Metacritic to crack down on phoney user ratings

by Randy Nelson { Nov 5th 2008 at 10:30PM }

Thousands of suspiciously low user ratings for Gears of War 2 were evidently the tipping point for aggregate reviews site Metacritic. With the game averaging in the low- to mid-90% range from various media outlets, just shy of 4,000 user votes have it at a measly 3.5/10 – this before it has even hit shelves.

In this specific case, Metacritic games editor, Marc Doyle, advises visitors to the site to, "focus ... attention on the Metascore for this game and not the thousands of user votes, most of which have been submitted before said users have played the game." Doyle also promised that the site will "post the full legitimate user reviews upon the game's release."

"If people want to stuff the ballot box, there's not much I can do at this point," Doyle said, revealing that, "When we upgrade the registration requirements for participation on the site in the near future, this type of thing won't happen." Haters, you have been warned.

Tags: metacritic, reviews

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

Waunel @ Nov 5th 2008 10:38PM

It may deserve at least 6/10

Dr.Nerd @ Nov 5th 2008 10:40PM

It really needs a 10/10 sheesh...

NoHitHair @ Nov 5th 2008 10:46PM

Reviewers pass out 10/10's and A's like candy.

I'm sure GoW2 is just as groundbreaking, innovative and spectacular as the last groundbreaking, innovative and spectacular game before it.

Hala Madrid!! @ Nov 5th 2008 11:03PM

Your mom deserves at least 4/10, you noob. :p

-10 to hell

Markez @ Nov 5th 2008 11:04PM

Give 'em the nozzle, HALA!!!

Poisoned Al @ Nov 5th 2008 11:11PM

It's all relative anyway. I didn't like the first Gears much (don't ask me why, I just couldn't get into it), so I'm sure my score would be quite low.

Hala Madrid!! @ Nov 5th 2008 11:14PM

@Waunel

┗┫━━　┃　━━┣┛　　┣┫　
　┃　━━━━━　┃　┏┳┫┣┳┓
　┗━━┳━┳━━┛　┃　　　　┃
━━━━┃　┃　　　　┗━┳┳━┛
━━━━┃　┗━━━━━━┛┃ Douche nozzle

There it is Markez.

Nick the Hero of Canton @ Nov 5th 2008 11:47PM

Being someone who loves my 360, am I alone in thinking Gears was extremely overrated? I loved the final act and the game throughout had it's moments, but it was hardly 9/10, 10/10 material. More like a 7 at best. I was really disappointed when I finally got around to playing it.

LordChimp @ Nov 5th 2008 11:54PM

@Nick the Hero of Canton

I agree with you. I thought the first Gears was an 7.5/10 and was highly overrated. It was visually and soundly stunning but everything else just didn't seem right. I haven't played the sequel but it seems they fixed a lot of issues from the first one. I just hate how when you give a game an opinion (like you saying Gears was a 7/10), people need to criticize you and call you out.

Penguin Warlord @ Nov 6th 2008 12:12AM

@ Nick the Hero & Waunel
Gears seemed a lot more impressive when it first came out. Remember it was the first really great game on the 360 with nothing to compare it to. It was also the first to really utilize Unreal Engine 3 to such potential as well as the first really good and functional cover system.

I still think it's a great game but that's just personal experience. I didn't really like GTA IV that much and everyone loved it. Some of it is just taste but you have to keep in mind the context that those reviews were written in.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Nov 6th 2008 3:37AM

I didn't even thing Gears was visually stunning. I was visually overwraught. Everything was incredibly crenellated and lit within an inch of it's life. That wasn't a new level of realism (as some foolishly said) and it wasn't to me particularly stunning either.

The game play was fantastic in spots (some of the spotlight/bats areas), but all in all, the multi-function A button and the try/die/retry gameplay was a huge letdown to me. And on top of that, it was also shorter than I would have liked (the entire last act was ludicrously short, it almost entirely existed of the train). Not to mention the terrible, terrible writing and story.

It was groundbreaking and incredibly influential, but I didn't think it was a fantastic game. I tried to replay it recently and it confirmed my feelings.

I expect a lot more from Gears 2, but after playing Rainbow Six: Vegas and thus seeing a control scheme that actually works for all the same moves, I can't really stand to play with Gears' system anymore.

Jakka @ Nov 6th 2008 7:01AM

"I didn't really like GTA IV that much and everyone loved it."

Yes...they all learned from their mistakes.Now we all acknowledge that SR2 is probably more fun than GTA5 will ever be.

FSK405K @ Nov 6th 2008 7:15AM

I also thought the graphics were not as good as everyone hyped. Then I found the "vivid" setting in the audio/video settings and I was convinced.

The story I also agreed was painfully cliched and poorly acted. Then I finished the game and playing it as a big summer B-rate blockbuster, and I was convinced it could be a lot of fun.

The gameplay was always great, no convincing necessary.

pwnetheus @ Nov 6th 2008 9:30AM

@ Nick & Chimp

It's good to see I'm not the one one thinking that. Although I bought into the hype and was so excited when I first played it, I was extremely disappointed. I'm not saying the game sucked, but it definitely didn't live up to the expectations I had developed based on reviews and word of mouth. Either way, I'm going to rent the 2nd one and give it a chance. Hopefully I enjoy it more.

Vcize @ Nov 6th 2008 10:18AM

Hey douche nozzles, it's all about the multiplayer.

All these comments you guys are coming up with are like saying that MGS4 was overrated because it had average multiplayer, when that's not the reason that everyone loved it.

The freaking game came out TWO YEARS AGO and it's still the #3 or #4 played game on XBL week after week.

Shagittarius @ Nov 6th 2008 11:25AM

OP: Very funny, good job.

I also am one of those who found Gears to be overrated. If it weren't for the Co-op I probably wouldn't have finished the game.

I recognize that I am in the unpopular minority on this one.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Nov 6th 2008 12:23PM

Hey douchenozzle Vcize:
I don't like the multiplayer. To be fair, I don't like the multiplayer on a lot of these 1PS/3PS games.

So do I have your permission to not worship the game now?

Vcize @ Nov 6th 2008 2:46PM

That's all fine and dandy LS2, but people are making comments about the game as a whole when they simply don't fit into the demographic of what made it popular.

If I said I didn't like single player (not true, but as an example), does that mean that I should say that MGS4 was an overrated hunk of garbage since compared to the popularity and critical acclaim of the game, that's what the multiplayer on its own would amount to? Heck no, because I'm sane enough to realize that calling that game as a whole overrated because I don't care about the single player part of it is absurd, since that is the most popular aspect of it.

albinogoldfish @ Nov 5th 2008 10:39PM

I've never voted or checked out metacritic, but why the hell do they allow you to vote on a game that hasn't been released yet?!?!

Aero @ Nov 6th 2008 3:42AM

Seriously. They would stop this instantly if they just stopped user voting until it's release date.
Why haven't they thought of this yet?

Dr.Nerd @ Nov 5th 2008 10:39PM

It really needs a 10/10

Eh @ Nov 6th 2008 12:40AM

I disagree.

CB @ Nov 6th 2008 4:28AM

http://www.blogsmithcdn.com/avatar/images/11/386139_64.jpg

nips @ Nov 6th 2008 10:38AM

So you've played it have you? Giving it a good or bad score is just as bad if you haven't played it.

DMeisterJ @ Nov 5th 2008 10:39PM

Too late it already affected LBP and Gears 2.

But hopefully in time for the next fall of games this is fixed. I don't really care about this, but some people do, so fix it Metacritic!

Doug @ Nov 5th 2008 11:20PM

I was upset with Fallout 3 at 6 before launch. Thank goodness it's back up to 8.

Foetoid @ Nov 6th 2008 2:00AM

It's kinda like the dickheads who get on there simply to rate-down Ocarina of Time. 99% of people on there gave it 9/10 or higher, but then you get some anti-nintendo-fan-noobs who simply hate everything Nintendo and jump on there to give it a 1/10 with the comment being 'this game is crap'. I wish they would moderate comments better.

Sheppy (of the Fidlious Clan of Wong) @ Nov 6th 2008 8:25AM

That's the thing that amuses me most about this story. Or particularly the write up. Gears 2 was the only victim supposedly. Nah, Gears 2 was the most noted victim. The fantarded 360 fanboys struck LBP and Resistance 2 first. I remember seeing the "call to arms" topic in my RSS feed from the Playstation fanboys basically saying "If they bomb these games, let's bomb Gears 2."

It's always amusing to watch these retarded pissing contests.

pwnetheus @ Nov 6th 2008 9:41AM

It would be funny if it were actually bored Nintendo Fanboys doing this to start a war between retarded 360 & PS3 Fanboys. Hmmmm.

macgyver @ Nov 5th 2008 10:41PM

you'll never stop it. it creeps up behind you, slowly sliding up to you as its warm breath raises the hair on the nape of your neck. you'll always feel its cold fingers wrap their slender forms around your face and force you to look it square in the eyes. the chill of its dead glare will forever haunt these blogs we frequent. i'm afraid to say it, but fanboyism is immortal.

Dr.Nerd @ Nov 5th 2008 10:57PM

Next time don't use the weird storylike stuff its weird but I agree.

albinogoldfish @ Nov 5th 2008 11:03PM

..call me crazy...but I think that's what he was going for

Markez @ Nov 5th 2008 10:41PM

Well that's it, I'm immediately going to meta-meta reviewing sites that review meta-reviewing sites and am going to vote give metacritic.com a zero as soon as I can. How dare they suggest that they're going to go after people like me who feel a need to berate all sorts of things I have no real experience with.

How else am I going to supposed to complain across so many mediums and verticals if they cut down on this? How people?

Dr.Nerd @ Nov 5th 2008 10:56PM

I really agree these people are really gay.

Robo Pope @ Nov 6th 2008 3:26PM

Am I the only one who always ignores user reviews, no matter where they are?

Dr.Nerd @ Nov 5th 2008 10:55PM

I'm really just pissed at this really. In my thought GOW2 is the greatest game ever but whoever really thought of this sick idea is really stupid. Heck it didn't even come out yet!!!

Ayrkain @ Nov 5th 2008 10:59PM

Not to suggest that anyone involved is anything less than retarded, but this actually started with people downvoting LittleBigPlanet pre-release. The retaliation went to Gears, then Resistance, then Fable 2. Stupid and pointless, really.

KarlW @ Nov 6th 2008 12:47AM

Don't forget Resistance 2!

Beatz @ Nov 5th 2008 10:57PM

I don't even look at the user ratings when I use metacritic, and I use metacritic alot. I mean, if I want to know how people think a game stacks up, the best place is always Amazon. Metacritic is solely for the pro reviews.

Markez @ Nov 5th 2008 11:00PM

I like looking at the user reviews with write-ups for movies sometimes when I'm about to head to the theaters. Those can really cover the whole spectrum, but you can pick out parts that are worth reading.

Graham Wellington (formerly tyrone washington, or marsha goldberg) @ Nov 5th 2008 11:23PM

me too markez, the user reviews are good for the indie and avant garde stuff. sometimes critics think the most inane avant garde crap is art. and give it a great score, i want a fucking melody in my music! and a movie with more than 5 words of dialogue damn it!