Is any rating system worth a damn?

BitMob put up an interesting article by Suriel Vazquez yesterday entitled, "Avoiding the 7-9 Scale: An Exercise in Different Review Scales."  It discusses a variety of scoring systems professional game reviewers use to rate games, and some of the strengths and weaknesses of each.  Given the ridiculous (and mostly arbitrary, and totally overblown) power of the Metacritic score, it's a worthwhile discussion.  

The author has concluded that, to better serve his readers, he needs to use some kind of scoring system himself:

I'm not exactly in the position to demand that sort of attention from my readers, either. I'm a relative amateur in the field of video game writing, so I must make concessions to the reader before I can expect them to trust or relate to my point of view. Rather than being a crutch, review scores are a way to hold myself accountable. My text and score should more or less match -- with a certain amount of wiggle room for interpretation -- and if they don't, then it's because of my failure to properly articulate my thoughts. I need something to keep my writing in check; otherwise, I focus on nitpicks and make a review take on a different tone than I intended it to.

I like your attitude, Mr. Vazquez.  My two cents (originally posted in the article's comments section) are below the fold.

Bad Company 2: that's it for the maps

Battlefield Community Manager "zh1nt0" has a post up on the UK forums that answers a number of questions posed by the forum dwellers.  Among them:  "4- does DICE plans to release any new maps at all? and when?"  

This is his answer:

DICE is releasing map packs with new game modes on already existing maps. Vietnam will bring new maps to Bad Company 2

So there you have it.  If you want new maps, you'll have to buy a new game.  Or rather, the same game, re-skinned, with different maps.

I've said elsewhere that I'm expecting that Medal of Honor will only release with around six multiplayer maps.  DICE is doing the MP side of that game, along with BC2: Viet Nam.  I probably would have anyway, but with this news, I'm definitely cancelling my pre-order. 

Today.

Bulletstorm Director Commentary

Too many "serious" games on the market.  Let's have some fun:

Blacklight: Tango Down - Game Modes Trailer

Rumor has it this game is only going to cost $15.

"That man had a family."

The footage is of Ghost Recon:  Future Soldier.  The third-person viewpoint really highlights the absence of mo-cap.  Between that, the chunky transitions between the third- and first-person views, the low-res model skins, the bland textures, and the (apparent) absence of volumetric lighting, I can only hope this is an alpha build:

Medal of Honor MP details

An interview with producer Patrick Liu.  It sounds like MoH is a bit more focused:  less on novelties, more on the actual combat.  We'll see:

E3: Portal 2 trailer

Gameplay video here.

2010: FPS nirvana

If the first-person shooter is your game, 2010 is undoubtedly your year.

The tail end of 2009 brought Modern Warfare 2:  the most successful failure of all time.

March 2010.  Now comes Bad Company 2:  a game that, despite coming so tantalizingly close to being really good, is in its death throes.

October 2010.  Medal of Honor:  a franchise rebooted as (maybe) a CoD4 clone:

Expect a hell of a lot more recoil in the PC version.  The early buzz surrounding the game (amongst the few people that have played it) has been very positive thus far, and everything is looking much more polished at this stage.

P.S.  Urban environments, my brothers:  they're plugging that gaping hole in BC2.

P.P.S.  Pre-orders will get access to a beta on JUNE 21.

"Winter" 2010.  Alright, this is weird.  BC2 is getting a Viet Nam expansion.  So, EA and DICE are going to compete with themselves, in addition to Call of Duty:  Black Ops.

Makes zero sense to me, but whatever.  We have options.  Speaking of Call of Duty:

November 2010.  Activision wants to prove that the franchise can survive the death of Infinity Ward.  So they added a crossbow.  And they also added Raven Software to the mix (maybe), putting Singularity on hold so the studio can make additional maps for Treyarch's multiplayer offering.  Unorthodox, but damned smart.

The industry is hurting this year. That's good for us.

Fallout: New Vegas E3 trailer

Floating sentry robots, claptrap clones, the Robot from Lost in Space, and robotic animations for the "organic" inhabitants, along with a mafia guy and a Helghast-tastic soldier dude ...

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... if you're not already sold on Fallout, this won't change your mind:

MechWarrior: Living Legends update

The robo-Crysis mod is now at version 0.3.0 of its open beta.  The patch, which weighs-in at 1.77 GB, is available here. 

Full changelog beneath the fold.