RealGamer Review Policy

Overview

This review policy is intended to provide our users with a clear guide as to how we review games featured on RealGamer, what principles are taken into consideration and how we score games we review.

Our approach is simple, we aim to give a clear indication of how good or bad we feel a game is, each review is the opinion of the writer and is in no way influenced by games companies or the games industry in general. If we think a game is bad we’ll say so regardless of our relationships with the company that made the game or whether or not the rest of the games industry thinks it’s the greatest game ever made.

We try to be objective in our reviews and will point out what we liked and disliked about a game and will back it up with examples, we believe this gives you, the reader a clear impression of what a game is really like and if it saves you from buying a really bad game or helps you to get your hands on a game you love then we’ve done our job.

Our overall ratings are based on five elements, each rated out of 10. Elements are self explanatory with the most important score being the reviewers sway. This score is based on how much the reviewer actually enjoyed playing the game and what they generally thought about the title.

If you have any question or comments about this review policy please feel free to contact the RealGamer editor.

Why We Review Games?

Video games are the most expensive form of entertainment media! It is our goal to provide our user with honest, unbiased reviews in order for them to make informed decisions on what games they purchase.

Scoring System - Pre 2010

Graphics

it’s easy to make graphics look good but if they don’t perform well the effects can be spoilt and have severe effects on the quality of the experience a game gives. For this reason both the way graphics perform and look are taken into consideration.

Audio

This is pretty self explanatory! This rating includes things such as quality of sound effects, music and voice acting. If a game has great voice acting and sound effects but the music in the game is low quality then the game will lose points here.

Gameplay

This rating indicates how well a game actually plays and how enjoyable the experience is. For example if a game features repetitive and tedious gameplay or awkward controls then expect a low score here.

Value

This rating doesn’t mean what you think, when we rate a game for value, price isn’t really taken into consideration, if a game is bad but only costs £9.99 it’s still a bad game! This rating reflects a games lasting appeal, playing options and how much content is actually in the game. To sum up it’s basically how long the game is going to last before you stop playing.

Sway

This score reflect the level of enjoyment our reviewer experienced whilt playing a game, allowing them to sway a final score one way the other.

Overall

This is the score that counts, each game is given a final rating out of 10.

Scoring System - Post 2010

Following feedback from our readers and those we work with in the video games industry at the end of 2009 we decided to change our review scoring system for 2010 and beyond.

We have now decided not to rate the individual categories as we did in the past, but instead list each game’s "Positives" and "Negatives" to accompany our overall score.

We feel this gives a clearer view of what we thought of a game and is easier to understand than lots of different scores.