User blog:LilyheartsLightning/Metacritic Effect

Opinions vary on the validity of Game of the Year awards, as a whole and on each separate group that gives out Game of the Year awards. While some years will have prominent titles that snag GotYs left, right, and center (case in point: last year's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim), 2012 has seen Game of the Years awarded to a wide variety of games—The Walking Dead, Halo 4, Borderlands 2, Journey, and of course Mass Effect 3.

Metacritic, a site which gathers numerous ratings from critics and provides a single number that reflects reviewers' average score of a work, has released its list of the highest-rated games of 2012. Mass Effect 3, with a Metascore of 93 for both console versions, holds the third-highest Metascore of 2012, the highest of a major console release.

In addition, the Playstation 3 version of Mass Effect 3 received the honor of being the highest-rating PS3 game of the year, while the Mass Effect 3: Special Edition topped the Wii U list with a Metascore of 87. The PC version came in a tie with several other games for third place, with a Metascore of 89. (Dishonored and Mark of the Ninja came on top at 91, with Guild Wars 2 alone in second place at 90.)

The Xbox 360 version of Mass Effect 3 was second only to the game that receoved the highest Metascore rating of 2012: the Xbox 360 version of The Walking Dead, at a Metascore of 95. (The second-highest score was 94 for Persona 4 Golden on the PS Vita, a remake of a 2008 Playstation 2 game which holds a Metascore of 90.) However, Metacritic admits that The Walking Dead's victory may be contentious, remarking on how none of the individual episodes ever held a Metascore higher than 89 and reported technical problems with the Xbox 360 version that severely hinders playability.

So, fellow Mass Effect Wikians, your opinions? Do Metacritic scores provide a good reflection of a game's quality? Do award shows provide a good reflection of a game's quality? And which, if either, is a better measure of a game? How about your feelings on how Mass Effect 3 ranked on the Metacritic's best games of 2012?

Which is a better measure of a game's merit—critic awards or Metacritic ratings? Critic awards Metacritic ratings Both are worth consideration Neither are useful