Game Review Rating System

I hate scores in reviews (all of them: games, movies, tv shows, music...)

Scores are stupid.

A gives X game 4/10 score
B gives X game 9/10 score

both were non-amateur reviewer
which one You believe?

I ususally don't give attention to scores when I read review, but more if the game have elements I like. Taste is subjective after all, what appeals to you may not to me so I would like to hear about what the game has rather than only how much you like it.

Perfectly logical average - every game starts at 5, going up or down depending on positives or negatives. You work out the kinks.

Your reviews would better serve someone like me if they are concise and speak of gameplay elements without comparing game to other game. As others have said an "out of X" point system isn't very useful.

Yay, so I'm back because someone's a tosser and can't even get to an appointment they say they can woohooo! (people, what a bunch of bastards)
In my mind a review scores have two big halves - below 5 and above 5. 5 should be the average, that gives nothing new to the genre or the game is just okay, but forgetable. ( Imp? A Fiend! was a perfect example for this for me) Below 5 is increasingly bad - like 4 is unpleasant to play, 3 has troubles in every front, 2 when it barely even runs and/or terrible all-around and 1 is something along the lines of doesn't even start. 5+ is like 6- good (like a stupid shooter which still works pretty well - not much interesting but good feelings about it) , 7 -pretty nice (hints of new ideas here and there, or polished old stuff), and tbhh 8-9-10 is just a blur. I would give Arcanum a 7 even though it's buggy as hell but I would give a 6 to Bad Rats Show if it wouldn't have the abysmal 4th chapter, while obviously it's a worse game than Arcanum. And not to mention how hard is to categorize good / loved things (8-10)
So as others said, points alone are useless, just like percentages on Steam. A 95% positive Otome is still a highly unenjoyable game for me and I have 0 interest in it, while a story-oriented VN with 95% would at least make me want to read more about it because I like stories and I can put up with the VN storytelling for it. So in short: written review needs to be there to support the score. Say that it's great in this thing, okay in another, weak in the third one, but overall it's a 7, a solid good choice if you like the genre / features of the game. (Some people overvalue voice acting or music while others don't care about it at all - important to point out for this reason that if you're giving ie. Undertale a great score partially because you love it's chiptune music, because for people who hate that music will find it much, much worse.

TLDR: 1-10 scale to used properly (5 average), tell/write strong and weak points, and give a score that reflects your overall feelings. A review score is a good thing as a general direction, but useless on it's own, without the review.

I hate having to give a game a score. I never do it myself. I usually do it in a slightly different way by use of a word rating system such as (must play, very good, mediocre, don't ever play). Or something along those lines. Although don't know well that'd work with the youtube format.

Thought I'd go ahead and bring this one back from the dead too.