10 TERRIBLE Games That Got Great Reviews

The business of video game reviews sure is a funny one. It's often suggested that game reviews are inflated far beyond those of movie reviews, and that far too many outlets barely even use the bottom half of the 1-10 score scale.

And in fairness, players are hardly blameless themselves, many buying fully into the notion that any game rated below 8/10 isn't worth playing, and that reviews are intended to be anything other than the subjective assessment of a game's pros and cons.

But all the same, sometimes the gulf of opinion between critics and general players is vast enough that it becomes impossible to ignore - and absolutely merits assessment.

There's certainly no insinuation of nefarious doing on the part of reviewers here, but the fact that these 10 games didn't connect nearly as persuasively with gamers at large, and many found them straight-up awful, is quite fascinating.

The lesson here? As gamers, we're probably all better off not giving an aggregated score too much thought, but rather finding like-minded critics who reflect our own preferences and lending their opinions the most personal weight...

Last year's Forza Motorsport didn't rank among the series' better entries review-wise, but it still landed a totally commendable 84 on Metacritic, making one wonder quite what game critics actually played.

Even accepting that the mainline Forza games are a very different - some might say "boring" - experience to the more arcade-y Forza Horizon spin-offs, this dry-as-sawdust racer really tested the patience of all but the most die-hard racing sim fans.

From the stamina-obliteratingly dull single-player campaign to the lousy progression and garbage AI, it's a game held up only by its characteristically strong visuals and vehicular handling.

But that's just not enough, and with so little else going on under the hood, Forza Motorsport is a bafflingly soulless racer from a studio that's otherwise kept the mainline series so impressively consistent.

On top of this, the PC version continues to be plagued by brutal performance issues, ensuring that it now sits at a "Mostly Negative" rating on Steam.