Metacritic might have made headlines this year for the ridiculous fanboy turf wars that have gone on with user reviews, but I find the site to be a generally useful resource when charting how well a game is doing with the press. At least, it's good to see how much the press likes to overrate things based on hype more than a game's merit.
Using Metacritic, we can essentially find out what the entire gaming media's top ten picks for best and worst games of the year were. So that's what we're going to do.
On the highly rated side, it should come as no surprise that Grand "apparently it's better than Ocarina of Time" Theft Auto IV came out on top, boasting a score of 98 for both its PS3 and Xbox 360 versions. LittleBigPlanet may have failed to make quite the dent in sales charts that Sony had hoped for, but it was the second highest rated game of the year, followed closely by Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
PlayStation had a great year for reviews overall, with the PS3 version of BioShock getting into the top ten, along with Persona 4 on the PS2. Even a PSP game is in the high rollers, with God of War: Chains of Olympus sharing a joint position with Wrath of the Lich King. This year's big Xbox 360 exclusives failed to get into the top ten, although Braid got to share a place with the DS' Chrono Trigger.
As for the worst rated games of 2008, can you guess which consoles had the most shovelware? Yep, the Wii, PC and PS2 were home to nearly all the mass produced crap this year, which should hardly come as a surprise. Two Wii games share the joint "honor" of being this year's worst game, with SPOGS Racing and Pong Toss: Frat Party Games "earning" a Metacritic score of just 18. I've never even heard of those games.
Hit the jump for the full lists to see what the gaming press loved and hated this year.
Metacritic’s Best Games Of 2008
1. Grand Theft Auto IV (98 — 360, 98 — PS3)
2. LittleBigPlanet (95 — PS3)
3. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (94 — PS3)
4. BioShock (94 — PS3) and Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (94 — PS2)
5. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (93 — Wii) and Gears of War 2 (93 — 360)
6. Chrono Trigger (93 — DS) and Braid (93 — 360)
7. World of Goo (94 — Wii, 91 — PC / AVERAGE: 92.5)
8. Fallout 3 (93 — 360, 92 — PS3, 92 — PC / AVERAGE: 92) and Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Armor (92 — PC)
9. Rock Band 2 (92 — 360, 91 — PS3 / AVERAGE: 91.5)
10. God of War: Chains of Olympus (91 — PSP) and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (91 — PC)
Metacritic’s Worst Games of 2008
1. SPOGS Racing (18 — Wii) and Pong Toss: Frat Party Games (18 — Wii)
2. Beauty Factory (22 — PC)
3. Homie Rollerz (23 — DS)
4. Jumper: Griffin’s Story (28 — Wii) and Racing Team Manager (28 — PC)
5. Jumper: Griffin’s Story (29 — 360) and Game Party 2 (29 — Wii), Beat’n Groovy (29 — 360)
6. George and the Jungle and the Search for the Secret (30 — PS2), Woman’s Volleyball Championship (30 — PS2), Vampire Rain: Altered Species (30 — PS3), Ford Racing Off Road (30 — Wii) and Crazy Mouse (30 — 360),
7. Toy Shop (31 — DS) and Rapala Fishing Freanzy 2009 (31 — PS2)
8. Falling Stars (32 — PS2), Best of Tests DS (32 — PS2), Iron Man (32 — PC) and Code of Honor 2: Conspiracy Island (32 — PC)
9. Target: Terror (33 — Wii) and The Incredible Hulk (33 — PC)
10. Jackass: The Game (34 — PC) and King of Clubs (34 — Wii)
Contest:
9:00 AM on 12.25.2008
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isn't gears of war 2 an xbox 360 exclusive?
Honestly, exclusivity doesn't bother me much. So, looking at that list, GTA IV a game out on both. A game I couldn't give a LittleBigShit about. An epic game that is essentially the best thing going for the PS3. A game that is old hat for 360 and PC gamers. A PS2 game.
Eh, yeah, things are looking a lot better for Sony from metacritic this year than it was before, but it doesn't seem that impressive.
I'd love a "Gears of War 2 family waggle action" for Wii
Well, its meta critic, so that's only partly true, right? I mean yeah, the inidivudal reviews come from sites like Xbox Insider and other branded sources. But Meta Critic just takes the scores and averages them out. though there is some mysterious weighted scale to the metacritic algorithm, it largely made up by reviewers that just care about putting a review down.
::add caveat about the still raging review debate. No ranting on the holidays :) ::
(Insert game name here) is utter crap! I hate it because (insert a few random and subjective reasons). If you like this game, (insert random insult).
Yours truly,
Irrational Fanboy
Also, Merry cocks. Or something like that.
I think he's just a dick.
Also, like Dexter said; Kinsella is just a dick.
Also the abundance of Wii games on the bad list amuses me
I didn't know of that one. Sounds... kinda interesting.
Not really
YOU LIED TO ME
LBP is a nice game but it's just a big level editor. I don't see what's so innovative about it. Level editors have been in games before as have level sharing.
GTA4 is so overrated it's ridiculous. San Andreas had a much more enjoyable world with more things to do and with more enjoyable combat and driving.
MGS4 is a good game but the cut scenes are too damn long. I give props to Kojima for going for a "hollywood" production approach but the dialogue wasn't that good (Suda 51 does it better) and the cut scenes are just too long. There's a problem when you start to get bored with a cut scene that lasts over 10 minutes.
Bioshock was fun game but it was too easy and the endings sucked.
Smash Bros Brawl is bigger and better than SSBM but its online play didn't live up to expectations.
World of Goo should have been higher up in my opinion. It's game design is top notch.
Well, this is obviously lies. The PS3 doesn't have games! Everyone says so!!! Little Big What? That's just made up nonsense! Stupid sack running about nonsense retarded shit! Metal Gear 4? Huh? Wasn't that supposed to come out on the 360 but it got canceled? What a piece of shit. Why bother? Old man crap himself. That's not a real game! All you do is sneak around dumb shit stupid.
Nice Joke post Jim. Wake me up when you post the REAL list that has all the xbox exclusive games at the top. That one I will acknowledge. This site doesn't even count. Meta-what? They obviously have no merit! Who runs it! Who even listens to reviews? Reviews suck! No one gives good reviews for real now these days! This isn't even reality. Some kind of alternate nightmare reality. Who am I ? What am I typing on! Time is folding in on itself! THE WORLD IS DEMATERIALIZING! I', -----
lol. So many things in that post.
It's funny to often look back at what ridiculous statements developers make about their games and then when you play their games their statements couldn't be further from the truth.
This doesn't have anything to do with anything, I just felt like making fun of all those people who think that way, and here seemed to be a good place to do it.
lbp is one of the coolest games i've ever played. and takeshi is the shit!
Gears 2 is at number 5 with Smash Bro's. They got the same score.