The Core Score

VGcore puts a lot of thought and opinions into each score that we give a game. It is important for readers to not only understand how our scoring system works, but to understand why we gave a certain game a certain score. Since there are tons of variables that go into the rating of a game, simply looking at the review score and then making a decision on the game is not a good idea.

At VGcore, we only review a game once we have played all game types and have a great understanding of the game. Do to the high volume of games we review, it is impossible for us to completely beat each game we review. However, we don't even start on reviews until we have a great understanding of the game and have explored all aspects of it. Let's take a look at the Core Score card and see what it consists of:

The most important number on this card is the overall score located on the left side of the card. Our overall score is one number that represents how good the game is. The overall score is not an average of other scores on the card and ranges anywhere from 0-10.

The next set of scores, in the black background, is ratings on different aspects of the game. These include: fun, gameplay, graphics, audio, and replay value. To get these scores, we compare the game being reviewed to other games in it's genre on the same console.

The last rating is our “Kid Safe Rating”, or a number that represents the amount of mature content in a game. The ESRB already rates the mature content of a game, but we don't believe these ratings are as accurate as they could be. For instance, both Halo and Grand Theft Auto are rated M for Mature, however there is a huge difference in the amount of mature content on each title. Because of this problem, we have decided to implement a more accurate score, in our opinion, of how mature the content of a game is. The mature content rating does not play a role in the overall score, but is more a tool for parents to gauge what kinds of games they want their children playing.

If you have any questions relating to how we review and score a game on our site please use the contact form.