Yup, you read that right: we're introducing a brand new scoring system that we hope will make it easier for you to get a clear idea of where we stand on the games we review. From now on we're going to be rating our games according to a five-star scoring system, with a single star representing the lowest a game can score, and five stars representing the absolute zenith of the form.

We figured you might have one or two questions, like "why the hell are you doing this anyway?" or "what does this even mean?" So we've put together a handy little FAQ for ya.

What does each rating mean?

1 Star: This is a poor game, not worth buying, not worth playing... we took one for the team and you definitely owe us.

2 Stars: Not particularly good, but some fun can be had if you're willing to put up with a bevy of faults.

3 Stars: This is an average game, it's more good than bad, would probably make a good rental.

4 Stars: A really good game, just about everyone will likely have fun with this, definitely a recommended purchase.

5 Stars: There is no such thing as a perfect game, but this comes darn close. It's revolutionary, or at least evolutionary, an amazing experience that represents the best gaming has to offer, everyone should experience this.

Why a 5 Star review system?

We've thought long and hard about it and the fact is that a numerical scale or percentile system implies that there's a mathematical formula that can followed, or a checklist of items that can be ticked off to come up with a game's score. This simply isn't true. A game is, for most people, more than the sum of its parts, it's about a complete experience, and throwing out arbitrary figures just didn't seem right.

The 5-Star system is our attempt to avoid the numerical scale while at the same time providing a strong visual identifier for you to immediately get an idea of just how good or bad the game is.

Why not an alphabet based review system?

We feel the A-B-C-D grading system is too strongly linked to the percentile grading system, where an "A" often represents a gray area between 90-100%... it seemed just a little too inaccurate so we decided it'd be best to avoid that whole mess altogether.

No half-stars...why no half-stars?

Half-stars give a little too much wiggle room. We want you to be able to get a good idea of how good or bad a game is at a glance; the half-star complicates things and quite frankly would probably allow us the chance to cop out from time to time. It forces us to be harder on ourselves when we evaluate a game because the difference between 3 stars and 4 stars means that much more.

Cool, what does an actual score look like?

 

We really hope this new system helps clarify things, and we're also pretty excited that the very first review using this new system is actually already up!

From us all at QJ, stay frosty... or something.