lttuvix
Legacy Member
Review philosophy
EGM's review scale is based on a letter grade system in which each game receives a grade that indicates the quality of the game. Games are currently reviewed by a team of one member (originally four until the year 2000, then knocked down to one in 2008), except for "the big games" out of a pool of editors who are known as "The Review Crew." They each assign a grade to the game and write a few paragraphs about their opinion of the game. The magazine makes a strong stance that a grade of C is average. Towards the top of the scale, awards are given to games that average an B- or higher from the three individual grade: "Silver" awards for games averaging a grade of B- to B+; "Gold" awards for games averaging a grade of A- or A; and "Platinum" awards for games with three A+ grades. (This award has not yet been given under the revamped system). The current letter grade system has replaced a long-standing 0-10 scale as of the April 2008 issue.
In addition, they give the game (or multiple games in the event of a tie, as with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for Xbox and NCAA Football 2006) with the highest average score for that issue a "Game of the Month" award. If a "Game of the Month" title receives a port to another console, that version will be disqualified from that month's award, such as with Resident Evil 4, which won the award for the Nintendo GameCube version and subsequently received the highest scores for the PlayStation 2 port months later, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, which won the Platinum award for two separate versions of the game. Oddly enough, this rule should have disqualified the Xbox version of San Andreas from tying NCAA Football 2006 in the August 2005 issue, as the PlayStation 2 version had tied Halo 2 for the award in the Holiday 2004 issue.
In 2002, EGM has also begun giving games that earned unanimously bad scores a "Shame of the Month" award. As there isn't always such a game in each issue, this award is only given out when a game qualifies.
Originally, a team of four editors reviewed all the games. This process was eventually dropped in favor of a system that added more reviewers to the staff so that no one person reviewed all the games for the month.
Though the scores range from 0-10 (on the previous numerical scale), the only games that the magazine gave a zero to so far were Mortal Kombat Advance, The Guy Game, and Ping Pals.
[edit] Platinum awards
There have been many Silver and Gold awards given at EGM over the years but the prestigious "Platinum" award has been rarely given. To date, EGM only has a recorded 14 Platinum-worthy games (again, not including games in the era when games scoring 9.0 or up were given the same-named award)-- Japanese gaming publication Famitsu and British gaming magazine Edge are some of the few magazines that have given fewer games 'perfect' scores. These games in chronological order of when they were reviewed are as follows:
Metal Gear Solid (1998, PlayStation)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998, Nintendo 64)
Soul Calibur (1999, Sega Dreamcast)
Gran Turismo 2 (1999, PlayStation)
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000, Nintendo 64)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (2000, PlayStation, Sega Dreamcast)*
Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (2001, PlayStation 2)
Halo: Combat Evolved (2001, Xbox)
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002, PlayStation 2)
Metroid Prime (2002, Nintendo GameCube)
Halo 2 (2004, Xbox) **
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004, PlayStation 2) **
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006, Wii)
Bioshock (2007, Xbox 360)
EGM's review scale is based on a letter grade system in which each game receives a grade that indicates the quality of the game. Games are currently reviewed by a team of one member (originally four until the year 2000, then knocked down to one in 2008), except for "the big games" out of a pool of editors who are known as "The Review Crew." They each assign a grade to the game and write a few paragraphs about their opinion of the game. The magazine makes a strong stance that a grade of C is average. Towards the top of the scale, awards are given to games that average an B- or higher from the three individual grade: "Silver" awards for games averaging a grade of B- to B+; "Gold" awards for games averaging a grade of A- or A; and "Platinum" awards for games with three A+ grades. (This award has not yet been given under the revamped system). The current letter grade system has replaced a long-standing 0-10 scale as of the April 2008 issue.
In addition, they give the game (or multiple games in the event of a tie, as with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for Xbox and NCAA Football 2006) with the highest average score for that issue a "Game of the Month" award. If a "Game of the Month" title receives a port to another console, that version will be disqualified from that month's award, such as with Resident Evil 4, which won the award for the Nintendo GameCube version and subsequently received the highest scores for the PlayStation 2 port months later, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, which won the Platinum award for two separate versions of the game. Oddly enough, this rule should have disqualified the Xbox version of San Andreas from tying NCAA Football 2006 in the August 2005 issue, as the PlayStation 2 version had tied Halo 2 for the award in the Holiday 2004 issue.
In 2002, EGM has also begun giving games that earned unanimously bad scores a "Shame of the Month" award. As there isn't always such a game in each issue, this award is only given out when a game qualifies.
Originally, a team of four editors reviewed all the games. This process was eventually dropped in favor of a system that added more reviewers to the staff so that no one person reviewed all the games for the month.
Though the scores range from 0-10 (on the previous numerical scale), the only games that the magazine gave a zero to so far were Mortal Kombat Advance, The Guy Game, and Ping Pals.
[edit] Platinum awards
There have been many Silver and Gold awards given at EGM over the years but the prestigious "Platinum" award has been rarely given. To date, EGM only has a recorded 14 Platinum-worthy games (again, not including games in the era when games scoring 9.0 or up were given the same-named award)-- Japanese gaming publication Famitsu and British gaming magazine Edge are some of the few magazines that have given fewer games 'perfect' scores. These games in chronological order of when they were reviewed are as follows:
Metal Gear Solid (1998, PlayStation)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998, Nintendo 64)
Soul Calibur (1999, Sega Dreamcast)
Gran Turismo 2 (1999, PlayStation)
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000, Nintendo 64)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (2000, PlayStation, Sega Dreamcast)*
Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (2001, PlayStation 2)
Halo: Combat Evolved (2001, Xbox)
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002, PlayStation 2)
Metroid Prime (2002, Nintendo GameCube)
Halo 2 (2004, Xbox) **
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004, PlayStation 2) **
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006, Wii)
Bioshock (2007, Xbox 360)
praga 
