Who needs a guided gameplay commentary if the entire game guides itself? This is gonna be mid. So, basically a 7/10 IGN affair.
Fortunately for them, gaming studios aren't in the movie business (
even if a few of them try real hard). Movie studios can serve critics a world breaking record of Special FX, a cast that'd make heads turn in Cannes and a product that can be watched start to finish without severely breaking. And (deservedly) still get totally panned by everyone. In games, if a title looks alright, serves up some form of basic entertainment, and doesn't bluescreen right from loading it up, it's a 6ish/10 already. Anything below 5/10, and you know you're in for one helluva total stinker, with even outright inept product such as last year's Gollum oft struggling to move below scores of 4/10. Honestly, critical reception to blockbusting movies has been way more mixed up from their very beginning. That's not made up, that's the truth. Take a look at the reviews of each year's most popular movies vs each year's most popular games.
That's naught to do with games having such superior quality on average. It's all to do with video gaming criticism still being rather technical, so pretty superficial surface level. So decent GFX, servicable gameplay and a story that doesn't get in the way, and you're set for recommendation. Anything else tends to be shoved into specifically marked opinion pieces or into hallway / teamspeak conversations: "You know, this is pretty nicely made. But so stupid, bland and been there done that a hundred times before, I'd never have wasted my time on it if I weren't tasked with reviewing." If the Borderlands movie had been a game, it'd received at least 5-6ish scores across the board also. Lucky Bioware!
