When Did A 7.5 Become Bad?

DeShaun Zollicoffer from Geek Revolt writes "Recently Gamespot gave Infamous 2 a 7.5—this caused a slight uproar among PS3 gamers, a game like Infamous 2 deserves at least a 9, right? From what I’ve played so far, I feel that it deserves a higher score, but that’s not today’s topic. Something that needs to be discussed is gamers getting worked up over review scores, especially ones that fall in-between 7-8."

[gravemaker]

since call of duty gets all 9s

[zeeshan810]

Developers are scared from reviewers. If inFamous got a low score it will impact its sales.

[jazzking2001]

yes

[LOGICWINS]

"If inFamous got a low score it will impact its sales."

Wouldn't you say thats the fault of consumers' "sheepish" mentality rather than the fault of the reviewer?

If a person wants to judge if they will like Infamous 2...they DON'T need reviews or review scores.

Just download Infamous 1 and the Infamous 2 demo on PSN...FREE. If you like this, then buy Infamous 2. Simple.

[SilentNegotiator]

By most reviewers' standards these days, all games are between 6-10.....6 being playable but crap, 10 being great.

Last gen, publishers sometimes even bragged about getting 9s. These days, 10s are handed out like candy.

Thank the internet for becoming mainstream. Now it's all about ad revenue. Give a game a low score, those publishers avoid or even blacklist you. You lose ad revenue, invites to events, content...Reviewers are just plain afraid to give games anything less than an 8.

So.....is a 7.5 "bad"? Well, by many reviewers, it's getting close to the lowest score that they will ever give. But of course, some reviewers still have sense, and a 7.5 by their standards would at least be somewhat above average.

As for Infamous 2? It's scoring about as well as its predecessor. It got a 7.5 from somebody? Boo-hoo.
(Although I personally disagreed with the "points" that Gamespot made, and I personally don't feel that they justified some of their remarks or their score)

[xX TriiCKy Xx]

Totally agree with that. I'm loving every minute that I've played so far with inFamous 1 so I'm most certainly buying 2 on Tuesday.

[Christopher]

In a logical world, that might workd LOGICWINS. But, in reality, most consumers buy based on the mentallity of what others think of it, especially those who write the reviews.

So, yeah, it's an issue with the consumers, but the developers and publishers can't change the mentality of the consumers and so are at the mercy of the method in which customers use to determine if they will or will not buy a game.

[captain-obvious]

http://www.metacritic.com/g...

http://www.metacritic.com/g...

i think it'll do just fine

but to be fair i think all publishers should just do just like blizzard

give NO review copies
if you did
1- make sure its a good unbiased site
2- do it after the game lunch

for MANY MANY various reasons
i mean with that you avoid those pre-lunch spoilers and game leaks and you make damn sure that your game get better sales

AND you save money
if those ass holes want to review my game they should buy it
especially if they are bound to give it bad score

[badz149]

But what other sandbox super powers hero games out there that are better than inFAMOUS? I can't think of any. InFamous2 improved a lot from the 1st, yet getting way lower score from the same site, something is definitely not right here.

[JBaby343]

Since when is 7.5 a good score? I got in huge trouble if I got a 75% grade on a test or any assignment in school and lost privileges for bringing home C's. It seems that in today's times the grading scale for games has become like the grading scale for school and thus is skewed so that average is not 50% but more in the 70's range. So to me to say the game is "average" is a little harsh.

I'll make my own judgement though when I play it on Tuesday to see if it deserves a 7.5 though.

[BeOneWithTheGun]

Get rid of numerical and alpha rating systems altogether. A reviewer should just play the game, write an opinion on what he/she saw/felt and close it with a summary about what they feel the game did for them in terms of fun, quality and re-playability.

Thales said that there is no truth. The river might be cold to one person so for them the river being cold is an absolute truth. To another, it might be warm. To them, the truth is that the river is warm. Who is right?

[Ju]

Rating systems just need a "code of conduct" and possibly a unified scale (across all publishers). Otherwise it really degrades the whole review system to matter of opinions and who has ties into which magazines (online or offline). Can you imagine any grading system would make up their own rules? Society would not work. What game grades are today is a marketing instrument which the consumer cannot rely on (because they do not follow any open standards which publishers can be held accountable against) nor does it protect the magazine publishers from being "threatened" by developers (like someone said above, developers pull marketing money). It won't change. The gaming industry is one of the worst industry with implementing consumer (and employment) rights. I can't really see this changing any time soon. So, it is what is is. A personal taste or preference of some random writer called journalist. And yes, inFamous @ 7.5 is a joke, seriously.

[Commander_TK]

Well, according to PS3 fanboys, when a PS3 exclusive gets a 7, it's a bad score. Otherwise it's a good score.

[Electroshocked]

I couldn't care less about game scores, I might use them as advice every once in a while, but if I like the look of a game and some guy reviews it and gives it a score of 2.0 that won't stop me from at least trying it, as for Gamespot giving InFamous 2 a score of 7.5 I couldn't care less, it's not going to change the fact that I'm going to play the hell out of it and enjoy it thoroughly.

[Anon1974]

I rely on reviewers to assist me with my gaming decisions. I simply don't have time to play every game, and I can't rely on the opinions of friends because all my friends have very different tastes in games from my own. The only thing I can recommend is, over time, find a reviewer you trust. Read their reviews, play that game. If his opinions are consistently in line with your own, stick with em. On top of that, I find metacritic scores useful. You'll always get those goofball sites that lowball game scores just for hits, and you'll always get the sources that love pretty much everything, but metacritic is handy in finding out how the majority of critics are leaning. If 100 reviews say it's shite, their's a good chance it's shite.

[HappyGaming]

7.5 seems horrible when you compare it to games of other games...

[ChrisGTR1]

reviewers only use a 9-6 scale. so 6 being horrible 9 being awesome. nobody uses 0-5 for scores

[snipes101]

Along Logic's line of thought: there are also game play video's on youtube and websites you can check out, player reviews and then there's amazon along with numerous other consumer outlets that allow for user reviews that people can check out. People have little to no reason to be uniformed about a product these days, and video games are no different.

Concerning review scores, did anyone consider that maybe the quality of games has just gone up? Perhaps games actually warrant those 9's and 10's because they are incredible. The bar has been set high by ambitious and talented developers and have left other games feeling "mediocre" (usually granted a 5), "ok" (usually given a 6) or just "good" (usually given a 7). They aren't "bad," they just don't always match the quality of other games.

[nickjkl]

10 good game

below 10 horrible peace of crap

is the mentality now a days

i only use reviews to see whats wrong with the game and whats good

scores are opinionated though usually

[cemelc]

The problem with reviews is that they keep defending them as opinions and that shouldnt be.

In a math test you get your answer right you get your point the teacher cant change that. This reviews give a game like call of futy 8.5 or 9, then i played the game and is not even near an 8 cos is rigged with bugs,no plot, 5 hour single player and copy paste job from the last game.

Then we have games like infamous 2 or castlevania: LOS the developers really went all out and a 7.5, after reading the reviews i download the demo expecting a bad game and i see a game wordy of 8.5 at least even without a plot, and if you go to gamespot to complain calling them for what that reviews is (a piece of crap) then you get the idiot saying thats my opinion.

Opinion my a$$ youre getting payed for this you dont have any say in it, just write about gameplay/sound/glitches/graphi cs if all those are well handled then the game deserves a good score.

[paintsville]

7.5 is only bad to ps3fanboys who think that every ps3 exclusive that releases is the bestest, mostest, awesomeest, thing to every to the market LOL. You know the ones that live in fairytale land and actually believe that ps3 is better than xbox.

[JBaby343]

^^ It IS better. Or haven't you been paying attention. LOL at you trying to point the finger at others when your own bias is so obvious.

[AKissFromDaddy]

Summed up in 7 words. Good work.

[Krimmson]

Coincidentally enough, your comment was also in 7 words.

[Max Power]

Six words and a number, if he wrote out 'seven' then your comment would be correct.

[Bereaver]

Lucky for him, numerical symbols (0 through 9) are also considered "words". Therefor his comment is correct.

[BeOneWithTheGun]

It is incorrect grammar to use a number when indicating a small number (1-10). Therefore, he should have spelled it out making it an actual word.

http://www.dailywritingtips...

[pain777pas]

The game is getting 9s and 9.5s all over the place. Tom McShea is a strange reviewer. GOW3 could not be denied so he had to give it a 9. Then a game like Infamous 2 which I sadly saw some gameplay of looks crazy good and is a blind buy for me next week. Who cares about review scores sometimes? Bet you Arkham gets marked down because Catwoman is a playable character and they will just say more time could have been spent on Batman and expanding his moveset or vehicles or something to complain about. I2 looks like a serious winner to me. From what I've read it is tighter controls (amazing since the first was near perfect) and more expansive moveset. Mission creator aswell.... forget the haters. I am an Infamous fan one of the best open world games this generation and second or first superhero game to boot.

[led1090]

9s and 9.5s all over the place? Don't get me wrong am a big fan of infamous and am looking forward to spending quite a lot of time of this game but you need to check this out and come out of your bubble the reviews have been mixed

[pain777pas]

IGN gave the game a 9. IGN... it wasnt even Greg Miller who is a Sony fanboy. The game is probably for fans of the first and I fall in that bracket so the game will be good enough FOR ME. I am only typing for real fans not to get discouraged. But your right reviews have been mixed for whatever reason.

[Ju]

http://www.metacritic.com/g...

Not 9.5, but 84% average, 12 out of 14 over 80, one 75, one 70. I would say it is quite a high flyer.

[humbleopinion]

Ju, anyone can play with numbers. "12 out of 14 over 80" is just as accurate as writing "13 out of 14 under 90".

This is not about the quality of the actual game - it's just what about pain777pas being plain wrong: The game didn't get a single 9.5 so far.

[Saint-Revlot]

It got 2 9.5s. They just aren't on metacritic for some reason.

[MariaHelFutura]

Imo. Demos should be mandatory and reviews should stop being published. As we progress towards the future this is what will happen.

[Focker420]

Since fanboys...

@SuperLupe below

Every fanboy complains, no matter what console he is defending. Its not exclusive to the PS3, you're diluted if you think thats the case.

[SuperLupe]

This. Sony fanboys are the ones who complain about reviews nobody else.

The thing is the PS3 was supposed to be heads and shoulders above everything this gen. The truth is there are excellent games on the 360 too.

Its the pain and disillusion of seeing multiplats and 360 games score as high and/or higher than PS3 exclusives that has lead to major fits when an exclusive (PS3 100% of the time) scores a good (7.5 for instance) but not excellent score.

When a Wii or 360 exclusive scores lower than expected you dont see anybody crying, calling a conspiracy or demanding the end of reviews. Thats PS3 fanboy exclusive behaviour.

[badz149]

Go to metacritic and see user reviews for all exclusives. You'll see which side of fanboyism is worst. I'll make it easy for you...ALL OF THEM!

[news4geeks]

superlupe is right, ps fanboys have this ridiculous idea that their exclusives are head and shoulders above the rest when in reality there are just as good multiplats and exclusives on the 360.

In slight defence of playstation and its fans, I think the system was judged very harshly earlier this gen. Some justified, some just plain hatred for sony.

[ginsunuva]

Uncharted, Warhawk, LBP, and Mgs4 ARE head and shoulders (okay, maybe like just head) above almost anything this gen. Maybe tied with some others. But still definitely better than the two halos and gears of this gen.

[Ju]

From the "other" perspective as a PS3 gamer, you get the feeling only multiplatform games get high marks because they can't lowball the 360 version and cannot find a reason to lower the PS3 score (which happened in the past for nitpicking performance issues - while this was never a reason to lower the 360 score in the opposite case).

Yes, as a PS3 player, I see the exclusives and how much more effort went into those titles (be it to push the technical boundaries, the level of detail compared to MP games). So I am asking the question, how comes, those additional features - which PS3 exclusives carry without a doubt - do never get the recognition in any review, but yet, get lower scores than comparable games which are available on both platforms?

inFamous - as LA Noire - is an open world game with a massive content. Sure, one is a crime story the other is a super hero story. If LA Noire gets a 7.5 I would probably complain, too. Yet, I think inFamous is a show case for an open world game on the PS3 which - from at least a technical standpoint - shows even the best what can be achieved if done right. It runs absolutely fluid, lightning is exceptional, animation, particle effects, scope of the city, level of detail (New Marey at night, incl. the humor of movie titles running, the subtle details in the LED banners, the artistis!! I loled so hard) is unmatched. No one mentiones AA any more. Looks like lately all PS3 games implement a form of MLAA which was a big outcry last year - but now that it works, we simply ignore that.

Story as a taste should not be rated, but rather the implementation of it. A story can be bland or fleshed out, it can be liked or disliked. But what's left is, what a developer makes out of it. Different folks have different tastes. But I'd prefer the customers over the reviewers taste. Because those preferences every gamers brings to his/her table on his/her own.

[Tru_Ray]

Since the marketplace became over-saturated with games of every genre and gamers, with limited resources, have little incentive to by "mediocre" games when there are better options available.

I already pre-ordered Infamous 2 so the metacritic score is not an issue for me. But if I am on the fence about buying a game, unanimous praise will definitely influence my decision in making a purchase.

If anything, we are lucky that gamers ostensibly have such high standards and developers are under a lot of pressure to produce AAA titles in order to ensure a significant return on the investment.

The downside of the current review system is that these fanboys masquerading as critics have WAAAAAY too much power.

[DigitalAnalog]

Gamespot awarded SOCOM 4 a 7.5. And that game wasn't AS POLISHED as inFamous 2.

-End statement

[Ju]

Maybe, but Socom4 is no 7.5 either. And, it got a 67% on Metacritics...compare to 70% for homefront. Yep...so, really???

[Headquarters11]

Ever since Gamespot hired that abomination, transvestite, that THING, to do reviews, their opinion is sh*t to me.

GameSpot = irrelevent

[raztad]

Have to agree. So much mediocrity and borefests have been awarded with resounding 9s and perfect 10s. 8.5 became the new 7.5. Releasing infamous 2 demo was the best decision. Game is nowhere close to that outrageous score.

[karl]

this article isnt bad

and a 7.5 wasnt a bad score years ago.. but by todays standards.. it is

now its almost perfect or not worth buying..

i dont think like that but it know most consumers do...

the scale vale has change over time.. a 7.5 its no longer that good

[TBM]

Love the first already have second paid off and will love that too. The only person I listen about which games I want to play is ME.

I don't care what other people think.

[SephirothX21]

The game has an 8.2 average on Gamespot which is taken from 5 different sites and Gamespot themselves so it's likely an 8 and over. Gamespot says the morality system is "laughable" which if true, is disappointing but a minor problem in comparison to the great combat the game offers. People need to stop looking at the score and ask why the score is the way it is. If it was due to technical errors, patches could fix it and therefore the score would increases. That isn't the case here but the game certainly seems to have enough fun packed in to be a must-have, certainly for people who enjoyed the first game.

[Bull5hifT]

Micro$oft Paid Them off

[Joni-Ice]

Dude, Dude, Dude, Your comment is so true. Best answer to that question.

[andrewsqual]

When Crackdown 2 got a 7 from the same assholes, THATS WHEN.

[Bull5hifT]

They Shoulda Got BlackListed from MetaCritic for that bribe they took for Kane & Lynch, these people are pulling down the Average Score ... Have a feeling it was part of the $500 million spent advertising "KINECT".... Cough cough PayOff Cough

[Cerberus2125]

A 7.5 becomes a bad score only,and when the game deserves a better score,other than that a 7.5 is a bit above average.

[zero_cool]

The call of duty series is a cash cow with piss poor quality in all aspects that never gets any major improvements on the series it just gets shittier with every installment!

[frostypants]

gravemaker won this thread with the first post.

[jazzking2001]

Thing is
it is IMPOSSIBLE to always make games scored above a 8

some games will be low, others will be high,

[Godmars290]

It becomes suspect when other reviewers hand out 9s for the same game.

[coolbeans]

Does it become un-suspect when another reviewer has given it a 7 as well?

This statement is just stupid. I've heard the likes of gamers say games ranging from some MGS games , Gears games, some LoZ games, etc. deserve 7's in their opinions. Scores are subjective and solely determined by the one who has played the FULL game (quit with that demo BS).

[clrlite]

Wondering why people disagreed with you. It is when good games get mostly 8 and nines, but then a reviewer throws out an anomaly like a 7 that people call bs.

Then they give games like MW2 an average of about 9.4 while actual gamers give it an average of about 5.7.

[Godmars290]

I'm getting disagrees because I'm a PS3-only owner making a general comment which is being understood as being PS3-only by 360-only owners.

You're getting disagrees for agreeing with me even though you're using a multiplatform title as example which supports what I said in the first place.

Go figure...

[iamnsuperman]

Since getting scores below a 9 means a hit on sales.

[telekineticmantis]

to games with better scores, that's when.

[Darkspade]

7.5 isn't bad just not great... Are you ok with your kid getting C's in School or would you like to see B's and A's

[BushLitter]

7.5 is a B a B+ in fact. And at tertiary level, 75 is considered an A

Regardless, this is a must have game. I seldom look at scores unless the site or reviewer is using a 5 point scale. That's the only system that makes any sense really.

[TroySoul]

Where is a 7.5 a B+?! Thats the lowest sgrading standard I've ever heard lol.

[Christopher]

Not in the U.S.

90-100 = A
80-89 = B
70-79 = C
60-69 = D
0-59 = F

[Nitrowolf2]

depends what school your going to.
In most US school a 75 is a C+

@BushLitter

Because a C is an average and getting a Min of B in High school takes literally no work

Also an F here is anything below 65%

[BushLitter]

Did not know that. Thanks

But it begs the question... With such a high standard, how did Bush get elected twice? :P

@cgoodno I see that an F is up to 59, is that a typo or is the passmark really 60%?

Edit @nitrowolf2

Sheesh that's harsh. Here the pass mark used to be good ole 50, now it's dropped to 30%. And they wonder why the standard of literacy is in shambles.

[BigPenguin]

Not only is a an F up to 59%, but a D which is up to 69% is the same as failing for most colleges. As in you have to retake the the class and get above a C- to actually get credit.

[Joni-Ice]

Good example.

[BakedGoods]

It's because that market is used to 7.5's.

[helghast102]

Gaming journalism is shit, the 1-10 scale means nothing anymore, it's more like a 6-10 scale now, where 10 is great and 8 is average.
Reviewers need to pull their shit together and stop throwing darts at a board to decide on a final score.

[nnotdead]

this was the case for the first few years of this gen. not so much anymore. that is why you are now seeing a lot of quality games getting scored in the 7s.

[Tigerfist]

I'd rather have them not throw in any scores at all, simply tell us about the game, describe it in general and tell us about it's flaws. In the end just give it a recommended or high quality stamp and there you go!

[helghast102]

Yeah, this is what i liked about Ye Olde Joystique, no scores, just words.
Review scores are lazy, people just jump straight to the number at the end and don't bother reading about WHY that number was given.

[MastaMold]

I've been saying this ever since this Gen started reviewers are retarded if your going to review a game get rid of all scores and give the game final statement of a Must Buy or Rental

[sickbird]

Because with this gen its either 8.5+ or bust.

[NeoBasch]

Well, it's the same way with the movie industry, just lower. 7+ for most avid cinema goers. Anything between 5 and 7 depends on your level of excitement. I'm sure games will reach that level too eventually.

Music and TV have followed the way of cinema and it only took them a couple years. There will always be a limit for fans of any medium. Money doesn't grow on trees so they only want the best, and, when money isn't a factor, time is. There will always be a limit. Humans are naturally selective.

[rob6021]

Very few people look at critic reviews and base their purchase decisions for movies on it and if you go over there, you'll see that many, many movies are dogged; unlike Videogames.

It makes sense because Movies are going to be in a complete form no matter who makes it. In videogames, you can have some games using horrible controls, glichy graphics and bugs galore - so you do have to be more choosy - It's not just about story and visuals in videogames.

[NeoBasch]

We must be going to different sites. IMDB, RottenTomatoes, and Metacritic users are perhaps even more persnickety about movies just because there's way more of 'em in any given week. People get their hopes up daily and are sad when critics don't take a liking to their most anticipated nearly as much as they do.

For proof, check out the user rating for something like Mass Effect 2 on IMDB. Low standards, in my opinion. The game wasn't even that great. Movies that win Oscars typically score around a 8.0-8.5 by users, and probably around 7.7-8.2 by critics. Anything above that is astonishingly rare.

A lot of cinema enthusiasts wait for the latter half of the year and reviews to influence which movies they see. Some even make a list of film festival finalists and make an effort to go see every single one.

[Agheil]

Honestly after playing the demo there is no way the game deserved a 7.5 i loved the first and im playing through it again before picking up #2

[RyuDrinksTheDew]

because gamers have slowing become more and more snobby.

thats the only answer i can come up with.

[blackburn10]

I am not in an uproar about Gamespot's score but it is strange when so many people give it a 8 or 9 and then suddenly you come up with a 6 or 7 and your review doesn't even reflect properly why you did it. I don't mind if you give a worst score then the others but at least give good reasons why.

Lot's of people complained about MS:PR and I accepted the complants because they many were reasonable. But when you write as if you are practically hunting for something bad to say then I question your review. But once again just because SOME people disagree with a review we start with the ' Sony fanboys are the worse' talk again when we all know that if anyone says bad things or gives a game that everyone wants to be good a bad score we will hear from the fanboys. Just give GeOW 3 a 7.5 and see them tear Gamespot to shreds whether it is justified or not.

[Kee]

It's the sequel to infamous, people don't need review scores to know that they'll like it if they played the original.

[denero1]

giving great games low scores gets your site hype makes you stand out and get attention

[badz149]

But you said "great" games, not "hyped" games. I guess you're right afterall

[MicrocutsX2]

Scores have become inflated over time, just like the economy

[Tigerfist]

7.5 is far from beeing a bad score, it just shows the game isn't a brain melting piece of awesomeness. People need to start paying more attention to actual written constructive feedback instead of only looking at those numbers, the true important review information is in the form of the description of the game.

[T-K47x]

Well considering they gave Infamous 1 a 9/10 it is quite a difference really. Imagine Uncharted 3 getting a 8/10 its still a great score but compared to its predecessor its a big step down.

[mr.selfdestruct]

I Played the Demo and it is miles above the 1st. The graphics are better. The fighting is better. This game is a deffinate must buy for anyone who enjoied the 1st game.

[ELinktricTears]

its from sucker punch! that alone is worth a purchase.

[BlitzAK]

"Most reviews are bullshit." - Enough said for me.

[bronxsta]

7.5 isn't bad at all. To put that in perspective, that's like a movie getting three out of four stars (X-Men First Class, Fast Five, Kick Ass {NY Post reviews}). So no that score aint bad at all

[Dynasty2021]

I'll never understand how CoD gets 9+ almost every year, when it's more repetitive than almost any other series out there.

But at the end of the day, a review is someone just voicing THEIR opinion on a product.

Unless they're just like you, their opinion is always worthless.

[Squatch83]

Its ridiculous. A 5 is an average score, at least it should be.

Most ppl these days seem to think anything less than an 8 is a bad score and i dont know why.

[e-p-ayeaH]

lol cant wait to see Duke Nukem Forever review scores and let n4g n00bs damage control on that 1.

[Kyur4ThePain]

I will say it again...scoring out of 10 is retarded. The only rating that makes any sense and is helpful to a gamer in any way is buy, rent or skip. The rest is fanboy crap for hits.

[rob6021]

Reviews are bullshit, but unfortunately everyone needs quality control and we seek legitimate sources to tell us whats good and what's not. When the best sources we got (I Know pretty sad) are doing a poor job at being objective, and not doing what they're supposed to - it means people are going to be pretty upset. Because you yourself may be intelligent enough to see past one bad review, most are not - and many people actually think games journalism is legitimate.

The uproar is on the fact it's clear the guy is holding points against the game where he wouldn't have for other franchises. There is a complete lack of consistency at Gamespot. There is just reason to critique the review, or for that matter there's just reason to critique almost any review in the current era of 'games journalism.'

[blink3020]

Who cares about a score? Either you like it or you don't. Stop your bitching. You guys are like a bunch of school girls.

[Slade23]

LMAO, he's actually right, whoever disagree are kind of dumb.

[DrFUD]

A 7 or 8 is a good score.
Unfortunately reviews early in this gen routinely gave 9's when the game didn't deserve it and since we're still in this gen memory lingers for those reviews.
So if this game is better than those games, logic says people will notice and have a hard time accepting it because it's unjust.

[Darkseeker]

Not only gamespot are wrong with a 7.5, but if you read the actual review, you can see they clearly don't know what the hell they're talking about.

I usually don't like IGN, but they gave it a 9 and at least, they actually explained what is good and bad from it. If you look at other places, most of them gave a 8-9 at least.

I laughed when the guy at gamespot says you look like you're playing a game from 1943 when you take damage (the screen turns black and white). Just go absorb electricity and heal, you're terrible at games.

[finnhima]

Sucker punch worked their asses off to give the faithful gamers a quality title, and they sat with us EVERY step of the way with the game's development. The way They listened to people's criticisms was the closest I had ever seen.

When people complained about Cole's reinvented "fresh" look, they scrapped it for his old-school gruff look that people were used to.

When people complained about a lack of variety when it came to powers, they included a multitude of new abilities for cole to perform. The amp was an awesome addition.

When people complained about the weak morality system, they worked hard expand it. Including Kuo and Nix whom represented two sides of the moral spectrum, and each provided cole with his own unique ability. Fire and Ice.

When people complained about game length and not having much to do after the game's completion, they included a level editor so that gamers could create their own mini-games for others to try out

A 7.5 is by all means not a bad score, but for sucker punch to go through all the hard work that they did for its fans and potential customers, and get hit with a low score like that is heinous. They deserved much better.

[liquidus118]

A 7.5 became bad when all big-budget titles got 9s.

If a website gives a game a bad review, the game company stop giving them review copies, if they stop getting review copies their review is late and irrelevant, if their review is irrelevant then no one visits their site, if their site gets no visits they lose their website, their jobs and their income.

Reviewing is just another occupation, and in a job the money is always the bottom line.

Why do you think Yahtzee never gets review copies? He's a damn sight more popular than a lot of places that DO get them.

[schlanz]

Since when is a 7.5 good? I don't think C students get much praise for their academic efforts.

[Slade23]

When the f*** grades and ratings are the same. really just think about it for awhile...

[Nodoze]

The game deserves a higher score. Gamespot is always one of the harshest critics (which I like), but they do show their 360 bias quite a bit.

[Tdmd]

7.5 is not a bad score, it is, in this case, unfair - which is completely different.

[GalenMyra]

Who cares what gamespot thinks?

[turgore]

All I can say is Infamous 2 is better than Red Faction Armageddon. Reviewers in general agree.
According to their stadards it is not fair to give Red Faction Armageddon an 8, and Infamous 2 a 7.5, when Infamous is clearly the better game.

[d0r1en0]

I got inFAMOUS for free. The inFAMOUS 2 demo was fun. I'm buying inFAMOUS 2 once I beat the 1st one, and it comes with the uncharted 3 demo. #winning.

[drdre74]

Infamous 2 is a 10 great game and i loved the demo played the first one like 3 times start to finish to get my platinum

[Merivigian]

With the prices of games and the number of new, quality (and some not so quality) games out at a time, I think gamers can't really take a chance and play a game based on their first impressions anymore. That may have driven the dependence of game ratings higher and higher. But some of us can afford them, so in some cases this may not see so applicable.

[death2smoochie]

"When Did A 7.5 Become Bad?"

This generation when certain fanboys think all games on their respective console should get a 10/10

This generation has proven to be a joke in this regards...

Then you have the other end of the spectrum.
COD games getting 10/10 year in year out.
Go figure. Pure madness

[Platinum_k]

SCREW GAMESPOT!!! I'M STILL GETTING THIS GAME

[mab636]

a 7.5 becomes a bad score when you compare it with other games that have received much higher scores for mediocrity. Whether they meant to change the value of the scoring system or not, this is how it is. What GameSpot is telling me is that Enslaved which got an 8.0 is a higher quality game than infamous 2. These are the comparisons that people are going to make and rightfully so. The people that get upset are the people that are treating the grading scale as a consistent tool to measure the quality of games, and when things don't add up, then there are going to be upset people. It doesn't mean they are "fanboys." Thats such a cop out answer.

[B_Rian89]

Damage Control!!

with that being said, I've got my copy pre-ordered already

[KingofGambling]

since reviewers don't put more times toward the game instead just 2 to 3 hours.

[cstyle]

7.5 isn't a bad score but you expect more than that since ps3 exclusives are supposed to be better than anything else out there. It just goes to show just because you have a lot of exclusives doesn't mean they they are the highest quality.

[DevilishSix]

because this reviewer has had crap reviews before. The big sore thumb I remember was last years Transformers:War of Cybertron. IT was poorly written (grammer, sentence structure, etc.) and inconsistent to invalid on many of the points he made against the game.

So by all means this reviewer McShea I think it is, should be called into question, especially when you point out such logical things negatively, like the scene turns black and white when you take a certain amount of damage, it's called recharging your energy you dumb***.

[digitaleraser]

When did a 7.5 become bad? It's all explained here:

http://www.crit-hit.net/und...

[zero_cool]

Call of duty series is joke it don't even deserve a 9.0 yet it get's one but studios that care about gamers enough to make high quality games get shafted for little things & end up with short end of the stick that's fucked up!

[zero_cool]

90% of game journalists are retards you can't rely on their views on games your better off renting or buying or download the demo to game if it has one & relying on your own views on games rather then relying on others half assed views on games!

[Morgue]

Who cares. If you enjoyed the first you'll buy the second. If you didn't like it then you won't buy it or, you can wait for the PlayStation network to go down for another month and hope Sony offers inFAMOUS 2 for free.