Scoring Policy

Why we use scores

At XboxEra, we love games. Reviewing titles is one of the best things we can do for our readers and our community, because it helps you directly on deciding whether you should spend money or bandwidth when deciding what to play.

Depending on the game and it’s scope, will also have an effect on the size and scale of our review. We provide both written and video reviews, so that aside from our opinion, you can also check out some direct gameplay capture.

The overall verdict and score is arguably less important than the full written content of the review. However, attaching a score and a list of likes/dislikes allows our community to get a quick summary of our thoughts on any particular game.

Scores assigned by our individual reviewers are their personal choices based on their tastes, preferences and judgement. They are not a uniformed view of the entire staff, and as such there’s no reason to compare different staff members’ scores given to comparable products.

Our Review Scale

At XboxEra, we strive to utilise the full review scale, as opposed to the general mantra of “anything below a 7 sucks!”. We do our very best to pair games to team members that are fans of the genre or series, in order to ensure it’s being viewed from a place of experience.

As we grow, we hope to improve our relationship with the plethora of publishers, PR firms and indie developers out there to get access to a greater breadth of content.
In instances where we have that existing relationship and can obtain early access to review code, we’ll be there day and date. Where we have to buy the game ourselves, we might be a little later, but we’ll still endeavour to produce content that is worthwhile to our community.

We encourage you to follow our team members on Twitter and the forums and get to know them.

Scoring Gradients/Details

10. “MASTERPIECE”
    A ‘must play’. While perfection may never be truly obtainable, games that earn what is effectively a perfect score are shining examples of the medium.

9. “UNMISSABLE”
   An earnest recommendation from the reviewer, these games should be adding to your likely ever growing backlog at the earliest opportunity.

8. “AWESOME”
   You’re hardly making any mistake buying this one. It may not win our game of the year award, but it’s definitely a fun ride.

7. ”GREAT”
   A title that shows a lot of promise and is generally fun, but various questionable design choices make it hard to wholeheartedly recommend.

6. “GOOD”
   Games with good or even great structure or gameplay elements, but are hampered by significant flaws.

5. “AVERAGE”
   All that one might expect from a game of this genre, and nothing more.

4. “POOR”
   This title bare meets an acceptable standard for the genre, and is at least, playable from start the finish. Uninspiring.

3. “BAD”
   There’s an idea here somewhere. Alas, it’s lost in a sea of bad design, bad art and bad gameplay.

2. “TERRIBLE”
   It runs (barely), but you’re not so sure why you’re even bothering at this point.

1. “ABSOLUTE DISASTER”
   No redeeming factors whatsoever. Broken to the core, no artistic value at all, practically unplayable; even when it works it’s just not fun, much less worth your time and money.