has Rage 2 at a largely decreased thirty-nine or thirty-eight dollar mark for it’s sold out shelf of PS4 copies. Meanwhile, the aforementioned Days Gone sits atop the PS4 shelves at a forty-nine dollar markup and fully stocked. It seems the days of predicting what players will buy via the reviews and review scores have ended.

To make a point towards my previous article on retail purchases, it is often cheaper and better for you to buy physical. Though this is the endless downfall for opting to buy physical over digital: A lack of units to suffice for the demographic’s demand. Of course, the upside of this unpredictability of purchases and confusion over the supply and demand is an oversupply of games. Presently there is still a surplus of Resident Evil 7, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, and Sonic Mania Plus at my local Walmart; all of which are twenty to twenty-five dollars. Then, of course, the Switch games include Mario Kart 8, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, Super Mario Odyssey, and Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and they’re all 2017 releases.

To go back to the reviews, one can’t deny enjoying games that have been panned, or at the very least, have been mixed on the review side. One of the closest games to get close to the “movie tie-in” title held by Spider-Man 2 was 2015’s Mad Max. It was a fun game and very pleasing movie from the previous year. If anything, we are using the quantified numbers of a review score to validate our own support or distaste of games we want to enjoy or loathe.

As someone writing reviews, I find the number to be the least appealing part and thus, I leave it until I’ve completed the review; then actively try to quantify that into a single number. Two of my lowest rated reviews on this site, Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission and Snooker Nation Championship have 0.7 of a score between them; they are wildly different games, however, they are similar in how niche they are to the general gaming public. I don’t think either game is as “bad,” as IGN editor Jon Ryan seemed to think, as Homefront: The Revolution, though non-fans of the respective niche’s would generalize their scores down to a 5 or a 6.

My ultimate point is: Don’t get hung up on a review score. When looking for reviews, I try to find people I would agree with a majority of the time anyway, I don’t go looking for “wrong” scores. I’d suggest looking for reviewers you know enjoys similar movies, books, tv shows, and games to yourself. Otherwise, you are looking for arguments.

This also means that if you think something is a great game, that doesn’t mean everyone else has to like it. To make my point clear on this, Gone Home which is to Carolyn is 0.5 of a rating higher than Grand Theft Auto 5 is a game I’ve stated that I enjoy immensely. Just the same as how I could still enjoy Doom, Dark Souls, and Sonic Mania. You don’t have to like everything that is given a perfect 10.

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