Talking Point: Do You Agree With The Highest-Rated Xbox Games On Metacritic?

I don't agree totally because my favourite games aren't there. Reviews are influenced by the franchise, developer's name and even genre. Those are all great games but they're not necessarily the best.

I agree with almost all of them.. But I do question Halo, That's one series i just could not get into..

I don't agree at all - especially not now.

@Bmartin001 whether you could get into Halo at all, it was a revolutionary game at the time and defined the first person genre on console. It was clearly rushed to release but nothing else was like it before - not even Goldeneye. Its up there with Super Mario 64 which may not now be the best 3D platformer ever but at the time, it was revolutionary and defined 3D movement.

Of course things have been refined since both of those games released but at the time, they were revolutionary and for that, they do deserve their score. Nowadays, there are 'better' examples of 3D platformers or First Person shooters but the core of those is still built around things that these games brought to gaming.

If they were reviewed today, up against games that we have now and not letting that memory of playing something so revolutionary, then of course a lot of those games wouldn't hold up today but objectively looking at the score in relation to the time they released, Its probably difficult to argue with most

I dislike GTA 4 and surprised to see the Witcher 3 wasn't among these. To me, the Witcher 3 is the best game this generation (so far) but then these are an average of many reviewers so it only takes 1 or 2 to give a low-ish score to bring the average down...

No surprises on the top games. That said I haven't once used a metacritic score as a factor of whether or not to buy a game, and never will.
Unlike a written review which can give reasons for liking/disliking a game, an arbitrary score tells me nothing at all. Just that a lot of people liked/disliked it.
A lot of people dislike Marmite but it's one of my favourite foods...

I'd probably take GTA4 off and add a bunch of other games, but yes, I agree.

I can't believe GTA IV reviewed that high and I'm a GTA fan. Halo I definitely agree with. It was a game-changer at the time for multiplayer but it also had a great campaign.

No way! I just beat MGS V and while it was good in some ways, the game is super clunky and unfinished, and arguably has the worst story out of the entire MGS series.
Why isn't Nier Automata on there? It's waaaaay better than MGS V.

Halo: Combat Evolved should be #1. It revolutionized the FPS on consoles.

Hmmmm. No Forza? Forza Horizon 3 is one of my favourite games this gen and the whole series is great.

No Halo 3 or any Gears of War games?

Yes!! I'm playing the first Halo on PC after many years... first time I played it on Xbox OG.
What a superb game, I didn't remember it was so hard!!!

GTA IV has hugely overrated as far as I'm concerned and it's still the only entry I didn't want to finish and it was a massive step back from San Andreas, I'd definitely put the first Red Dead Redemption at the top of Rockstars list.

As for Xbox overall then Halo Combat Evolved has to be top. It laid the foundations for every modern fps game and is still better than most of them, not to mention that without it there would probably be no Xbox today. Forza Horizon 3 and 4 are great, Rare Replay is great value and I've had a ton of fun with Sea of Thieves but for The Witcher 2 or 3 not to be on that list is criminal

I think more 1st party games needs to be on there and i think Phil and Co. would say the same thing. All 3rd party is not what they want.

@Bmartin001 @AJDarkstar

I mean, the question wasn't whether or not Halo or Goldeneye was more influential on the console shooter. The question was 'is Halo a genre defining game with very engaging gameplay and story?', and for most people, that's a yes.

Even on the question on which was more influential, Halo introduced rebounding health, two weapon systems, a workable dual stick aiming system, dedicated grenade and melee buttons, a workable vehicle system to console shooters, and also went on to popularise competitive MP with Halo 2.

These features/mechanics became standard in the following years. Regardless of whether you enjoyed Halo itself, I guarantee you that if you enjoy any "modern design" shooter today, you are taking advatnage of mechanics that Halo either pioneered or popularised.

I, for example, do not enjoy the COD games, but it's hard to ignore how many shooters take inspiration from those games.

@AJDarkstar first, you need to understand the difference between 'did it first' and 'popularised'. You also need to understand greater than the sum of its parts.

This is why Goldeneye and Perfect Dark do not get credit for dual sticks. Nobody played those games with dual sticks. For the mass audience, it was Halo that proved that dual stick aiming was the future of console shooters.

It's about how many games incorporated the same mechanics and systems in to the FPS genre, following to launch of the franchise. Without Halo, these mechanics would still exist, but may not have been as widely integrated in to shooters as they were and as quickly as they were.

This is like arguing that Resident Evil 1 or GTA 3 weren't genre defining games because all there parts existed prior to their releases.