Reviews are written for other people. And it's crazy to assume other people in this world have the same beliefs you have. That is why, you shouldn't be sharing your beliefs in a review. Not only will it be annoying to all those who don't have the same beliefs you have, it also doesn't give people the answers they seek. The only people who will benefit from reading your "review" and find the answers they seek are the people who have the same beliefs you have, So by writing a review that shares your beliefs, you are simply releasing SPAM to the world for all those who don't have have the same beliefs you have. I'd say at least 50% of the people on this Earth don't have the same beliefs you have due to fact, this Earth has so many cultures, religions to grow up with, environments to grow up in. You should be sharing what you thought of the game play and graphics only. Why? If you write something that only shares your thoughts on graphics and game play, you are writing something that benefits all gamers.

If you aren't writing about your taste, whose taste are you writing about?

If we're only listing facts:

Reviewers can't:
- State whether or not they enjoyed the game
- State whether or not the story resonated with them
- State if they thought the dialogue was good
- State whether or not they found the art style appealing
- Give any sort of qualitative opinion on the game
- Give an opinion on voice acting
- Say whether or not they found a game's portrayal of something offensive or creepy

Reviewers can:
- State whether or not the game runs at a stable framerate
- State if the game has any obvious bugs

In other words, you want all game reviews to be like this.

Get out..

There is a difference between a critique and a review.

A review is something you do with a product. It's cold and to the point. It deals with objective facts ("it works" vs. "it does not work") and scores it accordingly at the end. It gives you a simple "yes or no" on whether you should buy it.

A critique is something you do with art. It addresses the ideas behind the making of the work, it discusses its themes and impact. It assumes the reader is already familiar with it and invites further discussion. It's a complex subjective opinion, and as such I find it incompatible with a simple numerical score, though others would disagree and scores have been commonly used in other mediums.

Unfortunately, with videogames both the media and the readers seem intent in having something that is a mix of these two things, often with less than stellar results, to say the least.

Most reviews are biased these days. Hard to find any which aren't to be quiet honest. Sticking to facts is pretty hard for most journo's imho :)

But that's different, because it involves men, thus it is okay while the same thing with women is horribly misogynistic!

No, reviews are explaining why you have those beliefs.

If sharing your beliefs is all a review was then you'd merely go

"I liked this game a lot, 9/10".

Well, at least a GOOD review is about explaining why you think like you do.

I've read the Polygon review, and it does not only complain about the massive breasts of the sorceress, or the submissive poses (with legs spread wide) of the female NPCs. It also complains about other things, like the game being repetitive.

In the end, reviews are subjective. And if someone dislikes the game, then they should give it a lower review score. The reviewer should obviously not be one who dislikes the genre as a whole though, but rather someone who enjoys that genre, and who can compare the game to other games of its type. If everyone is expected to give roughly the same review score, why even have multiple review sites to begin with? And if you can't say that you disliked the art style in a game, then you should by the same logic not be allowed to praise a game for its art style. To me poor grammar and obvious translation errors are annoying, and I do think that a poorly translated game deserves a lower score. A good translation is more important in a story heavy game than in a straight up action game.

Part of it has to do with who it is aimed at though. Mainly the big muscular guys in games are meant to be power fantasies for men.

Deep down all men want to be Abobo. It's a fact.