Metacritic report suggests quality increase

The mid-year report from leading reviews aggregation site Metacritic suggests that while sales might be suffering year-on-year gamers have so far in 2010 enjoyed better quality games that were on offer the year before.

So far this year seven titles have achieved review score averages of 90 per cent or higher with three games – Super Mario Galaxy 2, Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead Redemption – all bettering Street Fighter IV, which was the strongest performer in H1 2009.

At the other end of the quality spectrum, 16 games received Metacritic scores of 49 or less. At this stage last year that number stood at 25.

Surprisingly, the Nintendo DS emerged as the quality leader with a review score average of 75.5 per cent across its 30 releases, though none of these rated at 90 per cent or above. Next up was PS3 with a 75 per cent average and four titles scoring 90 per cent and above. The PSP was the worst rated console with an average score of 72 per cent and no 90+ titles, though it was only just behind the Xbox 360 (73 per cent average, four 90+).

Xbox 360 was slammed for the disappointing review scores of its exclusive software offerings, though it did manage to match PS3’s four 90 per cent + rated games. Metacritic adds that Xbox 360 trails both PS3 and Wii in terms of software units sold worldwide to-date in 2010.

PS3 has enjoyed a strong 2010 with exclusive titles such as God of War III (92 per cent) and Heavy Rain (87 per cent) delivering the goods. It has the highest review score average of all the home consoles so far.

Games singled out for their disappointing performances include Capcom pair Lost Planet 2 (68 per cent) and Dark Void (59 per cent).