It’s… the Video Games Daily scoring system

10 – There’s such a thing as a perfect score, but there’s no such thing as a perfect game. Nailing the full 10 on Video Games Daily doesn’t mean your little bundle of binary code is beyond improvement, but it does mean that we’re (temporarily) stumped for suggestions. Needless to say, we don’t hand over the top honours lightly. In fact, we’ve done so only six times in our ten year history.

The game in question might be the pinnacle of its genre, making few drastic innovations but bringing together old tricks, old devices in such an elegant, substantial fashion that we can’t hold its familiarity against it. It might turn the entire entertainment landscape on its head, delivering extraordinary advances in style or structure yet managing not to crumble under the weight of its own ambition. It might be an online shooter Adam can play without seeking therapy, or a football game which doesn’t give Edwin a rash. It might be all these things and more. Whatever it is, and whoever you are, you should own it already.

9 – A VGD nine out of 10 is a masterpiece, an indispensable marriage of content, production values, originality and good old-fashioned fun, stopped short of full marks by a few non-crippling flaws or omissions – a missing co-op mode here, a few dropped frames there. The concept will be arresting, the implementation superb, the package meaty. It will more than satisfy fans of its genre, and probably engage those who wouldn’t normally care for this kind of game.

8 – An eight from our reviewers signifies a firm recommendation. Most of the games you’ll find clinging to this rung of the ladder are those that preach to a long-established choir, and will perhaps be a little (just a little) inaccessible to newcomers as a consequence. The design quality and technical accomplishments will speak for themselves. Here one tends to find the bulk of the big budget “incremental sequels” – gorgeous, well-featured titles which opt to address the flaws of an already excellent predecessor rather than carve out their own identities.

7 – Seven out of 10 is one of the most notorious scores on the scale, the epitome in most people’s eyes of “damning with faint praise”. We beg to differ. A VGD seven represents a fun, well-produced game with one, possibly two major deficiencies which deny it essential purchase status. If you’re not usually drawn to titles of this ilk, though, you should definitely rent first.

6 – A six out of 10 game is a solid, unadventurous example of its type with a fair few significant problems, not least a general lack of structural “tidiness” and elegance – poorly distributed objectives, clunky menus, notable load pauses, lack of cinematic technique in cut scenes, a wonky camera system, and so forth. One for series or genre diehards only.

5 – Five out of 10 is the borderland between playable and unplayable. You can play a game in this bracket from start to finish without feeling too bored or disgusted, but that’s about it. There are downsides enough to make the experience disagreeable, but not enough to make it totally beyond endurance. A possible rental at most. Don’t buy it.

4 – Oh dear, we’re not in Kansas anymore. A four out of 10 game isn’t just unadventurous or lacking in polish, it’s fundamentally broken, either so plagued with glitches as to make the basics of play a chore, or the sickly fruit of some tragic initial misconception, a vehicle combat sim set in pre-colonial America, or a sci-fi role-player based on Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson. It might still have some redeeming qualities – novelty value, perhaps – but only the most dedicated of collectors will be prepared to dig for ‘em.

3 – As above, but without the redeeming qualities bit. This game is a failure inside and out.

2 – A two out of 10 game has all the worst aspects of a three or a four, plus evilness. Besides being a bug-ridden, stillborn, amateurish knock-off, this title actually goes against our principles – not in a clever, makes-you-think fashion, but simply for shock value or worse, because its creators believe the gobshite they’re spouting. It may also have bricked our system, stolen our bank details and/or abused our nearest and dearest. Trample on sight.

1 – This game is Iron Man on the Wii.