Metacritic’s Best Games Of 2009
Meta-critical acclaim apportioned.Published 14/12/2009 at 16:00 by Watchful
Resident Evil 5 Alt Edition Is Japanese Hit [5]
UK PS3/360 Charts: Week Ending 26th December [25]
Germany Beating UK In Game Sales [16]
Stat-hounds and fanboys rejoice! Metacritic have given us lots of numbers to look at and argue over. It is almost the end of the year and as with many “best of year” lists they may be being a little premature but with no significant releases still to come this year, outside of a mildly anticipated title in Japan, their lists are unlikely to change*.
Making extensive use of their database’s ORDER BY clause they have produced a number of tables looking at which of the year’s titles and platforms have attracted the highest review scores. First up, a look at which platform had the highest scoring games:
It is hard to work out just how they have ordered that list. It is not by any simple means such as the number of “Great” games (metascore over 90) by “Median Metascore” or by the platform with the smallest percentage of “Bad” titles (metascore under 50). The PS3 has made it to the top of the list through a combination of the most “Great” games, the joint highest percentage of “Good” games (metascore over 75) and the joint lowest percentage of “Bad” games.
Best-Reviewed Games, 2009
So that’s five entries for the PS3 and four for the 360, with two exclusives for the PS3 and one for the 360 amongst them. We do not know why the PS3 MW2 is at number 2 while the 360 version, with a seemingly identical metascore, is at number 4. Take that up with Metacritic. It would also seem that PC gamers forgot to check which platform they were lodging their MW2 complaints against. Either that or many players agree with nofi.
Best-Reviewed PS3 Games, 2009
There will be little argument against Uncharted 2 being crowned as the critics choice for best PS3 game of 2009. Games which just missed out on making the top 10 include Demon’s Souls and BlazBlue: Calamity trigger at 12th and 13th respectively. It is good to see a smattering of PSN titles spread throughout the top 40 including Flower, Shatter and PixelJunk Shooter.
Best-Reviewed Xbox 360 Games, 2009
It has not been a great year for 360-exclusive games with only Forza scoring over 90. Halo: ODST only managed to reach 34th in the top 40, tying on metascore with titles such as Need for Speed SHIFT and Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection. We can expect a stronger performance next year with the hopefully more well-rounded Halo: Reach and Splinter Cell: Conviction. As with the PS3, downloadable titles are well represented in the top 40 with TSA favourites such as Shadow Complex (13th) Trials HD (20th) and Splosion Man (25th) all making an appearance.
Best-Reviewed PSP Games, 2009
This year’s full price PSP titles have not met with a great deal of critical success with only GTA scoring over 90. Much better news for the new Minis range though with Tetris, Blast Off, Pinball Fantasies (13th) Fieldrunners (14th) Kahoots (18th) and Echoes (20th) all making it into the top 20. A number of those are responsible for draining the batteries on our PSPs here at The Towers and the new ability to play them on our PS3s as well makes them ridiculously good value.
*Except for the inevitable fanboy rush to boost/cripple the user ratings for various titles.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
bunimomike | 14/12/2009 16:15
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Fascinating figures and they echo what I’ve felt all year. The 360 and the PS3 have had a good year but the PS3 has definitely got its nose out front. I can’t see that momentum shifting anytime soon, either. 2010 should be an equally interesting 12 months for gamers/manufacturers and hopefully Sony will close the lead further.
bajere | 14/12/2009 20:21
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glad im not the only 1…this year i really didnt see the need to own and xbox…apart from the GTA stuff,that would of been nice to play on the station. 2010 will lean slighty more to the PS3 IMO
deadwelsh | 14/12/2009 16:20
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Awesome year for gaming, roll on 2010
teflon | 14/12/2009 16:21
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1998 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
Good to see the PS3 and its excellent catalogue of exclusives getting the review recognition it deserves.
Next year looks like it’s going to keep that going, cos while the 360’s got Halo Reach and Splinter Cell (and maybe Gears 3 if they keep up the every other year thing), the PS3’s got Heavy Rain, God of War 3, The Last Guardian, Gran Turismo 5, MAG, and even rumours of Killzone 3…
It’ll be closer between the two, but still very strong showings.
cc_star | 14/12/2009 16:50
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Crackdown 2, Alan Wake, Fable 3… loads of stuff coming out on both platforms – great news for gamers
Sevchenko | 14/12/2009 17:00
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yet you only listed 360 titles… i think the above poster was mentioning good games, fable definitely not one
Raen | 14/12/2009 17:17
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That’s because the above poster listed most of the major PS3 titles, whilst forgetting some 360 titles. It was an additional (I’m assuming). And because you don’t like a game doesn’t make it bad.
hazelam | 14/12/2009 18:15
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can’t see fable 3 making 2010, would love it to because fable 2 was great but i doubt it will.
cc_star | 14/12/2009 20:59
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Yeah, sorry I listed 360 games, because the above poster hinted that there was only Halo & Conviction coming on the 360 which isn’t the case
Dunks | 14/12/2009 16:29
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Gotta say (and hate jumping on the bandwagon but) it’s good times to be a PS3 owner. Feel like a lesson has been learned from the miss steps. Getting so much fun out of Uncharted 2 online at the mo as well as Shooter. Damn that game is addictive…
bunimomike | 14/12/2009 16:30
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OOo, yes. PixelJunk Shooter. Finished it last night. Stunning PSN title (along with Flower, Wipeout, etc).
Dunks | 14/12/2009 16:38
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Yeah, tis a bit special isn’t it. Im trying to stop myself from finishing it to quickly. Did you get all survivors and all treasure?
bunimomike | 14/12/2009 22:45
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Sorted all the trophies this evening. Absolutely bloody lovely game. Can’t wait for future episodes.
cc_star | 14/12/2009 16:48
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What I find odd is that Batman on the 360 is actually rated higher than the PS3 version.
The miniscule 1% its rated higher by has a drastic effect on the metrics of the top10 meaning that the PS3 has 5 entries in the top 10 compared to the Xbox’s 4.
I find this odd because as far as I’m aware they’re identical games apart from the Ps3 version has exclusive additions so if there is to be a difference in the score surely it should be in the PS3’s favour, if the 1% score was reversed it would be 6 PS3 top10 entries to only 3 on the 360.
Still, a top 10 is quite a narrow pool to draw on but as a whole its pleasing to see the PS3 has 43% of all its releases to be ‘good’ whereas the the 360 has only 35% to be ‘good’ and a higher proportion of ‘mixed’ or ‘bad’ games.
davidjmclare | 14/12/2009 17:28
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1094 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
1% could just mean that one xbox reviewer didnt like the game as much, 1% is an anomolie and doesnt mean anything about whether it is better on ps3 or xbox.
i was suprised however that the xbox got less than the ps3, whenever i go on metacritic i have usually noticed the xbox versions getting a higher rating, maybe just at the time i guess.
cc_star | 14/12/2009 21:02
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I know 1% is an anomaly, but that 1% has made the top 10 – 5 Vs 4 and not 6-3 which would tell a different story altogether
sesameseed | 14/12/2009 17:24
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What a shame Demon’s Souls didn’t get released in Europe. A great, much overlooked title…
ModernJunk | 14/12/2009 20:56
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GOW Collection is on the list but that hasn’t had a Europen release so far…wasn’t Demon’s Souls realeased in USA ?
DRCD1 | 14/12/2009 17:40
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Always good to see what games did the critics prefer.
hazelam | 14/12/2009 18:11
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of course the wii is last, most of the wii titles are crap shovelware.
there are a few really great titles, i’d love to try okami with the wimote, but the average is pulled way down by the tidal wave of minigame compilations, most of the games included in those are games you wouldn’t play online for free.
and i say this as somebody who is actually planning on getting a wii in the new year.
Roynaldo | 14/12/2009 18:13
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I thought Street Fighter was average, not that ive played it, but thats the impression I got from people who have. Quite surprised its that far up the list.
parker | 14/12/2009 18:44
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Wow, all top 10 PS3 games got over 90! That’s amazing, great to be an owner of a PS3, eh?
Things can only get better too, what with other fantastic looking PS3 games coming in 2010, including MAG and Heavy Rain.
gazzagb | 14/12/2009 19:16
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Nice write up Watchful although i think TSA’s GOTY is superior to Metacritics
TheShepanator | 14/12/2009 19:26
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Can’t pretend I’m not surprised, PS3 has had a better year all round. Plus the exclusive line up for 2010 looks amazing.
TheShepanator | 14/12/2009 19:28
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GoW3, MAG, Heavy rain, GT5, plus all the multiplatform games. Its finally looking up for PS3! (Uh oh, SCEE, we MIGHT get SOME of these in 2011)
freezebug2 | 14/12/2009 19:45
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Great topic Watchful and very nice presentation. PS3 is looking the more attractive console as an all rounder at the moment although XBox has a great title exclusive to it that I would love to try but not enough other exclusives to justify buying the system which is a shame…you know the one I mean, Vroom Vroom.
AJ | 14/12/2009 22:07
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I think that they should have included another cell showing just how many games were being taken into consideration for the statistics.
cam the man | 14/12/2009 22:21
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WOW – A lot of stats there.