I find that for the most part reviews are quite bloated and as such my reviews are quite brief. My reviews generally include some basic details about the game including its original release date, developer, genre and any multi player options, it will then will have brief summaries of why you should buy the game and then why you should not buy it.
The rating system is two-fold, the first rating given is one of the following
BUY: This means that unless you hate this genre of game or have no need for the item then you should buy it
CONSIDER: This means if it is a full price game if possible you should rent it rather than buy the game, and if an XBLA title then you should download the trial first (which is good practice anyway). If an accessory then this means you are probably best to shop around first to pick up the best bargain unless you know you will use the accesory a lot.
AVOID: Simply put the game is so bad you should not even consider renting it unless you are desperate for the Gamerscore, and if an accessory it means there is little if any point to buying it.
As I am aware that people like numerical ratings, I will also include a numerical rating out of 10 after each recommendation a Buy is automatically at least an 8/10, a Consider is a 6 or 7/10 and an Avoid is anything less than 6.
I come to my ratings for games keeping the following factors in mind in addition to the most important factor is the game fun to play:
GRAPHICS & SOUND: These are evaluated subjectively on the basis of the genre the game is in and how important they are in that genre of game. So while a puzzle game may have worse graphics and sound than a FPS as the quality of graphics and sound in a puzzle game is less important to a puzzle game it will have less of an impact on the score unless particularly good or bad
USER FRIENDLINESS: This covers things like how easy it is to learn the controls, and also how the menu and save system have been implemented.
PRICE: If the game being reviewed is particulary cheap or expensive then that will influence the rating it is given
HOW IT COMPARES TO SIMILAR GAMES: If there are lots of games in the genre then this will have more of an impact than if there are only 1 or 2.
FEATURES: This does not just cover what the game contains but also what it lacks given the genre it is in so if a game lacks features that it should include it will get marked down.
There is also another “bonus” category that some Games and XBLA titles will be “honoured” with with in addition to Buy, Consider, and Avoid
Shamertag Worthy: These games have some aspect about them that makes it worthy of shame to have it on your gamertag or the developers/producers should be ashamed of it for some reasons. All games classed as avoids will automatically be played by the Shamertag. As occasional pieces of “shameful” DLC can belong to otherwise good games e.g. Oblivion and the horse armour DLC, DLC will not be assessed by the Shamertag though games with an abundance of “shameful” DLC can have it retrospectively added to them.
A game does not necessarily have to be bad however to be played by the Shamertag, and some games classed as Buy could also be classed as Shamertag worthy if for example cheats are sold as DLC (e.g. Need for Speed Games), or they have ridiculously easy to get achievement points (e.g. Avatar). It may also be that they lack a feature that you would expect to be included, or be stupidly hard. It may also be that they are just embarrassing to have played if you don’t fall into a certain demographic category, e.g. My Horse and Me 2. All games classed as Shamertag worthy will have the reasons for this “achievement” disclosed in full if they are not classed as Avoid.
