Review philosophy
EGM's review scale is based on a 10-point system in which each game receives a number that indicates the quality of the game. Games are currently reviewed by a team of three members (originally four until the year 2000) out of a pool of editors who are known as "The Review Crew." They each assign a number score to the game and write a few paragraphs about their opinion of the game. The magazine makes a strong stance that a score of 5.0 is average. Towards the top of the scale, awards are given to games that average an 8.0 or higher from the three individual scores: "Silver" awards for games averaging a score of 8.0-8.9; "Gold" awards for games averaging a score of 9.0-9.9; and "Platinum" awards for games averaging a score of 10.
In addition, they give the game (or multiple games in the event of a tie, as with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for Xbox and NCAA Football 2006) with the highest average score for that issue a "Game of the Month" award. If a "Game of the Month" title receives a port to another console, that version will be disqualified from that month's award, such as with Resident Evil 4, which won the award for the Nintendo GameCube version and subsequently received the highest scores for the PlayStation 2 port months later.
In 2003, EGM has also begun giving games that earned unanimously bad scores a "Shame of the Month" award. As there isn't always such a game in each issue, this award is only given out when a game qualifies.
Originally, a team of four editors reviewed all the games. This process was eventually dropped in favor of a system that added more reviewers to the staff so that no one person reviewed all the games for the month.
Though the scores range from 0-10, the only games that the magazine gave a zero to so far were Mortal Kombat Advance, The Guy Game, and Ping Pals.
