How accurate are reviews in your opinion?

[Legend]

When you look at aggregate scores for games, movies, and shows do they feel accurate to you? Doesn't matter if you personally liked or disliked the thing, just matters if the ranking seems reasonable.

For example Wish is now tied for Disney Animation's lowest metacritic ever, yet surely it can't be that much worse than Frozen 2 and Strange World? Those got a ~65 yet Wish is at 48.

Or another example, no way is Halo Infinite an 87. It has a 68% rating on steam lol and that's from fans.

[kitler53]

I've never thought reviews have ever been all that "fair".  

Nintendo is too high.  exclusives in general sky too high except for a few that get punished and go too low.  

I don't pay attention to movies much but I'm sure it's the same.   a dud from Nolan probably gets better score than an amazing movie from a no-name.  

their is bias.

[the-pi-guy]

Relatively.

A lot of people don't like review scores at all, and yet are still obsessed with it.   


I don't view them as concrete quality numbers.

Game X has a 98 on MC, I don't view that as automatically meaning it's the greatest game ever or that the game is a 98 quality wise. It means that a group of people really liked the experience.

Or another example, no way is Halo Infinite an 87. It has a 68% rating on steam lol and that's from fans.

Counterpoint:
Steam Halo Infinite page

Reviews in the November:
69,752 positive and 17,388   (69,752 / (69,752 + 17388) = 80% => same score as the PC metacritic for Halo Infinite).  Coincidence? Probably.


There's some weirdness in here that Steam only uses positive/negative scoring, whereas Metacritic is using scaled reviews.

[BananaKing]

Sometimes I feel they are spot on.

Exclusives sometimes get a 5+ point bump

Nintendo is treated on another scale, they get free passes and their games would review 10 -20 points lower if they were released by third party

[Legend]

Counterpoint:
Steam Halo Infinite page

Reviews in the November:
69,752 positive and 17,388   (69,752 / (69,752 + 17388) = 80% => same score as the PC metacritic for Halo Infinite).  Coincidence? Probably.


There's some weirdness in here that Steam only uses positive/negative scoring, whereas Metacritic is using scaled reviews.

I was focused on campaign reviews since those should be more static but huh, those were also ~80% at launch lol.

Guess everyone was too hopeful back then. (I know my opinion upon first finishing it was a lot more positive than it was a week later)

Relatively.

A lot of people don't like review scores at all, and yet are still obsessed with it.  


I don't view them as concrete quality numbers.

Game X has a 98 on MC, I don't view that as automatically meaning it's the greatest game ever or that the game is a 98 quality wise. It means that a group of people really liked the experience.

I think individual reviewers are great because you can learn their preferences/biases and adjust accordingly, but I think aggregates like meta are just all over the place.

Worst I know of is Rainworld. 94% positive on Steam yet only 66 on Metacritic.