Crush! Frag! Destroy! has made some small changes to its original review system. Nothing earth-shaking and catastrophic, mind you; just some small tweaks and clarifications, primarily with the ratings scale. We assumed you’d all appreciate being informed of them. See what nice people we are?

But we digress. On to the details.

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When CFD! first opened its doors back in February of 2009, we decided to eschew standard scoring conventions (be they letter grades, 10 point or 5 star scales) when it came to game reviews in favor of our own set of metrics. As time passed, our previously broad system of “Recommended/Research It/Exercise Caution,” (originally chosen for simplicity and ease of use) began to feel simultaneously a little too open and too restrictive. You can only struggle with yourself over rating a game that rests on a borderline so many times before you begin to realize that perhaps a slightly increased degree of granularity is needed.

This did not mean, however, that we would be adopting one of the previously mentioned ratings systems. After all, we decided not to go with them for a reason. All that was required was a slight expansion and clarification of the old system. This is what we’re here today to explain.

The scoring system for CFD!’s video game reviews is made up of five distinct ratings. While you may assume that they would be self-explanatory, please take the time to read each one’s description – your assumptions may be incorrect.

Highly Recommended: Stop. Put down what you’re doing right now. Go acquire this game by any means necessary and play it. Unless you absolutely abhor and detest games of this genre, you’ll be kicking yourself later if you pass this one up. Your gaming education will be lacking for its absence. We can’t emphasize enough how much this game needs to be played.

Recommended: A solid, enjoyable game that is definitely worth playing. Any issues that it may have are totally forgivable and chances are you’ll be so busy enjoying yourself that you’ll either forget about them by the end or you probably won’t even notice them to begin with. Generally,anything in this category is a pretty safe bet.

Research It: This rating does not exactly mean that a game is average (although it can). More often than not, it means that the title in question could very easily fall into either the Recommended or Exercise Caution categories. The X-factor in this equation is you. Some legwork will likely be required on your part – download a demo, try it at a friend’s house/game store, or rent it for a day. Read other reviews of it and weigh the pros and cons mentioned versus your own personal biases. Potential issues that may be a deal-breaker for one gamer may be totally inconsequential to another and you know your own tastes better than we do, so be prepared to bring something of yourself into the decision process.

Exercise Caution: Games in this category are a dicey prospect. Generally speaking, only the most rabid and diehard fans of the license or the most patient and forgiving gamers will be able to overlook an EC title’s problems and enjoy it. The phrases “fans of the genre” and “Caveat Emptor” definitely apply here. Everyone else will want to be on their guard.

Don’t Bother: We like to try to live by the credo that no matter how bad you may think a game is, somebody somewhere will have fun with and enjoy it. Yeah, we like to try to live by that. And then there are these games…

You may have already noticed that just because the scale has five grades does not mean it translates to a 1-5-star or A-F system – a “Research It” is not the same thing as a “3 out of 5″ or a “C”. This is intentional. The system is what it is; no amount of forced, Metacritic-style conversion will make it otherwise.

Also, all of CFD!’s old reviews will be retroactively converted to fit the current system. While in most cases this won’t change anything, some reviews may move up or down a step.

You may also have noticed that a few months back (February 2010, specifically) we began indicating when reviews were based upon free review copies provided by developers/publishers. In the interest of full transparency, we will also be amending all of our older reviews to reflect this information as well. We most certainly have never been afraid of giving a game a bad review just because we didn’t have to pay for it. We will never be less than honest with our readers.

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Reviews, which are published on Monday Wednesday and Friday, currently fall into one of two categories:

• Crush! Frag! Review! - Standard reviews for recent releases. Shouldn’t need much explanation.
• Crush! Frag! Review! Flashback - Formerly known as “Crush! Frag! Review! Late to the Party Edition,” we’ve since abandoned that long and unwieldy title for a slightly more direct one. This category will encompass both reviews for older, classic titles as well as for more current games that have since left the window surrounding their release, but are still worth mentioning. There’s no hard and fast rule for when a game slides into “Flashback” territory, but circa three months+ post-launch is probably a safe bet.

A former short-form review category, dubbed “Fragments” has been removed for now. More categories may be added or changed at a later date and this section will be amended to reflect these changes as they come.

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If you have any specific questions regarding our review process, ratings system or more, feel free to contact us. You can find our contact information in the Staff sidebar to the right.