Like it or not, games are heavily dependent on attaining that holy grail of a high Metacritic aggregate. Personally, I find this heavy focus on dictating a games worth based on a numerical value as immensely disappointing. Not only does it deprive many gamers of a worthwhile experience, the industrys unrealistic belief that a game must reach a 90 or higher has formed an attitude where perfectly acceptable and genuinely good releases are dismissed as mediocre, despite reaching scores averaging in the 70s and 80s. Unfortunately, this can also lead to the making or breaking of a perfectly capable studio in the process. No other console library experienced this unrealistic attitude more than the Xbox 360, which has rather sadly led to a long list of games whose praises simply arent hailed enough as they should be. Despite possessing engrossing stories, innovative gameplay and captivating visuals, many of the titles featured on this list didnt manage to impress as much as other triple-A releases did, and though they certainly hold their fair share of valid criticism, more often than not the frosty reception they received was beyond unwarranted. So for once, lets do away with the numbers and the averages, and simply look at these games for what they achieved - you'll hopefully find theyre far better than you remember.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
